New Prime Minister for the UK?

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I thought you were wrong until I remembered that Starmer is a Tory in Labour clothes like Blair was. Then I realised what you meant. People in general don't trust real Labour, possibly because the wealthy media owners always do a hatchet job on any Labour leader who threatens to redistribute wealth and power towards the masses to any significant degree. I feel fairly sure that the (so-called) Labour Party will win the next election, and that things won't move any further to the left than they did under Blair.

It is ridiculous. UK and Belarus are the only Western country that use FTPT now and we need to move onto PR.

I've met loads of people online who don't trust Labour and/or Starmer, it's a real feeling

The Tories have moved much further to the right, and are now economically far right. Starmer getting in would move things back nearer the centre ground

I give the example of my dad. He was a successful businessman when I was very young. Like many people, the end of the 80s saw him lose the business he'd started up and the house we were living in at the time. He had to move us in with his father because Thatcher's government had made no provision for the victims of their fiscal policy. I'm more or less the age he was when he had to do that. I can't imagine how humiliating that would have been for him. Our presence actually caused the break down of his relationship with his father and his brother and once we left after an almighty row he never spoke to them again, so far as I'm aware.

The Major years he spent either on benefits or working menial jobs to get by. We lived in privately rented houses that were damp, smelly and cold. He tried several times to start new business ventures but couldn't get off the ground.

When Labour got into power everything changed for us. We got into social housing, a really nice house with large garden in a village with a good comprehensive school. Me and my siblings were able to go to college and I then went to university, with my fees paid for me by the government.

After I left my parents inherited some money and put it into a new house and a new business. They weathered the 2008 crash but soon into the Cameron/Osborne austerity years lost this business too and the house as well. Back into private renting and benefits.

When I look back at my life, which has mostly been lived under Conservative governments, the only time I can recall where I felt that things were going well for my family specifically, and for society generally, was the Labour years. I remember these times as optimistic, forward-looking, expansive.

But if you ask my Dad, he'll go on a massive rant about the Labour years, ohw they were terrible for this country, would be terrible if they ever got into power again and how he feels that Jacob Rees-Mogg would make a good Prime Minister.

It blows my mind. A lifetime of experience of losing self-esteem, property, businesses, family and he still can't consider that maybe the Conservatives aren't on the side of people like him and that maybe Labour could do a better job.

Same for me with the underlined bit.

People are brainwashed, I can't think of any other reason.

My mum is a strange woman but she has always voted Labour and hated the Tories, so that's good.

Now you mention it, looking at Truss' recent policies I see what you mean. I still think Starmer is a Tory, but if we stand him next to Truss he looks like a saint. She's almost certainly unelectable, so I suppose she's just trying to force through some right-wing legislation before her party gets thrown out, and luckily for ordinary people her own party is rebelling against that legislation.

I couldn't help laughing at the lame propaganda attempt they made after the humiliating U-turn on the tax break for the wealthy. They said they had "listened to people's concerns."

I think you mean “only European countries”, although Poland uses it too for one of their houses.

The US mostly uses FPTP, including for federal elections (except the President, where they use an even worse system). Canada also uses it for one house.

You're correct, thanks. I forgot about North America!

Apparently the next leader of the Conservative Party will be...Boris Johnson, according to bookies! And possibly he'll be the Prime Minister again

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/boris-johnson ... 17772.html

Sadly, I can see this happening. Boris back in No.10 followed by a swift election to try to get him a fresh mandate before everyone remembers why he can't run a government (although I guess you could argue he still has a mandate from the 2019 election but I think they'll go early after any leadership change).

And then one of the dirtiest election campaigns we've ever seen as the Tory client media goes into overdrive to tear into Starmer's Labour. It'll make Beergate look like an endorsement.

I can see this happening too, what a scam. It is just the Tory party endlessly swapping leaders to get the PM in by the back door isn't it.

So that would mean an election in 2022 or 2023, then the next one would be in 2027 or 2028. And so it rolls on...They are holding the UK hostage.

I agree there's a real risk that Boris will be back
A lot of people thought he didn't stand a chance the first time. It's so easy for the less-duped people to think "they'll never elect that stupid bastard." Same thing happened with Trump, and it might happen again. I suppose that when they first brought in universal suffrage everybody thought the game was over for the elite, and yet here we are.

Britain is seriously going crazy these days.

And this is the craziest thing I've read today.

The CEO of Shell has called on the government to tax oil and gas companies in order to protect the poorest people in society from soaring energy costs

https://news.sky.com/story/cost-of-livi ... sf-twitter

^
Call me cynical, but I suspect he's not crazy, but just using a crafty double-bluff. He knows the gov isn't going to tax him, but it makes him look like a good person if he begs for that to happen. If he really wants to help Britain, he can proactively lower his prices, donate his personal fortune to the poor, and open his big, beautiful home to the homeless. Nobody has to be forced to give back what they stole, if they truly want social justice.

No. I'm not saying you are wrong, but what I meant is that it's crazy that a CEO of a greedy, billionaire company is asking the government to tax his company and others. It shows how far to the right our government has gone when the CEO of this company is less right-wing.

It's like in March 2020 when our government was ignoring the covid warnings but big companies and organisations were cancelling events and putting restrictions in place before the government did.

It is crazy that companies seem to have more sense than the government which is supposed to look after us. God help us.