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Cont: General UK Politics III - Dumb and Dumber

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Ian Osborne said:
I still haven't got a clue who I'm voting for yet. Anyone who says they'll take us back into Europe might well get my cross in their box, but I've also tactical considerations to take into account. Our horrible Tory MP – who once lost the party whip for using the phrase 'n- in a woodpile' in a public meeting – needs to go, but Labour and the Lib-Dems seem to take it in turns to come second.
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Since Brexit went through I have always voted for whoever is prepared to commit to rejoining the EU.

The only problem is that last time out, the Lib Dems didn't even have a candidate.
 
The Tory borough council candidate didn't like me describing the redirecting of all the money from Labour boroughs to rich Tory ones like ours as "bribes" when she came a calling.
 
Nessie said:
A series of tweets that explain how the Tories are using voter ID to try to weed out people who are unlikely to vote for them

https://twitter.com/edwinhayward/status/1653043188020441089

Amongst various disturbingly obvious actions over what is acceptable IDs, is the planting of an article in the Telegraph, that is suggesting anyone who complains, will just be a left wing agitator.

https://twitter.com/edwinhayward/status/1652957090468462592
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I see the Tories are swiping from the UG GOP Handbook.
The Telegraph is not nicknamed the Torygraph for nothing.
 
dudalb said:
I see the Tories are swiping from the UG GOP Handbook.
The Telegraph is not nicknamed the Torygraph for nothing.
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I recall reading an article (probably in the Grauniad), describing a Tory political seminar, in which a US political advisor/consultant basically spelled out, that if they wanted to emulate the GQP strategy of using culture wars to divide and conquor in order to win elections, they'd better accept that doing so would tear the country apart.

Looks like the Tories have decided that's an acceptable cost.
 
KDLarsen said:
I recall reading an article (probably in the Grauniad), describing a Tory political seminar, in which a US political advisor/consultant basically spelled out, that if they wanted to emulate the GQP strategy of using culture wars to divide and conquor in order to win elections, they'd better accept that doing so would tear the country apart.

Looks like the Tories have decided that's an acceptable cost.
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Frank Luntz.

https://www.theguardian.com/politic...rank-luntz-urges-tories-to-ditch-culture-wars
 
I spotted a deliberate mistake at the poll station this morning. The ballot paper for the Town Council seats said ‘vote for no more than 3 candidates’, but the poster in the polling booth said ‘vote for no more than 4 candidates’. I pointed it out, to a short period of mild consternation; they checked, it turned out to be just one rogue poster, the others were correct. Very strange.

(Since there were only 4 candidates in total, and two of them were Tories, it wasn’t actually a problem for me.)
 
The SNP government are revising the legal system. This will involve abolishing the not proven verdict which has been an alternative to guilty and not guilty giving three verdicts ib Scottish criminal courts, I think most people view this as a good thing.

What is not so good is the proposal to introduce sexual crimes courts in part because the proportion of people being convicted of sex crimes is too low. Now in principle this may not be a bad thing, but the details are causing concern.

Unlike other courts judges will be sackable without cause by the political head of the judiciary. this is in contradiction with the general principle of an independant judiciary, and if this happens in one area of the court system it has a risk of spreading. The concern is although not directly influenced the awareness of the political need to increase the rate of successful prosecutions together with the knowledge that if they have too low a conviction rate they may be removed from office may influence the imartiality of judges. This effect will be magnified by the plan to introduce judge only trials since the concern is that juries are failing to return guilty verdicts.

https://www.scottishlegal.com/artic...-concerns-about-judge-only-sex-offence-trials

Another concern is Scotland's Hate Crime Law. This would make any speech or writing that might promote violence against a protected group a hate crime. It has not yet been put into effect but would make those that argue that trans women are not the same as those born as women potential criminals. JK Rowling and some posters here could end up behind bars. It would also make potentially some pre Twenty-first century literature criminal to own. The previous exception protecting otherwise banned speech if said in your own home will be removed.

https://www.lindsays.co.uk/news-and...nds-proposed-new-hate-crime-law-with-reaction

Scotland's First Minister* said “Free speech in itself is never an unfettered right.”

*When he was justice minister.
 
Well went to vote and of course took photo ID, and I ran into a fairly obvious issue, I don't look much like the photo on my driving license, which was only taken in 2020. I had to take my glasses off for the photo, I had a beard, and oh yeah I weighed about 127kg at the time and now I weigh 73 after some very successful dieting. From what the people at the polling station said I was hardly alone in having photo ID that doesn't look much like the person presenting it. The friendly pair at my polling station were fine, but I dread to think what some jobsworth 'guardian of democracy' could get up to.
 
Garrison said:
Well went to vote and of course took photo ID, and I ran into a fairly obvious issue, I don't look much like the photo on my driving license, which was only taken in 2020. I had to take my glasses off for the photo, I had a beard, and oh yeah I weighed about 127kg at the time and now I weigh 73 after some very successful dieting. From what the people at the polling station said I was hardly alone in having photo ID that doesn't look much like the person presenting it. The friendly pair at my polling station were fine, but I dread to think what some jobsworth 'guardian of democracy' could get up to.
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Quite: my driving licence pic is more recent than that, but glasses are off, hairstyle is different and Carrot Flower Queen, who has known me for 35 years and has looked at me a couple of times, says it looks sod all like me, to the point that the pic on my old passport from 30 years ago is a better one.
 
