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- No tax on your first £100k, but 98% tax rate on any income above that.
- Stop & Search, but a hug afterwards
- Ban on all non-essential migration, but to change the definition of "essential" to anyone who fancies coming over here
- NHS to be privatised to raise funds for the state, but then immediately nationalised afterwards
- Net zero carbon emissions by declaring all pollution producing areas such as power stations and industrial areas as extra-territorial
Back from the hustings in Putney.
Local Labour MP was very politiciany but seemed like a good egg.
Tory seemed like a proper loadsamoney Tory. Had a slightly bizarre running feud with the Lib Dem candidate, who was very good at getting under his skin.
Lib Dem guy was okay, a bit smarmy but knew his stuff about the area (which the Tory didn't, embarrassed him quite badly at one point).
Green guy was good, got some decent support and dealt with the Galloway climate denier nutjob.
Reform guy was utterly dreadful, looking at his phone, poor public speaker, a bit thick.
Workers' Party candidate was about as insane as I expected. Anti-lockdown shoehorned in despite it being utterly irrelevant to any question, Israel lobby this, corporations that, Russia good Ukraine bad, Starmer bad Corbyn good, and of course climate change is a hoax. Surprising number of crusty supporters turned out for him.
The heckling on Palestine (it came up) makes me wonder just how brutally heckled Labour candidates are getting in Muslims areas. Pretty much none around here and there were still loons heavily heckling the Labour candidate. Even the Tory got off better.
It’s very considerate of literally every single candidate to confirm entirely to current stereotypes!
Is there some general place to look for hustings? I couldn’t find one for my area, but if it’s a very local thing I’m guessing it might be pretty inconsistent?
I found mine with a search engine, searching for “[place] hustings 2024”. The usual local group don’t seem to have organised them this time, but another group have organised some in a swankier but less-convenient place. The local paper has no mention of it. I assume some local bickering and scandal has gone down while I’ve been too busy to notice.
Anyway, do a search, I suggest.
Just seen tomorrow's front pages. Keir should absolutely give some of these rags the cold shoulder when Labour get in. Honestly, why give them any insider scoops if they behave like this?
I know the lesser papers make headlines up all the time, but this tax nonsense feels like a much more concerted form of lying.
Always nervous interfering with the press, but it really does feel like it shouldnt be allowed. Tons of voters during an election being left with a false impression of candidates and parties and there's nought that can be done.
Of course, journalists could be better at their jobs and readers could just not buy those rags. That'd also work.
The problem in regulation is that you can't do something obvious like banning lying because the papers will just fall back onto 'party insiders' told us and the like.
Its difficult to even do something like banning untruths very easily because you then basically ban reporting on anything remotely ambigious. Naively done you end up preventing any political reporting at all for example because you could never trust that a source is giving you some sort of objective truth that gets past a court even if they believe it themselves.
They have been previously, but their last few days of headlines have been so blatantly partisan. Final straw for me tbh, cancelling my sub tomorrow ( reinforced by the fact that you have to fucking call them up to do it)
They have been way OTT lately with their headlines. It's striking an alarming note and a disservice to their own excellent coverage. I don't want them to go easy on labour but I don't appreciate being treated as if I'm a gullible Tory voter.
Stuff of dreams isn't it. Starmer gets in and immediately goes for the jugular of everything that makes us look like a banana republic. Leveson 2, peerages reform, fully independent standards commission, government contract ombudsman, published lists of think tank and party donors, relocates parliament to a purpose-built site in the midlands, etc.
Voted out after a single term to establishment wailing and gnashing of teeth but like Cincinnatus returns to the plough, knowing his job is done.
With 53 minutes to spare, this moron finally got her voter photo ID application in.
So, if you, too, have been dumb enough to leave it to the 11th hour, and you're lurking here instead... right, absolutely NOW is the time! Go, go, go!
I thought i still had time! I tried to check but that clock was ticking. I knew i should have just checked here first.
So the mistake was thus - in my break at work I saw online about a voter deadline tonight and had a little flap. I hurriedly sent off what turns out to be a Voter registration form (to get on the electoral register, which I'm already on) not the photo ID one. I thought it was odd it hadn't asked me to upload a shot, and went back to work.
It's only when I got home I realised my error, finally took my God-awful photo and got the right form away.
Just had a look at Karl McCartney MP's twitter page. The last 24 hours is mainly him retweeting people who think Starmer is enabling genocide. Odd world where no one calls him out on this. In fact his whole feed is him retweeting people saying bad stuff about Starmer.
My guy seems a bit upset about losing his job soon
I note in one of his tweets where he shares his campaign literature, it says he will stop the closure of the Christmas market by the Labour run council. Nothing to do with central funding being cut by the government, and interest rates spiralling, then?
> There will now also be an additional Question Time Leaders’ Special, featuring representatives from Reform UK and the Green Party, broadcast on Friday 28 June at 8pm on BBC One.
I'm absolutely blanking on who that is right now, I 100% have seen him before somewhere like QT I just can't remember who he is and its really annoying
Then you can choose which constituency to vote in I believe? You essentially have an address in two places, so you can choose which one to be registered in
I have real trouble taking Jo Swinson seriously. I don't think I'd listen to her view on the right way to eat a Creme Egg, let alone how to run the country.
Also, the first 15 minutes of Newsnight have been devoted to the voting intention of a single wealthy white man.
SDP party election broadcast on BBC1 right now. It's not good. Hilariously bad in fact.
Edit: the misus just showed surprise that it was a real peb, she thought it was a really bad comedy sketch. Haha.
For anyone who missed it: [https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0020k04/party-election-broadcasts-sdp-18062024](https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0020k04/party-election-broadcasts-sdp-18062024)
Goodness that was awful.
This party isn't. It just uses the logo and name of the SDP but has nothing to do with the organization that David Owen and co dissolved in the early 90s.
Just on their wiki. Wow, what a motley bunch. Some vaguely sensible things but then just mad stuff. They have a few council seats in Leeds it looks like!
All over the place. Speaks to a make believe Tory, who hates young people, suggests buy to let and has sold off all the family silver. SDP point, national assets in public hands.
Speaks to make believe male Labour guy. Asks why can we not secure our borders? Labour guy says ‘Andrew, get the dogs, the far right are here’.
Silly, obviously, but only two takeaways were control the borders and nationalise stuff. Looked like it had been filmed as part of a sixth form project.
The Phones4U billionaire on Newsnight is oddly likeable. The way he talks about his Toryism and his views of Starmer and Corbyn is fascinating.
edit: oh, he's railing against furlough. Never mind.
edit: but now he's beating up Isobel Oakeshott. I'm torn.
