Anything Political

[Oztalgian 3,349]

On 4/26/2024 at 10:57 PM, Brew said:

My view is that with so few aware and even fewer voting it was not a shining example of the will of the people -  it's just another display of the contempt our leaders have.

Amid the plethora of voting going on in the UK at the moment for councils, Mayoral and Crime Commissioner positions it appears that at the moment of those eligible to vote 68% did not. Be careful when they report that so and so got 53 % of the vote that means he got 53% of the 32% of people who actually voted. It will be interesting to see how many voted in the poll for East Midlands Combined County Authority

Surely it is time for change. 

[Cliff Ton 10,505]

This says a lot about him.   Johnson was the person responsible for introducing voter ID.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68947834

[Brew 5,440]

I'm wating to see what effect, if any, voter ID has had on turn out.

 

but so far though the Tories are taking a bashing Labour is not gathering the big swing they were predicting. It seems likely voters are disillusioned with the whole charade at the moment

[Oztalgian 3,349]

7 hours ago, Brew said:

It seems likely voters are disillusioned with the whole charade at the moment

Pretty much the same scenario here although apart from council elections voting in State and Federal elections is compulsory. Apparently one measure of disinterest here is the growing number of pre-poll votes of people who vote early and can then switch off to the whole circus. The pollies just don't get it, they delay their big announcements until nearer the end of the campaign. A futile exercise as a large % of voters had already made their choices. Th number of informal votes is growing too, they are votes that are deliberately, as a protest or accidentally filled out incorrectly. At the last referendum 10% were postal votes and in total 46% of all votes were pre polling day. 

I wish we could vote on-line, maybe not, as I would miss out on my democracy sausage!

[Oztalgian 3,349]

I see the results for the first East Midlands Mayor are in and Labour's Claire Ward has been elected. Reports say she had a majority of over 51,000 votes and voter turnout was 25%

[Oztalgian 3,349]

On reading the reports on the elections and particularly the comments by readers I can see that most of the comments relate to things that are the responsibility of Westminster and not the local councils. Have the council elections become so party political so that people cannot tell the difference? Surely the council elections should be about who is the best individual that can benefit the area and not party politics. A local council cannot stop the boats and is limited in what it can do to affect the cost of living or fix the NHS. It could fix the potholes if it had a will to and stop spending money on useless projects.

[Brew 5,440]

8 hours ago, Oztalgian said:

On reading the reports on the elections and particularly the comments by readers I can see that most of the comments relate to things that are the responsibility of Westminster and not the local councils. 

 

Essentially Oz this is the purpose of the new mayor that no one wanted and has cost a projected £4 million just to elect.

 

The main focus is to be:

Skills.

Transport

Housing

Net Zero

Business support

 

and has an investment fund of £38 million to play with. Much is being made of a figure of £1.5 billion - but whispering it's over 30 years.

 

Sounds a lot like a Brexit promise to me.

 

 No one it seems is asking the question of why, why we need a new mayor for these things and why the hell were our councils not doing the same things already?

 

One excuse from the government has offered for setting up a scheme that has one purpose only, to give then a get out of jail card when things go wrong, and they have someone to blame.

 

Quote:

 

"The government believes that a regional mayor can serve as a figurehead for the region, championing the area and lobbying the government for support" and "Greater accountability and local focus"

 

Except now we a have a mayor to represent over 2 million people and not a local MP who should be doing those things for his constituency.

Apart from milking the system and doing dodgy deals with developers, what are our MPs actually  doing for the people who put their trust in them to represent them and their needs in parliament?

 

Who's paying for this latest extravaganza?  - guess...

The new mayor now has the power to:

 

Power to set a Mayoral budget.

 

Power to impose a business rate supplement on non-domestic ratepayers in the Area to fund Mayoral functions as part of the Mayoral budget

 

Power to issue a precept on council tax (a precept is an amount added to council tax) to fund Mayoral functions as part of the Mayoral budget

 

Power to provide relief from non-domestic rates in areas covered by a Mayoral Development Corporation.

 

Power to create a Mayoral Development Area,

Power to form a Mayoral Development Corporation to take responsibility for planning functions in the part/s of the Area covered by the Mayoral Development Area.

 

Housing and land acquisition powers

 

No mention of course about the billion pound debt the city is carrying

 

Looking at the results of those who bothered to vote, the majority did not vote for the mayor, 53% voted against her.

 

 

 

 

[Cliff Ton 10,505]

Bureaucrats creating jobs for bureaucrats. I looked at the propaganda which came through the door and realised that the whole thing was a complete waste of time and money.

[DJ360 6,738]

So..the Local Elections are over.

