Thread 47 Sunak : The Ship of Fools sails on

[DuncinToffee]

The countdown to the General Election continues

Previous thread https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5082182-thread-46-sunak-dont-rain-on-our-parade?page=40&reply=135651872

I don’t think it’s impossible, it might look improbable now but Reform is really changing the political landscape and in four weeks time, who knows? My view of Ed Davey has really changed this week, he epitomises the decency that’s been lacking for the last five years. No, the PO scandal wasn’t his finest hour but he was lied to, just like everyone else.

I feel like I'm in a minority sometimes where I can see the connection between paying tax and functioning public services and as a result I don't actually mind paying tax, what pisses me off is when those taxes are squandered and as a result the services they are supposed to pay for don't work. We desperately need to reform things so that taxes are spent properly and aren't filtered off to rich mates in return for bugger all.

I'd quite like it if the super rich (I'm looking at you Sunak) were taxed properly and all.

I really hope so.

It would make me incredibly happy.

Like most households we are better off after the NI cuts but we would be very happy to pay much more for a functional nhs

Re: ED. Nah. He's fully paid up TWAW twat.

But...as its a fucking low bar I'll take him over a tory just

I saw the list of what the alleged £2094 would be spent on.

Bring it on.

Edited as best to stick to our unspoken agreement to leave this issue at the door of this thread! Sorry.

Like most households we are better off after the NI cuts

But are you ? No use having an extra £1 in your pocket if you them find yourself having to use it (and more) to fund something that you - possibly naively - thought your taxes were paying for. Schools being an obvious example, with healthcare a second.

Yes, I saved £10 a week from NI. But I ended up spending money on getting the car fixed (potholes), insurance has doubled (less police and fuck all crime prevention) and so on.

Once you have beaten a population into illiteracy and innumeracy, then what fig leaf of critical reasoning there may have been melts away too. This is known. This is not an accident.

Does anyone have a turnout prediction?

I was sort of surprised at 10% viewing figures for the 1st televised event.

Ds and I both think that many 2016 leave voters are either dead or won't vote (for many 2016 leave voters, it was their first time voting)

But we think the more rabid tories (Truss, Braverman, Patel fans) will vote reform. Ds predicts they'll get about 6 million votes.

Then there are the quiet tories who would vote for a pig in a blue rosette.

Apparently, I've now got some of ds1s mates coming over for election night results :) More drinks and snacks are needed :) 🍩🍪🍰🥡🍟🍕🍔🍸🍷🥂🍻

Does anyone have a turnout prediction?

I'll be surprised it if it gets over 70%. If we are having a sweepstake, 68%

Ok 🤷‍♀️
I respect trans peoples rights, will use their preferred pro nouns and names, but I refuse to pander to their delusion on biological sex.
I also refuse to lose my sex based rights because trans rights are deemed more important.
More people need to read the Cass Report.

On phone so can't edit my reply!

Yeah.
I'm thinking 60% tbh

I genuinely don’t know how angry the population is. I hope turnout is really high, I don’t want anyone being able to say the successful party got in because people stayed at home. 68% would be a good result.

Better off wages wise per month, yes.
But obviously, not better off from the pov of functioning public services.
I think most people would be happy to pay more tax of it meant decent state schools nhs dentists, GPs you can actually see...

Labour canvassers came around last weekend...

I let ds speak to them. He did challenge them on the 6500 teacher numbers, recent nhs experiences of my mother (horrific), nhs workers being expected to do overtime...

They were very pleasant (and young!!) But had no responses to his questions.

The UK is just....broken.

Ds doesn't feel hopeful.

The UK is just....broken.

Canvassers are often/usually/almost always just local party members with no training. You can’t expect them to be abreast of the details. They are just trying to see who is definite yes or no and who is wavering (for maybe a more expert visit) and to give the main highlights of the approach.

Good grief.

"Thinking about public services overall, do you think they have got better or worse in the last 5 years, or have they stayed the same? By 2019 voters"

39% of 2019 Tory voters think public services have got much worse.

36% of 2019 Tory voters think public services have got a little worse.

1% of 2019 Tory voters think public services have got much better! (Wonders what public services they actually use)

I’m surprised at 10% of the population watching too. Do they mean 10% of the electorate? We didn’t watch here - We’d have been shouting at the telly so went for the nice relaxing Sewing Bee.

Funnily enough, ElectoralCalculus has a predicted 67.5% for my seat.

I think most people would be happy to pay more tax of it meant decent state schools nhs dentists, GPs you can actually see...

The problem is the criminal Tories have ensures so much of the extra tax they have raised ha gone to their mates (to hold for them until they leave politics) that peoples faith in a fair and competent tax system is non-existent.

I would suggest that a really easy measure of how corrupt a country is would be the simplicity or otherwise of their tax laws. The UKs are intentionally and permanently byzantine (see also: legal system). So pretty corrupt.

P. J. O'Rourke made a powerful point that the US Constitution is 96 pages. And that is an instruction manual for how to build an empire. I have just pulled a random reference book off the shelf ("The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit") and it's getting on for 800 pages.

Woah.
Deeply depressing.

Apparently the audience was five million so I guess that’s about 10% of the electorate, ie the adult population.

Just checked. The turnout for the 2010 election - where there were scuffles as people were turned away due to passing 10pm and the volume of voters - was 65% turnout.

The chart is from here

https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/voters-resigned-tax-rises-despite-labour-and-conservative-pledges

I was about to post that those numbers will increase as the election moves on & manifestos are published.

But the Euros kick off (pun intended) on the 14th June. The last of the rounds over the weekend before the election. Quarter finals on the 5/6 July. I suspect that will soak up a lot more attention.