this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2023
60 points (100.0% liked)

UK Politics

73 readers
4 users here now

General Discussion for politics in the UK.
Please don't post to both !uk_politics@feddit.uk and !unitedkingdom@feddit.uk .
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric politics, and should be either a link to a reputable news source for news, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread. (These things should be publicly discussed)

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

!ukpolitics@lemm.ee appears to have vanished! We can still see cached content from this link, but goodbye I guess! :'(

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives are facing their worst ever result at the general election and could be left with just 130 seats, according to Professor Sir John Curtice.

The country’s top polling guru warned of the bleak situation faced by the Tories as they head into winter with the news dominated by infighting over the prime minister’s Rwanda deportation plan.

top 23 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Jonny@kbin.social 17 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

honestly disappointed they'll get double digits, never mind into triple.

[–] Navarian@lemm.ee 14 points 11 months ago

130 is more than they deserve.

Hopefully they decide to support PR voting off the back of this, I'm not 'too' hopeful though, would be quite unlike them to do something that actually benefits the electorate.

[–] BurningRiver 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

So I’m a yank and might need help understanding this. Through Thatcher all the way through Brexit, this Rwanda deportation deal is the driving nail that makes everyone understand that the Tories are a bunch of cunts?

I’m trying to figure out how to get my country to understand that our conservatives are a bunch of nation wrecking cunts as well, so any guidance would be appreciated.

[–] FarceOfWill@infosec.pub 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

No that deal is helping them. It was having parties while no one was allowed to meet in COVID. Giving away money to mates for PPE that didn't work. Truss having 30 days in power and making the economy even worse. Massive inflation.

[–] GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk 3 points 11 months ago

I think of it like trying to squash a mattress with lots of small objects. The more objects that you put on, the more areas that are squashed, but there are still parts that haven't been compressed yet.

Similar thing with the politics, people don't change allegiances until it's a bombshell they care about.

[–] twinnie@feddit.uk 9 points 11 months ago (2 children)

However anyone feels about their performance they can’t simply do a better job between now and the election. The signs are there for everyone to see that it’s simply time to let someone else have a go.

[–] Emperor@feddit.uk 12 points 11 months ago (2 children)

They probably feel that, at a minimum they could spend the time ripping off as much as they can and laying traps for Labour to stumble into to give them a better chance of getting back in at the following election.

[–] Jaysyn@kbin.social 6 points 11 months ago

Yep. The GOP did the same thing & it seems to be working for them because people have the political attention spans of fruit flies.

[–] GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk 1 points 11 months ago

That's giving labour too much credit: To stumble into a trap, you have to actually come off the fence some time.

[–] apis 2 points 11 months ago

Of course, but there's a whole lot of destruction they wish to wreak before relinquishing power to make it all the harder for Labour to reverse the damage. They definitely don't want Labour to be able to get beyond reversing damage & onto instituting good things!

Meantime, they retain opportunities to carry on grifting until the next election.

Incompetence & bad ideas are one thing (governance is genuinely hard & complex after all), but they're not even operating in semi-reasonable faith.

[–] jabjoe@feddit.uk 8 points 11 months ago

Couldn't happen to a nicer party......

[–] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

the election isn't going to be like the polling suggests; it'll be a lot closer.

and regardless, it's just going to be the red tories replacing the blue tories so will anything really change? and i say this as a trans person.

[–] frazorth@feddit.uk 8 points 11 months ago (2 children)

and i say this as a trans person.

I'm not sure what this adds to your comment.

I completely disagree that it'll be "red Tories", his voting record is nothing like the "softer Tories". It just won't be as left as some people want.

All this doom and gloom about Starmer also plays right into the Tory smear playbook. If they can get everyone to talk about it then it doesn't matter how true or false it is. People who would have voted are now feeling "what's the point" and the Tories can win through disaffection.

Yeah it could be better with a different Labour leader, but fucking hell, it'll be a hell of a lot better than the past decade of rotating Tory failures we've had as PM.

Don't use headlines as basis for your opinion, use his voting record to show what he really believes.

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/25353/keir_starmer/holborn_and_st_pancras/votes

He has voted against restricting legal aid

He has voted against tuition fees.

He has voted against reducing welfare benefits

He has voted for increasing disability payments

That's not Tory.

[–] 15liam20@feddit.uk 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That's right. I was someone who fell into the "they're red tories" trap during the Blair years. We were spoilt and didn't know how good we had it.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Blair was New Labour, which I suppose you could call them, Tories Lite, but that's kind of unnuanced.

Regardless, "New Labour" essentially doesn't exist anymore.

[–] frazorth@feddit.uk 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Not "unnuanced", completely unjustified.

Even New Labour has absolutely no relationship to the Tories, spending on services went up, standards of living went up, child poverty went down, the economy grew, everyone was better off.

The only down point for the UK was during the global recession caused by the Americans, but that can't be blamed on Labour.

Then the Tories came back, cut everything, reduced taxes, and it all went to shit.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

The problem with that comparison is that the Tories have been shifting more and more right for a decade now.

New Labour was supposed to combat Tory classic, not this new branch of wingnuts. You know the Tories of the '90s they did at least recognize that welfare was something they had to spend money on.

[–] frazorth@feddit.uk 1 points 11 months ago

I'm not that young, I remember the 80's and 90's.

Relative poverty levels increased in the 80's, were fairly flat in the early 90's and decreased while New Labour was in power. Afterwards it flattened and has been increasing.

https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/improving-our-understanding-of-uk-poverty-will-require-better-data/

Just because Tory now is a complete and utter mess, doesn't make New Labour the same as Thatcher and Major.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Don't use headlines as basis for your opinion, use his voting record to show what he really believes.

It's always a bad idea to let one party form your opinion of the opposing party.

[–] paradiso@lemm.ee 1 points 11 months ago

If only more had your common sense.

[–] Emperor@feddit.uk 7 points 11 months ago
[–] echodot@feddit.uk 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

It's so easy to be a political pundit right now, anyone can do it.

The Tories are going to lose the next election says top political commentator, a.k.a. bloke from down the pub.

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 1 points 11 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


The country’s top polling guru warned of the bleak situation faced by the Tories as they head into winter with the news dominated by infighting over the prime minister’s Rwanda deportation plan.

With Labour enjoying a consistent polling lead of close to 20 points, Prof Curtice said voters appear to have “stopped listening” to the Tories on the big issues.

On the major split currently looming in response to Mr Sunak’s plans, Prof Curtice wrote: “Divided parties rarely prosper at the polls.

But cabinet minister Michael Gove insisted that Mr Sunak’s government is “not contemplating” holding an early general election if the Rwanda bill is voted down.

A group of unnamed Tory MPs have told The Mail on Sunday that they would like to get rid of Mr Sunak – with some even keen to bring back Boris Johnson as leader.

Dubbed the “pasta plotters”, a small group of anti-Sunak MPs and strategists were said to have met at an Italian restaurant to plan “an Advent calendar of s***” for the current Tory leader over the Rwanda issue this December.


The original article contains 630 words, the summary contains 176 words. Saved 72%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!