I'm not getting deeply into Mayoral Elections etc. We've had Rotheram and Burnham here in Liverpool/Manchester for a good while and Burnham in particular is pretty effective.  That said it seems to me that the whole 'Local Mayors' thing is about the Tories trying to further distance themselves from the local effects of their basic National policy of starving Local Authorities of funding.

It's interesting to me the the bloke in the North East .. Ben Houchen is it?..seems to be well liked..and 'delivering'. Nothing at all to do with him being a Tory under a Tory Govt..  obviously.. And he's hardly 'Ben'.. At 37 he's already 'Baron Houchen of High Leven'[  Oooh.. Get him!!

And this is worth a look...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Houchen,_Baron_Houchen_of_High_Leven

 

Especially..

 

Quote

In 2023, Houchen was criticised after it emerged that a 90 per cent stake in the company that operates the vacant Redcar Steelworks site, teesworks, was transferred to two local developers, Chris Musgrave and Martin Corney, without any public tender process.^[36] It also emerged that the private developers have received at least £45m in dividends and hold £63m cash from the project despite not having invested any direct cash in the project themselves.^[36][37][38]

A subsequent investigation found that the Tees Valley Combined Authority and South Tees Development Corporation did not meet standards expected when managing public funds, and raised questions about transparency and oversight across the system to evidence value for money.^[38][37]

 

Obviously nothing to see there....

 

So.. onto the wider Election Results.

 

Clearly the Tories have taken a well deserved 'hammering' and for me the best part of that is watching the seemingly endless parade of Tory Ministers nobody has ever heard of.. being eviscerated on the telly.  I've been interested in politics for decades, but cannot recall a time when so many deluded nobodies presented themselves on the telly for ritual humiliation.

That said, I have to admit that Labour could have done better against an Open Goal. I fully understand Starmer's caution, but he's lost a significant, though probably not 'fatal' number of votes in Muslim areas,..just by not calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.   Probably scared of yet more false accusations of Anti Semitism.

 

The Tories are undoubtedly 'screwed' whenever the election finally comes.  God knows they deserve it after 14 years of anti -democratic sleaze, arrogance and mismanagement. 

I would almost welcome a scenario where Labour needed both the Greens and the Lib dems to form a Govt...  It might finally point to Proportional Representation and sanity in UK Politics.. but firstly.. these Godawful Tories have to go..

[letsavagoo 965]

7 hours ago, DJ360 said:

Probably scared of yet more false accusations of Anti Semitism.

 

We’re you referring to Labour in general being falsely accused or of Starmer himself.

 

‘In October 2020, a report by the UK's human rights watchdog found Labourto be responsible for "unlawful" acts of harassment and discrimination during Jeremy Corbyn's four-and a-half years as party leader.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) investigation identified serious failings in leadership and an inadequate process of handling anti-Semitism complaints. 

Its report said the party was responsible for three breaches of the Equality Act: political interference in anti-Semitism complaints, failure to provide adequate training to those handling anti-Semitism complaints and harassment.’

 

Full article here.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45030552

 

I’ll concede that Starmer has taken steps to change his party

in this aspect. 

 

[Jill Sparrow 10,360]

John Swinney, the newly elected leader of the SNP, is a dead ringer for John Reginald Halliday Christie.  Ooh-er . Christie has Scottish ancestry: his great grandfather, also named John, was born in Kilmarnock in 1835. Interesting.

[philmayfield 6,221]

I’ve just been reading up on him. A divorcee who had an affair with a married woman. He describes himself as ‘a man of deep Christian faith’. I like to see a bit of hypocrisy amongst politicians!

[letsavagoo 965]

Given the sexual abuse that has gone on within the Catholic Church I think an affair with a married woman is absolutely fine.

[philmayfield 6,221]

Yes, quite modest really. 

[Jill Sparrow 10,360]

He's a Scottish Presb. Now married to a Roman Catholic. Had his previous married annulled in order to permit of his being married in an RC church. On what grounds, I wonder?  It's next to impossible to get an RC marriage annulled (unless you're very, very wealthy) as a friend of mine found out many years ago.  Wonder what God thinks about all this rule bending?

[philmayfield 6,221]

He has given man free will; so basically you can do what you like - until the day of reckoning!

[Jill Sparrow 10,360]

Ah, yes. There's no such thing as a free lunch!

[Brew 5,440]

I note from a recent article about the Nottingham City Council debate and vote on the swingeing cuts to the budget due to the massive council debt; it looks as though only 18 out of 55 councillors could be bothered to turn up. Perhaps they take part through osmosis

 

Let's hope the new leader is not another own goal, after all she led the Robin Hood Energy enterprise that lost so much money it was the single biggest contributor to the present debacle.

