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gamble.
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May 23, 2024 at 09:59 #1695213
The relief is tangible…the election couldn’t have come soon enough; but I do hope that the Post Office and Infected Blood compensation schemes are not put on hold. Presumably they’re now in the hands of the civil service fiscal and legal departments which, one hopes, will continue to function whilst the pre-election jamboree grinds on
An enjoyable afternoon yesterday watching the goggler. Vennells squirming at the PO inquiry then Sunak looking equally uneasy being pissed upon – the metaphors are just too easy
Parliament is due to go on its Whitsun recess after today, with the proroguing taking place tomorrow and dissolution next Thursday (how I love these quaint terms) so it is possible that recess could be cancelled allowing unfinished business, such as the smoking bill, to be completed. Unlikely I suspect but a decision today I guess
May 23, 2024 at 10:46 #1695218“Good, we need to pay more tax”.
No party has ever won an election promising to increase tax. In any case, the tax burden is the highest it has been since the 1950s.
Governments are very good at imposing taxes, just rubbish at spending it.
With a collapsing birth rate, in the not too distant future there will be a smaller working base having to support a growing non working population. No politicians appear to be doing any serious long term thinking about these issues because all they are focussed on is the electoral cycle and short term vote winners.
May 23, 2024 at 12:21 #1695228‘No party has ever won an election promising to increase tax.’
Hence my comment about using taxes properly.
There has of course been an effective tax rise with the freezing of the bands but people don’t seem to be able to work that one out.
As you say, in order to effectively run a country you actually have to think beyond the lifespan of a Parliament and even a politician’s career but that doesn’t happen. Another reason we will all be paying for the PO and blood scandals for perhaps decades to come whilst those responsible went off and lived a nice comfortable, and probably early, retirement. Vennells’ crocodile tears yesterday made me sick, can’t imagine what the victims feel like.
One thing is for sure, it’s going to be a long, tedious six weeks!
May 23, 2024 at 17:45 #1695268Oh dear, Sunak caught taking questions from Tory plants and then he asks a group of Welsh people if they’re looking forward to the Euros. It’s only day one.
Not that I’m looking forward to Starmer posing in front of the TV while England are playing either.
Apparently weekly TV debates have been suggested too
May 23, 2024 at 17:52 #1695272“Apparently weekly TV debates have been suggested too
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I’ll be washing my hair when those are on.
And I’m bald.
May 23, 2024 at 18:10 #1695274I don’t particularly like the “what if” school of history but this article does raise an interesting question.
It seems a long time ago now but the Conservatives won a majority of 80 (their largest for over 30 years) just before Christmas 2019. The received wisdom was they would be in power for two more terms. And then along came Covid just three months later and the government was derailed, never to recover.
But need it have been that way? If the government had held its nerve instead of panicking and stuck to the pre-existing pandemic contingency plan which contained no mention of lockdowns, what would the political landscape look like now?
May 23, 2024 at 23:52 #1695331I would imagine that there would be far fewer people voting because even more people would have died. Imo
May 24, 2024 at 03:29 #1695341I’m with you on that Moe. The only thing they did wrong with lockdown,
was they introduced it weeks too late.May 24, 2024 at 08:55 #1695347I can’t imagine covid will be discussed much, if at all, over the next six weeks. Certainly not the merits of lockdown. I don’t think Labour would have done much differently and people have moved on. There’s so many things they’ve made a complete pig’s ear of that lockdown comes way down the list.
Had lockdowns been less severe or even non existent then people would still have died, perhaps more, perhaps fewer, we will never know. It’s possible it would have seen more discussion in that eventuality because at least then there would have been a difference in position between the two. Even then, it would just be Labour saying ‘you should have locked down’ and the Tories saying ‘we did the right thing’. You’d never be able to prove anything one way or the other just as you can’t now.
May 24, 2024 at 11:42 #1695358Given that the current Chancellor, when health secretary, totally ignored the findings of Operation Cygnus, we do know that we currently have a government that will put the economy before people’s lives ( and the state of the NHS).
May 24, 2024 at 15:52 #1695377Not content with making a speech in the pouring rain, Sunak now visits the Titanic Quarter in Belfast. Another gift for the headline writers.
He is almost certainly going to lose anyway but it looks as if he is doing his best to make sure.
May 24, 2024 at 17:21 #1695387It’s almost as if he wants to lose so he can resign and go to America….
May 24, 2024 at 18:03 #1695392Not surprising that Starmer is reluctant on the head to head debates. Fine with the scripted stuff at PM’s Question Time, but this would be a little different, and pretty sure he would appear the more wooden. Given that he knows the lead in the polls he will be trying to limit the chances of making gaffes as much as possible.
May 24, 2024 at 18:12 #1695393I’m not a Starmer fan, but he is several leagues above Sunak as both an orator and a debater.
May 24, 2024 at 18:39 #1695399The Titanic Quarter 😂 Who came up with that?
I have absolutely zero intention of watching these pointless debates but there is talk that at least one of them will be Starmer and Sunak only which is absolutely ridiculous. Obviously we can’t have all of the dozens of parties represented but they can do better than that.
May 24, 2024 at 19:54 #1695413According to TRIP’s it’s Sunak that is given a list of things that he has to say. I would imagine that Starmers time as a barrister (?) means that he has had to think on his feet.
May 24, 2024 at 20:06 #1695417It was widely accepted that Sunak ‘won’ the leadership debates.
I suspect most people have only heard Starmer for a couple of minutes at Question Time. Anything was going to an improvement on Corbyn.
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