General Election 2024

[tamthebam]

You always see big Tory posters in fermer's fields (or maybe more accurately Tory landowners' fields, perhaps the tenants vote differently). 

When I was young you'd see posters in most windows when it was election time. Mostly Labour red round my place, Tory blue and the occasional Lib Dem yellow in the posher parts of Edinburgh. I've seen one SNP window poster when I was through in Glasgow yesterday and one Green poster in South Edinburgh and that's it. 

[BFTD]

7 hours ago, tamthebam said:

You always see big Tory posters in fermer's fields (or maybe more accurately Tory landowners' fields, perhaps the tenants vote differently). 

When I was young you'd see posters in most windows when it was election time. Mostly Labour red round my place, Tory blue and the occasional Lib Dem yellow in the posher parts of Edinburgh. I've seen one SNP window poster when I was through in Glasgow yesterday and one Green poster in South Edinburgh and that's it. 

When my uncle died, I had to clear out the old family home and discovered a stack of hand-printed VOTE LABOUR posters on hot pink paper. Going by the age of everything else in the cupboard they were in, they were likely from the mid-Sixties.

Kept one and I'll be getting it framed at some point.

[PossilYM]

On 21/06/2024 at 22:58, BFTD said:

Some of you are making me think I've Mandela Effect'd this election placard ban, so I looked it up and it seems to be down to a bit of a council movement about a decade ago. Each area in Scotland makes its own decisions about them, and they're banned in quite a few.

Old article, so some councils may have changed their position since then, but it's been a long time since I saw any in Clacks: https://theferret.scot/councils-election-poster-ban-scotland/

Tory curtain twitchers were big into banning outdoor election placards on lampposts especially during the days when Labour had a stranglehold in Scotland. They were forever writing letters into local papers decrying it.

[Fullerene]

8 hours ago, BFTD said:

When my uncle died, I had to clear out the old family home and discovered a stack of hand-printed VOTE LABOUR posters on hot pink paper. Going by the age of everything else in the cupboard they were in, they were likely from the mid-Sixties.

Kept one and I'll be getting it framed at some point.

If they said "Vote for your Socialist candidate" you could post them up in the neighbourhood and cause a bit of mischief.

[coprolite]

On 22/06/2024 at 00:33, Freedom Farter said:

Fully agree, it was definitely that. Although I think there's context also worth considering:

The ongoing Russian invasion and occupation of Ukraine has been used as a pretext for reorienting European economies around militarism, to varying extents. This is likely an attempt to replicate the "military keynesianism" which has been a successful part of Bidenomics - around 90% of what gets called Ukraine Aid is spent on domestic US arms manufacturing. 

This graph shows the share price increase of European arms manufacturers from Jan '22 to Feb '24:

https://www.ft.com/content/e9939f2b-6454-4be8-b99d-05023f635e87

Noticing how well Saab has done for itself we can now see why the Swedish government was so desperate to join Nato. There's Rheinmetall topping the table. They've got so cocky from their success they've even come out the shadows to become Borussia Dortmund's shirt sponsor. We can also notice that our very own BAE Systems, Rolls Royce and Melrose have been doing well. Most of the foreign-owned companies listed there have a footprint in the UK, especially Leonardo. Then from the article:

 

This is providing a much needed boost to a currently very shite UK economy and therefore is considered crucial to the national interest. Keeping the populace on board is an important aspect to the project. The point made here is key:

https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/strategies-of-denial

What's being said there is that the green aspects to Bidenomics aren't actually due to a sincere embrace of green politics. Its driven by the need to compete with China on renewable energy production. Then the military keynesianism isn't due to an ideological commitment to public spending, it was done so workers would serve the empire, so they'd produce what the elite needed for their geopolitical aims. Remember there was no public healthcare in USA during Cold War military keynesianism and nor is there now while Biden repeats the trick. In UK terms, public spending on militarism is money diverted from other avenues - healthcare, education, housing, etc. It's not that great a deal for folk. It does provide jobs but there's other, better ways to create jobs. To achieve buy-in you really need to convince folk this is in their interests. One way is to convince them that they themselves are threatened by Russia, by China, or by...err...Hamas. (It should be framed as on behalf of the Ukrainian resistance but then folk get confused as to how Israel fits in. So establishment messaging tends to just focus on the baddies instead).

BBC is ultimately an arm of the UK state, at times very obviously so. The news site has been covering the increasing militarism in Europe in a favourable light, eg. "Russia's neighbours urge Nato allies to bring back military service" - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68728096 (maybe Sunak read this). The main story right now on the BBC News site is Farage again. Yet its not that BBC have finally deemed his demonisation of migrants to be worthy of opprobium. No. It's that he's criticised Nato.

Sunak has been swimming in this soup as well as going to all his big boy meetings with state security and whatever else. He has got the message. Which is why he thought he was being very clever with his speech about Scottish nationalists, trans activists and Putin threatening UK security. It's why his party recently came out with their line that Starmer can't stand up to Putin because something something Diane Abbott.  Given all this, the national service thing wasn't so surprising. It was Sunak's cack-handed attempt at extracting political gain from the current zeitgeist.

You can't have a military industrial complex without a military. 

[Peil]

On 21/06/2024 at 19:29, Hauzen said:

Is there any reason we're under 2 weeks to the election and we've not got lampposts & road signs festooned with all sorts of gaudy political party signs? These used to spring up all over the place during election campaigns but I've not seen a single one so far. 

Was there not enough time to get these printed? A ban on the materials to be ecologically friendly? Nae enough foreigny types allowed in to manufacture them?

