General British politics discussion thread

Larbre34

Yes they are charitable efforts.

You don't think this Tory government would be up to running them surely?

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119046329#Comment_119046329

I won't pretend to be an expert. The Trussell Trust is the largest provider and it's a charity.

The Tory party does have a libertarian wing but it's on the fringes. It wielded more influence in the Cameron days but Johnson's rhetoric about levelling up means it's back in the wilderness though nothing of course will actually get levelled up.

PommieBast

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119046329#Comment_119046329

In many cases these charities are doing stuff that was never done/funded by the US government in the first place. One argument I've come across is that big government actually helps squeeze out philanthropy, and once it is gone it only comes back very slowly of at all. This is why I always thought Big Society was complete BS.

pixelburp

Food banks are a good idea in theory; I can't fault any charity trying to pull people up out of food poverty, even if the idea a Developed Nation can't feed its population adequately, when global supply chains ensure avocado all year round, is patently obscene.

But like any charity they should be rare, and help exceptions who fall throw the cracks. Food banks should NOT be more common than McDonalds, or be the backbone of nutrition for hundreds of thousands. Certainly the opening of a new one should, ultimately, be a mark of shame upon a MP, not one for glad tidings and laughter. It shouldn't come to this. No more than we'd celebrate the opening of a new rehab centre; the system has failed by then, the centre is doing a patch job.

Look, have I said "eat the rich" in the last 2 days? No? Well.

seamus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119046768#Comment_119046768

Like many charitable organisations, food banks in the UK have hit that problem where when they tried to be a help, what they have actually done is allowed the issue to become exacerbated by making themselves an indispensible public service.

Part of any charity's budget should be working on initiatives to make themselves obsolete; working on ways to ensure that people only need their services when completely lost. Unfortunately since charities are staffed by ordinary human beings earning a living and CEOs earning six-figure salaries, then they operate like any other business - working on ways to expand the number of people accessing their services, and increasing their funding to meet. Obviously they don't put people in poverty, but the easier they make it for people to avail of their services, the more reliant people become on it, and the less pressure there is on government to fix it.

And you create a problem like this:

(# of people who have received 3 days worth of food from UK food banks)

Use of foodbanks in the UK is 100 times more prolific than it was 13 years ago. 2 million people is 3% of the population. You can say, "It's great that so many people are now being helped", or "It's absolutely incredible that the problem has been allowed to become so bad".

Seth Brundle

...but apparently the food banks aren't as a result of poverty 🙄

https://twitter.com/BestForBritain/status/1524390707200507906

(This particular Tory apparently lobbied to have asylum seekers sent to the Falklands for 'processing')

ancapailldorcha

That'd be the same Lee Anderson who got caught by the Mail for trying to show a fake doorknocking campaign:

https://twitter.com/michaellcrick/status/1198885420022554627

ancapailldorcha

This is the link I was trying to find:

https://twitter.com/EddieBurfi/status/1524391052261666817

It's got a video of the fake doorknocking campaign. He's caught in the act and nobody needs to click on a Mail link.

Patser

https://twitter.com/Dominic2306/status/1524394482938093571?s=20&t=kMqW8qNOJmzayhr6ZtnckQ

So if you follow the thread either side of the above tweet, Dominic Cummings has just said the UK Govt, under direct orders of Boris Johnson, was throwing money at friendly newspapers disguised as Covid Relief at the start of the pandemic.

Initial costs are known at £35 million for first 3 months, but it went on for 23 months.

2nd important tweet

https://twitter.com/AdamWagner1/status/1524407390111739906?s=20&t=kMqW8qNOJmzayhr6ZtnckQ

retalivity

Michael Gove should probably be committed at this stage, unless his accent speech is another 4-D chess distraction tactic

Seth Brundle

^^^ for those that haven't encountered Gove's accents...

https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1524311949118521344

It really is freaky!

pixelburp

Well, that was weird. Not sure what else to make of it really except find it a really odd choice; one does wonder where bone headed ideas like that originate from. The PR team, or Gove himself (with said PR pleading him not to do it).

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119045037#Comment_119045037

If Starmer steps down then Labour can forget about the next election.

It's win lose.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119050314#Comment_119050314

The same Starmer who we were told repeatedly up until a few weeks ago " is useless and Labour are doomed to lose with him" 🤣

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119050338#Comment_119050338

He is poor enough, no doubt there. His most committed opponents are from his own party or recent members.

It's only now that he is settling in to the role.

A leadership campaign with the usual infighting, the poisonous Corbyn crew will go all out to take back control, they won't but it will be a toxic affair.

bob mcbob

I read this and thought it was April 1st again - apparently not.