The outgoing leader is of course blaming the Tory govt for cuts but fails to mention the appalling profligacy of decisions that have absolutely nothing to do with govt funding, or the illegal financial shenanigans that took place with the housing budget.

[DJ360 6,738]

On 5/6/2024 at 8:16 AM, letsavagoo said:

 

We’re you referring to Labour in general being falsely accused or of Starmer himself.

 

‘In October 2020, a report by the UK's human rights watchdog found Labourto be responsible for "unlawful" acts of harassment and discrimination during Jeremy Corbyn's four-and a-half years as party leader.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) investigation identified serious failings in leadership and an inadequate process of handling anti-Semitism complaints. 

Its report said the party was responsible for three breaches of the Equality Act: political interference in anti-Semitism complaints, failure to provide adequate training to those handling anti-Semitism complaints and harassment.’

 

Full article here.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45030552

 

I’ll concede that Starmer has taken steps to change his party

in this aspect. 

 

 

I maintain that it would be difficult to find any political party or other sizeable grouping in the World which does not demonstrate pockets of AS, as well as Islamophobia and other forms of stereotyping and prejudice. Whether is is always overt, is another matter.

There is no doubt in my mind that much of the furore surrounding Corbyn's brief tenure was exaggerated and hyped by a hostile media, representing a deeply self-interested Establishment which was terrified of an actual socialist, even a democratic one.. gaining power.

I also fully understand the Labour Party's difficulties over accepting all of the IHRA's definition of AS, including the notorious '11 examples', as they did appear to sail very close to barring ALL criticism of Israeli Govt. Policy by deeming it Anti-Semitic.

 

It seems to me that the major head on religious conflict in the World at the moment is between Islam and Judaeism. On both sides, there are moderates and those seeking peaceful co-existence, but equally, there are those on both sides who will not give an inch, and who claim the sole right to define what is offensive to them.

And yet oddly, in other spheres of society, 'being offended' is often seen as a basis for accusations of ''wokery', or 'snowflakery'.

In the final analysis, 'definitions' will not stop people from developing or expressing their own prejudices.

[DJ360 6,738]

On 5/6/2024 at 12:53 PM, philmayfield said:

I’ve just been reading up on him. A divorcee who had an affair with a married woman. He describes himself as ‘a man of deep Christian faith’. I like to see a bit of hypocrisy amongst politicians!

 

Many of the World's political problems are caused by people who use their claimed 'religious faith', or alleged attributes of others' religious faith..to justify their actions.

 

Without getting into a complex debate about it, I'll just throw in a few words. Uygurs, China, Rohyngia, Myanmar, Iran, Boko Haram, Nigeria, Al Quaeda, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Northern Ireland, India, 'Bulldozer Politics', Afghanistan, Taliban, ISIS, Russian Orthodox Army, Orbán Hungary "illiberal Christian democracy", Lehava, Israel, Hamas,Palestine  etc, etc, etc.

 

Even those who aren't actually embarked upon religious wars, are very fond of using religion in attempts to bolster their 'acceptability'. See: Putin, Russian Orthodox Church, Trump..selling Bibles.. etc...

 

Just as life cannot be divorced from politics..it seems that politics cannot be divorced from religion.

 

And yet meanwhile, I guess the bulk of those of who have a faith in some or other God(s) simply get on with it. True Faith cannot be anything other than personal.

[letsavagoo 965]

On 5/9/2024 at 9:22 AM, DJ360 said:

I maintain that it would be difficult to find any political party or other sizeable grouping in the World which does not demonstrate pockets of AS, as well as Islamophobia and other forms of stereotyping and prejudice. Whether is is always overt, is another matter.

There is no doubt in my mind that much of the furore surrounding Corbyn's brief tenure was exaggerated and hyped by a hostile media, representing a deeply self-interested Establishment which was terrified of an actual socialist, even a democratic one.. gaining power.

You’ve not really given a clear answer have you. Just smoke and mirrors ‘any party or group display AS (you say AND but surely mean OR) Islamophobia or other form of etc ………and it was mainly hyped up by the press. 

 

My question was in relation to your comment

‘probably scared of yet more false accusations of antisemitism’

 

I was trying to establish if you believed the claims that Labour was a antisemitic party and the accusations were false or whether Starmer, the individual had been falsely accused of being AS. 
I’m not sure what your answer is other than everyone’s at it almost as a ‘yea but’ justification. 
ps. Corbyn’s brief tenure you mention was over 4 years. Brief for a marriage but not party leader. By the current Tory standards an absolute lifetime.
 

 

[DJ360 6,738]

3 minutes ago, letsavagoo said:

You’ve not really given a clear answer have you.

