this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2023
34 points (94.7% liked)

UK Politics

3081 readers
178 users here now

General Discussion for politics in the UK.
Please don't post to both !uk_politics@feddit.uk and !unitedkingdom@feddit.uk .
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric politics, and should be either a link to a reputable news source for news, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread. (These things should be publicly discussed)

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

!ukpolitics@lemm.ee appears to have vanished! We can still see cached content from this link, but goodbye I guess! :'(

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Full text archive link: https://archive.is/aGAAh

top 14 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] tkc@feddit.uk 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I've been saying this for months. He strikes me as not being in it for his party, his country nor his political legacy. He's doing everything for himself and his business connections.

[–] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 11 points 1 year ago

It's always great when the highest elected office in the land is treating as a stepping stone.

"Well, I can't be crowned king, I'll go for billionaire tycoon instead."

[–] franglais@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

Tories have been doing this for as long as they have been called the conservative party.

[–] Mrkawfee@feddit.uk 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

He seems to be someone with no sense of public duty or loyalty.

[–] Emperor@feddit.uk 1 points 1 year ago

So... a Tory.

[–] HumanPenguin@feddit.uk 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Also seems like the laws commons is passing under the tory majority. In no way relate to any attempt to win support from voters.

But instead to appeal to the most insane right wing wealthy. Able to support an obstructive opposition.

[–] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago

It's because they know they're not getting back in at the next election, so they're pushing through all the shitty laws ready for next time

[–] snacks@feddit.uk 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It dosnt matter one jot what is said in the State Opening. If a Parliament session comes to and end when a General Election is called all legislation is finished. If the incumbent party wants to re-start legislative proceedings they can, just as a new party can. If there is a new manifesto alot of the Kings Speech will be changed anyway. But essentially, its all just words this close to a new Parliament. At best its signalling. Id imagine if Sunak does get his P45 a new tory leader will want to bring back hanging and try to use a wind turbine as you can hang more off those and this will be page 1 of the manifesto next to putting homeless people in rwanda.

Its an excuse to dress up

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 2 points 1 year ago

We all know who's trying to be the next Tory leader. So yeah, bringing back hanging is probably her key policy. Nutcase that she is.

[–] Syldon@feddit.uk 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Except it could be 14 months before we get an election. That is a long time to run the government with so little content.

[–] snacks@feddit.uk 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

True enough. Timing wise, we won’t have an election at the same time as the US. I reckon it’ll be spring

[–] Syldon@feddit.uk 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Do you really think Sunak is going to care about the 5 eyes memoranda?

Edit: Considering he knows he is going to loose this election. The good money was on for a spring election due to party pressure, but then Sunak removed banker's bonus caps to counter that problem. The general feeling now is for an autumn election, and all moves Sunak is doing point to that. And because of the snowballing of events that people are aware of, some are even thinking he will wait right into 2025.

My personal opinion has always been that Sunak will hold until the India deal is completed. He wants the final big pay off. He does not care about the outlook of the election due to timing or the outcome.

[–] snacks@feddit.uk 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

i dont think its down to him entirely. Its not just the rule stating we dont have an election at the same time (which is apparently real), it just makes sense to not have an election when our allies are also doing it. For example, should Trump look like winning it will be a nightmare 24/7 news cycle for months and no political party here will be able to get their messaging out. They pay a fortune for those PR cycles and those PR companies will want to maximise their opportunities. Seeing how strong Labour are today, they wont want to be fighting US news cycles as many of the issues will knock the manicured voter targeting off.

Theres sessions of parliament which means they wont call it during the summer holidays, so they wait until october, then its 4 weeks from the announcement. Before august theres the period after easter, again 4 weeks heads up means june or july. I dont think weve had an election in those months (id have to check) but tactically you dont want a summer of Labour celebrations before that same restart of parliament in october. The best time is either Oct/Nov or April. So it will have to be called in February or March.

This is all just my gut feeling. He could just get it over with and call it before christmas but he likely thinks theres still time to knock Labour back a bit and save a few seats.

[–] Syldon@feddit.uk 3 points 1 year ago

You are speaking tactically. My point was that Sunak does not care about the tactics. The Tories have squandered tactically advantages over and over. As for summer elections they are a lot more common than you think. Thatcher, Blair and May were all elected in June. The last July election was with Attlee in 1945. I had to check, you piqued my interest.

I like the spin of PR min/maxing. It will be difficult to get a message out once the real court cases start on March 25th. My gut feeling is that, if anything, Sunak will want the Trump media circus to dampen any Labour messaging. The reality is that Labour do not need to get any messages out, since they have such a huge lead in the polls. It is Sunak that will need to convince the public to change their minds. This would follow in the line the Tories have ran since 2019 of doing everything exactly wrong, so it would not surprise me.