The UK Politics and EU Referendum thread - merged

[TightEnd]

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[TightEnd]

The Tories are running an energetic election campaign – you just can’t see it

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/elections/2017/05/believe-it-or-not-tories-are-running-energetic-election-campaign-you-just

[TightEnd]

Red Theresa - PM makes major Labour land grab to boost workers rights, including a year's 'carers leave';

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3561226/employees-will-get-time-off-for-a-lost-child-and-sick-family-in-radical-expansion-of-workers-rights-theresa-may-to-declare/

[TightEnd]

New YouGov polling in 50 key LAB marginals offers a glimmer of hope to the red team

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

[TightEnd]

Of course Unite is taking an outsized interest in Labour's campaign. It's paying for it, says

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/june2017/2017/05/course-unite-taking-outsized-interest-labours-campaign-its-paying-it

[TightEnd]

open question to readers (genuine open question*)

stuff like this is..

a) important to you ("he wanted the IRA to win all along")
b) unimportant ("he's a man of peace and anyway everyone was talking to everyone else behind the scenes")

or somewhere in between when it comes to your voting intention?

i note it hasn't really come up in the campaign (or being paid to appear on iranian state tv, or hamas/hezbollah etc)

https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/05/jeremy-corbyn-should-not-be-allowed-to-rewrite-the-history-of-his-support-for-the-ira/

and

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

* the reason i ask is because i happened to earwig on a social media conversation. A poker player who many of you will know,from the North. working class, larger than life and brash said

"always voted labour but voting conservative this time. can't vote for Corbyn, he supported the IRA"

and of 16 respondents, 11 chimed in in agreement with this as a reason not to vote labour in 2017

i was surprised,obviously small sample,that it resonated so much still

[TightEnd]

on a similar theme

today's news:

Stop The War founder + Unite chief of staff Andrew Murray drafted in by Jeremy Corbyn to head up his election team:

has provoked responses (from mainstream media journalists) like:

"just awful. Andrew Murray, recent member of the Stalinist franchise Communist party & defender of North Korea"

"Andrew Murray only left the Communist Party of Britain in December."

"Andrew Murray, Labour's new election co-ordinator. Well, they can't say they didn't have it their own way when they see the election result."

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""Communism still represents, in my view, a society worth working towards". Andrew Murray, 11 December, 2015."


so

you care?
you don't care?
the electorate won't notice or care?
you do or don't trust the journalists with these takes?

[TightEnd]

today's polls

ICM/Guardian:

CON 48 (-1)
LAB 28 (+1)
LD 10 (+1)
UKIP 6 (=)
GRN 3 (=)

12th-14th May N=2,030

Tabs https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2017/may/15/general-election-2017-may-workers-rights-corbyn-nhs-politics-live?page=with:block-5919891fe4b0a8ea08b6e44a#block-5919891fe4b0a8ea08b6e44a

Westminster voting intention:

CON: 48% (+1)
LAB: 30% (-)
LDEM: 8% (+1)
UKIP: 4% (-)

Survation

[TightEnd]

Spot of free marketeer backlash to May's "Red Toryism" manifesto positioning -

Adam Smith Institute on PM "copying" Miliband (last three big policies interventionist not free market)

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[TightEnd]

an interesting one

"To defeat Theresa May, the left must first understand Tory voters" (my comment,see no attempt to do this!)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/15/defeat-theresa-may-left-tory-voters-conservative?CMP=twt_gu

[TightEnd]

Despite popular Lab policies, Theresa May has a huge leadership advantage: David Cowling's latest for Independent

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/election-2017-guide-what-do-the-opinion-polls-say-about-the-importance-of-leadership-theresa-may-a7735831.html



one interpretation was

"Like Lab 46%; like Con 38%. Like Corbyn 27%; like May 49%. The election in four numbers."

[DaveShoelace]

open question to readers (genuine open question*)

stuff like this is..

a) important to you ("he wanted the IRA to win all along")
b) unimportant ("he's a man of peace and anyway everyone was talking to everyone else behind the scenes")

or somewhere in between when it comes to your voting intention?

i note it hasn't really come up in the campaign (or being paid to appear on iranian state tv, or hamas/hezbollah etc)

https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/05/jeremy-corbyn-should-not-be-allowed-to-rewrite-the-history-of-his-support-for-the-ira/

and

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

* the reason i ask is because i happened to earwig on a social media conversation. A poker player who many of you will know,from the North. working class, larger than life and brash said

"always voted labour but voting conservative this time. can't vote for Corbyn, he supported the IRA"

and of 16 respondents, 11 chimed in in agreement with this as a reason not to vote labour in 2017

i was surprised,obviously small sample,that it resonated so much still

I'm genuinely shocked it hasn't come up yet, Cameron seemed to bring it up a lot. Especially as so many terror attacks have happened, including Westminster. I can only assume it's coming.

I think Jezzer is coming across as genuinely caring, maybe just me but I've warmed to him a little this campaign, and the IRA/Hamas stuff was a major problem for me, still is of course, but I think he has been given free reign to show how much he cares about the NHS for example, and I'm shocked he is doing as bad as he is in the polls.

The communism stuff bothers me way more though, no so much him but the company he keeps. The failure of the West to make the crimes of communism as stigmatised as the crimes of Nazism I think is a scandal. However, that's because I have read a lot about it and just how bad it really was, which most people don't do understandably.

[DaveShoelace]

Oh and I insta guessed your 'northern poker player who doesnt like Corbyn'

[Doobs]

open question to readers (genuine open question*)

stuff like this is..

a) important to you ("he wanted the IRA to win all along")
b) unimportant ("he's a man of peace and anyway everyone was talking to everyone else behind the scenes")

or somewhere in between when it comes to your voting intention?

i note it hasn't really come up in the campaign (or being paid to appear on iranian state tv, or hamas/hezbollah etc)

https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/05/jeremy-corbyn-should-not-be-allowed-to-rewrite-the-history-of-his-support-for-the-ira/

and

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

* the reason i ask is because i happened to earwig on a social media conversation. A poker player who many of you will know,from the North. working class, larger than life and brash said

"always voted labour but voting conservative this time. can't vote for Corbyn, he supported the IRA"

and of 16 respondents, 11 chimed in in agreement with this as a reason not to vote labour in 2017

i was surprised,obviously small sample,that it resonated so much still

Emily Thornberry and Michael Fallon were arguing about it on Andrew Marr.  She said he was talking bollocks.

It is probably a bit in the middle.  He was definitely sympathetic to the IRA and I am not convinced he was the neutral peacemaker he claimed.  There are lots of photos with Gerry Adams, can't recall many where he met the UVF or the Orange Order.

But none of this is a reason to not vote for him, Thatcher was in contact with the IRA, as was Blair.  Maybe not so visibly, but in contact nonetheless.  

And no I didn't fancy getting involved in that I am the loudest idiot contest.

[tikay]

Oh and I insta guessed your 'northern poker player who doesnt like Corbyn'

My first guess was Howard Plant. How wrong was I, on a scale of right to wrong?