#plaid brexit

[starmergeddon]

To someone who doesn't live in the UK and has only a very basic understanding of the different parties involved, pray could you provide a very brief rub-down of the election situation? Also a side question, where exactly did Rishi Sunak and the Tories in general fuck up? I've been getting a lot of British politics posts on my dash and I was curious. You seem like a reliable fellow to ask :)

Btw you really don't have to answer this ask if you don't want to or if it's too much work. In that case, could you point me in the right direction for some online resources I can refer to? Thank ye very much, cheers!

for context, I recieved this ask the day after the election, and somehow managed to miss it for 3 weeks. oops.

if you don't know how British elections work, here are three youtube videos from Jay Foreman which I recommend: how elections work, how elections don't work, and the bit that isn't elected at all

very long post under the cut...

the british political parties

like the US, the UK is a two-party state. unlike the US, the UK has more than two relevant political parties. here they are, in order of seats won this year:

Labour Party (411 (63.2%) seats, with 33.7% of votes)

won this year's General Election.

led by kid starver, queer harmer Keir Starmer, namesake of this blog.

was the Big Left-Wing Party. has recently become the Big Party which Doesn't Stand for Anything, Really, Except for Winning Elections and Hurting Transgender People, due to Starmer's leadership.

oddly patriotic. wants to establish "Great British Railways" and "Great British Energy". Nobody really knows yet what they mean by this.

former leader Ed Miliband is the man in my pfp, pictured failing to eat a bacon sandwich. Some speculate that this photo was the reason he lost the election in 2015.

Conservative "Tory" Party (121 (18.6%) seats, with 23.7% of votes)

tonight's Big Loser.

led by fishy, dishy Rishi Sunak, but not for long, because they're electing a new leader on Halloween.

was the Big Right-Wing Party. is still the Big Right-Wing Party, but is now also an Embarrassment.

they were in power for 14 years until this election.

Directly responsible for this country's decline over the past... 14 years.

their colour is more of a dark blue, but Tumblr doesn't let me do that.

Liberal Democrat Party (72 (11.1%) seats, with 12.2% of votes)

returned to its rightful place as the Third Party.

led by Sir Ed Davey, who spent the election campaign bungee jumping, playing Jenga, and paddleboarding.

is the Centrist Party that Nobody Really Cares About.

somehow is more left-wing than Labour.

Scottish National Party (SNP) (9 (1.4%) seats, with 2.5% of votes)

tonight's Medium-Sized Loser.

led by John Swinney, who was also their leader like 20 years ago.

unsurprisingly, is the Scottish Independence Party. is also more left-wing than Labour.

their colour is yellow, but Tumblr doesn't let me do that.

Reform UK Ltd. (5 (0.8)% seats, with 14.3% of votes)

Fascist Cunts.

led by Nigel Farage.

not actually a political party, for some reason.

enough said. (for now)

Green Party (4 (0.6%) seats, with 6.7% of votes)

the one I voted for.

co-led by Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsey.

the Actually Left-Wing Party. Their slogan is "real hope, real change" which sums it up.

Plaid Cymru (4 (0.6%) seats, with 0.7% of votes)

the SNP, but Welsh. (it's pronounced "Plad Cumry")

led by Rhun ap Iorweth. (pronounced "Rune app You're weth")

their colour is dark green, but Tumblr doesn't let me do that.

None of these parties run for election in Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, but not part of Great Britain. NI is an entirely different situation which I don't know about.

so what actually Happened? Now that the scene is set, I'll go through the events that transpired, from the conservative landslide in 2019 to the conservative demise in 2024.

2019

the Conservatives don't have enough MPs who want to vote for their Brexit plan, so they call a snap general election. in the UK, our elections aren't at regular intervals. ONLY the Prime Minister decides when they happen, within a 5 year limit. this is important later...!

they win a massive landslide victory, with Boris Johnson as their PM. the SNP wins 48 out of 59 seats in Scotland.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (affectionately known as Jezza) resigns, as does LibDem leader Jo Swinson.

2020

Keir Starmer takes over as Labour leader, and is immediately very boring. Labour gets more unpopular.

Jezza is kicked out of the Labour party, as are many of his supporters, on false allegations of antisemitism.

Boris finally "gets Brexit done" (this was his slogan.) The Tories get more popular. The Brexit Party changes its name to Reform UK, but they're still considered right-wing extremists

COVID happens. Everyone rallies round the flag. The Tories get more popular.

Boris gets COVID and nearly dies.

top conservative politicians hold parties in Downing Street, breaking their own lockdown rules, but shhhh! nobody knows about that yet! these keep happening until April 2021

The NHS begins to collapse a bit more than it already had, due to Conservative underfunding. The Tories get less popular.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak announces a program giving people discounts to eat out in restaurants. COVID cases spike. The Tories get less popular.

It's revealed that one of the top Tories, Dominic Cummings, broke lockdown rules by visiting family. The Tories get less popular.

End of year - Tories and Labour tied in the polls.

2021

the Queen's husband dies. She goes to his funeral, socially-distanced, alone. on the same day, more Downing Street parties are held.

not much else happens?? until December, when

people start to find out that the Tories were breaking their own rules by partying in Downing Street. Immediately, the Labour Party gains a 7% lead in the polls.

2022 - shit hits the fan

people are MAD about the lockdown parties. it's named Partygate and the police start to investigate.

Russia invades Ukraine. Boris tries to distract everyone by supporting Zelenskyy.

the police conclude their investigation. Boris Johnson becomes the first Prime Minister to have officially broken the law. as a firm punishment, he is fined.... £50. (so are Rishi Sunak, and lots of others.)

