General News Thread

[Corky]

You saw when May called an early election and lost her majority then required a coalition. If you are struggling in the polls, you aren't handing it over a long while before it is necessary.

[Robo61]

3 hours ago, st albans fox said:

Genuine question - how can anyone pledge to rejoin the EU ?  It’s way too vague.  They can promise to explore the possibility but their opponents would just shoot down a rejoin commitment as being ‘labour pledge to join euro and ditch pound’ 

 

and they’d not win on that basis 

Vague!!!!!  then what does that make the pledge to leave the EU??????  We pretty much know what joining the EU means as they have a set of rules,  we had no idea what leaving the EU meant,  given that everyone in the leave campaign  had a different view of what any future (now present) relationship with the EU meant.  

Edited 10 February by Robo61

[st albans fox]

1 hour ago, Sampson said:

I think this is an early 2010s, pre-“The Age of Populism (2014-present)” view of the country that isn’t borne out by the data nowadays though - the voting data is very clearly and starkly split by age into a right and left block nowadays and a lot of that is that the Tories or Reform won’t touch the pension system - which parties do you think Starner is winning votes from on the right? Tories or Conservatives? And what about the 33% of his 2024 voters who’ve defected to Greens and LibDems compared to the 8% of voters who’ve defected to Reform?

I think perhaps you over estimate the size of the noisy left/right and underestimate the number in the centre who are prepared to vote Tory/labour/lib dem 

 

I accept your comment that politics has polarised over the last decade but I still believe this is exaggerated, especially when it comes to a GE 

 

 

[st albans fox]

5 minutes ago, Robo61 said:

Vague!!!!!  then what does that make the pledge to leave the EU??????  We pretty much know what joining the EU means as they have a set of rules,  we had no idea what leaving the EU meant,  given that everyone in the leave campaign  had a different view of what any future (now present) relationship with the EU meant.  

Exactly 

the brexit crew were totally vague because they didn’t have to say what leaving actually meant 

a promise to rejoin would ironically be questioned on every detail. (Defence, currency, Schengen …… etc etc etc ) 

 

and every answer will see another half  of a percent drifting back to the status quo 

 

 

[foxes1988]

BBC News - More solar farms on the way after record renewables auction - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp85n416n3vo#comments

 

Got lots of connectivity infrastructure and power storage to sort now but they've definitely gone all in on renewables that's for sure.

[bovril]

We could probably join the EU on more or less than same terms as we left. We'd just have to go back to arrangements we had pre 2021, hardly that difficult. Would be a coup for an EU currently more worried about the US and Russia than perfidious Albion, and the attitude of European voters would range from relatively pleased to not giving a shit.

 

The reason we won't is the same reason we can't have anything nice - confused boomers in the shires who worship Nigel Farage.  

[Lionator]

3 minutes ago, foxes1988 said:

BBC News - More solar farms on the way after record renewables auction - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp85n416n3vo#comments

 

Got lots of connectivity infrastructure and power storage to sort now but they've definitely gone all in on renewables that's for sure.

Fortunately Farage is going to shut all of this down!!

[foxes1988]

29 minutes ago, Lionator said:

Fortunately Farage is going to shut all of this down!!

Yeah he will remove all the solar and and build lots of new gas power plants because somehow that will be cheaper.

[Sampson]

1 hour ago, st albans fox said:

I think perhaps you over estimate the size of the noisy left/right and underestimate the number in the centre who are prepared to vote Tory/labour/lib dem 

 

I accept your comment that politics has polarised over the last decade but I still believe this is exaggerated, especially when it comes to a GE 

 

 

It’s kind of a moot point as we’re 3 years away from an election but I don’t fully understand what you mean - - what counts as the centre? And what does that mean in relation to the parties? I’d say we’re much more right wing economically and much more left wing socially than we were a generation or two ago as a country, so the posts of what the centre is always change, both economically and socially. And all the data for 10 years has shown the remain/leave was and still is divided by age - and that’s very much the same division over party voting blocks. This isn’t a weird outlier, it’s been pretty much stuck that way for a decade now.
 

