General News Thread

[Bellend Sebastian]

1 hour ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

It had a barking cough.

UNDERRATED

[Wymsey]

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czx50n2vj74o

 

[Bellend Sebastian]

20 minutes ago, Wymsey said:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czx50n2vj74o

 

"refrain from speculation online".

 

Good luck with that 

[Sampson]

The by-election talk is extremely quiet considering this is essentially a vote for if Burnham becomes the next pm. I thought it would be the most talked about by-election in many years.

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3vy5l62622o

 

Kegsbreath in being hypocritical and condescending on matters of killing people- sorry, "defence" shocker. 

[leicsmac]

5 minutes ago, Sampson said:

The by-election talk is extremely quiet considering this is essentially a vote for if Burnham becomes the next pm. I thought it would be the most talked about by-election in many years.

Yeah, that is a little odd.

 

My own thoughts is that it's considered a foregone conclusion, so there's not much to discuss until Burnham actually arrives in no.10.

[kenny]

17 minutes ago, Sampson said:

The by-election talk is extremely quiet considering this is essentially a vote for if Burnham becomes the next pm. I thought it would be the most talked about by-election in many years.

The funniest and therefore preferred outcome is that he doesn't win tonight and is left stranded without a position.

 

Is he allowed to run as mayor again?

[Sampson]

25 minutes ago, kenny said:

The funniest and therefore preferred outcome is that he doesn't win tonight and is left stranded without a position.

 

Is he allowed to run as mayor again?

I actually thought that was the case a few weeks back. After last month's local elections all the talk was how Reform had won big in that area that it'd be very tough for him to win there, but the fact its so quiet and Reform haven't spent thr past week in the media bigging up their policy abd criticising Burnham makes me think they all think Burnham has probably got it sewn up.

Edited Thursday at 18:12 by Sampson

[kenny]

Just now, Sampson said:

I actually thought that was the case a few weeks back. After last month's local elections all the talk was how Reform had won big in that area that it'd be very tough for him to win there, but the fact its so quiet abd Reform haven't spent thr past week in the media bigging up their policy abd criticising Burnham makes me think Burnham has probably got it sewn up.

I think the reform candidate selection and Rupert lowe have won it for Burnham.

 

I was sure reform were going to win at first.

[Sampson]

5 minutes ago, kenny said:

I think the reform candidate selection and Rupert lowe have won it for Burnham.

 

I was sure reform were going to win at first.

It'll be interesting to see how much Restore eat into Reform's votes for sure.

[kenny]

3 minutes ago, Sampson said:

It'll be interesting to see how much Restore eat into Reform's votes for sure.

Polling suggests restore plus reform would beat Burnham. It doesn't sound like the greens have made many inroads there.

 

Im also not sure if 81 MPs will vote against Starmer to start the leadership challenge. Streeting thought he had them but obviously didn't.

[Sampson]

17 minutes ago, kenny said:

Polling suggests restore plus reform would beat Burnham. It doesn't sound like the greens have made many inroads there.

 

Im also not sure if 81 MPs will vote against Starmer to start the leadership challenge. Streeting thought he had them but obviously didn't.

I get the feeling that Streeting got seen a bit too much as a snake by Labour mps in the end though, that it felt like he was being too backstabby. A bit like Gove did after May went in the Tories when he was favourite to take over when there was a lot of speculation May would go, but when May finally did go Gove kind of took too much of a reputation hit of scheming behind her back and therefore was seen as playing the politics too much by both the mps and the public.

 

We'll see though, I get tge feeling Burnham is much more popular both within his own party and much more of a household name to voters than Streeting so will get to 81 mps, but I may be wrong.

[bovril]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/18/uk-could-keep-special-pre-brexit-terms-if-it-rejoined-eu-michel-barnier-says

 

I've been saying this for years, we could just go back to arrangements we had pre 2021. We can't because it would upset boomers in the shires. 

[st albans fox]

5 minutes ago, bovril said:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/18/uk-could-keep-special-pre-brexit-terms-if-it-rejoined-eu-michel-barnier-says

 

I've been saying this for years, we could just go back to arrangements we had pre 2021. We can't because it would upset boomers in the shires. 

Huge if it’s true and all countries would accept it

 

i wonder if we see a hung parliament next time, whether the party holding the balance of power ( eg. Lib Dem’s in a coalition with labour ) could insist on a re entry referendum ?

[Sampson]

11 minutes ago, bovril said:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/18/uk-could-keep-special-pre-brexit-terms-if-it-rejoined-eu-michel-barnier-says

 

I've been saying this for years, we could just go back to arrangements we had pre 2021. We can't because it would upset boomers in the shires. 

