Westminster Politics 2024-2029
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He should hold on but cannot afford either another bad immigration flair up or Restore to pull their man.
I would assume because the jury who saw all of the evidence did not think that it reached the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt.
No. Not at all the same thing.
That is a worry. Restore are also a bunch of racist grifers.
You live where it is fine, so you may be simply being exposed to far right News Corp style propoganda, who are either catastrophising everything, reL, partially real or imagined, or just blaming Labor for decades of right wing government.
I'm not sure his anecdote equates to a factual truth for a whole city much less all UK cities?
Starmer being a poor leader doesn't mean any of the right wing idiots, Tory or Reform, are anywhere near as bad.
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He sounds paranoid, to be honest. Why don't you pay him a visit and take him for a stroll to see for yourself?
All cities have rough bits, I'm not denying that, but he's falling victim to the same right-wing propaganda (usually out of the US or Russia) that is going on with London. Often aimed at older people. It might be time to get off social media and actually go outside.
Here's an interesting video on it.
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Well said. it's not the lower-paid worker's fault the state subsidise their income because their employers prioritise profit for the shareholders.
Have you ever considered that if another couple of million people do the same as you, that inevitably leads us into this exact situation? An apathetic/disinterested/uninformed electorate represented by talentless, self-serving dullards.
I get that it's an effort. I get that many people have neither the time nor the interest. But it's pretty important stuff.
Not doing the basics and informing yourself, then going out and voting for the person/party nearest to your own ideals is like having a headache every day for a year and deciding not to go to the doctors about it to at least try to understand why it's happening and to see if they can do anything to fix it.
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I think that most people who post in CE regularly (including myself) follow politics much, much more closely than most members of the public, so we are unrepresentative with the details we know about politicians and political parties.
My political views, as they are on the left, are unrepresentative of the wider UK population too. We are generally a conservative country in our voting history and politics. So there are naturally a load of policies which right-wing parties have that I do not agree with politically.
I won't focus on that. Restore is not just a party to the right of the Tories or Reform.
(Although I will say Lowe has some ridiculous economic ideas, like banning governments from spending without raising taxes, which shows he has no idea how money or the economy works: https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog...oy-government-and-the-economy-as-we-know-it/; https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/59-01/0155/240155.pdf).
Mainstream political parties have embraced anti-immigration policies to different degrees. Even saying that, Restore don't just support anti-immigration policies. They have adopted the politics and language used by the far-right in the latter quarter of the 20th century.
This is in part why Restore has attracted a whole host of far-right support. This includes ethno-nationalists and neo-Nazis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restore_Britain#Far-right_support.
Foreigners are variously characterised as ‘invaders’, ‘third worlders’, and ‘orcs’. Designating people as orcs and invaders necessarily defines them as harmful to British society and therefore justifies mass deportations.
But Lowe has gone further:
- ‘Restore Britain will, without apology or fear, deport the third world orcs who break into our country, rape young women and then expect the British to tolerate their presence. There is finally a political party that will defend our home, our people, our shires.’
- ‘The time for “the truth” mate was when you were importing third world savages by the thousands and thousands. How many migrant hotels opened on your watch?’ Lowe’s question to Robert Jenrick online.
- ‘Between 2010 and 2024, the Conservative Party failed our country in some of the most damaging ways imaginable. Britain doesn’t need to be conserved or reformed, it needs to be restored.’
- ‘I absolutely detest what mass immigration has done to our town centres.’
- ‘Ed Davey has just said that I am “aiding and abetting” the destruction of his country. He’s right. Restore Britain is going to destroy his version of our country. And we will replace it with one that works for British men and women, and them only. It will be glorious.’ (Emphasis added)
Restore’s communications director, Charlie Downes, believes that Britishness comes down to ‘ancestry and Christian faith’; he desires an ethnically and religiously homogenous society.
That society has - as a matter of historical fact - never existed.
It was also the same language used in the 1940s and subsequent decades to argue against non-White migration from the Empire and Commonwealth.
In an interview with Carl Benjamin, Lowe said, ‘We need some proper logical thought from people who care about the Anglo-Saxon alliance and who want to see the libertarian fringe of the world unite and protect freedom and the way of life that [we all arguably] take for granted’.
For context, here is Carl Benjamin:
Britain is defined as Anglo-Saxon, which is both meaningless in one sense (it is not a workable definition), but also commonly used far-right term for 'White'.
His language reflects longer held beliefs, if you believe the many stories, even when he was a mere football club chairman: https://tribunemag.co.uk/2025/06/how-to-make-farage-look-marxist.
By emphasising ethnicity and religion in these ways, by calling for a defence of an essentialised British/Christian heritage against outsiders, Restore is evoking language which originated in twentieth-century fascism and which had been weaponised for decades by the National Front and BNP.
