2019 General Electi...
 

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[Closed] 2019 General Election

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That’s because there are other constraints:

Now you're getting it!!! Keynesian stimulus has its place but it isn't a panacea for all countries at all times. (Trump is trying it now and I can't find a single informed commentator who things it's a sane thing to do at this point in the cycle - can you???)

Why do you think the Tories have be an abject failure ? – it’s because they don’t spend

They've been spending plenty. We're currently spending more on interest on debt than we spend on welfare.

We spend our money on film equipment and get 100% tax relief

Yes, you avoid corporation tax. It's easy to avoid, that's the point.

Don’t forget the Tories are unable to carry out their final cuts to corporation tax because they say they want more money for hospitals.
This is despite the fact they say that lowering corp tax brings more in.

Corporation Tax Revenue has steadily gone up with almost every cut in rate in recent years. That doesn't mean it wold go up if it was cut again. By definition HMRC are looking for the sweetspot and *think* this is it. If they thought another cut would increase revenue they'd already have made it.

No one tells the truth about the monetary system save a few prominent MMTers.

😀 Thousands of people from all countries in the world who would all gain from growing the economy are all lying to stop the economy growing? Hope that tin foil hat isn't too tight for you.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 6:32 am
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Yes, you avoid corporation tax. It’s easy to avoid, that’s the point.

But this is not a loophole, n it's deliberately designed that way to encourage the money to be spent back in the economy where it creates growth.

Avoiding it is doing stuff like creating a UK subsidiary of an overseas company,then the overseas company charges the UK one a license fee to use their branding, which funnily enough is usually just about the same figure as the UK company makes profit.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 8:15 am
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Very useful…

https://comparethetacticals.com/


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 8:50 am
 DrJ
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And Greece tried spending their way out and went utterly tits up.

That's precisely the wrong way round - Greece adopted (was forced to adopt) austerity (to satisfy German political constraints) and it went from bad to worse.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 8:53 am
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That’s precisely the wrong way round – Greece adopted (was forced to adopt) austerity (to satisfy German political constraints) and it went from bad to worse.

It's the right way round, Greece went to the EU (Germany) for a baleout after they'd tried spending cash to boost their economy and it catastrophically failed.

If borrowing and spending had grown their economy Greece wouldn't have needed to go to the EU (Germany) for a baleout in the first place. In fact if borrowing and spending was considered a panacea then they wouldn't have needed a baleout from the EU (Germany) because alternative lenders would have been queing up to lend safe in the knowledge they'd get their money back plus a ton of interest once the borrowing caused Greece's economy to thrive.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 9:29 am
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Greece tried to spend their way out of it? Eh? Thats a somewhat interesting interpretation. You're making it sound like they were attempting to build some kind of utopian Keynesian economic model. They definitely weren't doing that.

Greece actually took advantage of lax EU financial oversight and moral-free UK-based 'creative accountancy' to cook the books and spank loads of other peoples money on unnecessary shiny things, vanity projects and good old fashioned corruption. All while simultaneously making an executive decision that nobody was going to pay any tax.

Can you spot the flaw in that plan? Hence needing to be bailed out. Greeces problems were entirely of their own making, but the government tried to blame those horrid nasty Germans for making them face up to the reality that magic money trees don't actually exist


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 9:37 am
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@oob Thats not the whole story

Greece were borrowing with no tax base to pay it back, tax avoidance was endemic

Government had spent the last 20? years in the pocket of oligarchs.

At every level tax was not being paid

>25% ! of the economy was off the books just before the crash, that was the worst in the developed world in the time


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 9:45 am
 dazh
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Greeces problems were entirely of their own making, but the government tried to blame those horrid nasty Germans for making them face up to the reality that magic money trees don’t actually exist

I'm not sure that's quite true either. German banks were happy to lend them billions even though they knew they couldn't pay it back. The greek bailout by the EU/German govt wasn't a bailout of Greece, it was a bailout for German and EU banks to protect them from losses due to irresponsible lending. Sound at all familiar?

