General Election Thursday 4th July 2024

[Blackcat1]

What will he do for money if he gets the boot?

[reheat module]

Oh I'm sure this Country's ridiculous Benefits System will maintain his level of expectation ...

[iainpeden]

What will he do for money if he gets the boot?

Can an ousted PM claim constructive dismissal to an employment tribunal?

[cat1]

I'm beginning to think Lib Dems may end up the a seriously high percentage. At least in Devon and Cornwall I'm seeing quite a lot of support for the party. With the Tories and labour fighting like school children they seem the most up together.

One other thing,

I'm seeing more and more people proclaiming how bad/good either labour or consevities are, like it's some sort of boxing match.

If that's your opinion, good for you, it's a free country. You don't have to proclaim it to the world! If you don't like them, don't vote for them, end of.

[Gary]

Just watching the debate only 20 mins in and 3 things so far. Julie Etchingham was a very poor choice to host she could barely control the debate. Starmer doesn't like giving details. Sunak is obsessed with the £2k tax rise

[Gary]

[Blackcat1]

Brilliant Gary. Love the Dire Straits photo. He certainly gets his money for nothing

[binbrook32]

I received a personally addressed letter from the above on Saturday. Surprised that nobody else has mentioned this yet.
I didn't see an apology for the way his party's governments have run our country into the ground over the past 14 years, or for how the NHS has failed to provide healthcare to me for the past six. And he expects to get my vote!

[raptor9]

Peoples experience of the N.H.S is so variable. In the past 11 years, I have had six operations, two of them life threatening [Bowel Cancer was three ops,and a hernia, hip replacement, and an Anueryism removal] and I can only say that my experience on all of them was absolutely first class, the last one in April this year. Thanks to them, I am still alive, healthy, and fit at 81 years of age. Post code lottery perhaps?. The economy was trashed by COVID. Be careful [again] what you wish for on July 4th.

[raptor9]

In a speech on television today, the Chairman of the Institute of Fiscal Studies says that all voters for all parties are being kept in the dark about how all these wonderful manifesto promises will be paid for. In simple terms, their costed plans simply do not add up.Interestingly, he said that the present Government had managed the Nation's finances well. In his opinion, the N.H.S. could only be funded in the short term by cuts in public services. Well, what a big surprise that would be!!!. He was very pessimistic about our country's financial performance for the next five years. In other words, if you think things are going to get better, they are not!. Watch out for tax increases for everybody. This has always been, in my opinion, the only way to get us back on our feet, and he says it is the only way to resolve the short term situation. Think very carefully on 4th July!!. and, as always, be careful what you wish for!.

[iainpeden]

Hi John - hope you are well and keeping the dancing shoes working hard!

The reality is, after 14 years of slow growth and an unimaginative (or maybe with Truss that should be overly imaginative) financial/industrial plan to pay for the standards we expect then taxes, indirect and direct, will have to rise. We have to get national debt down otherwise we are wasting so much money in interest and most of that has to come from growth - which is no longer a Labour dirty word.

Thinking back to Sunak's "threat" of a Labour induced £2000 tax rise for a working family, well - £2000 over 4 years is £500 a year, slightly less than £10 a week - divided that by 2 (working family) and i's £5 a week per person. If Rachel Reeve can sort our parlous financial state for just that then she'll be a miracle worker.

I tend towards being a one-nation Tory but I am voting Labour this time around because the Cons (can there be a better abbreviation?) have proven themselves to be totally unfit to lead our country.

[raptor9]

Hi, Iain. Yep, fit and well thanks. Labour will undoubtedly win, despite my vote, and I will be watching the next few years with interest. I expect Prime Minister's P and Q's will be quite interesting. Hope you are enjoying your retirement. Regards.

[baz1]

as raptor9 says further up the tread be Careful what you vote for on 4th of July you should start saving Fast now and we will get swamped when a certain Party stand on the beach with open arms
there's an old saying better the Devil you know!?

[cat1]

Even from a hardened tory, I must admit we have not done anyone proud. Introducing the compulsory service idea was not a bad move, but to follow it up with leaving D-Day early....what in the world?

Its like their PR team are trying to get them out of office, and with all the other members expecting them to lose so much, they would rather make a hasty bet and try and get some cash out of the whole situation (or try to before the gambling board came over to have a word! )

I personally feel that if ANY party can have a solid 4 years to put their best foot forward and get the UK politics scene back on track, that would be worth more than any manifesto!

Ah well, let the fun continue....

[Sparts99]

Who ever wins the next 5-10 years are going to be rough, even if who ever it is gets every single thing right. The current mob have have made a real pigs ear of everything they've put their hands on, wasted tens of billions in the pandemic, the NHS, social care, Brexit, defence, you name it. The worst thing they've done is make politics adversarial and polarised and destroyed people's faith and trust in politicians.The wealth gap is growing every wider, those in the middle are carrying the tax burden while the super wealthy get ever wealthier, the growth in food banks over the past 14 years speaks volumes. Trying to reverse that lot is going to be painful and take a long time, more than one term in parliament even with brave and radical thinking with broad support. Sunak is history whatever the result, who's going to replace him? not a great choice as far as I'm, concerned.

