Uk politics March 2018

Activist and Labour adviser Munroe Bergdorf has stepped down from her role on the LGBT advisory board following allegations she posted offensive messages on social media

10:18 AM - 6 Mar 2018 310 120

Parsefone · 2018-03-06T11:45:32.090Z

I was all but certain that was going to happen, unfortunately. You’d have to be incredibly tough to put up with the kind of abuse she’s been getting day in and day out since the appointment, and it was always going to be a running battle with her social media record rather than getting anything done.

roastthemonaspit · 2018-03-06T12:18:39.629Z

Yeah, they know she’s got her head screwed on and can probably go up against most of them. They want to derail GRA reform. There’s obviously people she can’t reach but they’re not the ones that matter she could’ve changed hearts and minds of people just a bit unsure. So frustrating.

marckee · 2018-03-06T13:33:33.002Z

Looks like Henry Bolton made the logo himself…

BBC News

Ex-UKIP leader 'to set up new party'

Sacked UK Independence Party leader Henry Bolton says he is to set up a new pro-Brexit party.

anon89873996 · 2018-03-06T22:02:47.816Z

I agree wholeheartedly, I don’t have stats to back this up but I imagine that social housing demand outstrips supply in most areas, quite drastically in some cases? Feels like there should be a priority on social housing at least as much as affordable housing. Full disclosure, I might be more than a bit bias as I am currently seeking social housing and it is a demoralising process.

iamwiggy · 2018-03-06T23:47:24.057Z

anon89873996:

I imagine that social housing demand outstrips supply in most areas, quite drastically in some cases?

massively, 2m people on the social housing waiting list if my memory is right?

1101010 · 2018-03-07T00:05:10.069Z

marckee:

This is what Labour tried to do back in the 00s, but Tory councils refused to play ball and the coalition government basically scrapped the idea. It’s a good measure and will see a battle between the national government, conservative councils in the shires and NIMBYs. Good. It’s needed.

I guess now the housing situation is starting to bite what would be the next generation of Tory voters as they see their kids being completely unable to buy, they actually have to look to do something?

colinzealuk:

one of the Tories who genuinely believes much of the stuff they say about social mobility, opportunity

I think almost all Tories genuinely believe in this but I don’t think anyone of them know how to do it because it’s just a sort joke, isn’t it? it just looked like it worked in a few situations where the economy changed and boomed but it was only ever a section of society experiencing that mobility/opportunity. It probably looked fine when you were at the top looking down.

Fundamentally I don’t think most Tories are actively evil but it comes to the same thing in the end really.

infinite_jest · 2018-03-07T01:43:12.483Z

“One Nation”? Really?

en.wikipedia.org

Pauline Hanson's One Nation

Pauline Hanson's One Nation (PHON or ONP, also One Nation or One Nation Party) is a nationalist, right-wing populist party in Australia. One Nation was founded in 1997, by member of parliament Pauline Hanson and her advisors David Ettridge and David Oldfield after Hanson was disendorsed as a federal candidate for the Liberal Party of Australia. The disendorsement came before the 1996 federal election because of comments she made about Indigenous Australians. Hanson sat as an independent for on...

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ein%20Volk,%20ein%20Reich,%20ein%20Führer

1101010 · 2018-03-07T02:09:32.505Z

Remembering the good old days of watching The Sweeny when Britain was ‘right’.

anon89873996 · 2018-03-07T06:44:01.888Z

Frustratingly I can’t find the figures, but I would add that however high the waiting lists are it is also worth considering that eligibility to be on a waiting list can be pretty strict so there will be people who will want/need social housing who are shut out from it altogether because of that.

Why is yhe focus so much on house buying in housing policy? Surely something like improving social housing supply could underpin improving access to home ownership by providing more people with stable, affordable living situations to get them on their feet to begin with?

anon89873996 · 2018-03-07T08:33:51.950Z

True. This is why I generally don’t get involved in politics discussion, I forget that it is mostly about getting into and staying in power rather than actually helping people most of the time.

colinfilth · 2018-03-07T10:26:52.855Z

anon89873996:

Why is yhe focus so much on house buying in housing policy?

Surely the focus is on house-buying in Conservative policy? It’s a pretty core belief for them, and one we’d be unwise to think they’ll ever change. I’m sure May’s idea of an ideal solution to the housing crisis would look a lot like potential young tory voters all installed in their own starter homes, just like in the good old days under Maggie. If they can suck in some voters by throwing a load of cash at overcoming the deposit hurdle (help to buy and all that crap) then they’ll go for it with gusto.

The next generation of tories (and they exist, I’m sorry) are aspiring homeowners.

casinobay · 2018-03-07T10:42:20.007Z

Dah, dah, dah, dah, dah-da-da-daaaaah

colinfilth · 2018-03-07T10:44:38.348Z

Oh god now I’m going to have the Rainbow theme tune going round my head all day.

casinobay · 2018-03-07T10:54:38.285Z

colinzealuk · 2018-03-07T11:14:33.664Z

anon89873996:

Why is yhe focus so much on house buying in housing policy? Surely something like improving social housing supply could underpin improving access to home ownership by providing more people with stable, affordable living situations to get them on their feet to begin with?

A couple of things.

There’s still a strong belief within the Tory party that social housing “breeds” (their word, not mine) Labour voters - policy under Cameron/Osborne was driven by that core belief.
While there’s something of a recognition that renting is often awful on the Tory side of politics (recent speeches have talked about things like insecurity of tenancy etc), because they tend towards the side of capital over consumer they find it difficult to intervene and therefore it’s easier for them to try and “solve” the problem by getting more people out of rentals and into ownership; i.e. not solving the problems with rental, but just getting as many people as they can out. This has the added benefit that those who benefit from those policies will likely be grateful to the Tories and end up more amenable to voting for them in the future.

Parsefone · 2018-03-07T11:43:17.890Z

It’s always worth bearing in mind with this, as with all areas of domestic governance, that Tories never aim to solve a problem. They aim to offer an escape route to it for some, dividing those afflicted between deserving and not-deserving.