Anyway this is all off topic. Where's Dannyh? I was quite enjoying trolling him with silence. I thought he had more perseverence that that 😉


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 10:25 am
 Del
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Don't let us stop you.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 10:33 am
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German banks were happy to lend them billions even though they knew they couldn’t pay it back.

Don't be ridiculous. No bank is ever going to do that. The Greek government spent millions with UK based accountancy firms to cook their books for them to display a rather rose-tinted balance sheet, thus qualifying for finance that they knew they could never afford to pay back.

You'd kind of think, as a bank, that the accounts you were being presented with by a sovereign government within the EU weren't actually the work of pure fiction.

You can't blame the German banks for what was systemic huge-scale fraud by the Greek government. Which is why our 'oh no... poor us' act afterwards didn't elicit much sympathy

Still... lots of UK firms in The City made a killing out of it. Which, somewhat ironically, points us to the direction of what our economy will be based on post-Brexit


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 10:35 am
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The greek bailout by the EU/German govt wasn’t a bailout of Greece, it was a bailout for German and EU banks to protect them from losses due to irresponsible lending. Sound at all familiar?

again not entirely true

German (& other) creditors took 70-50% 'haircuts' (wtf is it called that?) on greek debt, which was the biggest loan restructuring ever IIRC?

anyway Kantat who predicted pretty well 2017 result have Tories up 1pt to 12 ahead today, which sucks donkey balls


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 10:36 am
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I'm hoping for heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures. Weren't they predicting a flu epidemic too?

Let's hope there's some truth in this


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 11:03 am
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apparently 25% of voters already voted by post!


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 11:12 am
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">25% ! of the economy was off the books just before the crash, that was the worst in the developed world in the time"

Spain says "hold my pint"


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 11:48 am
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I've posted my vote and my wife has hers also.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 11:55 am
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Anyway this is all off topic. Where’s Dannyh? I was quite enjoying trolling him with silence. I thought he had more perseverence that that

<Waves>

Still here buddy - but what about you? I was getting worried I might have to source an online picture of an ice sculpture to stand in for you.

I haven't got time now, but later on I will pose the question again in a specific manner - with a couple of quotes from you.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 12:12 pm
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And in other news....Ofcom reject Tory complaint about placing ice sculpture on plinth in place of Johnson.
Complaint is probably the wrong word - whingeing is more appropriate.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 12:42 pm
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Holy...

Britain Elects
‏ @britainelects

London, Westminster voting intention:

LAB: 47% (+8)
CON: 30% (+1)
LDEM: 15% (-4)
GRN: 4% (-1)
BREX: 3% (-3)

via @YouGov, 28 Nov - 02 Dec
Chgs. w/ Nov

https://twitter.com/britainelects/status/1201822002476134401

EDIT... ah its actually the wesminster constituency :/


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 12:58 pm
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I’ve posted my vote and my wife has hers also.

I've posted my vote and my wife's also. She was going to vote LibDem so I had to take pre-emptive action.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 1:09 pm
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Well, Corb's has finally said sorry for anti-semitism.

And it only took the intervention of heavy weight interviewer Phil Schofield to do it.

When is Holly Willibooby going to get Boris on the sofa?

No, wait, that's made me shudder....


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 1:31 pm
 dazh
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but what about you?

Been busy for once! Anyway on the subject of thick voters. The brexit vote as we all know had many drivers. As you know I've always contended that a primary motivation for the brexit vote was to send a message to those in power that normal people are sick of being not being listened to, and in that case it can be argued that the voters were being entirely rational.

In this general election though, it's hugely different. We have a party which is telling voters that they are listening, that they will bring in a huge range of policies that will directly benefit them, and that they will be given a sensible choice to resolve brexit as opposed to the ill-defined, snake oil version offered in 2016. On the other side we have a party which offeres the direct opposite, and a doubling down on the very policies and system which people protested against in 2016.

Yet for some bizarre reason, it would appear that the people who voted for brexit are now supporting the party who will do the opposite of what is in their interests. By any measure, that's pretty stupid. So yeah, if those same people who voted for brexit vote for the tories, then they'll get little sympathy from me. They have a massive opportunityt to put in a government which will listen to them and govern in their interests, and if they don't do that, they'll get everything they deserve.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 1:34 pm
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To summarize: Brexit = stupid?