Everything gets expensive. Many people are now choosing between eating and heating their home.

Just after this happens, it's revealed that Johnson also gave promotions to a Tory who he knew had committed sexual assault. His cabinet revolts. He is forced to resign as Conservative Party leader. But because he is Prime Minister, he's the only one who can call an election, and he simply chooses not to! because he knows he'd lose!

The new Prime Minister is chosen not by the people, but by the Conservative Party members. people hate this.

Liz Truss beats Rishi Sunak in the final contest. She becomes Prime Minister.

The Queen dies.

Liz Truss crashes the economy. All hell breaks loose. The Labour Party now have a 25% lead in the polls.

The Daily Star starts a YouTube livestream - will Liz Truss leave office before this lettuce expires?

Liz Truss loses control of her MPs. She, too, is forced to resign, just 40 days after becoming PM! Because she doesn't have to call an election, she doesn't.

The lettuce won.

ONCE AGAIN it is up to the Conservative Party leadership to choose a Prime Minister... except nobody wants to be Prime Minister. Rishi Sunak becomes Prime Minister without being elected by ANYBODY

2023

not much extra happens, for a while. people are just sick and tired of the Tories

They decide it's a good idea to try and deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, because immigration is "too high".

Nicola Sturgeon gets bored of being a politician and resigns as SNP leader. Without a clear successor, the SNP destroys itself finding a new leader.

Nicola Sturgeon is also arrested on suspicion of having funnelled money out of the SNP to herself before she resigned! (she's cleared of suspicion, but the public gain a conception of the SNP being corrupt.)

Shit happens in Gaza. The Tories back Israel. Labour, having shifted massively to the right, also back Israel. People become unhappy with both of them, and still are today.

2024

A general election has to happen this year. The Tories are still 20% behind in the polls.

It's announced that the UK entered a small recession at the end of 2023.

Four asylum seekers are sent to Rwanda. They spent £700,000,000 on this.

Rishi constantly dodges questions about when the general election will be, simply saying it will come "in the second half" of the year. Most people think he means autumn.

He did not mean autumn. He calls an election for 4 July, but forgets to bring an umbrella in the process, and gets rained on.

Nigel Farage immediately takes control of Reform UK. (He's allowed to do that because it's technically a company, and as owner of said company he can do what he wants)

Reform UK surges in popularity, reaching 17% in the polls, just behind the Conservatives at 21%

Rishi leaves a D-day event halfway through to give an interview with a TV broadcaster, in which the multimillionaire claimed his childhood was hard because he didn't have Sky TV.

The Conservatives decide to cure their election woes by sending all 18-year-olds to National Service. (ie. military)

It's also revealed that many top Tories placed bets on the election being held on 4 July.

The Conservative Party loses voters to Labour on their left, and to Reform on their right.

election result analysis

where did it go wrong for the Tories? uh, everywhere.

where did it go right for Labour, though? depends who you ask...

voters decisively rejected the Conservatives, choosing either Reform, Labour, or LibDem instead.

however, they weren't enthusiastic about Labour instead. many Labour wins came about as a result of Reform splitting the right-wing vote in half.

polling suggests most people who voted Labour did so to remove the Tories from power.

Fewer people voted for Labour this year than in 2019, but they doubled their seats in Parliament. Our voting system is fucked.

The Green Party quadrupled its seat share. They have won in every seat they have targeted.

Five leftist independent MPs beat Labour in what were "safe" constituencies. One of them was Jeremy Corbyn!! What this shows is that people don't really like Labour, or that people really don't like Labour. They want something better.

The SNP is nearly wiped out in Scotland, despite getting 30% of the Scottish vote. Labour wins most seats in Scotland with 35% of the Scottish vote.

The "Party of Women" (which is literally just TERFs) got fewer votes than the Monster Raving Loony Party. Lmao.

19 people voted for Elmo in Keir Starmer's constituency.

More people voted for the Conservatives and Reform UK combined than they did for Labour. If Labour doesn't get its shit together, we could be in trouble.

what's happened since the election?

7 Labour MPs have already been kicked out of the party for voting to adopt measures to lift 1.6 million children out of poverty

pressure from Greens and independents led to Labour accepting the ICC's arrest warrant for Netanyahu and stopping some arms sales to Israel's genocide.

what happens next?

the Tories choose a new leader on Halloween. other than that? fuck knows lmao. what the 2019-2024 parliament tells us is that anything can happen. as mentioned before, we don't even know when the next election is.

where exactly did Rishi Sunak and the Tories in general fuck up?

you tell me

i also realise just now, after typing all that out, that you asked for a "very brief rub-down" of what happened............. yeah my bad

[codes-and-stuffs]

also also while researching i did see bbc published an article about which parties are saying what about gender identity and single-sex spaces and (while some of the wording in the intro is... interesting, imo) they do cover most major english parties + the snp and plaid cymru. i think it is worth a read, especially as this is a huge topic on this website for uk politics rn!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4nng2j42xro

tldr (tho i still encourage reading the article for details, explanation, and the sake of not just going off what one tumblr user is saying) below (also cw for discussion of trans rights that at times veers into blatant transphobia)

conservatives

pledge to rewrite the Equality Act in order to clarify 'sex' to mean 'biological sex'

have drafted a bill to prevent schools from teaching 'contested' material such as 'the view that gender is a spectrum', and to require schools to tell parents if a child wishes to identify as a different gender at school

labour

pledge to 'protect female-only spaces' while treating trans people with 'dignity and respect'

