General Election 2024

Well they're unlikely to be working class*, and I doubt the upper class do anything as gauche as earning money.

*unless they're a trade - although it's possible that statically they tend to earn exactly £12,570, so will be unaffected.

As much as I'd like to rejoin, I don't want any chat about EU membership. It's a pointless distraction.

I would obvs like some grownup acknowledgement of the impact tho.

EU membership would come at a significant cost.

It's very unlikely we'd be able to have the same concessions as we had before Brexit, and we'd probably be forced to agree to adopt the Euro, which may not make complete sense.

Whether this "cost" is more, the same but different, or less than the knock-on effects of Brexit is another matter.

EU membership would come at a significant cost.

There not going to even talk to us until it's an uncontested issue in the country.

I'm still of the view that it's be the Tories that will start the process after they've lost the next 2 elections.

Given that, as pointed out above, rejoining will mean abandoning GBP, it will he a LONG time til the country will be close to ready for a winnable referendum on it.

The pig fucker fucked us good and proper.

I love this sense of British exceptionalism that it's up to us to decide when we want to rejoin the EU.

That had me snigger too.

They said they'd remove uni tuition fees then tripled them. They can't be trusted.

Their coalition performance didn’t exactly endear themselves to me though I’m glad a party has nailed their flag to the mast regarding the European/Brexit elephant in the room.

Well not deciding whether or not to rejoin is a pretty hard block.

There's other ways of getting back a closer, more sensible and non-ruinous relationship with the EU without full rejoining. Hopefully those are what will be explored in the coming few years.

Can someone enlighten me why the euro wouldn’t be good or straight forward?

Asides from being a massive project, the BoE dies as does our ability to control rates.

why the euro wouldn’t be good or straight forward?

Were you here in 2016?

Can you imagine Farage and Cummings campaigning on a "save the Great British Pound" platform, alongside your common or garden "immigrant invasion will rape your bully xl" racism?

Simplification incoming:

The euro zone crisis was exasperated for particular countries because they had no control over their monetary policy (while still controlling fiscal policy). This resulted in countries locked into policies out of step with those that would have been in their best interests. I.e., poorer countries with currencies that were overvalued compared to their domestic reality.

This is of course also true at the national level. The North is less well off than the South in the UK, but there are fiscal policies to (try and) correct this. Be it redistribution of wealth through things like the NHS or other welfare programmes, or larger policies to support regional development (the Northern Powerhouse).

However, the eurozone doesn't have a unified fiscal policy. There's no real mechanism that allows for redistribution of the eurozone's international wealth at scale (regional development funds exist, but these aren't the same thing). So countries can get fucked (historically it's been the smaller, poorer countries).

I'm sure someone can add more flesh to that.

Another example's come to mind actually (but it comes down to the same fiscal vs monetary problem): Ireland's tax policy (fiscal) is impacting the way in which the ECB tries to manage it's monetary policy:

“When more iPhones roll off production lines in China [...] it is hard to believe such shifts could seriously distort Europe’s economic data. But they do. In fact, they do so frequently…

So much of the revenue these companies record in their Irish units comes from activities that provide few jobs or incomes for residents of Ireland or of anywhere else in Europe. Yet they still have a massive impact on perceptions about how the region’s economy is performing…

The latest example came when eurozone industrial production figures, published this month by the EU’s statistics arm Eurostat, showed month-on-month growth of 0.5 per cent in June, confounding analysts’ expectations for a slight decline.”

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2023/08/23/irelands-wild-data-is-leaving-economists-stumped/

Reform candidate Hugo Miller in Horsham reckons black americans - should feel “gratitude” for being allowed to integrate into white America.

https://x.com/hopenothate/status/1794053852989214777/photo/1

She's a fucking extremist in my book..

Farage has said he's looking forward to her joining Reform after the election.

This I understand, economies are not my strong point I have many things to focus on somethings have to be dropped, so thanks this makes actual sense versus the brexit wank chat.

I desired actual reasons.

I’m aware Hungary, second home, aren’t in because it’s too strong but in a strong economy we should be able to balance it no.

That Sky interview transcript:

Rishi Sunak: "... two days I've participated in a number of events in Portsmouth and France to honor those who risked their lives to defend our freedom and our values 80 years ago. The itinerary for these events was set weeks ago before the start of the general election campaign, and having participated in all the British events with British veterans, I returned home before the international leaders' event later in the day. On reflection, that was a mistake, and I apologize. I think it's important though, given the enormity of the sacrifice made, that we don't politicize this. The focus should rightly be on the veterans who gave so much. I had the honor and privilege of speaking to many of them and their families, hearing their stories, expressing my gratitude personally to them. But I'm someone who will always admit when I've made a mistake. That's what you'll always get from me."

Interviewer: "I have to say, Prime Minister, you sound more exasperated than apologetic. These men made the ultimate sacrifice, and you couldn't even sacrifice a whole afternoon. Ken Hay, a 98-year-old D-Day veteran told us that you let the country down. Is he right?"

