Local Elections | Thu 7 May 26

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I think that the next government (of whatever colour) has a very good chance of being elected by an even smaller % of the vote than the present one.

I can't see how that is healthy, still less how it is sustainable.
 
BrianW said:
I think that the next government (of whatever colour) has a very good chance of being elected by an even smaller % of the vote than the present one.

I can't see how that is healthy, still less how it is sustainable.
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I agree.

We’re moving to a multi party country and we need some form of wide coalition government system.
 
BobKowalski said:
These local elections are a punishment election for Labour’s sins, both real and imaginary. Your second option is unlikely to happen. The public do not want honest debates about where we are or our future direction. The public wants the easy route and will vote for whoever promises the easy route especially if these promises pander to prejudice.

Labour pivoting before the next election is very likely. The hostility to Labour is really hostility to Starmer, so their best bet is to wait another year and then remove the focus of that hostility. In the meantime the Govt needs to steer though the current Trump created chaos in the Middle East and the possible end game of the Russian/Ukraine war as well as moving closer, or into to, the EU economic/defence orbit.

It’s going to be a difficult year of unstable geopolitics and Labour might as well keep Starmer at the helm as the lightening rod for the public’s dissatisfaction for at least twelve months.
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I agree that there's some valid tactical reasons to keep Starmer in position for a while, I think that only kicks the can down the road a bit because even if things stabilise geopolitically we're not in a position to take advantage of that without some fairly radical thinking. If Labour simply stick a new face in front of the electorate say 24-18 months out without signalling much else different, I think they are doomed because there won't be anywhere near enough wins from existing policies to turn public opinion round, especially in the face of a mostly Reform friendly press.

Even with some policy shifts I think it's difficult. Ultimately Labour inherited an absolute mess but then proceeded to play their political hand badly imo. I hope a new leadership team can turn it around because if the centre/centre left/more progressive vote remains split then we are in for some potentially very dark days.
 
tweety said:
Unfortunately no elections where I live. I'd love to have the opportunity to vote out the Labour scum that have left my town with £1.8 billion of debt and a recent 10% increase in council tax.
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My Council tax went up 5.9% 1.1% above inflation so I’ve informed Tameside Council I’ll still be paying my monthly bill but rather the the beginning of the month it’ll be at the end, not much involved financially but it’s a protest action.

United Utilities have put their bill up by 12% to pay for infrastructure developments. I’ve told them my pension has gone up 4.8% so I’m paying last year’s bill plus 4.8%, they can whistle for the rest. The money they need should have come from the huge profits they’ve been making, they can fuck off.
 
Johnny Mars Bar said:
I agree.

We’re moving to a multi party country and we need some form of wide coalition government system.
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If we go down that route and we can make a decent job of electoral reform (and it's high time we made a strategic decision in the country that works out well for us) we have a chance to turn things round over time.
 
tweety said:
Unfortunately no elections where I live. I'd love to have the opportunity to vote out the Labour scum that have left my town with £1.8 billion of debt and a recent 10% increase in council tax.
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7.48%, still shit for folks who live there.
 
Ho Chi Man City said:
My Council tax went up 5.9% 1.1% above inflation so I’ve informed Tameside Council I’ll still be paying my monthly bill but rather the the beginning of the month it’ll be at the end, not much involved financially but it’s a protest action.

United Utilities have put their bill up by 12% to pay for infrastructure developments. I’ve told them my pension has gone up 4.8% so I’m paying last year’s bill plus 4.8%, they can whistle for the rest. The money they need should have come from the huge profits they’ve been making, they can fuck off.
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Been getting fines for dumping sewage into Lake Windamere which they are passing on to us customers with the cost of sorting it out included as well.
 
threespires said:
I agree that there's some valid tactical reasons to keep Starmer in position for a while, I think that only kicks the can down the road a bit because even if things stabilise geopolitically we're not in a position to take advantage of that without some fairly radical thinking. If Labour simply stick a new face in front of the electorate say 24-18 months out without signalling much else different, I think they are doomed because there won't be anywhere near enough wins from existing policies to turn public opinion round, especially in the face of a mostly Reform friendly press.

Even with some policy shifts I think it's difficult. Ultimately Labour inherited an absolute mess but then proceeded to play their political hand badly imo. I hope a new leadership team can turn it around because if the centre/centre left/more progressive vote remains split then we are in for some potentially very dark days.
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Politics these days is as much about presentation as it is policy and Starmer is hopeless at presentation (he makes a good No.2, but he isn’t a front man). The economy will, in my view, tick along with gradual improvement and I suspect on current trends the small boat crossings will continue to decline. If you want radical then being more aggressive with EU integration on economic and security grounds and make the Right oppose it. Draw a clear distinction on the direction we are heading and a better front man or woman to sell it.
 
Popped out to vote this morning for the first time in over 15 years. Previously my abstention has been based upon the fact that none of the parties offered anything different in terms of my trust in them to deliver their promises and the fact that the manifesto promises of each party didn't align with my aspirations to the extent that where they didn't became acceptable.

All the above is still true, but now there is one party where their very existence is an affront to pretty much every single one of my values. It is this and only this that has dragged me out of the door, purely to vote tactically against them.
 
The blue phantom said:
I'm not sure. If you're that confident you can make well over 100% profit of your stake on either the Tories or Labour winning the next Election. To put that into perspective you'd of only made just under 1% of profit on either of the Two parties winning any past election.

Simply mind blowing the change which is happening in our political landscape.
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Is that a majority though for the bet?
 
BobKowalski said:
Politics these days is as much about presentation as it is policy and Starmer is hopeless at presentation (he makes a good No.2, but he isn’t a front man). The economy will, in my view, tick along with gradual improvement and I suspect on current trends the small boat crossings will continue to decline. If you want radical then being more aggressive with EU integration on economic and security grounds and make the Right oppose it. Draw a clear distinction on the direction we are heading and a better front man or woman to sell it.
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The trouble with the economy ticking along with gradual improvement is that unless we can create and distribute wealth for government/ordinary people faster than the existing wealthy can acquire further wealth, then we remain stuck in the self-fulfilling spiral of destructive wealth concentration.

Unfortunately, there's nothing to suggest that we can achieve growth rates that will allow that to happen. Arguably the one thing on the horizon that could provide that boost is AI except there's nothing there currently to suggest that this will do anything other than concentrate wealth further and from my understanding of the governments interactions with the AI industry they seem ill equipped to address this.

So the only ways to break the spiralling concentrations of wealth are some catastrophic shock (where the wealthy aren't bailed out) or some sort of government policy interventions around dysfunctional wealth concentration (e.g. incentivising/forcing the wealthy to inject their wealth into the real economy rather than hoard it or using it to hoover up existing assets). Without that I fear Labour are just trying to paper over the cracks, they'll get kicked out and we'll end up with a different government who actually accelerate the problem and lead us to something closer to societal collapse than not.
 
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BobKowalski said:
Politics these days is as much about presentation as it is policy and Starmer is hopeless at presentation
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He's even more fucking hopeless about policy. And I say that as someone who naturally tends towards the Labour Party.

I've just read a book about Gordon Brown as PM and I'd always thought of him as someone who had real conviction, particularly about poverty and global development. But if he did, he never articulated that conviction until very late in his premiership.

I don't think Starmer has any convictions or political values at all. I read the book 'Get In' about his rise to the leadership of the Labour Party and I think he just wanted to be PM. I doubt he's even a socialist of any sort. He could just as easily have been a Tory. It's just a series of ill-thought out stuff with him, which inevitably results in a complete u-turn.

He's fucking useless and hopefully he'll be put on his ear in the next few days.
 
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