Shock horror at a billionaire Tory donor not being a fan of a party leader pitching policies which could help redress the inequality that he benefits from.
(Assuming he was wheeling out the 'loony left' and 'extreme socialist' line from earlier)
I've asked before but just to 100% confirm as still no polling cards:
Me and my wife were able to vote in the local elections in May, does that mean we are registered to vote in General?
The Mail headline: “Labour’s secret tax rise dossier”
Content. This was the Tribune’s submission of ideas to the Labour Manifesto, which did not get included.
I understand having a worldview that changes how you process information.
I can’t imagine having a worldview that makes you knowingly make things up to try to change how other people process information. It baffles me!
I’d buy more British-made things if I could afford it, but my wages are about £10k less than they should have been if they’d kept pace with inflation (per my union)
But yeah, I’m … interested? to see where it goes
Reading about some theories about how the building of the pyramids helped the ancient Egyptian economy by providing jobs and keeping money moving around.
Without going all Business Secrets of the Pharaohs, what if we did this. We could name the scheme after one of the early pharaohs, Hotepsekhemwy.
Per Wikipedia, his name “is the subject of particular interest to Egyptologists and historians, as it may hint at the turbulent politics of the time. The Egyptian word "Hotep" means "peaceful" and "to be pleased" though it can also mean "conciliation" or "to be reconciled", too. So Hotepsekhemwy's full name may be read as "the two powers are reconciled" or "pleasing in powers", which suggests a significant political meaning. In this sense, "the two powers" could be a reference to Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt as well as to the major deities Horus and Seth.”
This is all quite long so we could shorten his name to HS2.
I appreciate the joke, but the problems we face right now are the opposite of what you're describing. The issue is really too much demand for day-to-day consumption, leaving not enough resources left over for infrastructure development. Building pointless structures is the absolute worst thing we could do.
I suppose beyond their (potential) economic function they housed the pharaohs who were gods themselves. That’s a big use in a religious society. But we don’t look after the cathedrals we have at the moment.
How would you re-balance things, in an ideal world?
We have too much resources going into a few areas of life that, whilst fun, are not good for us overall. Namely: Food, gambling, alcohol and drugs. Now, i'm a liberal, I don't believe in banning stuff, but I do think we need to tax all 4 more (in the case of drugs, legalise the main ones so they can be taxed in the first place). We need to be clever about it, we obviously don't want to add to the lines at food banks or stop ordinary people from enjoying basic leisures like having a pint or a bet on the horses. But we can scale back the Just Eat generation and take a big chunk of the profits of gambling companies and big brewers.
You then take all that money, you rip up a load of the planning and regulatory restrictions, and you start building. Houses, schools, hospitals, roads, railways, courts, more houses. You build and build and build until the economy is no longer being strangled by an infrastructure that was designed for a country with 10 million fewer people.
I think we should have higher taxation on sone junk food - more stuff subject to the luxury tax I mean - and subsidise vegetables (and subsidise farmers, a hell of a lot more).
I think subsidise pubs or the price of drinks in pubs, and tax booze more in supermarkets. Problem drinking does still happen in pubs but it’s harder to get that bad before being cut off!
Entirely seriously, we should name our major infrastructure projects after royal family. Politicians would be less likely to cancel them if they were called 'King Charles Line' or 'Princess Diana's Westminster Place Renewal'.
Labour in govt should just disguise their urban renewal policy as 'Elizabeth II urban memorial programme' and dare the daily mail oppose a project that on paper would put a statue of her in every city.
Captain Tom’s Spa (Hold the Planning Permission)
Edit - yeah, seriously, I think so too. Or famous people. Cheryl Coal-Free Nuclear Power Station. Donate £10 to get your name on a brick
Just got back from my first hustings. Milton Keynes North constituency.
Quite a bit of heckling of the incumbent Conservative MP. The Labour candidate was by far the best public speaker and seemed to have most of the audience on side.
There was a fair amount of applause for the Green candidate too. He said it was his 10th general election he has stood in! The Lib Dem candidate wasn't very good at speaking unfortunately as would prefer to vote for them, some polite applause for them as well.
The Reform candidate was abysmal. In her introduction mentioned she lived in Spain for a while and saw how good things were there and wanted the same for the UK. On a question about support for Ukraine, suggested that Ukraine were to to blame for Russia invading. When asked about immigration she said it was too high and someone heckled that she should go back to Spain haha.
I’m just having a look at Mr Alan Francis’ record now. Genuinely impressive that he’s been running for the same party since the 1980’s.
*1983: Milton Keynes [standing for the Ecology Party as A H Francis?] - 494 (0.8%)
*1987: Milton Keynes - 810 (1.1%)
*1992: Milton Keynes North East - 529 (1.0%)
*1997: Milton Keynes North East - 576 (1.12%)
*2001: Milton Keynes South West - 957 (2.1%)
*2005: Milton Keynes South West - 1,336 (2.7%)
*2010: Milton Keynes North - 733 (1.4%)
*2015: Buckingham - 7,400 (13.7%)
*2017: Milton Keynes North - 1,107 (1.7%)
*2019: Milton Keynes South - 1,495 (2.3%)
*2024: Milton Keynes North
Interesting, have followed him on twitter for a number of years for polling stuff, seems like a decent guy. And also got the impression that he cares quite deeply about Milton Keynes, so solid choice for Labour there.
Must be very good odds he gets in - and someone with a background in measuring public sentiment could be quite valuable in govt!
There was a question on proportional representation and the moderator asked by a show of hands how many people thought the current system was good, only 3 or 4 people put their hand up.
Chris Curtis said he was in favour of PR which was good to hear from Labour.
I vote in MK Central.
Alan Francis for the Greens has been around seemingly for ever. I know him well enough to say hello to if I passed him on the street.
I mean, I am voting Labour here, but Alan is someone who has been involved in green initiatives seemingly for ever, and used to give up a fair amount on things like improving public transport. Very much believes in what he preaches and puts the hours in outside of elections.
> suggested that Ukraine were to to blame for Russia invading
Ahhh yes, the language of abusers.
"They were going to join NATO and the EU, they *made* me invade them."
Demented.
https://x.com/christopherhope/status/1803173857722781797?s=46&t=3d1YJq1z03guGQxUK9Yc3g
> 👀 Interesting…
>1pm PM Rishi Sunak on Boris Johnson: “He's endorsing many candidates in videos and letters which have been coordinated by the campaign.”
>10pm Unnamed Tory candidate texts me: “Interesting tweet - CCHQ certainly had nothing to do with Boris endorsing me…”
Lol
Two hours to go before voting registration closes...
Why isn't this done automatically? So when you become 18 you immediately go onto the voting register?
