General News Thread

[Greg2607]

56 minutes ago, Bilo said:

It really doesn't take a lot. It is, after all, part of why he's no longer party chairman. 

 

 

 

One sniff of pushing back against a burka ban (reader, we don't have burkas in the UK) and the porkflakes saw him as a heretic. 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jun/07/zia-yusuf-return-reform-uk

 

Whoever succeeds Farage will have to be a white, preferably middle-aged straight man. No other demographic could viably lead a party like that, and any POC or women will be reduced to tokenistic 'see? We can't be racist/misogynistic/homophobic if one of them is our MP' roles.

Realistically, no one OTHER than Farage could lead reform and match their current popularity.  He is the literal walking embodiment of populism.   A party, built around one man's personality that the media seems to lap up. 

 

He's an expert orator, exceptional at deflection and very slippery. 

 

He is a darling of the MSM and if he does end up as prime minister, it will be because platforms like the Daily Mail put him there. 

[Guest Bilo]

3 minutes ago, Greg2607 said:

Realistically, no one OTHER than Farage could lead reform and match their current popularity.  He is the literal walking embodiment of populism.   A party, built around one man's personality that the media seems to lap up. 

 

He's an expert orator, exceptional at deflection and very slippery. 

 

He is a darling of the MSM and if he does end up as prime minister, it will be because platforms like the Daily Mail put him there. 

One thing is certain if he does - he will be the most feckless, incompetent and damaging PM in British history. Allergic to hard work unless it directly benefits him. 

 

He'll stand down if there's any danger of him being in power.

[Sly]

3 hours ago, bovril said:

Lowe is quite interesting. Don't share many of his politics but he seems intelligent and importantly seems to have gone into politics to actually change things.

 

Farage is obviously just a spiv who's interested solely in himself. Speaking as someone who is quite conservative and would generally prefer lower immigration levels, he's probably the worst thing ever to happen to politics in this country. 

 

Anderson is quite frankly thick as shit and also clearly a sad twat. 

The bit in bold is so true. 
 

I’m in the same boat in being a conservative historically but I’d rather have Starmer, than whatever Farage brings to the table. 
 

Whatever the question is, the positive answer is never Nigel Farage.

 

It is fixable, not every person is however going to like what’s proposed.

[Sly]

8 minutes ago, Bilo said:

One thing is certain if he does - he will be the most feckless, incompetent and damaging PM in British history. Allergic to hard work unless it directly benefits him. 

 

He'll stand down if there's any danger of him being in power.

Would he last as long as Liz and the lettuce? 

[Guest Bilo]

Just now, Sly said:

Would he last as long as Liz and the lettuce? 

If he doesn't step down before an election for fear of actually having to do some work, I think he would go in the opposite direction and hang on out of sheer bloody-mindedness, with a party of lemmings who'd gas him up however much the country begged for his removal.

 

The only safeguard would be him at the helm of a coalition government where their partners, probably the Tories, would vote with the other parties in a vote of no confidence to get rid of him and dissolve the coalition.

 

The scary thing with that scenario is that that's when you'd see his Trumpian side come out as he riled up his supporters against a 'uniparty stitch-up against the people of this country' with riots outside Downing Street and Westminster. 

[leicsmac]

Honestly, having seen what populist movements have done and are doing in terms of damage around the world, I'm always going to take Farage and who he leads with utmost seriousness. 

[Guest Bilo]

2 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Honestly, having seen what populist movements have done and are doing in terms of damage around the world, I'm always going to take Farage and who he leads with utmost seriousness. 

You can see it, and it's worrying. Reform don't have any original thoughts or policies of their own, so the MAGA playbook is their go to. 

 

The differences are that they will most likely need a coalition to govern and Prime Ministers are easier to get rid off than Presidents. That means they'll probably be dependent on the Tories not breaking rank in a partnership, and they absolutely would given their own addiction to power at all costs in the scenario of Farage being useless, and Farage wouldn't hesitate to hit the January 6th button if they did.

[MadsEmil]

https://x.com/PolitlcsGlobal/status/1964066671687324159?t=Lo3sl68ee7l9O9vRuvT09Q&s=19 

 

 

Marinakis saying to let Putin keep parts of Ukraine... I know I shouldn't expect anything from a mafia boss but christ this is pathetic.

Edited 5 September 2025 by MadsEmil

[BlueSi13]

12 hours ago, urban.spaceman said:

Aaaaaand the Tory Scum get exactly what they wanted while never facing the same level of accountability whatsoever. Bunch of ****ing *****. 

