UK Politics Thread IX: Try turning the UK off and on again.

[The Nihilistic view]

if there was a conservative leadership election tomorrow i'd vote for sajid javid tbh

souseiseki will be back next month with more fun comments

I remember quite liking him before he became chancellor. I liked him a lot more when he stood up to number 10 before resigning.

I don't really like him for his BoE choice, Haldane would have been a much better choice imo.

[The Huskar Social Union]

New Scottish Parliament poll, Ipsos MORI 22 - 29 Nov (changes vs 2021 Election):

Regional List:
SNP: 43% (+3)
CON: 20% (-3)
LAB: 15% (-3)
GRN: 12% (+4)
LDEM: 6% (+1)
ALBA: 1% (-1)

Constituency:
SNP: 52% (+4)
CON: 19% (-3)
LAB: 17% (-5)
LDEM: 5% (-2)
GRN: 3% (+2)

SNP on the up again it seems as are the Greens, particularly in the Regional lists.

[The Huskar Social Union]

Ipsos Mori poll for STV has independence support at 55%, a big departure from previous polls

Also has stats for how Scots view the Scottish governments handling of covid, education etc as well as the rankings of Boris Johnson, Nicola Sturgeon, Douglas Ross and Aanas Sarwar.

[Mtwara]

Ipsos Mori poll for STV has independence support at 55%, a big departure from previous polls

Also has stats for how Scots view the Scottish governments handling of covid, education etc as well as the rankings of Boris Johnson, Nicola Sturgeon, Douglas Ross and Aanas Sarwar.

There's a big difference between saying yes in a poll and voting yes. It's just something people say they'll do when they're dissatisfied with the government.

[Chan Island]

New Scottish Parliament poll, Ipsos MORI 22 - 29 Nov (changes vs 2021 Election):

Regional List:
SNP: 43% (+3)
CON: 20% (-3)
LAB: 15% (-3)
GRN: 12% (+4)
LDEM: 6% (+1)
ALBA: 1% (-1)

Constituency:
SNP: 52% (+4)
CON: 19% (-3)
LAB: 17% (-5)
LDEM: 5% (-2)
GRN: 3% (+2)

SNP on the up again it seems as are the Greens, particularly in the Regional lists.

What a hellscape. Separatists in first place and the Tory party in second.

[Old Tyrannia]

Men of Middle Eastern or South Asian appearance have been caught on a film harassing and threatening a group of Jewish teenagers in London, whilst the latter were on an organised bus tour to celebrate hanukkah. The incident is being treated as a hate crime by the Metropolitan Police. The harassers reportedly shouted slogans including "Free Palestine" and made obscene gestures and Nazi style salutes.

[The Huskar Social Union]

Men of Middle Eastern or South Asian appearance have been caught on a film harassing and threatening a group of Jewish teenagers in London, whilst the latter were on an organised bus tour to celebrate hanukkah. The incident is being treated as a hate crime by the Metropolitan Police. The harassers reportedly shouted slogans including "Free Palestine" and made obscene gestures and Nazi style salutes.

Scumbags.

[The New California Republic]

What a hellscape. Separatists in first place and the Tory party in second.

It's an inevitable result of the referendum nonsense, it's polarising folk here in Scotland, voters crystallising around a single issue.

[Austria-Bohemia-Hungary]

If priti patel's party comes second in a poll by a landslide then it is a good thing.

[The Huskar Social Union]

Oh yeah that by-election in Old Bexley and Sidcup is on today right? Any idea when the results will come in? tomorrow morning i guess?

[West Bromwich Holme]

Anyone feel like the constant mixed messaging over Christmas parties and socialising is annoying, worrying or both?

I was looking forward to Christmas parties this year after last year's ban on them and the infamous "Rule of Six", but now with the uncertainty, I don't think there'll even be any. Although at least for me, there's a family one.

How many of you on here, or people you know, refuse to be beaten and think that the recent Boris Johnson breach of lockdown rules - what a legal expert had said - has made people question things more.

I'm hoping we don't get a lockdown at all, not before Christmas, not in the New Year. Yes, Omicron is around, but isn't COVID going to be around forever in some form and I guess booster shots will be a part of life for the foreseeable.

In the future, we'll probably be in a "between the devil and deep blue sea" moment - not really wanting Conservatives, but not wanting Keir Starmer and Labour. But who would be the next government if the Conservatives don't win?
With the recent scandals, will they be a Teflon party, or will they start to get more floating voters?