I’m just trying to understand your argument because I don’t really get it, you don’t clarify who this half a percentage goes over to whom? And why that counterbalances the percentages they could win back from Greens or LibDems? Labour would currently get destroyed if there was a GE tomorrow and that’s because their voters have abandoned them to Greens and LibDems - both very strongly pro-EU parties, I don’t really see what you mean by movement over to the centre when Badenoch is telling her party she’s moving it rightwards and Reform obviously aren’t a centrist party? Aren’t the only centrist parties right now the Lib Dem’s and Labour? 
 

The point I’m making is the data clearly bores out that we are now in 2 seperate voting blocks - What does the centre mean in relation to your argument regarding votes for parties?. You think if Labour said they aim to rejoin the eu their voters would go over to the Tories or Reform but not win back any who’ve gone to LibDems or Green? Or am I not understanding which parties and policies you mean by centre, as otherwise I struggle to see how you come to that conclusion given how the votes have moved the past couple of years: 

Edited 10 February by Sampson

[leicsmac]

1 hour ago, foxes1988 said:

BBC News - More solar farms on the way after record renewables auction - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp85n416n3vo#comments

 

Got lots of connectivity infrastructure and power storage to sort now but they've definitely gone all in on renewables that's for sure.

Good news. 

 

You would have thought the flooding happening now would make it very clear about what the future looks like if the UK and elsewhere don't change up the way they generate energy. 

[CornwallFox]

32 minutes ago, Sampson said:

It’s kind of a moot point as we’re 3 years away from an election but I don’t fully understand what you mean - - what counts as the centre? And what does that mean in relation to the parties? I’d say we’re much more right wing economically and much more left wing socially than we were a generation or two ago as a country, so the posts of what the centre is always change, both economically and socially. And all the data for 10 years has shown the remain/leave was and still is divided by age - and that’s very much the same division over party voting blocks. This isn’t a weird outlier, it’s been pretty much stuck that way for a decade now.
 

I’m just trying to understand your argument because I don’t really get it, you don’t clarify who this half a percentage goes over to whom? And why that counterbalances the percentages they could win back from Greens or LibDems? Labour would currently get destroyed if there was a GE tomorrow and that’s because their voters have abandoned them to Greens and LibDems - both very strongly pro-EU parties, I don’t really see what you mean by movement over to the centre when Badenoch is telling her party she’s moving it rightwards and Reform obviously aren’t a centrist party? Aren’t the only centrist parties right now the Lib Dem’s and Labour? 
 

The point I’m making is the data clearly bores out that we are now in 2 seperate voting blocks - What does the centre mean in relation to your argument regarding votes for parties?. You think if Labour said they aim to rejoin the eu their voters would go over to the Tories or Reform but not win back any who’ve gone to LibDems or Green? Or am I not understanding which parties and policies you mean by centre, as otherwise I struggle to see how you come to that conclusion given how the votes have moved the past couple of years: 

Labour don't need to offer up EU membership, all they have to do is have some left wing policies. They'd clean up if they actually spent money on ordinary people and stopped towing the telegraph's party line.

[Lionator]

58 minutes ago, foxes1988 said:

Yeah he will remove all the solar and and build lots of new gas power plants because somehow that will be cheaper.

Why aren’t there love heart emoji’s 

[Lionator]

Interestingly it seems working from home policy is backfiring against Farage, it’s the first time I’ve seen criticism of him in the LBC comments. It will be interesting to see what happens in an election campaign when something other than immigration comes up, especially now Labour have done well with getting small boat numbers massively down. 

[CosbehFox]

25 minutes ago, Lionator said:

Interestingly it seems working from home policy is backfiring against Farage, it’s the first time I’ve seen criticism of him in the LBC comments. It will be interesting to see what happens in an election campaign when something other than immigration comes up, especially now Labour have done well with getting small boat numbers massively down. 

