Westministenders: Theresa's Common People

[RedToothBrush]

She came from Oxfordshire she had a thirst for knowledge
She studied geography at Saint Hugh's College
That's where politics
Caught her eye

She told them that her husband was loaded
The press barons said "In that case have a rum and coca-cola"
She said "Fine"
And in thirty seconds time she said

I want to look like common people
I want to do whatever common people do
I want to eat like common people
I want to sleep like common people
Like you

Well what else could Fiona and Nick do
They said "We'll see what we can do"

They took her to a supermarket
I don't know why
But they had to start it somewhere
So it started there
They said pretend you've got no money
She just laughed and said
"Oh you're so funny"
They smiled "Yeah”
Well we can't see anyone else smiling in here

Are you sure you want to live like common people
You want to see whatever common people see
You want to eat like common people
You want to sleep like common people
Like me

But she didn't understand
She just smiled and held Trump’s hand

Order that benefits get the chop
Tell them all to get a job
Promise to bring back the grammar school
Pretend you don’t think them a fool
But still you'll never get it right
'Cause when you're laid in bed at night
Watching the news talking about building the wall
All have to do is call your mates to fake it all

You'll never live like common people
You'll never do whatever common people do
You'll never fail like common people
You'll never watch your life slide out of view
Whilst you blame it all on the EU
Because that’s all you can do

Sing along with the common people
Sing along and it might just get Brexit through
Laugh along with the common people
Laugh about leaving the EU

It’s the most stupid thing that you will do
Because you think that it is cool
You’ll call them a ‘lying foreigner’
But don’t say we didn’t warn you
You’ll regret saying we are better off out
'Cause everybody hates a benefits tourist

It doesn’t matter if you can’t do the math
With all those pockets that you grease
You’ll win the vote in Bath

You will never understand
How it feels to live your life
With no meaning or control
And with nowhere left to go
You are amazed that they exist
And wish they were all white
So you tell ‘The Big Lie’

Get THE flat above THE shop
Cut your hair and get THE job
Trick some mugs and hire some fool
Pretend you are not really cruel
But still you'll never get it right
Instead you're plotting late at night
About which ‘cockroach’ will take the fall
All have to do is call your mates to fake it all
Yeah

You'll never live like common people
You'll never do what common people do
You'll never fail like common people
You'll never watch your life slide out of view
As we plan to leave the EU
Because there's nothing else left to do

But ‘moan’ about how we don’t want to leave the EU.

ORB / Independent - attitudes

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-conservatives-party-of-the-workers-poll-nasty-party-general-election-a7746171.html

. 39 % disagree that a Conservative landslide next month would be good for the country, vs 34 % agree.

. 28 % say the prospect of a Conservative landslide means they would consider voting for another party.

. 47 % think Labour would best represent the working class, vs 23 % think Tories would.
< so most don't think Labour abandoned them for a middle class elite >

. 35 % disagree that the Conservatives can no longer be called “the nasty party”, vs 35% also agree

. May's Brexit card has been all along her only strong point and still holds:
48% agree that she is likely to get a better deal for the UK if she enjoys a big majority, vs 25% disagree.
If she lost that, no one actually likes her so she'd be toast, but that doesn't look likely

Possible tactic: pick another row with Juncker / Spain / Argentina / join with Trump in a war against some far away country

Insight into why people are voting conservative

I just read this on the "AIBU consider Tory manifesto pretty decent" thread:

"I am with May, I just want brexit done, and the deficit gone. Then I will be a happy bunny
Bring on debt-free 2025."

"Deficit gone" ?
At my optimistic, I'm expecting Brexit to increase the deficit.
By a lot.

In my 60 years, the uk has had an annual deficit in all but 8 years, the last time being 2001/2002.

"Debt-free" ?
The National Debt is currently 1.7 trillion, about 85% of GDP.
No economist or even a serious politician expects / wants their country to be debt-free.
Even if May were the most brilliant PM ever and in the luckiest economic circumstances, she couldn't - and wouldn't - aim for that.

The nation's finances cannot be run like those of a private household < sigh, put on repeat >
Barring a massive printing snafu, the Tory manifesto has not promised debt-free.

Look what the Russian embassy tweeted yesterday:

Strong & stable government for our transformative time + end of ideology – a welcome convergence/fusion across Euro-Atlantic.

I'm here
Still reading and digesting - thanks again red for a wonderful thread
I said to my colleague back in October that FSM for ks1 kids would be I've if the first things the Tories would get rid of.
I'm so very sad to be right 😔
I think the UKs o it hope now is to narrow her majority so she can't get these measures through parliament
What the hell is happening to my country?? 😔😡

Re: free school meals for KS1. Has anyone done an impact study of the benefits?
In my view, the vast majority of KS1 pupils are having a HEALTHY school lunch. Their parents are influenced by the fact it's free.
If you charge for dinners, a large percentage (the same as in KS2 now) will start having packed lunches. In many cases unhealthy, unbalanced and sugar-laden. With concomitant bad effects on afternoon concentration and behaviour, and long term health.

