The Doctor

"liberals hate socialists more than fascists" remains evergreen.

I did, what with being a labour member at the time, problem is that was 4 years ago and he's spent 4 years making a convincing case for the existence of invertebrate mammals. even ****ing Suella De Vil has had more to say on child poverty than labour: https://www.bigissue.com/news/social-justice/suella-braverman-two-child-benefit-cap-limit-labour/ labour have watered down their workers rights policies to nothing to appease bosses: https://news.sky.com/story/more-holes-than-swiss-cheese-unite-union-attacks-labours-rebrand-of-workers-rights-plan-13142963 if labour are gonna reverse the damage done to the NHS, do you wanna let Streeting, the shadow health secretary, know: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/12/wes-streeting-defends-labour-plan-private-sector-cut-nhs-backlog in that case why did labour stand aside and let the tories push through extrajudicial crimes (spy-cops), why did the shadow immigration minister support storing migrants on floating prisons, why are they spending more energy attacking David Tennant for saying he wished politicians would shut up and leave his kid alone than they have fighting those attacks... labour under starmer are a cameronite Tory party and 'moderate' toryism has never fixed anything.

there's an interesting argument as to whether they have made themselves electable (starmer has pretty shit popularity ratings) or whether they've made themselves safe enough for the press barons to stop propping up the tories (like the tories haven't become any worse since 2019 where Johnson was hiding in fridges and stealing journalists phones - he was Teflon until it no longer suited the press barons at which point a great noticing happened), but in opposition you can still stand for what's right and not, say, stand aside as the tories push legislation to protect police from prosecution for crimes, including sexual offences, committed while spying on protesters. you could also state opposition to what the government are doing rather than saying that the problem with the evil shit like floating prisons for asylum seekers is that it's not been done competently rather than the gross disdain for human rights that it is.

probably because labour were polling for hung parliament or small majority throughout the 1992 campaign and didn't get it. can see why the fear is there again, Starmer does have the stink of a kinnock about him, but at this point that's labours own fault tbh.

£4 to be able to beat conor McGregor to death every day is one hell of a deal.

I'm probably gonna vote green. not an inspiring bunch of candidates, the usual labour, lib Dems, tories, reform. one independent I've seen nothing from, some weirdos called the Yorkshire party who want a devolved parliament in Leeds, and the greens.

oh yea that's Klu Klux Kellie's bandwagon. they're pure single issue (and that single issue is trans bad) but are frankly hilarious. bunch of sad middle class bastards walking around Lincoln waving spatulas and declaring that the high street is derelict because women can't have penises. which, I'm no city planner but I don't think that's how urban redevelopment works. for reference: I'm only half kidding, one of them did walk around Lincoln with a spatula for their council election campaign: https://x.com/thelincolnite/status/1781070275443831241

yep, also possibly apocryphal (not sure how you'd verify that) but given the vote just needs to be a clear indication of intent, very possible. easiest way to guarantee it's counted as a spoiled vote is to draw a line through all of the boxes and then write NONE

basically, just ensure that there's not a clear indication of what you want to vote for. initialling your paper also voids it. just, if you want to spoil make sure there's not something that could be construed as a vote. there's the story of the 2019 election, possibly apocryphal, of a voter writing BREXIT down the paper next to the party names and it being counted as a vote for the party that the X was next to

not lifting kids out of poverty is the two child cap: labour have made no pledge in the manifesto and have repeatedly dodged committing to lifting it even though it would pretty much instantly lift 300k children out of poverty workers rights I'm talking about the way the unions have already been at their throats for putting out "a charter for bad bosses" https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-events/news/2024/may/labour-s-draft-new-deal-for-workers-now-unrecognisable Wes Streeting, shadow health minister before the election was called (so almost certain to be the health minister in Starmers government) has repeatedly talked about utilising more of the private sector. problem is that the private sector isn't a different set of doctors, nurses etc, it's the same staff moonlighting because the NHS has been cut to within an inch of it's life so they make up their pay elsewhere. utilising more of the private sector is doing nothing to fix the damage to the NHS

no-one has seen what labour are hoping to achieve in the long term though! they've categorically ruled out lifting children out of poverty, of shoring up workers rights, of reversing the destruction of the NHS, they have made it clear that they don't have objections to what the Tories have done, only the pigs ear they've made of enacting it. they are telling you who they are and only fools pretend that they're just saying it to get elected.

