I’m calling the date of the next General Election

[Lettucelet]

Thursday 24 October 2024.

My logic is thus:

1. Tory MPs with kids in private school will want the election after the next academic year starts so that they will get an extra year VAT free while Labour gets its house in order. This is why Jeremy Hunt said the election wouldn’t happen until the Autumn.

2. Tory MPs will want to take full advantage of the summer holidays/recess so they won’t want to campaign in July/August when they could be on a yacht instead.

3. Term will start Week Commencing Monday 9 October at the latest. They will want to have a week to sort things out.

4. So, 6 weeks after the Thursday of the week after 9 September is Thursday 24 October which fits in nicely with half term and they can go on holiday again.

Place your bets.

Yes it’s a slightly odd election date, early autumn would’ve made more sense in lots of ways.

For our current prime minister and long may he reign.

Surely you mean rain.🤣🤣🤣

Yes I’m surprised he’s gone for an early summer election… I thought October was more likely.

I suspect there is some good news coming out in the next few weeks and it’s clear labour don’t have a clue with their manifesto, and have been caught on the hop. So a good time for the tories, and Hence why starmer isn’t wanting to over debate sunak. He will need his policies lock tight for that and labour are not known for looking at all angles and understanding the implications, like how things will be paid for.

this is a surprise for the electorate and other parties, for senior tories they will have known for a long time and be prepared.

I agree with the poster above saying “labour don’t have a clue with their manifesto”, but why the fuck not. They knew an election had to be called within the next 12 months. It really shows them up that they don’t have everything ready to roll.

"and it’s clear labour don’t have a clue with their manifesto"

Eh? Have the Conservatives shared theirs yet - they called the election after all. Manifesto and candidates at the ready?

I suspect there is some good news coming out in the next few weeks and it’s clear labour don’t have a clue with their manifesto, and have been caught on the hop.

Ooh are you another one who has already seen the manifestos that haven't been published by any party yet. Please do provide the link so we can all compare.

@BritainDoesNotAppearToHaveTalent

Labour are not going to fight this campaign on what they will do and more importantly, how they will do it. The second part of that comment is the important bit.

It was truly awful last night on Question Time when the Labour shadow Education Secretary who was castigated by a member of the audience for not explaining how any improvements will be made. This is partly because we have so many calls on our government tax income, Labour cannot make huge spending commitments. Therefore they will stick to attacking the Tories and saying what is wrong. I could write that script.

On QT it was pointed out that they didn't have a worked up financial strategy and vat on school fees was political and won't get in much money. They also attacked Amazon and the wealth of the owner in the USA. Nothing like attacking a major employer. They have their EU HQ in Luxembourg. Not here.

So to sum up, lots of telling us about how bad everything is, how the Cons have ruined everything, that we need change, but absolutely no detail. Posters who think there's some miracle awaiting after 4 July are utterly deluded.

In reality nobody expects miracles.
We are adults.
Government should be boring and functional - something that we haven't had a lot of for the last few years.
We know that austerity has stripped public services and depleted infrastructure - we get to reap that now.
We know that the instability at the head of Government has had an impact.
Most of all we know it will take time.

Ready and waiting to read the Conservative manifesto other posters have apparently have already read and approved.

being aggressive doesn’t change the facts, no matter how much you dislike them, clearly saying they don’t have a clue on their manifesto means there is no manifesto. Starmer is back tracking on all his pledges, which is all he can do as we can’t afford it L and of course vat on school fees will be punted. They need to create a manifesto, be able to explain them

being such a strong left wing supporter the lack of a manifesto or any policies doesn’t even bother you isn’t good. Fortunately you are in the minority. The rest of us actually care.

I'd be grateful if you could like to the Conservative manifesto fraser.

I've googled and cant find it.

Sorry, if you could LINK to the manifesto.

Is this a serious question? Or are you upset as labour has a mess on their hands,

the manifesto for the tories has been in place since 2019, with approx 20 key policies, which they arguably are delivering on. It will be revitalised for this election, tweaked . However it remains in place. The labour manifesto that starmer was elected on he has now in the last 24 hours, said he will not do nearly all of them. He has next to nothing left. He has not replaced it with anything else yet. As such, he’s sitting empty handed.

Erm.
Do you think that parties just repeat the same manifesto each election?

Who are you talking to, me? I’m sure it can’t be as I clearly wrote it will be revitalised and tweaked, which means not the same,

what’s going on, are you just really desperate for labour to get in so can’t have a sensible discussion? Step back if you’re already really upset, as this may not go how you want it to.

Not in the least upset thanks.
2019 manifesto includes promises not to raise NI, to keep the energy price cap, 0.7 of GDP on international aid, no one should have to sell their home to pay for their care. reduce rough sleeping - numbers actually increased.
reduce health inequality - got any stats on that?
300,000 new homes built each year - target missed.
Net zero by 2050 - ditched.
40 new hospitals
A report from the National Audit Office (NAO) also found that project delays and an aim to complete hospitals at the lowest possible cost were hindering the process. The NAO found that, of the 32 projects announced in 2020, only 11 qualified as “whole new hospitals”.

Seem to remember HS2 was also a manifesto pledge.

Will accept that they did manage to hit the target of 600,000 international students. Although they dont seem to much like that policy now.

The point is that neither party have issued their manifesto, tweaked or otherwise.

And given that the Conservatives called the election and had control over the timing you'd assume theirs would be publisshed first.

Aggressive? 🤔

Neither Labour or Tory have a manifesto yet. Nor any of the other parties. They said on the radio this morning it takes a couple of weeks once the election is announced. That couple of weeks is so that they can all use the latest state of things to work out realistic pledges, in theory.

I very much want to see both parties manifestos so don't make up lies. I am aware that these take time.

Useful reminder, thank you.

Is this a serious question?

Is this a serious post?😆😆😆

Those discussing which 2019 commitments weren’t met remember we had a pandemic and Ukraine war right…

And have done so much worse than other countries who also had those.

Actually blaming the Ukraine war makes me a bit sick. We haven't actually been at war. We have just had a few consequences of a distant country being at war. It gets wheeled out as if we have actually been in the thick of it.

We had an Ukraine War…. No we didn’t. Ukraine has an Ukraine war.