Politics

[ewerk 34465]

Yeah, fuck these forreners coming over here and taking care of our elderly. I’m sure there’s ten of thousands of proud Brits happy to do it for free.

[Alex 38025]

Still chasing the Reform vote. The stupid fucking cunts 

[Renton 24624]

Thing is, there are millions of "British" people who could potentially do these jobs but won't be able to in practice because for want of a better expression they're a waste of oxygen. The amount of charvers who are young and basically unemployable who will just be a burden on the state their entire lives. A legacy ultimately from the Thatcher years. The only answer now is immigration. Of course FoM was a much better option but we fucked that up too. 

[Gemmill 53116]

Hope against hope that this is a prelude to some sort of much improved deal with the EU but probably not. 

[Renton 24624]

12 minutes ago, Gemmill said:

Hope against hope that this is a prelude to some sort of much improved deal with the EU but probably not. 

Hopefully. It's mad like, I saw a survey this week where 3 times as many people wanted closer ties with the EU compared with the US. The large majority of people want FoM if you explain it to them. Nows the ideal time you cowardly bastards. 

[Gemmill 53116]

3 minutes ago, Renton said:

Hopefully. It's mad like, I saw a survey this week where 3 times as many people wanted closer ties with the EU compared with the US. The large majority of people want FoM if you explain it to them. Nows the ideal time you cowardly bastards. 

 

There was something in the Guardian yesterday, a headline saying Starmer was bigging up "much closer ties", but what he calls that and what we would call it are usually miles apart, so we'll see. 

[Toonpack 12290]

1 hour ago, Gemmill said:

There's zero chance that this Labour government will introduce climate change into the curriculum, if that's what that teacher is on about. It would be like a red rag to a bull with the right wing press, and they haven't got the balls for. It. 

They just haven't got balls full stop.

[Howmanheyman 38281]

TNT, the chump's chumps.

[Kid Dynamite 8031]

If there were enough carers over here we wouldn't have 14,000 hospital beds blocked every day because of a lack of community care provision 

 

https://www.england.nhs.uk/2023/01/nhs-pressure-continues-as-hospitals-deal-with-high-bed-occupancy/

[strawb 4801]

I have lots of experience with carers and that system through my late brother. 
 

They do thankless tasks a lot of the time, for little pay but…

 

The quality of carers in recent years is, and I mean this absolutely and with no misinterpretation possible, fucking SHITE.

 

When my brother came out of hospital 12 years ago his carers were either retired nurses topping up their pension (which shouldn’t be necessary but that’s another matter) or career carers who were well trained (could administer meds/do a bladder wash etc). 
 

Towards the end of his life it was young people who ended up doing carer work as it was less than the specified hours so they could still pick up their benefits.

 

Im glad we got my brother home and we cared for him at home, but it put some much pressure on my parents because the carers were so terrible.
 

 

So even if loads of carers appear overnight, I’m not sure I would trust my loved ones with them.

[ewerk 34465]

 

:sigh: 

[Holden McGroin 8145]

I think this is a classic case of what he hoped Starmer wouldn’t be. Just pandering to everyone and not having any bold beliefs - like a real leader should have. 

[Dazzler 12795]

I wonder how long this will go on for before talk of a vote of no confidence ramps up.

 

Surely, there are labour members watching this cunt carrying on thoroughly outraged - how many times did they try to oust Corbyn? I recall more than one but can only distinctly remember the one he lost.

 

At this point he's just Sunak in a different colour tie. Weak.

 

Fully willing to hold my hands up and say I got it wrong - I thought the lack of policy and beliefs was purely because he had the election in the bag and didn't want to give his opponents ammo when he didn't need to. Turns out he just has no beliefs. I suppose the argument is that the torys weren't honest about the state of the finances and now labour are trying to fix it - but to do it by targeting farmers, pensioners and vulnerable kids instead of the wealthy corporations and individuals is deplorable. Now to stick his beak into culture war shite like trans rights and the demonising of immigrants - bin the cunt off and give it to Rayner - she has to be better.

[Rayvin 6586]

Corbyn was challenged by the Blairites though, and Starmer is from their fold. He's since purged the party of the moderate left so we won't see any sort of challenge this term IMO.

 

The immigration thing I don't have as much of an issue with tbh - I mean it's a nonsense issue in reality but it is a substantive issue in terms of narrative. More communication about what they're doing to tackle it isn't a bad thing - even if I saw very little detail about what all of this speech actually means in reality.

