As many will know, there are extremely restrictive laws in the UK on what can be said by NGOs and others in the run up to an election. There are significant penalties for getting things wrong.
As a result I have discussed this blog's position with the Electoral Commission. They offered two opinions.
First, they confirmed the blog has insufficient income to be regulated.
Second, having discussed its content they are happy that I am not supporting any candidate, and that the criticisms made are philosophically based. As such they do not think the blog would fall within the scope of regulation whatever its income.
I am not, therefore, constrained by the laws that will impact many NGOs now.
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Glad you won’t be constrained.
If I comment I shall be restrained. Good for my soul. At my time of life I need to be mindful of that.
🙂
It is very hard to be “philosophical” in the unprincipled brawl that is British politics. I do not possess sufficient insight into the unseemly internal machinations of untrustworthy political Parties, therefore my thoughts on the reason for a sudden election date are, frankly of little value. Nevertheless I offer my idle speculation that either Sunak thought he may not survive as PM to each an autumn election; or, more likely – it seems to me – the Blood Scandal Compensation shot the Conservative fox (“plan”) to have a giveaway Budget in the autumn, just before an election.
I may be wrong, but I do know there is no plan (just a list of disposable sound-bites), and you just cannot trust a politician. or a political Party.
Doesn’t matter as far as pointing out the nonsense that continues to be uttered by the Neoliberal Guardian and other so-called progressive media you’ve been doing it for years:-
“Unlike Blair, however, he will then inherit an economy that has only just emerged from recession, stretched government finances and crumbling public services.”
Stretched government finances … blah de blah de blah!
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/may/22/keir-starmer-expected-to-make-it-to-no-10-despite-his-low-personal-popularity
Part of “stretched government finances” is the housing crisis that New Labour’s Blair and Brown helped continue after Thatcher!
“People living in rented accommodation – in 2021/22, more than 4 in 10 social renters (43%) and around a third of private renters (35%) were in poverty after housing costs. Around a third of these social renters and half of these private renters were only in poverty after their housing costs were factored in, so appear to be pushed into poverty by the amount they have to spend on housing.”
https://www.jrf.org.uk/uk-poverty-2024-the-essential-guide-to-understanding-poverty-in-the-uk
The excellent blog by Peter May, Progressive Pulse, has a chart from the FT showing how the Tories have given us “world beating” homelessness, another example of their malign sociopathy. https://www.progressivepulse.org/economics/conservatives-have-made-the-uk-world-beating-again
Now under Peter’s direction, not mine
Excellent.
At the moment I am processing the almost certain outcome that we will be rid of the odious Tories.
To be replaced by odious Labour.
Very little will change.
It will be worse. LINO will continue Tory policy while the Tories themselves lick their wounds and are infiltrated by Reform. When the mindless pendulum that is the democratic process in this country swings, it will bring back the Tories, even further to the right. And LINO will continue to follow it into that wilderness.
@Inga Marie Horwood. Whilst I agree I really don’t like this version of the Labour party but to say they will be worse than the Tories is completely wrong, and to say that means you are not looking close enough to see those differences. I would prefer to vote Green as I have done before but if we don’t get out the Tories, a party that is destroying this country things will really get worse, and to do that this time I will be using STOPTHETORIES.VOTE in my area to do just that, getting them out at all costs which unfortunately under FPTP is all we have, which is basically just a 2 party system if you vote elsewhere. If I can vote for the Greens I certainly will.
Not sure why I didn’t get a reply option on Inga’s comment so I had to reply to John Lawson and then @Inga
Is that the now Tory controlled “electoral commission?” & if LINO does well, the LINO controlled electoral commission?
Both comments are of course, philosophical reflections and no reflection on political reality. Goodness me no.
shakes head
Yay!
Free speech. 🙂
Hooray!
Of course, it also applies to all the other ridiculous ‘philosophical’ commentators on social media, ranting comments and trolls (which you expertly call out 🙂 )
It’s not your style and way, but don’t think of taking a soap box down to London, especially Parliament Square, or anywhere really… and proclaiming truth to power that way: you’d get arrested for threatening to cause ‘serious disruption to normal life’!
Not my style …..
I just have this sneaky suspicion that this election campaign will be the most disheartening and nasty of any one of my 60 years experience. And nothing good will be the outcome. Sorry!
You are right
I will be voting for the least worst candidate or the one most likely to oust the sitting Tory.
I am also of the opinion, that Sunak has had enough and has called the election now because he wants out. Having heard him on the radio 4 news programme this morning, with Nick Robinson trying to get one question answered, he gabbled on and on, sounding like a man on the very edge of a breakdown.