In comparison, Nigel Farage has said: ‘I’m not going to start drawing ethnic lines on what being English is’.
There is also the 'online right'. Carl Benjamin launched a platform in 2020, called the Lotus Eaters, aiming to amplify certain voices.
These figures are now members of Restore; they have interviewed Restore figures, and they urge their followers to vote for the new party.
A few other stray figures support Restore explicitly for its racism: individuals like Hugh Anthony, who is a fan of Oswald Mosley, and Steve Laws, a former member of the Homeland Party who is visceral in his hatred of anyone not English.
The Homeland Party was one of the first parties to popularise the idea of ‘remigration’. Today, 'remigration' is the new euphemism for 'repatriation'. This is not directed at illegal immigrants or aliens who have committed offences. It is inextricably tied up with a belief that Britain is an essentially White place, always has been, and those being asked or told to 'remigrate' won't generally be White.
So that's why I hold Restore out as a terrifying prospect for many of us, especially those of us who have familial or community-based memories of dealing with the far right in the past.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3wyezwly69o
Hey, a government policy I can get behind!
It absolutely grinds my gears the no of parents who drive their kids to school. Worse those who idle their cars outside and near the gates have nearly come to blows with a number of these ignorant fools.
Of course we need to make public transport easier - but even then, most of it seems to be lazy parents. Perhaps we might see the beginning of the end of fat kids.
I grew up in a small town and walked 30-40 mins every day to school, now I live in a city and walked my kids to school. Not hard it is.
Hey, a government policy I can get behind!
It absolutely grinds my gears the no of parents who drive their kids to school. Worse those who idle their cars outside and near the gates have nearly come to blows with a number of these ignorant fools.
Of course we need to make public transport easier - but even then, most of it seems to be lazy parents. Perhaps we might see the beginning of the end of fat kids.
I grew up in a small town and walked 30-40 mins every day to school, now I live in a city and walked my kids to school. Not hard it is.
I'd much rather see builders of new houses forced to include public services in their designs so that people don't have to travel miles to take their kids to an already existing and already subscribed school, but that still won't make much of a dent. Most families now have both parents having to work so dropping them off before racing to the office is common around here.
Although I can firmly get on board with doing something about the dickheads in SUVs who park on the lines that clearly say "No Parking", almost running over other people's kids as they speed out of the area
Some new polling
Same as it ever was.
Same as it ever was.
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was.
Same as it ever was
On the subject of tax evasion, I have numerous friends/friends of friends who are either one man bands or small business owners who are plumbers, electricians, odd job men, house clearance/removal etc and they all without fail do as many jobs in cash as they can without arousing extreme suspicion from the tax man.
To the extent that a couple of them recently couldnt get remortgages when they’ve needed another 20-40k or so because their businesses apparently make so little money. They are actually doing pretty ok.
I don’t know how you fix that as it is so ingrained. Show me a cleaner, dog walker, general tradesman who won’t take a cash payment for a bit off the bill and I’ll be very surprised. I don’t have a dog walker but we do have a cleaner for a couple of hours a week and if a plumber knocks £30 off for cash for a small job I’ll take it so I guess I’m as much part of the problem as everyone.
To the extent that a couple of them recently couldnt get remortgages when they’ve needed another 20-40k or so because their businesses apparently make so little money. They are actually doing pretty ok.
I don’t know how you fix that as it is so ingrained. Show me a cleaner, dog walker, general tradesman who won’t take a cash payment for a bit off the bill and I’ll be very surprised. I don’t have a dog walker but we do have a cleaner for a couple of hours a week and if a plumber knocks £30 off for cash for a small job I’ll take it so I guess I’m as much part of the problem as everyone.
Reform is a white nationalist party that wants to deport all non-white people. Extremely evil party.
Can they leave us benefits claimants for one minute? We’ve had sixteen constant years of cutting benefits and attacking those on them. I’m fecking fed up of it.
The maddest thing about cutting the way they want is that they'll cut in the mental health services.
People with mental health issues have the possibility of doing dangerous stuff, to themselves and other people.
I say that as someone who did get really ill and did dangerous stuff and I am totally reliant on mental health services now and probably will need them for the rest of my life
Would t it be great to focus more funds on those who need it most?
Welfare is distributed far too wide, and those in genuine need don’t get enough support.
Welfare needs clear reform immediately.
The very stark reality that we cannot fund our military which has been hollowed out whilst welfare costs explode just shows how backwards we have been looking at the equation.
Can I quote my usual question again?
"Welfare needs clear reform immediately" - with AI coming in, more people will rely on welfare. Economists have been talking about Universal Basic Income for about 2 decades for a reason.
