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Politics, politics, politics (so long and thanks for all the fish)

Mikey10 said:
Big gains in a sense; however, Reform are down from 41% of the vote in local elections they contested last year to 33% in yesterday's elections. That is quite a significant drop, and suggests that as people see Reform in power they are not always keen on them (e.g promises of no council tax rises actually metamorphising into Reform-led council rises of 9%).

Also, the turnout yesterday was 43%. It is likely to be at least 60% in a GE; local elections are always a chance to kick the governing party and those motivated to vote largely want to do that.

That said, I don't think Labour have a chance at the next GE unless Starmer (who I personally think has done a decent job, but has communicated terribly what the party have done) goes.
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Unfortunately, IMO, Starmer suffers from not being a 'personality politician' which in the current climate is a very, very dangerous thing (sad to say).
 
MartyFunkhouser said:
Clearly just sitting dormant. Twitter is just full of open racism in the form of "free speech" so its just spread again like wild fire.

I don't think this is a bad thing though, reform have shown so far they can't run a tap locally, let alone a council, so maybe this is needed for people to realise they have no substance before the next election
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Society said it wasn't socially acceptable to be a racist.
Brexit gave racism a voice again (tough brick to any Brexiter that doesn't like that - it's true, own it).
 
WillWeEverBeGoodAgain said:
Can I ask a question here

I've seen a few videos today from Candidates who are standing or who have won who cannot speak a word of English, how can they be allowed to stand if they cannot at least converse with everybody in their constituencies
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It isn't a requirement.
Requirements are: 18+, live or work locally, be a UK/EU citizen.

It's right that it isn't a requirement - one of the important things in policy makes is the unintended impacts. How do you measure if a candidate "can speak English"? Every answer you come up will create a barrier for a working class kid from a poor area of the UK that didn't do well at school etc. And the cornerstone of UK democracy is that anyone should be able to stand to represent their local community.

The balance of that is the voter - you wouldn't expect voters to vote someone in that cannot communicate in English.
Of course the flip side argument to that is, if they are a brilliant thinker and official, are they better than the English speaking village idiot?
 
monkeybarry said:
It isn't a requirement.
Requirements are: 18+, live or work locally, be a UK/EU citizen.

It's right that it isn't a requirement - one of the important things in policy makes is the unintended impacts. How do you measure if a candidate "can speak English"? Every answer you come up will create a barrier for a working class kid from a poor area of the UK that didn't do well at school etc. And the cornerstone of UK democracy is that anyone should be able to stand to represent their local community.

The balance of that is the voter - you wouldn't expect voters to vote someone in that cannot communicate in English.
Of course the flip side argument to that is, if they are a brilliant thinker and official, are they better than the English speaking village idiot?
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Our FPTP system doesn't really help with that though.

@WillWeEverBeGoodAgain : do you have a couple of links to the videos you mention? I could well understand that English might not be the first language of all candidates but would expect that they would be able to speak it to a basic level, maybe one-to-one rather than in a public speaking environment. Or that they have a translator.
 
Glenda's Legs said:
Our FPTP system doesn't really help with that though.

@WillWeEverBeGoodAgain : do you have a couple of links to the videos you mention? I could well understand that English might not be the first language of all candidates but would expect that they would be able to speak it to a basic level, maybe one-to-one rather than in a public speaking environment. Or that they have a translator.
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I find it worrying than people standing for political office cannot or will not be able to engage in debate or understand the people they represent. I believe its a good thing for all ethnic groups get involved in politics but feel candidates like this will create division rather than unity.
 
ricky2tricky4city said:
Looking outward is always so much easier.....it's the dehumanising that takes it to another ugly level.

(Also, I've always thought (well, for the last 10 years) that people concern themselves with far too much.)
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This is it, dehumanizing of people is horrific in this country. We do it with the poor and the needy, thats before immigrants. We have always had a hateful society, the sights just change decade to decade
 
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WillWeEverBeGoodAgain said:
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WillWeEverBeGoodAgain said:
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Can they speak English yes/no
Have they indicated they choose not to speak English in public yes/no
Were they speaking another language just at that moment yes/no
Have voters in his constituency complained that their candidate doesn't/never communicates in English yes/no

Once we know these answers we can move the conversation along.
 
ricky2tricky4city said:
Can they speak English yes/no
Have they indicated they choose not to speak English in public yes/no
Were they speaking another language just at that moment yes/no
Have voters in his constituency complained that their candidate doesn't/never communicates in English yes/no

Once we know these answers we can move the conversation along.
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Dont hold your breath.
 
WillWeEverBeGoodAgain said:
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I know John. He's great. I think he's a perfect example of respectful disagreement. He goes on GB News and is thoughtful and engaging. Rather than calling people thick, like most entering into that world would, he seems to manage to win them round with reasoning. A lot of politicians could learn from that approach
 
WillWeEverBeGoodAgain said:
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So the first one (from your first posted example) is an acceptance speech - such a short clip so I don’t know whether the candidate spoke in English as well. I’ve tried tracking it down but as the tv host didn’t even know which constituency it was taken from it’s hard to easily find out anymore. It certainly doesn’t illustrate that the winner cannot speak English.
(Actually seems to be the same as a later example you gave which is from Newham. Again, nothing to suggest he cannot speak English).

The second one is a somewhat hostile interviewer questioning some canvassers, not the candidate. And canvassers who to my ear seem to be speaking English?

The final one from Oldham - is he a canvasser/ supporter of the candidate or the candidate himself? From a quick search for the Oldham
Labour candidate for the ward that covers the polling station they are in front of, the photo of the candidate does not look like the man in that video. So not conclusive of whether or not the candidate speaks English (although looking at the council committees he is on I would very much suspect he does).
 
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