UK General Election 2024 (or 25)

[LeTiss]

We're an absolute laughing stock..... I was watching the Spanish news this morning and what was scrolling across the bottom...... "¿Puede Liz Truss vivir más que una lechuga?"

And the gist of the story was the prospect of bringing back a liar with no principals just to try and win back support.

The thing is Shaun.......I know Boris haters will find this hard to believe, but Boris remains the Tories best chance. He is still loved on the ground by a large part of their membership.
If he replaced Truss tomorrow, I guarantee Labour's price would immediately start to drift

[Derek27]

We're an absolute laughing stock..... I was watching the Spanish news this morning and what was scrolling across the bottom...... "¿Puede Liz Truss vivir más que una lechuga?"

And the gist of the story was the prospect of bringing back a liar with no principals just to try and win back support.

The thing is Shaun.......I know Boris haters will find this hard to believe, but Boris remains the Tories best chance. He is still loved on the ground by a large part of their membership.
If he replaced Truss tomorrow, I guarantee Labour's price would immediately start to drift

Electing the person you "love" is what got them into this mess in the first place.

[LeTiss]

I dispute that. The western world was not prepared for Covid at all. Regardless, of who was PM......Covid was a catastrophe. Lockdowns ruined our economy

The past 3 years have shown something......the easiest political job in the world is to be in opposition during a crisis. You can sit on the sidelines and sneer, bullshitting with the benefit of hindsight on how differently you would have done things, whilst having no accountability for the fantasies you spout, due to having no power

Many governments have been punished for how Covid affected the country. I don't think Trump would have lost without Covid, or Italy wouldn't have descended to the right. Australia changed their government too

[ShaunWhite]

You're right about Boris LeTiss, he's a vote winner .... But it's such a shame people vote for personalities rather than for policies or for people with integrity. It's as if they're voting on X-Factor rather than what's best for the country.

[greenmark]

We're an absolute laughing stock..... I was watching the Spanish news this morning and what was scrolling across the bottom...... "¿Puede Liz Truss vivir más que una lechuga?"

And the gist of the story was the prospect of bringing back a liar with no principals just to try and win back support.

The thing is Shaun.......I know Boris haters will find this hard to believe, but Boris remains the Tories best chance. He is still loved on the ground by a large part of their membership.
If he replaced Truss tomorrow, I guarantee Labour's price would immediately start to drift

That cannot possibly be true. They ousted him because he was damaging the Tories electability. The fact that Truss has managed to make the situation worse makes no difference. To re-elect BJ would confirm the Tory party as unelectable. There is such a thing as political credibility. That's the only reason Truss hasn't been removed already.

[greenmark]

At least Mr Hunt has been clear this morning on the radio.

“There is a black hole funding gap of £70 billion caused by Covid, War in Ukraine, Energy subsidies”

So, to the public, where do you want savings made ?

Personally I would start talking about the elephant in the room which everyone ignores. NHS is unworkable long term, designed in the 1940s based on population at the time. Nobody paid in enough money over consecutive governments.

Therefore, NHS should be means tested. Free for children, those on benefits, those of any age with household income less than £50,000.

Everyone else, by law must have private healthcare. Similar systems work in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and some European countries etc.

Yesterday, several Labour MPs said, given the funding gap, which will get worse, they won’t be able to do 1/3 of what they wanted to do discussed at their party conference and most people wouldn’t see the benefit of a Labour government for the next 6 years assuming they win the next 2 general elections.

Basically, people need to wake up and get real. The next multiple years are going to be bad whoever is in government, short, medium or long term.

Over to the keyboard economists who know better.

OK I'll bite .
The NHS is fine as a concept, it's the political will to fund and staff it correctly thats missing.
If you doubt me look at the decade or so of austerity when we apparently needed to cut spending to balance the books. Then mysteriouslywe found bilions to fund the covid response.
Poiliticians are liars. The money was there all along. Covid, Ukraine are exceptional events.
But we've coped with and since prospered after worse events ie WW2.

