Kemi Badenoch doesn’t really need to speak in public more than once a month and she’ll do ok. In that respect, keeping her head down is proving very effective.

Sniping from the sidelines and criticising everyone clearly has merit. 🙃

2 hours ago, deeane Koontz said:

Aye, Starmer ought to have done it but one of the first things that needs to be done by the new leader is to come down like a ton of bricks on these social media companies for what they've been allowing on their platforms.

Agreed. Like the incorrect spelling of 'onslaught' for example.

2 hours ago, kent_white said:

He might be a slightly better communicator and have that newness bias. But he's an ever so slightly more left wing version of KS - not a real change of direction if that's what people are expecting. He's not a socialist by any means.

Despite the protestations to the contrary we might hear. We've still never had a socialist government in the UK.

Just now, bolty58 said:

Which bit are you laughing at?

Just now, kent_white said:

Which bit are you laughing at?

You know.

Just now, bolty58 said:

You know.

I don't. That's why I'm asking.

4 minutes ago, kent_white said:

I don't. That's why I'm asking.

Aye reet. If you'd have said never in your own lifetime I may have had to give it some thought before the comedy value hit home.

Who’s going to tell Bolty that Labour are still the government? I think the poor old bugger is under the impression they’ve all been ousted.

I hope he doesn’t hit his nurse when he finds out, she has a tough enough job as it is.

I think your claim that we’ve never had a Socialist government. Wilson and Callaghan? Depends on your definition of Socialist. I’ve never met one who can agree with another what it actually means.

Edit. Sorry, was replying to Kent.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by BobyBrno

I haven’t seen anything about Carol Vorderman yet.😉

1 hour ago, bolty58 said:

Aye reet. If you'd have said never in your own lifetime I may have had to give it some thought before the comedy value hit home.

You think we've had a socialist government in the UK?

Who and when?

Encouraging to see that there’s no eejits on here calling for a GE.

28 minutes ago, BobyBrno said:

I think your claim that we’ve never had a Socialist government. Wilson and Callaghan? Depends on your definition of Socialist. I’ve never met one who can agree with another what it actually means.

Edit. Sorry, was replying to Kent.

The closest we've ever got to one was Clement Attlee. And even he was fundamentally capitalist.

Harold Wilson was centre left as was Wilson/Callaghan.

We've had debates about the levels of state intervention - but never about whether we should or shouldn't have a capitalist model.

I'd go further actually and say that there's never been a socialist government in a western democracy. The closest we've had is the Scandinavian model (which is incidentally closest to what I'd advocate for). But even Sweden, Norway and Denmark they are still capitalist economies - just capitalist economies with a stronger role for state provision.

Sky and BBC News have had a helicopter following Burnham's train to Euston as if he's OJ Simpson

Rolling news channels need sacking off

13 minutes ago, mickbrown said:

Encouraging to see that there’s no eejits on here calling for a GE.

I'd be quite partial to be honest! 😁

There’s always a tweet

8 minutes ago, kent_white said:

The closest we've ever got to one was Clement Attlee. And even he was fundamentally capitalist.

Harold Wilson was centre left as was Wilson/Callaghan.

We've had debates about the levels of state intervention - but never about whether we should or shouldn't have a capitalist model.

I'd go further actually and say that there's never been a socialist government in a western democracy. The closest we've had is the Scandinavian model (which is incidentally closest to what I'd advocate for). But even Sweden, Norway and Denmark they are still capitalist economies - just capitalist economies with a stronger role for state provision.

Not sure what you mean by Socialist then. Both Wilson and Callaghan were elected on Socialist agendas. Maybe you are further left on the horseshoe spectrum than most of the people I know.

We probably should have a general election when the PM changes if the new PM is unwillling to abide by the manifesto of the previous one (and it seems unlikely Burnham intends to)

But constitutionally it's not required and it hasn't happened the last few times so there can be no complaints from other parties

I also think that privately Reform and the Tories don't currently want one

26 minutes ago, BobyBrno said:

Not sure what you mean by Socialist then. Both Wilson and Callaghan were elected on Socialist agendas. Maybe you are further left on the horseshoe spectrum than most of the people I know.

His real name is Karl Marx

Innit.

5 minutes ago, Lt. Aldo Raine said:

We probably should have a general election when the PM changes if the new PM is unwillling to abide by the manifesto of the previous one (and it seems unlikely Burnham intends to)

But constitutionally it's not required and it hasn't happened the last few times so there can be no complaints from other parties

I also think that privately Reform and the Tories don't currently want one

We are a Parliamentary democracy so talk of calling for a GE is silly as it was when Labour was in opposition but it's what some MP's always say.

33 minutes ago, BobyBrno said:

Not sure what you mean by Socialist then. Both Wilson and Callaghan were elected on Socialist agendas. Maybe you are further left on the horseshoe spectrum than most of the people I know.

There might have been socialist rhetoric in campaigning - but in practice they were social democrats. They both worked firmly within a capitalist system and didn't seek to change that system. Other than to nudge it in a more state controlled way.

Incidentally I'm nowhere near as far to the left as some people might assume. I'm a pragmatist if anything. There's some elements of socialism that appeal to me. But whether or not they could be implemented without some level of authoritarianism is up for debate. Which is probably why socialism has never REALLY been tried by a UK government.

10 minutes ago, Winchester White said:

We are a Parliamentary democracy so talk of calling for a GE is silly as it was when Labour was in opposition but it's what some MP's always say.

My point really is that given the fairly wide array of political philosophies in both the main parties, there's always the potential for a new PM to stray quite far from the manifesto the government was elected on and that leaves a bit of a democracy deficit

A failing of the parliamentary democracy sytsem

It is what it is