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The weekend has seen the leaders question time debates.

Johnson failed to answer a question and the BBC edited later edited footage to change laughter at him to applause.

Swinson continues to prove that the Lib Dem campaign planners don't understand the electorate. They based the campaign around her and the more the public see her and the more she opens her gob she proves she's the witless headgirl who really knows fuck all.

Corbyn has now adopted a neutral 2nd referendum position. Far too late.

Jo Johnson apparently said that a good election manifesto is one people aren’t talking about 48 hrs later, and it seems that the Conservatives really have gone for that strategy.

Johnson had promised a manifesto for change yet of the three main parties it seems far from that. It avoids controversy for the most part, but also doesn't offer solutions to some of our biggest problems like social care. But with the Tories so ahead in the polls, the status quo and making sure they don't have a repeat of the 'dementia tax' car crash seems to be the order of the day. Because Brexit is going to going to provide a magic solution instead...

Meanwhile the Labour Party have gone completely the other way and really have gone for it and come up with ideas. With a mixed response from the public and press.

And I still can't tell you what is in the LD one, cos Prince Andrew...

This week should see the election come into focus as postal voting starts. As it stands its hard to bet on anything but a Tory majority.

"people have the legal right to claim that any country shouldn't exist.
No. They absolutely do not."

They absolutely do have the legal right to claim this, under freedom of speech,
but not to have the UN or anyone else support their view and actually reverse colonialism - in fact the UN specifically states that it won't

It is not illegal or racist to express a wish that the UN or anyone else is against,
whether that be abolishing Israel, or by refusing to return to the pre-1967 borders, or even expanding it by expelling more Palestinians from more areas

It may be a hopelessly naive or even dangerous view, but it is not illegal to express it

It turns on the word 'claim.'

We are free to express ideas. Our actions are circumscribed by law.

The leaked documents are on reddit and have been for a monthish. I've been spending my lunch break reading them. They are fascinating.

here's a couple of paragraphs from those 451 pages

twitter.com/UKLabour/status/1199656615143759872

I agree Louise - people usually often forget the "saving during the good years" bit of Keynesian economics.

If only we'd had something like oil revenues from which to build a Sovereign Wealth Fund.....

The post-67 Israeli occupation is illegal. We all have a right and a duty to condemn it, and to take whatever actions are within our powers to persuade Israel to negotiate a settlement with legitimate Palestinian representatives such as Fatah and the PA.

The use of force will only move the line of dispute. Peace comes by agreement.

"Imagine how you'd feel if you were descended from people expelled from their homeland and forced into exile for nigh on two thousand years."

I can imagine both povs and sympathise with both
Made much worse by world powers using both sides as proxies in a continual battle to be top dog.

However, I would be angrier over something that happened when my parents were about 30, rather than 2,000 years ago,
as they and I would have directly experienced the consequences, especially if military aggression is still ongoing.

The countries of the UK suffered many other invasions up to 1066 and included some genocides
However, in practical terms, eventually the rights of their descendents lapse

The land rights of Palestinians displaced in 1949 have lapsed, especially as it was originally by order of the UN / League of Nations

The UN have repeatedly demanded that Israel return to pre-1967 borders, so this has not legally lapsed.

There is absolutely no legal right for any group to make a claim based on ownership thousands of years ago

@bellinisurge, I get it. There's a massive historical burden and background prejudice British society needs to dismantle against your family's faith. But equally, I have to vote for someone and the collective harm caused by a hard-line rightwing party like the Conservatives outweighs the risk presented by Corbyn. Hair-on-fire time.

On the present showing, Labour will be lucky to have a minority Government. Conversely, if every swing voter stayed home the Conservatives will walk to a landslide victory. Do you really think the lives of English Jews will be better under them? We have already seen how public nastiness and racism have risen since the Brexit vote. Let's assume we do leave and living standards plummet. What happens next?

Lib Dems and Labour both support GRA reform which could have massive implications for single sex provision and female safety. I am still voting tactically against the Conservatives, even if that means they have a shot at that legislation.

Do you feel that Corbyn himself is anti semitic, @bellinisurge, or is it more that you feel he's lacking in judgement when it comes to the people with whom he associates? I lean towards the latter view myself, which in a way is more worrying because it suggests the problem is institutional in the Labour party, that is, there are many in the party with anti Israel views shading into outright anti semitism.

I don't like some of the things the Israeli govt does. Not just Likud, but all the smaller coalition parties, and the other parties that have been in govt that have pursued policies aimed at disenfranchising Palestinians, so saying my views are anti Likud doesn't cover it for me.

It's certainly not a hatred of Jewish people, for I despise the Burmese treatment of the Rohingya, the Chinese of the Uighers, the Saudi and Iranian and Hungarian of Jews, the American of South and Central American people, the British, Greek, and Italian treatment of asylum seekers. I believe Israel has a right to exist within its pre 1967 borders, and that it has the right to defend those borders. I don't believe it has the right to extend those borders by force or occupation. No nation should have that right.