Rishi Sunak: "I participated in events both in Portsmouth and in France over two days because this is an incredibly important moment for our country to commemorate the sacrifice of all of those and their service, and it was a real honor and a privilege to meet many veterans and speak to them and their families, hear their stories, express my gratitude to them, and build on our record of making sure that this is the best country in the world for veterans."

Interviewer: "But honestly, you didn't care, did you?"

Rishi Sunak: "No, I I cared deeply."

Interviewer: "So why didn't you stay?"

Rishi Sunak: "As I said, the itinerary for these events was set weeks ago before the general election campaign. I participated in events both in Portsmouth and in France, and having fully participated in all the British events with British veterans, I returned home before the international leaders' event. That was a mistake, and I apologize for that. But I will always be proud of our record in supporting veterans here in the UK. We have a dedicated office for veterans' affairs, the first veterans minister sitting in cabinet, and a range of programs to support them with health, housing, employment needs. That's something that I've worked very personally on because it's personally important to me. And as I said yesterday and the day before, I had the privilege of speaking with many veterans and their families to express my personal gratitude to them for their service to our country and to honor what they and their colleagues have done for us."

Interviewer: "I'm told your team considered canceling your attendance at the entire event yesterday. Your team denies this. I'm told by sources that denial is a flat lie. So can you clarify for viewers, did you or anyone around you ever consider skipping the Normandy commemorations?"

Rishi Sunak: "That's simply not right. The itinerary for these events was set weeks ago before the general election campaign. Of course, I was always scheduled to participate both in Portsmouth and in France. I was proud and privileged to do so, to have the honor of meeting with many veterans and their families to express my personal gratitude for everything that they've done for our country, to honor their service, their sacrifice, and ensure that our young generation learns from their example, hears the stories, to understand what has happened before so that we might live today in freedom. It was a great and humbling privilege for me to spend time with all the families. As I said, after the all the British events and all the British veterans that I spoke to, those events had finished, I returned home to the UK before the international leaders' event later in the day. On reflection, that was a mistake, and I apologize for that. But I'm very happy to admit when I've made a mistake. That's what you'll always get from me."

Interviewer: "One of the Conservative candidates standing in this election for the party that you lead has just told me your actions show a disdain for the armed forces and disdain for them and their colleagues. They say you don't understand patriotism. I'm told some were in tears at the way you're running this campaign. What do you say to them?"

Rishi Sunak: "I think people can judge me by my actions when it comes to supporting the armed forces. In this campaign, it's the Conservative party led by me which is increasing the amount of investment that we're putting into our armed forces to two and a half percent of GDP. That's not something that's been matched by the Labour party. So there is a clear choice about backing our armed forces, and it's also me as Prime Minister that's made sure we have the first ever dedicated veterans minister in cabinet with a dedicated office for veterans' affairs, which we have fully funded to support veterans, whether it's with their mental or physical health, with housing, with employment opportunities. And that's something that I'm personally committed to, and my track record demonstrates that."

Interviewer: "We're in an election campaign. Keir Starmer managed to stay for the whole event. You didn't. What does that say about your judgment, your priorities, and your character?"

Rishi Sunak: "As I said, the itinerary for this set of events was set weeks ago before the election campaign even began. So I don't think it's right to politicize these things. I stuck to the itinerary that had been set for me as Prime Minister weeks ago before the election, fully participated, expressed my gratitude to the veterans-"

Interviewer: "So no shame at all? No shame at all?"

Rishi Sunak: "As I said, on reflection, it was a mistake not to stay longer, and I've apologized for that. But I also don't think it's right to be political in the midst of D-Day commemorations. The focus should rightly be on the veterans and their service and sacrifice for our country."

Interviewer: "The veterans who are saying that you're letting the country down, are they politicizing this?"

Rishi Sunak: "I've apologized for not staying longer. On reflection, that was a mistake. I did have the privilege and the pleasure of meeting many, many veterans and their families over the course of the past two days and expressing to them my personal gratitude for everything that they have done, hearing from their stories, and making sure that right now, we are getting veterans across the country all the support they need, whether it's with housing, health, employment opportunities. That's something I think is very important, something I've championed from the first moment I became Prime Minister, and our track record on that is clear for everyone to see."

it's only by viewing it that Rishi Sunak's robotic lack of feeling,
emotion or recognition truly sinks in.

https://x.com/edwinhayward/status/1799058928732705145

All for the conservative bashing but it’s shit journalism continuing to push this d-day thing. It’s not like you learn anything if you keep pressing on this and they’ll just keep giving the same answer.

Been bed bound today with bbc news on and they’ve been at it all day on this too. I know if it was the other way round and it had been Starmer the press would have blown up in a frenzy, but fucking hell I wish the bbc would at least raise its game.

Their interview with daisy cooper this morning was embarrassingly shit too. Was breakfast news tho so to be expected.

If he'd got in a fist fight with Tom Hanks at the service it still wouldn't be in the top 50 worst things he's done.