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 1:42 pm
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Anyway on the subject of thick voters.

Channel 4 news had a piece on focus groups. They had a bunch of working class people being asked questions/looking at TV clips etc,. and then asking for their opinions.
Most were traditionally Labour voters but not really because of Labour values but because their parents had always voted Labour.
They were showed clips of Boris and Corbyn. They like Boris just because, but they can't trust Corbyn for some reason.
After their discussions about NHS, employment etc,. they were shown a clip of Boris saying, "We will get Brexit done and then spend 2020 doing all the things that will be make us great"
They all then said they would vote for him as he is saying exactly what they have been talking about. Even though he actually really said nothing at all

Shocking.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 1:54 pm
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But Daz has always argued that you can't dismiss Brexiteers as shit-thick racists.

Looks like he's coming round to the fact that the majority really are.

Turkeys and Christmas and all that...

EDIT: that Channel 4 focus group last night was terrifying. We're going to end up with a Tory government and 5 years of Boris bloody Johnson because of jellyheads like that lot


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 1:55 pm
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I hope youre happy Binners

https://twitter.com/MarkDiStef/status/1201859119898083333?s=19


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 2:03 pm
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So yeah, if those same people who voted for brexit vote for the tories, then they’ll get little sympathy from me.

Don't forget about the people who don't vote Tory yet still have to put up with Tories doing them over. Or the kids of Tory voters etc.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 2:11 pm
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Malcolm Tucker would never have allowed this to happen...

https://twitter.com/rowenamason/status/1201831122029699072


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 2:18 pm
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but they can’t trust Corbyn for some reason.

It's the beard, everyone knows that men with beards aren't to be trusted.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 3:18 pm
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Now you’re getting it!!! Keynesian stimulus has its place but it isn’t a panacea for all countries at all times. (Trump is trying it now and I can’t find a single informed commentator who things it’s a sane thing to do at this point in the cycle – can you???)

Oh, irony.
Expansionist monetary policy and demand side fiscal policy doesn't make it Keynesian. In fact Keynes is against expansionist monetary policies during periods of low interest rates.

Keynes also proposed tax cuts and spending in response to recessionary conditions or pressure. He did not propose it as a solution to non recession conditions. He was in favour of protectionism though. Quite liked military spending too.

So Trump's protectionism is good, his monetary policy is not Keynesian because its at the wrong time. Ditto Fiscal policy.
Stop conflating Keynesian economics with expansionary monetary and demand side fiscal policies. They aren't the same thing.

They’ve been spending plenty. We’re currently spending more on interest on debt than we spend on welfare.

As was explained the last time you raised this red herring, that is based on ideological choice, not sound economic reasoning.

They've also spent the least in the NHS ever, once you adjust for inflation etc. Is this Keynesian? Or just ideological stupidity? Is Austerity a good idea? Does it work or is it ideological stupidity? Enquiring minds want to know.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 3:38 pm
 dazh
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To summarize: Brexit = stupid?

No, brexit a legitimate, if misguided, attempt to protest against an establishment which has ignored normal people for decades. Voting tory on the otherhand (unless you're one of the lucky 5%), totally stupid and self-defeating. Even if you desperately want brexit, it's still pretty stupid, as the tories have so far shown no signs that they have the faintest idea of how to make it happen.

Looks like he’s coming round to the fact that the majority really are.

Not really. There's plenty of those for sure, but I still reckon most are just normal non-political people who are pissed off at continually being ***** over. The irrational bit is that they think the tories represent their interests.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 4:01 pm
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Unless you're a hedge fund manager then voting for the Tories or Brexit makes you pretty ****ing stupid in my book


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 4:06 pm
 DrJ
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After their discussions about NHS, employment etc,. they were shown a clip of Boris saying, “We will get Brexit done and then spend 2020 doing all the things that will be make us great”
They all then said they would vote for him as he is saying exactly what they have been talking about. Even though he actually really said nothing at all

These were the imbeciles who said Boris is "straight talking", right?


