This thread exists to discuss British politics.
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Recent political stuff:
- The vote to see if Britain should adopt Alternative Voting has failed.
- Lib Dems lose lots of councils and councillors, whilst Labour make the majority of the gains in England.
- The Scottish National Party do really well in the elections.
A link to the BBC politics page containing relevant information.
Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 3rd 2023 at 11:15:30 AM
Well, there's 18 or 19 of them. However, most of them have been saying they want the deal to include guarantees on protection of worker and environmental rights before they'll give that support — which is the same demand they made of Theresa May.
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.
Figure of Hourai
That makes more sense, I've not had much time today to look in detail.
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![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
It's kind of comforting to know that there are asterisks attached, isn't it? Well, the ones just above the daggered note written in bold: "Remember the Lib-Dem lesson: trusteth not Tory governments bearing their perfumed gifts of promised jam.". 
Edited by Euodiachloris on Oct 14th 2019 at 1:08:11 PM
Figure of Hourai
Unlike an electoral pact, you can agree to not vote for something unless it has your provisions attached.
Well, you can with an electoral pact too, you just need a spine.
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@Ultimatum Making photo ID mandatory to vote absolutely must be accompanied by free delivery of photo ID to the whole citizen population for it not to be about disenfranchisement.
100% agree. I have been in favour of photo id's as standard for everyone in the country for decades but only if they are provided free. But then I am very much a fan of free at point of use for all essential services.
Captain of the Dead City
You gorram socialist.
"...in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach."
Which I have always found funny as I consider myself a progressive conservative (small c).
This is how we do it across the Channel. Every citizen can get a free photo ID and gets automatically added to electoral rolls when turning 18.
Trying to suppress votes. Why am I not surprised?
Figure of Hourai
Seems that we're back to discussing a customs border down the Irish Sea.
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Captain of the Dead City
Y'know, I've been thinking on this for a while. Is Jess Phillips a serious politician? Because the more I've been taking notice of her, the more I notice I don't see very much actual politics coming out of her. She broadly mentions left-wing/progressive goals in interviews, but it's not a very concrete "these are the policies I want to see implemented to achieve X, Y and Z" - there's a lot more of her talking about herself, long term ambitions that seem almost fanciful (like being the first ex-PM to be on strictly of all things), doing a program with JRM going around his constituency, and she does a lot of "calling out bullshit" which she wrote a book about, which is basically just publicly disagreeing with people but loudly and with wit.
Like, to me, she seems like someone who is in politics to get attention (or has been led astray by the attention that people in politics receive) and is angling to make a career out of being a "personality" - getting book deals, appearing on TV shows and so on - rather than really pushing for serious social change, but maybe she or whatever PR team she might have is just hiding that really well for some reason, I don't know.
"...in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach."
Figure of Hourai
Conservative campaign materials suggest Brexit delay likely
Looks like the campaign materials the Conservatives are producing anticipate that Brexit will not have happened before the next election.
"Yup. That tasted purple."
Captain of the Dead City
The Honourable Member for Birmingham Yardley. She's the one who Carl of Swindon made rape jokes about.
Edited by GoldenKaos on Oct 15th 2019 at 3:54:06 PM
"...in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach."
Figure of Hourai
Well, just from that page she seems not all that useful except at pissing people off. Why she thinks anyone would want to make her the leader of the party I don't know, between the "pragmatism > principles" attitude and lack of civility.
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Captain of the Dead City
Yeah, that's why I'm asking. I'm genuinely trying to find her good points, and the best I've got so far is that she's good at calling out right-wing dickheads? I guess? And that's what I'd expect from a moderately popular Twitter account, not a sitting MP.
And certain people (liberals and centrists mostly) keep gushing over her for "telling it like it is" and I'm completely nonplussed by it.
Edited by GoldenKaos on Oct 15th 2019 at 4:17:18 PM
"...in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach."
Disasturbator
Captain of the Dead City
Yeah, he's a twat.
"...in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach."
Figure of Hourai
I assume "telling it like it is" means being opposed to Corbyn and the Labour left in general, plus pulling in a few people based on feminism.
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Does Johnson have any hope of winning an election if he agrees to an extension? That's the one thing he insisted he wouldn't do. If he goes ahead and does it anyway, it's hard not to imagine the Brexit Party resurging as the only force capable of delivering Brexit.
Figure of Hourai
Meanwhile the SNP is once again saying "Next year, a referendum!"
Now, if they want a legally binding one, that requires some agreement with Westminster. And it's incredibly unlikely the Tories are going to hand it to them. So this would probably need a Labour government to be in charge.
And as I've seen pointed out, a Labour government would have held another EU referendum first. So, seeing the plausible outcome of that now, the conditions under which the SNP might get another binding referendum would be when it's opposing rule by a party that holds many of the same principles it's currently using, without being able to use the EU as a weapon. Bit... pointless.
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Captain of the Dead City
Sure? I mean, a hung parliament is still the most likely outcome, the best version of that would be if Labour got enough seats that the SNP could tip them over into a majority given that Swinson has apparently absolutely ruled out making Corbyn PM for some daft reason, that would be enough to sort out Brexit at the very least.
Ok, and extention, if that can happen?.
I mean isnt EU already sick of this prologing from britian and wanted to stop?.
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"
Apparently the government wants to make it law that you can't vote without a photo ID,which as I've gathered from one comment is purely to disenfranchise certain voters
Edited by Ultimatum on Oct 14th 2019 at 8:30:25 AM
New theme music also a box