Do you want to discuss boring politics? (58 Viewers)

I get really annoyed at govt of all persuasions when the thing they concentrate is on investigating the leak.

The important thing is not that a person in a position of power has done something wrong, but that someone else has done something so the public (the people who they're supposed to be serving) finds out about it.

Fucking pisses me off no end.

Sky_Blue_Dreamer said:

I get really annoyed at govt of all persuasions when the thing they concentrate is on investigating the leak.

The important thing is not that a person in a position of power has done something wrong, but that someone else has done something so the public (the people who they're supposed to be serving) finds out about it.

Fucking pisses me off no end.

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TBF who has access to the CCTV of government offices is a bit of a national security concern.

shmmeee said:

TBF who has access to the CCTV of government offices is a bit of a national security concern.

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Even more so if what other MPs have said is true and government offices don't have CCTV installed.

Some self proclaimed experts have been looking at pictures of the office the footage was from and concluded it was hidden in a smoke detector but we may well be in tin foil hat territory there.

chiefdave said:

Even more so if what other MPs have said is true and government offices don't have CCTV installed.

Some self proclaimed experts have been looking at pictures of the office the footage was from and concluded it was hidden in a smoke detector but we may well be in tin foil hat territory there.

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To be fair to Hancock even he isn't stupid enough to be making out with anyone right in front of a legit cctv camera.

Grendel said:

You cant debate in an echo chamber especially one that’s in a minority in the country

let’s look at some of the excellent debates on here

The Tory cabinet should be arrested and charged with killing people

The Queen is a stupid grey haired old woman who should stop the evil Tories

Tories don’t like brown people (odd as it’s the only party that’s employed brown people in big cabinet jobs)

The media are owned by the Tories

The country is no better than North Korea



The country is brainwashing its stupid public (excluding the amazingly intelligent people on SBT politic threads of course well as long as they are part of the dead Labour loser club and support the hugely well thought out ideas from brain dead gimps on Twitter )

Anyone with any sense should move to the poverty hell hole of Wales or The national socialist Scotland.

Most people are rejecting capitalism

Meanwhile in the real world outside this absurd bubble Labour are derided and ridiculed and in all probability will make history on Thursday

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Hahahaha where to even start with this Christ almighty

Grendel said:

You cant debate in an echo chamber especially one that’s in a minority in the country

let’s look at some of the excellent debates on here

The Tory cabinet should be arrested and charged with killing people

The Queen is a stupid grey haired old woman who should stop the evil Tories

Tories don’t like brown people (odd as it’s the only party that’s employed brown people in big cabinet jobs)

The media are owned by the Tories

The country is no better than North Korea



The country is brainwashing its stupid public (excluding the amazingly intelligent people on SBT politic threads of course well as long as they are part of the dead Labour loser club and support the hugely well thought out ideas from brain dead gimps on Twitter )

Anyone with any sense should move to the poverty hell hole of Wales or The national socialist Scotland.

Most people are rejecting capitalism

Meanwhile in the real world outside this absurd bubble Labour are derided and ridiculed and in all probability will make history on Thursday

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Impressive. I thought it would take 3 posts, turned out it only took 1.

David O'Day said:

To be fair to Hancock even he isn't stupid enough to be making out with anyone right in front of a legit cctv camera.

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You say that…

shmmeee said:

TBF who has access to the CCTV of government offices is a bit of a national security concern.

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Fair point.

But it still seems that when such behaviour is reported the problem the party see isn't the behaviour but the fact people found out about it. The wrong-doer often gets left off or given a slap on the wrist to appease the public, the person who exposed the wrong-doing gets hammered.

chiefdave said:

Even more so if what other MPs have said is true and government offices don't have CCTV installed.

Some self proclaimed experts have been looking at pictures of the office the footage was from and concluded it was hidden in a smoke detector but we may well be in tin foil hat territory there.

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It could potentially be a security risk if it were hacked, but at the same time using government arguments on things like CCTV in public places it provides security and peace of mind, reducing incidents as people are wary of being watched.