 

Yes, I have.

17 minutes ago, letsavagoo said:

I was trying to establish if you believed the claims that Labour was a antisemitic party and the accusations were false or whether Starmer, the individual had been falsely accused of being AS. 

 

No. I didn't and I still don't. Labour is the least likely party to be Anti Semitic.

The whole point of Labour is that it is inclusive, internationalist, etc., etc.

 

Did some people allow their opinions on Israeli State Policy to spill over into comments which could qualify as AS? Probably. 

 

Are there actual anti semites in the Labour Party?  I'd be surprised if there weren't for the reasons I've already given. There are both overt AND 'closet' anti semites everywhere..just as there are similar 'grades' of Islamophobes everywhere.

 

Does it follow that Labour is an Anti-Semitic Party? Of course not.. and you know this.

 

Re: Starmer. Whatever criticisms might be levelled against him, he clearly isn't AS.

 

But.. I don't expect any of that to placate a predominantly right wing UK press which is grasping desperately at anything to try to prevent a Labour election win.

[Brew 5,440]

Quote:

"Whether we look at the left or the right of the political spectrum, we find people who are antisemitic and people who aren’t. Our findings help us to get beyond the question of whether antisemitism is more of a problem on the right or on the left. What we found is that antisemitic views are more likely among conspiracy theorists, revolutionaries, and people who see dictatorship as an acceptable form of government".

Dr Daniel Allington, Department of Digital Humanities (Oxford)

 

Because of the link to the rise of the Fascists, antisemitism has been assumed to be a right-wing trait. However, it has always existed across both sides of the political spectrum and through all strata of society.

I'm at a loss to explain why but antisemitism is more widespread than many realise as evidenced by the massive, virtually global, protests, to claim they are only anti-war is clearly nonsense.

According to the BBC antisemitic hate crime has hugely increased since the October 7 attack. at the same time two major police forces (Manchester and Birmingham) are reporting a reduction in Islamophobic offences.

The is no evidence to suggest AS is more left wing than right.

 

BUT, not so long ago, the Equality and Human Rights Commission found  Labour committed unlawful acts in regard to antisemitism within the party during Corbyn’s leadership, highlighting the problem of antisemitism on the left.

I cannot say other than i believe Corbyn to be an antisemite.

Starmer, in my opinion is not. He is however caught between two stools. One to maintain his impartiality and the other to appease those insisting he commit to Palestine and demand a ceasefire. How good that would do I don't know but it's a useful stick to beat him with.

 

[DJ360 6,738]

 

Quote

 

Excellent article from George Monbiot which references a report revealing how we in the UK have declining mental health issues to the point that we are at the bottom of comparisons with other countries

 

“There was a time when almost everyone in the UK believed that a rising economic tide would lift all boats. That everybody would have a good home. That drudge work would diminish and jobs would become more interesting. That we would enjoy greater economic security and more leisure time. That educational attainment would keep rising across all social classes. That our healthcare and health would inexorably improve. That the UK would become ever cleaner and greener. That governance and democratic engagement would get better by the year.

 

We could easily have had all of these things. A vast amount of money has flushed through this country. Science has advanced by leaps and bounds; health and labour-saving technologies have greatly improved; we know exactly how to build good homes, treat sewage and improve democracy.

 

Instead (literally, in the case of our rivers) almost everything has gone to shit”

 

80 years ago Beveridge set out to tackle the 5 evil giants of “want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness”. They are now back with a vengeance.

In his new book Monboit says

“We live under an ideology that preys on every aspect of our lives: our education and our jobs; our healthcare and our leisure; our relationships and our mental wellbeing; the planet we inhabit – the very air we breathe. So pervasive has it become that, for most people, it has no name. It seems unavoidable, like a natural law.”

 

There is a reason for these broken promises and dysfunctions, which explains why the UK suffers more from them than most comparable nations.

 

It’s called neoliberalism.

 

 

And it is precisely why it it imperative to get rid of the Tories, who are totally imbued in such thinking.

Whilst we are arguing about AS, Gaza, Migration, etc.. etc.., the dark 'neoliberal' forces continue their march towards a time when very few will actually own anything.  We will all rent whatever housing, transport, access to music, digital storage, and everything else they allow us to afford..from the cash/asset rich, who continue to increase their wealth exponentially to the detriment of the majority and with the complicity and encouragement of the Tories.

 

The supposed 5th richest country in the World, being systematically and deliberately impoverished by Right Wing totally amoral actors.

[DJ360 6,738]

34 minutes ago, Brew said:

to claim they are only anti-war is clearly nonsense

 

And yet they only started since the Genocide in Gaza began.  Who'd have thought...?