may also back that conservative bill about not teaching 'contested ideology' - i'd check the official wording on this one, it's a little unclear

pledge to ban conversion therapy

pledge to remove 'indignities' of applying for gender recognition certificate, however still requiring the diagnosis of gender dysphoria

lib dems

pledge to overhaul process of gender recognition so no diagnosis is required and people can self-identify

pledge to ban conversion therapy

pledge to make nonbinary identities recognised in law

pledge to make large companies report on pay gap and employment for lgbt+ people in a similar way currently done for gender

scottish national party

have already tried to enact a bill to overhaul legal gender recognition so that it is based on self identification rather than medical diagnosis (this occurred last year, you may still remember it), but was blocked by uk gov

unclear if the new mp holds the same plans, may be worth separate research on that

reform uk

(previously known as brexit party)

pledge to ban 'gender questioning', 'social transitioning' and 'pronoun swapping' in schools

pledge to scrap the Equality Act as well as any other diversity, equality and inclusion rules

farage (party leader) speaks about respecting trans rights and also 'women-only spaces', and says that trans women should not be allowed in women's sports

green

pledge to allow people to self identify for legal gender recognition

pledge to add the option of an X marker on passports for nonbinary/intersex people

plaid cymru

pledge to allow people to self identify for legal gender recognition

[obligatory disclaimer that this post does not intend to influence any individuals' votes, only give perspective on a specific issue, it's worth looking at other issues and sources, etc etc, just thought this would be interesting for my (mostly not even british) mutuals]

anyway yes if you got this far thanks for reading !! i would love to hear your thoughts on all of this!

[probablyasocialecologist]

When Labour was elected with a big majority, there was a great sense of expectation of a sea change, and that the historical debt of the Labour Party to the miners would be redressed. There would be a serious program of social and economic regeneration for the former coalfield areas, hinging on the provision of decent, well-paid manufacturing jobs, not only for the current miners but also for the future generations. Then, it became clear that Blair’s view of regeneration was to sell these areas to mobile international capital. Some of it originated from the United States, some from Southeast Asia. Blair’s policy didn’t produce enough jobs, and the jobs that it did produce bore no comparison, in terms of wages, to those that had been available in the mines. Many of these jobs were not in manufacturing, but instead in call centers — they were poorly paid, part-time, and often precarious. The new economy that Blair’s government built up was not at all what people had expected, and it did not fit with what they were led to believe was Labour’s commitment to the coalfield areas. Having hit a high point in electoral support for Blair in 1997, the Labour Party had its support progressively eroded after that, as people became more and more disillusioned with the Thatcherite policies the Labour Party had pursued and the party’s inability to effectively combat the austerity politics of the Tory coalition in 2010. The opportunity to express disillusionment came with the Brexit vote. Those who had suffered as a consequence of industrial decline and the subsequent austerity policies of the previous two or three governments could voice their opposition to the political establishment. The Conservatives were largely in favor of Brexit. Senior figures in the Labour Party wanted to stay in Europe. In a sense, staying in Europe was seen as a sort of a class project — a certain fraction of the educated, middle-class political establishment had an interest in remaining in Europe. Brexit provided an opportunity for those in the areas that had suffered as a result of the previous thirty or forty years of economic policy to say, “If you’re in favor, we’re not. We’re not necessarily against our brothers in Europe, but we’ve had enough of being treated this way, and both major political parties have ignored our legitimate demands for decades.” This trend manifested in the subsequent election results. In 2019, Boris Johnson returned with a massive majority. In the North East, sometimes for the first time ever, conservative MPs were returned in districts like Blair’s, which had been solidly Labour for as long as anybody could remember. Something similar happened in South Wales: The Labour vote declined, but the opposition vote was split between the Tories and Plaid Cymru, the nationalist party. Labour held onto the seats, but Brexit was a turning point in Labour support in these areas. People wanted something different.

[hjohn3]

The “Loveless Landslide”

Labour’s Conditional Win

Source: Automatic Knowledge

By Honest John

IT WAS a landslide all right, but was it a “loveless” one, a phrase heard almost instantly amongst predominantly right wing commentators following Labour’s huge General Election win last Thursday? On first analysis, that assessment would seem fair. With a 172 seat majority, Labour achieved one of the biggest electoral wins in U.K. history on 4th July, beaten only by the National Government’s win in 1931 and Labour’s own totemic triumph in 1997. The Conservatives tumbled to their lowest number of seats in the party’s history and the SNP was banished once again to its Highland fastnessess, a shadow of its former self, as Labour secured revenge for the humiliation of 2015. However this position of unassailable political power was achieved with less than 34% of the vote and on a less than 60% turnout. This enabled Labour’s critics on both left and right to establish an immediate de-legitimising narrative, pointing out the result bore out the lack of enthusiasm for Labour encountered on the doorstep, and claiming that Labour’s inability to even meet the 40% threshold, normally achieved as a minimum vote share by the winning party, was due either to Labour timidity in its policy offer, or deep voter antipathy to Keir Starmer and his team. But how fair is this instant, and partisan, analysis?

The result certainly demonstrated the brutality of the First Past The Post (FPTP) electoral system. This system, which has so often favoured the Conservatives, this time virtually destroyed them, thanks to the entry of Reform U.K. as a viable voting option on the right, and a carefully targeted Liberal Democrat campaign, aimed at knocking down as much of the southern “blue wall” as possible. Any democrat however should feel queasy at an outcome that saw Reform win 5 seats with four million votes and the Liberal Democrats win 72 (the highest Liberal seat haul since 1923) on 3.5m. If a party’s vote is evenly distributed in decent numbers across the U.K. constituencies, then huge majorities under FPTP are possible. Right wing commentators were noticeably silent on the drawbacks of FPTP in the 1980s when Margaret Thatcher won three figure majorities in 1983 and 1987 when the left of centre vote was split between Labour and the Social Democratic/Liberal Alliance. The democratic case for Proportional Representation is strong, but it is hard to take the new Tory converts to the cause seriously.