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 4:18 pm
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Unless you’re a hedge fund manager then voting for the Tories or Brexit makes you pretty ****ing stupid in my book

binners stop making the assumption that everyone who voted for Brexit is a Tory/thick as mince/racist. You and plenty of others on here are not doing themselves any favours by banging on about this. I voted for Brexit but haven't voted Tory for some 20 years and have no intention of doing so ever again.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 4:23 pm
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Just imagine the uproar if the leader of a major political party and predecessor were both pictured at the unveiling of a statue to a known anti Semite and Nazi sympathiser

https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/who-was-nancy-astor-the-first-woman-to-take-her-seat-in-parliament-was-also-branded-virulently-ant-1.493848

Oh... hang on .......


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 4:37 pm
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so you are not a tory...what about thick as mince and racist??

😀
(joke btw)


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 4:47 pm
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@cinnamon_girl

Do you mind me asking what your reason for voting brexit was? Do you think it will affect how you will vote in the general election?

curious to hear other opinions on here....


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 5:25 pm
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kimbers

Subscriber

again not entirely true

German (& other) creditors took 70-50% ‘haircuts’ (wtf is it called that?) on greek debt, which was the biggest loan restructuring ever IIRC

Yup. Which is a damn sight better than the total default that otherwise was heading their way.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 5:58 pm
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Do you mind me asking what your reason for voting brexit was? Do you think it will affect how you will vote in the general election?

Same question from me too.

I readily acknowledge that I am probably one of the ‘worst’ anti-Brexit posters on here. Mainly because I simply cannot get my head around the reasons for voting Leave. Maybe you could provide an example that I could empathise with...

I promise not to come back at you directly whatever you type.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 6:00 pm
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Been busy for once! Anyway on the subject of thick voters. The brexit vote as we all know had many drivers. As you know I’ve always contended that a primary motivation for the brexit vote was to send a message to those in power that normal people are sick of being not being listened to, and in that case it can be argued that the voters were being entirely rational.

In this general election though, it’s hugely different. We have a party which is telling voters that they are listening, that they will bring in a huge range of policies that will directly benefit them, and that they will be given a sensible choice to resolve brexit as opposed to the ill-defined, snake oil version offered in 2016. On the other side we have a party which offeres the direct opposite, and a doubling down on the very policies and system which people protested against in 2016.

Yet for some bizarre reason, it would appear that the people who voted for brexit are now supporting the party who will do the opposite of what is in their interests. By any measure, that’s pretty stupid. So yeah, if those same people who voted for brexit vote for the tories, then they’ll get little sympathy from me. They have a massive opportunityt to put in a government which will listen to them and govern in their interests, and if they don’t do that, they’ll get everything they deserve.

So basically whether and when people are thick or not is down to your say-so?

Well, it has been great talking with you...


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 6:04 pm
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CG - during the referendum campaign I didn't hear one single coherent argument for how leaving the EU would address any of the very real problems in our country. At a push I could see how people fell for the (to me, obvious) lies about £350 million for the NHS etc

Now, 3 years down the line, with all that we know now about this almighty cluster-**** (project fear?), I'm so fed up with what its done to our country (completely paralysed it!) and with the endless bullshit that its delivered (Boris Johnson is presently our prime minister FFS!) that I'm not giving anyone the benefit of the doubt any more.

Unless you're a hedge fund manager or a currency speculator or some other disaster capitalist, if you still think this whole thing is a good idea, then I'm sorry but you're out of your mind. And anyone who isn't one of the above and votes Tory is the proverbial turkey voting for yuletide festivities as far as I'm convcerned

Out of interest: why did you vote for Brexit? And how are those reasons looking now that we are where we are? How would you vote if there were a second referendum? And on what basis?

because it absolutely baffles me that anyone buys the 'get Brexit done!' bullshit presently being peddled


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 6:17 pm
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People still think about “the money we give to Brussels” that could be “spent on our own priorities instead”… they’ve been told the costs, but they genuinely still don’t understand that the benefits outweigh the costs several times over… it’s fingers in ears and “let’s get it done” for millions of voters.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 6:25 pm
 dazh
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So basically whether and when people are thick or not is down to your say-so

As if I said that. If people thought voting for brexit was the only way to register their disgust with whatever they perceive the problems in society are, then I can understand that. I can’t for the life of me understand them voting Tory though.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 6:41 pm
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If people thought voting for brexit was the only way to register their disgust with whatever they perceive the problems in society are, then I can understand that.

