Westminstenders: Local Elections Madness

[RedToothBrush]

This week has gone from banging your head against the wall to wanting to bang your head through it.

Labour have voted to support a 2nd ref as their EU election campaign strategy. Only for Corbyn to ignore it. And a row has broken out.

Change UK seem well on track to make everyone else look professional and to look as 'liberal elite' as humanly possible in a real life reverse paraody of themselves.

The Brexit Party is going from strength to strength with the most wtf candidates imaginable and Farage is happy cos his mate is coming to tea with the Queen.

The Liberal Democrats have decided that anti semitism is OK in an effort to keep Labour seats.

And the Conservatives. Where to start? Probably with the Tory Leadership Election infighting which looks suspiciously as if its now breached national security.

As for Brexit. No one really wants to talk about it. Local elections are next week. May is now apparently supporting the Malthouse Compromise. Be warned, it is difficult to see it as anything but a Trojan Horse for No Deal. Not that everyone has worked this out yet. But until we have the blood bath of the local elections over and done with on Thursday, don't expect much to happen.

Then expect the Tories to lose their minds...

That's a very good point @Mistigri . I've been a ballot paper spoiler recently (since Corbyn became Labour Party leader). I'll never vote Labour while he is leader, I hate the Tories. I distrust the Lib Dems and Greens on LGBT issues (all about the T at the expense of the LGB). I'll hold my nose and vote accordingly. It won't be Labour.

I don't agree - spoilt ballots are counted. It makes it clear that you value your vote enough to turn out, but that you don't like what is being offered to you. Staying at home might mean that, or it might mean that you just can't be bothered.

...but at the end of the day, much like a low/hi turnout is also registered, it means & changes nothing.

They are counted, but they don't count.

I think the motto of the coming elections will be
hold your nose and vote for the country

I won't be able to complain. Nor would I.

But what's the alternative?

I have - literally - no options that do not utterly betray my beliefs.

Luckily, some of you live in areas where your vote will matter/count.

Mine won't.

So I won't hold my nose and betray my principles.

It's no deal....it always has been. The HofC has made sure of that. It won't be up to them of course. No deal by accident. You couldn't make it up.

It's just timescales now. June or October?

sorry, this will sound stupid: if we crash out with No Deal, dont we still have to sign the (a) WA and a PD before we can negotiate with the the rest of the world? So why is no one in the (alleged) govt actually talking about this??

So I won't hold my nose and betray my principles.

So you would refuse to vote for a candidate that wasn't good enough for you, and risk a neo fascist getting elected?

I genuinely don't understand this. In an election where all the candidates are flawed, some will still be more flawed than others.

It would be great to have a party I could think "ok, don't love them but ar least they aren't woman hating twats/anti semites/racists/fascists".

Except, I don't.

I've told ds1 I'll vote for whoever he tells me to (its his future after all).

He says he can't choose either.

I understand what you are saying. I do.

But there is no one I can vote for.

I'd rather spoil my vote than get it wrong like I did in the GE.

Thanks BCF he looks shifty in this interview.
twitter.com/LittleGravitas/status/1122466643249070080
The use of paypal makes it more difficult to trace sources of the generous donations?

As well as the factional war between the ERG and tory mainstream, I wonder if the number of ex CP members in brexit party now means too that we are stuck in the middle of continuing battle between the CP (brexit party) and SWP (labour leadership) ?

So you would refuse to vote for a candidate that wasn't good enough for you, and risk a neo fascist getting elected

I genuinely don't understand this. In an election where all the candidates are flawed, some will still be more flawed than others

We're not in Kansas anymore.

I quite agree MIstigri

It's people who vocally refused to hold their noses who got Trump elected...

yolofish
We would have to sign up to the WA before the EU would start talking to us.
The Chinese and American vultures would start circling immediately.

25 quid each from 70,000 supporters.

That's dodgy as fuck. Real world individual donations don't come in standard £25 packages + it's a dead cert that some of those come from overseas. I sincerely hope that there are some good journalists working on this.

talkin that's kind of what I thought... guess it tracks back to Liam Fox' american friends then?!

This may not be a normal mumsnet source, but comparisons with the divided opposition and enabling mainstream parties are prescient.

The independent left proposed the only strategy with any chance of defeating the Nazis: the united front. In the last free federal elections in November 1932 the KPD and SPD together still received 1.5 million votes more than the Nazis. Because these other groups remained relatively small throughout the period, they have been reduced to a footnote in the history books. They were never large enough nor was their influence strong enough to turn the SPD and KPD away from their disastrous policies, and thus were condemned to understand and anticipate the coming victory of fascism without being able to prevent it
isj.org.uk/divided-they-fell-the-german-left-and-the-rise-of-hitler/

The Chinese and American vultures would start circling immediately.
Which the right wing Tories would love as far as the Americans go. As for the Chinese, they are a bit more subtle and would probably have dragged the right wingers in before they realised that they were in hock to a Communist party.

So...who do I vote for?

Seriously...help a girl out!

buffy First, wait until Tuesday, when we should know whether a PV will be in Labour's manifesto for the EP

yolofish
Yes ANY form of leave involves the WA to be signed as it is. The PD could be amended. Unfortunately the HoC and cabinet are still refusing to accept this fact. The representatives of 450 Million in the EU say it will be so, I believe them and not the unicorn hunters in Westminster.
The EU also holds the 'key' to any further trade deals with any other countries as they have 'interests' in most world trade and by WTO rules they have to be at the party, and they will refuse to attend if the WA is not signed, which will make any negotiations either illegal or subject to court rulings. The UK's 'wobbly bits' are well and truly in the vice and continued denying this by HoC and cabinet won't alter the facts. The process of the UK sticking it's fingers up at the EU for the last 3 years (by not negotiating responsibly) will bite the UK hard.

Real world individual donations don't come in standard £25 packages

Farage says in the video clip that the 25 quid is the sign up fee for the Brexit party - which it is, I just checked.

thebrexitparty.org/registered-supporter/

It's not looking good on that score bcf

Thanks for the new thread, Red (did you move yet, by the way?).

That Clare Fox is abhorrent. Why are there no checks and measures in place to prevent people like that even standing for such an important position? And you know BREX will pick up the racist vote, so she is in with a shout of getting a seat. It's embarrassing - and sickening - that we could send that kind of person to be an MEP.

I voted LD in the locals because I'm happy with our current LD councillors, even if they're woke at national level.

I generally like LD policies, but they've gone down in my estimation recently. I'm happy to stick an X in their box for locals though.

We've had individual letters from the LDs (2) and Labour (1) for the locals. I've not seen anything from anyone else though.

I want my vote to hold weight in the EP elections, so I'll see what the remain advice is nearer the time. No polling card yet, but we have postal votes, so that should appear the day or so after the sign up deadline.

We got our EU polling cards ages ago!

I’m an ex-LD who swore not to vote for them again (gender nonsense) BUT I will vote for them in local elections as local LDs are OK, in fact as far as I can see (and yes, they’re naive) they are completely unaware of the nonsense. Perhaps I should rejoin! But there are no LD MEPs in my region, just UKIP/Con/Lab so I will vote CUK, whom I in principle support, unfortunately every time they say something I think “why the fuck did you say that, you numpty”.
You can vote. Don’t spoil your ballot, no one will care if you do.