General Election 2024

[Default0ptions]

So is anyone campaigning on realisable policies?

Or are they all just in for a ‘get rich quick’?

I wonder if selecting politicians in the same way as jurors would put an end to this farce?

Actually, that’s not a bad idea. Plato would be happy.

[Default0ptions]

Should members of parliament be chosen in the same way as jurors - and be banned from profiting from their time of service.

Have a bit of a think about this

[UndercoverElephant]

Labour party drops one candidate for betting against himself to win his constituency.

I am not sure what is wrong with that, unless he is intentionally trying to lose.

[Ralphw2]

He had little chance of winning, and Starmer wants to show himself decisive against Tory coverups. An easy way to show clear water

[clv101]

Should members of parliament be chosen in the same way as jurors - and be banned from profiting from their time of service.

Have a bit of a think about this

I've long thought that there should be a 'third bench', of say 100 members (enough to prevent the government having a majority), chosen like jury service, ~six months stints, MPs wages. Getting anything through parliament would also involve convincing a significant number of this cohort, not just your own whipped MPs.

[Default0ptions]

Absolutely agree with you. The insane amounts of money that mps end up with are simply staggering evidence of the way that money corrupts government

[Default0ptions]

Has Farage lost his supporters by his back-pedalling on Russia being provoked into the Ukraine war?

I think this is the death knell for his hopes of a seat in the commons. He had a good point and surprisingly large numbers of people are totally dismissive of the whole Ukraine fiasco - but he folded.

Looks like game over unless he can gain a seat just for being Nigel Farage.

[Ralphw2]

My straw poll approach to measuring public opinion on topics like the Ukraine war is to count the up and down recommendations for comments on news websites. For readers of the BBC news website comments pro continuing to support Ukraine (and expanding military support) get between 5 and 10 up votes for each down vote.

Obviously the voters are self selecting, but Farage is not stupid. He knows which of his opinions will lose favour with his target audience

[UndercoverElephant]

Obviously the voters are self selecting, but Farage is not stupid. He knows which of his opinions will lose favour with his target audience

Farage is not a typical politician, in that quite a lot of the time he just says what he thinks, with little or no regard for his target audience. This is one of the reasons why some people like him a lot and why other people can't stand him.

[Default0ptions]

I think he lost a great deal with his frantic backpedaling on the Ukraine.

If he’s going to say it - he should just say it.

[UndercoverElephant]

Latest MRP:

https://wethink.report/news-hub/news/we ... ervatives/

Our MRP headlines:

Labour are on course to achieve the biggest majority recorded since universal suffrage in the UK, on 465 seats compared to 76 for the Tories

Some of the biggest Conservative losses come in their rural and small-town heartlands, where they will hold only 25 of their 114 seats

Liz Truss is set to lose her rural seat of South West Norfolk to Labour, where she currently has a 51-point majority

In Scotland, the SNP are estimated to finish on 29 seats with Labour on 23, but some 20 seats are on a knife-edge between the two parties

The Greens are predicted to make two gains, including North Herefordshire, giving them three seats in total

[clv101]

Labour aren't about to get 465 seats, a majority of 280... Their support is soft, turnout will be low. The polling world's gone mad.

[UndercoverElephant]

Labour aren't about to get 465 seats, a majority of 280... Their support is soft, turnout will be low. The polling world's gone mad.

I have no more faith in these polls than you do. The only difference is I don't even have any strong beliefs about how exactly they are going to be wrong. I don't see any way to come to a conclusion about that.

[Default0ptions]

Labour aren't about to get 465 seats, a majority of 280... Their support is soft, turnout will be low. The polling world's gone mad.

I have no more faith in these polls than you do. The only difference is I don't even have any strong beliefs about how exactly they are going to be wrong. I don't see any way to come to a conclusion about that.

It’s debatable, of course, whether any such “conclusion” is relevant in any way.

No one is addressing the elephants in the room of energy and debt.

It’s all pretty useless without reference to that.

If you concentrate really hard on the irrelevant fluff being banded around you might even imagine for a moment that the emperor actually has any clothes

[UndercoverElephant]

Another new MRP (Electoral Calculus):

https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Twee ... 5161416087

LAB: 450
LIB: 71
CON: 60
SNP: 24
REF: 18
GRN: 4
PC: 4

That has got to be the most amusing one yet. Reform on 18 seats (including Louth and Horncastle) as well as the tories in third place. The thing is...once it gets to that sort of point then Reform could make serious inroads with just a few more votes. It implies there will be a lot of seats where Reform are yapping at the tories' heels. New Tory-Reform marginals which will define the front line for the subsequent election, assuming no merger occurs before then.

Poll was for The Mirror:

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/ ... t-33113155

EXCLUSIVE: Bombshell poll shows Tories pushed into third place behind Lib Dems in election bloodbath

Not even Badenoch keeps her seat on this result.