March 2022 UK Politics thread

News & Politics
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Go wild! And post at least 10 characters apparently.

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Arise Sir Gavin :woozy_face:

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Must we?

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Erm… Dennis Skinner, Bercow… Louise Mensch?.. Some would say Rees-Mogg but really just a dick.

Not that many characters in politics really are there?

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Me realising it’s March now and we need another politics thread (this applies to any politics thread since the start of 2020, frankly)

image

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The NI Assembly has mistakenly reduced private rents by 10%. Sometimes the freaks that make up the devolved assemblies come through!

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Annnnnnd it’s gone

https://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/ni-wide-10-rent-cut-halted-after-sinn-fein-u-turns-to-vote-down-proposal-41420034.html

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Fucking hell. What was their excuse for overturning it?

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Absolutely out of ORDER!

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Several reasons, I’m just going to bullet point for clarity

  • Gerry Carroll is a People before Profit MLA for West Belfast.
  • West Belfast is dominated by Sinn Fein, who are a nominally socialist party
  • PBP present an issue to Sinn Fein in areas like West Belfast because PBP are willing to attempt stuff like this, while Sinn Fein, who have had their hands on the levers of power for ~10 years won’t even bother trying anything radical
  • (As a side note, PBP recently tried to remove some anti-trade union legislation that was blocked by all the other parties)
  • During the vote Sinn Fein MLAs realised they couldn’t very well vote against rent cuts, because PBP could point to that as a political wedge on the doorstep in May (date of next election)
  • But the 10% reduction would definitely be challenged in the courts ect

Plus there are obviously heaps of MLAs who are landlords themselves!

So that’s sort of an answer… I don’t doubt there were large issues with the amendment PBP got passed as they are a very marginal party with crap resources. But a 10% rent cut would be a worthwhile thing to fight for in the courts, if you were serious about helping the working class.

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good informative post

however I think dingers question was more that given:

…how are they spinning the u-turn?

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Remains to be seen. PBP are a small party who do some things that damage their credibility, like they campaigned for Brexit :expressionless: they also made a big deal about not sending condolences to the Queen after Prince Philip died which was silly imo.

So certainly some people just don’t like them because of things like that. PBP also catch a load of shit for proposing policies they don’t deliver… But they can’t deliver them because they’re a marginal Trotskyist party.

In summary SF will be able to spin it because they’re the larger party, with a shitload more money than everyone else, and they’re really the main show in town in Ireland if you want something vaguely left of center.

Even though their record in government in NI has been really unsatisfactory, Sinnn Fein will be getting (one of) my vote(s) in May because I really hate nearly every other moderate party more than them.

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With the sanctions on Lebedev, What happens to the Standard and the Indy?

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Different Lebedev, he’s still in the house of lords

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^this

Dmitri Lebedev has been sanctioned, Evgeny Lebedev hasn’t.

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Oops

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The haunted pencil’s dream of reinstating the work house as the basic unit of social care getting a bit of exposure and coverage

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I don’t know the ins and outs, but this seems like good news…

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Incredible news. I genuinely thought she was never gonna get out.

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