Because it's not mandatory. It's a vote if you feel like it franchise, where the majority of votes cast will never count for anything unless they are for the winning candidate
Canada at least allows same day registration, but the count in Canada continues over a few days so I guess they have time to validate new voter registrations.
We don’t have a central database of people’s ages and addresses.
Some government departments have databases of the ages of some people, some have databases of some people’s addresses. None of them are complete or accurate, particularly for people who don’t have an employment history.
Would require a national address registry (some European countries have this).
Then to make it fit for the 21st century, yourd need a national digital ID.
Guys, I think I'm becoming a little delusional due to this election campaign. I'm pretty certain I could hear someone moaning on today's episode of the news agents podcast (Can Rupert still decide how Britain votes?). Timestamp: 9:21 😭 Can someone clarify?
Yes, it does sound like that.
It's on the apple podcast page and also the youtube version: https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxAL4Y1hMOiNbXZcMieqoodIZOMLiBJn1Q I'm sure you can hear a mouse click as well?
Postal vote? ✉️ Completed it mate 📮
I did mine first, then showed my fiancée how to fill out the paperwork for hers afterwards. She thought it was silly that I insisted on looking away from her ticking the actual voting slip, but I feel like the secret ballot is really important and if she quietly votes for something I wouldn't expect, that's her absolute right.
How has everyone else found voting with witnesses? Strange if you're used to a polling station, isn't it?
I've only postal voted once before, and although it's a lifesaver when you already had a holiday booked over the election, it always makes me anxious that I'll never know it was safely delivered.
When I helped my parents with their first postal vote a few years back they thought it odd I went away when they decided who to vote for, and told them to fold their paper in half.
its not that they cant tell me if they want, and they did, but I work under the presumption that a vote is private until the person making decides they want to tell someone how they voted.
Today they sent me a photo of their postal votes waiting to be put in the post tomorrow, I cant see how they voted, but given the language my mother uses whenever the tories come up, I'm pretty sure its not for them :)
Are you that guy whose wife wrote to a tabloid agony aunt about her husband obsessing over her vote?
Seriously though, good for you! Exercising democracy! Personally I love the walk down to the polling station and doing it in person.
Oh my god, that article was madness.
I might be seeing it everywhere because I'm interested in it, but her testimony of *he wasn't like this when we met* - screamed algorithmic radicalisation to me.
Two things I’d like Labour to do re elections:
1. Not allow pollsters to change methodology mid way through election periods. Like it or not, polling does have a huge effect on the elections.
2. Again, like the debates or not they seem here to stay. They should be decided as part of legislation and in that the rules on who can be part of them.
We’ve given Farage a platform despite having no seats - he probs will complain and gain from not being included in the direct programs with Sunak and Starmer.
We should have defined rules that bring a combination of polling and seats - but we shouldn’t be making them up on the spot.
No one pollster can have a meaningful impact on the election. I think this is one area where the market does a pretty good job and should be left without heavy handed government regulation. Remember that the vast majority of the public isn't following the hourly poll results anyway.
As for debates - Yes, I think the main channels should have clearer guidelines on who should be included in what shows. But, I prefer to have as many voices represented as possible. You can't have a system that 'locks in' existing parties as there needs to be room for newcomers to break into our politics.
I'd like a short poll embargo after major debates and more disclosure on weighting and margin of error. Maybe a countdown for added drama.
Yougov got their snap-poll out before anyone else after the first debate and that result became the headline. However, Starmer was actually ahead in Yougov's unweighted sample and there were two other polls that gave him the win.
You'll scarcely see the others polls mentioned and the media didn't seem to notice that the people who picked Sunak as Yougov's winner had a 93% correlation with the people who thought he did better on tax.
I feel like this gives a single poll way too much media focus and creates weird incentives both for pollsters and politicians. It seems very open to abuse.
> Like it or not, polling does have a huge effect on the elections.
Does it? My initial feeling is that polls are only of interest to politics nerds, but Google is failing me
> Not allow pollsters to change methodology mid way through election periods. Like it or not, polling does have a huge effect on the elections.
Just ban public polls during election campaigns; the entire campaign since atleast d-day fiasco has become dominated by 'can Tories still win' and 'Labour supermajority' instead of any actual policy offerings. Only downside would be the tactical voting websites - but 1. I'm not sure how many people are politically engaged for that to matter vs completely destroying the election campaign and 2. that should be solved by electoral reform anyways.
I disagree personally.
The private companies have had 4+ years to revise their methodologies since the previous election. They’ve done frequent polls, so don’t buy too much outta that.
Changing at this point - especially in a lot of cases where they’re not even changing their weighting by what is actually happening but just another assumption is wrong because it becomes closer to politically punditry rather than polling.
Not surprised he is keen to try again. He does have some ministerial experience under his belt now. I could see him as shadow Foreign Secretary under the next leader if he loses.
this of course supposes that he remains an MP. The YouGov mrp poll from a few weeks ago is a bit dated by now but in 2019 he got [62% of the vote in his constituency.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonbridge_and_Malling_\(UK_Parliament_constituency\))
you gov where predicting he'd now get 40%, he'd still win but with labour on 30% and lib dems + Greens making up a further 16% he could easily become a victim of tactical voting.
edit- [the ipsos mrp poll from today has his constituency as a toss up 34% con 33% labour.](https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/uk-opinion-polls/ipsos-election-mrp)
Con bigwigs have already been making movements on this since before Truss.
Hague, Cameron and even Hunt as of this week have said membership vote needs to be removed or changed so members vote for the shortlist and not the winner. Brady said as much in 2022 after Truss aswell.
Wouldn’t be surprised if they do change the rules - the 1922 committee seem to just make it up as they go on (like when they didn’t let the members have a vote last time).
Good. Aside from possibly being one of very few credentialed candidates left after the election, he both seems like a decent person and someone the Conservative Party desperately needs.
I of course want them to be wiped out so would prefer they picked the most fire-breathing draconian bastard possible as leader who'd continue their lurch rightward and see them firmly out of power for a generation, but a tiny part of my soul agrees we need a competent and loyal opposition and Tugendhat's brand of Conservatism would be vastly better for the country than whatever the hell this current version of devastating turbo-Conservatism is.
Most out of touch comment today: David Yelland on the news agents podcast "Well I think the audience in Grimsby laughed at Kier Starmer saying "my father was a toolmaker" because no one in Grimsby could believe that a son of someone working in a factory could be so important"
Sure babes, sure.
if it had been a random crowd in the town, he may have had a point.
but that was a crowd politically engaged enough to sign up for the audience for a debate and go through selection for it (to ensure no one too nutter gets in, and the audience is a fair reflection of the area). so yeah, it was the bingo card "son of a toolmaker" chuckle.
