The Next Labour Govt In London

[Roger Ram]

7 hours ago, alpha-acid said:

And even more people leaving

This is not my experience at all. It is posted here and on stupid local facebook groups as fact, but I honestly don’t know of anyone who has left in the last five years.

In my circle of friends , family and colleagues I know at least 15 individuals or families who have moved here.

This forum feels a bit like it is inhabited by people who don’t work or have much of a social life who like to just regurgitate made up “facts” that they have read somewhere else.

Edited July 6 by Roger Ram

[code99]

The real challenge facing Labour is that many UK voters actually want significant change from 14 years of Tory rule. This is why the Lib Dems, the Greens and Plaid Cymru did so well. Labour must deliver real and beneficial change for ordinary people. This will not be easy.

Tory rule began with Bullingdon Club members David Cameron and (his sidekick) George Osborne. They introduced ideologically driven austerity programmes. Their shared contempt for the less well-off really hurt the UK’s public services, especially the NHS (the self-inflicted damage caused by Brexit made things worse). In one of the televised election debates, it was mentioned that if the UK’s healthcare was to reach some kind of parity with France and Germany, then the NHS would have to employ additional 40,000 medical professionals on top of the currently unfilled vacancies.

I am dumbfounded that Tories actually got 24% of the public vote! It seems to me that about 1% (evidenced by a few home-grown billionaires and Russian oligarchs who like to play tennis and other games with senior Tories) were the main beneficiaries of Tory rule. If the Reform hadn’t taken 15% of their vote, the Tories could have got 39% of the total vote, which would have been enough to keep them in power. Anyway, I’m enjoying the small pleasure of Googling Mr Jacob Rees-Mogg and seeing him captioned as the “FORMER Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom”. Unfortunately, my delight at seeing JRM ousted has been eclipsed by the grin of Nigel Farage being elected.        

It looks like Starmer’s Labour Party is a new rejuvenated version of Blair’s New Labour, but with a different name (‘Tory-light’ ?). He and Rachel Reeves dutifully followed Peter Mandelson’s script and wooed the City to entice the financial markets onside with the new Labour Government. Financial stability is good for the UK public because no one wants a repeat of Liz Truss’s (who deservedly lost her seat) fiasco. But I still think the IOMG should be careful not to make the same mistake when they assumed that Alistair Darling would continue to endorse the old VAT agreement.

My gripe with Labour is that their senior politicians have not been vocal enough about Israel's ongoing brutality in Gaza. It's important to state that Hamas is a terrorist organisation and their attacks on innocent civilians (Israelis and foreigners) must be unequivocally condemned. However, Labour should have actively supported the decisions of the International Criminal Court. I suspect Labour are still afraid of being called antisemitic, but that's no excuse for not speaking out against Israel's disproportionate actions, which have resulted in tens of thousands of dead Palestinian civilians including women and children.

All that being said, the UK public had to vote for someone. Thankfully, not too many people voted for the far-right narcissists, whose popularity is rising in Europe and the USA e.g., the rise of Le Pen and the potential return of Trump. The liberal democratic world has no choice but to wake up and unite against the dark forces to defend democracy, our cherished liberal values, and yes, our freedoms. While everyone is focused on domestic politics, the UK Labour Government will also have a significant role to play on the international stage. They’d better not screw up too many important choices.

[Cambon]

@code99 I think the Israel situation is more driven by Starmer alone than labour. Starmers wife is jewish. 
 

As for far right, there were no far right parties in this election. 

[Jarndyce]

5 hours ago, code99 said:

Thankfully, not too many people voted for the far-right narcissists, whose popularity is rising in Europe and the USA e.g., the rise of Le Pen and the potential return of Trump.

 

2 hours ago, Cambon said:

there were no far right parties in this election

Depends how you choose to define “far-right”.   Nigel Fromage could certainly be described as a “far-right narcissist”.

Personally, I’m not sure how else you would describe Reform UK: chancers and grifters?  After all, aren’t they a limited company rather than a party, with Fromage as the CEO…?

[Cambon]

4 hours ago, Jarndyce said:

 

Depends how you choose to define “far-right”.   Nigel Fromage could certainly be described as a “far-right narcissist”.

Personally, I’m not sure how else you would describe Reform UK: chancers and grifters?  After all, aren’t they a limited company rather than a party, with Fromage as the CEO…?

I think, with a fairly right leaning Labour Party and a fairly left leaning tory party, reform is basically where tory traditionally is. 
I like Farage. Not because of his politics, but because he speaks out, whether you like it or not. If only mainstream politicians would do the same……

[Jarndyce]

23 minutes ago, Cambon said:

I like Farage. Not because of his politics, but because he speaks out, whether you like it or not.

For avoidance of doubt: you like him because he speaks out - and his politics are irrelevant to you?

