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 .
Conversely, you can buy an annual ticket off Bahn trains in both Germany and the UK. It is wholly owned by the german government. An annual ticket in germany gives you unlimited travel for the entire country. One in the UK gives you travel between brighton and london and back every day as a commuter.

The one in britain costs twice as much as the national ticket in germany. And Bahn get government subsidies on top of those ticket prices from us in the UK.

Right now, we pay in real terms, 3 times as much for private rail as we did for British Rail.

We = the ~2m who use the railways on a regular basis. Everyone else pays less. It's just moving the cost on to those who use it.
 
Tories are either extremely confident right now or very thick. Quite possibly both.
 
Bullshit. The idea that resident workers aren't appealing to employers is nonsense - we're at our highest level of employment in decades.

What alternative reasoning do you subscribe to, it being a purely money-making tax on business under the guise of an immigration measure?

Although i don't think it is unfair to suggest that some employers pursue foreign labour as a first option, and often not for the best of reasons. Yet even accepting this to be the case, there are some obvious flies in the ointment: such as non-EU being a relatively low contributor, doubts over the supply of natives to fill the posts, and the need to incentivise businesses on training locals.

If you're not making any moves toward addressing the above, it amounts to a tax dressed up as immigration policy. I wonder how much it has even raised though, as you'll need people to enforce the damn thing.
 
Pretty remarkably poll from Ipsos today.



Its been a while since their last poll, which is why the changes looks so dramatic. But still, back to two party politics we go.

Also, Lib Dem leadership race this summer.

At this rate it might just have to go to whoever is left.
 
Tories are either extremely confident right now or very thick. Quite possibly both.

Its just how May operates, she'll do whatever she thinks needs to be done irrespective, quite psychotic. Im sure it does come from a place of confidence as well.

The tone from the tory press this morning is quite something. Spectator have said they should apologise to Ed :lol:
 
Fixed term parliament act getting repealed, not that it was worth the vellum it's written on anyway.
 
Redistribution of civil service jobs away from London.

Channel 4 moving to Birmingham most likely.
 
It's here.

This is all they have to say about climate change. Disgusting.

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Kinell, they're actually talking about overhauling stop and search.
 
Tories are either extremely confident right now or very thick. Quite possibly both.
They're crazy ballsy. Actually acting like they've already won. If they do end the triple lock, and do end the promise of no tax rises, and they do charge pensioners more for their social care, then they are taking away Labour's future ammunition.

And like you say, with brexit, they are asking for a free hand to do whatever the hell they want.
 
Kuennsberg with a good question

You are ditching many ideas you stood on two years ago. Some families will lose things, like free meals. You are pushing back deficit reduction. Isn’t this a bleak picture?


Labour's plan was very positive and optimistic, whereas this is very "hard times, tough choices, trust us, BREXIT".
 
Everything is a preprogrammed. Its like she's been indoctrinated

Q: The manifesto does not say if high earners will pay more in tax. Will they?

May says high earners face a choice, between a party that always has and always will believe in low taxes, and a Labour party whose instinct is to put up taxes.
 


Confirmed thick


That is exactly the right position heading into these negotiations. This contrasts with the Liberal Undemocrats, who'd sell the electorate down the river, and Labour, who don't have the least clue what their strategy would be.
 
I get the electoral politics of it, but it's still going to be odd to see Corbyn's main attack be against things that are vaguely redistributive.
 
Everything is a preprogrammed. Its like she's been indoctrinated

Q: The manifesto does not say if high earners will pay more in tax. Will they?

May says high earners face a choice, between a party that always has and always will believe in low taxes, and a Labour party whose instinct is to put up taxes.
Q: On page 36 the manifesto says you think no deal is better than a bad deal. Is this a mandate for leaving the EU with no deal? And wouldn’t that cause chaos?

A: May says she wants the best deal for Britain. She wants a deal that works for the whole of the UK.

And the Westminster bubble wonder why we all hate politicians. Some of the most vacuous shit I have ever heard.
 
That is exactly the right position heading into these negotiations. This contrasts with the Liberal Undemocrats, who'd sell the electorate down the river, and Labour, who don't have the least clue what their strategy would be.
Labour is in the exact same position as the Tories. You can't praise one and criticise the other.

Liberal undemocrats. Jesus :lol:

This is how New Zealand did their flag referendums.
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First, select which flag will be competing

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Second put that flag against what exists currently.

This is the right way to hold referendums, and if anyone had ever thought there was the a real possibility Brexit would happen, that's what we would have had.

First referendum; choose what Brexit we are going to have (Single Market In & Immigration In OR Single Market Out * Immigration Out, etc)

Second referendum; this Brexit vs the Status Quo

The problem is that the Brexit we are going to get is not one that anyone has voted for. If the Tories keep immigration, they are going to piss off 30% of the electorate. If the Tories get "no deal" and tank the economy, they are going to piss off 70% of the electorate.

Right now they are hard set on a free-trade agreement with no single market access and paying the smallest divorce bill possible. Possibly - this is what the electorate would have asked for in a NZ style double referendum anyway, but we don't know that. No one voted for it.
 
Labour is in the exact same position as the Tories. You can't praise one and criticise the other.

Liberal undemocrats. Jesus :lol:

Is it not Labour policy that they will accept any deal, irrespective of the bill? Emily Thornberry also admitted on LBC earlier this week that they have no plan for how future immigration will be managed. And point blank, i wouldn't trust Corbyn to defend British interests in talks with the EU. He'd roll over for a tickle.

