Global Politics - General Chat

[Null]

someone translates what this shit means to non english people because on the outside these are all different brands of fash.

who are you talking about, the parties or the politicians?

[Aragorn]

someone translates what this shit means to non english people because on the outside these are all different brands of fash.

who are you talking about, the parties or the politicians?

Both tbh

[Null]

wouldn't call greens fash lol, they do have tendencies that annoy me though - like the nimbyism

maybe eco fash

[Bread]

Feel like I'll be in the air in 3 days time, setting out with Kier Starmer as PM and landing with a brand new Prime Minister 13 hours later.

This is assuming of course, he lasts for the remainder of the week.

I don't expect Starmer to resign to be honest despite the posturing from the right, and I certainly don't expect Wes fucking Streeting to be an improvement if he somehow scams his way into Number 10 (which I also don't expect).

Personally hope Starmer isn't pushed out. Not because I'm a huge fan, but a change in leadership now is going to lead to calls from the opposition for a General Election which we are simply not ready for.

[Null]

Yeah, I'm very much of the opinion that a leadership contest is just navel gazing really.

Andy Burnham's got himself a seat to run, in which case I can see him potentially winning. Streeting is one big joke though lol, that guy's such an opportunistic shmuck.

[Bread]

People of Clacton, you have the opportunity to do the funniest thing in British political history. You either vote for the jokey, nonsensical novelty act, or you vote for an intergalactic space warrior.

Vote Count Binface to bin cunt face.

[Dirty Duck]

People of Clacton, you have the opportunity to do the funniest thing in British political history. You either vote for the jokey, nonsensical novelty act, or you vote for an intergalactic space warrior.

Vote Count Binface to bin cunt face.

It would be the best thing of all time, honestly.

[Jassassino]

Digital ID scrapped, 5% VAT on Electricity dropped and a promise to end rough sleeping in a year all in Andy Burnham's first day. Solid start to regain credibility for Labour but he's still an LFI. With his cabinet picks will definitely still funnel money to Israel still too.

Also it's been over 12 hours why hasn't he given us all an extra bank holiday and a 20% pay rise yet, shit PM

[Null]

I'm sceptical about Burnham for many reasons but not least because his whole marketing shtick is regionalism and this kind of reverse snobbery of northern superiority over London and the south. I know this might irritate friends like Bread and Wayno but humour me while I explain.

I don't reject the notion that majority of the UK is deprived compared to London, and a redistribution of some of that wealth would be beneficial for the nation as a whole. What I don't like is the broad stroke us vs them narrative that turns regional inequality into a morality play where “the North” represents authentic working people and “London” represents privilege. Does that make sense?

I get bored of the conflation of London as this place of pomp and privilege when I was literally born and raised here in poverty, alongside a ton of my friends who lived in poverty, and some who still do. I think he'll be good overall for the UK overall and he does align with my politics roughly, but I really despise this political shorthand idea that Westminster is synonymous with London.

[Wayno]

Nah, I get it. It's a generalisation which suits no one other than those looking to sew division, spin a narrative or fan a new culture war.

I don't think it's Burnham himself pushing a North vs London morality play, as much as his "King of the North" moniker may say otherwise, but that wasn't self appointed. His whole regionality focus isn't intended to divide or be PR, it's his devolution stance that comes out of being GM Mayor and that very public Tier 3 fight with the Tory government during Covid (this is when I and others knew he'd be Labour leader at some point) - and that was never "London get everything and we northerners get shafted," it was Westminster making a region absorb economic pain with zero funding or accountability to the people actually living with the decision. That's a structural argument about where power and money sit, not a dig at London or Londoners.

I think the actual problem is media laziness conflating "Westminster" with "London" as if they're the same thing. Westminster genuinely does concentrate power in a way that's spatially real - Treasury, most FTSE HQs, Parliament - but that's completely separate from London the city and the people in it, The shorthand collapses a legitimate power/geography argument and diminishes it in to the well-trodden North / South divide which has gone on so long it feels like it's just treated as a list of gripes instead of genuine structural issues that affect us all regardless of region. It's incredibly easy to do, and that's on journalists, not on Burnham.