General British politics discussion thread

There’s loads of data to show how things improved for the “poor citizens of the Uk” under the last Labour government and declined again once the Tories got back in. I expect the same to happen again.. I don’t think Starmer is particularly disliked. I personally think he will make a competent PM. That alone will be a big step up from the dross that was Sunak, Truss, Johnson and May.

Starmer is the hand picked front man for New Labour 2 so if you liked it last time then you probably like the rerun.

The absurd thing is Elhicke isn't even popular with right wing Tories. Lets look at social media which is a decent barometer of Tories popularity and reach when it comes to their bases, Andrea Jenkyns a troll has 80k twitter followers and I have seen her go viral numerous times over the years unfortunately because for better or worse right wingers like her. Elphicke has 9000 twitter followers ffs.

Ignoring how repugnant she is, the women is not even popular with right wing tories ffs, so no while it won't hurt Keir , this stunt was not needed whatsoever.

Surely the smart thing to do was to publicly turn Elphicke down (maybe even arrange to have some correspondence with her "leaked"). Once the conversation started, they should have strung her along initially, then thrown her under a bus. It would have bought Starmer a lot of credibility with non-Tory voters and would have been a proper signal of intent.

It also would have made it difficult for her to remain on the Tory benches, and it would look very bad for the Tories if they continued to have her after she discussed joining the enemy. Sunak probably would have kept her but that would only have further highlighted his weak leadership. Labour could have got the parliamentary gain without pissing off their base.

Practically all other strategies here would have been better than the one that Labour has chosen.

No. If he treated her like that then no other Tory would approach Labour to sound them out about defecting, for fear of being abused and exploited in the same way. His only options were (a) welcome her into the party, or (b) privately rebuff her approaches and say nothing about it in public.

This I think. Its almost a pure numbers game. Keep trying to shrink the majority to the point that they can go for no confidence vote and force election on Rishi

Not a hope the numbers shrink enough before time runs out.

If an election is called against Sunak's wishes it will be because of an internal Tory heave and not because the majority has been lost.

There would be nothing wrong with making it known publicly, either officially through the party or through back channels, that an MP discussed defecting from one party to another. It is a fairly major matter and could fundamentally alter the balance of power and/or bring down a government. She was only considering defecting for her own selfish (and likely vindictive) reasons, Labour would certainly be entitled to also use it for their own selfish (and vindictive) reasons.

Given all that we've seen from the Tories, (including keeping a register of things to blackmail their own MPs with) and their client press, Labour hanging a disloyal (and generally reprehensible) Tory out to dry would be far from a low point.

If an MP is willing to open those discussions, they really should be committed to leaving their current party regardless of whether they are accepted into the other party or not. I would say that a defection should lead to a by-election, particularly in the UK where people often vote for the party rather than the candidate.

You say dull as I'd it's a bad thing but the majority of us want dull.

We had Johnson, we had Trump and look how they turned out, always playing up to the camera and spouting shìte for attention.

I dont want my politicians to be boorish buffoons constantly gaslighting and telling lie after lie after lie, dull is good, dull means they are quietly getting on with the job at hand.

'constantly gaslighting and telling lie after lie after lie'

Starmer does this though

In fairness, though, the opposite of "dull" isn't always the likes of Trump or Johnson.

No he is absolutely dull. No comparison to Johnson is implied.

It absolutely is. Starmer cultivates the image he does because he wants to be contrasted with Johnson.

You don't have to be dull to be a competent animated politician. Charisma is one of the main qualities required in a politician and that doesn't mean been a jack the lad. I would argue that Tony Blair had charisma without debasing the office.