Have to admit when I first saw the footage it came across like a hidden camera show type thing. Also if it were 'placed' it seems odd to have it focused on the doorway rather than the desk if you're trying to catch out nefarious meetings, sexual or otherwise.

Mind you, it could've taken ages to get any evidence and it was a matter of enough time and they'd get some or someone knew about this affair and that it was common for them to have a clinch by the door.

SBAndy said:

Impressive. I thought it would take 3 posts, turned out it only took 1.

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Standard Clive really

The fucking state of this

Not only is it really shit it's also illegal.

PVA said:

The fucking state of this

Not only is it really shit it's also illegal.

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Despite all the lies this shit will still cut through though. Depressing as fuck.

PVA said:

The fucking state of this

Not only is it really shit it's also illegal.

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I mean when the Tories are going to win it by 55 points who cares anymore right

Brighton Sky Blue said:

I mean when the Tories are going to win it by 55 points who cares anymore right

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What’s the issue anyway, why is someone supporting the knee so offensive

Time to face facts, until the other parties fight fire with fire nothing will change

Skybluefaz said:

Despite all the lies this shit will still cut through though.

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That's the problem. We saw that in the general election. The Conservatives doing shit like their fake fact checking site knowing perfectly well that an apology afterwards was insignificant, it had already had its desired impact.

Labour's actual batley leaflets have gone down well

COV said:

What’s the issue anyway, why is someone supporting the knee so offensive

Time to face facts, until the other parties fight fire with fire nothing will change

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It won’t make any difference. Labour is Muriel’s Wedding doing and saying anything to make friends with people who just aren’t into them.

We’re at the ‘let’s pretend we scored a goal’ stage of proceedings

PVA said:

The fucking state of this

Not only is it really shit it's also illegal.

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Who the fuck signed that wording off?

EDIT - missed the work fake

Evo1883 said:

Labour's actual batley leaflets have gone down well View attachment 20640

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When will they learn that when the only thing you have to say is what bad things the other people have done people won’t vote for you because you are bankrupt of your own ideas.

Ian1779 said:

When will they learn that when the only thing you have to say is what bad things the other people have done people won’t vote for you because you are bankrupt of your own ideas.

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What is there really to argue for. The Tory majority will be enormous regardless

Ian1779 said:

When will they learn that when the only thing you have to say is what bad things the other people have done people won’t vote for you because you are bankrupt of your own ideas.

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They also need to learn who they are trying to make vote for them .

15.9% of the constituency are Indian... what are they thinking

Starmer on the brink - surely even he can lose a Northern seat with all the Hancock revelations

