This country is doomed

Equally, unarmed Iranian citizens are not a proscribed terrorist organisation who have sworn to obliterate every Ayatollah from the face of Earth. 🙄What's your point? That mass murder is okay as long as it's other Muslims? That we can't criticise Khomeini (even if he did order a bloke on the back of a truck to fire at will into crowds with his AK-47) in case it's Islamophobic? Or that other classic that I read on here - that criticising Iran is playing into the hands of Netanyahu? It requires serious mental yoga to be that obtuse, surely?

I am ashamed to say that I used to think the risk of antisemitism in the UK was overblown, but recent events have certainly proved the old "no Jews, no news" theory.

I've been a Green supporter for years and I'm over the moon with this result.
I hope this has scared Reform who have tried to advertise themselves as the only minority party to take on the big 2 when really they're just a drop out club for failed Tories.

Yes, I can’t see how the combination of open borders/ UBI and green local opposition to house building can result in anything other than a catastrophic collapse of standards of living for the very working class that the Green Party say they represent.

Thanks. The telegraph eh? No possibility of bias there then.

You're clearly a deform voter, who holds bigoted views black / brown / muslim communities. Clearly you have forgotten what you wrote so let me remind you "yes, I agree with your theory that Muslims voters want to take over the Greens from the inside, and turn it into a pro Gaza party..can't wait till shit hits the fan"

So stand by my comment WhiteBait..you're a bigot / islamophobe.

They think man can become women by slapping on a dress and wig. If that’s not misogynistic what is???

...why are you talking about Muslim landlords?

Are you serious??

A Labour politician reports serious threats and beheading by Islamic extremists and you are suggesting she’s making it up?

I think that's probably how they ought to position themselves. Whereas Hannah Spencer made good points in her speech, the more radical aspects of their manifesto may be harder to sell.
As I understand it, Starmer didn't block Burnham? It was a majority against him, though.

Obviously Burnham was prevented from standing, I wonder would he have succeeded in taking the seat? As it was, Labour voters were being asked to vote for the status quo, whereas he was quite openly going in on a 'depose Starmer and steer to the left' ticket.

And this is where we talk about how many Muslim landlords there are. My friend (white British) married a Muslim (not Pakistani) who moved to the UK in his 40s so had no pension provision. Going into houses, doing it up and then going into buy to lets is his pension. He's relying on the income. There's so much tax dodging going on in this area too and there's much to be said about cultural attitudes to this - including from white British circles. They both freely acknowledge this too. My friend is by no means alone.

Gorton is an area with a huge number of Buy to Lets. It's THE place in Manchester right now to be looking to invest. My friend is indeed one of them.

The shit hitting the fan within the greens is by no means restricted to issues around identity and culture. There's also a whole bunch of economic policy clashes which make me raise an eyebrow.

I’m not sure it can be said with certainty that Gaza was a big factor in this by election but the May elections will show how the Greens do in other constituencies which might not have the same demographics.

I think people are overplaying Gaza as the reason, it was Hannah doing well, and Starmer ballsing up the Burnham thing. But still, there’s a long way to go between a by election and winning multiple seats.

Greens could do well just offering an alternative to Labour. For those that want to stick left that is.

Our government didn't say the Ayatollah and IRGC had a right to defend itself. They also didn't pay a private company to conduct surveillance flights over Tehran and then prevaricate about whether they would share the footage with international courts if the footage contained evidence of the IRGC committing crimes.

I don’t think that would be an outlandish suggestion. Especially in areas where women are particularly subjugated - covered up and not allowed to socialise freely - or may have no English. The current Mayor of Tower Hamlets, a Muslim man, was convicted of serious electoral fraud and coercion and banned from public office for 5 years. He stood again after the ban and, surprise, got elected again.

I don’t understand why a conviction for electoral fraud does not attract a ban for life. But then neither does being a convicted terrorist or battering a man with a pick axe handle and posing for selfies with crack dealers so hey ho

From the article:
The sorts of offences that constitute electoral fraud in Britain are set out in the Representation of the People Act 1983 (White and Johnston, 2017). These include: undue influence (pressuring someone into voting or not voting); impersonation; bribery; treating (non-monetary bribery); and supplying false information (e.g., falsely registering on the electoral roll, or submitting fraudulent postal votes). Over the last few years, several official reports have highlighted that allegations of electoral fraud tend to be more common in areas with large Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities (Electoral Commission, 2014, Pickles and Eric, 2016, White and Johnston, 2017). In his 2016 review into electoral fraud, Sir Eric Pickles identified a number of incidents involving Britons of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin.1First, he noted (p. 22),
Evidence was presented of pressure being put on vulnerable members of some ethnic minority communities, particularly women and young people, to vote according to the will of the elders, especially in communities of Pakistani and Bangladeshi background
Second, he noted (p. 28)
The review considered evidence of voters in Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities reporting concerns that the secrecy of the ballot was undermined by party activists' knowledge about their choice to vote by post
Third, he noted (p. 45),
In the Tower Hamlets case, the Election Court heard how a voter was seen crying outside a polling station after allegedly being told by a supporter of Lutfur Rahman that it was “un-Islamic” not to vote for Rahman, and that you were “not a good Muslim” if you did not vote for him. The court found that Muslim clerics had participated in Lutfur Rahman's campaign to persuade Muslim voters that it was their religious duty to vote for him
Indeed, the finding by the Electoral Commission in it's 2014 report that allegations of electoral fraud are particularly common in some Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities inspired at least two subsequent academic studies. Gill et al. (2015) carried out qualitative interviews in eight electoral wards with large Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities: four that had been identified as having a high risk of electoral fraud, and four that had not

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0261379417300811

Yes, I found his responses very disappointing. As I said he made no criticism of Reform, but seemed very focussed on the errors of Labour.

How? As I said, weirdo.

There are so many wacky things they have come out with you can take your pick. Quite happy to quote you a few if you can’t be bothered to read up on it yourself though. Basically they are a party of useful idiots. They may as well rename themselves the Gaza party.

Polanski was interviews in Radio 4 this morning and wouldn’t give straight answers to some reasonable questions; it’s not good.

Yes, it'll certainly bite. The Greens were prepared to use Gaza, a sensitive point, perhaps Labour need to reflect on getting their message across. In a GE, I think other Green policies may not be so popular with the electorate.

Agree with much of what you've said, don't understand the misogyny comment with greens.

This, and if there is any truth to the family voting rumours, it’s even worse.

Goodness! As a chartered tax adviser it is infuriating how many people such as you spout such absolute nonsense! People who evade tax are main small and medium size businesses and sole traders. Even if they all paid up our country would still be in a shit state, because we spend too much, and we’ve borrowed too much.

Reform and Green are both popular parties because they have manifestos that make farcical promises that are totally unaffordable. Theyre promising the moon. Polanski actually believes Modern Monetary Theory is a good idea! What an ignorant wanker.

If either Reform or get into power it would be a total financial meltdown. With Greens you get the bonus of rampant antisemitism and misogyny, with Reform you get racism. Nice choice!

Losing a 13,000 majority is going to bite, and coming third. But it’s the next elections in May that will be another test. I don’t think that’s why the Greens won though.

Yes WhiteBait...interesting username.

Sure but the UK is on its way to becoming the Islamic Republic of Iran 🤣 It's not me who needs 'a wobble' here.