General Election 2017 | Cabinet reshuffle: Hunt re-appointed Health Secretary for record third time

How do you intend to vote in the 2017 General Election if eligible?

  • Conservatives

    Votes: 80 14.5%
  • Labour

    Votes: 322 58.4%
  • Lib Dems

    Votes: 57 10.3%
  • Green

    Votes: 20 3.6%
  • SNP

    Votes: 13 2.4%
  • UKIP

    Votes: 29 5.3%
  • Independent

    Votes: 3 0.5%
  • Plaid Cymru

    Votes: 2 0.4%
  • Sinn Fein

    Votes: 11 2.0%
  • Other (UUP, DUP, BNP, and anyone else I have forgotten)

    Votes: 14 2.5%

  • Total voters
    551
  • Poll closed .
There's so much ammunition with Corbyn though, he's like a dream for the right wing press.

Yep, that's the major problem. It's all well and good complaining about how the press is treating you, but when you've got some previous associations perceived as dodgy, a Shadow Chancellor who's talked about honouring the IRA, and Diane Abbott in...well, any position at all, then you're setting yourself up for failure. Even more so when you send Abbott onto a talk show and she's unable to present the costs to core parts of the manifesto.
 
Demeanour, but also a perception of capability, rightly or wrongly. With Attlee, Wilson, Brown their opponents obviously disagreed with their objectives, but did acknowledge that they were clever and capable people. Corbyn and his team have a lot of work to do in comparison.
Spot on - Brexit being the prime example.
 
Decent but not spectacular speech i think. Can see the attack lines coming on nationalisation costings. Which ever way you look it at the detail on the costings is impressive, a lesson learnt from Eds manifesto.

Can we just get promote Sarah Champion and demote Abbot please
 
Last edited:
C_5tblZW0AAhWvJ.jpg:large
 
Am I reading right that they haven't put any of the renationalisations into the costings?
 
Am I reading right that they haven't put any of the renationalisations into the costings?

The railway won't cost anything, just let the contracts run out. The NHS will probably go through the same process. The questions should center on water/mail
 
Er, what's the combined market cap of the power utilities?
I haven't read the published manifesto but in the draft, the plan was more to set up new nationalised competitors in each region rather than renationalise the existing ones. But they did want "control" of the National Grid, which has a market cap of about £40bn I think.
 
The railway won't cost anything, just let the contracts run out. The NHS will probably go through the same process. The questions should center on water/mail
How long are the contracts though?

  1. Laura Kuenssberg‏Verified account @bbclaurak 2h2 hours ago
    Corbyn's team says don't need to be included because liabilities off set by new assets


  2. Laura Kuenssberg‏Verified account @bbclaurak 2h2 hours ago
    None of Labour's big proposed nationalisations have got numbers against them in manifesto costings
 
Like the east coast mainline?

We're talking about everything, no? Stations, commuter lines, upgrades, higher salaries, pensions e.t.c. And that's before you begin to improve public transport in those places who don't really have much (not that Labour talks about the latter much).
 
We're talking about everything, no? Stations, commuter lines, upgrades, higher salaries, pensions e.t.c. And that's before you begin to improve public transport in those places who don't really have much (not that Labour talks about the latter much).

Network Rail already own the track and stations, it's owned by the government
 
I like the bus stuff a lot more than the train stuff.
 
I like the bus stuff a lot more than the train stuff.

The train stuff gets attention because it make sense to everyone, but it has to be a long term policy, some of those franchises are not up until 2026. The bus one is more practical, and it could be argued, have a bigger, faster effect simply because in many placed, buses are in a worse state than the railways.


Overall though, whether you agree with labours approach or not, I think its healthy to have very different offers on the table. Milliband and Brown's 'austerity like the tories but we will be sad about it' nonsense helped no one at all.

As an aside, there are a couple of videos of corbyn in Leeds and hebdon bridge with thousands out to see him. Leeds its expected, but hebdon has a tory MP, it surprised me. The contrast between him and may doing the election campaign stuff is pretty stark I have to say.
 
Demeanour, but also a perception of capability, rightly or wrongly. With Attlee, Wilson, Brown their opponents obviously disagreed with their objectives, but did acknowledge that they were clever and capable people. Corbyn and his team have a lot of work to do in comparison.
Attlee was proclaimed as unelectable as little as a month before the election where he won by a landslide by none other than Churchill himself, along with the times, mail and usual suspects. I am not claiming corbyn is anything like that, but this is nothing new for those who believe power is their birthright.
 
Attlee was proclaimed as unelectable as little as a month before the election where he won by a landslide by none other than Churchill himself, along with the times, mail and usual suspects. I am not claiming corbyn is anything like that, but this is nothing new for those who believe power is their birthright.
Labour was leading in the polls before '45, and Attlee had great credibility from serving in the cabinet. Churchill's blathering about a British Gestapo got laughed at. Attlee was not a lefty for his time.
 
The train stuff gets attention because it make sense to everyone, but it has to be a long term policy, some of those franchises are not up until 2026. The bus one is more practical, and it could be argued, have a bigger, faster effect simply because in many placed, buses are in a worse state than the railways.
It's difficult though- rural bus services are always going to be shite unless you subsidise them heavily for the handful of people that actually use them.
 
And Labour's position on the benefit freeze remains uncertain. A reversal certainly hasn't been costed. Renationalisations and tuition fees really more important? Really?
 
Am I reading right that they haven't put any of the renationalisations into the costings?

Bit hard to cost given the timelines and it would involve negotiations. Its still the most comprehensive costings the party has produced no?
 
Bit hard to cost given the timelines and it would involve negotiations. Its still the most comprehensive costings the party has produced no?
It makes the pledge of it being a "fully costed" programme laughable. That, allied to huge spending increases elsewhere and hypothetical taxation, is not good.

But as I said after the leak, it's basically to drive the core vote and on that front probably does its job. Other than the benefit freeze stuff which is unconscionable given the flak he and his support gave to the rest of the party.
 
It makes the pledge of it being a "fully costed" programme laughable. That, allied to huge spending increases elsewhere and hypothetical taxation, is not good.

But as I said after the leak, it's basically to drive the core vote and on that front probably does its job. Other than the benefit freeze stuff which is unconscionable given the flak he and his support gave to the rest of the party.
I wonder what @Dobba thinks of the benefits freeze considering his obsession with the "abstainers".