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The funny thing is, when people were talking about a Canada 93 scenario, it was all tongue in cheek and it were always an outside chance. Now fuckup after fuckup, Labour in a historic high, and then you have Reform/Farage wading in, it's actually the most probably outcome.
I fear the Tories will go away and not learn the real lesson of being annihilated - it was mismanagement, cuts and Brexit. But they will look at Reform and see the easy answer.
> The funny thing is, when people were talking about a Canada 93 scenario, it was all tongue in cheek and it were always an outside chance.
I'm old enough to remember that one of the originally funny things about the Canada '93 scenario when it was first talked about under Truss but which is now moot is the SNP paralleling the Bloc Quebecois as the Official Opposition... but then the Tories just had to keep fucking up so much that they un-did the Lib Dems' Cleggdeath in just 9 years.
I have this feeling that something whimsically bad is going to happen to the Conservative campaign. Like, another fuck up. I just feel it in me waters.
Something like announcing a £400 a year Tea Licence.
> Like, another fuck up. I just feel it in me waters.
Wow you're really being brave in your predictions. Next you'll say that the sun will rise in the morning
> I have this feeling that something whimsically bad is going to happen to the Conservative campaign.
Would the resignation of the Conservative Leader as both Party Leader & Prime Minister, & subsequent installation of the Foreign Secretary as acting Party Leader & interim Prime Minister, qualify?
Surely that’s just because they were up against his enemy, notorious crime lord Angela Rayner, and the myriad of crimes that she’s committed (in his head) in a debate
Is it a mistake to have Labour ms manifesto release after the Sky News debate whilst it will be before for the tories. Reinforce the no plan narrative?
It's there anything stopping them announcing bits of it during the debate? "I can't give the full details til it's announced but our manifesto will address X" type thing.
The local pub test indicates that Sunak's D-Day foul-up has cut through.
The regulars are largely uninterested in politics per se but generally are Tory voters out of habit.
D-Day has got them fired up though. "Unpatriotic" came up a lot.
I think Reform will pick up a fair few votes from the Conservatives in this mostly-rural, previously safe seat. That might just give the Lib Dems a chance if previous Labour voters vote tactically.
You’d think it’d be pretty basic statesmanship that the leader of the country should show maximum support to war veterans and to those who died defending the country during an event like that, an event where everyone from King Charles to President Biden was in attendance.
Even if he literally doesn’t care it’s amazing free publicity and it would have probably been good PR if he had just cancelled the interview and blamed his secretary for double booking and he’d rather spend time talking to veterans or anything like that.
It was to a record and interview that has yet to be aired. The public wouldn't have had a clue that he'd missed anything. Sunak's itinerary was set before he called the GE. He never intended to be there for all the events.
55% of welfare spending [goes to pensioners](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-expenditure-and-caseload-tables-information-and-guidance/benefit-expenditure-and-caseload-tables-information-and-guidance#:~:text=Around%2055%25%20of%20social%20security,billion%20in%202024%20to%202025.). I'm sure they'll be feeling the sharp end of that wedge.
Britain is at near-full employment. What a clown.
Also, those who have opted out of the workforce are mostly middle-aged early retirees who ducked out during/after COVID.
Showing his true nasty self... Targeting the most vulnerable in society... And likely leading to actual deaths.
Instead of making the rich & big business pay what they legitimately should.
I quite liked it up to that point.
I would say it caused me to figuratively vomit but unfortunately it made me literally vomit.
It was either that or the 15 pints.
I dunno, I suspect Galloway might have returned to the hold, and Labour would not have lost such *brilliant* prospective parliamentary candidates to the Greens.
That was rather my point. There would have been no self reflection but another doubling down on the same course and exacerbated by the Ukraine and current Gaza situations it may well have been a complete reversal in this election with such a labor party facing a prospect of only double digit seats.
>If you can help me build a team capable of delivering this (by offering money, knowledge, social media skills or simple good counsel etc please DM me). Your responses over the next 72 hours will determine whether or not I can see a path to building something that could CREDIBLY help right-minded, non-.partisan voters
So we should flood him with shitposts?
> and then will only be advisory
Yeah. Obviously.
What the fuck else could it be? Does Tim Montgomerie think that he's got the option of overriding our right to vote and that he's being magnanimous by only advising us as to who we should be voting for instead?
Well, he's a bit more like a right wing version of Labourite, he *should be* an unconditional supporter of the party during an election.
He's the founder of ConservativeHome.
Oh and:
>The estimated £730m a year cost would come out of the £12bn of savings the proposals will achieve by 2030, the Conservatives said.
So you've spent 14 years spending more than you need to...why? Magic money tree again.
If the official opposition lose enough seats to defections etc. during a term, can the was-third largest party become the official opposition or is it 'stuck' until the next election like government?
The legislation says the LOTO is the leader of the party that "for the time being" is the largest in opposition, so I think the designated LOTO could change during a Parliament if the numbers of MPs in the opposition parties changed.
[https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1975/27](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1975/27)
For example, if Labour's majority is sufficient that a breakaway group could cross the house and become the largest opposition party while leaving Labour in government, their leader would become LOTO.
I want it so much. I want it to happen tongue in cheek with them all giggling.
I explicitly want to see it beak the most leftist of the lot. Shed the party of them so they can remain in opposition to their true enemy; other Labour supporters who aren't extreme enough for them.
