General British politics discussion thread

The problem with this is that since many of these companies are now foreign they would take the government to a dispute resolution tribunal for potential lost profits. Since these are quangos outside the UK judicial system they generally win their case and are awarded huge payouts in compensation.

Government's run scared of large multinational companies these days.

Well then the UK govt needs to grow a pair and equip the regulator to deal with them. It is clear they are just fleecing the English public (Water is still nationalised in Scotland and I read somewhere that water in Wales is owned by a not for profit company)

Didn't Most of those companies simply go bankrupy and throw in the towel ?

**** stupid.

Noticed Farage squeezed that into the ITVX debate that just started. Decided to stop watching..

This is a good example of the duplicity in Labour's health plans. They talk as if the private health sector has surgeons, consultants, doctors, nurses, support staff and facilities lying idle ready to be used to treat the backlog. They generally do not and the government giving money to these private health companies actually makes the NHS worse. They really wanted to shut down Andrew Fisher before he spoke

Just catching up on last nights Q&A

Few things I note

Either Rishi gives ZERO “”””” at this stage or he’s thick.

Beth’s approach to Rishi seemed a lot softer than on Keir. And here is me thinking all along it was Laura K who was secretly or not so secretly a Tory fan

Anyway. Only one of them came across as anyway credible and that was Keir.

Other fella is a waste of space

Farage has demanded a one on one debate with Starmer as he feels he is now "leader of the opposition"

For once I am laughing with not at him. That's quality trolling of the Tories.

This is pretty sharp by his standards though.

Maybe he can explain when we're going to get to see his interview with Julian Assange. That was why he went to visit him in the Ecuadorian embassy in 2017, wasn't it?

I suspect the polls will tighten and Labour will probably win by around 10% over the Conservatives at the end of the day. The size of the majority will come down to tactical voting and reform taking votes from the Tories to cost them seats. In that case Labour may not need +45% to win a seat but 35% could be enough if the Conservatives are on 30% and Reform 25%. One of the podcasts I listen to in my bubble noted that one of the problems for the Conservative this election is that in almost all seats the Libdems and Labour are not fighting each other. That is why you aren't really seeing them attacking each other.

Now the SNP are going hard against Labour as they are their opposition in this election. The Conservatives are done in Scotland so Flynn from the SNP has been attacking Labour as much, if not more, than Sunak at PMQ's because they are more dangerous to them. That and it is also easy to go after the easy targets of immigration when it is not a problem in Scotland as it is in England (when I say problem, Scotland does not have as many immigrants as England so seeing other people isn't something that has really become noticeable in Scotland, not that immigrants are a problem). And also the majority of Scotland were in favour of Remain so saying Brexit was a mistake will not cost votes. Also, they can take those viewpoints that favour Scotland as they will never be in charge of the UK, they do not have to court those that voted for Brexit as they will always sit on opposition benches. The same for the Libdems, the Greens and Reform.

I also note the talk of a super majority being a problem. You only need a 20 seat majority and you can still do what you want. I don't see the difference between Johnson winning a 80 seat majority and Labour 240 seat majority. There is nothing the opposition can do to stop you no matter your majority and those newspapers now complaining about a huge victory conveniently did not mention this in 2019.

Not so much about the Tories doing anything right, more about history and the 1997 election showing what could happen. It will still mean a massive majority for Labour but Reform will most likely be found out the more scrutiny is paid to Farage and what they actually stand for so they will lose some of their current poll number back to the Conservatives. Add in those that just will not be able to vote for Labour on the day will mean a lower outcome.

That is just speculation and presuming no more gaffes from Sunak until voting day. If they continue to pee their pants then all bets are off.