[Alex 38025]

1 hour ago, Holden McGroin said:

I think this is a classic case of what he hoped Starmer wouldn’t be. Just pandering to everyone and not having any bold beliefs - like a real leader should have. 

And when you do that you appeal to nobody. I actually think there’s a decent chance he’s gone before the next general election at this rate 

[Rayvin 6586]

Huh.. you all really think that's likely? Who would step into the breach? I don't think the issue is just Starmer at all, I think it's a party wide malaise.

[Gemmill 53116]

I think it's telling how little we're hearing from Rayner. I doubt this is how she saw things going. 

[Holden McGroin 8145]

1 minute ago, Rayvin said:

Huh.. you all really think that's likely? Who would step into the breach? I don't think the issue is just Starmer at all, I think it's a party wide malaise.

 

I can't believe Raynor or Phillipson etc share the beliefs of what is happening right now.

[Alex 38025]

1 minute ago, Rayvin said:

Huh.. you all really think that's likely? Who would step into the breach? I don't think the issue is just Starmer at all, I think it's a party wide malaise.

Possible anyway. I do take your point. Picking him and Corbyn doesn’t say a lot about the party in terms of being able to govern and take enough people along with you. With Corbyn it was the naivety from a media and foreign affairs pov. With Starmer it’s the complete lack of personality and any sense of standing for, well, anything 

[Rayvin 6586]

I mean tbh I'm not at all convinced Labour is ready to be having this conversation though. It feels to me, and has felt to me since Miliband, that Labour needs some sort of actual vision to be taking the country toward. I get that pragmatism is important but I don't think it can exist just on its own. We need to be going somewhere, and with Labour it's really poorly defined. It's all reactive stuff.

 

Whether it's Starmer, Rayner, whoever... I just don't see who in the party has the first fucking idea where to take the country. There is leadership but no vision.

[Rayvin 6586]

Having now reviewed this immigration stuff in more detail, I'm back to despairing. It's fact free bollocks that just endorses Reform talking points. Guardian comment section is full of people declaring they will abandon Labour, and I know that's just the Guardian, but let's be real, a lot of us read it. A lot of left of centre people read it.

 

I wonder if there's something to be said for the Tories in all this. They believe most of the same things but weren't competent enough to get any of it done. Labour on the other hand...

[NJS 4741]

They've now lost a sizeable proportion of the immigrant vote (imagine being told you've done incalcuable harm to the country) as well as "progressives" in the cities. 

 

They could reduce immigration to zero and reform would start selling repatriation so they won't retain the racist pensioners. 

 

They won't get away with as many "guilt trips" for former Labour voters and won't have the simplistic anti-tory vote to the same extent. 

 

As it stands they're beyond fucked with no ideas beyond locking in the same shite we've had since 2010 at least. It's fucking hilarious. 

[ewerk 34465]

13 minutes ago, NJS said:

They've now lost a sizeable proportion of the immigrant vote (imagine being told you've done incalcuable harm to the country)

 

How many immigrants are allowed to vote though?

[Gemmill 53116]

Gonna be a difficult one at the next election. If the recent mayoral vote is anything to go by (Labour beat reform by <500 votes), I might be in a position where not voting Labour means I end up with a Reform MP. 

 

In that situation, and as shit as I think this government is, I think I'd still have to give them my vote.

[Rayvin 6586]

Was looking back at some of my posts from nearer Brexit, a much angrier time for me I think me of 4 years ago was right on this though:

 

On 18/11/2021 at 12:05, Rayvin said:

 

I'd accept anything that restores freedom of movement. So I can leave more easily  

 

It's not about whether or not I know better than them, it's not my job to win them the election. It's about being an active part of their thinking - they will either group me under "this bloke wants back in the EU but he'll vote Labour anyway so his first loyalty is to the party, meaning we can assume we'll get his vote no matter what" or they will have me under "this bloke wants back in the EU and was prepared to leave the party over it, that's a vote lost that we would otherwise have". Which of those two positions is more likely to get me what I want?

 

Myself and my issue are only relevant in their thinking if I'm being weighed up against their gains by going the other way - the only way I can diminish the appeal of the gammon appeasement is by sitting on the other side to them. And frankly it's a pretty lost cause based on how things seem to be, but I'm sticking to it because the right thing for this country is to grow the fuck up, admit we were wrong, and REJOIN THE FUCKING EU.

 

Ignore the EU focus of that because really you could say the same about any issue. If we fall into line with an ever more right leaning Labour party, we will never realise anything we want to see happen. Starmer has proven that in his first year in power.