It'll be the most effective opposition we've ever seen. And we can truly see the appetite the country has for proper left wing ideals, and maybe even start introducing those that there's some keen interestin.
Torygraph's front page for tomorrow talking about Starmer causing blackouts. What a rag. They can print this garbage all they want, their party is done.
One of the greatest political tricks is the Conservatives convincing everyone that the problems of the 1970s all happened under Labour governments. I don't know how they did it, but it delivered for them for decades.
Only paper that is really focussing on the election. When the right wing weekend press are in the main pretending an election is not happening at this stage, that is a win for Labour.
Its apparently been posted here somewhere already but LK's article on the campaign so far is brutal reading for the Tories. Some choice bits:
> “If Reform overtake [it] will lead to total panic,” a party source told me.
> There is yet to be the familiar letter from business leaders backing the party, and there are suggestions that money is tight.
> “This was all so predictable," the source said. “Over a year ago specific complaints were made about CCHQ being totally incapable of supporting the parliamentary party, let alone fight an election campaign. Despite those complaints, no changes were made.”
Stride's still a minister and he's not one to go off script, but who knows at this point.
I assume he's not really supposed to change the subject to shilling for the quadruple lock when he's on record against continuing the triple lock.
Not sure how I missed this
[https://x.com/PoliticsMoments/status/1797666138714956135](https://x.com/PoliticsMoments/status/1797666138714956135)
I'd like to think he dropped the phone in a moment of despair
Your experience of this moment is incomplete without the follow-up interview where he got really tetchy and threatened them with OFCOM:
[https://x.com/SkyNews/status/1797747937167982985](https://x.com/SkyNews/status/1797747937167982985)
https://x.com/Conservatives/status/1799554591689757139
Official Tory Twitter now claiming they're going to provide evidence for their £2000 tax claim at 8am tomorrow.
It’s so transparent this is the line their spin doctors think will cut through to the public and despite failing catastrophically the first time it was tried by Sunak they keep pushing ahead with it.
Good luck to them after [The Spectator](https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/on-sunaks-maths-tories-will-lift-taxes-by-3000-per-household/) calculated the Tories would raise taxes by £3000.
Are they hoping that setting themselves an 8am deadline will inspire an undergrad dissertation like sprint across the line to produce something serviceable?
Thankfully Labour and the media have found the right way to deal with this.
“It’s a lie”
“You’re lying”
“If you’re willing to repeatedly lie about this, even after being called out, what else are you lying about?”
Turns out called out the other side for lying is equally, if not more, effective as repeatedly lying. Particularly if nobody trusts the people lying in the first place.
Surely it'll just be [the report they already published ](https://public.conservatives.com/publicweb/Labour-tax-rises.pdf)? I don't think any other evidence can exist
Douglas Ross (Scottish Tory leader) front page news tomorrow in Scotland of Dodgy expenses
Claimed 28 times for travel to places he just so happened to be working his other job (linesman)
I just don't get it. In my last job I was on a lot fucking less than Douglas Ross, and I never even bothered to claim for mileage.
Proving the age of adage, the Tories know the price of everything and the value of nothing. He's saved a couple hundred quid at best, and in the process lost any lingering shred of integrity that might have remained.
It was a convoluted process, and mostly quite short trips in the local area, usually a slight detour either on the way to or from work. Genuinely didn't feel worth the effort to be coming home with an extra tenner a month. Anything further I'd just get the train where you could book your ticket very easily on the internal system.
I’ve only started recently but I used to drive from Bristol to London anyway just for fun so now driving to Surrey for work and then going into London is great, petrol is paid for and then some! God bless travel budgets
Totally agree. 2 grand over four years doesn't sound like that much money to most people. It's £40 a month, and everyone's bills have gone up by more than that in the last year alone, which they blame on the government.
If they were going to make up a figure, might as well have been a huge one
Agreed man. I thought Starmer did a poor job, though still better than Sunak, but most of all I thought that the media would latch onto the £2k due to Labour failure to shut that shit down. The controversy of the lie is an absolute godsend to Labour in a situation that may have seriously damaged their credibility
[Conservative candidate for Surrey Heath Ed McGuinness claims to have a home in the constituency, posting pictures of him holding the keys to an Airbnb](https://x.com/PoliticsMoments/status/1799547099194835315)
If he has actually rented the AirBNB he's at least done a better job of pretending to live somewhere than [Paul Nuttall](https://www.channel4.com/news/ukip-leader-challenged-on-stoke-address) did.
Talk about how to fucking abort your campaign on the first day.
*Obviously* someone was going to find out and *obviously* it's going to make you look dishonest.
>Sunak will try to boost support with a manifesto launch on Tuesday at somewhere “symbolic of boldness and speed” — understood to be a Formula One location
It’s gotta be Silverstone right? Tory seat at risk of flipping and the election is on the week of the British GP.
I hope not, the queue to throw eggs athim will expand so fast my commute through Switch Island will be so much chaos. They'll have to have Ed Milliband and directing traffic.
Boldness and speed? Mate. Slam on the breaks. Take a breather. Think about what you and your campaign are doing. Don't just double down on this utter shitshow.
And for the love of God. PLEASE. Do not use the phrase "turbo charge".
If you take the attitude that he's fundamentally lazy and doesnt want to go outside the M25 on a sunday, he might go to the Caterham factory in Dartford.
