Not The Politics Thread.

[yorkie1999]

1 hour ago, st albans fox said:

So the chap asked to investigate the Xmas 2020 govt parties had had to step down because he hosted a ‘get together’ last chrimbo …..

 

sometimes I think real life is more ridiculous than yes prime minister …. 

The new person in charge of the investigation, Miss Gray, who also works in the same department, is totally unaware of any party after being completly shit-faced from snorting a few lines from Mr cases butt cheeks.

Edited 17 December 2021 by yorkie1999

[weller54]

1 hour ago, BenTheFox said:

It doesn't really matter whichever way you vote come election time, Boris Johnson is not fit for high office and it frankly embarrassing that he is representing our country in front of the rest of the world. Preferably I wouldn't want a Conservative government, but I would feel far less embarrassed having Rishi Sunak as our prime minister than Boris Johnson. 

 

[Guest Chocolate Teapot]

3 hours ago, StanSP said:

What's the golden rule? 

The number one rule is protect your tool.

 

Maybe he means that.

[Strokes]

1 hour ago, SexyGammonFox said:

With many middle class Tory seats suddenly looking vulnerable to the Lib Dems, it'll be interesting to see what bones Davey chooses to chuck at disgruntled conservatives in the next 2 years.

Hopefully, we need a pathway creating. 
My vote is up for grabs.

[The Horse's Mouth]

1 hour ago, BenTheFox said:

It doesn't really matter whichever way you vote come election time, Boris Johnson is not fit for high office and it frankly embarrassing that he is representing our country in front of the rest of the world. Preferably I wouldn't want a Conservative government, but I would feel far less embarrassed having Rishi Sunak as our prime minister than Boris Johnson. 

Cant have that manlet in charge either 

[Carl the Llama]

"Don't report on what we're doing, report on what we're saying we do"

[weller54]

8 hours ago, danny. said:

Exactly this. Boris is the character he plays and acts very well. It's well documented he ruffles up his hair just before going on camera and puts on the bumbling act. He's actually an intelligent, and very nasty person. 

It's not even his name, but I guess Alexander Boris de Pfeffel might not resonate as much with the working classes.

Boris Penis is far more fitting 😂

[Sly]

4 hours ago, StanSP said:

What's the golden rule? 

 

[Corky]

2 hours ago, weller54 said:

 

Passionate England fan Boris, 58, loves cheering on the lads at all the games, particularly the match v West Germany. "We beat them in the war and we'll beat them again!"

[SexyGammonFox]

2 hours ago, Strokes said:

Hopefully, we need a pathway creating. 
My vote is up for grabs.

Absolutely, wouldn't it be nice if we had a genuine choice between conservative, liberal and labour?

 

At the moment it feels like we have a choice between non-conservative, non-liberal and non-entity.  

 

Bring it.

[danny.]

3 minutes ago, SexyGammonFox said:

Absolutely, wouldn't it be nice if we had a genuine choice between conservative, liberal and labour?

 

At the moment it feels like we have a choice between non-conservative, non-liberal and non-entity.  

 

Bring it.

It would be nicer to have proportional representation and just vote for the party that best aligns with our values, instead of having to play games to stop the party we like the least from winning. 

[SexyGammonFox]

5 minutes ago, danny. said:

It would be nicer to have proportional representation and just vote for the party that best aligns with our values, instead of having to play games to stop the party we like the least from winning. 

PR won't help you. You'd just vote in the party of your dreams and they'd be hamstrung by the fact that they would perennially be stuck in coalition with two parties they hated.

 

The days of safe seats are coming to an end. This week and the last election prove that.

[danny.]

11 hours ago, SexyGammonFox said:

PR won't help you. You'd just vote in the party of your dreams and they'd be hamstrung by the fact that they would perennially be stuck in coalition with two parties they hated.

 

The days of safe seats are coming to an end. This week and the last election prove that.

I’d be ecstatic with PR. Almost every county in Europe uses it, and many are way ahead of the U.K. in so many aspects of society. FPTP allows domination by a party that often is voted in on a third of the votes or less. 

Edited 18 December 2021 by danny.

[David Hankey]

PR is the fairest way in terms of what we see as the minor parties receiving a fairer share of seats. The last GE proved that.

 

Tories = 43.6% of the vote, 365 seats

 

Labour = 32.2% of the vote, 203 seats

 

Lib-Dems = 11.5% of the vote, 11 seats

[Sampson]

11 hours ago, SexyGammonFox said:

PR won't help you. You'd just vote in the party of your dreams and they'd be hamstrung by the fact that they would perennially be stuck in coalition with two parties they hated.

 

The days of safe seats are coming to an end. This week and the last election prove that.

The UK and US are the only western countries who have this bizarre attitude towards PR and/or AV and still think FPTP is still clinging onto. Loads of the non-Western countries, even ones we used to refer to as "banana republics" have realised FPTP is authoritarian, gerrymandering, barely democratic nonsense.

