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

[CumbrianLefty]

They are totally high on their own supply still, Dowden apparently said they are targeting another 40 seats at the next GE as well as trying to hold what they have. Good luck with that one.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

The British Green Party People:

[Estrella]

The British Green Party People:

A local party winning on the exact opposite platform of what the parliamentary party stands for? I see they're doing their best to become a worthy replacement of Liberal Democrats.

[Oryxslayer]

The British Green Party People:

A local party winning on the exact opposite platform of what the parliamentary party stands for? I see they're doing their best to become a worthy replacement of Liberal Democrats.

I mean environmentalism is kinda going through another (There has been several in the 120+ or so years where it has been a clear issue) generation change - like all political movements have. The previous ideology focused preservation of accessible greenspace and wildlife, which meant halting pollution and development. The new or younger Greens/environmentalists care overwhelmingly about Climate Change and all the other environmentalist tenants go way in the back seat. Upzoning, increased urban construction, and public transport would potentially be opposed by the older generation for example, but the younger generation is gung ho all aboard. This is a visible divide in the German Greens, perhaps the most successful of the green parties.

[Blair]

I suspect it’s very much the ‘I always buy organic in Waitrose’ type of green voter that his tendency comes from.

[Torrain]

Wind and solar farms have always suffered a degree of NIMBYism in this country, unfortunately. I’ve lived in some pretty liberal seats, surrounded by environmentally focused voters, who tear into the Tories over oil and gas, but nevertheless got up in arms when planning permission was approved for a wind farm in their area.

Apologies for more Fife content - but this is a recent article that sums it up nicely: https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/fife/2637993/wind-turbine/

One of those quoted in the piece is from the tiny local village of Ceres. A couple of wind turbines were going to be built there 10-15 years ago, but they lobbied so furiously that the project was cancelled, despite the fact that they have a population smaller than your average lecture hall. The bizarre anti-turbine murals (which depict grinning luddites kicking wind turbines (which inexplicably have arms and legs) as they run away) which decorate local sheds and barns are still being maintained.

Locals still turn out in droves to vote for Lib Dems and SNP alike, parties who have both approved these projects in droves over the past 20 years of Holyrood.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It's offshore wind that has the most potential, but unfortunately a lot of the longterm strategy there (which included the idea of manufacturing a lot of the parts used in factories in Britain), was axed after 2010 for some funny reason. Also the point at which promised government financial support for a new wave of nuclear power stations (to replace the ones due to retire... well, about now) vanished as well. Curious.

[afleitch]

https://mobile.twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1505989096350666752

Terf Island update.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Well...

In the Telegraph’s apology, published on Thursday, it said: “We accept that there was and is no basis to suggest that Ms Murray is antisemitic. On the contrary; the court heard in unchallenged evidence [in the Riley case] that Ms Murray devoted significant time and energy to confronting and challenging antisemitism within the Labour party while she was employed there. The Telegraph and Ian Austin apologise to Ms Murray. We have agreed to pay her substantial damages.”

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/mar/17/telegraph-apologises-laura-murray-corbyn-aide-as-anti-jewish-racist

[CumbrianLefty]

The person who wrote that is genuinely one of the worst people ever to have been a Labour MP - just a shame that they don't have to pay the (reportedly substantial) damages personally.

[Blair]

It is amazing how many people don’t understand how strict Englands libel laws are- however in this case you would have expected a newspaper to know!

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Logic dictates that someone on twitter will now libel Lord Austin, who will sue and win damages. And then...

[Blair]

The person who wrote that is genuinely one of the worst people ever to have been a Labour MP - just a shame that they don't have to pay the (reportedly substantial) damages personally.

Honestly Gordon Browns private office has created a number of politicians with rather interesting and similar ‘quirks.’

[CumbrianLefty]

Sunak currently showing (or not, as the case may be) the rabbits in his hat.

[Blair]

Was very weak in my view. The usual sugar rush for Tory MPs on the day but I expect like the October budget it will be seen as too little.

[An American Tail: Fubart Goes West]

https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1505698230692200448
What could be the political advantage of doing this ?

Ask Robert Muldoon:

[Pericles]

Muldoon lost that election, to be clear.

[Alcibiades]

https://mobile.twitter.com/DuncanWeldon/status/1507038079554568196

Fascinating graph. Thatcher-Major and Blair’s first term speak for themselves, I think, while it’s interesting that the second half of the 2010s is more a story of lower middle incomes doing relatively well, rather than the simplistic narrative of rising inequality often seen.

More pressingly, the 2019-2025 stats are incredibly alarming — this is the first time on this graph that every single income brackets has seen earnings fall, with the poorest of course being hit hardest. The truth is that this government simply does not care about economic growth, because, in between their economic policies, Brexit and culture wars rhetoric, they have calculated that to win they only need to pander to lower middle class homeowners and pensioners. Of course, with the way things are going right now, that strategy may end up rather backfiring for them…

[CumbrianLefty]

Its true what some say, many in the government have come to believe the army of Twitter bots who push their propaganda there in some way equate to "the British people".

[An American Tail: Fubart Goes West]

Its true what some say, many in the government have come to believe the army of Twitter bots who push their propaganda there in some way equate to "the British people".

They’re huffing their own farts. You love to see it. Wouldn’t be the first time a British leader got complacent because they overestimated their support.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/David__Osland/status/1507372082308558852

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

https://twitter.com/David__Osland/status/1507372082308558852

Credit where credit is due, this is a great tweet.

[CumbrianLefty]

Or at least it was whilst it still existed, presumably. What did it say?

[Silent Hunter]

It was a comparison between Boris Johnson and Boris Yeltsin that implied the former was alcoholic. From the other tweets, he has basically been told that's potential libel.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It's an open secret, but hasn't quite reached into the point where it is common knowledge - and that's the stage at which even Carter-Ruck cannot protect you.