General British politics discussion thread

Of course that came from the antis, I realise that.

But PR wasn't just "labelled" a Lib Dem project - it was one. It was on their manifesto. When they didn't get a majority and went into coalition with the Tories as the junior member, they had to choose which of their electoral commitments they could enforce on the coalition and which they should dump. They went with keeping the referendum on PR (possibly because they hoped PR would enable them to get into power more easily in the future?) and dropped the "No tuition fees" promise.

But they were outmanoeuvred by Cameron at every turn, and got blamed for "lying" about tuition fees while also losing the electoral referendum.

They can use some variation PR, if and when they establish good regional assemblies.

The Sunday Times leading with another Tory caught betting on the election date, this time the Tories Chief Data Officier

Just this morning the Guardian report these from Keir Starmer

“We are not rejoining the EU, we are not rejoining the single market or the customs union,”

"“No. It isn’t our plan, it never has been. I’ve never said that as leader of the Labour party and it is not in our manifesto.”

There is little to distinguish the Tory and Labour position on Brexit.

Why are people still banging on about this. Pull your head out of your own fantasy and realise that approaching rejoining any of these is an impossible thing to put to the English public right now.

There is little to distinguish the Tory and Labour position full stop.

The manifesto has been analysed by a professor of social and public policy and was considered closest to the Ted Heath Tory manifesto of 1974.

https://www.thenational.scot/politics/24393397.keir-starmers-manifesto-conservative-labour/

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/15/policy-keir-starmer-manifesto-labour-business-tory

Good to see Michael Crick admit the easy ride Starmer is getting:

And d'you what: he's right to say it, because it's not his decision. So many Rejoiners seem to have that same British exceptionalism attitude as the Brexiters.

It is us, in the EU, who will decide if and when the Brits are allowed back, and we'll need to see that they can keep it together over at least two electoral cycles before even stamping "Received" on any application form.

It is revealing that most people are rolling in behind the 'do not say anything so that we can get elected' strategy. This would have been pulled apart not so long ago but now it appears to be the accepted way to do politics… the race to the bottom.

Firstly I was responding to a previous post on Labour's attitude to Brexit.

Secondly, I linked to an article on the Guardian site this morning which addresses this very issues so , at least to UK Mainstream media, it is still topical.

Finally , in that article, it again states that there is a majority of UK voters who recognise that Brexit was a disaster. Pussy footing around it, refusing to discuss it, is helping no one, except those living in a 'fantasy' where the UK economy is going to grow but at the same time the UK will continue with barriers with their largest potential/actual market.

There is a middle line, a recognition that Brexit has been a disaster and that the new Government will rule nothing out long term to reverse that damage. Instead we have Tories who still say it was a great idea and just wait, a Reform party who say it is a good idea but badly implemented by the Tories, and a Labour saying nothing negative about Brexit but promising to make it work.