I mean, maybe direct your anger to Rayner and her rank stupidity and incompetence but go on.

[urban.spaceman]

12 minutes ago, BlueSi13 said:

I mean, maybe direct your anger to Rayner and her rank stupidity and incompetence but go on.

I know exactly to whom I should direct my opprobrium, thank you. 

[urban.spaceman]

2 hours ago, MadsEmil said:

https://x.com/PolitlcsGlobal/status/1964066671687324159?t=Lo3sl68ee7l9O9vRuvT09Q&s=19 

 

 

Marinakis saying to let Putin keep parts of Ukraine... I know I shouldn't expect anything from a mafia boss but christ this is pathetic.

Rare W for Johnson; his support for Ukraine is just about his only redeeming feature. 

[BlueSi13]

5 hours ago, StanSP said:

Could Farage legit become PM?

 

I don't mean in the sense of victory after a general election, but surely someone must have some dirt on him to make his position untenable before it's even started?? What about his own tax affairs? Offshore tax accounts? 

 

Will any of his extreme policies even work their way through parliament even if they are elected? 

Yes, at the moment he's absolutely sailing in to Downing Street.

 

Poll of Polls:

Reform - 31%

Labour - 20%

Conservatives - 17%

Liberal Democrats - 14%

Greens - 9%

 

Based on electoral calculus that would give Reform 394 seats and a majority of 138.

 

Labour reduced to 97 MPs and Conservatives 28.  Effectively both facing extension level events.  BTW that is before Corbyn's new far-left party starts to eat in to the Labour vote even further.  

 

This Labour governments approval rating is the lowest on record.  Maurice Glasman said in July that Labour has 6 months to turn the ship around.  It's gotten worse since then.  

 

If Labour can't get a grip and continue to circle the economy around the drain come new year I predict one of a few things.  Moves will be made to replace Starmer/they'll start talking about bringing in PR to try and stop Farage/rumours of deeper collaboration between Lab-Lib-Cons/They'll throw in the towel and call an election late 2026/early 2027.

Or of course they could just limp on delaying the inevitable.  

 

 

 

Edited 6 September 2025 by BlueSi13

[CornwallFox]

3 hours ago, MaidstoneFox said:

The tax threshold rise will be what a lot of people would be voting, for as it would make such a big difference to so many, quite apart from the resentment that exists in paying tax. If they watered down or postponed pushing the tax threshold up, that would generate immediate disenchantment.

 

Despite all the rhetoric about various issues, I think the key policy that actually got Trump elected was the removal of tax payable on tips and overtime, which really cut through to people struggling week-to-week.

 

I still maintain though, that the best they can hope for with our political system is a coalition, unless the Tories effectively disappear.

An immediate removal of income tax to 20k cost tens of billions of pounds. It's not going to happen.

And if people suddenly had a load of extra money what would happen? Inflation would increase. 

[urban.spaceman]

[urban.spaceman]

I hope Reeves taxes these ***** into oblivion. 

[Sly]

1 hour ago, BlueSi13 said:

Yes, at the moment he's absolutely sailing in to Downing Street.

 

Poll of Polls:

Reform - 31%

Labour - 20%

Conservatives - 17%

Liberal Democrats - 14%

Greens - 9%

 

Based on electoral calculus that would give Reform 394 seats and a majority of 138.

 

Labour reduced to 97 MPs and Conservatives 28.  Effectively both facing extension level events.  BTW that is before Corbyn's new far-left party starts to eat in to the Labour vote even further.  

 

This Labour governments approval rating is the lowest on record.  Maurice Glasman said in July that Labour has 6 months to turn the ship around.  It's gotten worse since then.  

 

If Labour can't get a grip and continue to circle the economy around the drain come new year I predict one of a few things.  Moves will be made to replace Starmer/they'll start talking about bringing in PR to try and stop Farage/rumours of deeper collaboration between Lab-Lib-Cons/They'll throw in the towel and call an election late 2026/early 2027.

Or of course they could just limp on delaying the inevitable.  

The issue with this government, is that they got in being “not the tories”.
 

So many people defected as they voted in protest at the stupid stuff and self harm they’d done. Partygate, bumbling Boris and then followed by the disaster of Liz Truss was the undoing. 
 

Dorries isn’t wrong when she says the Conservative Party is done either really, as they have no identity at the moment either. Badenoch isn’t exactly an inspirational leader and we all know that when it comes to general election time, people don’t look at policies, they tend to vote on charisma and headline sound bites. 
 

If this form of Labour collapses, we could in principle end up at the next general election with a far right in Reform, a far left in Corbyn, then Davey being a central option. 

