May calls General Election on 8 June

[Bobby Hundreds]

How? by introducing homeless hunting to replace the foxes.

[Anubis]

"Conservatives vow to halve rough sleeping over the course of the next Parliament and eliminate it by 2027"

 

They're just trolling people now

 

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jan/25/number-of-rough-sleepers-in-england-rises-for-sixth-successive-year

I can't help but feel that will somehow involve replacing foxes with homeless people at some point.

[Anubis]

Ha. Hadn't read Bobby's post as I was too busy replying to Jenson's. Great minds...

[Ezekiel 25:17]

Not a fan of May at all but this social care policy actually looks sensible on first reading.

 

Nazi7.

 

fixed that for yer.

[Naz17]

Nazi7.

 

fixed that for yer.

 

:wub:  :wub:  :wub:  

[skend04]

It's hard to feel a lot of sympathy for pensioners seeing as we're all fucked because the majority yearned for a time pre the EU. The Tories have to get FDI in somehow and selling off social care and the NHS is all that's left as far as they see it.

 

But then what is the point of any government which doesn't give a shit about the health, welfare and education of its population? Surely these should be the basics of any developed nation, not making everything a lottery.

[Lee909]

How? by introducing homeless hunting to replace the foxes.

That means they'll install more spikes in doorways and make it illegal. So arresting them means theres no

 

Bit like Alan B'stards solutions to the poor.

 

https://youtu.be/LVltOSC0JMQ

[Anubis]

Sky News complaining that the Tories are trying to restrict them covering the election because they won't let them interview ministers.

[Denny Crane]

Centrists getting a bit worried that Labour are fighting back.

Does Labour’s jump in the polls prove moderates were wrong?



I’ve been banging on about Labour heading for electoral disaster since Jeremy Corbyn first looked like he would win the 2015 Labour Party leadership election. In 2015, I agreed with Tony Blair when he wrote in the Guardian: “If Jeremy Corbyn becomes leader it won’t be a defeat like 1983 or 2015 at the next election. It will mean rout, possibly annihilation.” It seemed a given to me that Labour, having chosen a person with no experience and with beliefs way outside the mainstream, would, over coming months, leak away votes like a slowly deflating bicycle tyre and eventually collapse entirely.

As Corbyn built a leadership team of far left activists and MPs, I was outraged, and eventually ended my party membership. I assumed that over time other members would be equally repulsed and walk away from the party. Anyone who seriously believes Chavez’s Venezuela is a shining example of social justice in action (as Corbyn has written), and populates his leadership team with actual communists, can’t possibly be allowed to lead one of Europe’s great social democratic parties? And yet last summer, the Labour membership reelected him to the job, and today, just a few weeks out from a general election, he’s leading a party polling higher today than Miliband’s 2015 result, with a membership that has more than doubled.

In March it looked like Labour was beginning its slip into electoral oblivion, as multiple polls put the party at 25%. Just over six weeks later, and Labour is consistently polling above 30%. Yes, historically, the polls usually overestimate Labour, and of course, the Tories are polling near 50%, but here we are today, with an Evening Standard Ipsos MORI poll putting Labour at 34%. For a bit of context, in 2005—Blair’s last victory— Labour took 35.2% of the vote share, which means it’s now entirely possible, if trends continue, that Labour under Corbyn could very well take a higher percentage than Blair. Labour will end up with fewer seats than it’s had in two generations, but in terms of vote share, Corbyn will have surpassed a coveted Blair victory.

If Corbyn’s Labour out polls Blair’s 2005 victory, it will, to be blunt, kill off the soft left, who have always argued that while socialism is the goal, compromise is the means. As Polly Toynbee wrote in the Guardian in 2015, “The Labour question is always the same – how far can you go and still bring enough voters with you? … Like many Labour people, free to dream I’d go further than Corbyn… I don’t know how far you can go – but you have to win power to get anywhere at all.” Turns out you might be able to go farther than moderates and the soft left thought.

When you enter into a debate and accept commonality in principle, and outline your differences only in terms of methodology and the means to power, you end up forfeiting your values—in my case that liberal democracy is morally superior to communism. Which is why arguments like Toynbee’s have always made me uneasy. Because what if you’re wrong? What if Corbynism is achievable on its own without compromise?

