General British politics discussion thread

Timberrrrrrrr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122098236#Comment_122098236

Do you live in London? Do you even live in the UK?

LLondon isn't the crime hell hole you're making it out to be and ULEZ has made the air cleaner for the people living/working there.

Paul Golding is a wife beater and a scùmbag.

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122098662#Comment_122098662

https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/ultra-low-emission-zone/cars?intcmp=52215

The ULEZ is enforced based on the declared emissions of the vehicle rather than the age. However:

Petrol cars that meet the ULEZ standards are generally those first registered as new with the DVLA after 2005, although cars that meet the standards have been available since 2001

Average Joe's can't afford £990 ?

How about a 2001, five door 1.4L SKODA FABIA ELEGANCE 16V

reg OV51OKK This vehicle meets the ULEZ emissions standards

Water John

Andy Street nearly pulled it off, but doubtful if the Tories will get that lesson.

Sam Russell

It was not a Labour landslide by any means. It was anyone but Tory.

Labour lost a lot of votes to Muslim voters over the stance Starmer has taken over Gaza.

Also turnout was dismal. Extrapolating the result to predict a GE is stupid journalism as only some English councils voted, and local issues and local personalities affect such votes.

In a GE there would be a national debate with national figures taking part with national issues to the fore. Local disinformation would have little effect on the results.

Tom Mann Centuria

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122099135#Comment_122099135

Yeah the near final state of play shows Tories hammered from all sides. Excellent results from everyone apart from Tories, Independents probably took from Labour and Tories as you say, and Greens who only missed out from taking overall control of a council by one councillor did very well.

PommieBast

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122097439#Comment_122097439

Two meaningful policies he has declared is ruling out proportional representation and ruling out rejoining the customs union. I was prepared to swallow the former but the latter guarantees I won't be voting Labour.

Edit: Removed ambiguity

Seth Brundle

I see that Britain First are very sore losers. When Sadiq Khan was confirmed as Mayor of London, they felt the need to boo during his speech (and proudly proclaim this)...

https://twitter.com/GoldingBF/status/1786804271830139388?t=lykJ1k1t4WPjNjvj0Au1dQ&s=19

However, when fellow running mate, Count Binface proclaimed that he had reveived more votes than them, they felt the need to publicly dispute that claim…

ancapailldorcha

Reminds me of the 1,000 strong rally they held. They neglected to state that 700 of those present were police officers.

Then there's this at the cenotaph:

Finally, he's thug who beats women.

VinLieger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122100832#Comment_122100832

I reckon they are trying to use their votes across all london elections there to pad their stats, for London mayor alone they absolutely lost to binface.

Capt'n Midnight

"The Reform Party have secured one pivotal seat for the next four years.

The one on BBC Question Time."

Funny because it may affect the General Election. The problem with FPTP is that there are a lot of marginal seats.

28064212

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122101068#Comment_122101068

No, they're just using the vote figure that the candidate got in the London-wide assembly elections (you can stand for both simultaneously): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_London_Assembly_election. An election in which Count Binface did not stand. Of course their argument is that the BF candidate would have got loads of votes in the mayoral election, but their supporters voted for the Tories instead to try and stop Khan. You'd think that might make them stop and think that maybe FPTP isn't actually the greatest electoral system in the world, but I wouldn't hold your breath.

Incidentally, in the assembly list election, BF got 30,000 less votes than the Rejoin EU party. Also 10,000 less votes than that political juggernaut, the Animal Welfare party. I guess they did beat out the Communists, so they've got that going for them

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122101116#Comment_122101116

Just like UKIP Reform will get way way more media coverage than the Green party who are the 4th biggest English party.

Brussels Sprout

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122101752#Comment_122101752

Yeah I was just looking at the numbers in the graphic above. They got a 65 seat bump to 159, which by my calculations is a 69% (Nice!) increase in seats. They've got to be very happy with that.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122101790#Comment_122101790

And life will only get better once Labour are in power because the Greens will become the official party of protest.

The first post general election vote for council seats will see them surge in safe Labour urban councils.

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122099135#Comment_122099135

Couple of points:

1. Turnout is always dismal in local elections. This one is not out of line. For example, turnout in the London mayoral election was 40.5%. That's lower than when Boris Johnson was elected in 2008 (44.5%) but higher than when he was reelected in 2012 (37.4%). It's lower than in 2021 (42%) but not by much. Tory-aligned commentators are banging on about the turnout but, honestly, they're grasping at straws. There's really nothing in the turnout figure to suggest that these local election results are any less useful than such results generally are, as a sign of what might happen at an imminent general election.
2. I suspect Labour did suffer a bit from Muslim voters not turning out (more than voting for other parties) because they are angry about/disenchanted with Labour's stance on Gaza. Honestly, though, I think the main impact of that was the LDs and the Greens picking up more Tory losses, and Labour fewer, than would otherwise have been the case. Labour will be hoping for a Gaza ceasefire before the general election, so that this issue hopefully loses a bit of salience. This is a factor which might lead Sunak to go for a GE earlier rather than later.
3. The point about local elections being affected by local factors is a valid one, but local factors do tend to balance one another out to some extent (e.g. a factor favouring Labour in one place is offset by a factor favouring the Tories in another). Also, of course, these elections only took place in some parts of England, and no parts of Scotland, Wales or NI. So you can't simply take a crude projection of the figures and apply it nationwide. But that doesn't mean you can't anlyise the figures and draw meaningful conclusions. You certainly can, and in this instance the meaningful conclusions that you can draw are profoundly depressing for the Tories (but not surprisingly so; everyone expected this).
4. For what it's worth, local analysis suggest that, by and large, the Tories did least badly where they were running a high-profile candidate who was towards the centrist wing of the party. This, plus the fact that the Greens picked up 165 seats while Reform picked up just 2, suggests that the Tories' problem is that they are too far to the right, and bleeding votes to the left. I do not expect them to notice that, though. The usual suspects are already bleating that, if only the Tories become even more egregiously horrible than they already are, then can still win the general election. Oh, and bring back Boris!

