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The current UK government are on their last legs - the overwhelming majority of the public don't trust them and we're now on our second unelected Prime Minister

• zimpenfish 3y ago
  > now on our second unelected Prime Minister. Of this election cycle, even - we had one (Cameron -> May, May -> Johnson) in each of the previous two cycles as well. (We've had 5 swaps 2000-2023 compared with 12 1900-1999) > The current UK government are on their last legs I hope you're right but the UK populace does show a distressing talent for ignoring the past and electing horrific parties when it comes to a general.
• denton-scratch 3y ago
  > IMO, they're just trying to get through the things they want into legislation This is crowd-pleaser legislation; they're hoping it's a vote-winner. They think they have a chance in the next GE. I'm inclined to agree; I can't vote for Starmer's party, so unless something changes, I won't be voting.
  • ta1243 3y ago
    Every constituency will have at least 3 MPs to choose from, and most will have 4, 5 or even more.
    • jen20 3y ago
      This is not practically the case. Take Bath for example (I happen to vote there, since it's the last place I lived - prior to that I lived in North East Somerset where the dynamic is the same, but with different parties). There has not been a member elected for Bath since the 1800s who was not either a member of the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives, or a party which became one of those. The margins are usually comical. Therefore, one must vote according to who they want to prevent winning if one is not for either of those two candidates. Realistically, the only hope even for _Conservatives_ in Bath in the modern era is that a general election is held during University holidays.
      • ta1243 3y ago
        And one vote rarely makes a difference anyway so why bother voting. Vote tactically if you want to kep a party out, otherwise vote for the party you most want to win. Every vote counts in short money if nothing else, and every vote counts for the continued pressure for PR which seems inevitable given that the only people against it now seem to be the tories and the labour leadership (but not membership)
  • jimwhite42 3y ago
    > unless something changes, I won't be voting. I encourage anyone who feels this way to spoil your ballot paper. This sends a different signal than not voting: if there were lots of spoilt ballot papers this would be received differently to low turnout.
    • jarym 3y ago
      Or refer to this website: https://stopthetories.vote/ https://stopthetories.vote/
    • toyg 3y ago
      The ruling classes don't care either way, as far as they're concerned winners have a mandate even if a single vote is cast. There is no "message" - the message is to vote for the least worst, or start your own party.
    • denton-scratch 3y ago
      > if there were lots of spoilt ballot papers this would be received differently to low turnout. Do they even count spoiled ballots? They certainly don't report them. I guess in theory, someone who spoils their ballot has "turned out" to vote, so should be counted in the turnout. So it should be possible to work out the number of spoiled ballots from the difference between the turnout, and the total of votes cast. It would be interesting to see if the news media report it so the difference is zero.
      • sWW26 3y ago
        They do count them and they do report them. See "Rejected ballot papers" https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/who-we-are-and-what-we-do/elections-and-referendums/past-elections-and-referendums/uk-general-elections/results-and-turnout-2017-uk-general-election https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/who-we-are-and-what-w...
  • simonbarker87 3y ago
    Probably not the place to have this discussion, and I’m not saying that this is your view, but I find the “no party is exactly what I want so I just won’t vote” approach incredibly annoying. No political party will ever be exactly what you want, but surely you can see enough of what you want with one of them to vote for them? By not voting you make it easier for the parties to not change, it means they can play to the most populist views of the moment for their side of the fence and know that the disgruntled middle can be ignored therefore making the system worse over all.
    • denton-scratch 3y ago
      > surely you can see enough of what you want with one of them to vote for them? I can't - not with the major parties, anyway. I can't support the present shower of incompetents and thieves. I would normally vote Labour; but (a) the party is currently infested with agents of a foreign power; and (b) Starmer won the leadership on a set of pledges that he repudiated as soon as he won, and is still trying to destroy and bury his predecessor. I can cast a vote for a candidate that doesn't have a snowflake's, such as Green or one of the socialist parties. My vote might suffice to save their deposit, I suppose. But I'm reluctant to cast a vote for someone I know nothing about.
• okeuro49 3y ago
  > unelected Prime Minister Always an odd point of contention. The Prime Minister is never elected in the same way as a President is in other countries. That doesn't mean they are "unelected". I would say the issue is rather that the current manifesto hasn't got a mandate.