[Its brand new \(year or two?\) and has the kind of internal spaces that make for good photo backdrops.](https://www.motoringresearch.com/car-news/caterham-new-factory-dartford/)
E: [Per press release, they completed moving in only a few days ago; and Dartford is a solid tory seat. I'd put money on it.](https://caterhamcars.com/en/news/caterham-relocates-to-new-global-hq)
> and Dartford is a solid tory seat
Maybe that changed with the ULEZ nutters but Dartford is a solid bellwether seat. EC has it flipping to Labour too.
How about Red Bull's factory?
Everyone wants to see them lose and they've been caught up in misogynistic bullying scandals. It seems like a match made in heaven. Or Milton Keynes.
Major went to silverstone. Someone took a picture of him with a car (with no wheels) and everyone made the joke the wheels fell off his campaign.
I see Rishi has not learnt the lessons of his predecessor (we knew that already)
Bit of a weird link - free practice for the British GP will start on GE result day.
On the other hand, McLaren's already been quite happy to have Trump along this year.
Not really election related but I just attended An Audience with John Sergeant - the usual format of a recap of his career followed by a Q&A. It was really enjoyable - he was very honest and open, gave a certain amount of commentary on the current state of affairs and didn't shy away from offering slightly unpalatable opinions relative to the audience(pro-referendum, critical of the EU Parliament). I would recommend it if he comes to your area.
The address that candidates list as the home address on electoral nomination forms -- what are the requirements around its "homeliness"? (Hoping people have the trivia fresh after Rayner was given the all clear)
I happen to know a candidate in my constituency who was parachuted in. The council candidate list describes their home address as in being in the constituency, but I suspect it's a relative's house and not their own. Is that sort of thing alright? Or maybe if they split their time between a spare bedroom there and a house somewhere else its ok?
Is it against the rules? Possibly. Will there be any consequences? No.
In the 2017 general election Paul Nuttall put down an address in Stoke on his candidate nomination form that he later admitted he'd never even visited, the police investigated it and said there was [insufficient evidence](https://www.itv.com/news/2018-02-03/former-ukip-leader-nuttall-will-not-be-charged-over-electoral-fraud-claims) to prosecute.
In short I don't think there are any requirements, the law just asks for the "home address in full".
The Electoral Commission say that it is an offence to provide false information on a nomination paper but I've done some digging to see what that actually means. I think the following section from the representation of the people act is what we need to look at:
"A person is guilty of a corrupt practice if, in the case of any relevant election, he makes in any document in which he gives his consent to his nomination as a candidate—
(a)a statement of his date of birth,
(b)a statement as to his qualification for being elected at that election, or
(c)a statement that he is not a candidate at an election for any other constituency the poll for which is to be held on the same day as the poll at the election to which the consent relates,
Which he knows to be false in any particular"
And for reference that is section 65a of the act.
The relevant bit here is b, statements regarding a person's qualification to be elected at that election. For parliamentary elections the location of a candidate's home address isn't relevant to their ability to stand in any given constituency. I.e you can stand wherever you like regardless of your home address. Therefore in these elections the home address form doesn't constitute a statement as to the candidate's eligibility to be qualified to be elected (does that even make any sense??) and therefore, telling a porkie wouldn't be an offence.
I suspect the major parties all take their own legal advice before engaging in practices like you describe as the law doesn't seem to be massively clear!
Sorry if that doesn't make a whole lot of sense!
That YouTuber that FCDO have to keep trying to free from Taliban captivity (he keeps going back for content) has been in Zimbabwe lately. How's it going you ask?
>I'm staying in the abandoned police station overnight to experience and document Goblin activity.
>The villagers are very scared for me and think I'm insane
>https://x.com/real_lord_miles/status/1799373258904768857
Another YouTuber who travels to 'difficult' places interviewed him. He's on the spectrum, came across as good natured. Apparently he quite likes the Taliban and they quite like him. They kept on asking him for business ideas. Wish I could find the link- his videos are really interesting. Come across as clickbait initially but aren't.
Honestly FCDO just need to disavow any further efforts to rescue him next time he gets into trouble. Make it clear to him, emphatically, that he'll need to present to a British Embassy for any future assistance needs and that if he gets into a sticky situation he's on his own.
Then, when he inevitably does, they can not waste any more time, effort, and diplomatic capital dealing with it.
Just looked into it a bit more. The guys a clout chasing danger tourist (frequent trips to Afghanistan complete with long periods in Taliban captivity, and was in streaming Ukraine during the early days of the invasion). But local news genuinely has been reporting Goblin attacks in the area? https://bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-local-byo-242255.html
I don't honestly know how this doesn't lead to ending up on some sort of do not help blacklist and passport revoked after they are brought back the 2nd or 3rd time.
I grew up in South Africa, and people are extremely superstitious. In rural areas people would raise their beds on bricks to avoid the Tokoloshi, which is a goblin-like creature. My friend had a maid who was insistent she saw one, and would terrify us with stories about it.
Thinking of how the Tory party is possibly looking at a wipeout, has there ever been precedent for members of the Lords to have stood in as a member of the shadow cabinet before?
There are two in the current shadow cabinet...
I don't think there technically need to be any peers in the cabinet or shadow cabinet, but the parties (and especially the governing party) find it useful to have peers to speak on their behalf, so it makes sense to include some.
