Current Affairs The General Election

[Jebus_lives]

I suppose highly suggestible people performing Pavlovian stimulus-response feedback looks with their highly curated Twitter feeds all day will be Corbyn's fault now too ; )

Well obviously not, but perception goes a long way in politics. And regardless if you like it or not, discourse has been lost: journalists, Twitter don't operate in nuance they look for extremes and outliers. The impact of a headline or a sassy 140 character message has more traction than listening to explanation.

 

[davek]

Before the BXP pulled out, I put 7% at about the figure Labour start to win northern marginals back (and 15% was the Lib Dem figure). The loss of BXP throws that up the wall and makes it more difficult to predict (particularly for Lib Dems in the South).

How resilient the BXP will be critical here. However if Labour get within 5%-7% I don't see an outright majority.

It's difficult to work out the general picture. You have to look at almost every constituency as a stand alone fight. If the BXT Party stand in the vulnerable Labour seats it obviously makes it a very difficult route to victory with a majority for Johnson.

I think well see a lot of independent action in seats, with various party members standing aside if they think they cant win a seat but can stop a Leave / Remain win.

The national polls on % of the vote are a tenuous guide, but I'd feel a bit better if they all began to narrow to single digit gaps.

 

[abelard]

No it doesn't, and who focuses on "relative poverty rather than absolute poverty" nowadays (apart from the Lib Dems)?

a simple 'like' does not do this justice

 

[Jebus_lives]

Of course they will, because - sadly - British people are conditioned to hate anyone of their own class who isn't subjected to what they think they are subjected to.

The fact that one of the demands of the strikers is to know what the roster they'll be working a month in advance is just ignored; "I think these people have an easier job than me, how dare they try to get more money, I'm on the side of the people who make hundreds of thousands more than me a year"

I haven't read the story - all I am aware of is the tweet. (I will read the full thing).

Based on that tweet the reactionaries, and even those that consider themselves moderate will be out claiming 'Corbyn is dangerous and wants to bankrupt the country' without reading what is actually being said or the detail...

There is an odd thing in this election that people who pillory Brexiteers for not reading detail and just focussing on headlines/soundbite are falling over themselves to blindly parrot headlines, dogma and apply a lack of critical thinking because they dislike Corbyn.

 

[abelard]

Well obviously not, but perception goes a long way in politics. And regardless if you like it or not, discourse has been lost: journalists, Twitter don't operate in nuance they look for extremes and outliers. The impact of a headline or a sassy 140 character message has more traction than listening to explanation.

these days it is somehow both increasingly difficult and far too easy to manufacture consent

 

[tsubaki]

I haven't read the story - all I am aware of is the tweet. (I will read the full thing).

Based on that tweet the reactionaries, and even those that consider themselves moderate will be out claiming 'Corbyn is dangerous and wants to bankrupt the country' without reading what is actually being said or the detail...

There is an odd thing in this election that people who pillory Brexiteers for not reading detail and just focussing on headlines/soundbite are falling over themselves to blindly parrot headlines, dogma and apply a lack of critical thinking because they dislike Corbyn.

Indeed. Two of their four demands (union recognition and the right to know when you will be working) are things that I'd think 99% of the population would agree with, so of course the one that gets highlighted in the reporting is the one that is most likely to wind people up.

 

[Jebus_lives]

Indeed. Two of their four demands (union recognition and the right to know when you will be working) are things that I'd think 99% of the population would agree with, so of course the one that gets highlighted in the reporting is the one that is most likely to wind people up.

The demands aren't highlighted though that's the problem. You read the tweet and you pause at the £15.

Perception is the problem with that tweet when people are queuing up to call him an extremist.

 

[peteblue]

Indeed. Two of their four demands (union recognition and the right to know when you will be working) are things that I'd think 99% of the population would agree with, so of course the one that gets highlighted in the reporting is the one that is most likely to wind people up.

Who in this day and age is interested in Union recognition. I know the public sector love it, but it’s pretty well dead in the money making private sector......

 

[tsubaki]

Who in this day and age is interested in Union recognition. I know the public sector love it, but it’s pretty well dead in the money making private sector......

I know pete - thats why their pensions, terms and conditions, and job security have been trashed.

 

[Jebus_lives]

Who in this day and age is interested in Union recognition. I know the public sector love it, but it’s pretty well dead in the money making private sector......

You should tell them that it might help them in their struggle with poor pensions, working conditions, wages and retention...

 

[Jebus_lives]

I know pete - thats why their pensions, terms and conditions, and job security have been trashed.

Snap!

 

[samcdavies94]

What happens if McDonald's cave in overnight and give everyone the full £15?

Do the protesters:

1. Give back £5 of it per hour to maintain market fiscal integrity
2. Be absolutely made up and congratulate their clearly excellent union reps.

I'm going to say 2.

I'm genuinely absolutely fine with Big Jezza trying to get them the full £15. If he succeeds, big old boost for him. But the mental gymnastics on here to say that's NOT actually what he and the protesters want is amazing.

Probably fair to say it's not what any of them expect to get?

 

[orly]

Probably fair to say it's not what any of them expect to get?

Why not? If it was totally unrealistic, it wouldn't be a negotiation. Sometimes, you get everything you go in for. I hope they do.

 

[tsubaki]

The demands aren't highlighted though that's the problem. You read the tweet and you pause at the £15.

Perception is the problem with that tweet when people are queuing up to call him an extremist.

Two of them are literally in the same sentence as the £15 an hour one.

As for perception, that is what I was trying to say in an earlier post - people are losing their minds over this, that burger flippers are asking for £15 an hour and that Corbyn is an extremist for supporting them. In what part of history (British or otherwise) has political extremism involved political figures supporting fast food workers in getting to slightly above the national average wage?

 

[samcdavies94]

Why not? If it was totally unrealistic, it wouldn't be a negotiation. Sometimes, you get everything you go in for. I hope they do.

I hope they do too, but knowing the world we live in - and those striking will know it better than me - I wouldn't expect it to happen.