Anyone else feeling politically homeless and disillusioned with UK politics?

[Twister11]

Is anyone else finding the current political situation in the UK quite depressing? I used to be an active Labour supporter and I was very keen on the idea of a Labour government. But the last two years have completely taken away all my enthusiasm. The latest scandal with Keir Starmer in the Commons today is absolutely the last straw for me. I know no party or government is without its flaws but this feels beyond the pale. I don’t know how to vote in the locals. I guess maybe green although I don’t like the local candidates or some of their positions. Just feel politically homeless and disillusioned and a little scared for the future because nobody seems to be able to run the country in a decent way. Thanks for reading my vent if you’ve got this far.

I am discounting Conservatives for more reasons than just Brexit. There are 14 years worth of mistakes that I could list.

I certainly have. I don't accept it, specifically I don't accept the clause around self-determination which is used by many to paint any criticism of Israel as anti-semitic. It was deeply unfortunate that it was adopted by the UK government without caveat as while it is supposedly non-binding, it does inform the often over-zealous application of existing hate legislation.

It's currently perfectly legal to say that France is a disgusting shithole that has no right to exist. If you say the same about Israel, you are potentially committing a hate crime - that is the problem with the adoption of the IHRA defintion.

1st post nails it.

If you're talking about the part about denying Jewish people the right to self-derermination, surely if that was daid about any other ethnic group it would be considered racist. And I've seen people on mumsnet say words to the effect of Israel is a disgusting shithole with no right to exist, AFAIK none have been arrested since they still continue to post.

But I'm sure you know more about antisemitism than the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

At a constituency tactical voting level, given a choice between Conservatives and Labour, I would vote Conservative. Given a choice between Labour and Reform, I would vote Labour. Given a choice between Reform and Green, then I would reluctantly vote Reform.

I cannot fathom how anyone would want to vote for the Green Party with their overt anti semitism and an economic policy based on simply printing money to pay for stuff.

https://www.standard.co.uk/business/zack-polanski-modern-monetary-theory-economics-b1261280.html

I think it's important to remember that local elections are not about national policies. Local councils have no control over immigration or defence for example.

You don't have to vote for the same party in both National and local elections.

It's between reform and green here with reform currently looking to lead, fml. I've no idea what reform plan locally because all their leaflets are full of national policy which is largely irrelevant.

Yes I don't think Blair understood the implications of his actions.

You sure about that? I think they’re on a par

I do think it's inevitable whatever government we get after the next election will be almost as big a shit show as the current lot.

I thought the current lot would be poor, but I didn't think they would be even worse than the last parliament. Or at least it might take them a bit longer than two years to get there.

OP, I hear you! I’m on the opposite side of the political fence from you, but am equally despairing over what’s on offer. I’m very worried we’ll end up with a hung parliament after the next election, so no-one will have any idea what we’ll end up with. Obviously I wasn’t expecting much from Labour, but I’m quite astonished not just at how bad they’ve proved, but also how quickly.

My issue with Labour is that I don't really feel that any of them are up to running the country. I didn't mind Keir Starmer and I was happy he led them to victory but he's lost so much trust now and it's not a question of him stepping aside and someone excellent taking over, I would rather him to his cabinet.

In my area it's Tory/Lib Dem/Reform. The local councillors are well known and relatively decent so I'll vote for them again.
General election is a different story.

The Greens are far worse.

If you listen to what Reform actually say, they are pretty mainstream but are the focus of Labour's spin machine trying to give people the impression they are the second coming of Hitler and the Nazis. It looks from the polls most people aren't fooled though.

But that's always the case in politics.

I can remember many discussions with voters at the time of the 2010 election where voters were saying "I'm going to vote for the Conservatives (Cameron) because they can't be any worse than the current bunch(Labour under Brown)". Except they were and brought us Brexit.

Then in 2024 the same discussion was had with "I'm going to vote Labour because they can't be worse than the current bunch (Conservatives under Sunak)".
Except they are and have stagnating economic growth through taxation and increasing Government debt.

I have no doubt that whoever gets elected next will most likely do a worse job than the current Labour Government under Starmer.

Thats a really funny post.