If Corbyn achieves 35% or anything near it the left will secure their power in Labour for a generation. They will have shown that the party led by an uncompromising socialist can do as well or better than a centre-left reformer. The riposte to this will be that Corbyn has haemorrhaged seats, that he stacked up votes in the wrong places, that he didn’t win over Tory voters. But it won’t matter—at least to the left. They will have shown moderates were wrong about the left’s electoral appeal (many serious people assumed they’d end up in the low to mid twenties). Which throws up the really difficult question for moderates. What the hell does it mean to be centre-left any more?

https://sluggerotoole.com/2017/05/18/does-labours-jump-in-the-polls-prove-moderates-were-wrong/

[Stickman]

[Champ]

Not a fan of May at all but this social care policy actually looks sensible on first reading.

I'm all ears

[Guest Pistonbroke]

 

Tory porn mag cover. 

[Anubis]

The whole tenor of that article is based on the age old delusion​ of Creeth thinking he's centre left and that Corbyn and his supporters are far left. Corbyn is centre left. The majority of his support is centre left. Until the 'moderates' admit that to themselves, the delusion will continue.

[Denny Crane]

The whole tenor of that article is based on the age old delusion​ of Creeth thinking he's centre left and that Corbyn and his supporters are far left. Corbyn is centre left. The majority of his support is centre left. Until the 'moderates' admit that to themselves, the delusion will continue.

 

The tags and labels are  doublespeak, " moderates," etc. 

 

But interesting to observe. 

[Denny Crane]

Next step for Labour go to town on this illness tax. 

 

Especially as the term " dementia tax" is been bandied about. 

[Anubis]

Dementia tax is a good phrase to ram home time and again.

[Jenson]

The Tories have just given Labour an open goal to shoot at here. The tories have now, to all intents and purposes, told every pensioner in this country that they don't give a flying fuck about them. The terms 'Death tax' and 'Dementia tax' need to be hammered home. The Triple lock being scrapped needs to be hammered home. Even a slight dent in the Blue Rinse Tory vote will make a big difference.

[Guest Pistonbroke]

Dementia tax is a good phrase to ram home time and again.

 

Isn't it "Dementia awareness week" as well? How fucking ironic, probably done for extra effect. 

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

The whole removal of the tax lock on income tax and NI, running parallel to the vague pledge to "keep taxes as low as possible" strikes me as being similar to the non-descipt £12bn welfare cuts in the previous Tory manifesto.

 

I can definitely see people being hooked in by it, particularly with the May rhetoric of being the party of low taxes, and then moaning about it if it affects them down the line. The vagueness definitely gives the Tories the room to up tax and NI and say "we told you we would" and I wouldn't be surprised if they did, but used the post Brexit economy etc as an excuse. But, corporation tax and the higher rate probably won't be touched. They've realised that most of the electorate can be fooled over and over again.

 

At least Labour are upfront about their tax strategy. But, "strong and stable leadership" remember...

[Kidder Bukowski]

The tags and labels are  doublespeak, " moderates," etc. 

 

But interesting to observe. 

I near crashed the fucking car when a radio 5 political reporter referred to May as Red Theresa due to her partly 'socialist' manifesto. I thought things were bad on Fox news but the BBC are giving them a run for their money at the moment!

[Strontium]

I near crashed the fucking car when a radio 5 political reporter referred to May as Red Theresa due to her partly 'socialist' manifesto. I thought things were bad on Fox news but the BBC are giving them a run for their money at the moment!

 

It's a truly remarkable manifesto that combines everything that is most hateful about the left with everything that is most hateful about the right.

[Strontium]

She had her PIP interview today, and they didn't ask her anything like that, so I guess it's the luck of the draw.

 

Letter back today, they've awarded her £82 a week.

 

There's a lot said about PIP, but if anyone thinks they may be entitled to it, I would urge them to go ahead and claim it and not be put off by the horror stories.

[Kidder Bukowski]

It's a truly remarkable manifesto that combines everything that is most hateful about the left with everything that is most hateful about the right.

SD, can you please explain to the ignorant what that manifesto has to do with the left?

[magicrat]

The Tories are cynically getting the old to fund more of their cost of retirement and sickness instead of turning to those that can most afford it. Pensioners that have bought into the save for old age/ property owner mantra are about to discover that the healthcare and pension they thought they had covered through a lifetime of taxation and thrift was a massive fucking stitch up and they will end up paying twice. The assets they wanted to leave to their kids will belong to the state. There is going to be massive social unrest if these cunts think this will stand

[cloggypop]

It's a truly remarkable manifesto that combines everything that is most hateful about the left with everything that is most hateful about the right.

I can only assume you mean the new Lib Dem manifesto. Haven't seen it yet myself, soz.