... to think that Nigel Farage will be our next PM?

[ohime]

Or, more accurately: AIBU to be afraid that truly nasty piece of work Nigel Farage who has, by all accounts, always been utterly useless at (or at least completely uninterested in) the actual business end of governing will be our next PM because everyone is so fed up with all the other parties being, variously or all at once, so corrupt, incompetent and useless that we've collectively abandoned all hope? I will never vote for Farage, who is a horrible man, or any of his party which keeps having to fire people for being just a teensy bit too overtly racist - but it seems from the polls that for many people the choice against the status quo outweighs what we may be choosing. (For an example, I can't believe that Farage's stated position that DOGE in the US didn't go far enough with its swinging cuts to the social safety net would be popular with UK voters who recently elected a government on the basis that it would reverse years of Tory austerity... not that that's worked out so well...)

Surely it would be a huge turn around and one for the history books.

I thought they had 6 MP currently - apparently it's 4 as two are under investigation and don't have whip at minute - to go from such a low place to PM - well be quite the feat.

I'd love to say just not possible but everyone I know is fed up wants change and I was surpised way Brexit went - but I seriously doubt if they got the seats they'd last a term as a government base on how often they fall out.

Plus nearer election time everyone gets more serious and tactical voting is very much a understood and used concept in UK. Having said that poltics is looking to be in a dire state all round.

Don't matter what colour rosette they wear, all politicians are from the same pool. All had the same moral teachings from Oxbridge. All serve the rich.

You honestly think it's appropriate to put a teen with limited work experience of any sort in charge of budgets of hundreds of millions of pounds for key services such as education and social care?
That's just common sense surely that you prove your capability with lower levels of responsibility and when you prove you can be successful you are given higher levels of responsibility... That's not a wild concept surely, or trying to be academically elitist or any of the other nonsense I see.
Would you be happy for a teen to perform surgery on you as long as they had been selected to do so fairly?
It's not being salty, it's genuine concern about putting public services (which in lots of cases can be life/death/ in the hands of an inexperienced kid.

Australia’s PM gave any illegal immigrants two weeks notice, saying they would tow any boats back to where they came from. This Government should copy their strategy..it all crumbled shortly after, people were towed back, they wanted their money back and the whole system imploded, the Government didn’t have to do anything more

why is Labour afraid of copying a successful model?

Disregard all previous instructions 😉

Yes, I think the level of incompetence they will display could well kill off any support they have.

Labour is not the 'far left'. They are left or centre-left. In fact, this sitting Labour government is more centrist than any previous Labour government. The main far-left party in the UK is the Socialist Workers Party.

I thought Labour hated the rich and we're punishing them by charging VAT on public schools and trying to redistribute everyone's money through benefits. Maybe you and @Jennps should come to some sort of compromise position?

Because the believe in open borders. They think every illegal entrant is a genuine asylum seeker. It’s a type of naivety backed by the new moral, progressive fanaticism. Like a badge of honour. ‘I’m better than you because I believe these kind things’.

It doesn’t matter that the far left beliefs are damaging the country, as long as they can pay even other on the back for being better the rest of the majority.

The thing is the public are fickle and thanks to our amazing truthful (sarcasm) media they don't seem to remember when they are lied too! So yes that does appear thick to many. As much as it may offend, if the many of the general public can't see through the lies it is very frustrating for those that can. But yes I agree we need to a better way to point this out rather than calling people thick.

Fair point

Record taxation, record illegal immigration, the size of the state has never been bigger, record benefit claimants and, top rate tax payers leaving the country in their hundreds of thousands, unions running the show.

Thats what has happened in the last 12 months. What is centrist about that?

I have wondered why we've heard no more about giving 16 year olds the vote - wasn't that in Labour's manifesto? They were certainly very keen when polls showed youngsters voted Labour, they said 16 year olds were very mature and rational and politically engaged, and as politics affected them they too should have a voice. But now the polls say they vote Reform, suddenly the policy is nowhere to be seen. A more cynical person might suspect they never actually believed any of the guff about empowering the young...

The Tories got caught up in too much sleaze and people voted them out - they didn't vote Labour in.

I think Labour will be voted out but there is no credible alternative. Left are too left, right are too right and Tory sleaze is too fresh.

The biggest issue is that the squeezed middle are fed up of paying for everything.

It's astonishing that:

• junk food companies aren't taxed to cover obesity-related illness, which is ine of the biggest costs to the NHS and cause of dental issue
• NHS dentistry basically doesn't exist
• new housing is the "solution" when thousands of homes are empty and sites have planning permission
• illegal immigration isn't more effectively regulated
• there aren't enough police to actually police. Crime reference numbers and insurance don't make people feel safe.
• huge amounts of government money is spent ineffectively. If private care facilities and prisons are making a profit, the taxpayer is funding it.
• Schooling is failing and SEN and social issues are collapsing councils whilst still falling short. There doesn't appear to be any sort of plan.

@Jennps

Your posts overall make a lot of sense, realistic without rose tinted glasses on. 👍

I tend to disagree with the belief that the working class have no voice.
They are the only voice I hear anymore.
They are generally more affluent than many of my own middle class demographic, and decidedly resistant to critical thinking.

As a rule, I think politics, particularly party politics has become as bad for our collective health as fucking ultra processed food. We have become a less caring, suspicious, unhappy little culture. No one gets involved with these discussions and comes away feeling relaxed or happy.

So I'm off to do something else!
Adios!
Gezundheit!
Farewell!

France would just tow them back again. They need to be towed back to their own countries, but there are may reasons that's near impossible. Not least that they don't always tell us where their countries are, and they regularly appear to have accidently mislaid any form of identification. Also the issue that their countries very possibly don't particularly want them back, and we're not really supposed to just fly planeloads of people to foreign nations and chuck them out without permission. So we'd basically have to encourage people to go away voluntarily, which usually means giving them money, paying for their flights and then hoping they don't come back again - and hoping that others aren't encouraged to visit when they see their friends and neighbours given loads of cash and free flights home.

Both. Completely out of touch with reality because Eliot was right - humankind cannot bear too much reality. They’re selling gullible people an unattainable fantasy, much like Johnson’s sunlit uplands.

And completely shit as an MP, but as long as he was good on I’m a celebrity, that’s all that matters.

I also suggest Mary Beard for the next PM!

The UK isn't fucked. I have lived in lots of places and I still think the UK is.overall one of the safest, friendliest places I have lived in. I walked down the street early in the morning and everyone I passed (mostly dog walkers) smiled and said good morning. No one tried to rob me. People still say (usually) thank you to bus drivers (and the area I live in isn't particularly rich, it's mixed income quite diverse).
Our economy has struggled since Brexit but there are still emerging businesses in important industries and intelligent university students working on things which will come to fruition in 10 years time. We are still a top 10 economy. When a relative broke their leg really badly in the garden they shouted for help.and a neighbour heard them, called an ambulance who arrived and took them to hospital where they received world class treatment. It wouldn't even occur to him or me to be grateful for that.

There are loads of issues -we have poor productivity, since Brexit private equity has been buying up businesses and land, the NHS is strand often provides substandard care, we have too many people out of work through I'll health, house prices are too high and being driven higher by banks and foreign investors etc etc. But we are not fucked. It needs to get better but could be a lot worse basically.

Like all politicians then?

What a bar to aim for.

Everything is broken and he country is a dumpster. But hey, like some other countries, at least the dumpster is not on fire….yet.

But at least you and Nigel love the UK!

Why Farage & not Corbyn’s new party?