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

[Gazza]

Labour are instinctively uncomfortable and divided on the issue though. The two child benefit cap was largely introduced off the back of genuine public anger that a chav or immigrant could bang out 5 or 6 kids and end up being handed a 6 bedroom mansion and £80K a year for sitting on their a** all day while muggins like me earn less (but still too much to qualify for even the non -UC child benefit.

I would understand supporting child birth rate if a countries population is in decline.

But I have three kids and earn my corn to support my family and give my kids as much as I can afford, they don’t go without.

It’s annoying to see people pumping out kids like a baby factory and claim all the benefits under the sun. How is that fair? I’ve even helped a friend on a weekend on a removal job for his business, and the family were celebrating moving from their council flat to a council house because they had their 4th child. Their neighbours were asking how they managed it, they said easy they planned on having more kids to get a bigger house. They joked about having 2 more. This was in Kensington.

 

[scaramanga]

I thought you were advocating for a one state solution?

Did I misunderstand?

No, I'm advocating for a Palestine that is kept secure and safe by Israel/the US who would hold a veto to ensure that nobody is stupid enough to vote in someone like Hamas again.

 

[scaramanga]

The YouGov MRP polls are very reliable and accurate to within a small margin of error. Albeit it is still a snapshot in time (i.e. its "if a GE were held now" - well it won't be held until 2029) - although i am not sure the established parties have an answer for this as their fundamental problem is that all of them other than the Greens have been in power and therefore they are ALL part of the problem.

their current attack line of "Reform don't have the answer to your problems" will not work as Farage's answer is a simple: "well we can hardly do any worse than all of those lot".

Delivery against the wishes of the British public is the only way to counter Reform and this current government are failing woefully at this...

As to Labour and the other parties, i don't think they have a choice but to lean into it. Because its the clear no. 1 priority for a majority of the public.

See Starmer's article in today's Telegraph as an example.

Unfortunately he seems to think it can be fixed with ID cards - he doesn't seem to realise that those employing illegally aren't checking for ID.

 

[Baleforce]

ID cards are a nonsense.

I wish someone would tell the Labour Party they won the election, have a massive majority and can implement their agenda. They don’t need to waste time pandering to this right wing flimflam.

 

[Jurgen the German]

ID cards are a nonsense.

I wish someone would tell the Labour Party they won the election, have a massive majority and can implement their agenda. They don’t need to waste time pandering to this right wing flimflam.

Fine for now but they may not win another election if they don’t address immigration. No one is a saying they have to pander to the right. But it would nice if the pendulum swung to the middle.

 

[johnola]

Well if we all need id cards that’s left wing.

 

[Baleforce]

Fine for now but they may not win another election if they don’t address immigration. No one is a saying they have to pander to the right. But it would nice if the pendulum swung to the middle.

They have years before they have to worry about being elected again.

I agree they should work in the middle, immigration is only an issue to the far right.

 

[scaramanga]

ID cards are a nonsense.

I wish someone would tell the Labour Party they won the election, have a massive majority and can implement their agenda. They don’t need to waste time pandering to this right wing flimflam.

It was labour who wanted them before and the Conservatives who pushed back

 

[Gutter Boy]

There was a spike in net migration during Covid as there was a huge influx of people returning to the UK that had been stuck abroad during lockdowns including many EU citizens that came to the UK to get their settled status prior to the transition period ending. There was also a mass foreign recruitment drive to replace EU citizens leaving the UK post Brexit.

Net migration has simply returned from close to 1 million a year to its previous (and still ridiculous and unsustainable) 400-500K a year.

As to Labour and other parties (even Lib Dems are now talking about need to tackle immigration) don't think they have a choice but to lean into it as it is the no. 1 priority issue for a large chunk of the public now. Its a bit like our EU status. There was growing euroscepticism across the 90s and into the 2000s and 2010. By time the major parties decided to tackle the issue it was too late.

Immigration was a growing issue of public concern going back to 2010 (when the imfamous Gordon Brown "bigoted woman" occurred when he was confronted about the issue). Nothing has been done about it and Brexit was a lot based on people's concerns on it. Now we have full control over our immigration policy the issue has become even more of a focus on policy of our own politocians.

Attempts by labour, lib dem and tories to talk tough on issue are falling on deaf ears and it is too late to "move the issue on"

The 'Boris wave' was mostly people from Hong Kong and Ukraine, which were specific trauma events.

But in general low skilled visas are way too high and big business needs weaning off them.

 

[Gutter Boy]

See Starmer's article in today's Telegraph as an example.

Unfortunately he seems to think it can be fixed with ID cards - he doesn't seem to realise that those employing illegally aren't checking for ID.

Or just means Just Eat riders scanning in their mate's phone before each shift.

 

[Gutter Boy]

ID cards are a nonsense.

I wish someone would tell the Labour Party they won the election, have a massive majority and can implement their agenda. They don’t need to waste time pandering to this right wing flimflam.

ID cards are both right and left wing. Well the authoritarian and socialist wings of those both want them (in contrast to the libertarian and anarchist wings). Both the corporations and the state have an unquenchable appetite for our data. But it's not particularly a left vs right issue.

 

[Jurgen the German]

They have years before they have to worry about being elected again.

I agree they should work in the middle, immigration is only an issue to the far right.

I’m sorry but it’s not only a right wing issue and it’s idealistic to say it is. Every country needs immigration but no country on earth can support an unlimited number of immigrants.

 

[ricky2tricky4city]

Net migration has simply returned from close to 1 million a year to its previous (and still ridiculous and unsustainable) 400-500K a year.

200-300k a year previous to COVID.

Fine for now but they may not win another election if they don’t address immigration. No one is a saying they have to pander to the right. But it would nice if the pendulum swung to the middle.

The issue is, a Centrist path is probably best (with slight tilt to left or right on certain policies) BUT the polarisation and division is so prominent now that the middle has been lost. I still think a massive amount of people fall into this bracket but they are being quiet, or not coming forth as it appears the only noise that resonates is at the extreme end of either side. Middle ground usually requires discussion/compromise/acceptance ...and that's hard to come by these days.