It's not all about the money.

I think the polls might provide a reasonable impression of people's impression of the various manifesto pledges but will correlate weakly with the final result because there are too many variables (not least that people lie to pollsters).

I think the electorate is a lot cannier than it is often given credit for. With FPTP it's hard to get the answer you actually want, but with practice we've actually got rather good at it. From this perspective my impression is that if the movements in the polls are real (and there's a real chance they aren't) it more likely points towards a desire not to hand May a massive commons majority. Particularly if a lot of this has come from the collapse in UKIP support. It was noticeable how little applause the Nuttals was getting in the debate on Thursday, so it's becoming more evident what a larger Tory majority would mean.

Whether this will translate into anti-Tory votes is unclear. I have a feeling that lots of people go into the polling booth with the intention of voting against them, and then at the last minute go for the safe option.

I can tell you form experience that's exaxtly what will happen...from.ks2 our school dinner take up plummets to about 30% from about 97% in ks1

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tories-facebook-adverts-refuse-disclose-general-election-2017-targeting-marginals-electoral-a7745726.html
Tories refuse to disclose content of Facebook adverts targeted at marginal seats

Campaigners warn move leaves Electoral Commission unable to regulate adverts

Campaigners warn that the Electoral Commission is essentially blind when it comes to the ads because only the voters targeted by parties get to see them – unlike a billboard or television spot.

They also warn that the approach allows parties to put out “wildly different” and sometimes contradictory messages to different voters without being held to account for their discrepancies.

The different messages thing is more important than it seems. It is about voters to being lead to interpret in a particular way which often involves an element of empowerment. Of course that is not real so when they find out the full story they are left particularly disillusioned. It undermines democracy as a whole.

"I am with May, I just want brexit done, and the deficit gone. Then I will be a happy bunny

The fed up with Brexit thing is definitely there. I've heard it. I've also heard about how we need to live with in our means blah blah blah from an educated very liberal remain con we know well. And that's why he won't change his vote.

It's amazing tbh just how much people don't have a clue about what is going to happen next. And I very much include Remainers in this. The idea of 'it can't possibly be that bad' or 'it'll all work itself out' is staggering.

No, no it won't work itself out with the direction we are headed in, because the is a refusal by government to acknowledge problems to the point that it's either wilful negligence or just total incompetence. Often simply in the pursuit of power and ideology. This national interest thing is being used as the cover for it. It's not in the national interest. It's a political manipulation.

Sooooo, the Conservatives are proposing in their manifesto an Internet where Facebook are constrained in what "news" they can host/return in searches but the Conservatives can send "secret" targeted adverts, accountable to no-one.

I see

Yes pretty. I believe there is a term for this. However there is another phrase that might ring a little closer and be more emotive.

That's 'Orwellian'.

Teresa seems to like "S" words
New slogan:

Strong & Stable & Secret & Shit

My kids don't need free school meals. My older 2 didn't get them and my younger 1 does, only because they are free. The quality of the school meals is abysmal. If I made her a packed lunch it would be far healthier.

I agree with the Conservatives on this. Free meals for those eligible under FSM plus free breakfast for all, presumably with inbuilt early morning childcare, hurts me not at all and is better for those who need it.

I would feel differently if school meals were in fact a nutritionally balanced main meal of the day, as they were when I was at school.

Just off out so I can't compare this much right now but I just noticed something on the yougov break down on intent to vote.

In the weeks before the GE was called Remainers were 7% ahead of Leavers on 100% likely to vote. That closed up immediately. It's been running at a 4% gap since. This latest yougov has that gap back up 7%.

Blip or important?

Will look at other details later.

I know it's frowned on to refer to other threads, but if anyone is curious as to why people would ever vote Tory, I suggest they seek out a current thread on AIBU about a little street of 12 houses where it appears 10 have been paying £500/year for years to what seems to be a scam. This is the human nature of most people, incurious and accepting and credulous - and exploitable.

Sometimes my tax bill feels like I've been scammed.

Even after it appears to be a scam - the council say nothing to do with them and the police have been called in - some people are still paying

Although when voters can believe the Tories will abolish the deficit and the National Debt by 2025 - and to be fair the manifesto makes no such claim - voters seem perfectly capable of scamming themselves.

People don't like to admit they've been scammed, even to themselves, even when the evidence afterwards is clear.

This is why the govt can continue to get away with failing to keep major Leave promises - keeping trade, single market, more money for nhs etc

• and the fears Remainers expressed about cuts, trade, economic downturn can become fact ....

but there still will NOT be popular demand to stop Brexit, despite what many here might hope.
The goalposts for Brexit success are continually being moved and this is accepted and will continue to be so for years.

