General Election 2024

Lol

You’re starting to sound like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUc2W1yyYDE

Nigel, is that you?

😂

On one hand, the Dead Kenendys influence is obvious, and I'm a supporter. On the other hand:

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The chocolate industry is a weird hill to die on.

Beta behaviour

yorkies gonna yorkie

I don’t use the ignore button often but the last few pages are triggering.

I was not aware that York was once known as "Chocolate City" and "a thick chocolate dust would cover every surface as it erupted from the city’s chocolate factories"

Never been to watch football at Bootham Kitkat Crescent?

My grandmother and her sisters all worked in the chocolate industry in York, although she left when she got married and moved south. I used to love visiting my great aunts when I was a kid, as you'd be guaranteed to leave with a big bag of chocolate.

Sounds delicious

I've never understood why as people come of age why they are not automatically added to the Electoral Register.

This is an excellent idea.

I wonder if he knows the history of Clifford's Tower. If so, putting a building which is famous for hosting a pogrom on your leaflet seems a, er, 'brave' choice.

NONE of the political parties represent what typical people want - am I wrong ?

Define "typical people". British Social Attitudes survey seems to indicate that mainstream politics is less progressive than the population. If you want to pick a random party it's the Greens. Bar air travel they have one of the most genuinely voter led manafestos.

In terms of the issues Reform is not actually on the pulse of anything. Immigration is on par with International Conflict, and I dare say that if the media reflected the actual reality and the HO had been handing processing as effectively as they had under Cameron it would register even lower.

On the 3 top issues, by any reasonable analysis Reform would be catastrophic. Every policy that have that touches those three would fuck them up even more that the last 3 PMs have.

the most commonly reported issues were: the cost of living (87%), the NHS (86%) and the economy (70%); other commonly reported issues were climate change and the environment (61%), housing (55%), crime (55%), immigration (51%), and international conflict (50%).

'Shaking up' things via Brexit has actually increased the worst behaviour in politicians. Whatever you think about Cameron and May it seems unlikely that you would have seen the depths of corruption and dishonesty since.

The only vote that will shake up the system into something that listens to the people is a strong "non of the above" voice, and that appears to be Reform.

I will give you one thing though, a constant is the British public's desire for higher spending on public services without having to pay for it. In that sense Reform's Truss-like unfunded tax cuts and public service improvements do share some ground with the typical person's delusions.

Tl;Dr yes you are wrong

^I concur, I’d say a vote for Reform was absolutely a vote for the continuation of the last 14 years, but with less competent people and more obvious lunacy.

It is a true story: being denied leaflets/data/logons to systems etc. is standard practice when you're fighting an election with very limited resources (donations this time round have been significantly lower than expected for both parties, although Labour are doing better).

The Tories are doing the same thing and it makes sense - you divert your resources to where they will make the most difference. Labour has calculated that between Reform and the Tories they don't have a chance in Clacton, so they aren't going to waste resources on it because the candidate is a bit hot on the socials.

There is one real aim and it's to win nationally. This may seem harsh but Jovan Owusu-Nepaul is effectively a paper candidate and would have known this when he was selected. This is just noise.

I used to work in the HP and Karl Turner’s office was down the corridor from my MP and he used to visit all the time. I think he has had some controversies since I was there but I really liked him at the time. He was the only MP I met that I could tell viscerally hated the tories.

I had to leave because I couldn’t stand having to pass Cameron etc in corridors without being able to say anything and I could tell he had exactly the same mindset.

I'd like to think that there's a shared objective for all major parties in denying Farage a seat, in which pulling out might enable your supporters to vote tory tactically (which is a bad situation to be in).

The chocolate industry is a weird hill to die on.

Chocolate (and sweets) are important in York. Nestlé (nee Rowntree Mackintosh) is still the biggest employer:
https://www.rowntreesociety.org.uk/explore-rowntree-history/rowntree-a-z/nestle-york/

That comes back to the national picture though - never admit you can't win is a golden rule in election campaigns (albeit one Grant Shapps apparently wasn't aware of). Plus locally party members won't appreciate not having a candidate to select/get behind/vote for.

Well this has been illuminating. Coming from Brum I didn't realise there were other centres of chocolate making. Brainwashed by big Dairy Milk.

And I welcome other voices to what can be a bit of an echo chamber. Though also what everyone else has said about Reform really not being any kind of reasonable or sensible alternative. Dammit is on the money with what they would do to the country. Thankfully that will not happen.

Terry's was also based in York (although unfortunately not anymore).

When I was growing up as a kid everyone had friends or family who worked at one or the other and had stockpiles of misshapes that would get handed out.

It still smells of chocolate on certain days from rowntrees / nestle. No chocolate dust though sadly.