Mailwatch(ed) Forum

mattomac wrote: ↑Fri May 15, 2026 12:53 pm Is it because he doesn't pay council tax, or is the boat a past thing?

Think the boat is in the past. He's now seems to rent a room.

And the marina is in Waltham Forest, not Hackney, as The Times and I said.

Fair play here.

Various Greens are kicking off at Lucas. Do none of them remember them standing down for the Lib Dems in by-elections?

This was regarded as being very important in the context of fighting Brexit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Brec ... y-election

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Fri May 15, 2026 2:04 pm

mattomac wrote: ↑Fri May 15, 2026 12:53 pm Is it because he doesn't pay council tax, or is the boat a past thing?

Think the boat is in the past. He's now seems to rent a room.

And the marina is in Waltham Forest, not Hackney, as The Times and I said.

Ah I was told it was in Hackey a fair few times.

I thought this was part of the progressive alliance?

mattomac wrote: ↑Fri May 15, 2026 5:57 pm I thought this was part of the progressive alliance?

The 'progressive alliance' seems to be everyone should just vote Green - except Zack Polanski obviously....

I'd guess that Lucas was a bit more clued up on what trying to replace Labour actually means in practice that the recent converts.

I voted for Ellie Chowns and I'm pleased with her. Obviously, all us Labour and Lib Dem who voted for her should have voted for who we wanted and told Ellie that she had to promise X,Y,Z specially for us.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Fri May 15, 2026 7:00 pm I'd guess that Lucas was a bit more clued up on what trying to replace Labour actually means in practice that the recent converts.

According to her leader "no country has a right to exist" so by saying "Country before party" Caroline Lucas demonstrates how out of touch she is. I'm sure BSky will call for Polanski to expel her for spouting such retrograde nonsense.

Remember this guy? Mr Northern Independence Party. He's in the Greens now.

Here he opines that the government should change the electoral system, with no referendum, no electoral mandate via a deal in a single by-election. I don't like referenda but they're unavoidable in changing the voting system and national independence. Making the Makerfield by election into a referendum on PR is absolutely mad stuff. Obviously Burnham couldn't agree to that. The Greens in their remainer alliance days didn't demand Lib Dems do anything but support one policy they supported anyway- a Referendum.

I think it's most likely the Greens run a paper candidate who picks up a few votes, maybe about the same as 2024. Labour could do without that but people who vote for a paper candidate may not vote Labour anyway if they're not there. Labour need to leave the issue as a "matter for the Greens". This would I think really bite the Greens on the arse if they went for it with a spoiler candidate.

I do wonder how much longer FPTP can last now it seems we're past the point of "two main parties plus a protest vote party". The trouble will be getting various interested groups to accept a form of PR, never mind the electorate; I can imagine the Fourth Estate and various twatcasters with Reassuringly Large Microphones™ will be the noisiest in rejecting the idea.

And regrettably, it would involve a bloody referendum

I was uncomfortable with Labour getting a massive majority on 34% of the vote. The thought of Reform getting any kind majority on the 28% of voters who are nasty bastards absolutely terrifies me.

28% is blockable by tactical voting. FPTP is indefensible but it’s actually hard for Farage to win under. The Tories are the key. What do they do?

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Sat May 16, 2026 12:22 pm 28% is blockable by tactical voting. FPTP is indefensible but it’s actually hard for Farage to win under. The Tories are the key. What do they do?

I have a fear of a Tory/Reform coalition. Then you'd really see some nasty shit scuttle out from under the furniture.

That's the fear, and what Kemi seems to be preparing them for. But they lost enough voters to the Lib Dems last time (admittedly, some of those dustbin Kippers), We'll see.

Whatever happens with be Starmer's fault.

How do the Greens go forward from here? Not hard work on policy and budgets sadly, but "provoking fights" with the Government, Reform and "corporations". Genius moves like these

The Greens have plenty of grist for this populist mill: rent caps, 10:1 wage pay ratios, the requisitioning of empty properties, wealth taxes, abolishing the House of Lords – the list goes on. Anything that pits them against a corporate and political elite and on the side of the people is popular. The key is to do it with verve and swagger, provoking fights with Labour, Reform and big corporations that force the media to pay attention.

10:1 "wage pay" ratios?! Even within the public sector, some very senior people at Network Rail earn about £500k a year. So everyone there gets a pay rise to £50k, while those doing the same job somewhere else in the public sector carry on getting what they do now?

What does "requisitioning empty properties" mean? How long do they have to stay vacant for? Precisely how many of them are empty for any period of time?

The examples that of these politics working is apparently Hannah Spencer talking like everyone in the Commons is shitfaced (which was denied by lots of people, but hey it went "hyper-viral", and Mamdani promising a city-owned chain of grocery stores, which haven't happened yet.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... e-controls

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2026 1:54 pm 10:1 "wage pay" ratios?! Even within the public sector, some very senior people at Network Rail earn about £500k a year. So everyone there gets a pay rise to £50k, while those doing the same job somewhere else in the public sector carry on getting what they do now?

Related to that: the BBC had a SYB on the (now aborted) Tube strike and unsurprisingly, it attracted the hard of thinking from the Wetherspoons Massive and others, coming out with the usual "sixty grand for pushing a few buttons? Automate it/replace the drivers with AI!!!!1!"

Presumably, they'd not seem this bit of AI going rogue.

The Greens have chosen a candidate for Makerfield. See how hard he tries. There's quite a trap here for them to fall into if they try too hard and Reform win. The SNP still get stick for voting no confidence in Callaghan, even though it was actually understandable in the context of devolution failing because of a silly extra threshold being put on the vote by Labour. Do the Green fancy some of that?

If the Green vote collapses to pile in behind Labour its fairly conclusive evidence that wherever Reform stand, half of the electorate despise them so much, they'll tactically switch.

I sometimes think that the Green Party under Polanski is in essence what “Your Party” could (should?) have been if it hadn’t been founded by two half-wits. It’s easy to forget that the Greens were once called The Ecology Party. Now they barely ever mention climate change.

My politics have become considerably more environmentally conscious since lockdown but Zack hasn't said anything that has wooed me. Far more impressed with Ed Miliband sticking to his guns on Net Zero as best he can under constant fire. And where have the LD's green credentials gone? They've just flatlined into irrelevance despite potential ripe pickings out there for them.