Great article



The future of Keir Starmer, embattled leader of Britain’s opposition Labour party, could well lie in the hands of the voters of Batley and Spen, a parliamentary constituency in northern England. If the victor in Thursday’s by-election in Batley and Spen is not wearing a red rosette, it will heap pressure on Starmer to start notching up election wins or step down as Labour leader. Boris Johnson’s ruling Conservatives are hoping to seize the West Yorkshire constituency off Labour, in a move that would confirm the Tories’ successful wooing of the opposition party’s traditional supporters in the north. At the 2019 general election, the Conservatives snatched many so-called red wall seats from Labour in the north and the Midlands. Then last month the Tories took Hartlepool off Labour at a by-election: a constituency that had been held by Starmer’s party since its creation in 1974. Starmer came under further pressure as Labour lost hundreds of seats in local council elections on the same day. This month Labour produced its worst ever result in a by-election in Chesham & Amersham in Buckinghamshire. A phone survey in Batley and Spen conducted this month by polling organisation Survation found 47 per cent of voters would back the Conservatives, with 41 per cent supporting Labour. The survey was done before health secretary Matt Hancock resigned from the government on Saturday after breaching its social distancing guidelines by kissing his adviser in his Whitehall office. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Batley and Spen candidate Kim Leadbeater © hristopher Furlong/Getty Images Labour has sought to maximise the government’s discomfort over Hancock’s conduct by saying it showed there was one set of lockdown rules for the Tories and another for the public. One Conservative party strategist, speaking before Hancock’s resignation, said winning Batley and Spen would be a “game changer”. “It opens the door to another 20 seats we can take,” he added. “Labour’s problems in the north have the potential to get much worse.” Batley and Spen was represented by Jo Cox, a Labour MP who was murdered by a neo-Nazi in the constituency in 2016, shortly before the Brexit referendum. Her sister Kim Leadbeater, a wellbeing coach, is standing as Labour’s candidate in the by-election, when she will be defending a slim majority of 3,525. The contest was triggered by Tracy Brabin, the previous Labour MP for the constituency, winning the election to be mayor of West Yorkshire last month. One Labour campaigner admitted the by-election race was “tight, undeniably tight”, but emphasised Leadbeater’s local credentials. “She understands every inch of this constituency because she has lived here every year of her life,” he said. In the former mill town of Batley and its surrounding villages, Labour faces challenges on several fronts. One is that the Heavy Woollen District Independents, a local rightwing party which received 6,432 votes at the 2019 election, are not standing, to the likely benefit of the Conservatives. George Galloway speaking in Batley © Lorne Campbell/Guzelian Another is that George Galloway, a controversial former Labour MP, is standing with the avowed purpose of destroying Starmer. In 2012 the maverick politician, then in the Respect party, won the Bradford West by-election as a self-styled champion of Muslims. Now with the Workers Party of Britain, Galloway is running a heavily pro-Palestinian campaign in Batley, where Muslims make up 20 per cent of voters. Racial tensions in the constituency have been inflamed since a teacher at Batley grammar school went into hiding after referring to cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed during lessons in March. Starmer has shifted Labour to the centre ground after the hard-left leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, and has cracked down on anti-Semitism in the party that surfaced under his predecessor. Corbyn has long been a passionate campaigner for the Palestinian cause. Starmer’s opponents, including Galloway, accuse him of failing to stand up for Muslims. Nadeem Raja of the Indian Muslim Welfare Society © Lorne Campbell/Guzelian In Batley, Starmer has lost the support of Nadeem Raja, who manages the Indian Muslim Welfare Society, a charity with 3,000 members. Galloway was a “champion of Palestine and Kashmir”, said Raja. “Jo Cox still lives in my heart . . . but Kim came to see us and I told her ‘If you’re going to lose this election, it is down to Keir Starmer’.” Ryan Stephenson, the Conservative candidate in the by-election, is running a low-octane campaign. Amanda Milling, co-chair of the Conservative party, said Stephenson was focused on jobs, tackling crime and revitalising the area. Tory party co-chair Amanda Milling © Lorne Campbell/Guzelian “Labour has been taking votes for granted . . . this seat needs a strong voice who is making the case to government for the area,” she added. One Stephenson supporter is Martin O’Neill, who runs a credit business in Batley. “I work for myself and I’m a working-class fella,” he said. “Labour are all lawyers and do-gooders with no connection with working people. I think Labour patronise people.” Amid falling opinion poll ratings for Labour and Starmer, his team is braced to lose the by-election after what one aide called a “hideous” campaign. “There have been people attacking Keir for having a Jewish wife . . . it has been deeply unpleasant,” said the aide. The Labour campaigner said Galloway was trying to “misconstrue” the party’s position on Palestinian rights. “There is no stronger voice for the rights of Palestinian people than the Labour party and that hasn’t changed one iota since Keir became leader,” he added. Martin O’Neill: ‘I think Labour patronise people’ © Lorne Campbell/Guzelian But Labour officials spoke of dwindling morale around Starmer. “There’s a feeling of circling the wagons because the number of people who still believe in ‘The project’ has fallen quite sharply,” said one aide. There are unlikely to be enough hard-left Labour MPs to meet the threshold of 40 to trigger a leadership contest under the party’s rules. But a greater threat could potentially come from Angela Rayner, Starmer’s deputy, who was angry after he sacked her as campaign co-ordinator following the defeat in the Hartlepool by-election. “A lot of what happens next depends on whether Rayner does anything,” said one hard-left Labour figure. “Relations with Keir are irretrievably broken, but she may not want to be the person who precipitates a challenge.”

