I know we’ve got a Tories in Trouble thread, but I wanted to treat this as a separate concern.
This is the worst government in living memory. Other governments have come crashing down for less. People moaned about the government of Gordon Brown, but even he never presided over a tenure as disastrous as Theresa May’s time, as both Home Secretary and Prime Minister.
From 2010 to today, the public have endured the following. A trebling in the cost of higher education. The calamitous intervention in Libya, the partisan proxy meddling in Syria, watered down trade union rights, a cut in police forces, leading to rising crime in London and elsewhere. On this year’s figures, you’re more likely to be murdered in London than you are in New York. The social cleansing of London, the doubling of homelessness, rise in suicide rates. The racist campaign to get Zac Goldsmith elected. Grenfell. Windrush. The list goes on and on.
So I ask, seriously, why hasn’t this government fallen? I have my own ideas, and I will share them later. Right now, the floor is yours, Sotonians.
My view is that the general public have been browbeaten into accepting whatever the government puts in front of them and not to question it - Salisbury and Syria spring to mind.
Yeah, we have social media to protest but that’s easily ignored. Who gives a shit about what we’re discussing here?
People should be marching on parliament, but they’re too busy doing aspirational stuff peddled in the MSM to think otherwise.
We’ve known for ages. Fuck it, we’ve known since Corbyn became leader of the opposition. It’s because of the fact that there is no credible alternative.
The first thing I said to you when he came into power is that the Tories would have carte blanche to do whatever the fuck they wanted, with no reprisals. I also said that him leading the opposition would be the worst thing to happen to this country, and could do irreparable damage.
The Tories have a confidence and supply agreement with the DUP. The DUP will honour this, particularly on the confidence side, as their interests would be less well served by any other arrangement. A no-confidence vote would therefore fail unless some Tory MPs voted against their own party, which is unthinkable. So this government will stagger on until it can no longer do so.
A reasonable analogy would be the Labour government of James Callaghan, which ended in the Lib/Lab pact - and in a no-confidence vote when that pact fell apart. It’s worth remembering that the pact arose because by-elections went against the government, which had started life in October 1974 with a very slim majority. The current government already has a pact with another party, though this is a more binding one than that between Labour and the Liberals forty years ago.
Governments cling to power. Heath attempted to do so in March 1974, although the election results made it clear that he could not possibly do so. More recently, Gordon Brown tried to persuade the Lib-Dems to enter a coalition, again in spite of the fact that Labour had far fewer seats than the Tories.
This government will stagger on until circumstances arise that bring about its fall. It’s possible, though highly unlikely, that these will be extra-parliamentary; more likely is that the government loses seats in by-elections over the next couple of years. It won’t take many.
Seriously? May called a general election based on that calculation, and ended up with a minority government. Labour gained seats in that election, due in part to their ability to mobilise voters who otherwise wouldn’t have bothered. A Labour party led from the right would never have been able to do that.
May had a majority in parliament. She thought she could increase it, but instead she pissed it away. Call it hubris, call it what you like, but she took a strong position and fucked it up. Whatever she has now, it’s hardly carte blanche.
Now that the seal has been broken, I’m not really interested in getting into a debate with @chertsey-saint on the merits of Corbyn as a credible figure. The past election did that myth a bit of a mischief, and I’m quite happy to let future elections decide that one.
What I’m wondering is whether we, as people, still know how to create the public pressure that can cause resignations. Individual ministers have resigned for much less than what May and Rudd have knowingly presided over, although I fully take on board @fowllyd 's point about governments clinging to power. As someone that never saw Heath’s government, May is perhaps the ultimate example.
At the same time, the standard of the media coverage in terms of impartiality is again, at an all time low for me, working in concert with the main narrative of the day. Perhaps its always been that way, but some the historical debates I’ve watched suggest our debate is getting narrower and noisier, as per Chomsky’s statement on the subject.
I genuinely can’t remember a worse time. If we had fucking anarchy we’d probably be better off, if only on the foreign policy front. We’re past people being economical with the truth. Our political leaders are outright lying on several, very important subjects. Again. it has always been that way.
I do wonder whether the Internet is hastening or stifling the process. On the one hand, it is undoubtedly become an alternative source of news, often at odds with the official narrative. On the other, it may just be a big fucking angst sink where everyone posts on a forum or Twitter or Facebook or whatever, and don’t end up actually doing anything.