I did notice when I went over to Clydebank the lampposts had competing SNP and Labour signs, but none over here in Lenzie/Kirky.  Maybe they decided to focus efforts on where they can actually swing things?

[Crùbag]

It's quite amusing hearing Labour and Tory politicians trying to answer this. Anas Sarwar squirmed this morning and, as per, was unable to answer.

 

[Zetterlund]

DRoss' obsession with the SNP is cringeworthy. On the BBC earlier his answer to every question was essentially 'SNP bad', even when asked about Farage and Reform. He has become a parody of himself.

[BFTD]

20 minutes ago, Zetterlund said:

DRoss' obsession with the SNP is cringeworthy. On the BBC earlier his answer to every question was essentially 'SNP bad', even when asked about Farage and Reform. He has become a parody of himself.

I don't know that he's that much different to Davidson TBH. The party realised they're done in Scotland a while back and so it's just all about keeping the core audience on high alert now in the hope of eking out a few more seats every now and then until a Tory Jesus figure can be found that appeals to a broader audience. Or maybe until Labour and the SNP implode simultaneously, while the Lib Dems, Greens, Abla, the Family Party, the Scottish Socialists and everyone else are all caught in some kind of mass orgy scandal (never rule it out).

Unfortunately for the Scottish Conservative and Unionists, it would likely turn out to have been hosted at one of their country estates.

[Fullerene]

4 hours ago, BFTD said:

I don't know that he's that much different to Davidson TBH. The party realised they're done in Scotland a while back and so it's just all about keeping the core audience on high alert now in the hope of eking out a few more seats every now and then until a Tory Jesus figure can be found that appeals to a broader audience. Or maybe until Labour and the SNP implode simultaneously, while the Lib Dems, Greens, Abla, the Family Party, the Scottish Socialists and everyone else are all caught in some kind of mass orgy scandal (never rule it out).

Unfortunately for the Scottish Conservative and Unionists, it would likely turn out to have been hosted at one of their country estates.

A good war while they are in charge at Westminister would also improve their chances up here.

[Caro-Kann]

The University of Strathclyde's Library collects election related ephemera for posterity.  

https://guides.lib.strath.ac.uk/archives/electionephemera#s-lg-box-15459125

[O'Kelly Isley III]

I'm increasingly getting the feeling that this election could record some of the lowest turnouts of the modern age, as a huge number of (mainly English) Tories sit on their arse rather than cast their ballots for another party.

Labour could thus glide to a historic victory but it may well turn to be a pyrrhic one as it will be more a snapshot of a disillusioned electorate rather than a ringing endorsement for 'Change' - got to get that in.  And they'll be under huge pressure from the off.

I see little happening in the ten days or so remaining to alter that situation but paradoxically the SNP will perhaps do better than expected as their core vote traditionally holds up.  Other than Labour romping it down South on 31% turnouts the Lib Dems may have one of their occasional electoral orgasms.

[Granny Danger]

2 hours ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

I'm increasingly getting the feeling that this election could record some of the lowest turnouts of the modern age, as a huge number of (mainly English) Tories sit on their arse rather than cast their ballots for another party.

Labour could thus glide to a historic victory but it may well turn to be a pyrrhic one as it will be more a snapshot of a disillusioned electorate rather than a ringing endorsement for 'Change' - got to get that in.  And they'll be under huge pressure from the off.

I see little happening in the ten days or so remaining to alter that situation but paradoxically the SNP will perhaps do better than expected as their core vote traditionally holds up.  Other than Labour romping it down South on 31% turnouts the Lib Dems may have one of their occasional electoral orgasms.

Yeah it could be one of the biggest majorities ever based on a very low turnout and a completely fucked upon Tory record AND campaign.  All the opinion polls suggest that people are not enthused by Starmer but that will not matter when Sunak & Co. are decimated on election day.

As an aside, how will they configure the House of Commons if Labour get the number some polls are suggesting.  Maybe have to move some Home fans into the Away end!

[Fullerene]

56 minutes ago, Granny Danger said:

Yeah it could be one of the biggest majorities ever based on a very low turnout and a completely fucked upon Tory record AND campaign.  All the opinion polls suggest that people are not enthused by Starmer but that will not matter when Sunak & Co. are decimated on election day.

As an aside, how will they configure the House of Commons if Labour get the number some polls are suggesting.  Maybe have to move some Home fans into the Away end!

Maybe split the party in two so they are the official opposition too.

[DrewDon]

[Granny Danger]

2 hours ago, Fullerene said:

Maybe split the party in two so they are the official opposition too.

If the Labour candidates hadn’t been so thoroughly vetted to ensure there wasn’t a socialist (shudder) amongst them I’d hope there would be some scope for internal opposition.  Maybe on the two-child benefit cap policy.

[Leith Green]

The Daily Record pretending they have "only now" decided to back Labour. Laughable pish.

 

 

[carpetmonster]

16 minutes ago, Leith Green said:

The Daily Record pretending they have "only now" decided to back Labour. Laughable pish.

 

 

f**k me, it's 30 bob for a Daily Ranger these days? 

[CarrbridgeSaintee]

On 23/06/2024 at 11:58, Peil said:

I did notice when I went over to Clydebank the lampposts had competing SNP and Labour signs, but none over here in Lenzie/Kirky.  Maybe they decided to focus efforts on where they can actually swing things?

I’m sure most councils have banned them.  Only a handful of councils in Scotland allow them now.

[Jedi2]

Don't think print media has anything like the influence it once did though.