L1011

Another parliamentary defections, Natalie Elphicke to Labour. Not someone I think it's a good idea to have let in.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122111807#Comment_122111807

Pretty repulsive character at first glance. Doubt she'll be standing for Labour come election time though.

Rjd2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122111826#Comment_122111826

One of the worst Tories indeed, taunted the victims of her rapist husband by saying he was been punished for "been attractive and attracted to women" and lots of other vile stuff.

It embarrasses Sunak somewhat, but tbh she is an unpopular MP who was gifted her seat so outside centrist bores who don't care about policy I don't think anyone will like this even if she is stepping down at the next election.

Timberrrrrrrr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122111826#Comment_122111826

She's announced she won't be running at the GE, This is just a kick in the nuts to Sunak. Her resignation letter is pretty scathing of him and the Tory party but yeah I agree she's a vile women, just another rat deserting the sinking Tory ship.

blackwhite

Still surprised that Starmer would accept her into Labour - she's just a horrible human being and not the sort that any party should aspire to have as a member.

Timberrrrrrrr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122111946#Comment_122111946

Agree, Starmer should have said no and then announced to everyone that he had turned down and will turn down any Tories trying to defect.

breezy1985

Momentum have already released a statement and it seems to be an unpopular decision going by commentators and social media.

blackwhite

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122112062#Comment_122112062

Momentum would criticise Starmer for anything and everything - them releasing a statement criticising him is about as surprising as the sun setting in the west.

It's the more sensible voices that are also criticising his decision that should be giving him pause for thought.

ancapailldorcha

WTF.

https://twitter.com/UKLabour/status/1788164377792610680

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122111924#Comment_122111924

Hard to disagree. I've no idea why Labour are promoting this either. I wouldn't object if it was a reasonably sensible Tory centrist but I don't know how many of those are left at this point. If they stomached Sunak's antics to this point, I don't see them defecting now.

After her husband’s conviction, Natalie Elphicke announced the end of their marriage on Twitter, only to perform a U-turn and announce her support for him once again days later. In an interview, she defended Elphicke, saying he had been punished for being “charming, wealthy, charismatic and successful — attractive, and attracted to, women. All things that in today’s climate made him an easy target for dirty politics and false allegations.” She still dismissed the claims of Elphicke’s accusers and even claimed that Jane, whose identity she knew, had been “obsessed” with him.

Natalie Elphicke is now MP for Dover, having been given her husband’s parliamentary seat after his conviction forced him to quit before the last general election. The story of how she got her seat is a mystery: five weeks before polling day in December 2019, she announced she had been “unanimously” selected, only for it to emerge later that the local Conservative association had put her forward as the only candidate.

Some believe she was given the seat to “keep it warm” for her husband, who was on bail at the time, or as the fulfilment of a secret pact in exchange for which she would support him through his trials. This weekend she claimed she had repeatedly condemned his behaviour to other women and herself.

...

Then there were five senior Conservative MPs, who were later forced to apologise or be suspended from the Commons for improperly trying to influence a judge. Natalie Elphicke, Sir Roger Gale, Theresa Villiers, Adam Holloway and Bob Stewart signed a letter pressing Mrs Justice Whipple not to disclose their character statements for Elphicke in his sex assault trial at Southwark crown court. Natalie was later found to have been the ringleader of the campaign. The other four had formed part of Elphicke’s “flock” — the group of MPs he was responsible for — during his time as a whip under David Cameron. The Commons standards committee later described the MPs’ actions as “egregious behaviour” that was “corrosive to the rule of law”.

https://archive.ph/24V3N

A Dub in Glasgo

There you go, Starmer is turning the LP into mini Tories… Elphickle is toxic but Starmer welcomes her with open arms whilst kicking out members who question the LP support for genocide

Count Binface sums up politics in Britain just now

https://twitter.com/CountBinface/status/1788171554104250494

Tony EH

Just more proof of Starmer not being anything remotely like a Labour politician. Welcoming someone with Elphicke's hard right views into the party is nothing short of astonishing.

Maybe he'll be asking Boris to join next, or Patel, or Braverman.

What a farce.

🤣

Labour my arse.

Leroy42

What was the alternative? Turn her down and she most likely stays on.

This is yet another damaging blow to Sunak. Most people won't know, or care, who she is. The only ones complaining are the Labour Party.

If Labour can turn such a devoted brexiteer and right winger it bodes well so gain the votes needed.

She is stepping down at the GE, which I'm sure Labour made it clear she won't be standing for them so she had no option but to stand down.

Rather than a quiet announcement that she won't be standing again, this is a total embarrassment to Sunak and the Tories.

A Dub in Glasgo

'What was the alternative? '

Inform that her views are not welcome in the Labour Party, it is not difficult

'this is a total embarrassment to Sunak and the Tories.'

and the Labour Party

L1011

Elphicke is probably to the left of Hoey who continued being a senior member (got a committee chair) under Corbyn; but she was already inside the tent to have to deal with. Elphicke is bringing in unwanted problems.

Leroy42

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122114011#Comment_122114011

Great. Very moral position to take. So she does nothing. Stays on the government benches.

This is a fight to secure power at the next GE. I'd be amazed if we hear a peep out of her from now on.

Labour got their headlines, she got her revenge.

The only people who should be upset are the Tories and Sunak. Instead, Labour supporters are upset that their purity has been damaged.