There are counter arguments to the “loveless” account. The truth of the matter is that two party politics, despite the long-stated contention to the contrary, has not existed for some time in the U.K. This began with the rise of the revival of the Liberals first in their Alliance incarnation with the Labour breakaway Social Democratic Party, and then after merger with the SDP, as the Liberal Democrats. The “Lib Dems” quickly became a viable voting alternative for voters on both the left and the right, and Britain has effectively had at least three-party politics for over forty years. From the 2000s onwards, the growth of nationalist sentiment in the U.K. has seen the dominance of Scottish politics by the Scottish National Party and a solid presence of the nationalist Plaid Cmyru in Wales. It has also seen the emergence of the Farage vehicles, UKIP, the Brexit Party and, most significantly in this election, Reform U.K. , indicating the lure of English nationalism to many voters. Therefore, in many constituencies, contests have been between three, four or even five, viable voting options. When Labour’s self-inflicted woes over Gaza and imposed candidates that resulted in the generation of effective independent challenges (most notably Jeremy Corbyn in Islington North), is added into the mix, the situation became even more complicated.

Therefore, in these circumstances, a vote percentage of 33.7% can actually be viewed as a good score, given the number of alternative options for voters to choose. Into this situation should be factored tactical voting. The Conservatives lost 224 seats, their most calamitous reduction in Parliamentary representation in one fell swoop in the party’s history. This spoke to a determination of voters across the country to unseat Conservative MPs. The 61 Liberal Democrat gains were achieved exclusively at the expense of the Tories, as were the seats won by Reform; Labour’s losses were solely to leftist independents or the Greens, who advised the electorate in those seats it was “safe” not to vote Labour as the Conservatives were doomed. The Liberal Democrat surge in the south which has propelled the Tories into political oblivion, was a big factor in the size of the Labour majority; paradoxically the phenomenon also suppressed Labour vote share.

The real takeaway of the 2024 General Election is not that of a grudging and conditional Labour win. Rather, the election demonstrated the determination of the voters to rid the country of the Conservatives after 14 years of dysfunction, broken promises, social vandalism and unwanted right wing ideological experiments masquerading as solutions. The anti-Tory coalition that swept the party away knew full well, whoever they voted for, that the government which would replace that of the Conservatives would be a Labour one. In the case of the Liberals, this acceptance was explicit; in the case of Reform implicit, but that does not make the outcome democratically illegitimate; on the contrary over 76% of those who voted got pretty much exactly what they wanted.

Of course 2024 is not the ringing endorsement of 1945 when the country united behind Labour in order to see the Beveridge proposals implemented; it does not match 1964 (also derided as an unenthusiastic win) when Harold Wilson secured over 44% of the vote, and it does not match the hope and expectation of 1997 (although enthusiasm for Blair has been much exaggerated in retrospect). However, I do believe most of that anti-Tory coalition will have listened to Keir Starmer’s speech outside Downing Street, not with fist-pumping excitement certainly, but perhaps with quiet hope - hope that, in the New Labour phrase, things can indeed only get better, and hope is a precious, if conditional, commodity after the waste and multiple betrayals of the Tory years.

7th July 2024

[captainarchmage]

Independence Day, UK

Declaring Independence from the Far-Right %$#@

Again I didn't want to make this blog about politics, but given events I have to. It's election day in the UK, and I had my vote in the post a long time ago. Specifically, I voted for the Liberal Democrats, because they had a decent standing in this constituency and explicitly said they're going to try to reverse Brexit. Reaction GIF below.

That doesn't mean the EU will accept, or that the deal we'll get will be the same as last time, but it's a critical move to fixing wrongs. Without rejoining at least the Single Market, Customs Union, and getting freedom of movement back we're going to be having issues with our own supply chains that won't go away. They can't go away, because we're not self-sufficient, because self-sufficiency isn't on these islands all it's cracked up to be, and because setting ourselves out as being a "global player" requires us to be able to easily trade and work with our biggest and most reliable partners, which is to say Europe.

If you're voting today, and are reading this, you should take care to understand what that *means* in terms of action as a citizen. Obviously if you live in Scotland, vote SNP, as they've taken a sensible stance on this and have always been for remain and rejoin in recent history. If you live in Wales, vote Plaid Cymru, for similar reasons. If you live in England, there's no explicit "English National Party" that is for working in a civic manner, but you have a choice between the Green Party and Liberal Democrats, and mostly the latter. Corbyn in Islington (and a few others) - I don't think Corbyn's stance on Ukraine is good, but that doesn't actually matter as he's likely not going to be a kingpin in making any of those decisions. This is about sending a message to the other reactionaries, and will cover this later.

On the matter of Ukraine... if anything DOES happen and Ukraine starts to fall back, this invasion is coming here. That's what history says. There's a lot of excuses, but the fact Russia launched a massive invasion in February of 2022 indicates they're not going to stop. The global conservative movement is behind these people, because something about "transgender anarchy in Ukraine" or "wokeness", according to the talking heads, or for that matter just genociding the Ukrainian people which is literally what's being said on Russian telly.

If Russia gets Ukraine, then they'll push westward. That's why it has to stop in Ukraine, and without Ukraine giving up any land. You know what would also help with defending Europe? An EU Army. This is why we need to rejoin, so you vote for a party that's going to put us on this path.

