General British politics discussion thread

Water John · 21-02-2023 10:14pm

John Grace, guardian had a great line on UK voter fraud

'There are more Tory MPs facing allegations of sexual misconduct than there have been prosecutions for voter fraud.'

political analyst · 27-02-2023 10:54pm

There doesn't seem to have been any further development on the debating of the Troubles legacy Bill in the House of Lords in the past few weeks. When is it intended that the Bill will be passed? If Labour wins the next election, is it a given that Starmer would have the Bill repealed?

Water John · 01-03-2023 8:52pm

Oakessh1tt reveals all Matt Hancock's emails a Health minister. The notes he gave her access to as she was writing his biography. They really deserve each other.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/mar/01/isabel-oakeshott-the-journalist-who-turned-over-matt-hancock

amacca · 01-03-2023 11:40pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120302795#Comment_120302795

One political journalist said: “The man needs his head testing to have gone near Oakeshott with a flaming trebuchet, let alone a bargepole.”

I had a good laugh at that line...I read it in a plummy stephen fry accent

Sudden Valley · 02-03-2023 12:32am

Almost sounds like he was honey-potted! He does seem an extremely insecure man.

Pity that the Telegraph has it given it is both loyal to Boris nad extremely anti -covid lockdown so wonder who they will protect and make to look bad.

Strazdas · 02-03-2023 1:06am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120226950#Comment_120226950

The Mail had details of a YouGov poll taken across Europe which showed that British respondents believed people from ethnic minorities and LGBT were hugely overrepresented on television and in adverts. But in every other country, these groups were regarded as under represented. They really are going down a racist / far right rabbit hole with the Tories and the tabloids.

breezy1985 · 02-03-2023 9:57am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120304002#Comment_120304002

Or it could be that TV in other countries has different levels of representation.

The whole thing is stupid though. An advert that has a wide mix of minorities and orientations might seem like unrealistically too much for someone in Torquay but too little for someone in London. If someone is getting triggered by ads they should go have a deep think about their life.

retalivity · 02-03-2023 12:45pm

Westminister is full of idiots where it is genuinely bewildering how they have got so far in life, however Hancock seems like a level above. Thick as two short planks, almost Truss-like levels of nothingness between the ears and continues failing upwards. This must be the 4th or 5th scandal he;s been part of so far?

breezy1985 · 02-03-2023 1:17pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120304993#Comment_120304993

Matt Hancock:

The King's School, Chester.

Exeter College, Oxford.

Christ' College, Cambridge.

All you need on the C.V. to reach the top of the Tory party.

Strazdas · 02-03-2023 1:52pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120304344#Comment_120304344

I would imagine that plenty of European countries have black, Muslim and LGBT people on TV and in adverts. It's just that there is a relentless far right / racist agenda being pushed by the English tabloids and making their readers believe that such groups are over-represented. All part of their horrible 'culture wars'.

Brussels Sprout · 02-03-2023 4:00pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120305283#Comment_120305283

Yes, the British tabloids are abhorrent and have a history of being implicitly and explicitly racist.

Yes, the far-right will push anything at all to further their odious aims.

I can't speak to Britain or any other country but I have noticed, however, that there is a thing in Irish adverts where there appears to be a disproportionate number of black or mixed black/white people (in comparison to their share of the population (1.38%)). At the same time I can't recall seeing any east Asian or southern Asian people in Irish adverts (They make up 2.1% of the population). Don't think I've seen any travelers either although they only make up 0.7%.

Strazdas · 02-03-2023 4:17pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120305946#Comment_120305946

The thing about diversity in adverts is that many companies are going down this route in response to demand from viewers and readers. It's not because they are all "leftie, pinko liberals" but because they know it's a changing world and brands that show awareness of things like diversity & inclusion and climate change can gain many new customers. If people of Asian origin are seriously under-represented in Irish adverts, that is something they will have to look hard at.

The English media unfortunately though are knee deep in their culture wars and playing to the racist gallery and view even concepts like "diversity" as an affront to their traditional British values (interesting though that it's the UK brands that are pushing things like diversity and climate change awareness, as their customers are probably much younger than anyone reading the Mail or the Sun or watching GB News). These culture wars are as much about age as anything else.

Peregrinus · 03-03-2023 2:29am

The fact is, if you think about it, you should expect minority groups to be over-represented in advertising.

