Brexit, aka, the UK Becomes a Clown Car of the Highest Order

Politics and religion
11309

So, the Guardian newspaper, which I always thought off as being very pro Labour, is running a few articles that are not favourable on Starmer.

This surprised me, until I started thinking that the Guardian is left wing and perhaps they don’t see Starmer as “true” Labour.

They’re really highlighting how some candidates, 2 it seems, have been told to stand down in favour of other candidates who "the leadership " think are more likely to win.

And one of those candidates was Dianne Abbot apparently.

The Guardian are calling it a left wing purge.

Honestly it’s about the most exciting thing so far to have happened in this election.

I suppose we should be thankful our elections are a bit boring, and so far we havent had anyone quite like Trump to really divide opinions.

Also I suppose Bojo came close.

The other weirdos are fairly isolated (Truss, Patel, Braverman, Corbyn).

11310

Starmer has been purging the left from the party since he took over. It’s about the only policy he seems to have that isn’t inherited from the Tories…

11311

I don’t think nationalising the railways is something the Tory party would remotely consider to be fair …

11312

I mean, the mechanism would be different but the franchises have effectively been run by the government since the pandemic and there’s this:

11313

Nationalising the railways:

My frst instinct is to say, yesh why not? And this is because I find the railways very expensive, and quite inconvenient.

To get from my house to my office, took 3 hours by train, and I had to be out of the house 0530 to start the trains 0600.

And it cost me £50 each way iirc.

Car costs me £60/week in fuel and I can make that office trip 5 times in a week on that, and leave the house 0630 and arrive at the office before the train.

Car is quicker, easier and cheaper.

If nationalising the trains makes them cheaper/more reliable/more frequent (it is a big IF though) then I’m all for it.

11314

Hang on, we sent him over to the US to grift for Trump, you need to keep him! Don’t do a James Corden on us and send him back!

Ugh.

11315

You gotta stop dumping your garbage here! What do you think we are, some island of floating junk out in the Pacific or something?

11316

That can not be the conservative candidate

11317

Because of the picture? Not the best! There are better ones on his Facebook page.

11318

I wouldn’t underestimate his ability to convince right wingers… he’s generally well spoken and argumentative in a very influential way. Caught him a few times on his radio show on a work stint with a long commute and it was interesting to hear him at work. Not a raving loony… so, dangerous.

11319

Well this will be his 8th attempt to win a seat at Parliament. I completely agree he is a very good communicator who is capable of winning votes from the Tories, but he has never actually succeeded in winning a seat yet…

11320

Election is in a month, I’m curious how Qt3 would vote. I wanted to differentiate between those who could vote (i.e. UK citizens) and the rest of us, so there ended up being a lot of options. I believe I made it anonymous.

  • I’m eligible and I plan to vote Labour
  • I’m eligible and I plan to vote Conservative
  • I’m eligible and I plan to vote Other
  • I’m eligible and I am undecided or do not plan to vote
  • I’m not eligible but I would vote Labour
  • I’m not eligible but I would vote Conservative
  • I’m not eligible but I would vote Other
  • shitbonerz
0 voters

And as I’m sure @triggercut will confirm, this poll will be 100% accurate and perfectly predict the outcome of the election.

11321

Say what you like, we have a strong sense of tradition in this country.

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(previously)

11322

I love how it looks like they’re clapping his getting a milkshake thrown in his face.

11323

They should make it a tradition. Every party head to get some time in the stocks lol

11324

This young gentleman thinks it’s a good idea to vote anyone but Conservatives, even though he doesn’t expect Labor to fix the issues, and they are sometimes the “owners” of the original sin…

11325

Nation of nothing indeed. It is sad.

The NHS cost £493m/day according to that video.

That…is alot.

Edit: In 2007 I was finishing university. I don’t remember things being so good as the video maintains, but then again, I was 21 and had itchy feet, the state of the country was the last thing on my mind.

Edit: some of the statistics in the video don’t really stack up, such as the claims of poverty in London (source is a charity, but it is presented as irrefutable fact in the video) or malnutrition, the idea being conveyed that there is a lack of food (e.g. like Victorian era malnutrition) when it is more that there is an abundance of terrible food, which is a similar situation in the USA and several other countries.

At the 06:45 mark, the graph he refers to shows that from 2006 to 2010, food parcel amounts went from 2814 to 40,898 in 2020. That is a % increase of 1351.6%, during the supposed golden years.

In 2014, which is the start date of the apocalypse, it was 913, 982, a 32379.82% increase from 2006, or 2134.78% from 2010.

He completely ignores that huge trend upwards in favour of pointing out the 2023 figure, which is 2,986,203, which as a % increase is a relatively paltry 226.72% increase.

He then quickly glosses over the Labour government spending a deficit of £150 billion per year.

The Bank of England inflation calculator tells me that this amount in 2014 would be worth £200 billion.

The current deficit is £51 billion, which in 2014 terms would have been £38 billion.

So, if you like, we have gone from £150 to £38.

And he quickly glosses over the issues of the pandemic, Brexit etc.

I mean, yeah, we live in hard times, but this documentary is not even trying to be nuanced or accurate it seems.

11326

Is it? Medicare costs seven times that much, per person covered. Of course Medicare is for old people rather than everyone, so you’d expect it to cost more. But seven times more?

11327

If your point of comparison is the price gouging of medicare, then dare I say everything is a bargain.

If your point of comparison, which is mine, is what you actually spend on health care, then this is a fckton of £.

The amount I have spent on medicines, drugs (you have to pay for them in a pharmacy here, so the NHS is not actually free for alot of stuff) etc in the last 20 years is probably under £100, and most of that is probably mostly Lemsip and Strepsils.

And I am far from a superman, just basic common sense stuff to take care of yourself.

True, I am out of the highest risk demographics (i.e. older people as I understand it) but if you run the numbers, the £493,000,000/day works out at £2,768.38 per person per year.

Actual cost is more because that sum uses all the UK population of 65 million, and obviously there are children and retired people and people out of work, but even as a guideline figure, I ask myself what could be done with that £ instead.

I would rather my £2,768 be used to subsidise farmers to engage in regenerative agriculture, and subsidise UK food production (why are we eating strawberries from Egypt of all places?) which would have a bigger impact on health probably.

Or make our entire energy grid actually renewable.

So much that could be done.

Just seems so incredibly wasteful.

Same with the benefits budget.

11328

It seems odd that you take issue with almost every metric in that video except for the cost of the NHS one?