This government and their direction of travel, frightens me.

[Kendodd]

Teressa May (last government, but same party) with her 'go home immigrants' vans and hostle environment.
Immigration and Borders act.
Transportation to Rwanda.
Bringing laws in trying to limit our right to protest.
Lying to the queen to prorogue parliament.
Lying in the house of commons.
Trying to change the law to get one of your MPs off.
Pretty much ripping up the ministerial code.
Windrush.
Admitting that they're just going to break international law.

I bet they will come after the human rights act and try to get us out of ECHR.

Worse, I think a great many of the public love the fact they've done all the above and would cheer loudly at the ripping up of the human rights act and ECHR membership (wtaf?)

How did we get to this?

@jgw1 I haven't mentioned Putin, nor called anyone 'little'. There have been huge changes in global trade over the past 3 or so years that have effectively ended globalisation as we knew it . The Chinese have stopped buying American soya. They are buying elsewhere. This in turn has had a massive impact on global shipping. The Americans are trying to bring back tech manufacturing onshore. This includes two large semiconductor manufacturing sites, using Taiwanese technology. This has major implications for relations between China and Taiwan.
Both the Americans and Chinese wish to disentangle themselves from each other. We are starting to see ripple effects from this.

@StormzyinaTCup

Why should the windfall tax be a one off? if the oil price stays very high, then the tax comes back in. Even Maggie had a windfall tax on the oil industry.

Because we now want/need investment in North Sea.
It's not at all beneficial to be hammering the oil companies with windfall taxes.

But this extra profit was never planned for and we are not talking about taking even half of it.... they are using it to increase dividends not to increase investment. Remember also the Govt already subsidises NS oil clean up to the tune of billions, in some cases more than they are taxed.

[quote MasterGland]@jgw1 I haven't mentioned Putin, nor called anyone 'little'. There have been huge changes in global trade over the past 3 or so years that have effectively ended globalisation as we knew it . The Chinese have stopped buying American soya. They are buying elsewhere. This in turn has had a massive impact on global shipping. The Americans are trying to bring back tech manufacturing onshore. This includes two large semiconductor manufacturing sites, using Taiwanese technology. This has major implications for relations between China and Taiwan.
Both the Americans and Chinese wish to disentangle themselves from each other. We are starting to see ripple effects from this.[/quote]
Putin was right, it is the end of the American age, and we should get on his side.

@MasterGland Globalisation will re assert itself, we need what other countries have and vice versa.

Russia wont always be out in the cold and hopefully, CV will be something that we can manage through vaccination, something china has yet to realise!

Ben Wallace is the bookies fav to be next PM, not Truss, who is a shallow idiot that even my life long Tory member cousin would vote for & failing him, plenty others in the mix that might move the Tories back to the center right.

@Kendodd

The biggest thing the government could have done to reduce poverty in the UK is build social housing. They haven't though, instead a large amount of, what was social housing is now in the ownership of private landlords turning a large private profit. Selling off publicly owned assets for private profits is absolutely in line with Tory ideology though.

Agree with this.

@LightSnowLight

Loving the virtual signallers! Like the Church of England, let’s spend that magic money tree - of other peoples money tho’ !!!! Ye old taxpayer. The whole world and his wife can rock up here and expect to be financially and socially supported for the rest of their lives. Ludicrous idiocy. Living in an ivory tower. Deluded.

If you feel so strongly about it OP, dip your hands in your pocket. Will cost you £5 MILLION per day (so far) for the illegal migrants. Perhaps you are expecting everyone else to pay though?!!!!! Hmmm Thought so. Talk is cheap.

Hmm funny, I thought after brexit we would be 350 million a week better off? Can't we just use that money instead?

Oops, silly me, turns out it was big fat lie. Who knew??

“ Polls really don't matter, the thing to look for is bookmaker odds, and they currently have the Tories as the favourite to win the next election. Tories are 11/14, Labour are 6/4.”

Sorry to be blunt, but this is bollocks. Bookies aren’t privy to some magical foresight, they take polling data, combine it with their own betting trends, and vine up with odds they think will make them the most profits.

Bookmaker odds don’t tell you which way people will vote, it tells which way they bet.

@SleeplessInEngland

“ Polls really don't matter, the thing to look for is bookmaker odds, and they currently have the Tories as the favourite to win the next election. Tories are 11/14, Labour are 6/4.”

Sorry to be blunt, but this is bollocks. Bookies aren’t privy to some magical foresight, they take polling data, combine it with their own betting trends, and vine up with odds they think will make them the most profits.

