Thread 1 Starmer: A New Hope

[DuncinToffee]

Please tread lightly on our dreams.

Previous thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5112428-thread-55-sunak-gives-up

I don't think he did . That was Timpano Sr :) . Timpano Frere was a Tory remainer, I believe

More appointments

Ellie Reeves Cabinet Office minister
Dan Jarvis Home Office minister (presumably security)
Jim McMahon and Matthew Pennycook ministers in DLUHC
Douglas Alexander minister in DBT
Jacqui Smith in the Lords as an education minister

I wish he’d given Jarvis and Pennycook Defence. Maybe their time will come for those roles.

Another early morning. Just browsing through and mistook your 'Jarvis and Pennycook Defence' as a reference to an obscure work by Dickens that I couldn't place. Duh. Cup of coffee please. Let's all have a good day before the carping starts tomorrow.

Wow, this looks shady. People may have voted for candidates that don't exist??

https://x.com/josiahmortimer/status/1809583328049168541

There seems to be a genuine desire to have a government of competent people, unlike much of the last five years. At one point there was only Michael Gove in government with as much as a clue.

Saw that this morning- shocking and I hope urgently investigated. I wonder is it a criminal offence.

Reading down to the very end, it seems 'paper candidates' are a thing (they still should be actual people!). I wonder if anyone who votes for such a candidate knows this, though.

DH sent me a link to an article about this @Piggywaspushed

bylinetimes.com/2024/07/03/reform-uks-invisible-candidates-who-are-they-hiding/

The article I linked includes a picture of one of the 'candidates'. That's AI. You can tell by the skin.

That is totally AI! Look how the front of the hair is blurred.

'He's' on twitter, vote4markreform, couldn't attend the count because he had pneumonia, the tweets smack of chat GPT as well.

Joined Twitter in June 2024. Sample tweet:

To all those people on Reddit wondering if I’m real or if Reform has fake candidates ?
Keep smoking the crack pipe and wondering what sexuality you are.
How do you think anyone could be nominated if you don’t exist ?
Do you people know anything about anything?

Well if he is real, he is not MP material.

Why would you go to minor injuries if you couldn't breathe?

Out of interest does anyone know what Reform UKs plans were for the immigration issue and ‘the boats’ ? I’ve seen posters on other threads nodding sagely (virtually obviously) and saying that Reform have predicted problems for years blah blah but I’ve not got a clue what they would do differently apart from breaking the law and pushing the boats back to France.

@Leniriefenstahl as I understand it, Reforms plans are 2 pronged

1. stop RNLI rescuing people
2. have the Navy push back the boats to France to be rescued there

They acknowledge there's a risk that people might drown but believe that will be a disincentive and they also say a similar plan worked in Australia

.

Yes paper candidates exist and are usually real people. I heard of one, Labour, who stood in a rural parish seat, true blue, and he won! 😬

@Efacsen thanks for that !

As I understand it there are significant distinctions between the practicalities of push backs in Australia & the Uk.

1 Asylum Seekers in boats crossing to Australia cover long distances and therefore use actual boats - pushing a relatively robust vessel back is much less likely to cause death/injury than doing similar to a lightweight raft/dinghy.

1. Australia were able to carry it out in international waters - so a) lots more space to manoeuvre, quieter & less likely to pose risks to third parties and b) no third country complaining about what's happening.

Carrying out pushbacks in the Channel offers a wildly different prospect - waters are either French or English. The French won't accept English vessels shoving rafts up their beaches.

And much more dangerous not just to asylum seekers but to international shipping.

Which was why the Navy declined to get involved.

Reform know all this of course - I assume the impracticalities, risk of death, dicey legalities and the chance to fight with the French is just very, very attractive to them.

With the Lib Dems gaining Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire, the final result is:

Why did the SNP get annihilated? I have family in Scotland and all are SNP supporters.

The SNP have been a mess for a while - three leaders in 2 years, financial scandal, GRC reform, and generally not doing core business well.

They’re completely incompetent in power (as shown but the current Scottish Government) and have been riddled with scandal.

Thanks. It is a mystery to me why my relatives still vehemently support them.