For a bloke and a political party what have largely successfully managed to paint themselves as for local businesses and the working man, a huge own goal. He’s listened to landlord mates and took the bait rather than anything properly strategic. This is exactly why he will never be PM as he couldn’t play to the tune of others who fund him and pay him. 
 

As for Labour, what a set of idiots over the last couple of weeks after some of the hard work was showing green shoots 

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn5gzepnw4lo

 

US lawmakers say files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were improperly redacted ahead of their release by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Members of Congress on Monday were allowed to begin a review of the unredacted versions of the approximately three million pages of files released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA) since December. 

 

Surprised? Not really. 

[Lionator]

27 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn5gzepnw4lo

 

US lawmakers say files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were improperly redacted ahead of their release by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Members of Congress on Monday were allowed to begin a review of the unredacted versions of the approximately three million pages of files released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA) since December. 

 

Surprised? Not really. 

Trump is funding a campaign to get Massie booted out of his congress seat by the way, I can’t think why. 

[leicsmac]

2 minutes ago, Lionator said:

Trump is funding a campaign to get Massie booted out of his congress seat by the way, I can’t think why. 

Yes, a real mystery, that.

[Voll Blau]

2 hours ago, Lionator said:

Interestingly it seems working from home policy is backfiring against Farage, it’s the first time I’ve seen criticism of him in the LBC comments. It will be interesting to see what happens in an election campaign when something other than immigration comes up, especially now Labour have done well with getting small boat numbers massively down. 

 

The only people who support his nonsense comments (what are you gonna do Nige, send the Marines round to force people into the office?) are idiots who want everyone to be as miserable as they are.

 

You've got to be seriously vile to think that allowing people a good work-life balance is a bad thing.

[bovril]

11 minutes ago, Voll Blau said:

 

The only people who support his nonsense comments (what are you gonna do Nige, send the Marines round to force people into the office?) are idiots who want everyone to be as miserable as they are.

You've hit the nail on the head. The prime motivation for great swathes of the British voting public is for people, especially young people, to be absolutely miserable. 

[danny.]

3 hours ago, leicsmac said:

Good news. 

 

You would have thought the flooding happening now would make it very clear about what the future looks like if the UK and elsewhere don't change up the way they generate energy. 

not good news for the grid though, seems we've learnt nothing from the Iberian peninsula blackouts last year 

[leicsmac]

19 minutes ago, danny. said:

not good news for the grid though, seems we've learnt nothing from the Iberian peninsula blackouts last year 

True, as is the case with any single point of failure in any engineered system. 

 

That doesn't mean such transitions aren't necessary to prevent far worse disasters than that. 

[leicsmac]

21 minutes ago, bovril said:

You've hit the nail on the head. The prime motivation for great swathes of the British voting public is for people, especially young people, to be absolutely miserable. 

"I've suffered, so life is suffering and everyone in the future must suffer too."

[danny.]

3 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

True, as is the case with any single point of failure in any engineered system. 

 

That doesn't mean such transitions aren't necessary to prevent far worse disasters than that. 

We need to look at our grid *before* adding more non spinning based generators though, we rely on the inertia of those generators to guard against frequency changes on the grid and the more we shift the balance away from that the more problems we will have.

[leicsmac]

4 minutes ago, danny. said:

We need to look at our grid *before* adding more non spinning based generators though, we rely on the inertia of those generators to guard against frequency changes on the grid and the more we shift the balance away from that the more problems we will have.

Again, I don't disagree. 

 

But it is a problem that needs to be worked on alongside transition to more renewable infrastructure. Or maybe get on with Gen III or IV fission. Or both. 

Edited 10 February by leicsmac

[Lionator]

1 hour ago, leicsmac said:

Yes, a real mystery, that.

Massie by the way, could be a wildcard for 2028 if Trump really disillusions the Republican base.