Bookmaker odds don’t tell you which way people will vote, it tells which way they bet.

Did you know that Nicola Sturgeon took her mask off in a shop?

Loving the virtual signallers! Like the Church of England, let’s spend that magic money tree - of other peoples money tho’ !!!! Ye old taxpayer. The whole world and his wife can rock up here and expect to be financially and socially supported for the rest of their lives. Ludicrous idiocy. Living in an ivory tower. Deluded

Most successful asylum seekers (the majority) go on to work and contribute, many are very well educated, they have to be or they'd never afford the trafickers fees.

If you feel so strongly about it OP, dip your hands in your pocket. Will cost you £5 MILLION per day (so far) for the illegal migrants. Perhaps you are expecting everyone else to pay though?!!!!! Hmmm Thought so. Talk is cheap

The costs are very high because the Tories deliberately string out the process for years on end, hand out money to landlords with no checks on how the money is being spend... or not.

They also choose not to negotiate return agreements with Europe, along with many other agreements we had pre brexit.

Aren’t polls usually slightly more favourable to Labour.

I don’t think it matter with the Tories what leader they have and where they sit within the party (Johnson wasn’t to the right of the party) they go with public opinion and what the public want to vote for. When times are hard immigration will always become more of a thorny issue one that can be used to gain public support

We havent got a tidal wave of illegal immigrants

Wake up

@Neverendingdust if you hate our shitty little island so much why are you still here ?????

@lollipoprainbow

We havent got a tidal wave of illegal immigrants

Wake up

Evidence?

The vast majority of the UK is white british plus seeking asylum isn't illegal... well, not yet.

@lollipoprainbow ah yes fuck off if you don't like it, the last refrain of anyone who has lost all sense of morality.

Polling two years ahead of an election isn’t very useful for telling you who will win that election. It is useful for gauging snap reactions to flagship policies however, especially when it’s multiple polls saying the same thing.

[quote lollipoprainbow]@Neverendingdust if you hate our shitty little island so much why are you still here ????? [/quote]
Trying to change it from the inside rather than going to another country.

At least in this country, we have a democracy, the police don't detain you without reason, you aren't disappeared or are not sentenced to long prison terms for protesting.

(One or more of those might not be entirely true)

@SleeplessInEngland

Polling two years ahead of an election isn’t very useful for telling you who will win that election. It is useful for gauging snap reactions to flagship policies however, especially when it’s multiple polls saying the same thing.

TBH - it's only useful to gauging reaction before the details actually emerge, the small print etc - the truth behind the headlines and spin can be very different.

“ TBH - it's only useful to gauging reaction before the details actually emerge, the small print etc - the truth behind the headlines and spin can be very different.”

Yes, but most people only read the headline and apparently they still don’t like it. For a cabinet that’s allergic to boring details that’s a problem.

What on EARTH are you on about?! There IS no tidal wave of immigrants to the UK.

The wikipedia graph below seems to confirm that immigration is at a all-time high. Net migration was more or less zero until the mid-90's, then it took off, I think especially when the Blair government left the door completely open to Poland etc, and it is higher now than it was under the Blair government.

The graph also shows that refugees are a completely insignificant proportion of immigrants. To make up a number, after eye-balling the graph, I'd say 99% of immigrants are not refugees.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_immigration_to_the_United_Kingdom#/media/File:UK_Migration_from_1970.svg

The graph also shows that refugees are a completely insignificant proportion of immigrants. To make up a number, after eye-balling the graph, I'd say 99% of immigrants are not refugees

There is also emigration to think about

People who leave this country for a better life abroad.

@LightSnowLight totally agree, where is this magic money tree by the way ?!

@Alexandra2001 hilarious that the UK is deemed a shitty island by so many posters here, mm I wonder why so many are keen to come here then if its that bad????

[quote lollipoprainbow]@LightSnowLight totally agree, where is this magic money tree by the way ?! [/quote]
Same place it was for all the brexit and test and trace losses, presumably.

[quote lollipoprainbow]@Alexandra2001 hilarious that the UK is deemed a shitty island by so many posters here, mm I wonder why so many are keen to come here then if its that bad???? [/quote]
Because compared to the other countries they come from, the UK is far better.

And safer

Better to come here than be shot in your own country or disappeared.

[quote lollipoprainbow]@LightSnowLight totally agree, where is this magic money tree by the way ?! [/quote]
Raising taxes 15 times is how the Tories have got money for their various schemes.