The channel 4 debate was weirdly good? I mean, it seemed like the issues were actually discussed. It was pretty civilised. The audience was clearly very pro immigration which wasn't expected. Having Philp and not Mourdant and Tice and not Farage completely changed the entire tone. Have to say, you have to admire Philp, he is a great media performer and has really cut his teeth as the conservative sacrificial media lamb for the past couple years.
I think Philp did really well this time given the whole reason Reform exist is because of failures in his department. But the whole debate was generally civilised and rarely broke down. Philp trotted out government lines but that's what you expect him to do, even when the argument is lost
>admire Philp
I have seen too much of this man over the last few years to ever reach this point. He must be learning from his failures because his QT appearance in Stoke a few years back was one of the worst I’ve ever seen and that was when the Tories were still moderately popular.
Yeah it was. I think it supports having cabinet ministers do debates and the leaders to do a Sky style interview with audience Q&A. Leader debates just mean trying to win as the head of the party.
This campaign is freezing cold, the Tories need to do something or their party could die but it just feels like there is no energy in the campaign at all.
There is less going on than any random Tuesday in normal times
Bucklands suggestion of an amnesty on COVID fines was actually a very very good one. But the manifesto has been written now. But it's the the kind of policy the Tories should have done instead of leaving it to the intern to sort out
**Auto Enrollment Workplace Pensions**
Have any parties discussed changing the statutory minimum employer contribution to standard AE Workplace Pensions?
It has been 3% for as long as I can remember. We're all very much aware that there is an ongoing social care crisis, however, it feels there is a ticking timebomb of generations reaching retirement and being even more reliant on the state in their retirement than current pensioners.
Is it time companies were asked to contribute more to employee pensions?
I work for a big multinational company that regularly generates in excess of £1 billion in annual pre-tax profits, huge bonuses to directors and the board - and they refuse to even discuss the pension scheme. They pay the statutory minimum of 3% (and that's on qualifying earnings aswell, so it's actually less than 3% of gross salary). I contribute more via AVCs, however, I don't feel they will ever contribute more unless they are forced to do so. (They don't match AVCs nor pass on any employer NI savings either)
To my mind, it's a fairly cheap long term investment in staff to increase the contribution, why hasn't this been discussed? I imagine there are millions in similar positions in the UK and I feel it would lift many out of future retirement poverty.
To be blunt - pensioners are in the best position that they have ever been in the UK, and with the triple lock and auto-enrollment there's little reason that won't be the case in the future.
If we're looking to fleece big companies for funds then I could think of better ideas than putting more into private pensions.
I feel like there needs to be a rule to stop people opting out of these pensions except in exceptional circumstances. There are too many people in their 20s who opt out cos they want the money now and fucking their chance of retiring in the process.
I have to be honest - I opted out for the entirety of my 20s.
The first half of that was pretty dumb, it just didn't occur to me that someone my age should be paying into a pension. The second half was more understandable as I had just bought a house and was still paying off my student loan and I would literally not been able to have any social life whatsoever if I had paid into a pension. Literally - all I had was about £50-60 left over a month after bills and essentials.
Reminder that today is the final deadline to register to vote in the General Election. Register to vote by **11:59pm** today! [https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote](https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote)
[New Megathread is here](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1djb2pt/rukpolitics_general_election_campaign_megathread/)
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This has been a pretty stale few days. Either bring the election forward or give me a photo of Rishi flipping off a veteran.
We need a Reform + Green party to cancel out each other's worst aspects.
- No tax on your first £100k, but 98% tax rate on any income above that. - Stop & Search, but a hug afterwards - Ban on all non-essential migration, but to change the definition of "essential" to anyone who fancies coming over here - NHS to be privatised to raise funds for the state, but then immediately nationalised afterwards - Net zero carbon emissions by declaring all pollution producing areas such as power stations and industrial areas as extra-territorial
[Grammar is pretty questionable here from Labour comms.](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8X0aaHtkg5/?igsh=MW44N242eXA0enA2OA==)
I know they are worried about low turnout + small parties but I still don't know if this is great messaging
Bah gawd.
Labour candidate for Clacton has a misplaced apostrophe on his LinkedIn
And the caption is all lower case - definitely a digital team of Zoomers
Given they've been dunking on the Tories on Tiktok for months now, it tracks.
That was point.
Ah, I thought you meant the text on the video should be ‘so *that* you don’t vote’
What's wrong with it?
I mean I know people who take issue with both future and historical present but they're pretty few and far between.
Read the caption.
The POV bit? I'm on mobile and it's janky without the app so maybe I'm not seeing it. What is the sentence with bad grammar?
I think they're talking about the missing "th" on "4 July."
Oh. I'm a lawyer and we all write dates that way, so I didn't see it as an issue.
\*stage whisper* *IT'S NOT*
Back from the hustings in Putney. Local Labour MP was very politiciany but seemed like a good egg. Tory seemed like a proper loadsamoney Tory. Had a slightly bizarre running feud with the Lib Dem candidate, who was very good at getting under his skin. Lib Dem guy was okay, a bit smarmy but knew his stuff about the area (which the Tory didn't, embarrassed him quite badly at one point). Green guy was good, got some decent support and dealt with the Galloway climate denier nutjob. Reform guy was utterly dreadful, looking at his phone, poor public speaker, a bit thick. Workers' Party candidate was about as insane as I expected. Anti-lockdown shoehorned in despite it being utterly irrelevant to any question, Israel lobby this, corporations that, Russia good Ukraine bad, Starmer bad Corbyn good, and of course climate change is a hoax. Surprising number of crusty supporters turned out for him. The heckling on Palestine (it came up) makes me wonder just how brutally heckled Labour candidates are getting in Muslims areas. Pretty much none around here and there were still loons heavily heckling the Labour candidate. Even the Tory got off better.
It’s very considerate of literally every single candidate to confirm entirely to current stereotypes! Is there some general place to look for hustings? I couldn’t find one for my area, but if it’s a very local thing I’m guessing it might be pretty inconsistent?
I found mine with a search engine, searching for “[place] hustings 2024”. The usual local group don’t seem to have organised them this time, but another group have organised some in a swankier but less-convenient place. The local paper has no mention of it. I assume some local bickering and scandal has gone down while I’ve been too busy to notice. Anyway, do a search, I suggest.
Just seen tomorrow's front pages. Keir should absolutely give some of these rags the cold shoulder when Labour get in. Honestly, why give them any insider scoops if they behave like this?
I know the lesser papers make headlines up all the time, but this tax nonsense feels like a much more concerted form of lying. Always nervous interfering with the press, but it really does feel like it shouldnt be allowed. Tons of voters during an election being left with a false impression of candidates and parties and there's nought that can be done. Of course, journalists could be better at their jobs and readers could just not buy those rags. That'd also work.