Business want to sell their product to as many people as possible, so they want figures in their advertising that everyone can identify with - men, women, gay, straight, black, white, etc. They don't care about the relative sizes of these groups; why would they? Having e.g. a black person in an ad as well as a white person is only a barrier to selling to white people if the white people are vicious racists, which most people in the UK are not.

So you should expect the people who populate ads, and are shown consuming the products/services and enjoying them, to be a happy, diverse bunch that exemplifies all the different groups in society (so they ads can appeal to them all) but that does not attempt to represent the relative sizes of those groups (because that is irrelevant to the advertisers' purpose).

Strazdas · 03-03-2023 4:16am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120307978#Comment_120307978

Also, there is some pressure from consumers for them to be more diverse in their advertising and marketing. Companies that stick to the old fashioned ways can look out of touch and as if they are not moving with the times.

As I said further up, I think much of this culture war stuff is age related. Readers of the right wing tabloids and watchers of GB News etc are likely to be much older - but that demographic is one that many companies and brands are not going to be even that interested in. Hence you get all the Brexity / Tory voting OAPs complaining about there being too many black people in TV adverts.

Peregrinus · 03-03-2023 4:49am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120308038#Comment_120308038

Back in the day, some products or services weren't advertised by showing People Like You, but rather People That You Trust. So ads for banking products, for example, featured people who looked like bankers; ads for pharmaceuticals, toothpaste, etc, featured people in white coats, and so on. (This is still true to some extent, but it used to be much more true.) In the UK context, this translated into a lot of authority figures who, given UK socioeconomic tropes, were male and white and had the right accent.

I suspect what people who are uncomfortable about greater diversity in advertising are actually lamenting is the passing of a social order in which people were assume to defer to a socially exclusive establishment. Seeing lots of women, gays, people of colour etc in advertisements underlines for them the passing of a social order in which they felt comfortable. The don't actually dislike gays, women, etc; they just don't trust them in the way that they trust an old Etonian.

Sam Russell · 03-03-2023 11:23am

I think Johnson has put paid to trust in old Etonians.

Strazdas · 03-03-2023 1:58pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120308041#Comment_120308041

Yes to all of the above and one other factor is that concepts like diversity and inclusion will be seen as "woke" and "left wing" by the usual suspects. In other words, they will spin the inclusion of black people and gays and other minorities in adverts and TV dramas as something almost quite sinister and an "agenda" being pursued (when those responsible for the depictions will rightly point out that such minorities were often absent from the TV screens for many decades).

Brussels Sprout · 03-03-2023 2:54pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120307978#Comment_120307978

That makes a good deal of sense. It still doesn't explain why there aren't any/many Asian people in Irish ads though.

ArmaniJeanss · 08-03-2023 12:48am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119999306#Comment_119999306

Bump from last December.

I suggested that Sir Graham Brady (Altrincham) might be under threat in the next GE. He has announced today that he won't stand again.

Hermy · 08-03-2023 9:01am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120309458#Comment_120309458

Would a certain amount of it come down to focus groups and how they inform marketing policy?

Could it be that there's a better response to black people than to other ethnic minorities because of the many more black role models in sport and entertainment?

I honestly don't know how any of this works but it's just what occurred to me reading your post.

HalloweenJack · 08-03-2023 11:45am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120328119#Comment_120328119

Out of curiosity, will he still be able to lead the 1922 committee if he's no longer an MP?

Sam Russell · 08-03-2023 12:39pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120329100#Comment_120329100

No

breezy1985 · 08-03-2023 11:36pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120329100#Comment_120329100

Will there be anyone left for a 1922 committee 🤣

Strazdas · 09-03-2023 12:22pm

Gary Lineker has done fantastic work exposing the toxic links between the Tory Brexit government, the right wing press and the BBC.

It's not so much that the BBC is right wing and Brexit supporting, but they are clearly terrified of their Tory masters and have been jumping through hoops trying not to offend them or upset them.

pixelburp · 09-03-2023 5:45pm

Looks like the upcoming Online Safety Bill might result in WhatsApp being removed from the UK market: certainly the head of the service doesn't seem inclined to change the code for the sake of one market.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/mar/09/whatsapp-end-to-end-encryption-online-safety-bill