What if in an alternate history, in 2017, Tim Farron or Jeremy Corbyn had won, how would things have turned out with regard to COVID? Would we have had lockdowns starting earlier than 23 March 2020 and the tier system, and as for the vaccine rollout, could that have been slower or faster in this alternate timeline?

[The Huskar Social Union]

Brexit: Council raid linked to 'orders to delete emails to DUP'

A police investigation into Mid and East Antrim Borough Council is linked to correspondence surrounding the controversial decision to withdraw staff operating the Northern Ireland Protocol back in February, BBC Northern Ireland Spotlight can reveal.

Sources have told Tuesday night's programme that attempts by council employees to delete a trail of correspondence to Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politicians that was being sought through Freedom of Information requests are at the centre of the investigation.

In October detectives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland's (PSNI) criminal investigation branch searched the council offices and retrieved documents and some electronic equipment.

At the start of February the council removed from duty port staff who were involved in protocol-related checks on goods arriving from Great Britain because of apparent threats from loyalist paramilitaries. It later emerged that the council chief executive Anne Donaghy had written to the UK Cabinet Office, which oversees the operation of the protocol, two days before the decision to remove staff.

Ms Donaghy told the UK government in the letter that graffiti had directly targeted council staff working on the checks. She also said that she was aware of the involvement of paramilitary groups and that she was "extremely concerned" for staff safety.

=CONTINUES=

Lets recap:

-DUP led Mid and East Antrim Borough Council in February orders workers at the port in Larne to go home and cease checks on goods mandated by the NI Protocol over concerns for their safety after threatening graffiti targeting council workers was found near site and that Loyalist Paramilitaries were involved.

-The council chief of staff had sent a letter to the UK Cabinet Office two days before the staff were instructed to leave about the issue, foreshadowing that the staff were to be instructed to go home.

-DUP Minister for Agriculture Edwin Poots orders all inspectors at Ports in NI to cease protocol related checks at ports in Northern Ireland.

-The PSNI followed this with their own threat assessment which stated it had no information to support claims of Loyalist threats aimed at staff at Larne Port. That there was no "Credible threat".

-The Stormont Agricultural Committee inquiry into the matter focused on the letter sent to the Cabinet office after the chief of staff for the council argued it was a confidential letter seen by no one else.

-Journalist from Belfast Live called Brendan Hughes requested under the Freedom of Information Act that the council reveal who received copies of the letter. Turns out it was sent to 8 DUP Politicians at the time it was sent to the Cabinet office. No other Parties received a copy of the letter.

-It is revealed via BBC Spotlight that the PSNI raid into the council offices in October was directly related to the request that Hughes had submitted and that the police seized multiple devices that may have recorded two council workers issuing orders to delete the information about who the letter had been sent to.

Now that's Interesting. Especially since the DUP met with Loyalist Paramilitaries multiple times over the last few years including later in February

But guys did you know Sinn Fein is the IRA?

And the chief of staff for the Mid and East Antrim council has been suspended and is under investigation that will look into complaints about her by staff members including harassment and bullying

She has responded with legal action against the council that she was fired on disability grounds and faced discrimination because of her sex and religious beliefs.

[Hirota]

What if in an alternate history, in 2017, Tim Farron or Jeremy Corbyn had won, how would things have turned out with regard to COVID? Would we have had lockdowns starting earlier than 23 March 2020 and the tier system, and as for the vaccine rollout, could that have been slower or faster in this alternate timeline?

Obviously it's idle speculation, but given Corbyns well-documented reticence to wear masks and social distance, and given how the flaws covid exposed were unlikely to be fully resolved in 3 years (even if we knew we had 3 years to plan for a pandemic), I believe there would have been little difference in the grand scheme of things.

[The Nihilistic view]

What if in an alternate history, in 2017, Tim Farron or Jeremy Corbyn had won, how would things have turned out with regard to COVID? Would we have had lockdowns starting earlier than 23 March 2020 and the tier system, and as for the vaccine rollout, could that have been slower or faster in this alternate timeline?

Obviously it's idle speculation, but given Corbyns well-documented reticence to wear masks and social distance, and given how the flaws covid exposed were unlikely to be fully resolved in 3 years (even if we knew we had 3 years to plan for a pandemic), I believe there would have been little difference in the grand scheme of things.