Note from the list of parties, I exclude from this Labour, as Labour has attempted to court the same socially conservative, anti-migrant, and prejudicial element responsible for running the Conservative Party into the ground. The Conservative Party already had issues before it swallowed the agenda of this reactionary element, but things in Britain took a steep downturn after brexit, with the disastrous handling of the pandemic, and finally the "markets" (hardly a communist creation) finally cracked when the agenda of CPAC-attending Liz Truss was launched. All this at the whim of this "reactionary element". You know, maybe it's better not to court those people AT ALL? At some point you gotta say enuf is enuf, not that it wasn't plain obvious beforehand where that agenda was going.

Trying to placate these people is... how much better than trying to placate people like Putin or The Former Guy? Seriously, people tried that. It didn't work, and none of the systems we thought would snap in to play or individuals we relied on to take action did. It didn't work "last time" either, save for the British PM to arrange re-armament of the country without relying on an alliance of countries that it turned out were quite fascist-curious as well. At least, however, Chamberlain acted in a manner that admitted this was not a long term solution and the push would come to shove. We don't seem to have that notion anymore. You know what's a good idea? Making sure they don't have "their guys" in Parliament in a significant number.

The advantage of getting rid of both Conservatives, and Reform, and knocking them into at least third place (if not fourth place), is that it also ensures these parties don't get a bullhorn in Parliament as they will not be the official opposition. That's due to Parliamentary rules. It means eliminating them from the running. Quite possibly this means the "end" of the conservative party, which is the "ultimate prize" here. It means making sure the main parties in coming decades are ones that are liberals, environmentalists, and civically-minded. Given that Labour seems to be in course for a large majority based on polling, giving your vote to other parties that are more progressive, more internationalist, understanding the coming challenges, more competent, and are also not so willing to let a vocal reactionary minority derail them, is a good idea.

And regards not letting a vocal reactionary minority derail a party, this is critical. How do you deal with these people? You don't give them an inch and you say the buck ends with you. Backing down in any sense of the word is weakness to these people. It's not going to give you any respect, and it may well not give you their vote, or actually telling these people to get stuffed may give you their vote, or you had their vote already and you didn't need to do anything about it. Ask yourself why these peoples' idols are often autocrats and the like. Don't ask me to make it make sense. Their view is more in line with "might is right" than any enlightenment ideals. You don't think like that, I don't think like that, but these people do think like that and you "act accordingly". The sooner you start pushing back, the sooner you free yourself from their %$#@.

Go Vote, and make it Independence Day from these people.

[capnsoapy]

someone asked if political party colours were backwards in the UK compared to the US and I got carried away explaining that uh

US:

UK:

it's a bit more complicated than that

this is all 14 parties in the UK which either have seats in the House of Commons, in the House of Lords, or who are currently polling at over 1% of vote share.

Across the top are the national parties; Greens, Labour, and Liberal Democrats on the left, and the Convervatives, Reform (neé Brexit), and UKIP on the right.

Along the bottom are the regional parties; Sinn Féin (Northern Ireland), Plaid Cymru (Wales), Scottish National (Scotland), Social Democratic and Labour (NI), Alliance (NI) on the left, and the Ulster Unionists (NI), Democratic Unionists (NI) and Alba (Scotland) on the right.

[emperorblargus]

Independence Day, UK: Declaring Independence from the Far-Right %$#@

So it's election day in the UK, and I had my vote in the post a long time ago. Specifically, I voted for the Liberal Democrats, because they had a decent standing in this constituency and explicitly said they're going to try to reverse Brexit. Reaction GIF below.

That doesn't mean the EU will accept, or that the deal we'll get will be the same as last time, but it's a critical move to fixing wrongs. Without rejoining at least the Single Market, Customs Union, and getting freedom of movement back we're going to be having issues with our own supply chains that won't go away. They can't go away, because we're not self-sufficient, because self-sufficiency isn't on these islands all it's cracked up to be, and because setting ourselves out as being a "global player" requires us to be able to easily trade and work with our biggest and most reliable partners, which is to say Europe.

If you're voting today, and are reading this, you should take care to understand what that *means* in terms of action as a citizen. Obviously if you live in Scotland, vote SNP, as they've taken a sensible stance on this and have always been for remain and rejoin in recent history. If you live in Wales, vote Plaid Cymru, for similar reasons. If you live in England, there's no explicit "English National Party" that is for working in a civic manner, but you have a choice between the Green Party and Liberal Democrats, and mostly the latter. Corbyn in Islington (and a few others) - I don't think Corbyn's stance on Ukraine is good, but that doesn't actually matter as he's likely not going to be a kingpin in making any of those decisions. This is about sending a message to the other reactionaries, and will cover this later.

On the matter of Ukraine... if anything DOES happen and Ukraine starts to fall back, this invasion is coming here. That's what history says. There's a lot of excuses, but the fact Russia launched a massive invasion in February of 2022 indicates they're not going to stop. The global conservative movement is behind these people, because something about "transgender anarchy in Ukraine" or "wokeness", according to the talking heads, or for that matter just genociding the Ukrainian people which is literally what's being said on Russian telly.

If Russia gets Ukraine, then they'll push westward. That's why it has to stop in Ukraine, and without Ukraine giving up any land. You know what would also help with defending Europe? An EU Army. This is why we need to rejoin, so you vote for a party that's going to put us on this path.