For years, Clagg and the Lib Dems said they wanted a clear In/Out referendum; such was part of their opposition to a vote on the Lisbon Treaty. They got what they asked for but didn't like the result.
 
That is exactly the right position heading into these negotiations. This contrasts with the Liberal Undemocrats, who'd sell the electorate down the river, and Labour, who don't have the least clue what their strategy would be.

Do you actually believe no deal is better than a bad deal?

It's one thing to say that the UK should be willing to walk away if they are not satisfied with the deal on offer. It's another to believe that black is white, and that no deal is better than a bad deal. And so we have the Conservative party stating in their manifesto their belief in something which is patently false.

I have huge issues with Labour's response to Brexit, but at least their manifesto isn't displaying such blatant stupidity.

Labour Manifesto said:
Labour recognises that leaving the EU with ‘no deal’ is the worst possible deal for Britain and that it would do damage to our economy and trade. We will reject ‘no deal’ as a viable option and if needs be negotiate transitional arrangements to avoid a cliff-edge’ for the economy.
 
Changing to FPTP for elected mayors, not at all for their own benefit you understand.
 
Is it not Labour policy that they will accept any deal, irrespective of the bill? Emily Thornberry also admitted on LBC earlier this week that they have no plan for how future immigration will be managed. And point blank, i wouldn't trust Corbyn to defend British interests in talks with the EU. He'd roll over for a tickle.

For years, Clagg and the Lib Dems said they wanted a clear In/Out referendum; such was part of their opposition to a vote on the Lisbon Treaty. They got what they asked for but didn't like the result.

Exactly what is the reasoning that Corbyn would be any more likely to roll over than May? Other than you not liking him

As for the statement on no deal. Nobody is stupid enough to be influenced by a few empty statements, the EU are well aware of the impact of no deal ffs
 
Do you actually believe no deal is better than a bad deal?

It's one thing to say that the UK should be willing to walk away if they are not satisfied with the deal on offer. It's another to believe that black is white, and that no deal is better than a bad deal. And so we have the Conservative party stating in their manifesto their belief in something which is patently false.

I have huge issues with Labour's response to Brexit, but at least their manifesto isn't displaying such blatant stupidity.

It wouldn't be among my preferred options at this point, neither the first choice nor the next best alternative, however the possibility is there. More importantly, those sitting around the table must believe it of us too.
 
It wouldn't be among my preferred options at this point, neither the first choice nor the next best alternative, however the possibility is there. More importantly, those sitting around the table must believe it of us too.

I'm sorry but the idea that the UK will genuinely go into negotiations with the EU with the prospect of them using no deal as some sort of negotiating tactic is a nonsense in my opinion. The whole no deal better than a bad deal is merely a slogan meant for the electorate at home. Surely the right way to approach the negotiations is to get the stuff they already pretty much agree on down as the baseline of any agreement, no hard border in NI, rights of citizens etc. so that any agreement cannot be any worse than that at least. As someone who lives in Northern Ireland and spends a fair amount of time in border areas (both north and south of it) the idea of no deal is just absolutely crazy.
 
Good overview on the care stuff from Ed M's old policy bloke

 
I'm sorry but the idea that the UK will genuinely go into negotiations with the EU with the prospect of them using no deal as some sort of negotiating tactic is a nonsense in my opinion. The whole no deal better than a bad deal is merely a slogan meant for the electorate at home. Surely the right way to approach the negotiations is to get the stuff they already pretty much agree on down as the baseline of any agreement, no hard border in NI, rights of citizens etc. so that any agreement cannot be any worse than that at least. As someone who lives in Northern Ireland and spends a fair amount of time in border areas (both north and south of it) the idea of no deal is just absolutely crazy.

I believer those things are already our starting position. Indeed walking away a more basic deal, with those sort of things its heart, would be my Plan B. They could even be agreed in principle and stated publicly by both parties this year. But if the EU continues to insist on a single payment of 60-100bn before we move forward, things become difficult.
 
I'm sorry but the idea that the UK will genuinely go into negotiations with the EU with the prospect of them using no deal as some sort of negotiating tactic is a nonsense in my opinion. The whole no deal better than a bad deal is merely a slogan meant for the electorate at home. Surely the right way to approach the negotiations is to get the stuff they already pretty much agree on down as the baseline of any agreement, no hard border in NI, rights of citizens etc. so that any agreement cannot be any worse than that at least. As someone who lives in Northern Ireland and spends a fair amount of time in border areas (both north and south of it) the idea of no deal is just absolutely crazy.
Agreed. From abroad it looks a bit like a suicidal person standing at the edge agreeing to speak to a counselor on the condition of still being allowed to jump. No deal would certainly hurt the EU too, but not even on the same magnitude as it would hurt the UK. No deal is the worst possible deal.
 
Got the IFS on hand for that:

Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, told the BBC that the spending plans in the Conservative manifesto would probably not require much extra tax.

"While there is not an absolute promise not to increase income tax or national insurance, what you have got is a pretty modest set of proposals which probably isn’t going to require terribly much in the way of tax increases.

If you look at the Labour party proposals, they have costed out their spending proposals at a pretty big £75bn. To be clear, £75bn is a very, very big number indeed, and they have promised £50n of tax rises.

The big difference is that from the Labour party we have a much bigger state, much more spending, much more tax. In the Conservative manifesto we have much more small-c conservatism. There isn’t a lot more spending or a lot more tax."

He also said that the Conservative manifesto “pretty much matches” Labour’s plans for spending on health.

And he said the Tories have left themselves “wriggle room” by keeping the target date of 2025 for eliminating the deficit.