I can’t. Even if you didn’t understand much you should still understand:

A)Even if the EU was the devil incarnate, undoing nearly fifty years of integration would come at a massive cost.

B)Kicking your main trading partner in the balls is not a good idea.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 7:02 pm
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Being lied to doesn't make you thick. Believing people that you think ought to be trustworthy, like prime ministers and such, doesn't make you thick. You can lie to smart people, stupid people, as long as you use the right lie anyone can be fooled.

Voting for things that will directly harm you, if you know and believe that they will, is stupid. But fooling people into voting for things that will harm you is bread and butter to Tories, it's literally the only way they win elections, they have all the tools and all the backup and they're very good at it. (not restricted to them of course, but them in particular- they're a party of the minority that needs the votes of the majority, it's the only way they can play it)

Being fooled forever probably does make you gullible, but smart people can be gullible too.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 7:42 pm
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Shocking

While I don't want to annoy dazh and rone too much,  but a large part of the blame for that rests with the Labour party

No, brexit a legitimate, if misguided, attempt to protest against an establishment

Brexit was always, always  going to be owned and directed by the Right. If you weren't sufficiently clued up to recognise that; then you had no business voting Out. There wasn't a caveat on my Brexit voting paper where I could mark "Out please, but I want it known I'm not a right wing bigot and this is a protest, and I don't want my vote to be hijacked and counted by Nigel for his stupid plans..."

So, I think if you were voting out as a protest, that doesn't pass the (quite low) bar for not being a bit thick, sorry.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 7:50 pm
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Agree Nick. Someone else put it better than I could as well…

https://twitter.com/nicktolhurst/status/1201795486048571393?s=21


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 8:36 pm
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Brexit was always, always going to be owned and directed by the Right. If you weren’t sufficiently clued up to recognise that; then you had no business voting Out. There wasn’t a caveat on my Brexit voting paper where I could mark “Out please, but I want it known I’m not a right wing bigot and this is a protest, and I don’t want my vote to be hijacked and counted by Nigel for his stupid plans…”

So, I think if you were voting out as a protest, that doesn’t pass the (quite low) bar for not being a bit thick, sorry.

That is about as ‘on point’ a post as I could think of.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 8:44 pm
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You just had to look at the Uber-neoliberal, free market ideology espoused by the Brexit enthusiasts and it was fairly obvious the real reasons they wanted to be ‘free of the shackles’ of the EU.

They want to tear up workers rights, environmental controls, food standards and deregulate everything in sight, then turn Britain into a tax-free playground for the rich, an ask-no-questions haven for the capital of dodgy oligarchs and a regulation-free sweatshop for the rest of us. And the NHS, amongst many other things we presently accept as normal for an advanced civilised society, will pretty soon be history

Given these people’s much publicised desire to do just this - they’d hardly been shy about it - if you’d failed to fathom this out for yourself, and instead thought the spiv in the tweed jacket and the 19th century throwback in the double-breasted suit were instead representing your best interests, well.... ?


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 8:57 pm
 rone
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You just had to look at the Uber-neoliberal, free market ideology espoused by the Brexit enthusiasts and it was fairly obvious the real reasons they wanted to be ‘free of the shackles’ of the EU.

That's not exclusive to Brexit though. That's been around for 40 years, under multiple governments. And has now run its course. That's why the Tories have no new ideas - neolibralism hasn't served anything new up. Creaking at the seems, and distorting the money circulation between rich and poor. Little growth, a society built on personal debt, austerity and battered infrastructure etc.

