Local Elections | Thu 7 May 26

[gordondaviesmoustache]

You make me laugh (in a good way) i can imagine you looking in the mirror each morning and saying "how good am i " :)

Don’t need to do that, mate ;-)

 

[pride in battle]

Don’t need to do that, mate ;-)

You smooth fucker ;)

 

[Elbow beards]

So you were able to correct her when she believed that Trump didn't say "We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell."

I take it from that statement that you don't believe any news what so ever on any mainstream platform then?

 

[Palerider]

It could obviously be better, but there's no consensus replacement that will be better, and the next election is some time away. Those two things are in Starmer's favour.

Rayner, Milliband, Streeting - they all seem like very different stripes of people.

To put this in football terms we seem to be constantly sacking our manager because we cannot win the Premier League on a shoestring budget. i.e if Pep and Klopp both join Coventry next season then they are still not winning the Premier League (probably).

 

[threespires]

How have the LibDems lost Hull?
It looks as though they lost 2 giving them 26/57.
Presumably beforehand they had 28/57 which isn't a majority.

Have I missed something obvious?

I think the BBC graphic (if that's what you are looking at?) is wrong. It says they lost 2 seats and Labour lost 8; I think the actual result was the Lib Dems lost 3 seats (and Labour lost 7).

 

[MillionMilesAway]

I think the BBC graphic (if that's what you are looking at?) is wrong. It says they lost 2 seats and Labour lost 8; I think the actual result was the Lib Dems lost 3 seats (and Labour lost 7).

That would do it - ITV are reporting both -2 and -3, which is helpful.

 

[youngbob]

So you "continuously" "debunk" the "fake news" that retired people get from the Internet by using material that you find through "a simple Internet search" ?

Massive difference between having unverified Facebook video content injected into your eyeballs 24/7 and using Google to find more in-depth and level-headed sources on the same subjects.

 

[Newman Noggs]

I take it from that statement that you don't believe any news what so ever on any mainstream platform then?

I'm not the one suggesting that what I believe is the definitive truth whereas what other people, particularly retirees, believe is derived from misinformation.

 

[youngbob]

@Newman Noggs Just RE: the above.

Best/worst most recent example of something largely untrue spreading like wildfire on Facebook because of unverified video content (and the right-wing agitators pushed by Facebook) has to be the "Muslim family voting" speculations that were given an awful lot of airtime during the Denton and Gorton by-election.

All sorts of accusations, almost all of it pushed by Reform. Turns out, after a police investigation, it just wasn't happening. But such is the extent of social media brainworms that thousands of people were duped into holding two entirely contradictory positions: that Islam is a threat to gays and Jews in the West, and that thousands of Muslims voted en masse for a party headed by a gay Jew.

It's the kind of "conspiracy first" thinking that's leading us down a dark path on both sides of the political divide. It definitely happens among the young and the left too - just see the disinformation spread after the attack on the Hatzola Northwest ambulances a few weeks ago - but that feels like something that's being tracked (however lazily). Brainworms among Facebook-addicted Gen Xers and retirees is a serious problem that needs more discussion and awareness.

 

[blue b4 the moon]

Like a lot of the population most retired people probably spend time on their phones reading the news, sport, hobbies, etc, something they would have read in newspapers previously.

Only those retirees of an older generation who feel technology is not for them continue to get their news from a newspaper.

Out of my large group of retired friends from my golf and football mates to locals who I know in the pub, there’s a very small minority on social media.

This is the only site I have ever posted on, no interest in X, Facebook, etc. I use the internet for a load of other stuff but non of it’s political but I do have political opinions formed from years of experience, I don’t need some ignorant twat telling me who to vote for.

'Other stuff'

 

[Newman Noggs]

@Newman Noggs Just RE: the above.
It's the kind of "conspiracy first" thinking Brainworms among Facebook-addicted Gen X and retirees is a serious problem that needs more discussion and awareness.