You don't have to join the euro anyway in practice. Although you're supposed to join it once you meet certain criteria, countries like Sweden and Denmark deliberately just don't meet the criteria so they don't join the euro and the European commission has said they won't make those countries meet the criteria or sanction them for it,

Edited Thursday at 19:01 by Sampson

[kenny]

17 minutes ago, Sampson said:

I get the feeling that Streeting got seen a bit too much as a snake by Labour mps in the end though, that it felt like he was being too backstabby. A bit like Gove did after May went in the Tories when he was favourite to take over when there was a lot of speculation May would go, but when May finally did go Gove kind of took too much of a reputation hit of scheming behind her back and therefore was seen as playing the politics too much by both the mps and the public.

 

We'll see though, I get tge feeling Burnham is much more popular both within his own party and much more of a household name to voters than Streeting so will get to 81 mps, but I may be wrong.

Burnham was elected as mayor 2 years ago and wants to bin the job off now he thinks there is something better. I suspect some feel he is as bad as Streeting for this.

 

He could have stood as an MP in 2024 and have been part of the cabinet.

Edited Thursday at 19:03 by kenny
Unnecessary quote

[Sampson]

2 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

Huge if it’s true and all countries would accept it

 

i wonder if we see a hung parliament next time, whether the party holding the balance of power ( eg. Lib Dem’s in a coalition with labour ) could insist on a re entry referendum ?

I've wondered the same with PR as well. I think PR and/or rejoining the European single market would probably the 2 big policies which both the Lib Dems and Greens would ask for from Labour to form a coalition or if the Lib Dems and Greens wanted to form an election pact between them they'd be their 2 big policies they'd agree on and both of which are popular amongst Green and LibDem voters even if they have different economic ideals.

[Clogger_]

Burnham + rejoin referendum? It'd have the fash in full-on panic mode

[izzymuzzet]

1 hour ago, kenny said:

The funniest and therefore preferred outcome is that he doesn't win tonight and is left stranded without a position.

 

Is he allowed to run as mayor again?

He’s still the mayor. So if he doesn’t win tonight he’ll just carry on being mayor, presumably until 2028. He only has to resign as mayor if he becomes an MP. 

[st albans fox]

1 minute ago, Sampson said:

I've wondered the same with PR as well. I think PR and/or rejoining the European single market would probably the 2 big policies which both the Lib Dems and Greens would ask for from Labour to form a coalition or if the Lib Dems and Greens wanted to form an election pact between them they'd be their 2 big policies they'd agree on and both of which are popular amongst Green and LibDem voters even if they have different economic ideals.

We did the PR thing 15 years ago 

I think an EU vote would take precedent because it’s achievable.  A labour led coalition would be unlikely to agree to both imo 

[Bellend Sebastian]

22 minutes ago, bovril said:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/18/uk-could-keep-special-pre-brexit-terms-if-it-rejoined-eu-michel-barnier-says

 

I've been saying this for years, we could just go back to arrangements we had pre 2021. We can't because it would upset boomers in the shires. 

I don't see why you wouldn't go for it, but even if I wasn't a fan of the idea I would love to see it happen just to watch my father-in-law's head explode

[izzymuzzet]

1 hour ago, Sampson said:

The by-election talk is extremely quiet considering this is essentially a vote for if Burnham becomes the next pm. I thought it would be the most talked about by-election in many years.

There are very tight restrictions on what the media can report on election day itself. 
 

Not sure what media you read/watch/listen to but I’ve heard pretty much nothing else but debates about Andy Burnham in the last few weeks! 

[Sampson]

9 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

We did the PR thing 15 years ago 

I think an EU vote would take precedent because it’s achievable.  A labour led coalition would be unlikely to agree to both imo 

We didn't do the PR thing 15 years ago, we did a referendum for AV 15 years ago, theyre very different - AV is a different voting system - but the way seats are distributed would be the same, PR is a fundamentally different way we allocate MPs and seats across the country that is much more representative to the actual number of votes a party gets.

 

And 15 years is a very long time ago (besides itd be 20 years after the 2029 election plus a year or so to plan it) nd our political system is in a very different, FPTP is designed for a 2 parry system, it has clearly broken down in our current age now we have a 5 or 6 party system, I do not see how it is healthy for democracy that any party can get 100% of the power on potentially 25% of the vote,

Edited Thursday at 19:25 by Sampson

[Bellend Sebastian]

I've no idea how much credit Burnham should take for it (and I suspect it's at least partly down to having the best part of a billion quid spent on the City Centre after the IRA blew it up) but when I went to Manchester a couple of months ago it was the first place I'd been to for ages (except London) that didn't feel like it was on its arse/seen better days. A proper buzz about the place, so I can see why folk might look at Manchester and say I fancy a bit of that

[izzymuzzet]

2 minutes ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

I've no idea how much credit Burnham should take for it (and I suspect it's at least partly down to having the best part of a billion quid spent on the City Centre after the IRA blew it up) but when I went to Manchester a couple of months ago it was the first place I'd been to for ages (except London) that didn't feel like it was on its arse/seen better days. A proper buzz about the place, so I can see why folk might look at Manchester and say I fancy a bit of that

I live in Manchester. Burnham has done a good job as mayor particularly with improving the buses. But a lot of the improvement was well underway by the time he became mayor.