Brighton Sky Blue said:

What is there really to argue for. The Tory majority will be enormous regardless

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The Tories gonna win this by simply just holding their existing vote. It’s only Labour that have managed to drive away their core voters.

Grendel said:

Starmer on the brink - surely even he can lose a Northern seat with all the Hancock revelations

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You seem to the only person that thinks Labour have even the slightest chance of winning the by-election!

chiefdave said:

You seem to the only person that thinks Labour have even the slightest chance of winning the by-election!

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So he can pretend to be shocked and claim it as some out of the blue, one in a million chance, win for his beloved Tories.

edit: and as if to prove my point, see below

chiefdave said:

You seem to the only person that thinks Labour have even the slightest chance of winning the by-election!

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It should not even be a contest - this will be the first time if it happens that the main opposition have been usurped twice by the sitting government, if it happens it will be one of the most incredible moments in British Politics

Grendel said:

It should not even be a contest - this will be the first time if it happens that the main opposition have been usurped twice by the sitting government, if it happens it will be one of the most incredible moments in British Politics

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It won’t even be the most incredible and simultaneously bewildering political moment in July knowing our government.

Ian1779 said:

It won’t even be the most incredible and simultaneously bewildering political moment in July knowing our government.

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It is beyond precedent for an opposition to lose two seats to the main party in opposition. Keep kidding yourself the significance of this happens

Grendel said:

It should not even be a contest - this will be the first time if it happens that the main opposition have been usurped twice by the sitting government, if it happens it will be one of the most incredible moments in British Politics

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What the Tories winning a seat they held until 97 and have had a majority split with whatever far right flavour of the week party since 2015 pretty much?

It’s quite funny seeing you go full Corbynista though.

Starmer isn’t going anywhere. The left are impotent and the right need him to change the rule book.

shmmeee said:

What the Tories winning a seat they held until 97 and have had a majority split with whatever far right flavour of the week party since 2015 pretty much?

It’s quite funny seeing you go full Corbynista though.

Starmer isn’t going anywhere. The left are impotent and the right need him to change the rule book.

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I’d get your hard hats on, cause grendel is gonna have a field day if/when his boys win big- it’s like he’s counting down to Christmas Day reading this

shmmeee said:

What the Tories winning a seat they held until 97 and have had a majority split with whatever far right flavour of the week party since 2015 pretty much?

It’s quite funny seeing you go full Corbynista though.

Starmer isn’t going anywhere. The left are impotent and the right need him to change the rule book.

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Labour only won it because the local right wing independent group split the Tory vote.

This isn't deepest darkest Liverpool/Leeds or Manchester

Labour lost 13% of the vote share in the previous election and we're supposed to believe that losing another few percent will be one of the most incredible moments in political history?

Labour party is in a mess, no doubt about it. The identity politics is eating them alive by descending into vicious in fighting. No obvious solution and still some way to fall I think. Maybe attempting to unite people will never be popular again. The winners are the Tories who are brilliant at keeping power but not at governing.
Maybe these islands are currently ungovernable. Until the majority get tired of the muddle and incompetence it's every 'man' for himself.
I'm all right Jack.

shmmeee said:

What the Tories winning a seat they held until 97 and have had a majority split with whatever far right flavour of the week party since 2015 pretty much?

It’s quite funny seeing you go full Corbynista though.

Starmer isn’t going anywhere. The left are impotent and the right need him to change the rule book.

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I couldn’t care less - odd though the Lib Dem’s can overturn a huge Tory majority and you think it’s ok to not be able to defend a majority of their own as the dreadful Tories last held it in the last century