Note from the list of parties, I exclude from this Labour, as Labour has attempted to court the same socially conservative, anti-migrant, and prejudicial element responsible for running the Conservative Party into the ground. The Conservative Party already had issues before it swallowed the agenda of this reactionary element, but things in Britain took a steep downturn after brexit, with the disastrous handling of the pandemic, and finally the "markets" (hardly a communist creation) finally cracked when the agenda of CPAC-attending Liz Truss was launched. All this at the whim of this "reactionary element". You know, maybe it's better not to court those people AT ALL? At some point you gotta say enuf is enuf, not that it wasn't plain obvious beforehand where that agenda was going.

Trying to placate these people is... how much better than trying to placate people like Putin or The Former Guy? Seriously, people tried that. It didn't work, and none of the systems we thought would snap in to play or individuals we relied on to take action did. It didn't work "last time" either, save for the British PM to arrange re-armament of the country without relying on an alliance of countries that it turned out were quite fascist-curious as well. At least, however, Chamberlain acted in a manner that admitted this was not a long term solution and the push would come to shove. We don't seem to have that notion anymore. You know what's a good idea? Making sure they don't have "their guys" in Parliament in a significant number.

The advantage of getting rid of both Conservatives, and Reform, and knocking them into at least third place (if not fourth place), is that it also ensures these parties don't get a bullhorn in Parliament as they will not be the official opposition. That's due to Parliamentary rules. It means eliminating them from the running. Quite possibly this means the "end" of the conservative party, which is the "ultimate prize" here. It means making sure the main parties in coming decades are ones that are liberals, environmentalists, and civically-minded. Given that Labour seems to be in course for a large majority based on polling, giving your vote to other parties that are more progressive, more internationalist, understanding the coming challenges, more competent, and are also not so willing to let a vocal reactionary minority derail them, is a good idea.

And regards not letting a vocal reactionary minority derail a party, this is critical. How do you deal with these people? You don't give them an inch and you say the buck ends with you. Backing down in any sense of the word is weakness to these people. It's not going to give you any respect, and it may well not give you their vote, or actually telling these people to get stuffed may give you their vote, or you had their vote already and you didn't need to do anything about it. Ask yourself why these peoples' idols are often autocrats and the like. Don't ask me to make it make sense. Their view is more in line with "might is right" than any enlightenment ideals. You don't think like that, I don't think like that, but these people do think like that and you "act accordingly". The sooner you start pushing back, the sooner you free yourself from their %$#@.

Go Vote, and make it Independence Day from these people

[gaoteeshirt]

Love of my life Lisa Kelly ice road truckers shirt

The only people who had a moral duty to comply were the MPs of the parties that backed it (Tory, Labour, Lib Dem, Green, SNP and Plaid) and the members of those political parties. And it was voted on by 650 people, unlike Brexit, PR or Scottish Independence. Sarz Hayes xori my lady I know this is abt covid buh I need to say sumtin am too attracted to u buh I don't know how or y,this is not the first tym have seen u comment am truly and deeply falling for u and I can't help em no more and trust me beautiful am no fraud or scam is just the real me crushing for u for weeks now. 

Buy it here: Love of my life Lisa Kelly ice road truckers shirt

[mubashirnews]

Wales's message to Europe: 'We'll be back'

Three years since Brexit, the dire warnings of economic decline are coming to pass. The UK’s economy is shrinking, and Brexit job losses are biting. My party, Plaid Cymru — the party of Wales — is firmly a pro-European party. We didn’t want to allow the Conservatives to gamble with our economy in 2016, and our long-term aim continues to be for Wales to rejoin the European Union as a member state…

[news24fr]

Ja droite américaine a cette semaine mis en scène un spectacle de clowns qui a eu des libéraux dans ce pays et au-delà en train de prendre une chaise et de sortir le pop-corn. Il y a eu un plaisir karmique à regarder les républicains qui ont pris le contrôle de la Chambre des représentants lutter pour terminer la tâche la plus élémentaire – l'élection d'un président – ​​mais cela a également été instructif, et pas seulement pour les Américains. Car il a confirmé le sale petit secret de cette souche de politique populiste de droite qui se délecte de ce qu'elle appelle la perturbation : cela se termine toujours par des combats acharnés entre factions, le chaos et la paralysie. Nous, en Grande-Bretagne, devrions le savoir, car le Brexit a suivi exactement le même chemin.Commençons par le karma qui a vu les républicains de la Chambre se rassembler deux ans jour pour jour depuis qu'ils ont cherché à empêcher le transfert pacifique du pouvoir d'un parti à un autre : souvent oublié dans les souvenirs d'anniversaire du 6 janvier 2021, c'est que, quelques heures seulement après que les émeutiers aient pris d'assaut le Capitole des États-Unis, une majorité de membres de la Maison républicaine voté faire exactement ce que les émeutiers avaient exigé et annuler les résultats de l'élection présidentielle de 2020. Pourtant, il y avait ces mêmes républicains de la Chambre le 6 janvier 2023, ayant empêché le transfert en douceur du pouvoir d'un parti à un autre - sauf que cette fois, le parti qu'ils contrecarraient était le leur.La Chambre toujours sans orateur alors que McCarthy plaide les résistants républicains – en directLire la suiteCela aurait dû être simple. Les républicains ont obtenu une courte majorité à la Chambre en novembre, ce qui leur a donné le droit de placer l'un des leurs dans le fauteuil du président. Le problème était que, alors que la plupart soutenaient Kevin McCarthy, environ 20 rebelles ne le faisaient pas. Jeudi soir, ils avaient traversé 11 tours de scrutin – le la plupart depuis l'ère de la guerre civile – sans que McCarthy ou qui que ce soit d'autre ne remporte la majorité. Résultat : impasse.C'était une étude sur l'incompétence. Un parti demande à l'électorat de lui donner le pouvoir ; ils l'obtiennent puis gèlent, incapables de faire même le premier pas vers son utilisation. Il n'y a pas de logique politique claire dans l'impasse. Les rebelles sont des fidèles de Donald Trump, mais McCarthy lui-même est un sycophant infatigable de Trump – patronné par l'ancien président sous le nom de «mon Kevin» – qui a supplié et obtenu le soutien de l'orange. Les rebelles pro-Trump sont divisés entre eux : un a réprimandé Trump pour rester avec McCarthy, tandis qu'un autre voté pour faire de Trump lui-même le président.Il est révélateur que les demandes des rebelles ne portent pas sur la politique mais sur la procédure, cherchant des changements de règles ou des sièges de comité qui leur donneraient plus de pouvoir. Sinon, ils ne peuvent pas vraiment dire ce qu'ils veulent. Ils ont réussi à faire retirer les détecteurs de métaux de l'entrée de la chambre, de sorte que les gens peuvent maintenant marcher sur le sol de la Chambre avec une arme à feu, mais à part cela, et leur soif de commencer à enquêter sur les démocrates, y compris le fils de Joe Biden, Hunter, rien .Tout cela a une signification pour l'année à venir dans la politique américaine. D'une part, c'est une preuve supplémentaire de la diminution de la force de Trump parmi les dirigeants républicains, sinon encore parmi les fidèles du parti. D'autre part, si les républicains ne peuvent pas prendre une décision relativement facile comme celle-ci, comment vont-ils faire les choix difficiles mais nécessaires qui s'en viennent - comme autoriser les dépenses et la dette nécessaires au fonctionnement du gouvernement américain ?Le Premier ministre Rishi Sunak s'exprimant lors des questions au Premier ministre, mercredi 30 novembre. Photographie : Parlement britannique/Jessica Taylor/PAMais sa signification va beaucoup plus loin.

