If there was a GE today who would you vote for?

Well it's a shame that Starmer/Reeves didn't hold Sunak to account when he excluded 3 million freelancers/self employed from covid support grants! They were useless and hadn't a clue - couldn't be bothered to do any research as to the spurious illogical reasons why Sunak excluded them and were utterly useless in Parliament on the couple of occasions they made half hearted "challenges" in the HOC.

And he DID say ‘Let the bodies pile high”, rather than impose restrictions.

So Boris offered to be injected with Covid live on TV to prove it to be harmless!!! Omfg!!!!

Thank you for posting that interesting study. It bears out all the we see around us day to day. I feel despairing.

It's not the first time the UN has had something to say about poverty levels in the UK. This report is from before covid and Ukraine so they can't blame that, and things have gotten worse since

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48354692.amp&ved=2ahUKEwifnfSe0a-CAxUVkFwKHbMHABMQFnoECCYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw04EGmJQp9TlM7yMmQy8Q1e

Well said. The Tories always have Schrödingers money. None existent for public services, but a bottomless pot for their mates and their own benefits! Public money invested in foreign companies drilling for oil off Scotland anyone? Sunak has shares 🤷‍♀️

Oh god how humiliating for our country @Kendodd

Labour, although I recently cancelled my party membership due to my disappointment and anger at Starmer’s position on Israel’s bombing of innocents in Gaza. There are some excellent people in positions of influence in the party and IMO, a Labour Government (entirely, or in coalition) is the only chance we have of retaining the NHS and improving other public services.

As for the poster who said they would vote Tory because they are “right wing and a left wing Government horrifies them (paraphrasing)”. The present Tory party is not right wing. It’s gone way beyond that - it’s fascist. The current dominant Labour Party is barely left of centre, if at all!

They don't.

Even the UN has commented on British levels of poverty. I can only conclude, we really do hate the poor. We even want to take tents away from homeless people because a flimsy piece of fabric sheltering them from the weather is more than they deserve.

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/society/2023/nov/05/uk-poverty-levels-simply-not-acceptable-says-un-envoy-olivier-de-schutter

It is amazing that some people who swim in shit call out anyone who tries to climb out.

No you are wrong. It was an inspiration for some constitutions, not the basis of all democratic constitutions. It essentially protected Barons against the abuses of power by the King and was signed under duress and recinded very soon afterwards.

I can't believe that the threshold for for school meals is o Ly about £7k.

How do people manage?!

It does shock me as to all these people who say “I am alright Jack”, why should I bother voting any differently because I am doing fine. What about the million children without homes, what about the working single mothers struggling with the onslaught of benefit cuts and childcare costs, what about the homeless that are facing sanctions and laws against the fact that they are poor, what about the old people living in destitution, what about the 2 million children going to school hungry but cannot get free meals because their parents earn just over the threshold for free meals, what about the millions living in feudal leasehold properties that are of such poor quality that they cannot remortgage or sell and are held prisoner to the whims of the freeholder and management agent’s exorbitant fees in order to remediate a mess, not of their creation, because of the years of deregulation by the Tories, facilitated by the Tory donating building industry, what about the small exporting businesses that were lied to so that can not longer export to their biggest market, what about the NHS, childcare, care home and other business struggling to get staff and declining, what about old people who were told to, “accept their fate” by an incompetent, uncaring and venal government. Who shall speak out for them?

We have an obligation to the most vulnerable to give them a voice, those who are struggling and are barely surviving to speak up, those who do not have access, to voice their helplessness, those who are most destitute who cannot have a say.

We are a rich country but the riches are spread unfairly and it is to each according to their want rather than their need. The right wing press can villainise and divide us and make us fight for the mere crumbs that have dropped from the top table by stating, “If you give your crumb away to the undeserving you will starve”. But in actual fact this inequality is a political choice and these is a small cabal who are being enriched at the expense of the rest of the country, we have the money, the knowledge and the ability to forge real change but not the political will to fight against vested interests.

But a government that has killed over 230k, presided over corruption, lying, sexual assault by its members, an increase in homelessness and destitution, the destruction of our services and infrastructure, deregulation that has led to inefficient and dangerous housing, the loss of business growth, rampant pillaging of the state and destruction of the NHS and the safety net as a policy choice is your better choice for government?

”The point of the opposition is to hold government to account” What a pity we haven’t had an effective one for so many years. In-fighting, anti-semitism, pro-lockdown fervour have meant that no-one has asked the questions that should have been asked. A party that can’t oppose can surely not be trusted with government.

Good luck. You’ll need it.

This is not the point of opposition, it is the hold government to account. The opposition do not have access to the civil service, the figures and the resources that are allocated to such things that the various bodies of the civil service provide. You are expecting the opposition to do something virtually impossible and no opposition has ever done this. They provide a manifesto and this can have an outline calculation, but it is the business of the civil service to implement this manifesto in an economic and viable manner.

Literally page 1 of any UK politics undergrad textbook.

No, this is against the governing principle of our unwritten constitution

How can any opposition, Tory or Lab, come out with costed proposals when they don't have the current numbers nor know what the countries finances will be in a year or more?

They'll be manifesto's, independent organisations will go through the numbers & we'll be able to make a more informed choice but the Tories have a 13 year track record, name ONE public service that has improved, just one!!

How about an opposition party with sensible, properly costed/financed, proposals?

Labour would be in power today if it hadn't been for the idiots such as Corbyn and Abbot.

@MadeleineMummy

This means that Parliament can do anything it wants and ignore anything that has gone before and.cannot tie the hand of a future Parliament to do what they want.

Not really, a govt can sign contracts that bind subsequent govts, such as PFI contracts!

Fuck me I can't beleive there are people on here, still, despite everything they've done to the country, going to vote Tory!!! WTF would they have to do to stop people voting for them? The mind boggles!

Our uncodified constitution has evolved constantly as it has been unwritten. The only thing of any significance in the constitution is that parliament shall not bind parliament. This means that Parliament can do anything it wants and ignore anything that has gone before and.cannot tie the hand of a future Parliament to do what they want. This literally means that “things can constantly change if it is the will of parliament”. What part of “things can constantly change” do you want to stay the same? It is by being dynamic that this democracy has continued.

We do need things to stop the “presidential like” overreach of someone like Johnson, rigorous clauses to stop lying in parliament, defined checks and balances to an unbridled misuse of power, job descriptions for MPs and defined roles and punishment for outside interests, limits to lobbying and MPs taking outside jobs and a limit to MPs taking roles in companies that they have privatised or have helped in some way for at least 5 years, the abolishment of the ludicrously h democratic House of Lords, the outdated unrepresentative voting system and I could go on.

That old chestnut, labour are profligate with public money. If you look at when public debt started increasing, it was to avoid a global meltdown of the financial system and a global recession after 2006. Labour increased spending but not by a massive amount and it was spent on education and the NHS. Whereas under the conservative spending increased but there was a substantial decrease in the quality of public services.