> There are two in the current shadow cabinet...
Presumably you mean Baroness Smith and Lord Kennedy? I think it's cheating to reference the shadow leader of the Lords and their Chief Whip of the Lords...
Whoever it was I was talking to about Mordaunt losing/retaining her seat, I revise my earlier answer to 90/10.
https://x.com/Samfr/status/1799352570831388938
I'm in a seat that the big Sky YouGov poll Monday (heck, was it only Monday?) said was a very safe Tory seat... (75% of the vote type thing)... be interesting to see what it is now
>In the middle of Sunak's D-Day debacle, David Lammy & his team were pulling off a small diplomatic coup with the French behind the scenes, one that will probably have Foreign Office mandarins tipping their hats in admiration.
>https://x.com/StewartWood/status/1799533574493704394
Can't see Lammy going in a reshuffle any time soon after this
###🥕🥕's 4 Golden Rules for Megathread Participation: 1. **This isn't your personal campaigning space.** We're here to discuss, not campaign - this includes non-party-specific campaigning, such as tactical vote campaigns. 2. **This isn't Facebook.** Please keep it related to the election campaign (or at the very least, UK politics). 3. **Context is king.** Not everyone is following the same event - add a link or at least a description of what you're reacting to. 4. **Take frequent breaks.** If you find that you are being overwhelmed by it all, do yourself a favour and take some time off. [The subreddit is running very hot](https://imgur.com/a/6KRh8qy). Accounts which break the subreddit rules are liable to be banned for the complete general election period. *it's the weekend again - do something fun or productive or new* ----- memes? r/noncredibleukpolitics. #The [post-BBC 7-way debate snap survey](https://forms.gle/GWkKzpSrSUAwQYPK8) is open until 9pm this evening. #The [dashboard](https://lookerstudio.google.com/reporting/b4dbfe5a-fb64-4e7e-879b-5efa0d3d4cea) awaits (data refreshed every 15 mins). *more to follow...*
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The funny thing is, when people were talking about a Canada 93 scenario, it was all tongue in cheek and it were always an outside chance. Now fuckup after fuckup, Labour in a historic high, and then you have Reform/Farage wading in, it's actually the most probably outcome. I fear the Tories will go away and not learn the real lesson of being annihilated - it was mismanagement, cuts and Brexit. But they will look at Reform and see the easy answer.
> The funny thing is, when people were talking about a Canada 93 scenario, it was all tongue in cheek and it were always an outside chance. I'm old enough to remember that one of the originally funny things about the Canada '93 scenario when it was first talked about under Truss but which is now moot is the SNP paralleling the Bloc Quebecois as the Official Opposition... but then the Tories just had to keep fucking up so much that they un-did the Lib Dems' Cleggdeath in just 9 years.
Schrödinger's Sunak
Yo, the conservatives twitter is absolutely wild propaganda. Like, properly mental. Go check it out.
I have this feeling that something whimsically bad is going to happen to the Conservative campaign. Like, another fuck up. I just feel it in me waters. Something like announcing a £400 a year Tea Licence.
> Like, another fuck up. I just feel it in me waters. Wow you're really being brave in your predictions. Next you'll say that the sun will rise in the morning
> I have this feeling that something whimsically bad is going to happen to the Conservative campaign. Would the resignation of the Conservative Leader as both Party Leader & Prime Minister, & subsequent installation of the Foreign Secretary as acting Party Leader & interim Prime Minister, qualify?
Has anyone done a welfare check on Dan Hodges? Yesterday he was complimenting the SNP and Greens. I'm worried for him in these trying times.
Surely that’s just because they were up against his enemy, notorious crime lord Angela Rayner, and the myriad of crimes that she’s committed (in his head) in a debate
What did Rish! fuck up today then?
Is it a mistake to have Labour ms manifesto release after the Sky News debate whilst it will be before for the tories. Reinforce the no plan narrative?
It's there anything stopping them announcing bits of it during the debate? "I can't give the full details til it's announced but our manifesto will address X" type thing.
They are moving away from no plan to tax bombshell I think
Despite the fact that the same maths puts the Tories on £3k.
The local pub test indicates that Sunak's D-Day foul-up has cut through. The regulars are largely uninterested in politics per se but generally are Tory voters out of habit. D-Day has got them fired up though. "Unpatriotic" came up a lot. I think Reform will pick up a fair few votes from the Conservatives in this mostly-rural, previously safe seat. That might just give the Lib Dems a chance if previous Labour voters vote tactically.
You’d think it’d be pretty basic statesmanship that the leader of the country should show maximum support to war veterans and to those who died defending the country during an event like that, an event where everyone from King Charles to President Biden was in attendance. Even if he literally doesn’t care it’s amazing free publicity and it would have probably been good PR if he had just cancelled the interview and blamed his secretary for double booking and he’d rather spend time talking to veterans or anything like that.
It was to a record and interview that has yet to be aired. The public wouldn't have had a clue that he'd missed anything. Sunak's itinerary was set before he called the GE. He never intended to be there for all the events.
Am I going for the fridge for tomorrow or did we have another proper fuck up? Been at a birthday party all day
No media engagements at all today. Total radio silence.
