UK General Discussion: Rishecession

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I think if you really want to target lack of maths skills, you need to look at the adult population: plenty of NEETS or "low skilled" workers out there that probably could have better maths results (whether GCSE or Advanced), but for whatever reason it's not really pushed even though you'd think that population would be more easily mobilised and would certainly be more motivated (and probably more financially viable as well).

There is a broader political (and especially elite media) hostility towards adult education - look at all the criticisms of so many apprenticeships being taken by people aged over 25, when all that shows is the fairly obvious point that there are many people over that age who want to retrain into a different profession or to improve their skills.

It's genuine madness. I used to think it was simply a bit of blindness because the people in charge - whether through genuine brains or hard work or family or luck - have disproportionately had relatively straightforward paths from education to employment, but at this point it strikes as outright contempt. Do these people not realise that many people have a sort of vague regret they spent so much time in school pissing around, but are given no tools to do anything about it?

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I did wonder how many other issues were like this- broadly iirc there’s support in polls for the policy, there was once a broad political consensus on it but a number of activists across party political lines (broadly!) managed to really whip up the opposition and would have support from the broadsheets and tabloids.

I know gay marriage was one where MPs had hundreds of letters against it which weren’t really representative of political opinion!

Fox hunting also comes to mind.

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The biggest reveal is the quote "I thought my mandate would be respected". Truss did all the right things in greasing the levers of various subfactions and affiliates to get the top job, but this is not fundamentally a mandate. It isn't an uncommon problem for politicians to get mixed up between their domination of a council or convention for real, tangible power: but Truss really seems to be uniquely unaware of the fact that just getting an arbitrary, self-selected clique of weirdos to anoint you as leader is not in anyway equivalent to broad consent or a real power base. You see this most clearly in her insane behaviour during the fracking vote: why whip a vote that would have passed anyway and went against the "mandate" of the 2019 manifesto? Because she had the just as important, mandate, of um, a clown show contest.

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https://redfieldandwiltonstrategies.com/latest-gb-voting-intention-5-february-2023/

If you look at the cross-tabs here, Labour were actually ahead of the SNP. When was the last time that happened?

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I would be cautious about being too reductive as university seat=Green. Plenty of seats filled with students and not particularly great Green results (e.g. Manchester Gorton and Central, several London seats) and plenty of high Green votes in other random places. Normally (but not always) towns and locales with an alternative vibe are a great place for Green votes - the sort of place hippies retire to or artisanal types set up shop (the Isle of Wight, Stroud, Glastonbury, Bury St Edmunds, the Forest of Dean) - amd even then you've got to explain relatively dull places like Solihull and North Herefordshire (?) where Greens have captured a niche.

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He was also the SNP National Treasurer from 2004–2020; he was defeated in the 2020 SNP internal elections by Douglas Chapman.[7] However when Chapman later resigned in May 2021, stating "I had not received the support or financial information required to carry out the fiduciary duties of National Treasurer", Beattie returned to the position.[8]
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Lol what?

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The only person I can think of who is fit for the UK presidency is David Beckham.

Providing the presidency was a largely ceremonial role then it could be filled with none political and nationally respected figures, like if David Attenborough was younger he'd be ideal.

Alternative Universe Britain where Thatcher installs beloved entertainer and fundraiser Jimmy Savile as head of state.

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It is becoming increasingly clear that former Liberal Democrats should not be appointed to important public posts in this country.

Who are you referring to in this case (apart from Truss, obvs)?

Baroness Falkner?

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The weird thing is that Lisa Nandy did a speech the other week saying that social housing would be part of the mix but anyway for my own sanity I don't watch the sunday shows.

Starmer, for some reason, seems unable to contradict or say no to her, even she she contradict other shadow cabinet members.

Of course, if it was up to me, she would go right back to the backbench where she belongs.

Are you talking about Nandy or Reeves?

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I assume the moderators are grateful that a certain other subject isn't being discussed. Pretty sure the name will be known officially soon anyway.

It won't be named until he's charged, which might take a while given the complexity of the case. But basically what a useless law the gagging act is if the person is suspended and doesn't appear on TV. With Gylfi Sigurdsson (we can say his name now because he was cleared of charges) it basically was a known fact because he was no longer in the Everton team while the only other "27 year old international" was playing...similar case of showing the gag law is dumb.

Scandal and intrigue though, my god. All this might be Murdoch keeping a former suck up out of the news with his private life too.

Heck, there's still the MP who nobody can say the of name of who was arrested last May for suspected rape. Genuinely wonder what's going on there - his party has selected him for re-election and he continues to do events in his constituency, but he has had to post bail four times.

