Current Affairs 2017 General Election

[hullefc]

I don't think in the history of an election campaign that a party has done a u-turn of such colossal magnitude. I thought, surely they wouldn't do a u-turn on the dementia tax, as they did with the National insurance contributions of the self employed, goes to show how wrong you can be. At least some of our aged citizens and their families can rest a bit more easily tonight.

 

[peteblue]

Real political strength would be to withdraw the policy and apologise.

What May has done is say there will be a cap, but that you won't know what it is until they publish a Green Paper on it, and in any case its all Corbyn's fault. The climbdown is being executed as badly as the policy was.

I think she's got away with it.......

 

[Tubey]

I think she's got away with it.......

She hasn't mate, and you know me, I detest Corbyn.

Massive own goal, hit her own voter base, one which has long memories. A political left hook to pensioners for no reason whatsoever.

It wasn't strength, it wasn't anything beyond incompetency and complacency in fact.

That said, you are sort of right, for as terrible as Theresa May is - and she really is terrible - Corbyn is 10x worse, so she'll still walk the election. Even the pensioners furious at her have no actual alternative to her. There'll be a few more abstentions and a narrower majority because of this though.

 

[tsubaki]

When was the last time the three main parties had leaders this bad?!

There was a very good Gary Younge piece in the Guardian today that explores the theme of Corbyn being "useless":

For the past two years, the incantation among mainstream pundits and the majority of the parliamentary Labour party has been that under Jeremy Corbyn Labour offers no opposition to the Tories, and he will eventually destroy the party. Increasingly, though, it seems he could be the party’s best hope for survival and renewal, precisely because he has articulated what opposition to austerity might look like.

If this sounds fanciful, one should look elsewhere on the continent for a sense of what Labour’s future might have looked like, had it continued on its former path.

In 2009 the Greek Socialist party, Pasok, entered government with 44% of the vote; by 2015 it was down to seventh, with just 5%. The party’s demise coincided with, and was arguably precipitated by, the rise of the more leftwing Syriza, which went from 5% and fifth place to 36% and government within the same period.

This dual trajectory gave rise to the term Pasokification: the dramatic decline of a centre-left party that is eclipsed by a more leftwing alternative. A word was needed for it because there’s a lot of it about.

Earlier this month the French Socialist party came fifth in the first round of the presidential election with just 6% of the vote, while the hard left won 20%; back in 2012 the Socialists came first with 28% and went on to win the presidency. In Holland the PvdA, the mainstream social democratic party, won 6% in March and came 7th while the GreenLeft coalition won 9%; back in 2012 the PvdA came second, with 25%.

Less pronounced versions of the same dynamic have occurred across the continent. When parties created to represent the interests of working people in parliament decide instead to make working people pay for the crisis in capital they get punished, and ultimately may be discarded.

 

[Steve0]

He is a terrible leader. You may like him and you may like his policies, but he has very few leadership attributes....

He's intelligent, dignified, principled and not for sale. I understand why tories dont like him but these are qualities I look for in a leader.

You might like people lying so they can lead you into costly and un-winnable wars so corporations can profit... I just want a bit more. Just saying.

 

[peteblue]

He's intelligent, dignified, principled and not for sale. I understand why tories dont like him but these are qualities I look for in a leader.

You might like people lying so they can lead you into costly and un-winnable wars so corporations can profit... I just want a bit more. Just saying.

He can't even lead his own party......

 

[Tubey]

There was a very good Gary Younge piece in the Guardian today that explores the theme of Corbyn being "useless":

Those countries couldn't be further away from the British electoral mindset if they tried. Corbyn's appeal is a definite minority here and will be for the foreseeable future.

Look at Foot, for example. He had no appeal despite Thatcher governing over a recession and a war and got trounced. No popular appeal whatsoever, and very little has changed.

Corbyn's aim here is to avoid breaking the Foot record defeat, not to win the election. He doesn't have a chance.

 

[hullefc]

Our next Prime Minister.......

The men in grey suits in the 1922 committee and the Tory Grandees, who ordered May to have the election and ordered her to drop the dementia tax, will be plotting her downfall.

 

[tsubaki]

I don't think in the history of an election campaign that a party has done a u-turn of such colossal magnitude. I thought, surely they wouldn't do a u-turn on the dementia tax, as they did with the National insurance contributions of the self employed, goes to show how wrong you can be. At least some of our aged citizens and their families can rest a bit more easily tonight.

 

[peteblue]

She hasn't mate, and you know me, I detest Corbyn.

Massive own goal, hit her own voter base, one which has long memories. A political left hook to pensioners for no reason whatsoever.

It wasn't strength, it wasn't anything beyond incompetency and complacency in fact.

That said, you are sort of right, for as terrible as Theresa May is - and she really is terrible - Corbyn is 10x worse, so she'll still walk the election. Even the pensioners furious at her have no actual alternative to her. There'll be a few more abstentions and a narrower majority because of this though.

Of course it was a big own goal, but she rectified it. The voters who would have voted conservative will still do so now she has reacted. I've no idea what sort of majority she will get but it will be bigger than she had and will damage the SNP. Labour will continue to damage itself.......

 

[Boss_Blue]

If @peteblue likes being treated like an idiot and constantly lied to by a self-serving bunch of posh tw*ts, then that's his choice.

 

[Steve0]

He can't even lead his own party......

Um...not sure what that means.

There's been a momentum shift this last week, it's almost palpable. He could quite easily be our next Prime Minister.

 

[Tubey]

Of course it was a big own goal, but she rectified it. The voters who would have voted conservative will still do so now she has reacted. I've no idea what sort of majority she will get but it will be bigger than she had and will damage the SNP. Labour will continue to damage itself.......

She hasn't rectified it - she's said "nothing has changed".

She's created uncertainty were none should exist. There was no reason to do so. People will now look at that ridiculous "strong and stable" slogan and laugh.

Her whole shtick is her brand, and its' damaged. She will take an electoral hit for it, and it is completely self-inflicted via her own incompetency.

 

[peteblue]

Anyway, I expect someone at the EU will pipe up any day and the focus will swing back onto Brexit.......

 

[tsubaki]

Those countries couldn't be further away from the British electoral mindset if they tried. Corbyn's appeal is a definite minority here and will be for the foreseeable future.

Look at Foot, for example. He had no appeal despite Thatcher governing over a recession and a war and got trounced. No popular appeal whatsoever, and very little has changed.

Corbyn's aim here is to avoid breaking the Foot record defeat, not to win the election. He doesn't have a chance.

Scotland isn't far from the British electoral mindset; neither was Wales under Blair (where don't forget Plaid almost became the biggest party in Wales) until Rhodri Morgan brought some sanity to proceedings.