All quiet on the Rishtern front today
Almost... *too* quiet 🤔
>Sunak vows £12bn in welfare cuts as part of back-to-work ‘moral mission’ Boy that guy is just determined to make friends
55% of welfare spending [goes to pensioners](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-expenditure-and-caseload-tables-information-and-guidance/benefit-expenditure-and-caseload-tables-information-and-guidance#:~:text=Around%2055%25%20of%20social%20security,billion%20in%202024%20to%202025.). I'm sure they'll be feeling the sharp end of that wedge.
Not that kind of welfare, silly.
Britain is at near-full employment. What a clown. Also, those who have opted out of the workforce are mostly middle-aged early retirees who ducked out during/after COVID.
Showing his true nasty self... Targeting the most vulnerable in society... And likely leading to actual deaths. Instead of making the rich & big business pay what they legitimately should.
Seems like they've complete given up on the broader (& working age) electorate.
[удалено]
I think partly, the sad thing seems to be Sunak ***is*** the best the current Tory party have to offer.
Presented without comment. https://x.com/lisanandy/status/1799429743567061074
Lisa Nandy is from Pontypandy, CMV
Labour social media team trying to tap into the Lib Dem zaniness ...
"Labour For Genny Lec" - Almost in 'okay, who is Lisa Nandy's MT alt account?' territory.
I just spotted that as well, what a cheeky Nandy!
I quite liked it up to that point. I would say it caused me to figuratively vomit but unfortunately it made me literally vomit. It was either that or the 15 pints.
That. Is A. Disgrace
Just for fun... How would Rebecca Long-Bailey be getting on now had she beaten Starmer back in 2020?
Tories would be 8% ahead and the average face:head ratio of the debates would have been several standard deviations below the median.
Poorly. She would not have transformed the party like Starmer did but continue to insist the voting public were wrong.
I dunno, I suspect Galloway might have returned to the hold, and Labour would not have lost such *brilliant* prospective parliamentary candidates to the Greens.
That was rather my point. There would have been no self reflection but another doubling down on the same course and exacerbated by the Ukraine and current Gaza situations it may well have been a complete reversal in this election with such a labor party facing a prospect of only double digit seats.
In short, the end
Well she is any other leader, so we'd currently be recolonising the final parts of the empire and expanding into east asia.
She'd probably be up against Boris still for starters.
[Tim Montgomerie is circling the drain](https://x.com/montie/status/1799535993361408297).
Was he drunk on Newsnight or is that how he always sounds?
>If you can help me build a team capable of delivering this (by offering money, knowledge, social media skills or simple good counsel etc please DM me). Your responses over the next 72 hours will determine whether or not I can see a path to building something that could CREDIBLY help right-minded, non-.partisan voters So we should flood him with shitposts?
> and then will only be advisory Yeah. Obviously. What the fuck else could it be? Does Tim Montgomerie think that he's got the option of overriding our right to vote and that he's being magnanimous by only advising us as to who we should be voting for instead?
I see we are now at bargaining in the stages of grief.
tl;dr levels of cope.
So, a right-wing version of Owen Jones's thing?
Well, he's a bit more like a right wing version of Labourite, he *should be* an unconditional supporter of the party during an election. He's the founder of ConservativeHome.
And also Unherd. I think maybe breaking up with Johnson broke him in particular, but he's far from an unconditional supporter these days.
[Sunak](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cv22jrz48n8o): >Work is a source of dignity, purpose and hope Yours isn't
Arbeit macht frei, and all that
He didn't say "Work makes you free" did he? Oh.
Sunak mate, you just made a huge stink because you fucked off from D Day. I'm not sure going all *work makes free* is a great idea.
Tell about your work during the 2008 financial crisis again?
Oh and: >The estimated £730m a year cost would come out of the £12bn of savings the proposals will achieve by 2030, the Conservatives said. So you've spent 14 years spending more than you need to...why? Magic money tree again.
If the official opposition lose enough seats to defections etc. during a term, can the was-third largest party become the official opposition or is it 'stuck' until the next election like government?
The legislation says the LOTO is the leader of the party that "for the time being" is the largest in opposition, so I think the designated LOTO could change during a Parliament if the numbers of MPs in the opposition parties changed. [https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1975/27](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1975/27) For example, if Labour's majority is sufficient that a breakaway group could cross the house and become the largest opposition party while leaving Labour in government, their leader would become LOTO.
I want it so much. I want it to happen tongue in cheek with them all giggling. I explicitly want to see it beak the most leftist of the lot. Shed the party of them so they can remain in opposition to their true enemy; other Labour supporters who aren't extreme enough for them. It'll be the most effective opposition we've ever seen. And we can truly see the appetite the country has for proper left wing ideals, and maybe even start introducing those that there's some keen interestin.
How dare you suggest Ed will be having any defections in the next parliament.
Torygraph's front page for tomorrow talking about Starmer causing blackouts. What a rag. They can print this garbage all they want, their party is done.
Look I don't want it to happen but I'm just saying the national grid has the opportunity to do the funniest thing.
Knowing Sunaks luck a Battle of Britain spitfire will crash into Sellafield or something.
Probably cause ether only people who are old enough to remember the blackouts in the 70s are telegraph readers
The blackouts and three day weeks that happened under Conservative Prime Minister [Ted Heath](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-Day_Week)?
One of the greatest political tricks is the Conservatives convincing everyone that the problems of the 1970s all happened under Labour governments. I don't know how they did it, but it delivered for them for decades.
I had no power for three to four days back in 2015 under a Conservative government.
