General British politics discussion thread

retalivity

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122281570#Comment_122281570

Why would they? "Were not the tories" is working perfectly fine or them so far, why jeopardise that by giving the tories/reform something, anything to beat them with? They can change the tone once they get in and some sensibility returns to uk politics.

wazzzledazzle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122281675#Comment_122281675

Tories, you can be almost sure they are previous tory voters who can't bring themselves to vote Labour

(well that's my assumption anyway)

Timberrrrrrrr

Another day another Tory scandal this one involving betting on the election date.

Corrupt to the core yet still begging people to vote for them.

https://twitter.com/ChrisMasonBBC/status/1803689400070480360?t=VO6ZMySgSIrkH8HBawVsGQ&s=19

wazzzledazzle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122281712#Comment_122281712

🤣 A party full of Idiots.

I can't honestly fathom how stupid some people are.

Sam Russell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122281675#Comment_122281675

You are correct in that reviews will not benefit the UK economy directly. The benefit of the reviews will be in the gift of the EU, and any benefit will be incidental.

However, the tone of the UK towards the EU can change once the election is over.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122281525#Comment_122281525

Ironically, Brexit has probably been very good for the UK and Ireland. Britain (England) has been going through a major identity crisis for the last decade, almost becoming too politically unstable to be a normal member of the EU. The rise of UKIP was no coincidence…..it reflected a country that didn't know where it fitted into the modern world.

Timberrrrrrrr

And here we g9 again

Another day another Tory scandal, they really are trying to lose aren't they?

https://twitter.com/johnestevens/status/1803688234725028178?t=K83O64bJGVCMyDjk3nREdg&s=19

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122281594#Comment_122281594

The appetite isn't there yet. We just had a completely pointless constitutional upheaval and things have only settled in the past few years. Labour should pursue closer alignment with EU rules.

The UK will become a member again in the future but another referendum without overwhelming support will be pointless.

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122281835#Comment_122281835

While there may be Brexit benefits for Ireland there's more deficits for Britain, but combined a politically unstable Britain is not good for all neighbours in the long term.

Even if labour start their infighting from day one of a new government I doubt it will be the Tory type melt down we've witnessed since 2016. 5 different PMs later tomorrow will be the 8th anniversary of Brexit.

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122280838#Comment_122280838

Personally, if I had my way, I wouldn't allow anyone who's a multi-millionaire/billionaire become the leader of any country. They have no idea what a budget is. They have no idea what impact their monetary decisions have on ordinary people.

They just do not live in the same world as the people the think they rule.

Leroy42

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122282658#Comment_122282658

You could apply that thinking to any group. What does a less well-off person know about wealth?

There have been leaders from every walk of life that have been very good, and very bad. The key factor seems to be whether they want the power for the good of the country, or they see it as power for themselves or just for the sake of it.

Johnson seemed to want power as something nice to have. Sunak seems the same. They are doing it for themselves. They don't care for others, apart from what the 'others' can do for them in terms of their power and position.

The classic example of Johnson and Brexit. He never wanted brexit, but it was a way to get himself more power & prestige.

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122282658#Comment_122282658

They'd feel something if they were taxed like the average worker.

VinLieger

So the director of campaigns at CCHQ and his wife who is a candidate are both under investigation for placing bets on the potential date of the election. He has since taken an emergency leave of absence which does not make this look any better. Also its 2 weeks out from an election and CCHQ now have no director of campaigns.

That makes a cop, two candidates and high placed member of the party machine all implicated in betting on privileged information, is there more to come?

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122282774#Comment_122282774

Johnson seemed to want power as something nice to have. Sunak seems the
same. They are doing it for themselves. They don't care for others,
apart from what the 'others' can do for them in terms of their power and
position.

That's my point. These people are from wealthy backgrounds with little or no real world experience of what it's like to be Joe and Mary from Hull who manages a mortgage and a family on 30,000 a year each. Or worse, Jimmy from Derby who's been chucked out of his job and is now on the dole.

How could they?

Their wealthy privilege sees them shipped off to Eton and then to Oxbridge and they're imbued with a belief that they are born to rule. They are absolutely the worst type of person to be let near the reins of power in the first place.

It's not about responsible leadership for people like that. It's about being in power because they believe that they are entitled to it, largely because of their wealthy status and the access that that allows them.

ancapailldorcha

There's nothing so quintessentially conservative has trying to scam money you didn't earn:

https://twitter.com/mikegalsworthy/status/1803813425367187953

wazzzledazzle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122283938#Comment_122283938

If proven you can get some prison time for that

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122284038#Comment_122284038

It's also just…not that much money in the grand scheme of things. That somehow makes it worse.