I wouldn't argue with that although I wouldn't compartmentalise it to certain groups or, to a greater or lesser extent, to groups of different political persuasions. There aren't many people who aren't glued to social media these days.

 

[Elbow beards]

@Newman Noggs Just RE: the above.

Best/worst most recent example of something largely untrue spreading like wildfire on Facebook because of unverified video content (and the right-wing agitators pushed by Facebook) has to be the "Muslim family voting" speculations that were given an awful lot of airtime during the Denton and Gorton by-election.

All sorts of accusations, almost all of it pushed by Reform. Turns out, after a police investigation, it just wasn't happening. But such is the extent of social media brainworms that thousands of people were duped into holding two entirely contradictory positions: that Islam is a threat to gays and Jews in the West, and that thousands of Muslims voted en masse for a party headed by a gay Jew.

It's the kind of "conspiracy first" thinking that's leading us down a dark path on both sides of the political divide. It definitely happens among the young and the left too - just see the disinformation spread after the attack on the Hatzola Northwest ambulances a few weeks ago - but that feels like something that's being tracked (however lazily). Brainworms among Facebook-addicted Gen Xers and retirees is a serious problem that needs more discussion and awareness.

There was one recently on Facebook that my missus fell for. Apparently they found human meat in a takeaway in Denton. Straight away I called bollocks, saying if they had it would be all over the news. Quick Google showed the same myth had been doing the rounds on facebook for a few months all quoting different locations.

 

[ballbag]

So you "continuously" "debunk" the "fake news" that retired people get from the Internet by using material that you find through "a simple Internet search" ?

Really don't get how you're struggling with this.

 

[Marklr]

In four years' time, when immigration has inevitably INCREASED, will these people still vote Reform?

 

[True_Blue69]

So you "continuously" "debunk" the "fake news" that retired people get from the Internet by using material that you find through "a simple Internet search" ?

Through social media, think of me as a real life living Grok.

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

The conservative vote has collapsed and it’s seems most of their vote has gone to reform, as well quite a lot working class areas.

The green vote seems to be splitting the labour vote in a few places

 

[Blue Maverick]

Fair, but would you want them looking after your bins?

Yes as long as I get to meet the Phantom Flan Flinger

 

[Blue Maverick]

There was one recently on Facebook that my missus fell for. Apparently they found human meat in a takeaway in Denton. Straight away I called bollocks, saying if they had it would be all over the news. Quick Google showed the same myth had been doing the rounds on facebook for a few months all quoting different locations.

It’s like all those urban myths people used to talk about in pubs but now due to technology it just flies round in seconds and gullible fuckers just take it for truth, whereas in the pub you’d just laugh and say fuck off you mad bastard.

 

[Bluemoon dan]

For the last few years Reform have been like the drunk dad at their kids football match, shouting abuse at the ref and criticising every decision. Well, in a lot of places they've just been handed the whistle and told to get on with it!

 

[Kompany Car]

Covered Barnsley for pre, post gen election research the same people that fought Thatcher for years turned on Starmer within 3 months all triggered by boats, fuel allowance cuts.
Unfortunately Farage like Boris is a chancer and (like Brexit = NHS rebuild my arse ), a magnificent showman/ manipulator in our age of vacumous celebrity, media influencers.

Its not a surprise, the whole area was reliant upon one industry that was killed by Thatcher and then deliberately left to rot. Labour got in under Blair and once again did nothing to rejuvenate the area. Cycle back to the Tories and more of the same.

Thats two generations of being ignored, so its not a surprise that they have gone down the Reform route as foolish as that may be.

Its a very different lived experience for people who have seen some positive changes in and around major cities but for these pockets of poverty, which are in effect pretty rural areas, they have been forgotten by mainstream parties.

Its a similar situation in places like Hartlepool.

Labour moved to the right under Blair and in doing so lost many of its traditional voters and if there's a vacuum it inevitably gets filled with more extremist views.