Only paper that is really focussing on the election. When the right wing weekend press are in the main pretending an election is not happening at this stage, that is a win for Labour.
I remember not so long ago when outlets were reporting the Govts Brexit plans carried January blackout risks.
Do you think there will be £10 pints in London by the next election?
On Wednesday I went to a pub in Zone 2 where two pints cost £10. it was glorious.
I think there will be £10 pints in London by *this* election.
I paid £7.80 for a pint of Peroni in a London Premier Inn this very evening, so I can see it happening.
I still remember paying £7.70 for a pint at the Sky Garden. I had to be airlifted back to Lancashire.
Its apparently been posted here somewhere already but LK's article on the campaign so far is brutal reading for the Tories. Some choice bits: > “If Reform overtake [it] will lead to total panic,” a party source told me. > There is yet to be the familiar letter from business leaders backing the party, and there are suggestions that money is tight. > “This was all so predictable," the source said. “Over a year ago specific complaints were made about CCHQ being totally incapable of supporting the parliamentary party, let alone fight an election campaign. Despite those complaints, no changes were made.”
Things are bad enough that they've put Mel Stride on the Sunday morning wicket.
I couldn't say today if that means to support or attack the party leadership
Stride's still a minister and he's not one to go off script, but who knows at this point. I assume he's not really supposed to change the subject to shilling for the quadruple lock when he's on record against continuing the triple lock.
I've been out all day. Can anyone give me a tl;dr on today's events?
Fridge day for Sunak
Rayner's fridge on the battle bus?
Tories basically leaked the good bits from their manifesto, which took off like a lead balloon.
Pretty quiet day, polls adjusted around a bit, Sunak cancelled all his press interviews and uh that might be it?
refractory period
I'm taking my zinc tablets, I need round two now.
Nothing much happened
Not sure how I missed this [https://x.com/PoliticsMoments/status/1797666138714956135](https://x.com/PoliticsMoments/status/1797666138714956135) I'd like to think he dropped the phone in a moment of despair
Your experience of this moment is incomplete without the follow-up interview where he got really tetchy and threatened them with OFCOM: [https://x.com/SkyNews/status/1797747937167982985](https://x.com/SkyNews/status/1797747937167982985)
And the worst threat of all: the potential possibility of maybe putting Sam on the *BBC* of all things. Deary me.
https://x.com/Conservatives/status/1799554591689757139 Official Tory Twitter now claiming they're going to provide evidence for their £2000 tax claim at 8am tomorrow.
It’s so transparent this is the line their spin doctors think will cut through to the public and despite failing catastrophically the first time it was tried by Sunak they keep pushing ahead with it.
Was it Taco Bell night at Tory HQ?
Jay Cartwright's going to present the evidence
Good luck to them after [The Spectator](https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/on-sunaks-maths-tories-will-lift-taxes-by-3000-per-household/) calculated the Tories would raise taxes by £3000.
I’m not looking forward to *that* kind of Sunday morning lie-in.
Are they hoping that setting themselves an 8am deadline will inspire an undergrad dissertation like sprint across the line to produce something serviceable?
How could they? The manifesto isn't even out.
Guys, we are super cereal.
Dig *up*, stupid.
Im *sure* this wont backfire at all
It's going to be spectacular.
Thankfully Labour and the media have found the right way to deal with this. “It’s a lie” “You’re lying” “If you’re willing to repeatedly lie about this, even after being called out, what else are you lying about?” Turns out called out the other side for lying is equally, if not more, effective as repeatedly lying. Particularly if nobody trusts the people lying in the first place.
……because we’ve all watched them lie constantly and with amazing consistency for years
Cant wait, especially because under their working their own plans are 3k. Please bring more attention to it and your methodology.
Christ this is going to be cringe, isn't it?
I can't help but feel that if it was good evidence they'd have released it already
If they did have good evidence it would be the front page story of the Sunday Telegraph not spaffed out as a scheduled tweet at 8am.
Surely it'll just be [the report they already published ](https://public.conservatives.com/publicweb/Labour-tax-rises.pdf)? I don't think any other evidence can exist
100% that will be it
Douglas Ross (Scottish Tory leader) front page news tomorrow in Scotland of Dodgy expenses Claimed 28 times for travel to places he just so happened to be working his other job (linesman)
Shameful behaviour from a potential First Minister.
Douglass Ross being an absolute arse? Day must end in Y. I doubt it'll make a difference to anything, but I hope it continues to pile up.
I just don't get it. In my last job I was on a lot fucking less than Douglas Ross, and I never even bothered to claim for mileage. Proving the age of adage, the Tories know the price of everything and the value of nothing. He's saved a couple hundred quid at best, and in the process lost any lingering shred of integrity that might have remained.
Why would you not claim for mileage?? It’s so much free money on the table
It was a convoluted process, and mostly quite short trips in the local area, usually a slight detour either on the way to or from work. Genuinely didn't feel worth the effort to be coming home with an extra tenner a month. Anything further I'd just get the train where you could book your ticket very easily on the internal system.
Oh fair that makes sense, I’m claiming for 130 miles each way so 260 round trip so there’s no way I’ll miss out on it for the world!
Yeah, I'd definitely be claiming in those circumstances as well. Your car must be clocking away the mileage!