That's the bit that's got to change this election.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 9:17 pm
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This might be 20/20 hindsight, but I have a recollection I may have said something similar just before the referendum.

Something along the lines of ‘if you are in two minds look at the arseholes that are pushing this project’.

Basically if you are doing anything that the likes of Trump or Farage would approve of, then you can be pretty sure it is a bad thing.

But we have been here about a hundred times before so....


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 9:19 pm
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Yet the leader of the Labour Party has spent his entire career being actively hostile to the one organisation that has kept a check on unrestrained free-market neoliberalism in this country. And even after all this, is still fundamentally opposed to it.

While we’re on the subject of people who aren’t very bright....


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 9:22 pm
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It's worth remembering, though, that being pro-EU is analogous to saying that you're pro-parliament; it's a system, not a political movement. Just because it's currently dominated by a left of centre agenda doesn't mean that this will always be the case.

I'm a staunch remain voter, but I can see significant flaws in the EU: it's bloated, corrupt and generally places far too much power in the hands of people who don't really know what they're doing. I know a couple of people who have worked within the organisation, so this is not based on tabloid nonsense.

Personally, I'd like to see us remain in a reformed EU.

JP


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 9:47 pm
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I’m no fan of the EU in its current form either, for the reasons you’ve listed, but everything’s relative.

Overall our membership of it has been a damn site better for the country than letting the likes of the six-toed, born-to-rule pony-****ers we have in power at the moment just get on with whatever they fancy, totally unrestrained

As we’re about to find out


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 9:57 pm
 dazh
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While I don’t want to annoy dazh

As if! I'm almost unannoyable, especially on the subject of politics. You don't spend 30 odd years at the extreme fringes if you're easily annoyed by people disagreeing with you 🙂

but a large part of the blame for that rests with the Labour party

I don't disagree, brexit has broken the labour party as much as the tories. The difference is that the tories have reverted to type and fallen into line out of naked self-interest (Matt Hancock and Nicky Morgan being perfect examples), whereas many labour people still try to maintain a principled position, which exacerbates the differences of opinion.

 If you weren’t sufficiently clued up to recognise that; then you had no business voting Out.

Disagree on this though. Putting overt and ingrained racism aside (of which there is lots), the vast majority of non-politically engaged people either don't understand the EU, see it as foreigners 'ruling' over them, or see it as charity from abroad. For better or worse - and this might explain why working class people vote tory - there is a strong culture in the UK (probably everywhere actually) of wanting/needing to stand on your own two feet. It's a pride thing. Misplaced I would say, as we're all dependent on others to some extent, but it's there, and it results in things like brexit and tory governments.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 10:23 pm
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Don't dispair too much binners, a lot of floating voters I know are now erring toward tactical voting.

A good mate of mine is a lib dem voter and is voting Labour due to the local numbers.

My nan, a life long tory voter isn't going to vote because she's so upset by the way things are going.

Polls are one thing, but that doesn't translate directly into seats, and the polls are in hung parliament territory.

It really is a unique election as its so swung by whether the punter wants brexit or not.

I've booked Friday the 13th off work as I'll either be celebrating or applying for an Irish passport.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 10:28 pm
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I agree that the polls are as good as meaningless as this will play out seat by seat, with a hell of a lot of tactical voting going on.

I’m taking the 13th off too. Planning on staying up and watching the results come in. This is by far the most important election of my lifetime. It’s make or break for the 99.9% of the population who aren’t landed gentry, hedge fund managers, venture capitalists, Eton Oxbridge chancers or Jacob Rees Mogg (who ticks all those boxes)


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 10:40 pm
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https://comparethetacticals.com/


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 10:45 pm
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kelvin

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https://comparethetacticals.com//blockquote >

OK, I know national political stuff tends not to understand Scotland... but my seat is SNP, with the Tories a worryingly close second, and Labour a little further afield at third- giving the idiots at Scottish Labour a real chance of hurting the SNP and handing the seat to the Tories, so it's pretty important.

Oh and that SNP MP is Joanna Cherry, who was responsible for the overturning of Johnson's fake prorogation. She is literally the most effective anti-brexit candidate in the election.