[Sly]

7 minutes ago, urban.spaceman said:

I hope Reeves taxes these ***** into oblivion. 

I was kinda hoping she’d get shuffled out! 

[Sly]

8 minutes ago, urban.spaceman said:

It doesn’t look great! 

 

However, I guess one is tax evasion and the other is tax avoidance. 
 

Either way, it’s basically tax dodging and double standards. However, every media outlet runs like this and they’ll build everyone up with the left hand, to rip them down with the right. 

[st albans fox]

5 hours ago, Sly said:

It doesn’t look great! 

 

However, I guess one is tax evasion and the other is tax avoidance. 
 

Either way, it’s basically tax dodging and double standards. However, every media outlet runs like this and they’ll build everyone up with the left hand, to rip them down with the right. 

If you’re in public office then you shouldn’t be avoiding paying taxes  (which is legal). That should be part of the deal. 
if that means we have to pay those people a bit more then so be it.

it probably also means that we wouldn’t have wealthy people as public servants. 
 

for the rest of us that’s what nearly all of us would do.  Just because you have a few bob, doesn’t mean you don’t want to find ways around paying more tax. And that applies even more to those at the lower end. Although the amounts they save mean that there is no ‘industry’ created to assist them and the room for financial manoeuvre is limited in any case. 

[Tommy G]

5 hours ago, urban.spaceman said:

I hope Reeves taxes these ***** into oblivion. 

She will instead tax the working population into oblivion

[Lionator]

9 hours ago, MadsEmil said:

https://x.com/PolitlcsGlobal/status/1964066671687324159?t=Lo3sl68ee7l9O9vRuvT09Q&s=19 

 

 

Marinakis saying to let Putin keep parts of Ukraine... I know I shouldn't expect anything from a mafia boss but christ this is pathetic.

Marinakis profits from Russia, it’s not a surprise.

[Lionator]

This country is a joke how ministers can just move around posts. How can you ever have any long term planning or idea when you can just flip from Home Secretary to foreign Secretary? 

[kenny]

3 minutes ago, Lionator said:

This country is a joke how ministers can just move around posts. How can you ever have any long term planning or idea when you can just flip from Home Secretary to foreign Secretary? 

Lammy is odd, I thought he was doing ok as FS.

 

Yvette Cooper hadn't achieved much, but hadn't dropped any big clangers either.

[leicsmac]

7 hours ago, BlueSi13 said:

Yes, at the moment he's absolutely sailing in to Downing Street.

 

Poll of Polls:

Reform - 31%

Labour - 20%

Conservatives - 17%

Liberal Democrats - 14%

Greens - 9%

 

Based on electoral calculus that would give Reform 394 seats and a majority of 138.

 

Labour reduced to 97 MPs and Conservatives 28.  Effectively both facing extension level events.  BTW that is before Corbyn's new far-left party starts to eat in to the Labour vote even further.  

 

This Labour governments approval rating is the lowest on record.  Maurice Glasman said in July that Labour has 6 months to turn the ship around.  It's gotten worse since then.  

 

If Labour can't get a grip and continue to circle the economy around the drain come new year I predict one of a few things.  Moves will be made to replace Starmer/they'll start talking about bringing in PR to try and stop Farage/rumours of deeper collaboration between Lab-Lib-Cons/They'll throw in the towel and call an election late 2026/early 2027.

Or of course they could just limp on delaying the inevitable.  

 

 

 

There is no reason for a party with a current working majority of 170+ to call an election until they are legally obliged to do so, unless they have rebellions from within their own party to the degree that they can no longer pass legislation in Parliament. 

 

That being said, 2029 will still be a crunch time and speaking personally I still haven't heard of any idea exactly why at least some folks appear to actively want the "Years and Years" timeline, but with added crop pressures due to changing weather patterns popping up even sooner for additional entertainment. 

 

30 minutes ago, kenny said:

Lammy is odd, I thought he was doing ok as FS.

 

Yvette Cooper hadn't achieved much, but hadn't dropped any big clangers either.

Lammy did everyone a disservice by not sticking to his guns regarding members of the current US administration. Perhaps the new person will treat them more like the highly potential belligerent they are. 

Edited 6 September 2025 by leicsmac

[Dreadnought]

1 hour ago, Lionator said:

This country is a joke how ministers can just move around posts. How can you ever have any long term planning or idea when you can just flip from Home Secretary to foreign Secretary? 

The new deckchair layout on the Titanic looks pretty similar to the old one & it’s the same captain steering towards the iceberg!