VinLieger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122283938#Comment_122283938

LOL and still everyone from the cabinet to CCHQ were surprised by the announcement

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122284038#Comment_122284038

To paraphrase Graham Greene, these people are not part of the "imprisonable class".

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122284189#Comment_122284189

Right? Like, it's such a tawdry thing to do and to do it for so little just makes it seem so…. greasy. If it was for millions or something, it'd be more understandable.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122284248#Comment_122284248

Lovable rapscallions are what they are.

Poor people are thieves, rich people are eccentric.

Enzokk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122284277#Comment_122284277

You can almost imagine those in Sunak's office sniggering to themselves when they thought of how they could win some money by betting on the election…but they will be smart about it and not make millions on it but jus a few thousand. Surely no-one will catch them…right? Almost like the way those in No.10 thought they were exempt from the lockdown rules because the made them and they worked hard.

volchitsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122281569#Comment_122281569

The reason they weren't held to account is purely because the referendum was not binding.

It's so crazy it's almost a Catch 22 type situation in some ways: had the vote been for an election or anything that had legal consequences, the courts would have had to try a number of people for various levels of fraud/dishonesty etc. But because a referendum cannot be legally binding in UK law, the courts found that they had no role in any malfunctioning of the process.

Yet Cameron promised before the vote that its results woudl be respected, ie the government would be bound by the "non binding" referendum - and every government after him has done the same.

So it was a de facto binding referendum, as was promised. Yet cannot be held to the proper levels of legal transparency etc because strictly speaking it was not binding.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122284740#Comment_122284740

The fact that Cameron announced in advance there could be no re-rerun or second referendum meant it was entirely undemocratic. It's amazing that nobody picked up on this - a referendum result which cannot be reversed is something you would expect in an authoritarian dictatorship, not a western democracy.

VinLieger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122284738#Comment_122284738

I honestly think they were all in the meeting on the 21st when it got decided and one of them made a throwaway joke comment about putting a bet on now they had decided, they all laughed but also everyone of them went on their phones at the next chance to put money on without even thinking "hey this is probably super illegal and would look terrible if it was disclosed". It really speaks to how detached from normal life and live by rules for thee but not for me the entire Tory party is.

dublin49

Its unfair to lambast the Tories for betting on the the date of the election,since Covid disappeared and with it the lucrative PPE contracts its much harder for these poor undervalued heroes to get a decent spot at the trough ,

Pete_Cavan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122285640#Comment_122285640

I know you are only joking here but I doubt anyone who put on a bet would have been in a position to make money from dodgy PPE contracts (that would have been mainly sitting MPs). It does however highlight the drop in standards that has occurred. Since Johnson, I'm sure any consideration for ethics or expected standards has not only fallen by the wayside, it has been actively ignored.

As another poster said, the bets probably started with a throw away remark and several people laughed while all simultaneously also thinking "cha-ching". I could image this forming the basis for a mini-series, a bit like Mr Bates vs The Post Office. It's amazing how many aspects of British politics can go from something mundane and "every day" to high level controversy (post offices, attending a commemoration, placing a bet, etc.), and that's before getting to the more serious stuff like sexual assaults and blatant corruption.

silverharp

Sunak is such an out of touch dork, the idea of getting the brits to go a long with "national service" with consequences seems like a gift to the opposition

https://x.com/deirdreheenan/status/1803893393799479549

wazzzledazzle

Rishi is very angry, while Gove reckons it is "Deeply wrong"

https://apnews.com/article/britain-election-betting-sunak-11e0963d5e2798af5ff012ac34118c00

Shoog

Conservative = SPIV.

volchitsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122285415#Comment_122285415

This seems quite likely doesn't it? And how much do you bet (ha) that the person who made the comment is one of the only people there NOT to have gone out and placed a bet. Because if they'd intended to do it they'd have said nothing.

What a bunch of losers. But I think it's the inevitable consequence of years of seeing the top people pocket millions in various schemes of dubious legality - the "littler" people decide they could do with a bit of that too, at their own level.

I don't think it's the problem of having millionaires in charge: might as well say that wealthy people are less likely to be corrupt as they don't need to make a nest egg for after politics - that was certainly alleged about Tony and Cherie Blair. I think it's a much wider question of old fashioned honesty and honour which are no longer seen as values worth having generally. Everybody is angry when somebody else is on the take, but so many of them would do the exact same thing if they got a chance. Social contagion I suppose.