Who Will You Vote For?

[Saga Lout]

There's a lot of venom directed at Nigel Farage. Remember, he's the one who's mostly responsible for getting us out of the toxic EU. And the Tories, especially Call Me Dave, who fucked it up.

[Taipan]

The part where Farage said he'd changed his mind and it wasn't a sign of weakness but of strength was pure comedy gold. Nothing to do with Trump being found guilty on all counts in the US, oh no, sirree. Perish the thought.

I'm sure lots of people have recorded that clip for posterity.

Farage is the Director of Reform Uk and its largest shareholder. Its a business opportunity as much as anything else.

[mangocrazy]

There's a lot of venom directed at Nigel Farage.

More laughter than venom, I'd say.

[MyLittleStudPony]

There's a lot of venom directed at Nigel Farage.

More laughter than venom, I'd say.

Tears of the remoaners.

Tears of laughter it turned out.

[Taipan]

There's a lot of venom directed at Nigel Farage. Remember, he's the one who's mostly responsible for getting us out of the toxic EU. And the Tories, especially Call Me Dave, who fucked it up.

That's the trouble with discussing politics today. The far left have hijacked it into something of bitter resentment and anger rather than the difference of opinion it used to be.

[Count Steer]

There's a lot of venom directed at Nigel Farage. Remember, he's the one who's mostly responsible for getting us out of the toxic EU. And the Tories, especially Call Me Dave, who fucked it up.

That's the trouble with discussing politics today. The far left have hijacked it into something of bitter resentment and anger rather than the difference of opinion it used to be.

That's quite funny. Complaining about the 'far left' hijacking politics...when discussing Nigel Farage.

[Yambo]

I think Reform UK may be just what the UK needs.

There are of course, two sides to the coin; Farage is a somewhat odious individual but can almost certainly generate enough support to affect both the Tories and Labour and . . . Is there any Reform UK candidate that isn't the same as all the other current politicians running around? Is farage the only 'name'?

I don't know how many seats Reform UK are conresting but I hope it's enough to make Sunak and Starmer shit themselves. Their only hope is a bit of loyalty from the few and I suspect there's not much of that. A low turnout (almost certain) and Farage could change the face of British politics for a decade.

[Cousin Jack]

Precisely. Farage is a blimey toad, but the existing political system needs a major shake up. It is heading for the same sort of shit show that the USA has.

[Count Steer]

Precisely. Farage is a blimey toad, but the existing political system needs a major shake up. It is heading for the same sort of shit show that the USA has.

Yebbut....Farage wants to be the Trump of British politics. The Conservatives have torn themselves apart trying to limit the drift towards his 'populist' right. They even threw out the likes of Ken Clarke, Philip Hammond and Oliver Letwin etc ).

(Similar in many ways to how the left tore Labour apart with the likes of Foot/Miliband/Corbyn...now people are claiming they're undemocratic because they're trying to repair the damage ).

[Taipan]

I think Tory voters are are turning to Labour, as a guy on tv just put it, because they cant be worse than Labour, rather than it being a ringing endorsement of Labour and its policies. I think Reform UK, with Farage at the helm, will steal a lot of that vote now though.

[Slenver]

I think Tory voters are are turning to Labour, as a guy on tv just put it, because they cant be worse than Labour, rather than it being a ringing endorsement of Labour and its policies. I think Reform UK, with Farage at the helm, will steal a lot of that vote now though.

Hopefully it won't make too much difference. Traditional Labour supporters will stay with Labour, many traditional Lib Dems will give up and move to Labour, a huge number of Conservatives will have finally had enough and will move to Labour, and a smaller minority of the further right in the Cons will move to Reform.

Almost a given that it'll be a major Labour landslide and routing of the Cons, with Reform picking up a bit of support.

[Count Steer]

The big question (for me anyway) is what will the Conservatives do after? Rebuild as a credible party (like they have in Canada after a near wipe-out) or bolt something back together that looks like a badly pixellated image of the bastard offspring of Farage/Geert Wilders/Le Pen etc?

