To wonder if people prefer the last government to this one?

If Corbyn tore up the plans for that kind of approach then he’s an even bigger, selfish, divisive tool than I thought he was.
He is a vocal and lifelong brexiteer. If he's such an honest conviction politician, as his cult think, he would have had the courage of his own convictions and explained his presumably 40 years of anti EU thinking. Instead he dithered, prevaricated, realised that his puppet masters in Momentum were pro EU and decided to fudge everything to keep himself as Labour leader. The man's inexplicable legend far exceeds his ability, personality or intellect.

Not totally excluded. Sunak did allow them to take out ‘Bounceback Loans’ which they are still paying off..

I’d prefer Putin to the last government …

Yes. I won’t ever forgive Corbyn for fucking up the Labour response to those long years of awful Conservative Party infighting that finally resulted in a leaving the EU referendum manifesto commitment, and then in Cameron actually bringing out the Brexit referendum in 2016.

It should have been a matter of serious Labour party planning and strategy years in advance, the fact that the Tories even kept leaving the EU on the agenda, while Farage was gaining influence. Labour could have effectively poured cold water over the whole nonsensical, nationally self-harming thing if they’d not been complacent that people wouldn’t vote for things that are not in their own interests.

Labour could have questioned why we would ever want to spend the billions of public money and see all that parliamentary time wasted on a potential Brexit, rather than spending their own time in opposition trying to get the Tory gov to make progressive policy to help the lives of people in the UK.

Labour could have teamed up with other parties and demanded clear cross party rules about how referendum results would be treated, and demanded a national an enquiry into what Brexit even actually meant. This should have been done as soon as this became a Tory manifesto commitment.

If Corbyn tore up the plans for that kind of approach then he’s an even bigger, selfish, divisive tool than I thought he was.

Brexit wasn’t Labour’s fault- but it’s a national shame and failure of all the political parties, especially the incumbent Tories, that UK living standards had become so crap and UK people were feeling so left behind in swathes of the country, that so many of them voted to Brexit thinking it would somehow improve something. Or maybe just voted Leave as a furious fuck you to PM Cameron, not thinking it would sway the overall result.

What was the "soft Brexit" option put forward by May that the left rejected? As far as my memory serves me, she went for a fairly hard Brexit from the outset, justified by the ridiculous slogan that "Brexit means Brexit".

I'm genuinely interested to know what the softer option was that you think she was offering?

He lost a huge amount of traditional Tory supporters due to excluding 3 million self employed, freelancers and casual workers from the covid support schemes. They are the traditional Tory voters! He completely screwed them over and then repeatedly lied in the Commons about it, and unfortunately, Starmer and Reeves were too incompetent to properly challenge him about it as they were too thick to understand the reasons for the 3 million being excluded and believed the lies that Sunak said!

Yep

I agree. We could have had a much better "brexit" had all May's options not been vetoed by Parliament, particularly the left! It's why we ended up with "hard" Brexit because that's what Boris stood for in his GE landslide win.

I think Sunak may have been a good PM but who knows.
A significant stupid minority (maybe majority) focussed on the non-dom status of his wife, which was legal, and his own wealth and decide the likes of him are not for us and couldn’t possibly relate to the “ordinary” person (wtf is that anyway?).

Yes because the potholes are the biggest issue to country is facing right now.

Of course their post makes sense. Politics isn't black and white. You don't have to love a candidate or agree with every one of their policies to vote for them. Sometimes it really is a case of voting for the best of a bad lot.

Labour don't get to wriggle out of their Brexit culpability because they weren't in power. Their actions during the referendum stand for themselves. Pretending that it somehow didn't count because they weren't in power is ridiculous.

I think the Tories had made too many mistakes and gone stale. Franky they were a mess. Labour had decades in the political wilderness to sort themselves out and people thought that they surely were a better option. People we disillusioned and just wanted to Tories out. This was wrong! Many people regret it. Sometimes the grass really isn't greener on the other side. Sometimes the grass is in fact dead.

Prison would be a start. True, we can’t imprison politicians for bad decisions, but we should be prosecuting those who are obviously at the centre of fraud, corruption and lies. Boris Johnson, I’m looking at you. If Joe Public can be imprisoned for lying about who was driving a speeding car, Johnson should be looking at twenty or thirty years for multiple counts of fraud while in a public office.

Both parties are to blame for the Brexit mess. Cameron agreed to hold a referendum not because he thought it was in the national interest but because he wanted to stop his party splitting. Labour failed to get behind the Remain campaign and then acted against the national interest by refusing to support any of the deals that were put before Parliament.

I’d have liked Rishi to have had a longer run as PM - it felt like things were starting to get back on track after Brexit (terrible idea and yes Cameron’s fault) and COVID (not convinced any government would done a good job with that).

I really really don’t like the current government - I’m not massively persuaded by any alternatives though either

You’re not keen on Kemi, but still think she’s the best bet! As far as Brexit goes, you really are splitting hairs.The conservatives were obviously in government then and it was their idea, decision to have a referendum.As you said they didn’t deserve to stay in power, but then you’re saying you’d vote for them next time!! Your post doesn’t make sense.

That's a local council decision not a central gov one.

I preferred the previous government. The current government have put us in an economic doom loop.

I voted for Labour for education. I feel very let down to be honest. The new curriculum doesn't go far enough and it's very secondary focused. Schools are struggling from years of cuts and underfunding but we trusted Labour to improve things. They haven't.

I would never vote Reform or Tory though. However bad people think Labour are, they would be (and have been) worse.

As a small business owner, this Government is genuinely terrifying me.

If reverse that. The previous government was a dhit show, but this one is far shittier. They have been talking the economy into the ground from day one. Their rhetoric is scaring investment away and increasing borrowing costs, which means less money coming into the country and more of our taxes are spent repaying debt, instead of having that money for public services. It is palpably stupid.

Because it’s rare for a child needing significant support and who can only manage an hour of school a day, or who refuses school completely, to enter the workforce with no issue. I’ve heard this said by many teachers - they think a lot of them will be unemployable

Why won’t they be working?

What is your definition of a mansion? grounds? Square footage? Value?

@GasPanic i would also like to know the answer to this.
Would a family of five living in a house with six bedrooms have to pay more tax than a single person living in a house with four bedrooms?
As the pp said, would value affect it?
Anyway, please let us know your definition of a mansion.

We can't change the past, but the fuckers responsible should at the very least be held accountable.

@MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack what form would holding them accountable take?

They are being held to ransom by their own backbenchers despite having a stonking majority

hmm... backbenchers are Labour, and reflect Labour values as much as KS, RR and the rest.
I'm really surprised that anyone's surprised, their course of actions was completely predictable and we discussed it here on MN in June 2024...