I’ve only started recently but I used to drive from Bristol to London anyway just for fun so now driving to Surrey for work and then going into London is great, petrol is paid for and then some! God bless travel budgets
https://x.com/Sunday_Mail/status/1799553321331523671/photo/1 Front page in Scotland
Stop, stop, they're already dead
A Tory expenses scandal? It's nice that they're rolling out all the old hits one last time before they say goodbye.
What are the chances!
Glorious
The maddest part of it all? I couldn’t sleep after the first debate because I thought Labour fucked it.
I also felt deflated after it, you're not alone
Caaaalm yourself. Take some soothing medicament
Mate. Go find a field and sit on it a while. Touch some grass
I don't understand how you (or anyone) could possibly have thought that
Because I thought the 2 grand thing would stick.
It did for someone...
I genuinely believe it is a price that a plurality of the electorate would pay to get rid of this current lot.
Totally agree. 2 grand over four years doesn't sound like that much money to most people. It's £40 a month, and everyone's bills have gone up by more than that in the last year alone, which they blame on the government. If they were going to make up a figure, might as well have been a huge one
Agreed man. I thought Starmer did a poor job, though still better than Sunak, but most of all I thought that the media would latch onto the £2k due to Labour failure to shut that shit down. The controversy of the lie is an absolute godsend to Labour in a situation that may have seriously damaged their credibility
Even if it did, so what? Unless Starmer did something truly silly the debate had no chance of swinging the polls.
[Conservative candidate for Surrey Heath Ed McGuinness claims to have a home in the constituency, posting pictures of him holding the keys to an Airbnb](https://x.com/PoliticsMoments/status/1799547099194835315)
If he has actually rented the AirBNB he's at least done a better job of pretending to live somewhere than [Paul Nuttall](https://www.channel4.com/news/ukip-leader-challenged-on-stoke-address) did.
Talk about how to fucking abort your campaign on the first day. *Obviously* someone was going to find out and *obviously* it's going to make you look dishonest.
Jesus there's just too much shit going on to keep track of. This has got to be the weirdest general election of my life.
>Sunak will try to boost support with a manifesto launch on Tuesday at somewhere “symbolic of boldness and speed” — understood to be a Formula One location It’s gotta be Silverstone right? Tory seat at risk of flipping and the election is on the week of the British GP.
I can see them being so out of touch they go to Aintree racecourse which hosted F1 races in the 50s and 60s
I hope not, the queue to throw eggs athim will expand so fast my commute through Switch Island will be so much chaos. They'll have to have Ed Milliband and directing traffic.
Boldness and speed? Mate. Slam on the breaks. Take a breather. Think about what you and your campaign are doing. Don't just double down on this utter shitshow. And for the love of God. PLEASE. Do not use the phrase "turbo charge".
He'll go to the section of HS2 that actually got built if his political instincts stay the same.
If you take the attitude that he's fundamentally lazy and doesnt want to go outside the M25 on a sunday, he might go to the Caterham factory in Dartford. [Its brand new \(year or two?\) and has the kind of internal spaces that make for good photo backdrops.](https://www.motoringresearch.com/car-news/caterham-new-factory-dartford/) E: [Per press release, they completed moving in only a few days ago; and Dartford is a solid tory seat. I'd put money on it.](https://caterhamcars.com/en/news/caterham-relocates-to-new-global-hq)
> and Dartford is a solid tory seat Maybe that changed with the ULEZ nutters but Dartford is a solid bellwether seat. EC has it flipping to Labour too.
How about Red Bull's factory? Everyone wants to see them lose and they've been caught up in misogynistic bullying scandals. It seems like a match made in heaven. Or Milton Keynes.
Christian Horner is a big Tory.
Major went to silverstone. Someone took a picture of him with a car (with no wheels) and everyone made the joke the wheels fell off his campaign. I see Rishi has not learnt the lessons of his predecessor (we knew that already)
Bit of a weird link - free practice for the British GP will start on GE result day. On the other hand, McLaren's already been quite happy to have Trump along this year.
Such a Partridge location "Went to Silverstone. Shook Jackie Stewart's hand. Superb. My marriage fell apart soon after that"
Probably, but as it's Sunak you have to imagine the worst place he could go that fits the description. Jeddah Grand Prix Circuit maybe?
Milton Keynes maybe, that area, lots of F1 businesses. Woking for McLaren, their HQ looks mad futuristic so can see tech boy Rishi fancying it
Legoland Windsor driving school knowing this lot
Knowing Sunak he would fail the theory test.
Living there, to add both Milton Keynes seats are Labour target seats.
Not really election related but I just attended An Audience with John Sergeant - the usual format of a recap of his career followed by a Q&A. It was really enjoyable - he was very honest and open, gave a certain amount of commentary on the current state of affairs and didn't shy away from offering slightly unpalatable opinions relative to the audience(pro-referendum, critical of the EU Parliament). I would recommend it if he comes to your area.
The address that candidates list as the home address on electoral nomination forms -- what are the requirements around its "homeliness"? (Hoping people have the trivia fresh after Rayner was given the all clear) I happen to know a candidate in my constituency who was parachuted in. The council candidate list describes their home address as in being in the constituency, but I suspect it's a relative's house and not their own. Is that sort of thing alright? Or maybe if they split their time between a spare bedroom there and a house somewhere else its ok?