Propaganda/media still dictates, fueled, by even the smartest people believing that they haven’t been preprogrammed. Keep reading/hearing the same phrases and it’s amazing how many people start repeating them, without ever seeing any evidence to back the claim up.
The election rules on the media proved it beyond doubt, but feel free to keep doubting, it wouldn’t work otherwise.
As for demonstrations @cobham-saint government policy(kettling and such), intelligence services(aggressive plants) the media(apathy), but more than all of them, NGO’s sorted that one out.
I’m well out of the loop in British politics, and relatively happy to be that way, but the first question that crosses my mind is when was the last time we changed government and things actually improved? Have the British public got to the point where they don’t believe anyone tells the truth and have become apathetic to it all?
One of the few gratifying things about the last couple of years is that actual elections would seem to suggest that people are not buying into the hatchet jobs. Those opposed to Corbyn have been briefing against him since 2015, the LSE study that went into media coverage of Corbs found that only 11% of all articles were fair.
And yet, despite all that, the vote has been rising. I’m eagerly anticipating the May local elections to see if the latest round of political artillery has done lasting damage, or if the electorate will crawl over No Man’s Land and vote for Labour in droves anyway.
The problem that this government has got is that its claims do not segue with the every day experience of living in Britain. In some senses, they never really did, but when you’re giving away council houses at a discount rate, effectively free money, in marginal seats, it can make the difference.
The Tories have nothing left to give away, no interest in taking it back and no hope of convincing the public that black is white when wages haven’t risen, there’s a homeless person on every cashpoint and thanks to the state of the roads, Britain has become the largest open world Mario Kart experience on the planet.
You’re best out of it, although it has improved massively since 1979 for some, but that was nothing compared to the improvements for those same some since 2010.“All in it together” was the soundbite from the pig fucker.
Turns out we weren’t “all in it together” and he didn’t just want to fuck dead baby pigs, he wanted to fuck everything, apart from his own kind(which is very understandable). He fucked every easy target he could, with the help of his little drug addict side kick. He buggered the disabled, people with mental health problems, people that do an honest days work, like policemen, teachers, nurses and other such scum, but they appear to really dislike people with skin that isn’t white. These people don’t just lose their jobs, they lose everything.
How’s Asus? I’m guessing easier to live in than here.
It did prove a point, but a person can still be destroyed between cycles. I fear this is another reason they will have to be forcibly evicted.
And yet, despite all that, the vote has been rising. I’m eagerly anticipating the May local elections to see if the latest round of political artillery has done lasting damage, or if the electorate will crawl over No Man’s Land and vote for Labour in droves anyway.
It’ll be desperate stuff from them if anti zionist propaganda hasn’t worked. Full panic mode, watch and enjoy.
The problem that this government has got is that its claims do not segue with the every day experience of living in Britain. In some senses, they never really did, but when you’re giving away council houses at a discount rate, effectively free money, in marginal seats, it can make the difference.
People on the whole are fucking idiots, so don’t bank on that helping. It probably won’t.
The Tories have nothing left to give away, no interest in taking it back and no hope of convincing the public that black is white when wages haven’t risen, there’s a homeless person on every cashpoint and thanks to the state of the roads, Britain has become the largest open world Mario Kart experience on the planet.
They’ll just give away the future and blame it all on someone else. It’s what they do.
Their failure is ubiquitous.
As is the gullibility of most the population unfortunately.
Win the locals and you’ve got real, time served, belief from the working class behind you. If the media bullshit has worked, the dodgy headlines will be relentless.
May suffered from a number of things in that election. The woman is a grade A twat, and lost a lot of Tory voters (including myself) who were protesting her being in power. We knew it wouldn’t result in a Corbyn Government, but at the same time we didn’t agree with the way things were going. It was meant to be the perfect result, with the Tories reigning their necks in and stopping fucking up, but it hasn’t worked - they’re incompetent.
However, because Corbyn doesn’t know how to play the game, even the worst government in living memory won’t be ousted. It’s not his fault, he’s an old man thrust into a position he doesn’t suit.
well, I suspect that the Brexiters trust Corbyn even less than the Tories to ‘do’ Brexit ‘properly’. Most of the Labour Party are remain. There are a few remainers in the Conservative party but their voices have been effectively quashed. Personally, I think the whole Brexit process is a fiasco but hardliners will cling on to power and try to realise their vision.