But this site includes a recommendation that if I want to stop brexit, I should vote Green. They didn't run last time, but teh time before they got 3%.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 11:26 pm
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‘This site’ recommends nothing though, does it… it brings together all the different datasets and recommendations so that you can see and compare them without having to hunt them down… if one of their sources has a dud recommendation, you can compare what they advise with what the others are saying…

https://comparethetacticals.com/edinburgh-south-west

As I said, useful, not definitive. Much easier than checking all the tactical voting sites individually (or worse, checking just one that turns out to be an outlier with poor advice).

Vote SNP.


 
Posted : 03/12/2019 11:40 pm
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kelvin

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‘This site’ recommends nothing though, does it…

I'd say that it does recommend courses of action- not their own, but they're recommending these other listings. And while I half agree on them usefully drawing together sources, they're recommending specific sites for specific reasons. In this case, brexit.

I think a lot of people will be looking at this sort of thing for the first time, so it's a bit of a worry when some of the guidance is almost exactly the opposite of what you should do.


 
Posted : 04/12/2019 12:56 am
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it’s bloated, corrupt and generally places far too much power in the hands of people who don’t really know what they’re doing

Hmm, that sounds rather familiar....


 
Posted : 04/12/2019 6:45 am
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stop making the assumption that everyone who voted for Brexit is a Tory/thick as mince/racist

If someone, anyone, could provide any evidence to the contrary then I would look at it. In the absence of any such evidence then the best you can possibly hope for is

gullible

Not a great look IMO.


 
Posted : 04/12/2019 7:16 am
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Hmm Boris says to NATO “One for all and all for one...”

#hypocrit


 
Posted : 04/12/2019 7:17 am
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This would clearly be morally very wrong, but anyone know the rules around doing something like:

Setup a party called something like "Get Brexit Done Party" or "NHS Support Party", do no campaigning and have zero intention of acting on anything.

Then run in marginals purely to try and suck up some votes from people who just read what's on the paper and tick it?

I'm assuming this would be illegal in some way otherwise with the state of things someone would of tried it already?

If there isn't rules in place then maybe their needs to be!


 
Posted : 04/12/2019 7:41 am
Posts: 7214
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This would clearly be morally very wrong, but anyone know the rules around doing something like:

Setup a party called something like “Get Brexit Done Party” or “NHS Support Party”, do no campaigning and have zero intention of acting on anything.

Then run in marginals purely to try and suck up some votes from people who just read what’s on the paper and tick it?

I’m assuming this would be illegal in some way otherwise with the state of things someone would of tried it already?

If there isn’t rules in place then maybe their needs to be!

I don't see any reason why you can't do that. You could also get together with a bunch of mates and join the local party of your choice and literally take it over your local party and selecting the candidate of your choice. There are very few people active parties at a local level these days you'd only need a hundred people or so to totally take over. Frankly I think you could do it with 20.

I don't know if it was planned but a local candidate to me, fought the local elections as Tory and the day after she won her ward went to the Green Party. Three people involved in a local campaign in my area joined the party they expected to win wards in the local elections. Two of the three were able to stand in safe wards for that party within a year and directly influence that local issue.

Momentum have showed what can be acheived.

Lots of practical ways to achieve things in politics but people prefer to complain on FB so they never happen.


 
Posted : 04/12/2019 8:31 am
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it’s a bit of a worry when some of the guidance is almost exactly the opposite of what you should do.

Is it showing you something different to me? A quick glance at their pooled information for Cherry’s seat screams “vote SNP” to me. Hope she wins.

Anyway, these kind of tools are useful for showing people that what is happening in their seat is probably entirely different to the debate coming out of their goggle box and pocket computer 90% of the time. Tactical voting is essential to prevent the usual suspects having FPTP deliver them a majority government based on a minority share of the vote.

Vote tactically.

https://twitter.com/iandunt/status/1202152525182443523?s=21


 
Posted : 04/12/2019 9:15 am
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Barry Gardner was being interviewed on Today. He was being asked about Labours commitment to NATO (and the implications for national security). Talk about being on the back foot from the off. He was read back a selection of the sixth-form-level, boooooooo to America, NATO is an imperialist conspiracy bollocks spouted by Corbyn over the years.

