British Politics Guide

[chris_notts]

Yes, I said this third way approach was common. But it also amounts to surrender. We don't have left and right anymore, we have right and slightly less right. Labour under Blair was not very left wing. The Democratic party of the New Deal is well and truly dead. And that was... at least bearable in the good times, even if it was fundamentally misguided, but running the deregulated Thatcher-Reagan economy for a few decades has left us well and truly up s*** creek. Adding a sticking plaster to a system that's completely dysfunctional isn't a workable solution anymore.

[alice]

Awaiting the stupidest right-wing justification of dredging that unfortunate statue from the Avon and putting it back on its plinth...

[chris_notts]

Awaiting the stupidest right-wing justification of dredging that unfortunate statue from the Avon and putting it back on its plinth...

We can't let the abolitionists win! Tough on human rights, tough on the causes of human rights.

[chris_notts]

A good discussion of why dealing with the glorification of a slaver and mass murderer via the council didn't work:

https://twitter.com/KateWilliamsme/stat ... 16290?s=19

[chris_notts]

Colston's wikipedia article was briefly edited to say:

Edward Colston was a Bristol born English slave-trader, merchant, and Member of Parliament. Colston won the inaugural Bristol diving championship of 2020 with a well-received forward tumble scoring 8.8 points.

Unfortunately it's been reverted now.

[Frislander]

The only reason I can think for removing the statue from the Avon is if it posed a legitimate danger to shipping (which of course depends on how deep the river is there/how close to the harbour wall it is etc. The argument that he should be memorialised because of his charitable donations entirely misses the mark, because the charitable donations he made came from a fortune based on slavery, i.e. wealth made through the exploitation of black people being used to benefit an (almost entirely) white population in the UK, which arguably makes it more insidious than if he'd just hoarded the wealth.

[Frislander]

So because Bozza isn't done with pettily ejecting Tory stalwarts from the party in a bid to undermine his own majority, the Conservative MP Julian Lewis has had the whip withdrawn. Why? Because he got the job of Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee over Chris "Always Failing Upwards" Grayling. What a time to be alive.

[Frislander]

In the latest piece of critical research failure-driven incompetence, Liz Truss ("we import 2/3rds of our cheese" woman) has managed to upset UK trade talks with Japan by insisting that Stilton be included, apparently not realising that 1. the Japanese seem to have no great appetite for cheese literally made with mould and 2. it's a bit difficult trying to open up a market in a foreign nation when the foodstuffs you're selling make the people of that nation physically sick.

[KathTheDragon]

Lmao

[alice]

There's a clear metaphor in there somewhere!

[MacAnDàil]

Revival to mention that Dominic Cummings is going! That I'll drive infected with Covid under lockdown just to see if I can see well enough Cummings. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-54941846

Also, an advance for indepence in Scotland, with all polls since June going in the way of freedom (no indication of my opinion, is there?), a new high on the issue of 55% v 39%, and new highs of totals for independentist parties in polls. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_p ... t_election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_p ... dependence

Oh and Labour's Starmer is ahead in approval ratings for the UK, and Labour and the Tories are neck-and-neck in polls https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadershi ... l_election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_p ... l_election

[Raphael]

Revival to mention that Dominic Cummings is going!

I'm honestly clueless about what that'll mean for the Brexit negotiations, and how they'll proceed now.

That I'll drive infected with Covid under lockdown just to see if I can see well enough Cummings. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-54941846

I think it took me two or three attempts to parse that sentence correctly.

Oh and Labour's Starmer is ahead in approval ratings for the UK, and Labour and the Tories are neck-and-neck in polls https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadershi ... l_election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_p ... l_election

The problem there seems to be that the British electoral system is fundamentally biased towards the Tories.

[quinterbeck]

The problem there seems to be that the British electoral system is fundamentally biased towards the Tories.

How so? That's actually the first time I've heard that claim.

[Raphael]

It's apparently a result of having FPTP in a more-than-two-parties system - very recently, I've seen "what would happen if the election were hold tomorrow" poll-based projections that had Labour and the Tories extremely close in terms of share of the popular vote, but had the Tories with a clear advantage in terms of seats.

[MacAnDàil]

Well, Cumming was also one of the biggest mastermind heads behind the Brexit campaign. So maybe things will be less Brexitty? A lot of people are glad to see the back of him anyway.

Indeed, it's the electoral system that got Johnson keeping power in 2019. If there was proportional in Westminster elections, there would have been a hung parliament with a second referendum majority.

[Richard W]

Awaiting the stupidest right-wing justification of dredging that unfortunate statue from the Avon and putting it back on its plinth...

I trust his charitable donations will be returned to his family. No acknowledgement, no charity.

[Frislander]

It's apparently a result of having FPTP in a more-than-two-parties system - very recently, I've seen "what would happen if the election were hold tomorrow" poll-based projections that had Labour and the Tories extremely close in terms of share of the popular vote, but had the Tories with a clear advantage in terms of seats.

There are of course two possible explanations for why this is. 1 - Labour is less good at converting poll support into actual votes, likely due to age-demographic splits and/or 2 relative concentration - Labour voters are more concentrated in urban areas while Tories are more spread across the country, entailing that Labour tends to win its seats with larger margins. There is also a third possibility which is that the electorate sizes of Labour seats might be on average larger than that of Tory seats, but from a cursory glance at the figures that doesn't look likely (the largest electorate by a significant margin for example is the Isle of Wight at about 110,000, hardly a Labour heartland).

[Raphael]

My guess is No. 2 is the most likely.

[doctor shark]

My guess is No. 2 is the most likely.

Using the parallels of U.S. politics, My guess would also be for #2. Just draw the districts to pack voters...

[alice]

My guess is No. 2 is the most likely.

Using the parallels of U.S. politics, My guess would also be for #2. Just draw the districts to pack voters...

In actual fact the body which redraws consituency boundaries is politically independent, so gerrymandering isn't an explanation.