I mean he is right though. there's an odd, and frankly almost cultish belief, that labour are lying to gain power and will be much more progressive in power but that will not happen. look at what labour are up to on the campaign trail and what they're saying. they could do so much to improve things: lift millions of children out of poverty instantly, reverse decades of privatisation and underfunding of the NHS, shore up workers rights. they've already ruled out all of those and have started to sabotage their own candidates for being too popular (Jovan Owusu-Nepaul in Clacton https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/26/labour-not-putting-up-a-fight-against-farage-in-clacton) because they're ultimately a party run for people like John Caudwell, billionaire former Tory donor who supported Liz Truss: note that he is insistent that Starmer and Liz Truss' platforms were not wildly inconsistent with each other and that he viewed Truss as the lesser of two evils. so, what was so objectionable about Sunak to him, you might ask: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cw00rgq24xvo furlough. paying people during COVID. the one thing Sunak did that wasn't hugely harmful to working class people, that's what was unacceptable to this bloke. labour under starmer are managed opposition to ensure nothing meaningfully changes to upset the billionaires. given that most if not all problems people face ultimately stem from over 40 years of wages being suppressed and not growing in line with productivity and the rest of the economy, that means nothing will improve for people

Bristol Central - Green old landlord debbonaire losing her safe seat. ****ing inject it into my veins

absolutely wild. BBC reporting they were arrested in a minute. broke into his grounds, shat in the lake and got arrested in 60 seconds.

he's busy to be fair

with all due respect daggers, you don't know what you're talking about. These are the positions labour have publicly taken so far implementing the Cass report in full - the Cass report is a hatchet job, being torn apart post publication for its incredibly shoddy research methods, and represents a huge attack on trans healthcare, which only nominally exists in the UK as is. GRA reform to include a two year cooling off period - see what I said about healthcare only nominally existing in the UK. it's a postcode lottery but let's take Leeds and York GIC as my nearest - at the current rate of appointments, someone referred today would be waiting 46.5 YEARS for a first appointment (this is why people go private or self medicate). note, first appointment, you need two for a diagnosis and you need a diagnosis to apply for a GRC. An 18 year old referred today is going to be of retirement age by the time they get a diagnosis and it's frankly grossly insulting to state that someone who has waited their entire professional life to get a diagnosis needs to then wait an extra couple of years just to be sure. trans women to be segregated into side rooms in hospitals - been done before and has a literal body count attached (woman who died as a result of rapid decline of her symptoms not noticed by hospital staff as a result of her being tucked away out of sight) conversion therapy ban that still allows for "exploratory therapy" - exploratory therapy is literally just what conversion therapists rebranded to, its a paper ban only. ban the teaching of "gender ideology" in schools - gender ideology is a straight up dog whistle and what people mean when they say they're against gender ideology is that they're against trans people existing in public. what this promised ban is is section 28 redux and it's as harmful now as it was when Thatcher did it. labour at this point are dangerously anti-trans, the culmination of their policies is to make it impossible to be trans in the UK. I wasn't aware of that green policy, from what I can find they have dropped it. at any rate, the greens and the lib Dems are the only UK wife parties that aren't completely shit on LGBT rights. Women's equality party are far better and would be my vote if they were standing in my constituency but they're not, I don't trust the lib dems not to betray principles for power so if I bother to turn out it will be for the greens

ah, a back up right winger

yea, I don't intend to debate this anymore. Starmers section 28 redux is just another reason why, as someone who has previously only voted labour, I will be voting green for the foreseeable. Both major parties are utterly shit on this and I'm not rewarding a party for arguing against my existence.

New Labour no longer proud of overturning section 28 apparently. there is also a lot more bundled under "gender ideology" than just trans people existing, but it requires a somewhat deep dive to get past the last 8 years of bullshit, and... oh, it's religious opposition to women's equality: https://chican3ry.medium.com/gender-ideology-up-yours-470575a5311a now, not saying that Starmer is doing that, it's likely just pandering to the world's most ridiculous billionaire/professional twitter troll/part time children's writer (currently endorsing the communist party of great Britain because they're a bunch of Stalinists who think that being LGBT is borgiouse decadence) but it's gonna embolden a lot of the worst people.

they weren't, the entire game was two bald bastards fighting over a comb

because Steve Clarke is a tactically inept roaster

absolutely useless. you make the tactical foul on the half way line there every single ****ing time

realistically need a win. can qualify with a draw but requires Italy, Spain, Portugal and Turkey to all win their games this week, since then group B and F would both have a third place on 1 point

doesn't mean it's not a foul. Armstrong is in control of the ball and makes sure that Orban takes him out. Vardy made mugs out of half the prem for several years doing that

clearly a penalty. he's looking for it and manoeuvres to be taken out but he is taken out nonetheless