UK General Discussion:The Rt. Hon Alex Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, Populist Hero

[Flyersfan232]

What does "FBPE" mean in the context of angry UK twitter politics?

A cult

[Flyersfan232]

If Alliance get past DUP do they get dibs on First Minister?

No; since they are not a Unionist or Nationalist Party.  The rules on allocation are that the First Minister and Deputy First Minister must come from different communities; and the First Minister comes from the largest party of the largest community while the Deputy First Minister (which is an equal office: Co-First Ministers would be a better comparison) comes from the largest party of the other community.  The only exception is if the largest party is a cross-community party when they'd be First Minister and the largest party of the largest community would be Deputy First Minister.  The Alliance aren't finishing first in an election any time soon; so the First Minister will only realistically be a DUP or Sinn Fein politician.

Could they go back to the catholic unionist right role for it?

[Flyersfan232]

Regency act anyone?

[Flyersfan232]

If Charlie’s want to streamline the monarchy thing he also introduced the Dutch tradition of monarchs retiring after a certain time too?

[Flyersfan232]

At risk of going to the Tower am I the only one who thought the recent announcement from the Queen was rather a sign of where they expect things to be going over the next year or two...

It has been widely reported in the past but I can't help but wonder if it was done to avoid the rather unseemly chance of it being done right at the last minute.

Tbh, when you’re her age, just about anything can kill you. Probably better to issue such a proclamation sooner rather than later, but I don’t think it’s really a sign of anything imminent regarding her health.

I hope she beat Louis XV record before she go would be fitting end to a reigns off topic ish when Charles becomes between the death to coronations that have any effect on the pm approvals ratings at all?

[Flyersfan232]

At risk of going to the Tower am I the only one who thought the recent announcement from the Queen was rather a sign of where they expect things to be going over the next year or two...

It has been widely reported in the past but I can't help but wonder if it was done to avoid the rather unseemly chance of it being done right at the last minute.

It weird cause she look alright in all the videos but you know she be dead with in 5 years most likely still had to happen at some point some to note for the British and commonwealth citizens it’s more likely then not the song god save the queen won’t be official ever again in our lifetimes. Off topic to this in the future Sweden and Belgium will both have queen Elizabeth and Victoria so that something.

[Flyersfan232]

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-60318610

How did these people even win a general election when they're blind to the reality in front of them ?

labour was even more blind

[Flyersfan232]

Is there really any need for a pact? Most anti-Tory voters seem fairly aware of the concept of tactical voting these days and will vote accordingly, and given that both Labour and the Lib Dems are now led by fairly uncontroversial leaders there’s much more scope for this to happen than in 2019.

In giving tacit approval to some sort of pact, Labour risks getting pushed into a corner on electoral reform and possibly losing the ability to ever enact any meaningful change again. That should be born in mind before treating with a runt party like that the Liberal Democrats (especially since the prospect of the Lib Dems propping up the Tories in a hung Parliament is remote, and thus they don’t have much in the way of leverage, unlike in 2010).

As well all know no German, Dutch, Kiwi or Australian Labour/S&D party has been able to survive and push through meaningful changes following electoral reform.

Well, the ALP has traditionally operated in (broadly speaking) a more two party and majoritarian system than even the British Labour Party and has never participated in a Coalition at the federal level. As for the PvdA and the SPD, their most recent stints in government (stretching back thirty years) are primarily remembered for pushing through policies that their supporters mostly didn’t like. The New Zealand Labour Party remains the central pivot of the centre-left side of politics and thus is able to function on a semi-majoritarian basis (although you’d have to question whether they have been able to effect meaningful change in many areas).

Electoral reform doesn't guarantee the end of the two-party system, but that's another argument for it. If the electorate is broadly happy with their 2 major parties nothing about electoral reform would change that. And that is different from the British Labour parties last stint in office in what way?. A centre-left pivot is a requirement for any left-wing party wishing to govern today, regardless of electoral reform.

The point is electoral reform towards a more proportional system will force Labour to take its manifesto to the cutting room floor after every election (flukes like the New Zealand 2020 general election notwithstanding). Whilst we don’t know what constellation of parties would be thrown up by a more proportional system, we do know that, initially, Labour would most likely have to partner with the Lib Dems, who are no friends of Labour, certainly as far as economic policy goes. I don’t know why a party that is currently showing that it has the capacity to win 40, 41, 42% of the popular vote at the next election (potentially getting it either a majority or near enough to), would throw away the opportunity to be the sole shaper of policy in government (now and forevermore) for the conditional support of a dwarf party that primarily represents England’s leafy suburbs.

Getting the 40+% of the vote requires sacrificing a lot of the parties base policies in itself with no guarantee of getting into power. Rather electoral reform lets the labour concentrate it's police, getting rid of the spoiler effect and giving the hostility of most existing third parties to the conservatives let's it have some more breathing room to appealese the broader nation over a narrow focus on certain margin counsticues.

On another note, Lib dems have traditional represented more disaffected rural areas over leafy suburbs. Even the current lib dems  parlimentary cacus has almost half of it's members representing rural seats, rather than suburban seats

if electoral reform is pass labour is going to implode

[Flyersfan232]

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/unseen-text-messages-hint-at-carrie-johnsons-second-party-at-no-10-6rgthhcvl

It appears that there may be evidence for Carrie Johnson's flat party that was ignored by Gray and the Met. This was during June 2020, when indoor gatherings with 2+ individuals were banned.

This was the night of Johnson's birthday, with texts suggesting she had gathered staff in their No.11 flat to "wish him a happy birthday."Carrie implies in the texts that she was already in the flat with at least two men. The authors say she "used a very specific term to refer to the friends" - which probably means "The Gays", Carrie's previously reported nickname for a number of young SPADs.

Notable because No.10 repeatedly denied such a gathering even happened for months.

will this get the tories to wake up and kick bojo out