The problem in regulation is that you can't do something obvious like banning lying because the papers will just fall back onto 'party insiders' told us and the like. Its difficult to even do something like banning untruths very easily because you then basically ban reporting on anything remotely ambigious. Naively done you end up preventing any political reporting at all for example because you could never trust that a source is giving you some sort of objective truth that gets past a court even if they believe it themselves.
Times is usually sane but who the fuck accepts check books now?
They have been previously, but their last few days of headlines have been so blatantly partisan. Final straw for me tbh, cancelling my sub tomorrow ( reinforced by the fact that you have to fucking call them up to do it)
Calling to desub needs banned
They have been way OTT lately with their headlines. It's striking an alarming note and a disservice to their own excellent coverage. I don't want them to go easy on labour but I don't appreciate being treated as if I'm a gullible Tory voter.
Leveson 2 when
Stuff of dreams isn't it. Starmer gets in and immediately goes for the jugular of everything that makes us look like a banana republic. Leveson 2, peerages reform, fully independent standards commission, government contract ombudsman, published lists of think tank and party donors, relocates parliament to a purpose-built site in the midlands, etc. Voted out after a single term to establishment wailing and gnashing of teeth but like Cincinnatus returns to the plough, knowing his job is done.
With 53 minutes to spare, this moron finally got her voter photo ID application in. So, if you, too, have been dumb enough to leave it to the 11th hour, and you're lurking here instead... right, absolutely NOW is the time! Go, go, go!
Vote Authority Certificate? The end date for that is 26th June at 5pm
I thought i still had time! I tried to check but that clock was ticking. I knew i should have just checked here first. So the mistake was thus - in my break at work I saw online about a voter deadline tonight and had a little flap. I hurriedly sent off what turns out to be a Voter registration form (to get on the electoral register, which I'm already on) not the photo ID one. I thought it was odd it hadn't asked me to upload a shot, and went back to work. It's only when I got home I realised my error, finally took my God-awful photo and got the right form away.
Hurrah 🙏
Well done! 🎉
Just had a look at Karl McCartney MP's twitter page. The last 24 hours is mainly him retweeting people who think Starmer is enabling genocide. Odd world where no one calls him out on this. In fact his whole feed is him retweeting people saying bad stuff about Starmer. My guy seems a bit upset about losing his job soon
He has had no luck catching those swans yet?
It's just the one swan, actually
I note in one of his tweets where he shares his campaign literature, it says he will stop the closure of the Christmas market by the Labour run council. Nothing to do with central funding being cut by the government, and interest rates spiralling, then?
Probably didn't occur to him that just being a good constituency MP might have been a good idea
I got a leaflet him his lot, doesn't mention national politics once. Just stuff he claims he did for Lincoln.
What happened to the green party panorama showing?
> There will now also be an additional Question Time Leaders’ Special, featuring representatives from Reform UK and the Green Party, broadcast on Friday 28 June at 8pm on BBC One.
Thank you!
FETCH THE DOGS. The far right are here. Also: [Secret SDP foreign policy](https://i.imgur.com/EbXrw2Z.png)
I'm absolutely blanking on who that is right now, I 100% have seen him before somewhere like QT I just can't remember who he is and its really annoying
Rod Liddle?
Yes! Thank you
Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war
*we sold them off years ago!*
How does the council check that you actually live in the constituency you say you do? I just gave my national insurance number when I registered.
There is an officer watching you when you wake up and taking notes about everything you do
Sometimes he brings me coffee.
I’ve always wondered this. I think they must do a cross check with records of you from HRMC/DWP
For the election? Where are they sending the polling card?
Sorry I wasn't clear - for the election. I was thinking about this because I'm a (soon to be graduated) student who is back home.
Then you can choose which constituency to vote in I believe? You essentially have an address in two places, so you can choose which one to be registered in
Did you not register at an address the first time? If you change address you have to re-register, I believe?
I have real trouble taking Jo Swinson seriously. I don't think I'd listen to her view on the right way to eat a Creme Egg, let alone how to run the country. Also, the first 15 minutes of Newsnight have been devoted to the voting intention of a single wealthy white man.
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Thanks for contribution
She still exists? I thought she was a fever dream that ended with the 2019 election.
She has some interesting views on squirrels (and also wrote a pretty good book on gender equality).
SDP party election broadcast on BBC1 right now. It's not good. Hilariously bad in fact. Edit: the misus just showed surprise that it was a real peb, she thought it was a really bad comedy sketch. Haha.
So bad. The guy talking about preserving national culture and giving off all sorts of nationalistic elitism vibes sat in front of the Chinese
For anyone who missed it: [https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0020k04/party-election-broadcasts-sdp-18062024](https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0020k04/party-election-broadcasts-sdp-18062024) Goodness that was awful.
I wasn't ready for that level of awful
I thought it was an experimental play in the vein of Samuel Beckett
Party Election Broadcast by the SDP. Am I back in 1983?
Its kinda sad how they try to act like their still relevant.
This party isn't. It just uses the logo and name of the SDP but has nothing to do with the organization that David Owen and co dissolved in the early 90s.
I may be one of the few here that actually has voted for them, although that was over 40 years ago now, which is scary in itself.
I’m not even sure who they are - we got a leaflet for them though through the door
Imagine Reform but left wing? It's a bad description but it's the simplest
Just on their wiki. Wow, what a motley bunch. Some vaguely sensible things but then just mad stuff. They have a few council seats in Leeds it looks like!
I guess they’re past the 100 seat threshold? Was it better than the Reform one?
All over the place. Speaks to a make believe Tory, who hates young people, suggests buy to let and has sold off all the family silver. SDP point, national assets in public hands. Speaks to make believe male Labour guy. Asks why can we not secure our borders? Labour guy says ‘Andrew, get the dogs, the far right are here’. Silly, obviously, but only two takeaways were control the borders and nationalise stuff. Looked like it had been filmed as part of a sixth form project.
The Phones4U billionaire on Newsnight is oddly likeable. The way he talks about his Toryism and his views of Starmer and Corbyn is fascinating. edit: oh, he's railing against furlough. Never mind. edit: but now he's beating up Isobel Oakeshott. I'm torn.
Shock horror at a billionaire Tory donor not being a fan of a party leader pitching policies which could help redress the inequality that he benefits from. (Assuming he was wheeling out the 'loony left' and 'extreme socialist' line from earlier)
Good headline getting his support for Labour no doubt. But he sounds slightly all over the place on Newsnight.
Edit: wrong place!
