I am not sure how can you interpret everything the likes of Suela Braverman, Priti Patel etc do and say other than being deeply anti-immigration.
I remember when the votes on EU membership were cast, most immigrants from former colonies were against EU. They could have turned the tables, but no.
Also, I have to check but I bet the numbers are high due to the non-EU immigration, which seems even less appeasing to the anti-immigrants crowd.
Yep.
I know the feeling.
Starmer is such a slimy character and Iām not convinced theyāll be any better than the current shower.
I feel like Iām between a rock and a hard place to be honest.
Most times I just voted for the āleast worstā but even that is hard to decide now.
Looking at the wider shadow cabinet, though, I feel they are much more cohesive and serious than the likes of Hunt, Shapps, Cleverly, etc.
Starmer needs to up his game substantially between now and the GE to show that heās not Tory Lite.
Shouldnāt this thread by under World Events? It is not Switzerland-relevant.
I believe this is a general topics category so not exclusively for Swiss related stuff.
Then the rules are different to the old EF. Anything there not Switzerland-related was placed in Off-Topic (now World Events). I think the same rules should apply here to reduce noise.
They say The Reform Party is going to contest every seat in the UK General Election led by Richard Tice ( & no doubt backed by GB News ) wiki already has it down as a right wing populist party. Of course āThe Wolf !!!ā in sheepās clothing is Nigel Farage in all this & which way heās going to turn.
Although I think its a stupid idea designed to appeal to the elderly, Iām willing to run with it if there is a quid pro quo for the intended victims of this scheme.
Bring back free university education and enact policies that help the young get onto the property ladder. I was one of the last cohort of students in the late 90s that got a free education and was able to afford a property on a graduate salary. I was also able to live and work on the continent without issues. These are just dreams for young people today and now they want to compound their misery by pushing them into military service or unpaid social work (both of which have been cut to the bone following 14 years of austerity).
Nigel Farage although an ardent supporter of the party he founded - Reform UK ( previously known as the Brexit Party ) says heās ruled out standing as a candidate ( despite giving a number of pro-Reform speeches ) in the forthcoming British General Election.
Instead heās focused on helping his friend Donald Trump in his bid to win the US presidential election.
Thats where the money is, heās amassed an estimated $4 million from speaking gigs, articles and media appearances. If he was a true patriot heād be staying home to sort out his Brexit mess.
Itās astonishing that heās getting so much airtime. Heās not an MP, and never was, heās not standing for election either. Heās been covered more than the clown standing for Reform UK, Richard Tice.
His airtime is guaranteed for as long as he has his own 7 pm news show on GB News.
Iām not even sure weāre going to have a vote. My local council in Scotland are not sending out papers until anything up to 6 days before the GE and it takes 4 to get to Basel, then 4 days back. Weāre in Scotland for the GE so I looked into voting in person, but theyāve told me once youāre in the system and approved as an overseas postal voter the answer is no. Husband didnāt get a Brexit vote because his papers only arrived 2 days before.
I was also going to apply for an overseas postal vote but changed my mind and applied for the proxy instead. Maybe too late for you this time but perhaps one to bear in mind down the line.
I did the same, I didnāt trust postal votes to get there in time.
I donāt think itās too late to change from postal vote to a proxy.
I expect by the GE after this one Iāll be back living in Scotland again, OH turned 64 a couple of weeks ago. If he intends to stay on beyond 65 he has to apply for another retirement age deferment in December, but itās not guaranteed itāll be approved and we know his department has someone in the frame to take over his role should he have to go next year.
I found this interesting article by former Conservative MP Rory Stewart that lays bare the absurdity of the British political system.
As a British minister, for instance, I had to be at least three different things, in three places, at one time. I was an MP serving constituents in the Cumbrian-Scottish border; I was also paid to be a parliamentarian, voting 350 miles south in Westminster; and also a minister, often abroad, moving through five different positions in four years.
And then there were the reshuffles. I had not yet finished my plan for the British environment before I was put in charge of development programs in Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Before I had a chance to visit Pakistan, I was transferred to Africa. My Africa strategy had not yet been signed off when I was made the minister of state at the ministry of justice, responsible for more than 100 prisons in England and Wales. Before I had finished my work on prison violence, I became the secretary of state for international development. My knowledge of these portfolios was absurdly limited. And this was true of most of us.
It was a rare defence secretary ā Labour or Conservative ā who understood the difference between a major and a sergeant major before they took over responsibility for the armed forces. Few ministers were decent managers. And because we were badly informed, motivated by the most short-term political agendas and likely to be reshuffled in a few monthsā time, civil servants understandably blocked many of our initiatives. We responded tetchily ā either by simply presiding over a system we did not control, or by randomly demanding changes whose consequences we barely understood.