Car ce qui a été exposé cette semaine, sous une forme particulièrement florissante, est une souche politique qui a infecté de nombreuses démocraties, y compris la nôtre. Sa principale caractéristique est son plaisir à perturber, à promettre de bouleverser le système. C'était le sens des mouvements jumeaux de 2016, Trump et Brexit. Tous deux ont promis de balayer les élites, les experts, l'orthodoxie – que ce soit à Washington DC ou à Bruxelles. C'étaient de nouveaux mouvements, mais ils puisaient dans des racines profondes. Il y a quatre décennies, Ronald Reagan et Margaret Thatcher se présentaient comme des radicaux osant secouer la main morte du gouvernement.Nous ne pouvons donc guère être surpris que ceux qui s'insurgent contre le gouvernement le fassent si mal. Ils ont promis des perturbations, et c'est ce qu'ils ont livré. Aux États-Unis, c'était le chaos de Trump lui-même, et maintenant une maison de mini-Trumps qui ne peut pas attacher ses propres lacets. Au Royaume-Uni, cela semble différent : nous avons un Premier ministre en Rishi Sunak dont le discours est la compétence technocratique. Mais cela ne doit pas cacher deux choses.Premièrement, le parti conservateur post-2016 a provoqué autant d'agitation parlementaire et de division intra-parti que McCarthy et co ont servi cette semaine. Qu'il s'agisse de l'impasse des Communes des deux années précédant les élections de 2019 ou du psychodrame des trois années qui ont suivi, le conservatisme de l'ère du Brexit s'est avéré tout aussi déséquilibré que le républicanisme de l'ère Trump. Lorsqu'il s'agit de politique brûlante, l'aile la plus folle des républicains n'est que novice comparée à un maître incendiaire comme Liz Truss. Les États-Unis et le Royaume-Uni sont simplement à des points différents du cycle.Les démocrates de la Chambre devraient s'unir aux républicains modérés pour élire un président | Robert ReichLire la suiteDeuxièmement, même avec Sunak aux commandes, et bien que peint dans des couleurs moins vives, le torysme de l'ère du Brexit est tout aussi paralysé que son mouvement frère aux États-Unis. Les plan en cinq points dévoilés dans le discours du Premier ministre pour le nouvel an consistaient principalement en les bases de l'administration de l'État – la croissance de l'économie, la gestion de l'inflation – plutôt que tout ce qui équivalait à un programme politique.Et c'est principalement parce que son parti, comme les républicains, ne peut pas s'entendre entre eux. Considérez combien Sunak a dû abandonner, sous la pression de divers rebelles. Qu'il s'agisse de la réforme du système de planification, de l'engagement manifeste à construire 300 000 nouvelles maisons par an ou l'engagement éternel de saisir l'ortie de la protection sociale, Sunak a dû se retirer des tâches essentielles au bien-être du pays. Certes, il a évité les scènes farfelues qui se sont déroulées cette semaine à Capitol Hill, mais c'est uniquement parce qu'il a préféré préserver le vernis de l'unité plutôt que de forcer toute une série de problèmes. Le résultat est un Premier ministre qui ne peut pas proposer beaucoup plus que des cours de mathématiques supplémentaires, de peur de perdre la coalition agitée et agitée qui le maintient au pouvoir.Rien de tout cela n'est une coïncidence. C'est dans la nature du projet populiste de droite, en Grande-Bretagne, aux États-Unis et dans le monde entier. Le Brexit est l'exemple, une mission qui a fonctionné avec une grande puissance en tant que campagne, en tant que slogan, mais qui n'a jamais pu se traduire par gouverner, car il n'a jamais été question de gouverner. Il s'agissait de perturber la vie, de ne pas l'organiser - ou même de reconnaître les compromis nécessaires pour l'organiser. Il offrait la poésie de la destruction, pas la prose de la compétence.Les conservateurs sont plusieurs étapes plus loin sur cette voie que les républicains, peut-être parce que leur pouvoir a été ininterrompu tout du long. Mais dans les deux cas, et dans d'autres, le changement est indubitable.