As I say it all comes down to political will. But I guess that means it's all down me and thee to ensure the politicians do the right thing.

We found billions to fund Covid by borrowing £470 billion @ 1.4% interest. That borrowing rate has now climbed to 4.9%. Which means nothing if your borrowing pennies but is crippling if you start borrowing £millions or £billions.

Now we borrowing more £billions to cap everyone and their dogs energy prices.

Mr Blair &Co created a UK full of fcuking snowflakes who expert the government to coming running to help if they fall over and scrape their knee.

God forbid we ever find ourselves in the situation Ukraine is in as half the country would run away crying for help.

This country needs to start growing a backbone. Life was very tough when I grew up in the 70s, 80s but we got on with it and got fcuk all help from those in power.

If you can’t make ends meet, get a job or better one like millions of others do. Listening to a program recently whereby a single mother is struggling with 5 children makes my blood boil and I for one refuse to fund her or her kids.

As my Nan once said, if you can’t afford one then keep your legs closed.

And as for those 2 yesterday throwing paint over an historic painting, then they lucky they didn’t do that kind of stuff when I was growing up as the courts would have sent them to a very unhappy place for re-education. Personally I would give them 20 strokes each of the birch and then throw them in a sea salt bath for fun.

Times are going to get very tough, wonder how many fcuking snowflakes will survive, probably best they just kill themselves but they won’t cause it will hurt no doubt.

We need a good war, send them all of, weak perish and die, strong come back and are welcome.

Might start my campaign going soon….

I agree there is a whole generation out there that have not experienced high interest rates and inflation. And I'm mystified by people believing the solution is to strike for more pay. History tells us that cannot work.
But they are now on the learning curve we went through thanks to Thatcher.
BTW where did you get the £470 billion figure from?
I thought the Dept of Health and Social Care budget was elevated by £80 billion over 2020-2022 by covid.

[Derek27]

You can sit on the sidelines and sneer, bullshitting with the benefit of hindsight on how differently you would have done things, whilst having no accountability for the fantasies you spout, due to having no power

Nobody's sneering with the benefit of hindsight. We all started sneering the moment Kwarteng announced he was scrapping the 45% tax rate. Even Sunak called it fantasy economics in the leadership contest. Just about everybody could see the fallacy except Truss and Kwarteng.

[greenmark]

Miriam Margolyes swears live on air about chancellor Jeremy Hunt

Actor, 81, told BBC’s Today programme she wished him luck in his new job but wanted to say ‘Fuck you, bastard’

Bless her, she's a force of nature that lady.

[Archangel]

What this country needs is proportional representation.

For about 90% of the time since 1935 we've had single-party 'majority' governments, but not one of them had the support of a majority of voters. The Conservatives currently hold a majority of seats with just 43.6% of the votes. In the 2019 election they gained an extra 48 seats despite an increase of only 1.2% of the vote share. Almost since the first general election, politicians who most of us didn't vote for and don't agree with have had the power to govern the UK however they like.

Until we get PR, nothing will change

[Derek27]

What this country needs is proportional representation.

For about 90% of the time since 1935 we've had single-party 'majority' governments, but not one of them had the support of a majority of voters. The Conservatives currently hold a majority of seats with just 43.6% of the votes. In the 2019 election they gained an extra 48 seats despite an increase of only 1.2% of the vote share. Almost since the first general election, politicians who most of us didn't vote for and don't agree with have had the power to govern the UK however they like.

Until we get PR, nothing will change

Agree, I've always been for PR.

But it's Saturday afternoon guys, we should be trading.

[Archery1969]

OK I'll bite .
The NHS is fine as a concept, it's the political will to fund and staff it correctly thats missing.
If you doubt me look at the decade or so of austerity when we apparently needed to cut spending to balance the books. Then mysteriouslywe found bilions to fund the covid response.
Poiliticians are liars. The money was there all along. Covid, Ukraine are exceptional events.
But we've coped with and since prospered after worse events ie WW2.