(behind paywall) This leading Scottish Tory MSP is suggesting that the unionist parties in Scotland need to unite to fight the SNP otherwise there is a danger they become obsolete. That is the Tories, Labour and LibDems in Scotland need to unite.

A veteran Tory MSP has warned that squabbling unionist parties face electoral oblivion unless they unite to defeat the forces of nationalism. Murdo Fraser said political parties have “no automatic right to exist”.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/squabbling-unionists-will-get-no-votes-fraser-warns-5vjzj0r3g

This is an absolute gift to the SNP.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119050353#Comment_119050353

Relatively speaking, he's doing significantly better than the government. If he weren't, the sycophants in the press wouldn't have launched their pathetic campaign to get him to resign using a photo from 2019.

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119050375#Comment_119050375

He certainly has potential. If he had a few more years as a Minister he would be there.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119050387#Comment_119050387

I think he's there already. His issue is one which no amount of practice is going to rectify. He's not a great campaigner.

Seth Brundle

This image is doing the rounds on Twitter. Sums up the feck-you attitude within the Tory party...

https://twitter.com/jayrayner1/status/1525017632029679618

pixelburp

Whatabout whatabout Currygate and Rayner's legs?

I dunno, it's not even that surprising anymore, we know they're laughing at it all since Reese Mogg was recorded scoffing at the notion during a party. As distasteful as it is to crib the terminology of Trumpists, Whitehall's a bit of a swamp. Someone should drain it.

Capt'n Midnight

Starmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119041580#Comment_119041580

Imagine if Starmer had said that if found as guilty as Boris then he resign like Boris. He isn't as guilty, once off in a small group vs regular deliberate behaviour that cannot be explained away. And Boris will brazen it out to the end.

Why should Starmer resign when Boris won't ? Yet again Labour rescue the Tories. And they lining up for a leadership contest in case the Tories need another distraction. The Conservatives aren't winning, it's like the opposition are propping up at every turn.

Then again he is a lawyer so I'd imagine he knows he's OK. Just needs to control the in-fighting in the party. I've no respect for anyone in Labour trying to get rid of him now. Let him win an election and then go for it, because otherwise they are dooming the country to yet more Tory rule which means Tory cuts.

On the other hand the only reason not to drop down to the level of the Tories is like the old adage "Never argue with an idiot, sleazy politician, they'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience."

BonnieSituation

The constant wails of "hypocrisy" from the Tories is so grating.

The electorate in England, and let's be honest, it's all about England, are just woeful.

Slideways

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119055704#Comment_119055704

It appears to been deleted?

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119069716#Comment_119069716

They're not. The electorate constantly plump for progressive parties but FPTP is so undemocratic that this is what we get every single time. The only way it works is if a Labour leader can win over enough southern Tories without irking the northerners and the Scots. Johnson got less than 2% more of the vote than Theresa May and ended up with a gigantic majority. It's obscene.

Itssoeasy

Well sounds like the DUP are digging in and out they don’t trust Boris Johnson and want action and not words. Imagine that Boris Johnson not being believed ? Brexit had kind of fallen off the pages of the news for obvious reasons but I don’t see a simple way forward when the DUP and the hardline brexiteers in the Conservative party being dishonest in how they are framing this NIP issue.

ancapailldorcha

I'm so fed up of hearing about what the DUP want. Here, it makes sense for obvious reasons but in England who on earth cares? They're absolutely nothing. It's not like a century ago when hundreds of thousands of Ulstermen signed, often in blood a pledge to resist Home Rule by force. They represent a minuscule proportion of the UK's population and even this is diminishing.

Sam Russell

The problem with the protocol is that the Tories and the UK are saying it is 'not working' and the DUP saying it must be scrapped, with none of them saying exactly what is wrong with it. Also, it appears to have slipped their mind that not only is the NIP not implemented, nor is the customs inspections for EU imports to GB.

So obviously the UK Gov is a bad faith actor, and the DUP are useful idiots.

BonnieSituation

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119069921#Comment_119069921

This constant blaming of FPTP isn't gonna go anywhere.

They rejected AV in 2011, so you have to work with what you have. They have FPTP.

Surely a progressive electorate and group of parties would have the sense to work within that system at this point?

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119071503#Comment_119071503

Neither is blaming the English electorate, a significant minority of whom vote progressive.

It's not the parties that have to work the system, it's the voters. I live in a solid red seat. It doesn't matter what way I vote but if it did, I would vote tactically.