[Utah 01]

11 hours ago, code99 said:

far-right narcissists

You wouldn't know a far-right narccissist if he/she hit you right between the eyes.  'far-right' is an affectation dreamt up by the liberal/left-wing media to describe anyone who doesn't agree with them.

I defy you to list all the salient points of the Reform manifesto, highlight the 'far right' elements and justify that labeling.

[HeliX]

18 minutes ago, Utah 01 said:

You wouldn't know a far-right narccissist if he/she hit you right between the eyes.  'far-right' is an affectation dreamt up by the liberal/left-wing media to describe anyone who doesn't agree with them.

I defy you to list all the salient points of the Reform manifesto, highlight the 'far right' elements and justify that labeling.

The entire first full page of their "contract" is right-wing dog whistles for right wing cunts.

[alpha-acid]

51 minutes ago, Utah 01 said:

You wouldn't know a far-right narccissist if he/she hit you right between the eyes.  'far-right' is an affectation dreamt up by the liberal/left-wing media to describe anyone who doesn't agree with them.

I defy you to list all the salient points of the Reform manifesto, highlight the 'far right' elements and justify that labeling.

Far right, Immigration, dilution of the pure bred whatever nationality, taking jobs away from again whatever nationality etc etc know perfectly what far right is

[Derek Flint]

On 7/6/2024 at 6:18 AM, Roger Ram said:

This is not my experience at all. It is posted here and on stupid local facebook groups as fact, but I honestly don’t know of anyone who has left in the last five years.

In my circle of friends , family and colleagues I know at least 15 individuals or families who have moved here.

This forum feels a bit like it is inhabited by people who don’t work or have much of a social life who like to just regurgitate made up “facts” that they have read somewhere else.

It's a ying and yang thing. Some people have had enough and bail out (of both the UK and IOM), some move for family, some for work. Although not in the Alf aspiration level, there does seem to still be a net migration to the Island.

 

[WTF]

10 hours ago, HeliX said:

The entire first full page of their "contract" is right-wing dog whistles for right wing cunts.

the first point reminds me of work permits .

[Cambon]

16 hours ago, Jarndyce said:

For avoidance of doubt: you like him because he speaks out - and his politics are irrelevant to you?

Correct, although I do agree with a couple of the reform ideas, such as raising the tax free income allowance to remove all the lower paid from income tax. I agree with putting a halt on immigration to allow the various parts of the infrastructure to catch up. But that is about it. 

[code99]

18 hours ago, Utah 01 said:

You wouldn't know a far-right narccissist if he/she hit you right between the eyes.  'far-right' is an affectation dreamt up by the liberal/left-wing media to describe anyone who doesn't agree with them.

I defy you to list all the salient points of the Reform manifesto, highlight the 'far right' elements and justify that labeling.

Farage has previously admitted that he admires authoritarian leaders like Putin, Trump and Le Pen. His political beliefs easily fit into the official definition of far-right:

“Far-right politics is a spectrum of political thought that tends to be radically conservative, ultra-nationalist, and authoritarian, often also including nativist tendencies.” 

I remember some years ago he was lamenting that there were too many Romanians in the UK and he would not want them to live next door to him. What would he say if his neighbours were Emma Raducanu and her Romanian father?

Here is a sample of his ‘gems’ he has dished out to his devotees over the years:

“The Jewish lobby in the US”

“Muslims coming here to take us over”

“Young Muslims don’t share British values”

He recently asked: “How many Palestinian refugees would back Hamas?” In answer to his question, here is my adaptation of Shylock’s famous speech in The Merchant of Venice:

“If you prick Palestinians do they not bleed? If you tickle Palestinians do they not laugh? If you poison Palestinians do they not die? And if you wrong Palestinians shall they not revenge?”

Farage and his Reform UK are dangerous agitators with no practical solutions to real-world problems. Their rhetoric i.e. ‘that it’s all the fault of foreigners. …blah blah blah…’ is typical dishonest demagogic nonsense. Their precious Brexit has been nothing but a painful sh*tshow. But hey, let’s see if these ‘Magnificent Five’ newly-minted MPs can prove the 400+ ‘liberal lefties’ wrong? In the meantime, I hope the UK press starts to finally doing its job by fact-checking Farage and his gang every time they; speak, tweet, twitch, scratch, etc.

[Gladys]

2 hours ago, Cambon said:

Correct, although I do agree with a couple of the reform ideas, such as raising the tax free income allowance to remove all the lower paid from income tax. I agree with putting a halt on immigration to allow the various parts of the infrastructure to catch up. But that is about it. 

There were some recent stats that showed that the number of immigrants to the UK was substantially for employment and their families.    The actual percentage of illegal immigrants was low.

Quite what that says about an anti-immigrant policy I am not sure. 

[thommo2010]

22 hours ago, Jarndyce said:

For avoidance of doubt: you like him because he speaks out - and his politics are irrelevant to you?

Like him or not Farahe was the only one in the debates who actually gave answers the rest skirt around the answer or find someone to blame