Black Monday anyone? The tories should be in jail

[Upthebracket22]

The pound is now at its lowest point against the dollar since decimalisation in 1971 at 1.03. It’s probably going lower and the Bank of England will likely need to step in with an emergency interest rate rise today. Black Monday possibly?

All because of the mini budget on Friday. The Tories should be in jail. Especially if their rich backers were shorting the pound as it appears to get rich.

I agree that a charm offensive on the right wing press is needed from labour.

However I'd like to think that voters will vote based on their lived experience of being horribly skint and with shit public services.

That didn't happen in 2019 despite the long decline in real wages and peoples standard of living but I can't imagine people will be fooled by the media this time?
But who knows.

This is exactly what I mean ^
This is why Labour has problems.

Vera is talking sense , but the Labour Party also need to win back the working and the lower middle classes too and it's a big ask for them to do this. They might succeed , but it won't be easy for them despite the current turmoil.
Many still don't trust them.

That raving Marxist , Paul Donovan , chief economist of wealth fund UBS , says investors now see the Conservative Party ' as a Doomsday Cult'.

I am surrounded by people in my locality who will protest a little now, but in the run up to the GE will read the Daily Mail and Express and still vote Conservative. A significant number are blue collared workers. Mostly Brexiteers. They will only vote for someone they believe in and the press provides them with the 'truth'.

100% guarantee they will follow the media.
The answer is simple. Starmer and his shadow cabinet need to win the media.
Like Blair did in 1997. That is what they have to do.
It is not good enough for the Conservatives to fuck up.

But you can't charm the likes of Rothermere and Murdoch as they live their tax-free non-dom lifestyles in foreign climes punting their own values and interests. Labour though has a vast arm,y of young volunteers who are great at social media and that is a better route to get the message across, and door-to-door and phone banks. Expect massive spending on targeted digital if you are in a swing constituency, very little elsewhere. Sir Keir may be a tad dull - but he has a planet-sized brain, a relentless work ethic and a moral core and is an honourable man with robust family values don't let anyone tell you differently. The Tories are dripping in corruption and sleaze.

Depends on what happens over the next 2 years.

Falling bond values has a direct effect on pensions and investments, previous Tory voters wont forgive that nor much higher mortgage repayments and inflation, plus a devalued £ which they'll notice when they go on hols (if they have any money to do so)

Levelling up has also died a death, which the ex red wall seats will note.

The only way out for the Tories is an economic recovery but in a world heading for a recession, its unlikely the UK will buck that trend.

I agree that the media will put the Labour Party in a bad light and and by the next election it'll be business as usual. They will start a smear campaign.
Surrounded by conservatives myself , so maybe my views are a bit screwed up , but I can see this happening.
People still do not trust thrust them. I can see the daily Mail or the sun suddenly liking Sir Kier Starmer's polices either.

The biggest smear on Sir Keir was that he bought a field to act as a donkey sanctuary for his ailing mother.

www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/i-met-keir-starmers-donkeys-and-they-told-me-something-about-him/

I think Truss will be lucky to still be PM by Christmas, she’s not going to last until 2024.

Wild rumours at this stage but talk of Truss courting Sunak !

Risky, she has already had one affair.

re Tories winning next election inevitably it won’t be because people don’t want to vote for ‘socialism’ (I’m in NL - hardly a bastion of ‘socialism’ but the progressive tax system would probably terrify many Tories) but because they’ve recently attempted to rig the electoral system. The majority of the UK don’t vote Tory, Labour have been miles ahead in the polls for months. There’s absolutely no electoral mandate for these policies and no moral right (4th choice of her parliamentary colleagues?).

That must be why Sweden are freaking out about their falling living standards and voting in droves for Sverigedemokraterna

Not sure Kier Starmer has the answer he also has embraced the neolib growth rhetoric he just has different ideas of how to bring it about (invest in unproven green industries as opposed to proven financial services which make up 15% of GDP).

It's all tinkering with deck chairs on Titanic as the West os dying as an economic powerhouse and has been since the 1920s. The postwar boom of the 60s was an aberration not a norm. The West is no longer competitive, our education standards in STEM are dire compared with Asia so we'll never catch up.

I'd say 30 more years of decentish living standards (we are already below South Korea and Japan in living standards) and then long term irreversible decline

Doesn't matter who's in power. These are bigger forces than party politics. Kier's Labour and Truss's Tories are both broadly centrist anyway.

I'll vote for Kier next time as he's a centrist and the Tories are out of ideas

Long term planning - my kids are learning Mandarin and have been told with certainty that if they want a good life they're best off working in Asia and just buy a property in the UK to rent as Russian and Arab oligarchs will keep prices high whilst pricing out the youth from property purchase

Not sure Kier Starmer has the answer he also has embraced the neolib growth rhetoric he just has different ideas of how to bring it about (invest in unproven green industries as opposed to proven financial services which make up 15% of GDP).

Why would you vote for this as it doesn’t sound like you think it a better option

More than one by all accounts but I think this one is professional. There must be a sense of panic in the Truss camp - she has got rid of the wise old souls who can help and advise and is working on her native instincts whilst the rest of the world and many of her party look on aghast and the markets remorsefully vote with their best. 79-year-old Patrick Minford does not a brain's trust make. If he did go it and she pivoted (like she did with Brexit) she might just reassure the markets that there is an adult in the room but it would be the most significant screeching u-turn of all time.

My nephew spent 5 years in China with his well-connected Chinese wife he set up four English language schools in Shenzen - after covid he lost them all and his wife and child are now back home here. It's a hostile place for foreigners now unless you are prepared to go full CCP shill mode and the government have banned foreign ownership in that sector. That said he has a relentless work ethic and a ruthless streak that has helped him hit the ground on day one.

That said he has a relentless work ethic and a ruthless streak that has helped him hit the ground on day one.

Has he considered a career in politics @vera99 ?

I agree with some of this, but it doesn’t address the positive that is required to attract votes over to Labour. Dwelling on the negatives is part of the historic Labour problem.

Nah - he has two houses in the NW and got his old job back at Bae which he left to travel the world. As an engineer DIY comes as a dream to him. He thinks they are all c*nts sadly.

From a headteacher.

Steve Chalke
The average cost of energy for an Oasis Primary School was £26k a yr. Now, inc’ govt help, it’s 89k; an unfunded gap of £63k. But someone earning £1m a yr will be £55k better off; so if they chose to trickle-down, they could cover almost the whole gap for one school on their own.

I am still waiting for the glorious left wing European success stories and example please. None are forthcoming

Closer to the election given the financial situation they find themselves in then costed policies will come to deal with the issues facing the UK. their key priorities are ;

Not sure Kier Starmer has the answer he also has embraced the neolib growth rhetoric he just has different ideas of how to bring it about (invest in unproven green industries as opposed to proven financial services which make up 15% of GDP)

FS is difficult, our closest market is the EU and the Euro is still the worlds 2nd most traded currency, we are now in direct competition with EU financial centres, yet outside the 'bloc, & chasing an ever smaller market as the world goes into recession.

I'm not sure Green energy investment is unproven, new gen solar, heat pumps, wind turbines and new gen DB glazing have to built somewhere, why not in the UK ?
One adv of brexit is supposed to be state aid, so why can't we back startups?

Green industries already provide 1000s of jobs in poorer areas, no reason not to expand and then use these products to insulate UK homes.

Key labour priorities moving towards the election are;

Health
Social care
Climate crisis
Violence against women and girls
Electoral reform
Early years and childcare
Public services and local government funding
Equalities
Workers’ pay
Ukraine
The growing challenges of our economy
Investing in our infrastructure and the workforce