Watching our rulers

Watching Jess Phillips gloss over the bungs for clobber and specs on GMB the other day demonstrated exactly why these people are despised by normal* people.

From 4 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iF94gLYlU4

*’Normal’ these days equals far right. Right?

Technically Labour have a 167 seat majority. In reality it is well over 500 (maybe even 600) as the Lib Dem’s, snps and most of the dripping wet conservatives lack the balls to even attempt to oppose despite endlessly bullshitting about how different things would be if only they were (still) in charge. They are impregnable for the next five years even if/when the Muslim element notionally breaks away from the main party.

Soft-soaping the current electorate isn’t even on the agenda. This is all about repaying favours, shamelessly enriching yourself without fear of consequence and ensuring the endless supply of new diverse voters is never interrupted.

Labour is not as impregnable as its majority would suggest. The level of dissent within its own ranks as well as the threat from the wider corbynite tendency pose a distinct threat. There is a limit to what the electorate will accept by way of incompetence and authoritarianism and Starmer will face his Ceausescu ‘moment on the balcony’ long before 2029.

Matt: «Be careful what you wish for…»

Just so. But flying in the face of Theo’s admonitions I got what I expected (which I grant is not the same as desired) only I got it very much quicker because I didn’t allow for the speed with which Starmer’s govt would hurry down the pan.

Starmer will be encouraged to stand aside in due course to be replaced by another political cipher (Lammy? Ed the Loon?) who will have an even shorter innings. Labour MPs will be at each others’ and the government’s throats, the Unions will rebel and the electorate will demonstrate, work to rule, ignore the law.

Mayhem and fresh elections.

I’ve long suspected that once the PPE mob moved in, they turned out to be more than a bit shit at doing the actual P, P and E. Theoretical knowledge only.

Seems like large majorities, producing long run ministries, have a particular failure mode. So does the SPAD/intern/researcher route to candidacy, and all the parachuting. I reckon they’ve just collided.

I’d assumed that Millbank are still operating the Rapid Rebuttal Unit – maybe they’ve had to ditch all their pagers?

Ottokring,

“Growth of extremisr/populist partues”

The thing in British politics, from the mid-60s to Cameron is that there’s always been a party that appealed to the public out of Labour or Conservative. Maybe because they had a programme for useful infrastructure and services, or because they were going to cut waste and taxes. Someone was in touch with the public. It’s why 3rd parties barely existed. One of the two parties could broadly appeal to a huge chunk of the electorate.

If you look at things like immigration, or HS2, the current situation on both is supported by both parties, in the face of not only national opposition, but even within their own voters, or most demographics. Conservative voters really prioritise dealing with immigration, but Labour voters also rate it as one of their most important issues. The only group that supports these things is the Lib Dems, which makes me conclude that both main parties are basically LDs. To add to the LDs already there. Which has left this huge vacuum in politics that is going to Reform.

They just won an 80-seat majority on 20% of the electorate. They know – that is, they think – they can do what they like for the next four years and start the soft-soaping again, if necessary, in 2028.

The trouble with “you get what you vote for” is that it assumes everyone does vote for something. 40% of us, two fifths of the entire electorate, didn’t vote at all. So their “consent” is ”presumed”. That is, as we used to say, a diabolical liberty. Nobody asks why they didn’t. Nobody who needs to know seems to want to know.

If turnout was down to two men and a dog, they’d be fighting over Fido’s vote instead of asking what the hell was going on.

I’ve long suspected that once the PPE mob moved in, they turned out to be more than a bit shit at doing the actual P, P and E. Theoretical knowledge only.
You can trace it back much further than that. The Oxford grad Clement Atlee gave the country the disastrous NHS & Welfare State.

@ BiS

I actually see a lot of tradesmen who can’t think one step ahead in their work and end up redoing parts when it dawns on them they’ve not planned it. Of course, they won’t take your input as it offends their “professionalism”.

Could be the case that I’ve only experienced piss poor tradespeople (and I wouldn’t disagree) but they are the one’s most people are stuck with.

You do see people like that, Joe. They’re the ones not making much money out of what they’re doing.* Or missing the odd finger. In other words they’re not practical people. Should take a shot at politics.

*Looking at their vehicle can be a tell. Time’s money & running an old piece of shit will inevitably cost time.

The far right see the poor as parasites and criminals. The far right are the potential tyrants who would torture innocent people for disagreeing with them. Keep the far right out of power.

I’ll bet Nigel can’t believe his luck. First the Tories commit political suicide and now Labour seems to be having a “hold my beer” moment to show that they can implode even faster than the Tories.

If, and I think its a big if, Reform can start to put a national organisation in place and demonstrate competence rather than imploding in internal squabbles as Ukip did, they should have a real shot at becoming a big national player by 2029, maybe with not very many seats but a much bigger vote share.

