Results like these at a general election would mean Tory annihilation

[noblegiraffe]

Says a BBC headline this morning.

Anyone else stockpiling popcorn?

Am I missing the satire?

Maybe that poster is suggesting we go back to the good old days of not knowing what was going on in the world because most working class people couldn't read and rarely strayed a few miles from where they were born? They just relied on their superiors for news of the wider world.

We're already well past the point where anyone has any control over national politics

We passed that point when we decided creating an empire was such a spiffing idea.

Well the franchise is rather wide at the moment, makes it much harder to buy the result you want.

We are way past the point where Tory PM Sunak has any control over his government or his party, nevermind anything else.

This country is doomed to the trajectory of terminal decline. No stopping it now.

I've heard that all my life and I was born in the 1950s.

@IvorTheEngineDriver So have I but we don’t have great politicians now. Very few. They don’t think for themselves. They have few ideas and most of them are just playing to their own voters. They are not sorting out many issues.They are followers. Not leaders.

Sunak is trying to reduce inflation. We have huge debt after COVID. We cannot afford a spending spree. It’s never going to be popular. He’s got many troublesome MPs. As have Labour down the years. Or pressure groups like Momentum or Militant sniping away. People have short memories.

Labour politicians have frequently promised what they cannot deliver. They have historically listened to trades unions who represent a minority these days. These governments always run out of money and steam. As in Blair/Brown. Now Sunak. A wave engulfs them. We won’t see many improvements because we left the EU, have too many external forces wreaking havoc and don’t support business.

Labour politicians have frequently promised what they cannot deliver.

How are Sunak's five pledges going?

It is almost as though Sunak had nothing to do with the decisions that caused inflation and the large debt that the UK faces.

No that was someone else who was Chancellor called Sunak who made and was involved in making a whole series of poor decisions.

That was someone else.

We have huge debt after COVID.

We already had a huge debt before Covid, it's been rising since 2010

Fortunately the decisions made by the Chancellor and government during covid, including delaying lockdowns to make them as expensive as possible, ignoring fraud and spaffing billions on mates ensured that that debt rose dramatically as a result of covid.

Trebles all round.

National debt was rising through most of Blair/Brown years too!

Don't threaten me with a good time!

Yes it has but not quite so steep

https://www.statista.com/statistics/282647/government-debt-uk/

Again, you cannot blame the latest government for everything. However anyone can see this isn’t an issue for a single government. Starmer will face more of the same. He will make mistakes too. Plenty befitted from the COVID fiscal decisions. Maybe no one should have been helped? Quick policy decisions rarely go well. Simplicity is open to fraud. But speed matters too.

Blair certainly came in on a rising tide. Wars, COVID, the financial crash in 2008, Truss and other issues down the years play a part. No governing escapes. It’s ludicrous to think a Starmer government can fix everything. No chance.

Part of the problem with the Davos and Bilderberg groupies is that insiders accept ideas without any external scrutiny.
The flawed paper (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_in_a_Time_of_Debt) that was used to justify austerity (R4 had a fascinating programme about it) led to outstanding stupidity from Osborne.
In the long-run, slashing and burning doesn't actually save money. Failing to address issues early because of shrunken budgets leads to provision of non-services which still cost money in return for either no benefit or actual harm.

The current government has been in office for 13 years, after how many years do you think a government should be taking responsibility for the consequences of the decisions it has made? 15 years? 20 years? 50 years?

Again, you cannot blame the latest government for everything

What is the latest government?

I am sure Starmer will love this as an argument since it means he has at least 3 terms before anything is his responsibility.

Blair/Brown spent 13 years blaming Thatcher.

The Tories have spent 13 years blaming Blair/Brown.

Spot a pattern??

That's not true. By the end of their time they weren't consistently saying how they needed to undo what had been done in recent years BY THEIR OWN GOVERNMENT!

Could you share a clip or article from say 2008-2010 where Blair or Brown blame Thatcher for anything?

It wasn’t. There’s a nice little graph here.

https://fullfact.org/economy/labour-and-conservative-records-national-debt/

And another.