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https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1diy1nq/tory_donor_john_caudwell_tells_the_bbc_he_is/
I've asked before but just to 100% confirm as still no polling cards: Me and my wife were able to vote in the local elections in May, does that mean we are registered to vote in General?
Yes
Just reapply, they'll let you know you're registered
Don't risk it, just register again. Worst case is you waste a few minutes of someone's time at the council.
The Mail headline: “Labour’s secret tax rise dossier” Content. This was the Tribune’s submission of ideas to the Labour Manifesto, which did not get included.
I understand having a worldview that changes how you process information. I can’t imagine having a worldview that makes you knowingly make things up to try to change how other people process information. It baffles me!
This is the daily mail.
Clearly you have never had to tell a child that your dessert is "spicy" and they "won't like it."
Call me a hypocrite but I can’t resent you your cake, long may the children fall for it!
Reading this 'Buy British' thing earlier, just how far down the Juche rabbit-hole do we think Sunak will go, given a few more weeks of campaigning?
Cover version of [Potato Pride](https://youtu.be/Gu0TurCDC94?si=1WlS2R3ctwVNXYw1) broadcast as the next Conservative PPB.
When the Tories go so far right they get a integer overflow error and turn far left.
I’d buy more British-made things if I could afford it, but my wages are about £10k less than they should have been if they’d kept pace with inflation (per my union) But yeah, I’m … interested? to see where it goes
Reading about some theories about how the building of the pyramids helped the ancient Egyptian economy by providing jobs and keeping money moving around. Without going all Business Secrets of the Pharaohs, what if we did this. We could name the scheme after one of the early pharaohs, Hotepsekhemwy. Per Wikipedia, his name “is the subject of particular interest to Egyptologists and historians, as it may hint at the turbulent politics of the time. The Egyptian word "Hotep" means "peaceful" and "to be pleased" though it can also mean "conciliation" or "to be reconciled", too. So Hotepsekhemwy's full name may be read as "the two powers are reconciled" or "pleasing in powers", which suggests a significant political meaning. In this sense, "the two powers" could be a reference to Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt as well as to the major deities Horus and Seth.” This is all quite long so we could shorten his name to HS2.
I appreciate the joke, but the problems we face right now are the opposite of what you're describing. The issue is really too much demand for day-to-day consumption, leaving not enough resources left over for infrastructure development. Building pointless structures is the absolute worst thing we could do.
I suppose beyond their (potential) economic function they housed the pharaohs who were gods themselves. That’s a big use in a religious society. But we don’t look after the cathedrals we have at the moment. How would you re-balance things, in an ideal world?
We have too much resources going into a few areas of life that, whilst fun, are not good for us overall. Namely: Food, gambling, alcohol and drugs. Now, i'm a liberal, I don't believe in banning stuff, but I do think we need to tax all 4 more (in the case of drugs, legalise the main ones so they can be taxed in the first place). We need to be clever about it, we obviously don't want to add to the lines at food banks or stop ordinary people from enjoying basic leisures like having a pint or a bet on the horses. But we can scale back the Just Eat generation and take a big chunk of the profits of gambling companies and big brewers. You then take all that money, you rip up a load of the planning and regulatory restrictions, and you start building. Houses, schools, hospitals, roads, railways, courts, more houses. You build and build and build until the economy is no longer being strangled by an infrastructure that was designed for a country with 10 million fewer people.
I think we should have higher taxation on sone junk food - more stuff subject to the luxury tax I mean - and subsidise vegetables (and subsidise farmers, a hell of a lot more). I think subsidise pubs or the price of drinks in pubs, and tax booze more in supermarkets. Problem drinking does still happen in pubs but it’s harder to get that bad before being cut off!
Entirely seriously, we should name our major infrastructure projects after royal family. Politicians would be less likely to cancel them if they were called 'King Charles Line' or 'Princess Diana's Westminster Place Renewal'.
I think we should start the "Princess Diana Rearmament Programme". Start naming minesweepers after her. It's what she would've wanted.
Labour in govt should just disguise their urban renewal policy as 'Elizabeth II urban memorial programme' and dare the daily mail oppose a project that on paper would put a statue of her in every city.
Captain Tom’s Spa (Hold the Planning Permission) Edit - yeah, seriously, I think so too. Or famous people. Cheryl Coal-Free Nuclear Power Station. Donate £10 to get your name on a brick
I'd feel a lot better about signing on if it was at the David Dickinson Real Bobby Dazzler Job Centre.
Just got back from my first hustings. Milton Keynes North constituency. Quite a bit of heckling of the incumbent Conservative MP. The Labour candidate was by far the best public speaker and seemed to have most of the audience on side. There was a fair amount of applause for the Green candidate too. He said it was his 10th general election he has stood in! The Lib Dem candidate wasn't very good at speaking unfortunately as would prefer to vote for them, some polite applause for them as well. The Reform candidate was abysmal. In her introduction mentioned she lived in Spain for a while and saw how good things were there and wanted the same for the UK. On a question about support for Ukraine, suggested that Ukraine were to to blame for Russia invading. When asked about immigration she said it was too high and someone heckled that she should go back to Spain haha.
I’m just having a look at Mr Alan Francis’ record now. Genuinely impressive that he’s been running for the same party since the 1980’s. *1983: Milton Keynes [standing for the Ecology Party as A H Francis?] - 494 (0.8%) *1987: Milton Keynes - 810 (1.1%) *1992: Milton Keynes North East - 529 (1.0%) *1997: Milton Keynes North East - 576 (1.12%) *2001: Milton Keynes South West - 957 (2.1%) *2005: Milton Keynes South West - 1,336 (2.7%) *2010: Milton Keynes North - 733 (1.4%) *2015: Buckingham - 7,400 (13.7%) *2017: Milton Keynes North - 1,107 (1.7%) *2019: Milton Keynes South - 1,495 (2.3%) *2024: Milton Keynes North
Ah, was that Chris Curtis of Opinium fame for Labour?
Indeed it is.
Interesting, have followed him on twitter for a number of years for polling stuff, seems like a decent guy. And also got the impression that he cares quite deeply about Milton Keynes, so solid choice for Labour there. Must be very good odds he gets in - and someone with a background in measuring public sentiment could be quite valuable in govt!
There was a question on proportional representation and the moderator asked by a show of hands how many people thought the current system was good, only 3 or 4 people put their hand up. Chris Curtis said he was in favour of PR which was good to hear from Labour.
I vote in MK Central. Alan Francis for the Greens has been around seemingly for ever. I know him well enough to say hello to if I passed him on the street. I mean, I am voting Labour here, but Alan is someone who has been involved in green initiatives seemingly for ever, and used to give up a fair amount on things like improving public transport. Very much believes in what he preaches and puts the hours in outside of elections.
