The 2024 UK General Election - news, speculation and updates

[PR1Berske]

Some events really do happen for a reason and Boris going is just one of those "fixed points in history". Had they gone straight to Sunak maybe things would be tighter? Elections can be turned on a dime (1992) or unstoppable (1997). This is one of the unstoppables.

 

[Silas Loom]

The seeds of the Tory collapse were sown in 2019​

Pandemic lockdowns, partygate and Liz Truss’s ‘mini’ Budget were all mere blips on a clear linear trend

The seeds of the Tory collapse were sown in 2019 / https://archive.ph/pOtN6

the drop in the Tory polling post 2019 is stark. long may that continue.

View attachment 427949

Minor point re that article: if only Urban had a delegate at the FT’s senior editorial table who could stop them from abbreviating million as mn. It’s jarring. It doesn’t make me think magnitude, it makes me think millimetres.

 

[ska invita]

Minor point re that article: if only Urban had a delegate at the FT’s senior editorial table who could stop them from abbreviating million as mn. It’s jarring. It doesn’t make me think magnitude, it makes me think millimetres.

millimetres is mm. theres no N in millimetres. glad to help

 

[andysays]

Its the no Boris effect....turns out he is going to be a really hard act to follow.
I genuinely believe Boris would be beating Starmer in this election

I would suggest it's more the "post-Boris effect" - he, more than any other individual, has fucked them for the longer term, despite his short term success in getting elected as PM.

I'm hugely skeptical about any suggestion that Johnson would be any better at winning another GE than Sunak at this stage.

 

[Lord Camomile]

In Bexley a couple of days back and a mid sixties ish man on the top deck of a bus struck up a conversation about the bus not leaving as early as expected. "Nothing works anymore does it. Countries falling to bits. I've got a caravan in sheerness and half the time there is a flag saying you can't go in the water because of the sewage. There's a river near the caravan and you can see it come in with the tide. Raw sewage. Absolutely disgusting." I think the shit in the water angle needs to be emphasised even more as it obviously has traction. The lib dem candidate in yesterday's debate got a got response when she raised it and it somehow crystallises the result of their policies, inaction and callousness.

I know I am, as ever, overlooking the salient points, but... a warning flag??

I guess you've got those things that hold them out, wind or not. Just... I dunno, seemed unusual

 

[Silas Loom]

millimetres is mm. theres no N in millimetres. glad to help

Helpful as ever.

 

[kenny g]

I know I am, as ever, overlooking the salient points, but... a warning flag??

I guess you've got those things that hold them out, wind or not. Just... I dunno, seemed unusual

It took a bit of googling but here you go: Kent coast sewage leak warning area extended to Herne Bay

 

[chilango]

As far as the BBC "debate" went it was thoroughly unimpressive.

Mordaunt and Rayner's show was tedious, irritating and utterly devoid of substance...and still completely undermined by their matey photo at the end.

Farage's heart clearly wasn't in it. Going through the motions and it showed.

The Lib Dems were anonymously reasonable, still skewered by their time in coalition. I struggled to remember her name tbh.

The Greens and Nats came across better than the others. Just like last time but with different faces.

Were there any "cut through" moments? Nah. Anyone (like me) who wasted a Friday evening watching this will have had their biases confirmed. That's all.

Depressing and frightening to see the consensus around abandoning net zero and being button happy with nukes. Denayer should have gone in much, much harder on this but didn't.

Slightly reassuring to see the audience not buying the anti-immigrant stuff.

Terrifyingly banal overall in the light of the challenges we face.

 

[maomao]

Boris would have wandered off from the D-Day celebrations to have it away with his latest affair and been applauded by veterans up and down the country for his insouciance and virility.

 

[ska invita]

Depressing and frightening to see the consensus around abandoning net zero

Oh really are Labour vocally on that bandwagon?

 

[SpookyFrank]

Some events really do happen for a reason and Boris going is just one of those "fixed points in history". Had they gone straight to Sunak maybe things would be tighter? Elections can be turned on a dime (1992) or unstoppable (1997). This is one of the unstoppables.

If anything I think the Truss fiasco helps Sunak as it provides him with a scapegoat. It also means his tenure as PM started at a massive low point for the economy so any reversion to the mean can be passed off as an improvement, hence he's now claiming to have brought inflation down, got the economy growing again etc.

 

[chilango]

Oh really are Labour vocally on that bandwagon?

Tbh I can't remember what Rayner said exactly. Some guff about being realistic. Which is terrifying.

 

[Silas Loom]

Tbh I can't remember what Rayner said exactly. Some guff about being realistic. Which is terrifying.

Some of the pressure on them to avoid net zero commitments comes, unfortunately, from the likes of Unite.

 

[Karl Masks]

Are you surprised?

More that she seemed deflated rather than energised

 

[RevolutionSound]

Edit - all sorted

 

[ska invita]

Some of the pressure on them to avoid net zero commitments comes, unfortunately, from the likes of Unite.