"If only we'd had something like oil revenues from which to build a Sovereign Wealth Fund"

Yep, previous govts should have saved for a rainy day and the squandering od Scottish oil for Tory party politicl advantage is particularly egregious
That oil and multiple privatisations are what financed the Thatcher years without the coubtry rebelling earlier

However, it is several decades iirc since a UK govt actually had a budget surplus

btw, Germany had a surplus this last year of EUR 58 billion !

Even if govts haven't saved in good years,
economists e.g. Nobel prize-winner Paul Klugmann, stated it was still better to spend and he said that austerity had worsened the economy in those countries, such as the UK

Germany had a surplus this last year of EUR 58 billion

Amazing how they can do that and still fund a health service, education and good quality accommodation for renters. It wouldn't be because Germans pay higher taxes, now would it?

There is no expiry date on UN Security Council Resolutions. UNSC 242 requires that Israel withdraw to its 1967 borders. It also requires that all neighbouring territories cease to attack Israel, to question its legitimacy or its right to territorial integrity within secure and recognised borders. Among the neighbours, Egypt, Jordan and the PA are signed up to this, but Syria and Lebanon remain formally committed to the destruction of the entire Israeli state.

No document would specifically say this, or that the UK must bend over.

But Jeremy Corbyn lied to the TV audience - he pretended to be reading verbatim from the documents (n.b. I didn't see the TV interview myself).

"Scottish oil?" Interesting thought that one! So not UK taxpayers and company shareholders who paid for it to be drilled for and extracted then?

Hopefully the huge Yougov poll tonight will indicate whether these reports are correct:

Lewis Goodall@lewis_goodall

We hear much about the anger of leave voters in north- but there is major change afoot in the south.

Brexit and Boris Johnson have transformed politics there.
The Home Counties have been radicalised.

Louis Degenhardt@LouisDegenhardt

In safe Tory seats in Surrey and Hampshire, there is anger and despair about Brexit.

Lib Dems even seem slightly surprised by the extent to which people have been energised by it - are we witnessing a fundamental realignment of remain voters?

m.youtube.com/watch?v=unRetPJYmsA&feature=youtu.be

Just looked on the EU Commission website -

July 2019 'Secret' trade talks between the EU and US on pharmaceuticals.

"The positive transatlantic trade agenda established in the Joint Statement includes a commitment from both sides to reduce barriers and increase trade in a range of sectors, including pharmaceuticals."

ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_19_4090

The Best for Britain MRP is not optimistic. 366 Tory majority.

www.bestforbritain.org/new_tactical_voting_recommendations_updated_mrp_polling

Best for Britain have today (27 November) released a new round of MRP data which shows that the Conservative Party could win up to 366 seats at the upcoming general election. However, their majority rests on them holding and gaining a significant number of increasingly marginal seats – meaning tactical voting will be decisive.

The seat-by-seat analysis of 39,476 British adults was carried out between 15 October and 24 November by Focaldata and is the first MRP poll to adjust for the impact of the Brexit Party standing candidates down in 317 Conservative held seats and 40 more non-Conservative held seats, as well as the Unite to Remain alliance.

It could still go either way, but a narrow Tory majority seems likely at this point. I'll be interested to see how well the yougov MRP tallies with the best for Britain one.

Do I think Corbyn's antisemitic? Hard to say. Which speaks volumes in itself. The fact that he cosies up to some utter bastards so readily makes me wonder.

ballyhoo I pay higher taxes in Germany, but I receive better public services, so it's worth it.

All major parties agree on the "social contract" - a decent standard of public services, benefits, workers & tenants protections etc
So they can do longterm planning, stable investment, building, infrastructure etc

Crucially, all parties agree that taxation must be adequate to fund spending, at least outside lean years

One major problem in the UK is that the Tories restrict budgets for years, then Labour come in desperate to rescue things quickly - which also brings problems

Stop-go policy is disastrous for the longterm performance of Uk public services

"he pretended to be reading verbatim from the documents"

No, I thought he was reading from his notes on the document

Notes written for him probably by Starmer & others

"Scottish Oil"

Like "City of London" not the "British" financial centre

That website tells me to vote Labour. As I have trotted out several times on here until I'm bored with myself , my otherwise decent Labour candidate backs the wrong side in a controversial local project which could devastate the local environment. So even if I rule out the Corbyn factor (and I can't), I can't get past this project. Which is cracking along at a fair pace in the agency approval process.

louise English pound?

All major parties agree on the "social contract" - a decent standard of public services, benefits, workers & tenants protections etc. So they can do longterm planning, stable investment, building, infrastructure etc
How sensible.