Council election prediction - not quite as bad as the Tories feared, and they'll somehow manage to portray it as a good result. Hope I'm wrong and they get stuffed.
 
Planigale said:
The SNP government are revising the legal system. This will involve abolishing the not proven verdict which has been an alternative to guilty and not guilty giving three verdicts ib Scottish criminal courts, I think most people view this as a good thing.
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Hmmm, Alex Salmond was tried on thirteen sex offence charges and was found not guilty on twelve and "not proven" on one.
What is not so good is the proposal to introduce sexual crimes courts in part because the proportion of people being convicted of sex crimes is too low. Now in principle this may not be a bad thing, but the details are causing concern.
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Again, Alex Salmond...
Unlike other courts judges will be sackable without cause by the political head of the judiciary. this is in contradiction with the general principle of an independant judiciary, and if this happens in one area of the court system it has a risk of spreading. The concern is although not directly influenced the awareness of the political need to increase the rate of successful prosecutions together with the knowledge that if they have too low a conviction rate they may be removed from office may influence the imartiality of judges. This effect will be magnified by the plan to introduce judge only trials since the concern is that juries are failing to return guilty verdicts.

https://www.scottishlegal.com/artic...-concerns-about-judge-only-sex-offence-trials
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This is the most concerning of the points you raise IMO.
Another concern is Scotland's Hate Crime Law. This would make any speech or writing that might promote violence against a protected group a hate crime. It has not yet been put into effect but would make those that argue that trans women are not the same as those born as women potential criminals. JK Rowling and some posters here could end up behind bars. It would also make potentially some pre Twenty-first century literature criminal to own. The previous exception protecting otherwise banned speech if said in your own home will be removed.
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I don't think JK Rowling has anything to worry about. She's never said anything to promote violence against trans women.
 
Planigale said:
The SNP government are revising the legal system. This will involve abolishing the not proven verdict which has been an alternative to guilty and not guilty giving three verdicts ib Scottish criminal courts, I think most people view this as a good thing.

What is not so good is the proposal to introduce sexual crimes courts in part because the proportion of people being convicted of sex crimes is too low. Now in principle this may not be a bad thing, but the details are causing concern.

Unlike other courts judges will be sackable without cause by the political head of the judiciary. this is in contradiction with the general principle of an independant judiciary, and if this happens in one area of the court system it has a risk of spreading. The concern is although not directly influenced the awareness of the political need to increase the rate of successful prosecutions together with the knowledge that if they have too low a conviction rate they may be removed from office may influence the imartiality of judges. This effect will be magnified by the plan to introduce judge only trials since the concern is that juries are failing to return guilty verdicts.

https://www.scottishlegal.com/artic...-concerns-about-judge-only-sex-offence-trials

Another concern is Scotland's Hate Crime Law. This would make any speech or writing that might promote violence against a protected group a hate crime. It has not yet been put into effect but would make those that argue that trans women are not the same as those born as women potential criminals. JK Rowling and some posters here could end up behind bars. It would also make potentially some pre Twenty-first century literature criminal to own. The previous exception protecting otherwise banned speech if said in your own home will be removed.

https://www.lindsays.co.uk/news-and...nds-proposed-new-hate-crime-law-with-reaction

Scotland's First Minister* said “Free speech in itself is never an unfettered right.”

*When he was justice minister.
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Pity about her. She shouldn't be so quick to spout homophobic nonsense and hang around with anti-gay groups.
 
GlennB said:
Council election prediction - not quite as bad as the Tories feared, and they'll somehow manage to portray it as a good result. Hope I'm wrong and they get stuffed.
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Lunchtime on Friday:


We are only about a third of the way through the count, but it's looking bad for the Tories. Of the 31 councils that were previously Tory controlled and that have declared, they have lost 15.
 
GlennB said:
Council election prediction - not quite as bad as the Tories feared, and they'll somehow manage to portray it as a good result. Hope I'm wrong and they get stuffed.
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I think it is going more towards the stuffed end of the scale: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65485099

Labour up by 168, Tories down by 296, LibDems up 76

One of the nearest local councils to me (my council wasn't in the election), Thersea May's constituency has gone to the Lib Dems. Which if that surprised a single Tory candidate I would like their details as I have a few bridges to sell them.

It was all crap around here - well not just crap it was all the sewage. This has become a huge problem for the Tories and it's one they can't hide, so many folks here use the river and surroundings for recreation and we see it.
 
Garrison said:
Well went to vote and of course took photo ID
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I turned up at mine at about 1PM with my Voting Authority Certificate and they said it was the first one they'd seen that day, even pulled over every one to have a look.

A thing that occurred to me yesterday, as yet another dissuading people from voting, is that it's really easy to lose or mangle an A4 sheet of paper vs a cheap laminated card. People may not think to check that they can find it before the time to apply for it comes around
 
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