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That said, we aren't Canada or Australia either: the extractive industries are going to be a different factor for centre left parties in those countries in a way they are not for Britain (well, England and Wales anyway).

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Well, um, there's been a twist in the uk presenter case. The young person involved has hired a lawyer to say the Sun's story is based on nothing, and the Sun published away. If this is true, the Sun has just made an existential blunder.

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SV (the system used in mayoral elections until recently) was the electoral equivalent of everybody pulling a silly face in the first wedding picture, and the bored photographer saying "ok, now that you people have got that out of your system, let's take a real one".

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Somehow, the metaphors can get even more on-the-nose:
https://twitter.com/alexwickham/status/1699097385262100678

This would be mostly shocking as it would suggest they have bothered to renovate the place at all since ww2.

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Honestly if Sunak had any sense at all he'd contrive some reason to remove the whip from her.

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Half the stuff he says he's scrapping doesn't actually exist and hasn't been proposed.

But now Labour will have to deny that it will impose them.

Green policies are the center-left's greatest weakness.

Sunak: i was going to introduce a meat tax, but then i decided not to because that would be woke

Public: you were going to introduce a meat tax?

Sunak: yes, we were going to - we were going to make it mental and it would have bankrupted your family. I changed my mind though because Liz truss made a speech.

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Listen you uneducated pleb!!!! I canceled the Sunak Meat Tax!!!!! I am a political genius!!!!!!

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Very amused that Sunak managed to be confused by the ultimate softball question from Laura K - the classic "what do you admire about Starmer" question. His answer both made him seem like a shrill partisan and also a hollow non-entity.

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More to the point, the incumbent government ran one of the very worst campaigns that an incumbent government ever has in Britain: it was, perhaps, the closest thing we've ever seen to the infamous Liberal campaign at the 1957 Canadian federal election.

For those not in the know, this was the election in which the "Minister for everything" CD Howe was accosted by an angry voter who said "farmers are starving" to which the minister's response was to poke the man in the stomach, saying "looks like you eat pretty well under a Liberal government".

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I think the Caithness seat should be relatively safe for Jamie Stone - the LDs activists will heavily defend it unless they get very greedy and try and win Inverness.

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Braverman is a fool if she thinks this sort of intrigue is a boon for her leadership. Even if you are an ultra conservative, why would you vote for this drama obsessed woman when someone like badenoch is right there? Heck, even if she just straight up resigned saying "i think the prime minister is weak on transgender Hamas public sector workers" it would be better for her than this (especially as she performed the same routine under The Lettuce)

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Got to admit that Braverman accidentally comparing pro-Palestinian demonstrators and Islamists to the Orange Order is incredibly funny.

I imagine this has angered militants on both sides in Ulster, but for different reasons. Which would classify as a better thing than the vast majority of what she does.

Not just militants - it’s annoyed *almost everyone*.

Catholics see it as a denouncement of the civil rights marches they undertook on days like Bloody Sunday, and Protestants see it as dismissive of their self-identification as British.

I’ve heard quite a few variations on “she’s done the impossible, and united Northern Ireland - against herself”.

One of the more articulate summations of this was laid out by Sky’s Ireland correspondent yesterday.

It's symptomatic of British politicians not understanding Northern Ireland full stop. She 'clarified' she meant dissident Republicans, but they don't have much of a track record on marches.

One recalls a certain NI Secretary in May's government admitting not long after being appointed that they didn't really "get" politics there and why they voted for unionist and nationalist rather than Tory and Labour. Tbf to Karen Bradley (for it was they) she did seem to make an effort to learn on the job.

In fairness to Bradley, i think she was trying to play the part of "patrician who wants to look past your divisions nd get everybody to play nice" but ended up looking like a naif.

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This is random, but I seem to recall Galloway taking part in some kind of discussion about the somewhat less contentious matter of fox hunting quite a few years ago. He stated that he supported the banning of it, but noted that he didn't like foxes as he once came back from a holiday to find a fox residing in his house. He (and others) spent several hours chasing it around the house. One of the funniest bits of mental imagery I've ever had.

Was he wearing a kimono?

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It's a bit unorthodox to have one of the holders of the great offices of the state sit in the lords and not the commons though. How's that going to work parliament wise when he can't stand at the dispatch box?

In ordinary times they might get a backbencher to stand down in a safe seat and call a by election, although sadly even the gov wouldn't be so hubristic to try that given that would probably result in a patrick gordon walker farce
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Very funny that braverman is probably in a fit right now because the headlines will be about DCam rather than her. (That's probably half the reason Rishi did it)

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Yes People Polling had a Truss era poll that showed the Tories at 14%.