Election Year or Fear!

[ramAnag]

I've seen it with many on the left who believe either Cobyn's shower or The Greens are the answer to Labour's shift rightwards, they don't seem to be able to comprehend that the majority of voters in the UK aren't going to be attracted by a hard left party, even if some policies are to their advantage and that splitting the left vote is just going to make it more likely that a far right party or more likely a coalition of far right parties is likely to gain power as a result.

Nutshell!
I’m sure Corbyn is a decent enough chap and, like Diane Abbott, a good local MP, but in the grown up world of national/global politics he’s a liability and as soon as I heard his and Sultana’s proposals I reached the same conclusion.

[Ram Pant]

Read a piece online that said Trump's machinations aren't as daft as they seem. The theory being that, by stopping Venezuelan oil going to China on the cheap to help pay off their 60 billion debt means China will have to start paying much more for their oil which will hit China. By backing the Iranian protests regime change will come and that will stop Russia getting cheap Iranian oil as well as removing their middle east influence. Greenland is another where he's looking at the bigger picture, talking about a takeover which will see NATO countries end up agreeing to the reopening (by European NATO countries) of the bases the US closed down and maybe adding in some US bases as well AND, of course, getting a good deal for the USA on Greenland's rare minerals.

This will all help put a stop to thoughts of the US dollar losing importance which will help the US economy.

Add in my own thoughts that if he did take Greenland by force, the European NATO countries could dump all the US Treasury Bonds which would send the US economy into a spiral.

So, which side of the genius line is Trump on? I think we'll find out in the near future. Has he calculated badly or is he the genius he has always claimed to be?

[Geoff Parkstone]

I tried to post something to this effect a couple of days ago but the system was playing up and I gave up after three goes. In esence he is playing a bigger game and doesnt necessarily need the Venezuelan oil, but rather to stop others getting it, thus winning a bigger trade/AI/currency battle over China. It does make seemingly good sense if you have the balls to do it. he has the balls and his strategists have the genius perhaps: doubt this is all the Donald's joined up thinking. I think Greenland is more to break China's almost monopoly on rare earth metals.

The other point is that Venezuelan oil is a bit of a curates egg - they have big reserves but very little of it is in production as its very heavy crude (almost solid I understand from those that do) and so extraction cost is high (like deep water drilling) hence when prices are low - like now - it makes no economic sense to put it into production. If Venezuelan sources dry up, the Chinese teapots will have to go elsewhere, eg Iran or Russia, and pay more for the oil as its more refined (although quite a bit of Iranian crude is fairly heavy too) - hence the Donald is no doubt happy to see Iran protests mounting and maybe heading for regime change.

[Ram Pant]

One thing he may have missed is that most of the Greenland rare minerals lie in ground with a 1 mile thick layer of ice above it...

[Geoff Parkstone]

but as he is encouraging global warming with non ecofriendly policies, the ice will soon melt and make them more accessible!!

[SithHappens]

Should just bury Trump and Farage and the rest of their ilk under the ice with the rest of the dinosaurs

[ramAnag]

Another day Another tory defection to Reform, Another example of Farage and the defectee looking stupid.

The lovely, loyal Jenrick now. Wanted to lead the Tories just over a year ago, now he seeks to discredit them. What a bunch of untrustworthy, two faced treacherous tw@ts Farage is now the leader of. Fitting really.

P.S. Victoria Atkins anticipated next apparently.

[swaledale]

It is amusing, both were slagging each other off quite recently!

Jenrick has always been a slippery customer, did the former **** baron Desmond a favour over planning consent, was remainer who quickly became a right winger, so desperate to prove how "hard" he was, had murals painted over at a centre for asylum children.

So increasingly, reform is being made up of the incompetent, untrustworthy tw@ts who were in the last Tory government, some chnage in politics there then!!

[Geoff Parkstone]

And yet still labour/Starmer has one of the lowest approval ratings of any standing government ever. What a **** storm UK politics is at present.

[SithHappens]

The lovely, loyal Jenrick now. Wanted to lead the Tories just over a year ago, now he seeks to discredit them. What a bunch of untrustworthy, two faced treacherous tw@ts Farage is now the leader of. Fitting really.

P.S. Victoria Atkins anticipated next apparently.

Im actually impressed with the way Badenoch handled it to be honest.

Caught snippets of the press conference and it was painful.

Interesting how 'medieval attitudes to exploitation of women and children ' was mentioned This in a party whos leader openly supports people found guilty of rape, thinks Andrew Tate is an important voice for young men, and recently sided with Musk and X regarding the use of the grok tool to exploit children and women online, in fact openly caught laughing about child **** in pmqs.

Im sure it won't be the last of the defections I agree.

[ramAnag]

And yet still labour/Starmer has one of the lowest approval ratings of any standing government ever. What a **** storm UK politics is at present.

Can’t really argue with that, although it shouldn’t be forgotten that - in football season terms - this government has only reached something like late September. There’s a long way to go and they have a huge majority.
Of the 4/5 main party leaders - and I reluctantly include Farage amongst them - I still regard Starmer as being the most statesmanlike with the greatest level of competence and integrity however I have to accept that it’s a low bar.

[SithHappens]

What i do think is Farage had scored an own goal with Jenrick.

The chances of Farage being leader at the next election have just reduced IMO. No doubt Jenrick will have the leadership in his sights.

[swaledale]

Jenrick couldn't lead a piss up in a Brewery! Don’t try to make it serious. It isn’t. Before it happened, Reform were leading in the polls, the Tories were screwed and the country was going to the dogs. Nothings changed. Nothing of any consequence has taken place, except that we all got to laugh as some of the most ludicrous and useless politicians desperately grasp for some semblance of power and media attention.

Plus there is very little in history which suggets that those that defect or split and form a new party actually do progress their political careers.

Watching Jenrick engage in Westminster scheming is like observing Tom hatch some kind of fiendish plan against Jerry. He is so obvious, so utterly transparent, that you can interpret every move before he even makes it. This seems to have reached a climax with his barely concealed plan to ditch the Tories and join Reform.


Then there’s this, from BBC political correspondent Henry Zeffman: “One MP I’ve just spoken to, who was generally aligned with Robert Jenrick, was adamant that Jenrick had merely been keeping his options open when it came to Reform. They said his preferred option was to wait for the elections in May, and then see if there was a possibility of him becoming Conservative leader first.” This piece of gold-plated rhetoric is apparently the Jenrick defence. Amazingly, it is more damning than the attack from Tory HQ, because it suggests he wanted to hang around and see if he could become leader before defecting, but then decided he could not. It really takes some skill to construct an excuse so feeble it makes your murderers look like character witnesses.

The only threat Jenrick is to Farage, is that of pissing off a number of potential reform voters, i.e. those with enough brain cells to be able to think, hang on a minute thats how many ex Tory MP's from the last government that were so ****? How does that represent radical change in politics?

One has to admire Bad Enoch, though she has had at least 6 opportunities to sack the tw@t before now, given he has been on manouvres since he lost to her in the Tory leadership election.

[SithHappens]

Farage's gushing tribute to Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins is not the best look ha

[Ram Pant]

Farage disses the Blue Tories yet all his MPs and, it seems all the other defectors are of that ilk...