It's been astonishing to see those on several threads claiming they are on the left - but defending the Tories not just on the subject of Brexit, which is understandable, but on so many other govt policies which would normally be anathema to the left.
That's justifying their "side" even in non-Brexit matters.

Unless "left" just meant tribal Labour until now, without actually ever looking at Labour policies.

I think the electorate is a lot cannier than it is often given credit for

I used to think that but I think the referendum has blown that out of the water. Sad to say there are many, many voters who are so much less informed and less canny than I ever believed possible.

'We don't need to just look like we can walk away, we need to be able to walk away. Under the circumstances, if that was necessary, we would be in a position to do it.'

David Davis quoted today in the DM.

We're in a position to trade on WTO rules if we can't agree a deal eh David? The customs infrastructure and IT is good to go.

Start building the bloody infrastructure for WTO then.
They haven't even started asking for tenders, or formulated what it is they want firms to tender.

Since the govt won't accept the conditions for a transition deal, then all this infrastructure needs to be in place by end March 2019.
or we'll see the disaster outlined by Richard North & Christopher Booker, their former Leave allies

What prep has DD done, to think the Uk will be in a position by then ?
Does he realise that prep involves more than flag-waving, even in a strong and stable way ?

What gets me is that the Labour manifesto was scrutinized for costing.
So was the Tory manifesto by several commentators
BUT
Where is the Brexit costing ?

Not even a WAG (Wild-Arsed Guess) in any party manifesto

How on earth can commentators - and some prolific Tory MN posters - obsess over how much various manifesto proposals would cost, but ignore the costs of a total change to UK trade, export rules, customs, the City financial services ...

I've just spent half an hour talking to the LD candidate and his helpers who were canvassing in town. He's a genuinely lovely guy. Harriet Harman is my MP so it's a pretty safe seat. He did acknowledge that he won't win but said it's still important to try and get the LD share of the vote up as a protest against a hard Brexit. I'm embarrassed to say that I actually ended up crying and he gave me a hug. It's coming up to a year on and I still feel so angry.
I was watching Brendan Cox on Andrew Marr this morning- the man has so much dignity. Whenever I see him, it reminds me of cuntface Farage banging on about Independence Day on 24th June and saying how Leave had won 'without a single bullet being fired'.
I need to 'do something' like a lot of you are. I think I will contact the LDs and see if I can help in any way.

But BigChoc: you still haven't got it....

Hard. Brexit. Is. Happening. whichever party gets in

Therefore it doesn't need to be costed

Yeah we'll all just have to pay the price.

Bolshie I am only too well aware of the cost of the new therapies that are coming along. i was making the point that private insurance does cover you for more than a broken leg but that it is expensive and certainly not where it aims its culture and processes. However the reason I am prepared to fork out so much per month (and I am fortunate to be able to earn the money to cover it) is that in the event of recurrence, and you are never free of that risk, I will have access to the latest treatments. I do have friends whose lives were prolonged because they had access to private treatment, not just expensive / new drugs but treatments like ablation, which is cheaper, easier and more effective in some cases than cyber knife but because of the idiocies of NHS research funding does not attract the same attention for the mere fact it is laser not radiation technology.

The fact is, and NICE is something of an exception, though not perfect, particularly in terms of the timescales it works too, that health policy like social policy is in need of an urgent overhaul that puts Science and evidence ahead of politics, sociology and psychology, and long term goals ahead of short termism, and the sort of ill thought out fudge that is the dementia tax.

Take Breast Cancer, where the charities have been very successful in creating an attention seeking brand that puts it right at the centre off the political and social attention that Cancer gets. It is seen as a great success story, women with primary cancer now have better chances than ever before. But what of the 30% who unfortunately lose in the cancer lottery and go on to develop secondary, terminal, Cancer affecting their other organs. Secondary Breast Cancer gets 5% of all Breast Cancer research funding and nobody knows what the funding requirements are for treating these men and women, the NHS trusts do not collect statistics on the costs so how can they know how much is required in the future and plan for it? Why? One can only assume that all the froth of the pink candy floss is so much more comforting than facing the reality of secondary breast cancer.

And that is the story with a disease, and a form of it, that has found its way to the top of political agendas. There are other charities representing people with other forms of cancer and other diseases that highlight far worse inequalities in treatment nd outcomes.

On top of all that what sort of research is most hit in the current post Brexit climate? It is the pure Science that may not yield nice profitable drugs and therapies anytime soon (not that with the departure of the pharma industry along with etc medicines agency we would be able to capitalise anyway) but looks set to unlock the genetic and cellular drivers of the disease that will yield actual prevention......

Rant over....