Election's on Thursday.

Everything is a cluster****.

All anybody wants to talk about is the economy.

I'm about ready to start kicking **** out of all of them because they don't understand anything, they're just repeating the Tory narrative.

Give us another breakdown! What's what.

Neoliberals might be **** at everything else, but they're damn good at controlling the narrative.

The economy's just like a family's credit card, y'see...

Also the recession was not due to our glorious financial sector but unemployed and disabled people. Also immigrants.

Yes, the parallels are there and scary and no one gives a ****. Even the parties that claim to be anti austerity are simultaneously unironically promising big spending cuts so they look "serious" about the economy.

All squawking about The Economy even though it's the thing the government is literally the least equipped to influence.

Because if neoliberals ever allowed politicians to actually discuss any other social issue they would be utterly obliterated forever.

Should "The Economy" be considered as a religion?

It has preachers, a lot of faith and talk of sacrifices.

In all seriousness though, I keep hearing that the outlook for the youth and younger generation, in general, in UK seem surprising bleak (in terms of job outlooks, influence on politics, national discussion, etc.). As a young guy in the UK, what's your take on it? Is that fear-mongering, some truth to that, lack of perspective from this side of the pond?

Was linked to the Vote None website yesterday, which I read with interest because none of the parties available to me particularly appeal, and I've spoiled my ballot previously as a protest (rather than not voting). However, under their Protest Votes Count page, they unfortunately link to the Electoral Commission guidelines which go completely contrary to their point on how protest votes would be counted.

[quote=Vote None]
The Electoral Commission's guide for those who count the votes requires that rejected votes be classified and counted under four reasons for rejection:
- absence of official mark [polling station stamp];
- voting for more than one candidate;
- writing or mark by which the voter could be identified;
- unmarked or void for uncertainty.
The examples given include a protest vote (below) where the voter has written 'None of the Above' with a tick. The advice is to classify it as 'voter's intention uncertain'.

[...]


To establish a right to say 'no' in UK elections, protest votes must be clear beyond dispute, and multiply in number.
Ensure your protest vote is clear
- Don't put a cross (or tick) anywhere.
- Don't write anything else which could identify you, or create any uncertainty or excuse.
- Just put a single line through all the boxes.
Write NONE across the ballot paper, so that your intention is clear beyond dispute.
It will then be indefensible to classify it as 'voter's intention uncertain'.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Electoral Commission (emphasis mine)]3.24 The key question an (Acting) Returning Officer should ask is whether the voter has, on the face of the paper, indicated a reasonably clear intention to vote for a candidate.[/quote]

So even if you make your intention to vote for no candidate clear beyond dispute, it is still counted as void for uncertainty. So... yeah, I won't be doing that this time.

I'd urge anyone thinking about a protest "no vote" to vote for a candidate instead.

I think there's some truth to that, but it's the prevailing political discourse that's to blame. The main political parties are talking about the economy in the way they think voters will understand, and whether through ignorance or cynicism, they've drawn a parallel between the national economy and family household budgeting. Clearly when families have to "tighten their belts", it is bad for the government to be seen spending via borrowing? Well, no, it's bloody not because the two things aren't the same, and the time for governments to be tightening their belt is when the economy is doing well, but none of the main parties would dare say publicly, so we're all set for another 4-5 years of austerity measures.

In happier news, the most progressive political party in Canada has just swept the neoliberal party out of the most conservative province in Canada in an actual landslide victory.

And funnily enough the Tories are still harping on about Austerity and how it needs to be done despite the fact that they already caused the economy to tank again back in 2012 last time they tried it. They haven't actually properly cut anything in 3 years and we've started to experience growth again.

Funny that. With the tax cuts it's almost like they're going in for some sort of American style "starve the beast" thing.

Austerity budget was a big reason the Alberta conservatives had the door slammed on they dick. There's hope!




Aside: imho I've found it very difficult to tell the difference between the true blue tories and the accelerationists, especially since either way the result is accelerationism.


Edit: ofc the only reason the NDP was allowed to clean up is because our treasonous capitalist media thought it would never happen in Alberta and didn't do as much muckraking as usual. Seriously, this is like Texas electing the gay black communist party. I'm blown away.

Sorry to hear about C-51 passing tho

The problem is, Joncy, that since the Tories have managed to lead the narrative, the general public thinks that austerity is a must and now both main parties are planning austerity budgets to please people.

Even the party I just voted for plans cuts despite the fact that they claim to be anti-austerity somehow.

I am ****ing terrified.

Welp. That exit poll was revised up to give the Tories an absolute majority which, as I write this, they're 1 seat away from attaining. The Lib Dems always said that at least in the coalition they were restraining the Conservative party from unleashing the more extreme forms of their policies. I guess we all get to find out now

This is a pretty massive shake up overall. LibDems have been destroyed, Scottish Labour ruined, Scotland has pretty much become a one party country for the SNP, we will be having a referendum on EU membership now which might in turn cause another Scottish independence referendum. Some big/famous names in politics have fallen - Vince Cable, Danny Alexander, Ed Davey, Charles Kennedy, Jim Murphy, Ed Balls, George Galloway (lol). And the small silver lining is that Nigel Farage lost his bid for a seat and had also promised to step down as UKIP party leader if he failed. Given UKIP rely almost solely on him to be their spokesman without frothing at the mouth and acting like a racist from the 1950s, this is very good news.

And FPTP is really showing itself up in this election. The big two both recorded small increases in vote share but the conservatives gained several seats while labour lost out heavily. Not that they have much to complain about - they only need about 30-40,000 votes per seat whereas UKIP had 3.8 million votes nationwide and only got one MP. By comparison, the SNP with 50% of the Scottish vote, got nearly all the seats there - thats 56 MPs for 1.45 million votes.

Farage will be back. He only promised to step down; he never promised to not stand in the new leadership election.

I suppose there's a chance Carswell could take it off him since he's actually electable from the looks of things.

Oh, and Theresa May was on the news this morning saying that they're going to push through the snooper's charter after the Lib Dems stopped them last time, and they failed to manage to tack it on to another bill in the Lords about two months ago.

On the upside we can solve the energy crisis if we hook a dynamo up to George Orwell's corpse.

BRITS ARE AT IT AGAIN.

JOB WELL DONE.

AIRSTRIP ONE BOYS.

We wouldn't have been much better with Labour, mind. Labour are anti free-speech and Ed Miliband lost my vote as soon as he said he wanted to make "islamophobia" a crime, effectively protecting an ideology under law.

I'm not sure what's worse, making it illegal to say something in the first place or watching what every says after they've said it.

FPTP is garbage

So they voted Democrat? Got it.

Glad to see you still think the parties are different and that your political identity matters.

.

do y'all think registered republicans are ever angry that Koch Industries is now openly choosing candidates in lieu of primaries, or do you think they're relieved that they no longer have to pretend they have a choice?

wookie06, how did you feel?

I thought it was pretty amusing that they decided very early on to support Scott Walker.

It's not a bad move on their part, honestly. Since he doesn't appear to have any kind of personality or actual political beliefs, it should be really easy for the Kochs to instill their own.