Not to disagree, but just for the sake of balance here's a list of Trade Union groups who have affiliated with the Million Climate Jobs programme (which was adopted by Corbyn IIRC) - includes lots of local Unite branches

Nationally affiliated unions
Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS)

Fire Brigades Union (FBU)

National Education Union (NEU)

Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF)

University and College Union (UCU)

Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU)

Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA)

Communication Workers Union (CWU)

Equity

Educational Institute of Scotland

Nationwide Group Staff Union

Branch/Regional affiliations
Barnsley TUC

Birmingham TUC

Calderdale TUC

Chelmsford and District Trades Council

Colchester TUC

Crewe and District Trades Union Council

Croydon TUC

Edinburgh Trades Union Council

Gloucester and District Trades Council

Hackney TUC

Lancaster & Morecambe TUC

London East & South East TUC

Lincoln Trades Council

Liverpool TUC

Medway Trades Council

Norwich and District TUC

Plymouth TUC

Warrington District TUC

Watford Trades Council

York TUC

CWU South Central Postal Branch

CWU Suffolk Amal

GMB Glasgow

GMB Northants

GMB for a Green New Deal

Barking and Dagenham NEU

Birmingham NEU

Brent NEU

Coventry District NEU

Ealing NEU

Islington NEU

Lancaster and Morecambe NEU

NEU North Yorkshire District

Plymouth NEU

Reading NEU

Sheffield NEU

NEU South West Lancashire District

Southwark NEU

PCS DWP Devon

RMT Jubilee South Branch

RMT London Region

Leeds City College UCU

Liverpool UCU

London retired members UCU

Sheffield UCU

Winchester UCU

Yorkshire and Humberside retired members UCU

Aberdeenshire Unison

Birmingham Unison

Bolton Unison

Bristol Unison

Camden Unison

Dorset Unison

Dundee City Unison

Glasgow City Unison

Hampshire Unison

Lambeth Unison

Leeds Teaching Hospitals Unison

Leicester City Unison

Lincolnshire Unison

Liverpool Unison

London Fire Brigade Unison

North Somerset Unison

Norwich City Unison

Oxford University and Colleges branch Unison

Plymouth Unison

Salford City Unison

SOAS Unison

Southwark Unison

South East Region Unison

Sussex Community Health Unison

Tower Hamlets Unison

York City Unison

Unite Croydon Retired Members

East London Unite Community Branch

Fylde Coast Unite

Gloucester Unite

Kings College Hospital Unite

Lambeth and Southwark Unite Community

Leeds and Wakefield Unite Community

Norfolk Unite Community

Portsmouth Unite Community

Southampton Unite Community

Suffolk Unite Community

Tyneside Unite - Electrial, Engineeing & Electronic Sectoral Branch

Unite, Chartered Society of Physiotherapy

Unite Legal and Advice Workers

Community, Youth Workers and Not-for profit West Yorkshire and Humberside Unite branch
Unite SW Staff AFF SW-8000

Bristol and SW SERA

SERA South Devon

Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers

International Socialist Lawyers

 

[Cerv]

Minor point re that article: if only Urban had a delegate at the FT’s senior editorial table who could stop them from abbreviating million as mn. It’s jarring. It doesn’t make me think magnitude, it makes me think millimetres.

it's long been the convention in financial contexts, hence the FT house style is to use mn not M for million.
scientific notation it ain't.

 

[Voley]

We've got a guy from The Common People running in St Ives ward. New one on me and nothing to do with Jarvis Cocker, sadly.

The Common People

commonpeople.uk

 

[spitfire]

Dom Nichols is an Associate Editor at the Torygraph.

Read the thread all the way through - they aren't going to forgive Sunak, it's proper visceral stuff.

Crikey, I still can’t understand what Sunak was thinking. It has to be one of the stupidest election moves I have ever witnessed.

That sculpture is quite something.

Someone put a link in the thread.

Les Braves

Sculpture monumentale sur omaha beach, hommage aux vétérans du débarquement

www.anilorebanon.net

 

[spitfire]

Johnson scraping the barrel here.

 

[ska invita]

Crikey, I still can’t understand what Sunak was thinking. It has to be one of the stupidest election moves I have ever witnessed.

TBF it sounds like the main bit was over... I'd have cut out too

(I like the sculpture too)

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

Some of the pressure on them to avoid net zero commitments comes, unfortunately, from the likes of Unite.

Unite also wanted to renew Trident under Len McClusky, which I found very off-putting, don't know what their policy is now as I no longer work in a role where they're the relevant union.

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

Johnson scraping the barrel here.

View attachment 427957

Boris Johnson is a newspaper columnist, being deliberately and expressively offensive to whip up the attention, spotlight and clicks that he craves to satisfy his own ego.

At this point he's basically Jeremy Clarkson.

 

[spitfire]

TBF it sounds like the main bit was over... I'd have cut out too

(I like the sculpture too)

Was quite hard to get it all in one screenshot but this would suggest otherwise.

 

[brogdale]

Boris Johnson is a newspaper columnist, being deliberately and expressively offensive to whip up the attention, spotlight and clicks that he craves to satisfy his own ego.

At this point he's basically Jeremy Clarkson.

Yes, professional Overton window mover employs click-bait racist abuse; no great surprise and Peston would be better advised to call it out unequivocally, rather than invite comment about being over-sensitive.

 

[Silas Loom]

I’ve never heard a gentile say schnorrer. Plenty of Yiddish is in the English mainstream vernacular, but schnorrer isn’t. Not even for New Yorkers I think.

 

[Elpenor]

This is just ableist bollocks.

Yes having reconsidered you are right - it is a quote from the thick of it - and the disconnected angle was the one i was going for. I will edit my post if you don’t mind doing the same

 

[ska invita]

I’ve never heard a gentile say schnorrer. Plenty of Yiddish is in the English mainstream vernacular, but schnorrer isn’t. Not even for New Yorkers I think.

thats the kind of extra value you get when you pay a million a year for a Boris Johnson column

 

[Silas Loom]

thats the kind of extra value you get when you pay a million a year for a Boris Johnson column

He’s certainly good at cadging cash. And holidays. And wallpaper. There’s a word for that sort of person.

 

[RevolutionSound]

Yes having reconsidered you are right - it is a quote from the thick of it - and the disconnected angle was the one i was going for. I will edit my post if you don’t mind doing the same

Done