United Kingdom General Election: July 4, 2024

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https://twitter.com/JimmySecUK/status/1793336499703783747

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https://twitter.com/NoContextBrits/status/1793321457210011751

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It's 79 now, with the addition of Gove:

"A total of 78 Tories are stepping down — higher than the exodus of Tories [72 MPs] who quit before Blair’s ’97 landslide."

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It's 79 now, with the addition of Gove:

"A total of 78 Tories are stepping down — higher than the exodus of Tories [72 MPs] who quit before Blair’s ’97 landslide."

Andrea Leadsom reportedly to make it 80.

For what it's worth, wikipedia now has the number of Conservative retirements at 81, with Leadsom being the latest one added.

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The Telegraph… less so.

...what in God's name is that even supposed to mean

This woman's previous editorial was titled "Noisy minorities are being allowed to bully the rest of us into silence". 😬

I thought this might have been a joke at first.

But no: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/25/noisy-minorities-allowed-to-bully-the-us-into-silence/

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Good to see Nigel is getting a warm welcome back to the UK:

"Nigel Farage pelted with a milkshake on UK election trail"

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Strike "my dad was a toolmaker, my mother was a nurse" off your Keir Starmer bingo card.

It may be corny, but it works when your opponent is a former hedge fund manager and as bad at connecting with the "average" person as Sunak is.

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Sunak cut short his appearance at the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of D-Day to campaign??!?!?

It was announced in the morning that he would skip.

Not going to do him any favours, as Farage and Starmer where both there and he wasn't.

So Sunak wants to reintroduce national service, but skips the day of 80th anniversary commemoration of D-Day to campaign instead?

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Sunak cut short his appearance at the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of D-Day to campaign??!?!?

It was announced in the morning that he would skip.

Not going to do him any favours, as Farage and Starmer where both there and he wasn't.

I'm imagining Zelensky asking Starmer "Where's Rishi?"

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"A Reform UK candidate has apologised for claiming the country would be "far better" if it had "taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality" instead of fighting the Nazis in World War Two.

Ian Gribbin, the party's candidate in Bexhill and Battle, also wrote online that women were the "sponging gender" and should be "deprived of health care"."

...

"In July 2022, Mr Gribbin posted on the Unherd website: "Britain would be in a far better state today had we taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality…. but oh no Britain’s warped mindset values weird notions of international morality rather than looking after its own people."

The same month he wrote: "In Britain specifically we need to exorcise the cult of Churchill and recognize that in both policy and military strategy, he was abysmal.""

...

"In the run up to the invasion of Ukraine, he praised President Putin, writing in January 2022 that he had "shown a maturity of which we can only dream of".

He "understands the bonds that create more stable societies; the hypocrisy of the West is preposterous as we stare in the face daily the enormous economic equalities created by our deluded neo liberal ideas", he wrote.

In February, Mr Gribbin wrote "if only the West had politicians of his class"."

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Farage endorses DUP, ditches Reform-TUV alliance:

"“As far as the Northern Ireland thing is concerned, I want to make it clear that whilst there have been negotiations going on in previous times, I will personally be endorsing Ian Paisley and Sammy Wilson,” Farage told PA’s Claudia Savage, who reminded him of the Reform-TUV alliance.

“Well, new leadership brings change. I wish the TUV well, but I’m gonna stand up to support Sammy Wilson and Ian Paisley as people I fought with all through the Brexit years,” Farage said."

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Here's a link if anyone wants to read the 80 page "The Conservative and Unionist Party
Manifesto 2024"

In sum: we'll lower your taxes

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https://twitter.com/ChrisMasonBBC/status/1803689400070480360

Rishi Sunak, 25th October 2022:

"This government will have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level. Trust is earned. And I will earn yours."

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That was the most dreadfull town hall ever made, it was like they all tried to lose and reminded me of this:

The more things change, the more things stay the same: "I should like to point out on behalf of the Liberal Democrats, that although we're all very nice people, we have absolutely no idea how to run a country."

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I make no predictions on impact, but a BBC headline that reads 'West provoked Ukraine war, Nigel Farage says' does not qualify as great publicity.

"I admire Putin because he's ruthless and authoritarian, but dislike him as a person" isn't the genius response Nigel thought it was:

"In an interview with the BBC's Nick Robinson, Mr Farage was challenged over his judgement and past statements, including when he named Russian President Vladimir Putin as the world leader he most admired in 2014.

"I said I disliked him as a person, but admired him as a political operator because he's managed to take control of running Russia," Mr Farage said."

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I make no predictions on impact, but a BBC headline that reads 'West provoked Ukraine war, Nigel Farage says' does not qualify as great publicity.

I just saw this tweet today. So by this logic, in order for peace the EU needs to contract and kick out Eastern Europe???

"I am one of the few figures that have been consistent & honest about the war with Russia.

Putin was wrong to invade a sovereign nation, and the EU was wrong to expand eastward.

The sooner we realise this, the closer we will be to ending the war and delivering peace."

https://twitter.com/Nigel_Farage/status/1804271596280123398

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In other news, it is not massively surprising that a Reform UK candidate made pro-Putin remarks at a hustings. That the constituency in question is Salisbury raises some eyebrows, though.

Outside of the context of which constituency this occurred in, it's worse than your typical Kremlin apologist remark. This is because instead of saying of something along the lines of Farage's "Russia was provoked by the West", he specifically said this: "I have actually met Putin and had a 10-minute chat with him and he seemed very good. He is not the Austrian gentleman with a moustache come alive again."

https://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/24407670.reform-uk-salisbury-candidate-says-putin-seemed-good/