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Or he's genuinely frightened because the money men want their returns

This is the problem with R4 and the Today programme in particular. They invite total wingnuts from shadowy so-called thinktanks with dubious funding arrangements on and allow them to spout their deranged theories unchallenged. Unless they're lefties. Then they get the full interruption/grilling/scoffing treatment. It's got so bad I stopped listening.

Bridgen’s Wikipedia page illustrates what a toxic cunt he is https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Bridgen

And look at the photo, fancies himself as a modern day Oliver Tobias

Which Keith has already said he will ignore, because of course

He might be just ignoring it, but if he says, Yes I'm going to put in PR if elected the Mail etc will go totally nuts, I'll be on the front page for months with all kinds of bullshit they'd consider it existential threat to the tory's and Brexit.

There's no point in nailing his flag to mast this far out from the election.

Oakeshitt has already come out cheering for PR though - assume this means Tice sees an opportunity for the grift with a new extreme right effort?

I knew he was bad, but reading that is incredible - you could understand why they'd hide him on the backbenches, not why they'd send him out to bat for them.

Funny how everything that’s happening now is exactly what all the sensible types in the press told us would happen in 2017 and 2019 if we elected a mildly socialist government. Good job we dodged that bullet, huh?

Relatedly, I wonder if we see any of Truss’ vocal backers in the press eating humble shit now that her reign has exploded in record time? Given how many mea culpas were issued by Johnson’s backers when his obviously doomed from the start premiership fell apart, I’m going to guess the number of hacks to hold their hands up and admit to getting this one wrong will be approximately zero.

I'd say given the at-least-two-decades-long track record of hacks screaming for stuff they want, getting what they want then it all going to shit and it not being anyone's fault and them asking 'how did it come to this?' is all the evidence you need that there will be zero mea culpas dished out by them now or ever again.

It would be more interesting if they did this with the 2015 election where UKIP would be the third biggest party with 83 seats (rather than the 1 that they did get).

Funny how everything that’s happening now is exactly what all the sensible types in the press told us would happen in 2017 and 2019 if we elected a mildly socialist government. Good job we dodged that bullet, huh?

I have very clear memories of Johnson saying in parliament that there'd be a run on the pound if Starmer won a GE.

It reflects the mood of the country at that time. Note the impact on green & lib dem numbers too.

This neglects that it's likely smaller parties would get larger vote shares under PR too

Though also fewer protest votes would be made by trad voters of the bigger parties. But also, there would more likely to have been more fractures in the bigger parties. Bottom line is, if there was PR, the whole landscape would be different in terms of parties and voter behaviour, so it's not really a valid comparison.

Bridgen has been involved in a long legal battle against his own family's potato and vegetable business, AB Produce, stating the firm treated him unfairly and forced him out, while the business was suing him over claims he has failed to pay rent on a £1.5 million property owned by the firm. In April 2022 High Court Judge Brian Rawlings ruled against Bridgen, stating that he "lied under oath and behaved in an abusive, arrogant and aggressive manner", was "an unreliable and combative witness who tried to conceal his own misconduct", and "gave evasive and argumentative answers and tangential speeches that avoided answering the questions". After losing the case Bridgen stated that "in actuality I won the case and my brother will be compelled by the Court in due course to repay considerable sums of money back to the businesses", adding "if courts always got everything correct the first time there would be no need for appeal mechanisms".[78] In August 2022 Bridgen was evicted from the property, and ordered to pay £800,000 in legal costs. [79]

Batshit narcissistic fuckpebble.

“In May 2009, he intervened in the "dirty tricks row" involving a councillor who had offered Conservative backing to ensure a village hall was built if an independent election candidate stood down.[10] Bridgen blamed "intransigence of certain unelected individuals at the very top of the county council" rather than the individual councillors involved.[10] Both Labour and Conservative council leaders criticised his intervention and the council solicitor wrote to ask for an explanation.[10] A police investigation followed, and Cllr Nicholas Rushton temporarily stood down. Rushton denied wrongdoing and went on to become leader of the county council.“

So Bridgen’s fuck nuggetry was known locally prior to his election as an MP and yet his constituents have voted him in 3 times subsequently with current 20+k majority. Clearly they look at him and think “yep, that’s the type of fiesty hypocrite that represents my values”.

Then again, seems a touch unfair to single him out as I’m sure there are a few dozen Tory MPs who’d be “hold my beer”

"lied under oath and behaved in an abusive, arrogant and aggressive manner", was "an unreliable and combative witness who tried to conceal his own misconduct", and "gave evasive and argumentative answers and tangential speeches that avoided answering the questions"

No wonder he became an MP.

NW Leicestershire though. No surprise whatsoever

So Bridgen’s fuck nuggetry was known locally prior to his election as an MP and yet his constituents have voted him in 3 times subsequently with current 20+k majority. Clearly they look at him and think “yep, that’s the type of fiesty hypocrite that represents my values”

His neighbouring MP was Tredinnick who was caught in the cash-for-questions scandal yet managed to milk another 25 years.

Last 10 years under Tory leadership have been a hoot.

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Take a look at what happened to the trading volume the moment that the referendum made it into the Queen's speech too. Admitedly it wasn't just Brexit, Ukraine kicking off in 2014 contributed too. Most currency pairs saw a boost in volume in 2014 but Brexit amplified it for Sterling.

Currency traders have had a lot of opportunities as a result of what has happed to Sterling.

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Yep, but I think plenty have a rosy view that PR would be all about the greens, etc gaining influence without considering what would happen in the other direction.

+1

As shown in that graph the Tory + UKIP block would have been unstoppable. So it's not like they still wouldn't have been pulled to the right.

While not a silver bullet, PR results do require a shift to consensus and collaborative governing. If it comes in it will take a generation of politicians to learn how to work this way and move on from the ingrained adversarial politics we are currently at the depths of. Hopefully will make government/politics far more boring - we could do with that.

I think 2015 had ukip with twatty Farage at the helm going all in, they spent a lot of money (quite a bit of EU money I think) on campaigns and ended up scaring enough Tories to pull them to the right. Even if it means more power for shitty right wing parties I'm still for it, it'll allow the big right wing cunts to not have to pander to their more extreme voters to win and it's just fairer, even if fairer means some unwanted outcomes.