Mailwatch(ed) Forum

The very same titles will be up in arms about some backbencher who attended a jumble sale at a mosque, signed a petition about Nicaragua or donated to the RNLI.

The culture wars ain't gonna stop on account of a general election.
And the valuable Ming vase will be just as valuable and fragile after the vote as before.

Plus immigrants, immigrants, immigrants and Labour giving your money to fag smoking layabouts at food Banks. A few points back to the Tories in marginals and return to square one.
Only wish the next GE was the last FPTP election

PR is better, but one thing it doesn't so is shut out Tories.

If Labour need to form a coalition, I'd hope a move to (or vote on) PR was part of the deal. If they have a thumping majority, I'd hope (probably fruitlessly) they'd do it anyway. Or drop the voting age to 16. Either move would consign the Tories to the shadows.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Wed Mar 06, 2024 4:18 pm PR is better, but one thing it doesn't so is shut out Tories.

They could get squeezed between a slicker liberal centre right party and a populist hard right outfit as happened to the Dutch Christian Democrats and the Gaullists in France.

This disparity is likely to increase

With 649 seats declared, the ERS have analysed the number of votes needed per MP elected.

It took:

864,743 to elect the lone Green MP
642,303 votes for zero Brexit Party MPs
334,122 to elect each Liberal Democrat
50,817 to elect each Labour MP
38,300 votes to elect each Conservative MP
38,316 to elect each Plaid Cymru MP
25,882 to elect each SNP MP
https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/lat ... es-per-mp/

Youngian wrote: ↑Wed Mar 06, 2024 3:28 pm

The very same titles will be up in arms about some backbencher who attended a jumble sale at a mosque, signed a petition about Nicaragua or donated to the RNLI.

The culture wars ain't gonna stop on account of a general election.
And the valuable Ming vase will be just as valuable and fragile after the vote as before.

Plus immigrants, immigrants, immigrants and Labour giving your money to fag smoking layabouts at food Banks. A few points back to the Tories in marginals and return to square one.
Only wish the next GE was the last FPTP election

If only the 1997 majority had been halved.

Andy McDandy wrote: ↑Wed Mar 06, 2024 4:44 pm If Labour need to form a coalition, I'd hope a move to (or vote on) PR was part of the deal. If they have a thumping majority, I'd hope (probably fruitlessly) they'd do it anyway. Or drop the voting age to 16. Either move would consign the Tories to the shadows.

They’ve not dropped the mention of votes for 16 so I assume it will be in the manifesto.

Whenever a liberal or left leaning party is accused of gerrymandering its because they’re trying to expand the electorate or making it more attractive to vote. Right wing gerrymandering accusations usually arise when they’re pulling strokes to exclude people.

Andy McDandy wrote: ↑Wed Mar 06, 2024 4:44 pm If Labour need to form a coalition, I'd hope a move to (or vote on) PR was part of the deal. If they have a thumping majority, I'd hope (probably fruitlessly) they'd do it anyway. Or drop the voting age to 16. Either move would consign the Tories to the shadows.

Which instrument would they play, I guess bass guitar as The Shadows have not had an official bass player since John Rostill in 1970.

slilley wrote: ↑Sat Mar 09, 2024 3:08 pm

Andy McDandy wrote: ↑Wed Mar 06, 2024 4:44 pm If Labour need to form a coalition, I'd hope a move to (or vote on) PR was part of the deal. If they have a thumping majority, I'd hope (probably fruitlessly) they'd do it anyway. Or drop the voting age to 16. Either move would consign the Tories to the shadows.

Which instrument would they play, I guess bass guitar as The Shadows have not had an official bass player since John Rostill in 1970.

Vuvuzela: One fucking note, abrasive and irritating.

Abernathy wrote: ↑Wed Mar 06, 2024 9:54 am I had to look up who the fuck Carrie Brownstein is (of course), and all I can say is Mr. Marlow should have gone to Specsavers.

Mea culpa, you’re right. There’s a stronger resemblance to Janet Weiss (the drummer).



(That came out a notch under twenty-four years ago. Oh fuck I’m old.)

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... of-england

Labour to make fighting global heating a priority for Bank of England

Not sure about this. As ever, I come back to Ian Chappell's words to Mike Brearley. "You fucking bowl, I'll fucking bat, and the umpire can fucking umpire".

The Government can do all sorts to promote a green economy. What extra does the Bank of England bring?

A surprising amount. For example, my organisation has shifted to chat rather than email because it uses less server power, and given the size of the organisation this in turn uses less electrical power and creates less heat. So even if it’s ’make your internal systems more efficient and greener’, for a huge financial body like the BoE that could actually be significant.

That's a different thing though. We're not talking about the BoE as an employer doing this, as all employers should. We're talking about it doing it (what?) as a central bank.

I find Paul Mason's political trajectory quite amusing, but even more amusing is the fact he's become such a Corbynite hate figure. The latest "outrage" is that he misrepresented what they call a good anti-Zionist at a public meeting. He didn't have a transcript to hand and summarised what she said like a quote, which he shouldn't have done. Unfortunately for Emma Dent Coad and the others who've gone out to bat against him, the actual transcript is awful and the woman is a crank. She can bring Zionism into NHS procurement and Grenfell, and no doubt much else. And British Jews are "Israelis".

I remember Mason saying something about how crap Corbyn was on tape and then he rowed back and back.

I think he like Starmer and others always knew it wouldn’t work but tried to be semi loyal.

I do expect he will be the candidate to take on Corbyn.

He went a fair bit further than being semi-loyal. He's gone further than you'd expect in support for Starmer too.

I'd vote for him, but I think a high profile candidate might not be a good idea.

mattomac wrote: ↑Wed Mar 27, 2024 12:44 pm
I do expect he will be the candidate to take on Corbyn.

I thought that Christian Wolmar was in the frame to stand in Islington North ?

Christian Wolmar is the same age as Jez. I'd be surprised. Think somebody lower profile who's done legwork locally.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Wed Mar 27, 2024 1:51 pm He went a fair bit further than being semi-loyal. He's gone further than you'd expect in support for Starmer too.

I'd vote for him, but I think a high profile candidate might not be a good idea.

So A-typical of a fair few Labour members then.

Another lot go

Twenty Lancashire councillors have resigned their Labour memberships in protest over the party's leadership.

The councillors each sit on Pendle Borough Council, Nelson Town Council or Brierfield Town Council.

They claim Sir Keir Starmer's leadership no longer reflects their views and say they will now serve as independents...

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lan ... 707225.amp

Councillor Mohammed Iqbal, who is one of the 20 councillors to resign from the party, told BBC North West Today: "In the last few weeks there has been a culture developing from the national Labour Party that seems to want to control anything that any councillor wants to say."

He added: "The party nationally seems to want to control who can stand where and when. We don't think that's right so we have taken the difficult decision to resign."

Do the Labour bosses really want to control everything they say, or do these councillors want to spout anti Israel / antisemitic bollocks and not get called out and punished for it? Because, of course, everything is fine in Lancashire, there is no issue more pressing than the situation in Gaza.