General British politics discussion thread

But could we not just forget about him? Apart from one appearance on Newsnight a few months ago, I never see him mentioned any more except on this thread. He's yesterday's man and Polanski's Greens have taken over that cohort of the electorate, for better or worse.

Fair enough. This should cheer you up.

The Campaign Diary of Robert Kenyon Aged 41 and Three-Quarters (as imagined by John Crace) | John Crace | The Guardian

It doesn’t take me long to fix the leak. “How much do I owe you?” Jim asks; Nige chips in. “That will be £5m, please. That’s my standard rate callout charge. It’s to cover my security. I mean, it’s a donation. Actually, call it a gift. Just for the pleasure of meeting me. A chance to see Nigel being Nigel out in the wild. And, if it’s all the same, I would rather you paid me in crypto. Makes things easier all round.”

“Actually,” I say. “You can pay me in roubles. The cash will come in handy for my next holiday in St Petersburg. I love Russia. I was gutted when Ukraine tried to invade it. It’s a tragedy Putin hasn’t yet occupied Kyiv.” A dig in the ribs from Nige. “We no longer support Russia, you halfwit,” he hisses. “We are all Ukrainians now. And watch out for your laptop. The Kremlin might be hacking it as we speak.”

“Soz,” I laugh. That’s what I love about being the Reform candidate. You learn something new every day.

Agreed, a shocking calibre of politicians overall. None appear/ed to have any concept of (or care for) the world outside their own Facebook page or Twitter feed. There's little sign of that changing.

Fair enough on that point - but is it true that a catholic can be crowned monarch?

Well you could have a disestablished church of England and allow the monarch to be what ever religion he/she wants.

So in fact this is legal discrimination. All aspirants to the monarchy must profess a specific religion?

This clearly makes members of all other religions de facto and de lege second class citizens.

You are angry at the wrong thing.

The existence of a monarchy makes everyone who didn't spring from a certain families sperm or egg a second class citizen.

Its pointless to argue discrimination with a monarchy or religion. Even here in our supposedly egalitarian republic religion is allowed bar women from jobs. The British monarchy is also exempt from various laws surrounding tax status, declaration and government spending opacity.

I think Sturgeon might have waited at least until after the upcoming byelections before she did this interview. It sounds like a low-brow version of Mailtlis and the Andrew Formerly Known as Prince. Anyway, Crace gives her the treatment here that he normally reserves for Kemi Badenoch.

Nicola’s only crime was to love too much. And to not notice the Jaguar on the drive | John Crace | The Guardian

Then we got to the accounts. Three people had quit the SNP executive because they felt the accounts were iffy, but Nicola, the party leader, had always been quite happy that everything was above board. Oh, that, she said. Accounts always go up and down. There’s always something no one quite understands and you just have to let it go. And the concerns had never been about the money being embezzled. They were about funds that had been given for independence being diverted to electioneering. So that was all fine, then. A completely different crime!

“I’m not going to say sorry for a crime I didn’t commit,” Nicola said defiantly. Nor was she going to say sorry for a crime she might have been able to prevent if only she had a functioning pair of synapses

Don't you know it is considered (by some) that Israeli influence on British politics is a conspiracy theory but the evidence demonstrates that line of closing down the argument is utter tripe.