Election Year or Fear!

[ramAnag]

Well Rotherham and Oldham are pretty much the same place aren't they - Northern exclusion zones?

About as similar as Surrey and the Cotswolds, GP…but you’re right, ‘Cottonopolis’ isn’t what it once was and the vision of a ‘Northern Powerhouse’ seems a long way off.

[swaledale]

"it was apparently an immigrant in the 1860's who first opened a chip shop in London!"

I think Joseph Malins from Bethnal Green might object to this suggestion.

And first in UK was possibly opened by one of rA's ancestors...

Hardly he was a Jewish immigrant, from central or eastern Europe! Seems not much changes in reality.

Chips apparently originated in Portugal and fish and chips was supposedly first served in Belgium

[Geoff Parkstone]

Chips with mayonnaise - disgusting ,🤮

[Trickytreesreds]

Which brings me to something that hasn't crossed Tricky's mind as that's an easy thing to miss... we're all descended from immigrants aren't we?

I'd like the lad to show me just one person that doesn't have mixed, foreign descendance. Which brings me to the lad himself. I wonder what % of foreign he has in his DNA?

I can tell you that. One of my ancestors came from France in the early 1700's.

Here's one that probably hasn't crossed your mind either. This country has been invaded and overrun many times. Romans/Saxons/ Normans to name but a few. Every time was mass blood shed and a re drawing of the lines.
In the last 40 years, more immigrants have come to the UK than in the previous 2000 years.
Folks think that change in such a short space of time is good?
You're seeing it now, play out in crime and politics.

[Trickytreesreds]

Actually what he’s said is that he wants a ‘coherent plan’ for immigration…and I think it’s voters, rather than me, that have been ‘Tory bashing’ since Thursday. Seems immigration might not be quite the issue you want it to be.
Anyway, you get back to your collars and cuffs…think you might have missed a bit there.

Lol, you think immigration isn't an issue based on Council results?
Here let me help you

https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/immigration-tracker-march-2024

Remember it seems that Gaza is more important than the bins in some councils, Allahu Akbar

[ramAnag]

Lol, you think immigration isn't an issue based on Council results?
Here let me help you

https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/immigration-tracker-march-2024

Remember it seems that Gaza is more important than the bins in some councils, Allahu Akbar

I’ve never suggested ‘immigration isn’t an issue’…I’ve said it isn’t as important an issue as you make it out to be. It isn’t the ‘be all and end all’ issue you want it to be.
We’ve just had local and mayoral elections across the country and the Party that wants to put all it’s proverbial eggs in the electoral basket of ‘stop the boats’ and send people to Rwanda has, you have to agree, been hammered just about everywhere.
How do you explain that? I’d suggest it’s perhaps because issues such as the cost of living, the state of the NHS, the state of our roads, rivers, seas and schools, the repeated lack of honesty and integrity shown by so many in government since the last election, the cost of borrowing and the inability to run a transport network etc. are all currently seen as more important than immigration.

[Geoff Parkstone]

Yet the surveys say otherwise. Nobody told me there'd be days like these - strange days indeed.

When you're strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you're strange
No one remembers your name

[Trickytreesreds]

I’ve never suggested ‘immigration isn’t an issue’…I’ve said it isn’t as important an issue as you make it out to be. It isn’t the ‘be all and end all’ issue you want it to be.
We’ve just had local and mayoral elections across the country and the Party that wants to put all it’s proverbial eggs in the electoral basket of ‘stop the boats’ and send people to Rwanda has, you have to agree, been hammered just about everywhere.
How do you explain that? I’d suggest it’s perhaps because issues such as the cost of living, the state of the NHS, the state of our roads, rivers, seas and schools, the repeated lack of honesty and integrity shown by so many in government since the last election, the cost of borrowing and the inability to run a transport network etc. are all currently seen as more important than immigration.

Yet it remains number 3 on the most heated topics.
We'll see where it ends up, when Labour get in and Starmer does feck all about it,
He's used it in his rants in parliament, yet has NO PLAN to deal with it.

In fact we are still waiting for any solid plan on anything from him. He's only there, due to Tory incompetence and failure to follow through what was promised.

[swaledale]

I’ve never suggested ‘immigration isn’t an issue’…I’ve said it isn’t as important an issue as you make it out to be. It isn’t the ‘be all and end all’ issue you want it to be.
We’ve just had local and mayoral elections across the country and the Party that wants to put all it’s proverbial eggs in the electoral basket of ‘stop the boats’ and send people to Rwanda has, you have to agree, been hammered just about everywhere.
How do you explain that? I’d suggest it’s perhaps because issues such as the cost of living, the state of the NHS, the state of our roads, rivers, seas and schools, the repeated lack of honesty and integrity shown by so many in government since the last election, the cost of borrowing and the inability to run a transport network etc. are all currently seen as more important than immigration.

Save your fingers, the guys obsessed and incapable of understanding reality.

[ramAnag]

So now, at last, we (nearly) know. Looking very like 4th July…when hopefully the country can claim independence from this bunch of incompetent clowns and 14 years of misrule.

[Andy_Faber]

I repeat what I said earlier in this thread, beware a) the fickleness of the population and b) the Tories determination to win, and don’t bet against a Tory victory. I declare no allegiance in saying this but there will be many a twist and turn

[ramAnag]

I repeat what I said earlier in this thread, beware a) the fickleness of the population and b) the Tories determination to win, and don’t bet against a Tory victory. I declare no allegiance in saying this but there will be many a twist and turn

I don’t bet, AF, and neither do I have quite the political allegiance you, and certainly Tricky, might imagine…but I’ll be bloody glad to see the end of this particular group of smug, cruel, dishonest, corrupt incompetents. It’ll take something astonishing to prevent a Tory hammering…biggest question, imo, is likely to be how the void is filled…i.e. how well Richard Tice’s bunch, the Liberals and the Greens do. We’ll see.

[SithHappens]

We all know what happened in 92. I think a coalition is a possibility, although both labour and lib dems have ruled it out but suspect if they needed to form one they would.

[swaledale]

I repeat what I said earlier in this thread, beware a) the fickleness of the population and b) the Tories determination to win, and don’t bet against a Tory victory. I declare no allegiance in saying this but there will be many a twist and turn

Normally I'd agree and of course almost anything could happen, BUT I shall certainly be betting against a Tory victory, however, by what margin Labour win is open to question., I suspect it will be tighter than some pundits are forecasting.

The only way the Tory party might be able to shore matters up is if Reform don't field that many candidates, which I'd say is the reason for the election being called, to minimise Reforms ability to organise, its already running short of funds.

[Andy_Faber]

Normally I'd agree and of course almost anything could happen, BUT I shall certainly be betting against a Tory victory, however, by what margin Labour win is open to question., I suspect it will be tighter than some pundits are forecasting.

The only way the Tory party might be able to shore matters up is if Reform don't field that many candidates, which I'd say is the reason for the election being called, to minimise Reforms ability to organise, its already running short of funds.

Yes a well run Reform effort may sink the Tories and one thing I’d def bet on, Reform won’t get a seat