This thread exists to discuss British politics.
Political issues related to Northern Ireland and the Crown Dependencies (the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man) are also considered on-topic here if there's no more appropriate OTC thread for them.
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As with other OTC threads, off-topic posts may be thumped or edited by the moderators.
- There is a dedicated thread to discuss LGBTQ+ rights in the United Kingdom. That doesn't mean it's always off-topic here, but unless something's directly linked to political events, that's probably a better thread for it.
- There's also a separate thread to talk about your favourite British Prime Ministers.
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
Disasturbator
There's TWO Iain Duncans apparently
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Figure of Hourai
The other one is Iain Duncan Smith.
Avatar Source
I’d be curious to know what he considers the "middle ground" on such an issue…
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
"We let a few trans people exist and parade them on TV to tell us all how tolerant and accepting we are, while the rest are repeatedly victimized and die in the gutter."
OG Troper
The old way was the "common sense middle ground" compromise; everyone recognized that there is no way to force everyone to stick to the birth gender so the legal right to do so had to be implemented, but at the same time, put behind a high treshold.
the statement above is false
Herald of Lunar Tierce
Knowing our politicians, there will probably be a double standard in play. They'll likely make a token effort to show that they're tolerant while only mentioning trans-women that fit their narrative while demonizing any trans-women who don't and either also demonizing trans-men (if they're acknowledged at all).
"Punishment is not the answer. Punishment is easy. It's lazy. Redemption is hard. Redemption makes you work."-Skulduggery Pleasant
Nadine Dorries and Boris Johnson have resigned from the House of Commons with immediate effect.
The latter's resignation honours were published today. They did not include the former, contrary to prior expectations.[1]
bbc live feed in lieu of a permeant article saying that a second Johnson ally, Nigel Adams has resigned. Meaning a third bi-election will be coming.
3 isn't really that many but there's a definitely feeling of chaos bubbling over again in the tory pary.
Rory Stewart gives the annual Sir Thomas Gresham Lecture.
Disasturbator
and what is the annul Sir Thomas Gresham Lecture?
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Figure of Hourai
And how does it relate to politics...?
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Not sure what it is but Rory Stewart was a Tory MP who ran for leader in 2019 and was kicked out by Boris Johnson for not playing along the Brexit line (specifically rebelling against the whip in order to prevent a no-deal Brexit). He is still actively politics adjacent, including a regular podcast with Alastair Campbell. Post next general election, if the Tories decide to move towards sanity he might return - he's young enough to wait as needed (currently 50 according to the other wiki).
Nicola Sturgeon has been arrested.[1]
Disasturbator
> Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been arrested in connection with the ongoing investigation into the funding and finances of the SNP.
context is important here,these aren't new charges
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Sturgeon has been released without charge pending further investigation.[1]
Nadine Dorries and Boris Johnson are technically still MPs, and will remain MPs until the formal procedure to remove an MP is carried out (it hasn't been yet).
For those that don't know, it's actually not possible for an MP to resign. It's a quirk of the rules. As a result, when an MP announces they're resigning, the PM has to assign them to an "office for profit under the Crown", which is a position that bans them from being an MP. The two posts that are used for this purpose are unpaid posts. One is the Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds and the other is the Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead.
So, until Dorries and Johnson are appointed to the Chiltern Hundreds and Manor of Northstead, they remain MPs. Given that the privilege committee releases its results to the public tomorrow (Johnson already has a copy), there is a question of whether he can still be sanctioned as a sitting MP, as a result.
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.
Disasturbator
typical quirks of our political system
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A procrastination in of itself
Considering it takes very little action for an MP to be appointed to one of the disqualifying posts, should we take that fact to indicate Sunak is dragging his feet on having their resignations actioned?
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
Boris Johnson takes the Chiltern Hundreds.[1]
Nigel Adams takes the Manor of Northstead.[2]
The Earl Cadogan, Chairman of Chelsea Football Club 1981-2, died yesterday aged 86.
The Lord Clinton-Davis, European Commissioner for Environment, Consumer Protection & Transport 1985-8, died yesterday aged 94.
Edited by TommyR01D on Jun 12th 2023 at 12:59:47 PM
Dorries is now not resigning until she gets answers from the house of lords commission.
A procrastination in of itself
In both horrifying and amusing news, the Advertising Standards Authority has found that Anglia Water are so harmful to the environment that an advert portraying them as good on the environment would violate advertising standards rules and be false advertising, as such the advert has been refused the right to broadcast.[1]
Labor party vows to us AI slash NHS waits due to the number of people still using pagers.
Edited by OmegaRadiance on Jun 14th 2023 at 5:38:46 AM
Every accusation by the GOP is ALWAYS a confession.
OG Troper
Man goes to doctor, says, doctor I’m very depressed. World seems a cold and hopeless place. Don’t know what to do. Doctor says, ‘As a large language model, I cannot recommend a particular clown or circus to you 1
Boris Johnson takes the Chiltern Hundreds.
Nigel Adams takes the Manor of Northstead.
And that solves that.
The privileges committee report has not held back, and wants it to be known that had Johnson not resigned, they'd have recommended suspension of 90 days to trigger a recall petition. Since he has resigned that can't now happen, so they recommend he be banned from receiving a former Members pass.
Report is the fifth, published today
Summary:
- Deliberately misleading the House
- Deliberately misleading the Committee
- Breaching confidence
- Impugning the Committee and thereby undermining democratic process of House
- Complicity in campaign of abuse and attempted intimidation of the Committee
Johnson is, of course, calling the report nonsense and the Committee liars.
Sky News report here.
Edited by Wyldchyld on Jun 15th 2023 at 9:47:58 AM
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.
Something I found interesting: Senior Tory peer thinks plan to fight next election on ‘trans debate’ is ‘really, really dumb’
.
I think the title says it all, but elsewhere in the article he also recognises that the word 'woke' is a dog-whistle meant to hurt people, and that the Tories won the last election because they had 'Brexit, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn', which they won't have next time.
I'm curious to see how many other Tories think the same way, or if Ian Duncan is just an outlier because he was personally affected by trans issues (his trans brother passed away from ovarian cancer). Because everything I've seen in the US suggests that laser-focusing on culture war issues isn't really a winning strategy, and that's in a country where the right-wing party still enjoys a good deal of support. Not so here where I've yet to see any evidence at all that culture wars are effective at doing anything beyond exposing how desperate you are to get voters to ignore real issues that affect them.
"If you think like a child, you will do a child's work."