United Kingdom General Election: July 4, 2024

[kyc0705]

Off-the-charts meme potential for all the business with the podium just now.

[kyc0705]

he is completely soaked lol

[kyc0705]

A reminder of a past July snap election.

Much better than whatever Sunak is doing right now.

[kyc0705]

I'd assume that any substantial movement to the Tories would be coupled with a decline in the Reform vote.

[kyc0705]

It seems to me they'll need national service just to fill their candidate lists.

[kyc0705]

Wee bit of candidate news:

LBC’s Iain Dale has quit radio to run for the Tories in Tunbridge Wells. 15k majority in 2019, and held by the party since its 1974 creation.

And in Birmingham Northfield (one of Labour’s easiest target seats), the Labour candidate Alex Aiken is standing down over “personal challenges which have arisen recently”.

Dale is fascinating; was chief do staff to David Davis, and a firm Brexiteer but over the recent years has been more of a Tory Wet- for those who listen to his podcast it’s quite funny as he has been a strong critic of the government over immigration (he’s very pro) and various other issues.

The nature of his radio show means he can claim to have a relatively wide ranging interest in policy that isn’t exactly typical for a Tory; he did a lot on British airways poor treatment of staff during covid.

He would be an interesting MP; but I am surprised as it’s signing up for 5 years in opposition.

Didn't he also said that losing in 2005 (in N Norfolk) was the best thing that happened to him?

It seems quite sudden too, as his LBC podcast with Jacqui Smith had just expanded to a daily format to cover the election.

[kyc0705]

I know everyone keeps saying it, but how is it possible for someone to be so bad at politics on such a basic level?

Ahh it's very easy.

The most aloof terrible Greek PMs and politicians never used their hands to work a single day.

So I guess all you need to do is skip manual work.

There's the thousands of years old stereotype of the idiot leader vs wise servants who do all the work.

It honestly feels like Sunak is going beyond just normal levels of incompetence. The Tory campaign is vaguely starting to feel like bizarre performance art.

[kyc0705]

Not sure what makes us so much more tribalistic.

I would assume that the very different media environments play a role, as well as the fact that there are two-party systems and then there are two-party systems.