 

FPTP is objectively the most undemocratic, unrepresentative voting system which is used throughout the world - and the one we use with lots of local elections is even more unrepresentative than the US system,. Anyone still poopooing anyone who wants change is either and authoritarian loony or just doesn't want "their" team to lose.

 

The whole point of PR is it allows you to change policy even if you vote for the smaller party in a coalition they get more say in bringing things to parliament. Its successful in loads of countries in Western Europe.

Edited 18 December 2021 by Sampson

[Sampson]

17 minutes ago, David Hankey said:

PR is the fairest way in terms of what we see as the minor parties receiving a fairer share of seats. The last GE proved that.

 

Tories = 43.6% of the vote, 365 seats

 

Labour = 32.2% of the vote, 203 seats

 

Lib-Dems = 11.5% of the vote, 11 seats

It's way worse at local level than national level even.

This is Belfast South in the 2015 election for example - less than 25% of the votes = 100% of the power and 100% of the votes in terms of forming a government.



FPTP is literally a 17th century voting system that was solely designed because it took people a long time to get to London on horseback so people would choose one person to send to make the long journey every year. It is so unfit for purpose in the 21st. I genuinely can't fathom how people still support it and don't support a change of the voting system., unless their lifelong Tory/Labour supporters who have an authoritarian tendency and only want to see their "team" permanently in power

CGP Grey did a good video on it back on the 2015 election.

 

Edited 18 December 2021 by Sampson

[danny.]

This from about 23 minutes on highlights what an utter joke our “democracy “ is

 

 

[Carl the Llama]

Yeah if you back fptp it's hard not to assume you also think schoolboys shouldn't wear long trousers and women shouldn't wear trousers at all.

[Strokes]

18 minutes ago, Carl the Llama said:

women shouldn't wear trousers at all.

And no tops either 

[FoxesDeb]

22 minutes ago, Carl the Llama said:

Yeah if you back fptp it's hard not to assume you also think schoolboys shouldn't wear long trousers and women shouldn't wear trousers at all.

Real women don't 

[FoxesDeb]

I have a question based on my move. As far as I can see I'm still entitled to a vote in the UK, but which constituency candidate would I be voting for? Does anyone know how it works? 

 

Fwiw I probably won't be using it unless there are any burning issues affecting my daughter in the UK who is not yet of voting age, but I am just curious. 

[Voll Blau]

47 minutes ago, FoxesDeb said:

I have a question based on my move. As far as I can see I'm still entitled to a vote in the UK, but which constituency candidate would I be voting for? Does anyone know how it works? 

 

Fwiw I probably won't be using it unless there are any burning issues affecting my daughter in the UK who is not yet of voting age, but I am just curious. 

I think it's the last placed you lived?

[FoxesDeb]

4 minutes ago, Voll Blau said:

I think it's the last placed you lived?

Thanks, I did wonder if that's what it would be. It still seems a bit weird to have a vote for somewhere you don't live anymore! 

[Voll Blau]

1 minute ago, FoxesDeb said:

Thanks, I did wonder if that's what it would be. It still seems a bit weird to have a vote for somewhere you don't live anymore! 

I think it would be different if, as discussed on here, we had a PR system. UK Governments do after all make decisions that affect British citizens abroad (the most obvious example bein the thing we're apparently not meant to discuss anymore).

 

But it is very weird that someone who's lived on the other side of the world for up to 15 years (I think that's the limit?) could hold sway in a key marginal seat that they feel no connection to under our current system.

[Sampson]

33 minutes ago, FoxesDeb said:

Thanks, I did wonder if that's what it would be. It still seems a bit weird to have a vote for somewhere you don't live anymore! 

Yeah it's just the last place you were registered as living before you moved abroad. I agree it's weird you vote for that constituency but that's just our weird voting system. It also kind of means the "roughly equal population numbers" in contuencies doesn't really work as I imagine there's a lot more people from London who live abroad than from the rural Highlands. Ideally non-UK resident voters would have their own number of seats, but our voting system was designed about 400 years ago and hasn't been updated for the modern world.

 

You're still a British citizen though and threfore the UK government still makes plenty of decisions which directly affect you. Lots of people who move abroad come back later in life as well. Lots of UK citizens also still own property or still pay student loans in the UK too, so denying those votes would be taxation without representation.

 

I would think it's weird if we didn't give British citizens living abroad the vote.

 

Though I do think it's weird that we only give long-term residents with citizenship from commonwealth countries the vote and not long-term residents from non-Commenwealth countries. Seems weird to me in 2021 that long-term residents from Zambia or Cyprus can vote while long-term residents from France or the US can't. Especially when to apply for naturalised citizenship costs something like £2,000, so you can't really say "you should just get citizenship then if you want to vote".

 

(That doesn't include Ireland btw as any Irish citizen living in the UK can vote regardless of how long they lived here and vice versa).

Edited 18 December 2021 by Sampson