Farron maybe better when it came to lockdowns and guidelines being adequate but I have less confidence is some other areas but maybe a bit better overall. Corbyn probably a lot worse.

But my favorite take away has to be the precious middle class booking foreign holidays in the middle of a world pandemic and then when it doesn't work out moaning about it all over the news. Actually everytime I read or saw something about that it cheered me up.

[The Huskar Social Union]

Labour’s main union backer says it will cut political funding

Labour’s biggest funder, Unite, will cut political donations to the party and divert the money to other leftwing causes, the union’s new general secretary, Sharon Graham, has warned.

In a move that could blow a hole in Keir Starmer’s general election war chest, Graham said that while Unite would still pay £1m in affiliation fees to Labour, “there’s a lot of other money that we use from our political fund where, actually, I’m not sure we’re getting the best value for it”.

Graham, speaking to the Guardian to mark her first 100 days as leader of Britain’s biggest private sector union, said: “The fact that I am being quite robust is because Labour needs to talk about workers, needs to defend workers and needs to defend communities.”

She described this week’s Labour reshuffle, regarded by many at Westminster as a shift to the right, as “white noise” and lamented the lack of a shadow secretary of state for employment rights and protections, saying it was “not a good signal” for the party to send.

=CONTINUES=

[Philjia]

Oh yeah that by-election in Old Bexley and Sidcup is on today right? Any idea when the results will come in? tomorrow morning i guess?

Some time between 1 and 3am. Turnout is dire, with 21,788 votes cast, a mere 34% of the electorate. In 2019 the turnout was 46,145, 69%. In general you can expect by-elections to have two thirds of general election turnout, this is less than half.

[Ifreann]

Oh yeah that by-election in Old Bexley and Sidcup is on today right? Any idea when the results will come in? tomorrow morning i guess?

Some time between 1 and 3am. Turnout is dire, with 21,788 votes cast, a mere 34% of the electorate. In 2019 the turnout was 46,145, 69%. In general you can expect by-elections to have two thirds of general election turnout, this is less than half.

Damn, no one gave a shit about this vote.

[The New California Republic]

Some time between 1 and 3am. Turnout is dire, with 21,788 votes cast, a mere 34% of the electorate. In 2019 the turnout was 46,145, 69%. In general you can expect by-elections to have two thirds of general election turnout, this is less than half.

Damn, no one gave a shit about this vote.

And I can't imagine it was from a lack of awareness brought about by a lack of campaigning either, as all the parties involved would have spammed the voters mercilessly.

[Ifreann]

Damn, no one gave a shit about this vote.

And I can't imagine it was from a lack of awareness brought about by a lack of campaigning either, as all the parties involved would have spammed the voters mercilessly.

How bad was the weather there?

[The New California Republic]

And I can't imagine it was from a lack of awareness brought about by a lack of campaigning either, as all the parties involved would have spammed the voters mercilessly.

How bad was the weather there?

Cold and wet I think, so that may explain it somewhat.

[Ifreann]

How bad was the weather there?

Cold and wet I think, so that may explain it somewhat.

Certainly wouldn't help.

[Philjia]

Tories HOLD Old Bexley and Sidcup.
Conservatives: 51.5% (-13.1)
Labour: 30.9% (+7.4)
ReformUK: 6.6% (+6.6)
Green: 3.8% (+0.6)
Liberal Democrats: 3.0% (-5.3)
English Democrats: 1.2% (+1.2)
UKIP: 0.8% (+0.
Rejoin EU: 0.7% (+0.7)
Heritage Party: 0.5% (+0.5)
Christian People's Alliance: 0.5% (+0.0)
Monster Raving Loony Party: 0.4% (+0.4)

Old Bexley and Sidcup was a safe Tory seat going in, so this was always likely, and Boris should thank his lucky stars and his campaign team that they've still scraped over 50% vote share, although the low turnout's not exactly a ringing endorsement. Next up, North Shropshire on the 16th.

[The Nihilistic view]

Good to see the rejoin EU party doing well.

[Forsher]

Good to see the rejoin EU party doing well.

Wouldn't the UK be forced to accept the Euro if it rejoined?

[Dumb Ideologies]

Good to see the rejoin EU party doing well.

Wouldn't the UK be forced to accept the Euro if it rejoined?

I'm sure there are detailed plans for a future rejoin. I'm more worried about the bit where every English household is allocated a very smug live-in Frenchman to drown out any conversation with "wah-wah-wah" sad trombone.