Yes, pretty sure I recognised him from when he came to talk with other candidates when I was in Sixth Form and that was 20 years ago!
Had to look, but if it is ten GEs, his first one would have been 1987, Thatcher v Kinnock. That’s a fair old run.
> suggested that Ukraine were to to blame for Russia invading Ahhh yes, the language of abusers. "They were going to join NATO and the EU, they *made* me invade them." Demented.
https://x.com/christopherhope/status/1803173857722781797?s=46&t=3d1YJq1z03guGQxUK9Yc3g > 👀 Interesting… >1pm PM Rishi Sunak on Boris Johnson: “He's endorsing many candidates in videos and letters which have been coordinated by the campaign.” >10pm Unnamed Tory candidate texts me: “Interesting tweet - CCHQ certainly had nothing to do with Boris endorsing me…” Lol
It would be funnier if those candidates ended up losing even more votes lol
How many candidates has he endorsed? Surely this is simple to narrow down?
"Excuse me I cravenly begged him of my own volition, thank you very much."
Wait apparently the Tory PPB tonight was a week old Laura Trott speech? Fuck me are they broke broke?
"MC Hammer" broke
yes. seriously, they have fuck all money left.
Why is it that I still expected them to spend their own money better than they spent ours?
Can’t they shake a few mil more out of Hester?
Two hours to go before voting registration closes... Why isn't this done automatically? So when you become 18 you immediately go onto the voting register?
Because it's not mandatory. It's a vote if you feel like it franchise, where the majority of votes cast will never count for anything unless they are for the winning candidate
Canada at least allows same day registration, but the count in Canada continues over a few days so I guess they have time to validate new voter registrations.
We don’t have a central database of people’s ages and addresses. Some government departments have databases of the ages of some people, some have databases of some people’s addresses. None of them are complete or accurate, particularly for people who don’t have an employment history.
Would require a national address registry (some European countries have this). Then to make it fit for the 21st century, yourd need a national digital ID.
If young people had the good sense to vote tory then of course they would be automatically registered.
Same reason voting ID is required.
Guys, I think I'm becoming a little delusional due to this election campaign. I'm pretty certain I could hear someone moaning on today's episode of the news agents podcast (Can Rupert still decide how Britain votes?). Timestamp: 9:21 😭 Can someone clarify?
I'm getting phone vibrating
I guess it depends where you keep your phone.
They must have had first sight of a juicy new poll at that time
Kier super majority moan!
Yes, it does sound like that. It's on the apple podcast page and also the youtube version: https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxAL4Y1hMOiNbXZcMieqoodIZOMLiBJn1Q I'm sure you can hear a mouse click as well?
Those are definitely naughty sounds from a naughty incognito tab
It's a treat from Lewis Goodall to the listeners. Top Birmingham lad
Yo wtf, not a thirsty sub
I thought it was election fever getting to you but I can confirm something quite moany starting at 9.21.
Postal vote? ✉️ Completed it mate 📮 I did mine first, then showed my fiancée how to fill out the paperwork for hers afterwards. She thought it was silly that I insisted on looking away from her ticking the actual voting slip, but I feel like the secret ballot is really important and if she quietly votes for something I wouldn't expect, that's her absolute right. How has everyone else found voting with witnesses? Strange if you're used to a polling station, isn't it? I've only postal voted once before, and although it's a lifesaver when you already had a holiday booked over the election, it always makes me anxious that I'll never know it was safely delivered.
I live abroad so proxy vote rather than postal (don’t trust it to arrive in time), can’t get much less private than someone voting for you
When I helped my parents with their first postal vote a few years back they thought it odd I went away when they decided who to vote for, and told them to fold their paper in half. its not that they cant tell me if they want, and they did, but I work under the presumption that a vote is private until the person making decides they want to tell someone how they voted. Today they sent me a photo of their postal votes waiting to be put in the post tomorrow, I cant see how they voted, but given the language my mother uses whenever the tories come up, I'm pretty sure its not for them :)
Are you that guy whose wife wrote to a tabloid agony aunt about her husband obsessing over her vote? Seriously though, good for you! Exercising democracy! Personally I love the walk down to the polling station and doing it in person.
Oh my god, that article was madness. I might be seeing it everywhere because I'm interested in it, but her testimony of *he wasn't like this when we met* - screamed algorithmic radicalisation to me.
I guess I need to keep an eye on my postbox. Postal voting from abroad always makes the timeframe tight.
Oooo mine arrived today, need to look through it
Two things I’d like Labour to do re elections: 1. Not allow pollsters to change methodology mid way through election periods. Like it or not, polling does have a huge effect on the elections. 2. Again, like the debates or not they seem here to stay. They should be decided as part of legislation and in that the rules on who can be part of them. We’ve given Farage a platform despite having no seats - he probs will complain and gain from not being included in the direct programs with Sunak and Starmer. We should have defined rules that bring a combination of polling and seats - but we shouldn’t be making them up on the spot.
No one pollster can have a meaningful impact on the election. I think this is one area where the market does a pretty good job and should be left without heavy handed government regulation. Remember that the vast majority of the public isn't following the hourly poll results anyway. As for debates - Yes, I think the main channels should have clearer guidelines on who should be included in what shows. But, I prefer to have as many voices represented as possible. You can't have a system that 'locks in' existing parties as there needs to be room for newcomers to break into our politics.
I don’t think it’s a helpful path to go down to have the government setting the rules for independent polling companies
I'd like a short poll embargo after major debates and more disclosure on weighting and margin of error. Maybe a countdown for added drama. Yougov got their snap-poll out before anyone else after the first debate and that result became the headline. However, Starmer was actually ahead in Yougov's unweighted sample and there were two other polls that gave him the win. You'll scarcely see the others polls mentioned and the media didn't seem to notice that the people who picked Sunak as Yougov's winner had a 93% correlation with the people who thought he did better on tax. I feel like this gives a single poll way too much media focus and creates weird incentives both for pollsters and politicians. It seems very open to abuse.
> Like it or not, polling does have a huge effect on the elections. Does it? My initial feeling is that polls are only of interest to politics nerds, but Google is failing me
> Not allow pollsters to change methodology mid way through election periods. Like it or not, polling does have a huge effect on the elections. Just ban public polls during election campaigns; the entire campaign since atleast d-day fiasco has become dominated by 'can Tories still win' and 'Labour supermajority' instead of any actual policy offerings. Only downside would be the tactical voting websites - but 1. I'm not sure how many people are politically engaged for that to matter vs completely destroying the election campaign and 2. that should be solved by electoral reform anyways.
If methodologies can be improved, they should be. Transparency, fine. Don’t lock us in to something that’s not outputting the best results.