There was an article on DW that the AfD had its best turnout ever in Brandenburg, which is a bit misleading because the AfD only formed in 2014 and they got 29.2% of the vote. BSW took 13.5% from a standing start.

Everywhere that the established parties ignore the electorate they get a damned good kicking and it won’t be different here.

AtFR

And so what ?

In Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg the AfD won 30% of the vore each time on > 70% turnouts. They were only prevented from winning Brandenburg by massive tactical voting. The peoplewho vote are the ones who count.

But that is probably immaterial to you.

The AfD and BSW are exactly what happen when you have idiots in charge.

AtFR
Excellent! They should know what to do with socialists, then. When do they open the camps so we can go watch & cheer?

AtFR,

How do you imagine the AfD seizing power on 30% of the vote?

Bind- it depends on the voting system. I am not educated on how the elections work in German states.
But i know labour won a massive majority on 33 per cent of the vote. That was due to tactical voting. Tactical voting normally only works when there is a democratic demand for it.
1. So a party hated by the majority could lose due to tactical voting despite having the largest minority of supporters.
So a party that has less supporters naturally thqn another party, may have its vote inflated by supporters of other parties to put it above the party the vast majority hate.
2. In the UK voters may vote for the anti Tory parties to keep the Tory Party out. So a party with only 33 per cent of the vote ends up with a huge majority.

Famous socialists include Helen Keller, Tony Benn, Robert Owen, Michael Moore, Aneurin Bevan, Nelson Mandela, George Orwell, Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Einstein, Jürgen Klopp, Bill Shankly, Alex Ferguson, Keir Hardie. Would you be so evil as to torture all of them?
Oh and what about Ronald Reagan who was a Democrat at first.
So would you have supported Reagan being killed even though he later became right wing?

I am sure I read John Redwood was once a socialist. And look at Luke Anderson the former Labour member who Is now in Reform.
Would you call for them to be tortured on the basis they have been socialist?
I am against tyranny and torture.

George Orwell might have been on the wrong side in the Civil War but he seemed to see sense later. As for the rest of your list, I’m utterly indifferent. Apart from Ronnie who was Democrat not a red & Albert, where there’s no evidence whatsoever he was a socialist. Why should I shed any tears over the murdering terrorist Mandela? Or football morons?
Peace & democracy? Blair?

The AfD have a blocking minority in both Thüringen and Brandenburg. Hooray!
Ludicrous coalitions of the “protectors of democracy” from which the FDP and Greens are excluded will lead to the demise of Scholz’s traffic light government before Christmas.
And what’s wrong with being proud of one’s country’s soldiers – the squaddies don’t choose the wars, they just pay the price.

Against the far right said:
“BiS – You have been warped by the industry you work in”

Gosh, I didn’t realise plumbing was so dangerous.

BTW

The Germans and Austrian have a mixed system

One votes directly for constituency MPs which make up about half the seats. The rest are determined by party lists. They have the same system in Jock and Taff Assemblies.

In Brandenburg the AfD and SPD both won the same number of diectly voted seats.

So great was the collapse of the other parties, that only the AfD, SPD ( neck and neck ) the CDU and BSW ( neck and neck ) are represented in the Landtag in Potsdam.

There is no such thing as an innocent socialist. As Steve so rightly says, a relatively painless end is being remarkably lenient. Seriously though. Considering the millions & millions of needless deaths the various strands of socialism have caused, sacrificing a few for the many is a more than fair trade.

@RichardT
It was the word “work” I found most disturbing. Once I’d searched my memory for its meaning. I think my staff here may occasionally do some. I’ll have to ask.

I am very much un-keen on any religion. I live with the consequences of one & am probably far more aware of the damage they do than you could ever be.
The Paddies created their own genocide by outbreeding their secure food supply. Why should anyone else be responsible for their laziness? And no British died in Indian famines.
Try it.
I don’t want to punish socialsts. I want to eradicate socialists. For being socialists. Vile creed.
Only a psychopath could be a socialist. Repeatedly proven by history

Bis – you are distracting the argument. Throwing sh** at the camera.
You say all socialists should be killed because of the actions of some socialists.
So explain to me do you think all British right wingers should be killed, because of the 100 million deaths caused by the British right wing Empire?
What is the difference in logic?
I do not support punishing all socialists or all British right wingers. DO YOU?

If you want to defeat capitalism, then throw your systems open to free markets. If the capitalists are taking the piss, say 15% on top, then there is plenty of margin for a worker-owned coop, local authority enterprise, member-owned coop, charity or any other not for profit ownership model to undercut them by let’s say charging customers less and paying staff more to nick their customers and also their best staff.
Under socialism that process is illegal, and the country turns to schit killing thousands everywhere it’s been tried.

BIS – That is a warped and dangerous way of thinking.
And let me assure you with the business you are in, you would not last two minutes in any tyranny. You have no self awareness at all.
I can see you thanking and praising your far right torturers.