To think Kemi Badenoch is starting to talk an increasing amount of sense

[Sonato]

Never voted conservative a day in my life.

Seriously comsidering it after recent performances

If that’s what the electorate decides to do then which of those three they chose will simply be a matter of how fast they want their decline in living standards to accelerate.

As I said, the Greens are as insane as Reform.

Neither the Conservative Party nor Labour is currently capable of governing and acting in the public interest.

That only leaves one, far from perfect option, that might provide some stability and a break from further unnecessary economic self-harm because it at least has some sensible MPs with a grasp of basic economics and a leader with some compassion.

There is no “can’t win” because the electorate can decide to vote for whatever it chooses to vote for. Look at what happened in Hungary recently. It’s entirely down to us as the UK voting public to make a rational choice.

I suspect that as usual we will not do so, and therefore the doom loop will continue or even accelerate. But it is a choice, nonetheless.

Just keep hearting Kemi 💙and ignore the details.

Without the no one understands nuance etc in your other pp as @itsnotallaboutyouyouseeresoonded and personal family stuff aside Ed Davey is ok. He can be good at skewering KS which is a bonus.

But you seem to be pinning a lot on rejoining the EU, or single / common market. They tried the rejoin thing and didn’t get in. Perhaps they will go for it again.

💓@PenelopePepper 💓

Obviously with all of these comments I’m focusing on the 5 UK-wide political parties. I live in England so have no direct experience of nationally based parties in Wales, Scotland and NI so can’t make any informative comment on them with any credibility, but don’t want it to appear that I am ignoring their existence in my comments: it’s just that I’m not somebody who has any insight to add into a discussion of their relative merits/ competence (I am aware of the impacts of some of their policies in terms of economic outcomes and how their differences in policies from England have impacted education, health, tax etc, but have not met any of the current politicians in these parties personally and therefore do not feel I have any level of knowledge above that which everyone else has available through published economic data etc to comment about them with any authority).

Her best outcome will be going into some sort of coalition with Farage, everything else is just noise, she has an extra from Westworld in front of her, it isn"t difficult to look smart and clever.

The lib dems will never be in power

Personally I think no party is likely to win the next GE based on the situation now. We’re going to be looking at another coalition and another election very shortly afterwards. Obviously things could be very different in 2029 - three years is an eternity in politics.

I completely understand this and I do understand many people do not see it as a main issue.

However for me it's not just the harm to women and girls (particularly poorer women and girls) it's also the flat-earther type denial of reality. Which I think is a threat to stability as people who have a tenuous grasp of reality are equally likely to claim living standards are increasing when they're falling or that crime is falling when it's increasing. And then not allow people to talk about facts or evidence. Which is what's happened here.

If you can argue that something so basic as the way in which humans biologically reproduce isn't true (when it self-evidently is) then we enter 1984 and 'We have always been at war with Eastasia' territory. We enter a world where reality, the fact of whether a plane can fly according to the law of Physics becomes less important than the beliefs of the engineer designing the plane and whether they feel affirmed. It's a threat to women's safety now, but what comes next? A threat to stability and safety on many issues, in my opinion.

If someone will claim that something absolutely obviously not true is in fact true, then I have to a)question their integrity b) possibly their sanity and c)I can't believe or trust anything they say or do on any other topic.

Undermining empirical scientific fact is inherently destabilising.

There isn't much in life that's as obvious as the difference between male and female humans. Scientifically, there are only two gametes, all mammals have two sexes.

Absolutely, "Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities."

That may well be true. I didn’t say they would be. I don’t support them or any political party and wasn’t asked to comment on what I think the likely outcome of the next election will be. I was asked to comment on which of the available options to vote for is the least awful in terms of the likely outcomes for the UK economy and living standards. I didn’t imply at any point that people will vote for the least awful option. The last decade+ of UK politics shows that it is highly likely that they won’t, but that wasn’t the question to which I was responding.

I've been voting almost 40 years. There is not a chance that the lib dems are getting enough votes on their own to form an outright Government at the next election. They never win in my area or come close. It's a two horse race between SNP and Labour where I am at general elections.

I fully expect my SNP MSP to be voted in again tomorrow

Who said they would? You appear to be arguing with an assertion that nobody has made.

What exactly do people think of as 'poverty'? If a family has accommodation, heating, lighting, food, gets an education, and heath care for free. What is poverty?

Sorry with the UK as it is, I strongly doubt millions in this country are in 'poverty'. poor yes. As I was.. but poverty it was not.

Someone above suggested that one of five parties could win the next election. Assumed one was lib dems. Hth

I think you will see below how productive she was during her tenure at the Department Business and trade.

Some of us do like to look at facts not just the media sound bites to draw conclusions about our politicians. As you can see her achievements speak for themselves and these facts are what the voting public rarely get exposed to.

CPTPP Accession: Signed the UK into the £12 trillion Indo-Pacific trade bloc, the first European nation to join.

Trade Barriers Removed: In her first 200 days, her department resolved barriers to global markets estimated to be worth over £2.2 billion to UK businesses over five years, expanding to over £15 billion by mid-2024.

Trade Deals with India and Gulf: She prioritized securing trade deals with India and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to open markets for UK businesses.
Sector-Specific Support: She initiated measures to support the UK automotive sector, steel industry, and the export of services, which reached over £400bn.
Streamlining Exports: She introduced legislation enabling the world's first fully digitalised goods shipment to Singapore, making exporting easier and more secure.
Focus on SMEs: She aimed to increase support for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) to access international markets.

I agree with all of your points. However, this is not the only issue upon which the electorate has to vote and there are all sorts of other harms that are taking place simultaneously. I also think that the tide is turning on this particular issue and so party position on it may change by the time manifestos for the next election are produced because many of them do pander to the mob and say they support whatever they think is popular at the time (not that this makes it ok of course, but again I am thinking in pragmatic terms about which party being elected would have the least awful overall outcome for the people who live in the UK as a result of not just their stated policies, but what actual changes they are likely to implement, which often don’t match the nonsense written in manifestos which are largely designed to appeal to their own most extreme supporters).

The next GE is in a few years. KB has lots of time. And it's coming along nicely for the Conservatives. There will be no need for a coalition. Look how tragically the Labour party has performed in 2 years. Any Reform / green / lib dem offering will show (if not already is showing) the same. In the end there's only one answer.

They aren't going to win. No chance. There's more chance of Farage getting in than them

They had 14 years to sort the economy and didn't.

Thank you for answering my question. I'm always interested in other views. Trade is something I don't know much about so it is very interesting to hear your thoughts and experience and it makes me want to find out more about KB's record here. More information is always a good thing, in my opinion.

Anyway, I'll be voting Conservative not just because of what I know about KB but also because of all the candidates standing in my area, the only one who has put any concrete evidence-based information on his leaflets is the Conservative. He has correctly listed many (but IMO not all) local issues that need urgent action. Since none of the other parties have anything to say other than 'we're the only ones who can beat insert name of party they don't like' with a fake bar chart and no actual evidence this is true, it's fairly easy this time.

And maybe just maybe the roads will get fixed more quickly if he wins, i won't hold my breath though.

You wish. The Tory losses tomorrow will rival Labour’s.

3 years is a long time in politics. Actually, it's just a long time..

To think Kemi Badenoch is starting to talk an increasing amount of sense

It has been interesting to discuss this - but for me Kemi doesn't have a full handle on her brief, she is direct but shallow.

It is. The more immediate issues will be for Labour to deal with.

Roll on Thursday