Autrefois, les partis de droite se considéraient comme les gardiens évidents de l'autorité de l'État : le parti naturel du gouvernement. Maintenant, ils sont plus heureux de secouer leurs poings à ceux qu'ils insistent sont vraiment en charge. Ils deviennent le parti naturel de l'opposition. Jonathan Freedland est un chroniqueur du Guardian Avez-vous une opinion sur les questions soulevées dans cet article? Si vous souhaitez soumettre une réponse de 300 mots maximum par e-mail pour être considérée pour publication dans notre section de lettres, veuillez cliquer ici.

[news247worldpressposts]

#Breaking: "#Britain's economic prospects are worsened... that is a fact"

#Breaking: “#Britain’s economic prospects are worsened… that is a fact”

"Britain's economic prospects are worsened… that is a fact" Plaid Cymru's Liz Saville Roberts challenges Rishi Sunak on comments made in a Bloomberg interview with Kemi Badenoch, who disputed OBR forecasts about Brexit's impact on tradehttps://t.co/ohrNc0fdCc #PMQs pic.twitter.com/XlMaAzNXUf — Bloomberg UK (@BloombergUK) November 9, 2022 Source: Twitter

[byzfox13]

UK (Wales): Populist Brexit Party (EFDD) finishes first place with 32.% of the vote, with pro-independence Plaid Cymru rising to second place with 19.6%.  In its historic heartland centre-left Labour (S&D) falls to third place with 15.3%.

https://twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/1132776299439808513

[generalelectionmusings]

[welshsidekick]

Reasons Why Wales Should Get More Recognition and The Reasons it Doesn’t

We provide most of the UK (or, at least most of England)‘s water

Water they got by demanding the right to drown 3 different towns and forcing residents to move out despite protests, at least one of which wasn’t even used until relatively recently (see: Tryweryn)

We provide most of the UK (or, at least most of England)‘s electricity

We don’t get any money for either of these things because England underfunds us and so we have to sell our resources to big companies so what little money our government is given can go to other things, like trying to stop what little language and culture we have left from going extinct

YesWales is a movement for Welsh independence that has been gaining a lot of traction very quickly since it started, but is hardly taken seriously

Part of this is because most of Wales did, in fact, vote Leave and Tory

However, statistics apparently show (I haven’t double checked this though so correct me if I’m wrong) that the majority of voters in Wales who voted these were actually English people who had moved to Wales

I’m inclined to believe this because, from statistical maps, the areas that did vote these are, to my awareness, heavily anglicised, and the more heavily, traditionally Welsh areas (seen mostly around the coast and the very top and bottom of the country) voted Leave and Plaid Cymru (our equivalent of the SNP)

All of our mines (which was our and, for a long time, the UK’s primary source of income) were shut down long before they needed to be to save money, costing thousands of jobs and causing large protests

(There’s an interesting, rather heartwarming story about a crossover between this and LGBT activism if you ignore how horrible it was overall)

Our language is constantly disrespected in a way that no other language is, with it regularly being called pointless and stupid. An opinion which is completely flipped when it comes to poetry, funnily enough

Very similar history to the Native Americans (this applies to all Celts, and we get by a lot better now, obviously, since we’re white and all, but the history is quite similar otherwise)

People regularly forget that we exist and we’re constantly grouped together with England (e.g. statistics always show ‘England and Wales’ and hardly ever the two desperately) despite the fact that we’re not the same country and not the same people, with different laws and everything

Wales and the Welsh Government has been trying to get more freedom from England for years but they just keep turning us down for, as far as I’m aware, no good reason

We’re horrendously underfunded by Westminster (alongside Northern Ireland and Scotland)

You remember the original Brexit argument about all that money we were giving them that we didn’t get back? Yeah, most of that money came back to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

Further proof that England gives little to zero shits about us - getting across Wales, a very small country, takes 3-4 hours. Yet I can get a train from North Wales to London in about 1-2 hours

(Extended point being: our roads and railways are messy and shit because Westminster don’t care about us being able to get around our own country easily, they on care about people being able to get to and from London as easily as possible. I have to take a 4-6 hour trip to get between home and uni because I have to go all the way up and around rather than there being an easy, probably 2 hour straight route)

Our royal line was taken away from us in an extremely brutal and unethical way (involving the murder, kidnapping and brainwashing of children), and the only reason the first born son of the king and queen is the ‘prince of Wales’ is because we protested and said we’d never accept a Prince who’s first language wasn’t Welsh, so the current king cheated and said his son fit that description because he was a baby and couldn’t speak any language yet

Wales is the only place you can find a certain species of fish (I forget the name) that have existed, mostly unevolved since the ice age. They’re found in 2 different lakes where fishing is now illegal, but will likely go extinct thanks to global warming heating up the water faster than they can adapt.

Probably way more than this that I can’t remember off the top of my head, but my point stands: stop treating Wales like shit. We already get enough of that from the people that are in charge of us.

[benisasoftboi]

Don’t normally like to do topical politics on here, but wanted to share these charts about the UK election as I don’t usually see the data get presented like this elsewhere. I think it’s a good illustration of what happened, and why our system needs change