"we cannot fund our military which has been hollowed out" - that was simply down to the Tory's austerity, which was basically done to save the ultra rich taxes.
The answer is simple. Tax the rich, tax the massive companies, stop them siphoning all of the country's wealth into the pockets of the super rich.
There is enough money in our economy, it just happens to be sitting in the banks of a small number of people
Explains a lot
I didn’t say the reduction in manpower wasn’t due to the Tories. It was, and if we want to go into it - due to a lack of money in 2010. That was wrong then, it’s wrong now.
However, let’s look at now, and the current threats that were not present at that time.
People don’t seem to grasp the issue of today, and always look to the past for blame - rather than look at what can be achieved today.
UBI is a ridiculous notion, and will just have a massive effect on inflation.
For every respective tax increase on those who work, how about an equal decrease in benefits to those who don’t?
At least I’m honest about it? You?
"lack of money in 2010" - do you remember where the money went? Do you remember who we bailed out because they lost their gambling with bad debts?
"For every respective tax increase on those who work, how about an equal decrease in benefits to those who don’t?" - I didn't say tax everyone, I said tax the rich and the massive corporations who have siphoned billions out of our economy.
Sir Jim for example. Why is he free to act like a British citizen when he's 'based' in Monaco to avoid tax?
People are on benefits not out of choice, but because the wealth that should have been fairly spread is being siphoned off by the ultra rich. How the feck does the world have a trillionaire when people are starving in the streets, it's fecking insane
It’s a great theory to tax the ultra rich. No one would argue that. But it doesn’t work.
The top 1 per cent pay 28 per cent of tax and are increasingly leaving: one sixth of the 2024 Sunday Times Rich List have left the UK.
So we need to live in the real world. A world where we now have millions of people that grow up thinking they don’t need to work. That’s the issue we can solve.
It's almost like they forget where those massive interest payments are actually going. It's money for nothing going directly to increasing existing stockpiles of privately owned wealth.
Yet it's the benefit recipients who are the anchor at our feet, apparently.
We can stop the money leaving through laws, they're just not doing it
It’s almost as if quite a few people think debt is bad and should be reduced…
Very much a left wing ideology to rack up debt.
Yes, I am aware that the last Tory government did also, which was a colossal mismanagement.
Not realistic at all, we would see even bigger capital flight, and companies would not invest. Meaning less jobs.
Companies have been taxed more, high earners have been taxed more for the last 15 years. Most people have lower taxes in real terms, and lower than in the rest of Europe.
What counts as rich, how many rich people are there, and how much can you take from them to meaningfully increase £1trn in spending (every year). Welfare is £330bn annually.
Also, whilst we're talking welfare, half of of that is to pensioners who a good chunk are millionaires themselves and have private pensions.
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If it was simple (and been the situation for some time), why have successive Govts (Tory, Labour, a Tory, now Labour) not done it? They both had decade plus stints?
Has taxing the rich loads ever worked, in any country?
Agree. I think it’s akin to when a Miss Works contestant says they want ‘world peace’.
Yeah we all do, but back to the real world.
And a third of that is in work benefits £110bn paid top top up the wages of people employed by billionaires.
And 55% is paid to pensioners
That leaves £42.3bn 13% that goes to people of working age who aren't working.
Increase the minimum wage significantly, you drop welfare and raise taxes.
So are you saying we should have debt or not? Every country, every business, a huge amount of the public work on debt. Are they all wrong? Shall we ban credit cards?
Did you what United did yesterday, rearranging the debt? This is how the world works.
I'm not really happy with adding debt to our economy but we do it on the basis that our economy will grow so it's an investment in the future.
Er, are you saying that the Tories taxed the high earners more in real terms? Can I have some of what you're smoking?
Regarding pensions, I think the triple lock is a joke, it should be means tested
Universal VAT and Universal Corporation Tax would be a start. Then we need to look into reasonable taxation at point of sale and/profit to stop offshoring.
Practically impossible to pick apart now though.
Practically impossible to pick apart now though.
Well well well, that’s not what I said was it. My credit cards have limits, don’t yours?
If debt was used for capital investment, then yes. But that’s not been the case has it? Debt should be affordable, sustainable.
So yes, we should be reducing our debt and at no point did I say we shouldn’t have any level of debt.
The capital flight will happen anyway, due to AI. The capital will just be held in the internet ether
Depends what you mean by high earners. Two income families on a good wage are being taxed far higher as a percentage of real wealth than those with millions and billions. Large parts of the working class and middle class with above average salaries are considered “high earners” when these type of stats are brought up.
I have never had a credit card, which is lucky because I've been signed off disabled for the last 7 years.
I didn't say you didn't want debt, I asked you because I didn't quite understand your post, sorry.
It's these who need to be taxed more, not the general public