In the news

quite self defeating in my opinion.

Depends on what you want to achieve.

For me, getting the tories out is more important than anything else. Not voting for Starmer means that the Tories will win. That would be defeat in my eyes.

And to be fair, you're not voting for starmer anyway, unless you live in Holborn.

Insane that this point needs to be made, given the recent history of the occupants of No 10.

60%????

So the majority of votes has no effect. Be interesting to read the article and methodology.

Also: You can join a political party and get rights to vote (fast just attend AGM and vote online is possible too) and propose motions if you have time for that.

Help canvassing, fund raising... I joined the GP NI. You also meet people, learn things.

FPTP is such a shit system though...with Stormont it's proportional voting at least.

It really leads to "if you don't vote for X then Y gets in" rather than "I vote in my order of preference according to my preference"

FFS, we’ve had 5 PMs in 6 years, all a degree of cunt and 3 not even via a general election, and still the key defining problem facing us is Starmer?

Priority has to be getting these venal bastards out as if they get yet another go enabled by opposition infighting (and, once their is an election announced the press will drive a wedge into any crack they can find, might not effect the decided but will definitely impact on the undecided) then either by incompetence or design, and likely a heady combination of both, and the way back gets exponentially harder.

Shit is real

^ all of this. I’d put in anyone else on the opposition front benches ahead of them at this stage. Proper, coordinated tactical voting is a must next time around, whatever the polls say.

Rees-Mogg arguing that the UK institutions are so woke and stacked against a tory Government it makes it impossible to deliver the peoples mandate, therefore we should have more referendums on leaving European Court of Human Rights and abolishing the Supreme Court
https://www.mailplus.co.uk/edition/comment/236074/why-holding-referendums-on-all-major-constitutional-change-will-stop-voters-wishes-being-thwarted-by-a-ruling-elite

Apparently PR and every vote counting is

It is less democratic, stealing power for the elite.

So with it being a few PMs since the last general election, we should surely have one to ensure the people's mandate is what we're focused on. Wonderful news!

No, no, no that is completely different. The electorate has voted for the party in government, and not a specific leader, therefore it is up to the party to decide it's leader(s).

We simply couldn't break with such a long established constitutional convention.

On a happier note after listening to the latest Oh God What Now I'm really worried about voter suppression actually becoming a real thing here.

I'd genuinely love to see what the public and government actually think the current mandate is. Does anyone really have a clue? Or care? Are we still getting brexit done?

It’s got legal implications- the Lords can’t vote against items on the manifesto (from which the party derives its mandate) IIRC.

Aka The Salisbury Convention .

can’t

Convention

That's the thing isn't it? In post-Johnson era a conventional is just something people used to worry about.

That would be really interesting.

For me Johnson's mandate was 3 things:

1. Get Brexit done
   
2. Level up
   
3. No Corbyn
   

Think he managed one of those successfully

I think they would argue by extension of get brexit done, is get control of the borders which is why they claim it is their priority

Also the 20k extra police and 50k extra nurses which they often quote as signs of delivering their manifesto

If we are going by manifesto pledges then

We will not raise the rate of income tax, VAT or National Insurance.

which doesn't seem to fit with

Everyone will have to pay more tax, says Hunt

The plan seems to be to freeze the allowances and the pay points at which you pay more tax until 2028, fiscal drag I gather its called as more people are dragged into higher tax brackets.

The pay point you pay the top rate is also being dropped, not that it affects me...

However, messing with Vat doesn't take money directly from pay packets which does break the manifesto

If we are going by manifesto pledges then

We will not raise the rate of income tax, VAT or National Insurance.

Sshhh, first rule of public mandate is we dont talk about broken pledges

We used to consider these conventions - the doctrine of the mandate, individual ministerial responsibility, collective cabinet responsibility - as tenets of our system of government. They were sacrosanct.

Maybe the whole unwritten constitution thing needs another look. I might do that later and let Rishi know what I think.

They just keep repeating “delivering for the British people” and that’s more than enough for me

So delivering, much winning

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There’s a big difference between winning an election I.e being a smoochving influence vampire/money vacuum and being a good politician. I’d starmer and rayner swapped places I think it could have real impact.

I think the problem is we haven’t seen many good politicians in gouverment for so long.

Hopefully the tide is turning.