I'm hoping they get back to being conservative rather than a 'what would you like us to say in order to get your vote? - OK that's now policy' party.

[gremlin]

Traditional Labour supporters will stay with Labour,

I'm not so sure. What he did for for the Brexit vote was to take the traditional vertical split of Labour/Tory and slice those two halves horizontally. That was the shocker for both parties: that it wasn't binary anymore. Mind you, it shouldn't have been. If you ignore an elephant in a room ('Racist woman' + 'Swivel-eyed loons' = 'I see no ships') don't be surprised if you tread in a huge pile of elephant shit.

[Rockburner]

a 'what would you like us to say in order to get your vote? - OK that's now policy' party.

Isn't that what all the parties are now?? How else are they going to get any influence at all from the public?

(not that it makes any difference - they do what the f*ck they want once in, public opinion is just for laughing at at that point.).

[Mussels]

Traditional Labour supporters will stay with Labour,

I'm not so sure. What he did for for the Brexit vote was to take the traditional vertical split of Labour/Tory and slice those two halves horizontally. That was the shocker for both parties: that it wasn't binary anymore. Mind you, it shouldn't have been. If you ignore an elephant in a room ('Racist woman' + 'Swivel-eyed loons' = 'I see no ships') don't be surprised if you tread in a huge pile of elephant shit.

I was of a mind that Labour wouldn't be any worse but that elephant has shown Starmer isn't in control, for all of his military showboating in the last few days they are still a party waving white poppies.

[Rockburner]

There's a lot of venom directed at Nigel Farage. Remember, he's the one who's mostly responsible for getting us out of the toxic EU. And the Tories, especially Call Me Dave, who fucked it up.

That's the trouble with discussing politics today. The far left have hijacked it into something of bitter resentment and anger rather than the difference of opinion it used to be.

I think you'll find that the extremists at both ends of the spectrum have realised that by shouting as loud as they can about anything even vaguely controversial gets them media air-time, and thus a perceived impression of influence.

The problem with that is that eventually ALL the public sees is extreme views and shouty opinions and starts to think that that's all politics is.

Politics then becomes about nothing but shouty opinions and extreme views. The sensible middle-ground, which is actually what we all want, doesn't get air-time so is ignored and forgotten about.

And you get the clusterf*ck we have now.

Which is not to say that it can't get worse... because it's going to.

[Count Steer]

a 'what would you like us to say in order to get your vote? - OK that's now policy' party.

Isn't that what all the parties are now?? How else are they going to get any influence at all from the public?

(not that it makes any difference - they do what the f*ck they want once in, public opinion is just for laughing at at that point.).

That's the 'post-political' age*. Once Rupert Murdoch realised you could reach a lot of voters by putting tits on page 3, then tell them how to vote things changed.

Once upon a time parties and their candidates said 'Vote for us because this is what we believe in'. Now it's 'What would you like us to tell you we believe in in order to get your vote?'.

* It's a thing apparently. Started around the collapse/fragmentation of the USSR.

[Mussels]

Some Russian journalists are now admitting they rigged the first Russian elections to keep the communists out, they are apologetic now as that opened the doors for Putin to corrupt it some more.

[demographic]

Looks to me that both the left and right do more or less the same thing after they lose power.
The left says they weren't left enough and the right says they weren't right enojgh, they believe the crazies and march off doublequick into the fucking wilderness, totally forgetting that most of the votes are in the centreground.

Currently the Tories are on the starting blocks to lurch even further right with Bad Enoch, Patel and co just being twats to get beadlines and attract the weird old uncle votes.
Most people don't really want to even think about government, they just want things to work.
When parties realise people want them to work like a fridge and quietly keep things right they'll be fine.

[gremlin]

attract the weird old uncle votes.

Do old, weird uncles not deserve a vote?

One thing that does irk me is the derogatory term 'populist vote'. Imagine! The party actually putting things in it's manifesto that people want!