2024 Election thread
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I was reading a summary of the various local / mayoral election results by a top planning barrister who is also a big advocate for ending homelessness. His summary of Street (who I always felt was a decent politician) was that he was massively anti-development to the extent of blocking allocated sites especially in Greenbelt areas as that was where he got most of his votes.
Obviously only one policy but unfortunately yet another populist. He also campaigned hard to have the Crooked House pub pointlessly rebuilt (it shouldn’t have been demolished without consent but a massive fine would have been better than rebuilding a pub that had failed due to lack of custom and is only well known because it looks like it will fall down any minute).
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He is. Very much like a Rory Stewart, Dominic Grieve type.
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I'd tend to agree, but as I have mentioned in another thread, I reckon the Tories are headed for a massive ideological fight post GE. I think most of us think the hard right Braverman faction will win out, but there is another scenario where the centrists re-establish themselves. I don't know how they go about this tactically, but I think it is possible.
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That's a surprise. I know that Street was certainly in favour of protecting greenbelt land, but a big chunk of his housing policy seemed to focus on developing brownfield sites and building circa 165,000 new homes across the region in the next 5 years, but perhaps that was all talk. As a region with a huge amount of abandoned industrial wasteland, I don't see why we have a problem building homes here. I understand there are probably higher clean up costs for the land, but surely this could be utilized for new homes?
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Starmer has blurred the distinction between. Left and right by leaning into conservative culture war narratives . It's very destructive as it nortmalises toxic xenophobia across the previous political spectrum as a base norm . Political vandalusim . Populism can sprout from anywhere now. Centrist one nation tories look incredibly niche now . Labour are increasingly to the right of them.
Starmer will win but his massive majority is really a sign of political instability. Look at the political history of the UK in the 21st it's marked by huge swings in electoral success. That's a trait of institutional failure and poor governance .
I am left leaning but I am worried what the starmer government will bring . The guy is power centric almost Stalinist ( less killing obviously) . It dystopian watching him embrace the vilest of views
The tories have to go. They have wrecked this country but I am concerned we aren't getting out of this dark period with the starmerites of the world
"If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm0 -
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The article I was reading seemed to be suggesting he was in favour of housing but not in areas where his voters live.
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As you say, not much point in that then. Selective housing policy is not much better than building no houses.
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Don't think the claim that the 21st century has seen huge swings really stacks up. The Labour vote share steadily declined from 1997 to 2010 with the Tories going the other way before stabilising in 2015. Since then, the impact of Brexit, UKIP's vote share falling from 13% to 0% from 2015-17 and the implosion of the Lib Dems (I agree with Nick about this) have affected the allocation of seats rather than the traditional Labour vs Tory battles.
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Kinda looking forward to see how starting 20 points behind *and* being appalling bad at this works out during the campaign
“New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!0 -
The news cycle is just a hive of xenophobic stupidity railing against the bl00dy obvious these days ....
"If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm0 -
I still find it strange that Starmer has all his parliament stuff scripted. His speech (whether or not you like the content) was delivered effectively from just bullet points, and was fluent and unstilted, and his response here is cogent (he addresses the question), and has a decent joke.
Still not sure about all this sleeves-rolled-up-and-no-tie stuff and walking around the stage like in a TEDx talk though... it feels too deliberate.
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The answer is that it was a 2 minute answer.
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Going all in on the latest inflation figures and trying the standard tax cuts bribe that anyone with the ability to think critically would know is unaffordable with critical services having budgets slashed.
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I can't work out if they are accepting the inevitable and going early before it gets even worse or if they think something has changed that gives them a better chance if they go now (if so it has passed me by!).
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If they genuinely think a corner has been turned, the longer they wait the better, Shirley?
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Inflation news about as good as it's going to get for them.
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Maybe Sunak has some high paying job ready and waiting so wants to get started there ASAP.
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I think they may hold out for an interest rate drop.
On the flip side, inflation is supposed to go up again at some point later in the year isn't it.
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Why is it called a general election?
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Oh, cheers.
I'd vote for Elon Musk if he had seats and stuff.
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It's so they can blame England getting knocked out on Labour.
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4th of July, very American. Is Sunak playing a Trump card?
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