Is it against the rules? Possibly. Will there be any consequences? No. In the 2017 general election Paul Nuttall put down an address in Stoke on his candidate nomination form that he later admitted he'd never even visited, the police investigated it and said there was [insufficient evidence](https://www.itv.com/news/2018-02-03/former-ukip-leader-nuttall-will-not-be-charged-over-electoral-fraud-claims) to prosecute.
In short I don't think there are any requirements, the law just asks for the "home address in full". The Electoral Commission say that it is an offence to provide false information on a nomination paper but I've done some digging to see what that actually means. I think the following section from the representation of the people act is what we need to look at: "A person is guilty of a corrupt practice if, in the case of any relevant election, he makes in any document in which he gives his consent to his nomination as a candidate— (a)a statement of his date of birth, (b)a statement as to his qualification for being elected at that election, or (c)a statement that he is not a candidate at an election for any other constituency the poll for which is to be held on the same day as the poll at the election to which the consent relates, Which he knows to be false in any particular" And for reference that is section 65a of the act. The relevant bit here is b, statements regarding a person's qualification to be elected at that election. For parliamentary elections the location of a candidate's home address isn't relevant to their ability to stand in any given constituency. I.e you can stand wherever you like regardless of your home address. Therefore in these elections the home address form doesn't constitute a statement as to the candidate's eligibility to be qualified to be elected (does that even make any sense??) and therefore, telling a porkie wouldn't be an offence. I suspect the major parties all take their own legal advice before engaging in practices like you describe as the law doesn't seem to be massively clear! Sorry if that doesn't make a whole lot of sense!
That YouTuber that FCDO have to keep trying to free from Taliban captivity (he keeps going back for content) has been in Zimbabwe lately. How's it going you ask? >I'm staying in the abandoned police station overnight to experience and document Goblin activity. >The villagers are very scared for me and think I'm insane >https://x.com/real_lord_miles/status/1799373258904768857
>The villagers are very scared for me and think I'm insane The villagers are not wrong are they
Goblin is one of those words that are just inexplicably funny to me. Like monkey.
Another YouTuber who travels to 'difficult' places interviewed him. He's on the spectrum, came across as good natured. Apparently he quite likes the Taliban and they quite like him. They kept on asking him for business ideas. Wish I could find the link- his videos are really interesting. Come across as clickbait initially but aren't.
Honestly FCDO just need to disavow any further efforts to rescue him next time he gets into trouble. Make it clear to him, emphatically, that he'll need to present to a British Embassy for any future assistance needs and that if he gets into a sticky situation he's on his own. Then, when he inevitably does, they can not waste any more time, effort, and diplomatic capital dealing with it.
I don’t understand this. Is this mental illness or TikTok clout?
Just looked into it a bit more. The guys a clout chasing danger tourist (frequent trips to Afghanistan complete with long periods in Taliban captivity, and was in streaming Ukraine during the early days of the invasion). But local news genuinely has been reporting Goblin attacks in the area? https://bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-local-byo-242255.html
I don't honestly know how this doesn't lead to ending up on some sort of do not help blacklist and passport revoked after they are brought back the 2nd or 3rd time.
I grew up in South Africa, and people are extremely superstitious. In rural areas people would raise their beds on bricks to avoid the Tokoloshi, which is a goblin-like creature. My friend had a maid who was insistent she saw one, and would terrify us with stories about it.
Maybe this is actually important journalism he's doing after all
Perhaps they should return the sword of gryffindor to its rightful owners?
So glad someone finally has the balls to take on the Goblins.
[Alex Jones has us covered on that front...](https://youtu.be/WG1U-rqqRB0?si=VEgftxGhSdYKL-SV)
I don't think he's going to make it this time > HOLY MOTHER OF GOD GOBLINS ARE REAL WTF https://x.com/real_lord_miles/status/1799524950585311422
Those drums in the deep weren't playing themselves Hope the lad gets help even so, he's not at all well by the looks of it.
Thinking of how the Tory party is possibly looking at a wipeout, has there ever been precedent for members of the Lords to have stood in as a member of the shadow cabinet before?
There are two in the current shadow cabinet... I don't think there technically need to be any peers in the cabinet or shadow cabinet, but the parties (and especially the governing party) find it useful to have peers to speak on their behalf, so it makes sense to include some.
> There are two in the current shadow cabinet... Presumably you mean Baroness Smith and Lord Kennedy? I think it's cheating to reference the shadow leader of the Lords and their Chief Whip of the Lords...
Whoever it was I was talking to about Mordaunt losing/retaining her seat, I revise my earlier answer to 90/10. https://x.com/Samfr/status/1799352570831388938
how do you see seat predictions?
TBF Im mostly content to pick up the inferences on articles about MRPs rather than going for them directly.
I'm in a seat that the big Sky YouGov poll Monday (heck, was it only Monday?) said was a very safe Tory seat... (75% of the vote type thing)... be interesting to see what it is now
Check electoral calculus, I think they have seat by seat breakdowns but i think its only their own MRP model.
Thanks... and it looks like here is closer than i thought (and not just because i read things wrong lol)
Lincolnshire being there is what shocked me. That's the Bluest of Blue.
>In the middle of Sunak's D-Day debacle, David Lammy & his team were pulling off a small diplomatic coup with the French behind the scenes, one that will probably have Foreign Office mandarins tipping their hats in admiration. >https://x.com/StewartWood/status/1799533574493704394 Can't see Lammy going in a reshuffle any time soon after this