Westminster General Election 2024

[Sportacus]

The British public will get bored of Starmer and Reeves very quickly, because they are very boring.

[Saffrongael]

The British public will get bored of Starmer and Reeves very quickly, because they are very boring.

They don't need to be interesting, just competent - and I think they are

[Brendan]

Hopefully my local MP Fleggory Campbell won't be making a bid for reelection, surely served his time by now and has gotten alot quieter over the last few years

[Tony Baloney]

Hopefully my local MP Fleggory Campbell won't be making a bid for reelection, surely served his time by now and has gotten alot quieter over the last few years

Handy money is hard to turn down.

[maddog]

Never understood why folk look for some sort of celebrity type figure to run a country. As far as i'm concerned you want someone that is competent and just gets on with the job. The less controversial the better. In short do the job you were elected to do. Hated Major at the time but when i look back he was in different league to what came after him in his own party.

[marty34]

I'd say he'll still stand. Another few years on the gravy train.

The timing is interesting for the DUP.

There'll be some protests with Jamie and Jim at the band parades up until the election.  It'll be all against the DUP sell-out and sea border.

Is Campell's seat a safe one for him? It could be an interesting election. A good few postal votes with people on holidays also.

[theskull1]

Can see a few more independents getting in in Ingerland as both Labour and Tory are solidly pro zionist parties now. Hopefully that's a red line for many.

Sad reality is there are no major parties that I can see that are in good faith really operating in the prime interests of the electorate.
I'd take a benevolent dictator at this stage ahead of the sham democracies being served up in the west now.

[imtommygunn]

Never understood why folk look for some sort of celebrity type figure to run a country. As far as i'm concerned you want someone that is competent and just gets on with the job. The less controversial the better. In short do the job you were elected to do. Hated Major at the time but when i look back he was in different league to what came after him in his own party.

He's not coming out of those blood scandal enquiries too well either.

England a complete basket case but then are we any different here.

[Brendan]

I'd say he'll still stand. Another few years on the gravy train.

The timing is interesting for the DUP.

There'll be some protests with Jamie and Jim at the band parades up until the election.  It'll be all against the DUP sell-out and sea border.

Is Campell's seat a safe one for him? It could be an interesting election. A good few postal votes with people on holidays also.

Going by Stormont elections the Shinners are getting closer but the last Westminster was a disaster for them even the stoops overtook their candidate, a bit like Upper Bann, a perfect storm could see them cause an upset

[Snapchap]

Well whatever happens, we know that the next British PM will be a Tory.

[Rufus T Firefly]

Sad thing is, we'll be swapping one shower of odious bastards for another shower of odious bastards. I wouldn't trust Starmer as far ad I could throw the cnut.

Agree with the sentiment.

My fervent hope is that Starmer has been coy in terms of his true intentions with issues such as Brexit, and that once in government, he will look to effectively ditch Brexit, address the desperate situation that the NHS (along with a range of social care services) finds itself in and renationalise things like water and transport.

My fear though is that he will simply be a Tory of a different colour, which will leave a very bleak outlook for us all, that only some sort of longer term seismic shift in politics will address. 

[bennydorano]

Never understood why folk look for some sort of celebrity type figure to run a country. As far as i'm concerned you want someone that is competent and just gets on with the job. The less controversial the better. In short do the job you were elected to do. Hated Major at the time but when i look back he was in different league to what came after him in his own party.

He's not coming out of those blood scandal enquiries too well either.

England a complete basket case but then are we any different here.

You'll be hearing a lot about Education from the Tories during the campaign, there's been recognised improvements in educational standards in England & Wales in recent years, Scotland has regressed, NI stalled or regressed.

[Pub Bore]

My understanding is that Swann, Long and any other minister running will have to step down once Westminster is dissolved (next Friday).  Not doing much for stability in NI.  SF had already announced that no Stormont Minister will run for Westminster, so that's Archibald and O'Dowd (and prob Gildernew) not running in constituencies where they have a high profile.

[armaghniac]

Sad thing is, we'll be swapping one shower of odious bastards for another shower of odious bastards. I wouldn't trust Starmer as far ad I could throw the cnut.

Agree with the sentiment.

My fervent hope is that Starmer has been coy in terms of his true intentions with issues such as Brexit, and that once in government, he will look to effectively ditch Brexit, address the desperate situation that the NHS (along with a range of social care services) finds itself in and renationalise things like water and transport.

My fear though is that he will simply be a Tory of a different colour, which will leave a very bleak outlook for us all, that only some sort of longer term seismic shift in politics will address. 

You or I might wish Starmer do you these things. But he believe that people in England do not want this, otherwise he would propose them, and a politician that runs on one manifesto intending to do something else is no help.
However, without having seen the Labour proposals I expect that they will say something about practical cooperation with the EU and this will reduce the damage from Brexit. History shows that the NHS does better under Labour, the problem now is that there is not a lot of money in the bank. Some of the improvement will have to come from better management rather than just more money; the best hospitals, trusts etc perform much better than the worst ones.

My understanding is that Swann, Long and any other minister running will have to step down once Westminster is dissolved (next Friday).  Not doing much for stability in NI.  SF had already announced that no Stormont Minister will run for Westminster, so that's Archibald and O'Dowd (and prob Gildernew) not running in constituencies where they have a high profile.

However, Gildernew is running for the European parliament in the Midlands North West constituency, so not quite committed to Stormont alone.

[Snapchap]

a politician that runs on one manifesto intending to do something else is no help.

Well let's examine some of the pledges that Starmer made during his Labour Party leadership contest.

Back then, he pledged to nationalise Water, energy, rail and mail. By 2022, it was announced that Labour, under his leadership, would not nationalise water, energy or rail.

He had a list of other pledges on his website at the time, which included pledges on eg tuition fee abolition. Once he won the leadership, he rowed back on each of the pledges and the info was removed from his website.

Another of his pledges was to "bring back" free movement of people and to defend migrant's rights. By November 2022, he announced his intention to end 'immigration dependency', a stance so right wing that he won the priase of Nigel Farage (he also complained that there are too many foreigners working in the NHS).

He pledged that he would "work shoulder to shoulder with trade unions to stand up for working people". Since taking the party leadership, he banned Labour frontbenchers from attending picket lines and even sacked one of his MPs for standing alongside striking RMT workers.

He pledged to tackle climate change with a £28bn spend. Then he got his bum in the seat and slashed that committment to £4.7bn.

He also pledged to end factionalism in the party and end attacks from within on Jeremy Corbyn, and I don't think I need to say more on how well he stuck to that one.