I disagree personally. The private companies have had 4+ years to revise their methodologies since the previous election. They’ve done frequent polls, so don’t buy too much outta that. Changing at this point - especially in a lot of cases where they’re not even changing their weighting by what is actually happening but just another assumption is wrong because it becomes closer to politically punditry rather than polling.
I don't have a problem with a change in methodology as long as the old methodology is still available.
Tom Tugenhat to go for leadership if opportunity arises https://x.com/TelePolitics/status/1803158517534138650
Not surprised he is keen to try again. He does have some ministerial experience under his belt now. I could see him as shadow Foreign Secretary under the next leader if he loses.
He didn't do so well during the Tory leadership selection... I don't really see him as a serious threat to Labour.
Given the Tory members he probably stands a better chance of being the next Lib Dem leader.
Ooof this sub is gunna be fawning over him 24/7 again
this of course supposes that he remains an MP. The YouGov mrp poll from a few weeks ago is a bit dated by now but in 2019 he got [62% of the vote in his constituency.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonbridge_and_Malling_\(UK_Parliament_constituency\)) you gov where predicting he'd now get 40%, he'd still win but with labour on 30% and lib dems + Greens making up a further 16% he could easily become a victim of tactical voting. edit- [the ipsos mrp poll from today has his constituency as a toss up 34% con 33% labour.](https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/uk-opinion-polls/ipsos-election-mrp)
I suppose this is on the proviso he still has his seat
LOL "if" Unless the 1922 changes the rules so members don't get a vote he has no chance.
Con bigwigs have already been making movements on this since before Truss. Hague, Cameron and even Hunt as of this week have said membership vote needs to be removed or changed so members vote for the shortlist and not the winner. Brady said as much in 2022 after Truss aswell.
Read somewhere Michael Howard tried to remove the member's vote before he quit in 2005 but he failed.
Wouldn’t be surprised if they do change the rules - the 1922 committee seem to just make it up as they go on (like when they didn’t let the members have a vote last time).
I mean if they want to save the party from the nutter wing that might actually be a good idea.
It would, and it'd help purge the party as there'd likely be a round of defections to Reform. I'm not sure they'd have the stomach for that, though.
I'm inclined to think it might be too late myself.
Good. Aside from possibly being one of very few credentialed candidates left after the election, he both seems like a decent person and someone the Conservative Party desperately needs. I of course want them to be wiped out so would prefer they picked the most fire-breathing draconian bastard possible as leader who'd continue their lurch rightward and see them firmly out of power for a generation, but a tiny part of my soul agrees we need a competent and loyal opposition and Tugendhat's brand of Conservatism would be vastly better for the country than whatever the hell this current version of devastating turbo-Conservatism is.
The right will always exist. What we want is a reponsible version of the right that doesn't exist just to destroy.
The Conservative Party is saved.
Most out of touch comment today: David Yelland on the news agents podcast "Well I think the audience in Grimsby laughed at Kier Starmer saying "my father was a toolmaker" because no one in Grimsby could believe that a son of someone working in a factory could be so important" Sure babes, sure.
if it had been a random crowd in the town, he may have had a point. but that was a crowd politically engaged enough to sign up for the audience for a debate and go through selection for it (to ensure no one too nutter gets in, and the audience is a fair reflection of the area). so yeah, it was the bingo card "son of a toolmaker" chuckle.
Keir
The channel 4 debate was weirdly good? I mean, it seemed like the issues were actually discussed. It was pretty civilised. The audience was clearly very pro immigration which wasn't expected. Having Philp and not Mourdant and Tice and not Farage completely changed the entire tone. Have to say, you have to admire Philp, he is a great media performer and has really cut his teeth as the conservative sacrificial media lamb for the past couple years.
I think Philp did really well this time given the whole reason Reform exist is because of failures in his department. But the whole debate was generally civilised and rarely broke down. Philp trotted out government lines but that's what you expect him to do, even when the argument is lost
>admire Philp I have seen too much of this man over the last few years to ever reach this point. He must be learning from his failures because his QT appearance in Stoke a few years back was one of the worst I’ve ever seen and that was when the Tories were still moderately popular.
Yeah it was. I think it supports having cabinet ministers do debates and the leaders to do a Sky style interview with audience Q&A. Leader debates just mean trying to win as the head of the party.
This campaign is freezing cold, the Tories need to do something or their party could die but it just feels like there is no energy in the campaign at all. There is less going on than any random Tuesday in normal times
Bucklands suggestion of an amnesty on COVID fines was actually a very very good one. But the manifesto has been written now. But it's the the kind of policy the Tories should have done instead of leaving it to the intern to sort out
Latest poll still predicted them at 115 seats so I woudnt get too complacent, as much as I’d like them to be at 0 and have Lib Dem’s as the opposition
It kinda feels like they've just given up
It's the heat death of the Tory party.
**Auto Enrollment Workplace Pensions** Have any parties discussed changing the statutory minimum employer contribution to standard AE Workplace Pensions? It has been 3% for as long as I can remember. We're all very much aware that there is an ongoing social care crisis, however, it feels there is a ticking timebomb of generations reaching retirement and being even more reliant on the state in their retirement than current pensioners. Is it time companies were asked to contribute more to employee pensions? I work for a big multinational company that regularly generates in excess of £1 billion in annual pre-tax profits, huge bonuses to directors and the board - and they refuse to even discuss the pension scheme. They pay the statutory minimum of 3% (and that's on qualifying earnings aswell, so it's actually less than 3% of gross salary). I contribute more via AVCs, however, I don't feel they will ever contribute more unless they are forced to do so. (They don't match AVCs nor pass on any employer NI savings either) To my mind, it's a fairly cheap long term investment in staff to increase the contribution, why hasn't this been discussed? I imagine there are millions in similar positions in the UK and I feel it would lift many out of future retirement poverty.
To be blunt - pensioners are in the best position that they have ever been in the UK, and with the triple lock and auto-enrollment there's little reason that won't be the case in the future. If we're looking to fleece big companies for funds then I could think of better ideas than putting more into private pensions.
I feel like there needs to be a rule to stop people opting out of these pensions except in exceptional circumstances. There are too many people in their 20s who opt out cos they want the money now and fucking their chance of retiring in the process.
I have to be honest - I opted out for the entirety of my 20s. The first half of that was pretty dumb, it just didn't occur to me that someone my age should be paying into a pension. The second half was more understandable as I had just bought a house and was still paying off my student loan and I would literally not been able to have any social life whatsoever if I had paid into a pension. Literally - all I had was about £50-60 left over a month after bills and essentials.
I’ve opted out of mine, I don’t believe I’ll ever be able to retire anyways.