Reform as of Feb this year, have promised to ban all Muslim face coverings.... your so called Mr Integrity Yusuf has approved this.

Key details of this proposal include:

• Policy Stance: Zia Yusuf, Reform’s home affairs spokesperson, stated in February 2026 that the party would legislate to ban all face coverings in public to "aid integration" and improve security, particularly around the use of CCTV.

As i said, he will do what is expedient to get into power.

We've had this debate before and i showed you to wrong then...

Labour have had better growth over the last 20months then the Tories had in the 20months prior to the GE.
Growth was 0.5% in Feb, highest month on month growth for some considerable time.

Unemployment has dropped recently too.

Quite rightly, you mention Brexit as a Tory failure, Labour are at least trying to put that right.
They are also, too slowly imho, increasing defence spend, another failure over the last 2 decades.

Can't you see the difference between:

Banning all face coverings in public to aid integration and improve security, particularly around the use of CCTV, and

Banning only the Burka.

One is a general ban on people and doesn't distinguish between race, religion or sex and the other specifically singles out the Muslim faith.

Now you might disagree with the need to ban face coverings on the grounds of integration and security, but I don't see how this is a question of integrity nor can I understand why you think it's funny?

Here's the chart of quarterly economic growth, the election was in July 2024 (Q3 2024).

Of course statistics can be interpreted in different ways, for example you could truthfully state that the economy was was growing more under the Conservatives before the election than it has since or if you take your specific example of 20 months then you can show a different interpretation, so it's easier to just look at the chart:

I am a classic far right conservative because I believe in the small state, low taxes and people looking out for themselves. However I find it difficult to continue to support them even though I quite like Kemi Badenoch. I voted Reform in the last election. I agree with their hard lines policies on immigration and anti woke stance. Other policies are clearly ableist and misogynistic.

I have recently volunteered for our local Green Party - 2 members are standing for 2 seats in the local elections. Only have manpower and resources to cover 2 areas (wards)so have had to choose which areas to focus on carefully.
The strong opinions fuelled by national media etc on this post do not relate at all to my experience of being involved at local level.
No one I have met is a ‘loon.’ Decent, hard working people. The two potential councillors have spent hours listening to the local community and making a difference where they can. Others in the group put a lot of time and energy into organising leaflet drops etc. All volunteers, all have jobs as well.
You can have a civil conversation about Green policies, no one shouts anyone down.
If you have a local Green Party group, you could make a phone call or send an email to ask first hand what they stand for. Please don’t dismiss a large group of hard working people, trying to make a difference in this fractured world.

The issue I have with Reform is that their economic policies simply do not add up and would rely on further increases in Government debt which is not realistic as Liz Truss and Rachel Reeves have and are finding out the hard way.

As a genuine question do you think that the Green Party economic policy of Modern Monetary Theory, which is essentially printing more money to pay for increased Government spending (rather than increasing debt) is credible, workable or realistic?

https://www.standard.co.uk/business/zack-polanski-modern-monetary-theory-economics-b1261280.html

What do you think about their policies on open borders. Do you think open borders would improve the sustainability, ecology and wildlife of the Uk?

That's not true.

According to ONS analysis: "Cumulative growth over the recent 20 months has been positive but not stronger than the equivalent pre-election period when accounting for the rebound effect in early 2024."

Overall, growth has been terrible but was improving significantly in early 2024. It should have taken off but actually then slowed down after Reeves got in and raised everyone's taxes.

Growth of what Alexandra?

Extra public spending counts as growth in GDP and Labour are increasing public spending at a rate of knots. The private sector overall grew a little but that hides a fall in the service sector.

Unemployment has dropped, but so has the number of people recorded as being on a payroll, by 11,000 The only ways both of those can be true at the same time are:

People who were in work or looking for work have given up working or looking for work and have retired early or are living on savings or being financed by someone else.

People have had the requirement to look for work removed from their benefit claims.

Both of these are true. There is no cause whatsoever to celebrate that fall in unemployment, it's bad news all round unless the number of people employed rises to match.

Nope. We’ve finally got a government that govern. Plus I don’t tend to switch about every which way the wind blows because I’m slightly miffed one day, or don’t like the colour of socks the pm is wearing.