[iainpeden]

as raptor9 says further up the tread be Careful what you vote for on 4th of July you should start saving Fast now and we will get swamped when a certain Party stand on the beach with open arms
there's an old saying better the Devil you know!?

Few points here.
First - the betting.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg33mvm8mvro

Not so much that they did it but were stupid enough to think they could get away with it.

Second - Sunak and Normandy - enough said?

Third your reference to the beaches - I'm assuming you are referring to the illegal migrants. Legal migration is massively out weighing illegal migration (by about 9 to 1 as far as I can make out). The Tory record is hardly one to boast about.

Actually, that's something I am noticing about this rather lack-lustre campaign. Labour are saying they will do a,b and c. The Tories are saying look what Labour did 20 years ago.

BREAKING NEWS AS I WAS WRITING THAT.

A Labour MP has been suspended because he is being investigated for betting.

Anybody else wish that Yes Minister/Prime Minister was still on air?

[baz1]

so Starmer intends to scrap the Rwanda deal in focus on the the gangs running the operation and how long is that going to take to sort out, it is all well and good blaming Sunak bearing in mind we have paid the French about 50 million GBP to stop the boats and the French Police just stand on the beach and let them go, so if and when the Rwanda is scrapped we will have no deterrent in any way shape or form, so were do we go from there???

[Hurn]

Anybody else wish that Yes Minister/Prime Minister was still on air?

They ran almost the entire catalogue of Yes Minister/Prime Minister every Tuesday on BBC4 just a few months ago.

Brilliant writing which still holds up today, and it's probably my most favourite sit com of all time.

[steamy]

I still don't understand how Farage and his rebranded Brexit party have gained so much traction.
The man is a conman.
The party is a Limited company which profits and thrives off sewing the seeds of division.

https://find-and-update.company-informa ... y/11694875

They just say what people want to hear, be contrary on every point, but yet, have delivered zero on their promises

[Sparts99]

so Starmer intends to scrap the Rwanda deal in focus on the the gangs running the operation and how long is that going to take to sort out, it is all well and good blaming Sunak bearing in mind we have paid the French about 50 million GBP to stop the boats and the French Police just stand on the beach and let them go, so if and when the Rwanda is scrapped we will have no deterrent in any way shape or form, so were do we go from there???

One of my friends is an RNLI volunteer on the south coast. The French do actually stop a lot of boats, some before they even get to the beach to launch, those they know that have got away they usually warn the UK coastguard about. There is a reluctance in France though as when they stop any boats the refugees then become their problem, I suspect a chunk of the money goes on that, not all on security services. Stopping the boats gets headlines but the causes of migration need addressing, the refugees are the symptom not the cause.

As for the Rwanda plan, illegal in UK law, illegal in international law, again headline grabbing and a huge waste of taxpayers money. 2023 there were 67,337 asylum application, of those 29,437 arrived on small boats, so how did the other 37,900 get here and what are we doing about that? the Rwanda plan is for 200 refugees. In 2023 the UK granted 49,862 refugees asylum in the UK, that means 17,475 were either refused or if they arrived in 2023 they're still in the backlog and have been or are due to be dealt with in 2024. So 200 out of 17,475, what are the odds you'll be sent to Rwanda? Just about 1%. Hardly a disincentive is it? Even if they know anything about it before they arrive.

As part of the agreement with Rwanda there's a little publicised clause which commits the UK to resettling an unspecified number of refugees from that country to the UK.

Clause 16 of the deal says: “Resettlement of vulnerable Refugees: 16.1. The Participants will make arrangements for the United Kingdom to resettle a portion of Rwanda’s most vulnerable refugees in the United Kingdom, recognising both Participants’ commitment towards providing better international protection for refugees.”

There are currently about 100,000 refugees in Rwanda, the government has refused to put any estimated number or limit on the refugees coming from Rwanda to us.

At least Labour might try something different, what the current government have done has solved nothing, and cost us the taxpayer hundreds and hundreds of millions of pounds. They've underfunded the asylum processing system so we have hotels full of asylum seekers, all costing thousands. In some areas the crime rate has gone up, especially burglary and theft and the asylum seekers are being blamed. The food they're given in some hotels is shocking, there is no support and the healthcare is minimal. Not excusing law breaking but they are desperate people, they've already left their homes and families. If UK criminals didn't buy the stolen property the thefts would be pointless and largley stop, similarly the sex workers exploitation. If the police had the resource they could go after those gangs too. If the asylum seekers were processed they could either be returned or granted asylum and get on with living and working in the UK and contributing to society and paying taxes and helping the economy grow which seems to be what everyone wants?