As I say it all comes down to political will. But I guess that means it's all down me and thee to ensure the politicians do the right thing.

We found billions to fund Covid by borrowing £470 billion @ 1.4% interest. That borrowing rate has now climbed to 4.9%. Which means nothing if your borrowing pennies but is crippling if you start borrowing £millions or £billions.

Now we borrowing more £billions to cap everyone and their dogs energy prices.

Mr Blair &Co created a UK full of fcuking snowflakes who expert the government to coming running to help if they fall over and scrape their knee.

God forbid we ever find ourselves in the situation Ukraine is in as half the country would run away crying for help.

This country needs to start growing a backbone. Life was very tough when I grew up in the 70s, 80s but we got on with it and got fcuk all help from those in power.

If you can’t make ends meet, get a job or better one like millions of others do. Listening to a program recently whereby a single mother is struggling with 5 children makes my blood boil and I for one refuse to fund her or her kids.

As my Nan once said, if you can’t afford one then keep your legs closed.

And as for those 2 yesterday throwing paint over an historic painting, then they lucky they didn’t do that kind of stuff when I was growing up as the courts would have sent them to a very unhappy place for re-education. Personally I would give them 20 strokes each of the birch and then throw them in a sea salt bath for fun.

Times are going to get very tough, wonder how many fcuking snowflakes will survive, probably best they just kill themselves but they won’t cause it will hurt no doubt.

We need a good war, send them all of, weak perish and die, strong come back and are welcome.

Might start my campaign going soon….

I agree there is a whole generation out there that have not experienced high interest rates and inflation. And I'm mystified by people believing the solution is to strike for more pay. History tells us that cannot work.
But they are now on the learning curve we went through thanks to Thatcher.
BTW where did you get the £470 billion figure from?
I thought the Dept of Health and Social Care budget was elevated by £80 billion over 2020-2022 by covid.

If you include furlough, business loans, eat out scheme, working from home tax benefit plus other schemes plus the £80 billion you mentioned. And daily interest adding to the debt.

Everyone thought it was very generous, it was, even some moaned it should have gone further.

Some financial analysts said it was utter madness and would become a massive issue for current and future governments to pay back.

However, personally I am glad they did it. But people have short memories. Who else would pay you 80% of your salary for sitting at home for months doing nothing.

People need to start getting real and growing up fast. We in the shit big time and it’s going to get worse and be very painful for millions. Problem is there ain’t no money left and borrowing more is a complete non starter.

[greenmark]

We found billions to fund Covid by borrowing £470 billion @ 1.4% interest. That borrowing rate has now climbed to 4.9%. Which means nothing if your borrowing pennies but is crippling if you start borrowing £millions or £billions.

Now we borrowing more £billions to cap everyone and their dogs energy prices.

Mr Blair &Co created a UK full of fcuking snowflakes who expert the government to coming running to help if they fall over and scrape their knee.

God forbid we ever find ourselves in the situation Ukraine is in as half the country would run away crying for help.

This country needs to start growing a backbone. Life was very tough when I grew up in the 70s, 80s but we got on with it and got fcuk all help from those in power.

If you can’t make ends meet, get a job or better one like millions of others do. Listening to a program recently whereby a single mother is struggling with 5 children makes my blood boil and I for one refuse to fund her or her kids.

As my Nan once said, if you can’t afford one then keep your legs closed.

And as for those 2 yesterday throwing paint over an historic painting, then they lucky they didn’t do that kind of stuff when I was growing up as the courts would have sent them to a very unhappy place for re-education. Personally I would give them 20 strokes each of the birch and then throw them in a sea salt bath for fun.

Times are going to get very tough, wonder how many fcuking snowflakes will survive, probably best they just kill themselves but they won’t cause it will hurt no doubt.

We need a good war, send them all of, weak perish and die, strong come back and are welcome.

Might start my campaign going soon….

