General Election Pre-Thread (1 of 6)

[The Fun Factory]

Blimey even John Redwood has had enough and is going back to planet Vulcan rather than standing again. Suprised IDS still wants to carry on when he will almost certainly lose.

[desensitized43]

7 minutes ago, The Fun Factory said:

Blimey even John Redwood has had enough and is going back to planet Vulcan rather than standing again. Suprised IDS still wants to carry on when he will almost certainly lose.

He can't be Vulcan. Every position he's ever taken on anything is totally illogical.

[bickster]

15 minutes ago, The Fun Factory said:

Suprised IDS still wants to carry on when he will almost certainly lose

There's time for him to quit yet but it will take an active braincell to make the decision

[The Fun Factory]

9 minutes ago, desensitized43 said:

He can't be Vulcan. Every position he's ever taken on anything is totally illogical.

Bravo sir, very good. 

[mjmooney]

1 hour ago, The Fun Factory said:

Suprised IDS still wants to carry on when he will almost certainly lose.

Oh, that'll be worth staying up late for. 

 

[one_ian_taylor]

5 hours ago, bickster said:

 

I certainly hope it can be...

[sheepyvillian]

There really is something of the "Tony Blair" about Starmer. Lets hope he's not as mendacious. 

[Davkaus]

4 minutes ago, sheepyvillian said:

Lets hope he's not as mendacious. 

Early signs are not good.

I think we're now so cynical of foreign intervention that we're at least safe from another jolly off to the middle east, but I doubt he'll do half as much good domestically as Blair did. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm thoroughly underwhelmed by what he's offering.

[markavfc40]

The Tories now have over a 150 seats with no candidate and that number is expected to rise quite significantly over the weekend. It is unreal just how unprepared they are given they've called the election.

[sheepyvillian]

Just now, Davkaus said:

Early signs are not good.

I think we're now so cynical of foreign intervention that we're at least safe from another jolly off to the middle east, but I doubt he'll do half as much good domestically as Blair did. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm thoroughly underwhelmed by what he's offering.

Whatever "Good" Blair did, and it was good at the time, will forever be tainted by the despicable way he and Campbell misled the Country into the debacle that was the invasion of Iraq. 

[Chindie]

You're banking on the Labour Party being less obviously corrupt for a bit and arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic slightly differently. Otherwise, same thing.

[ml1dch]

47 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

The Tories now have over a 150 seats with no candidate and that number is expected to rise quite significantly over the weekend. It is unreal just how unprepared they are given they've called the election.

It's spectacular. Looks like he told virtually nobody, including all the people whose job it is to organise a General Election campaign. Meanwhile his opponents have been ready to go for months. 

He seems to have barred anyone from the wrong side of the party from standing, and the deadline for candidates is two weeks today.

Tick tock. 

Edited May 24 by ml1dch

[sharkyvilla]

It's a shame the words removed are able to weasel out of defending their seats and get humiliated by their constituents.  They should ban MPs from standing down in the year of an expected election.

[Davkaus]

3 minutes ago, sharkyvilla said:

It's a shame the words removed are able to weasel out of defending their seats and get humiliated by their constituents.  They should ban MPs from standing down in the year of an expected election.

Some of them are still predicted to win their seats, including, I think, Gove. You want to force them to work for longer, and have an opposition made up of people who don't want to be there? And of course if you can't leave in an election year, you leave the year after, so end up having a GE and then a hundred by-elections the year after because it's the only way they can leave the job  

The humiliation might be satisfying, but it's not exactly a productive idea

[DCJonah]

Scum might be harsh for some. But if you're voting for these now there's no excuse about you didn't know what you were voting for. 

And if after these 14 years and especially the last few, you're saying yes please more of this, then I'd question the type of person you are. 

 

[Davkaus]

I only just saw that one of his photo ops was at the Titanic shipyard. In Northern Ireland. where they only field a handful of candidates, and tend to get less than 1% of the vote

Then he pops over to a bricklayers for a photo op and helps build a red wall.

Are they trying to be terrible at politics?

 

[bickster]

37 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

I only just saw that one of his photo ops was at the Titanic shipyard. In Northern Ireland. where they only field a handful of candidates, and tend to get less than 1% of the vote

Then he pops over to a bricklayers for a photo op and helps build a red wall.

Are they trying to be terrible at politics?

 

I doubt Armando could have written it

You forgot the photograph with journos on his plane with not one but two Exit signs above his head.

I don’t think you could actually be this bad on purpose

[chrisp65]

I think this is what the ‘pause’ is for.

He is probably trying to find out what other stuff was planted in his schedule. The trip to Knobbs End, the kickabout with a refugee football team, a photo op at a sewage works.

[mjmooney]

1 hour ago, Davkaus said:

Are they trying to be terrible at politics?

If they are, they incredibly successful.

[icouldtelltheworld]

14 hours ago, sheepyvillian said:

Whatever "Good" Blair did, and it was good at the time, will forever be tainted by the despicable way he and Campbell misled the Country into the debacle that was the invasion of Iraq. 

It's an interesting thought experiment wondering how Blair would be viewed in hindsight had Iraq not happened. I suspect he'd have otherwise been a fairly popular ex-PM, but Iraq (rightly IMO) has tainted any positive legacy that he might have had