  • ta1243 3y ago
    Technically you vote for your local MP. In reality the vast majority of people vote for the MP who is a member of the party with the leader they like the best
• mjhay 3y ago
  The Tories are hugely unpopular. Losing to them would be quite a feat, but I think Starmer and Labour just might be able to pull that off.
  • Mindwipe 3y ago
    Sadly it's not that important, as the Labour Party position is this shitshow of a bill should be even worse.
  • gambiting 3y ago
    I know a lot of people whose entire political stance is "I hate the Tories, but not much as I hate labour". I wouldn't be so sure of Tories losing the next election either.
    • stu432 3y ago
      A four year old would be able to run rings around the current government, yet Starmers Labour can't. I truly despair. Then again, the absolute trainwreck that next year's election in the UK will be, is going to be nothing compared to how the US is looking.
• elzbardico 3y ago
  Being unpopular with voters is not an issue so serious in European parliamentary democracies. Even in the Uk, in practice a new prime minister is chosen by the party member, as the voters only vote for delegates in general election and usually the new PM is the leader of the winning party. In countries like Germany, where hardly a single party commands a majority in the parliament alone, the process is even more opaque, and more directed by the parties bureaucracy than the popular vote itself.
• anigbrowl 3y ago
  The UK government exists to do the right thing for the people who own the country. The larger population are assets. Technically the country is a constitutional monarchy, but the 'constitution' is a joke. Most people in the UK can't even articulate what it is, and if you look its core document (Magna Carta, which is written in Latin) it's basically a negotiated settlement between a monarch and lesser aristocrats designed to securely distribute a certain number of privileges across the latter: https://www.bl.uk/magna-carta/articles/magna-carta-english-translation https://www.bl.uk/magna-carta/articles/magna-carta-english-t... It's not the current government that's on its last legs, it's your system of government. With the upcoming coronation, police are being given sweeping new public order powers and opponents of monarchy are being pre-emptively warned not to upset the apple car or face penal consequences. Meanwhile the establishment press regales the populace with an endless torrent of nonsense about how many twists are in King Charles' gold braid and what sort of 500 year old pie recipe will be served at the royal feast. After briefly abolishing the monarchy and establishing a parliament, the UK went back to being an aristocracy and went in an imperialist direction instead. The peasants and later the working class were willing to put up with it by virtue of feeling that they were at the top of the international heap and thus far better off than all those savages in the colonies. As imperial dreams faded under the stress and cost of war, the country pivoted to being the center of a 'commonwealth', but at its core its still an aristocracy, with nearly unlimited privileges for the very rich or the very well-bred, and open-air prison conditions with bread and circuses for everyone else, kept in line by an especially cynical press. The whole Brexit mess was based on nostalgia for the days of Britain being an empire with a built-in moat. The only things saving the UK from international irrelevance are money (in the sense of being a tax haven for the very wealthy), a seat on the UN security council, and a small nuclear capability. Nothing is going to change until the country becomes a republic, and the only way to get there is to abolish your benighted aristocracy, confiscate its assets, and convert a subject population into citizens by refactoring your legal code to make it meaningful and comprehensible to schoolchildren. Otherwise it's just going to continue down the Harry Potter theme park track.
  • 1827163 3y ago
    [flagged]
  • 3y ago
• danjac 3y ago
  Hence why the new voting ID laws. Under which, to everyone's shock and surprise, Tory-leaning pensioners are exempt.
• bodge5000 3y ago
  Sadly I'm not sure labour would fair much better, I'm almost certain they wouldn't bother repealing this. They're manifesto pledge pretty much seems to be "we're not the tories" and most depressingly of all, I can say that for me that seems to be just about good enough. Not good mind you, not good at all, not its enough (considering that the competition to the big 2 are either even more loathsome or have no chance in hell)
  • Hnrobert42 3y ago
    So it sounds like it is going as well over there as it is over here in the US. Cheers.
• Veen 3y ago
  > we're now on our second unelected Prime Minister Sunak is as "elected" as any PM we've ever had. That is, no PM has ever been elected to that position. They are always MPs selected to lead their party by other MPs.