I agree there is a whole generation out there that have not experienced high interest rates and inflation. And I'm mystified by people believing the solution is to strike for more pay. History tells us that cannot work.
But they are now on the learning curve we went through thanks to Thatcher.
BTW where did you get the £470 billion figure from?
I thought the Dept of Health and Social Care budget was elevated by £80 billion over 2020-2022 by covid.

If you include furlough, business loans, eat out scheme, working from home tax benefit plus other schemes plus the £80 billion you mentioned. And daily interest adding to the debt.

Everyone thought it was very generous, it was, even some moaned it should have gone further.

Some financial analysts said it was utter madness and would become a massive issue for current and future governments to pay back.

However, personally I am glad they did it. But people have short memories. Who else would pay you 80% of your salary for sitting at home for months doing nothing.

People need to start getting real and growing up fast. We in the shit big time and it’s going to get worse and be very painful for millions. Problem is there ain’t no money left and borrowing more is a complete non starter.

There's actually a load of money left. It's how it's distributed that matters.
Poor people are going to suffer as they have no room for manoeuvere.
A relative of mine has begun trying to save on energy, but still buys wine between £8 and £22 a bottle. Thinks nothing of trotting out and buying £100 of lighting. Recessions don't hit people in the same way at all.
We all share the same space and the benefits of technological advances aren't really being shared. We will all suffer if this continues. Who want's to live in a society of have's looking over their shoulder and have nots who have nothing to lose by stealing things they can't afford?

[Archery1969]

I agree there is a whole generation out there that have not experienced high interest rates and inflation. And I'm mystified by people believing the solution is to strike for more pay. History tells us that cannot work.
But they are now on the learning curve we went through thanks to Thatcher.
BTW where did you get the £470 billion figure from?
I thought the Dept of Health and Social Care budget was elevated by £80 billion over 2020-2022 by covid.

If you include furlough, business loans, eat out scheme, working from home tax benefit plus other schemes plus the £80 billion you mentioned. And daily interest adding to the debt.

Everyone thought it was very generous, it was, even some moaned it should have gone further.

Some financial analysts said it was utter madness and would become a massive issue for current and future governments to pay back.

However, personally I am glad they did it. But people have short memories. Who else would pay you 80% of your salary for sitting at home for months doing nothing.

People need to start getting real and growing up fast. We in the shit big time and it’s going to get worse and be very painful for millions. Problem is there ain’t no money left and borrowing more is a complete non starter.

There's actually a load of money left. It's how it's distributed that matters.
Poor people are going to suffer as they have no room for manoeuvere.
A relative of mine has begun trying to save on energy, but still buys wine between £8 and £22 a bottle. Thinks nothing of trotting out and buying £100 of lighting. Recessions don't hit people in the same way at all.
We all share the same space and the benefits of technological advances aren't really being shared. We will all suffer if this continues. Who want's to live in a society of have's looking over their shoulder and have nots who have nothing to lose by stealing things they can't afford?

Labour and others might disagree. There was a news program on Friday morning with some of there MPs looking at the economic figures. One of them looked like he was about to start crying. The real mess is obviously being covered up.

[Archery1969]

Predictions show the US is going to be in a severe recession by the end of this year after already suffering 2 negative quarters. It will then spread rapidly around the world, 2023 is going to be a long and painful recession affecting millions as many will lose their jobs. That will pile more pressure onto the government purse.

If you don’t believe me then look at recent articles in the FT, Bloomberg and Forbes. The guy who forecast the 2008 financial crash has said the UK is in for one hell of a rough ride after leaving the EU and no longer can borrow money at effectively 0% from the European Central Bank.

What better time for Putin to strike other areas…

[Derek27]

A relative of mine has begun trying to save on energy, but still buys wine between £8 and £22 a bottle.

It's pointless buying a case of beer or bottles of wine if you don't use it to wash down food you've cooked in your oven for two hours. I even splash out on the cat when I'm having a drink.