UK election 2024

[Nearly Sane]

Missed that Mickey Fab the great DJ created by Simon Hoggart has gone.


https://www.itv.com/news/central/2024-07-05/mp-michael-fabricant-loses-lichfield-seat-he-has-held-since-1992


https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2009/feb/14/simon-hoggarts-week

[Nearly Sane]

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[Nearly Sane]

The 'Father of the House' asks Farage to join the Tories

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c720w4pze28o

[SteveH]

Anyone else noticed the resemblance between Rachel Reeves and the late Australian singer, Judith Durham?

[Maeght]

Anyone else noticed the resemblance between Rachel Reeves and the late Australian singer, Judith Durham?

Not really, no.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Anyone else noticed the resemblance between Rachel Reeves and the late Australian singer, Judith Durham?

Yes, me...and finally, the carnival IS over.

[Aruntraveller]

West Worthing where I live evicted the Father of the House, Peter Bottomley and elected Dr Beccy Cooper who is lovely - I met her some weeks ago.

My personal favourite eviction though was Ben Bradley in Mansfield (Notts) my hometown. He is a useless, lying, lickspittle and Mansfield deserves better.

The democratic deficit is clear for all to see with Labour getting a huge majority on a 34% share of the vote. As a long-time proponent of PR, I find myself embarrassingly conflicted on the matter due to the maggot-infected nature of Reform. Do I want their voice amplified to such a degree that their disgusting views get more exposure and acceptance within society? The hope would be, of course, that such exposure would ensure greater scrutiny.

Hmmm....how's that going in Europe?

So, I find myself in an unusual (for me), state of dither, concerning PR.

[SteveH]

Yes, unsavoury groups like Reform would do better under PR- but that's democracy for you. Apparently, only two countries in Europe still use FPTP, the other being Belarus - not good company to keep. Some forms of PR would be even worse than FPTP:; what we need is single transferable vote PR..

[SteveH]

Fair dos to Sunak - he gave a generous resignation speech, with some kind words about Sir Keir. "Nothing in his premiership became him like the leaving it", to slightly misquote Shakespeare.

[Nearly Sane]

Fair dos to Sunak - he gave a generous resignation speech, with some kind words about Sir Keir. "Nothing in his premiership became him like the leaving it", to slightly misquote Shakespeare.

Despite some fratchety stuff in the debates, I don't think they dislike one and other, unlike Starmer and Johnson.

[Nearly Sane]

Yes, unsavoury groups like Reform would do better under PR- but that's democracy for you. Apparently, only two countries in Europe still use FPTP, the other being Belarus - not good company to keep. Some forms of PR would be even worse than FPTP:; what we need is single transferable vote PR..

STV not used in the European elections when we had them on the mainland, but was used in NI,, which used D'Hondt and closed list, and arguably led to Brexit via the 2014 election. 

FPTP has also given us Trump. I think you need a veil of ignorance about actual results in deciding what you think is a decent system. Once you start choosing the system to stop specific people you are the people that should be stopped.

[Roses]

Fair dos to Sunak - he gave a generous resignation speech, with some kind words about Sir Keir. "Nothing in his premiership became him like the leaving it", to slightly misquote Shakespeare.

I agree. I wonder who will replace Sunak?

[Nearly Sane]

I agree. I wonder who will replace Sunak?

Current odds

[jeremyp]

Just to illustrate my point about the incredible level of targeting and efficiency of the Labour and LibDem votes, if you take the vote share from last night and assume a uniform national swing - i.e. no targeting, you get the following seat prediction.

Labour 297
Con 243
LD 32
SNP 53

So the targeting and efficiency of voting more than doubled LD seats, increased Labour seats by 40% while halving the tories seats ... and let's no go there on the SNP.

Where does Refirm UK Ltd factor in to your argument. Because it probably split the Tory vote in a lot of places.

[SteveH]

Yes, me...and finally, the carnival IS over.

It certainly is for JD, who snuffed it in 2022, aged 79.

[Nearly Sane]

Good appointment on prisons from Starmer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp08y5p52e2o

[jeremyp]

Good appointment on prisons from Starmer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp08y5p52e2o

Well, let’s see how he does.

[Nearly Sane]

A Fysh out of water


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3ge4kd8kl9o

[Nearly Sane]

Well, let’s see how he does.

Indeed but appts can be good and bad at the time they are made even without hindsight. Had he appointed Farage, I think it's justifiable to call it a bad appointment.

Timpson has an interest in this and has in my mind dine more for rehabilitation than any prison minister in my memory. Blunkett is right to warn about the difficulties of getting things down but let us hope that one thing he gets undone quickly is one of Blunkett's openly admitted errors

https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/jun/12/britains-forgotten-prisoners-documentary-martin-read-ipp

I also thunk it's a good appointment in that it looks out of the usual turn of MPs with little knowledge on a subject. It highlights an issue of govt that  in order to do it Timpson has to go to the HoL, which continues to expand.

[Nearly Sane]

While some have worried in the past about the Ulsterisation of Scottish politics, is there a Palestinianisation of UK, and Labour, politics?


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3g37mk7vxlo

[jeremyp]

Indeed but appts can be good and bad at the time they are made even without hindsight. Had he appointed Farage, I think it's justifiable to call it a bad appointment.

Timpson has an interest in this and has in my mind dine more for rehabilitation than any prison minister in my memory. Blunkett is right to warn about the difficulties of getting things down but let us hope that one thing he gets undone quickly is one of Blunkett's openly admitted errors

https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/jun/12/britains-forgotten-prisoners-documentary-martin-read-ipp

I also thunk it's a good appointment in that it looks out of the usual turn of MPs with little knowledge on a subject. It highlights an issue of govt that  in order to do it Timpson has to go to the HoL, which continues to expand.

I agree his CV looks good but this is a political position. He might not be able to work within the constraints. I think promising is a better word than good here.

[Nearly Sane]

I agree his CV looks good but this is a political position. He might not be able to work within the constraints. I think promising is a better word than good here.

Because the politicians working on prisons have been so effective. If you need hindsight to judge a decision as being good decision, you cannot make a decision.

[jeremyp]

Because the politicians working on prisons have been so effective. If you need hindsight to judge a decision as being good decision, you cannot make a decision.

Guess what. Whenever you employ anybody for any job, you can’t tell if the decision is a good decision until they have been doing it for a while. Any employment decision is just an educated guess.

Welcome to the real world.

[Nearly Sane]

Guess what. Whenever you employ anybody for any job, you can’t tell if the decision is a good decision until they have been doing it for a while. Any employment decision is just an educated guess.

Welcome to the real world.

It's the educated bit that's good.

[SteveH]

I've long thought that the House of Lords should be abolished, and replaced (if at all) by a directly-elected body of fixed size. However, I must admit that the appointment of James Timpson as prisons minister, via a peerage, suggests at least one argument in favour of the present system: it allows the PM to appoint people with relevant experience from outside politics to ministerial posts. Maybe we could have a directly-elected second chamber of fixed size, plus a small number (say three max) of places for appointed ministers.