Its bloody tragic! He's an absolute yawning open goal for anyone who wants to have a pop at him and the labour party. Whatever the subject, theres a multitude of nonsensical ill-thought-through, voter-repelling, common-room-level quotes all gift-wrapped and ready to go

There was no way a man with that much of a mountain of toxic baggage should be anywhere near the leadership of the party. He's an absolute liability!

I can't be the only one wondering what the the polls would be looking like with pretty much anyone other than that clown as labour party leader


 
Posted : 04/12/2019 9:35 am
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I can’t be the only one wondering what the the polls would be looking like with pretty much anyone other than that clown as labour party leader

Labour would probably have won the last GE.


 
Posted : 04/12/2019 9:46 am
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Never underestimate the right wing press & their ability to monster a Labour leader

Look at Ed Milliband & the bacon sandwich of doom !

Johnson's past is chequered with dishonesty, lies & unpleasantness that would have seen anyone else a footnote in history by now, but they just love eccentric old bojo !


 
Posted : 04/12/2019 10:00 am
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Never underestimate the right wing press & their ability to monster a Labour leader

Its not been the hardest job in the world for the past few years, has it?

They can phone it in


 
Posted : 04/12/2019 10:03 am
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Its not been the hardest job in the world for the past few years, has it?

Nope. The public just seem to lap it up. Plenty of useful idiots to keep repeating their nonsense as well.


 
Posted : 04/12/2019 10:13 am
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A good article in todays Guardian about the increasingly blurred boundry between politics and journalism

How Boris Johnson and Brexit are Berlusconifying Britain

Britain is used to having the majority of newspapers pitted against the Labour party, and expects every Labour leader to come under disproportionate attack. But the combination of Brexit and Johnson has produced something altogether new: a sense that Downing Street is now a media agency, and Fleet Street a political one.


 
Posted : 04/12/2019 10:29 am
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The people Jez surrounds himself with are hardly helping his public image...

https://twitter.com/Dannythefink/status/1202173608321257472?s=19

(As an aside, met the Fink on holiday this summer. Lovely bloke. Scarily intelligent, and excellent company for a chat over a cold beer)


 
Posted : 04/12/2019 11:07 am
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Labour are scooping up lib dem votes

https://twitter.com/chriscurtis94/status/1201931549505183744


 
Posted : 04/12/2019 11:08 am
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Labour are scooping up lib dem votes

Yes they are. Last time that happened, it gave the Conservative party lots of seats. It all depends on how that pans out in very different seats in different parts of the UK. Hopefully it’ll mean Labour keep a reasonable seat count… but it’s also likely to give the Conservatives a majority of seats.

The people Jez surrounds himself with are hardly helping his public image…

You can only vote Labour by choosing to forget that the current leader chose a millionaire anti-European pro-Soviet Communist as an advisor. That’s what I’m doing.

Vote Labour. Ignore Murray.


 
Posted : 04/12/2019 11:16 am
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All that matters from the Lib Dems perspective is that enough people vote tactically in winnable seats in the South East to take seats off the Tory's. What seems to be helping is they're specifically targeting some truly horrible Brexiteer bastards like Dominic Raab who represent remain-voting constituencies.

And hope that there aren't enough complete dimwits like the focus group on channel 4 news the other night - former labour voters who are going to vote for Boris because of Corbyn (and the Stalin apologists, Putin fan bois and 'Marxist' multi-millionaires that surround him)


 
Posted : 04/12/2019 11:28 am
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Thank goodness for Danny Finkelstein...

After all, if it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have such an in depth record of the inside story of the events that led to such an explosive rift in the Conservative Party

Insider knowledge


 
Posted : 04/12/2019 12:08 pm
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All that matters from the Lib Dems perspective is that enough people vote tactically in winnable seats in the South East to take seats off the Tory’s.

Not just the South East. Good chance here in Cheadle!


 
Posted : 04/12/2019 12:15 pm
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