The 2024 UK General Election

I am whacked out, staying up late then getting up early.
The low turnout speaks volumes about disenchantment.

We shall see what Starmer comes up with in the days ahead... today he's just schmoozing.
I do hope for all our sakes that positive steps are in there.

Q: How do fewer votes translate to more seats? I do know the answer - but something is radically wrong there and it needs fixing.

Sad someone decent like Jonathan Ashworth should lose his seat to an independent standing only on the Gaza vote with no interest in the betterment of the country.
Jess Phillips and Shabana Mahmood's victory speeches were drowned out by more protests from the religion of peace and accusations of 'infidel'

I was surprised to find UKIP had a candidate. I thought that was dead and buried. It only raised 144 votes I am happy to say.. We had a couple of independent candidates; one is a former mayor and seems a decent bloke, and the other has worked hard on a local issues but neither qualifies them to be MPs. Stick to what you do best, chaps!

I understand that the police in your neck of the woods are investigating concerns that arose around groups of Muslim men filming and shouting at female campaigners for other parties and that one woman out posting leaflets was filmed by a group of men so she could be targeted on social media and then had her tyres slashed.

I get their aggrievement but the ballot box is the place for this and I hope that the police take this seriously and make some arrests.

I think there's going to be a few minor announcements but I believe The Budget actual will be in September. That's what I've heard. 

Actually Hildie, I don't get their grievance, in the respect of it having nothing whatsoever to do with UK politics - nor does protest, on any scale or any kind, have any impact whatsoever on either Hamas or Israel.
Starmer, or anyone else's support (or otherwise) for either side has but one effect, to cause  disrespect, disharmony AND violence here. 

I meant that I Understand how upset they are about what is happening in Gaza. But their grasp on international law and democracy is very low. No country, UK included can tell Netanyahu what to do in his own country. They can ask, they can cajole, they can threaten sanctions and he may have broken international war crimes legislation but there is not another country that can actually stop him. He has not invaded another country. Gaza is part of Israel. Other countries may not like that but as it is that is the situation today. Egypt will not open it's borders because then Israel will push 2.5 million Palestinians over the border. 

He was democratically elected and if the Israeli people want a different person they are free to elect someone else. He is only there via coalition with other parties (bloody PR again). Whereas many of the countries these protestors and harassers are from are not democratic countries, or they are quasi democratic e.g. It has been the same family running Bangladesh for decades and don't get on the wrong side of them.

The campaign for all candidates was dreadful, people had to hide, call the police, receive harassment from groups of men following them and filming them. It was shocking. The police are apparently investigating. Getting 3 or 4 MPs will do nothing at all for their alleged campaign to bring peace to Gaza. They are as powerless today as they were last Thursday morning in relation to that.

There is always lots of hypocrisy around international relations in these areas. Ireland for instance has declared that it will pass legislation to say that Palestine is an independent state. Well, what exactly will that mean? Nothing, unless all the other countries do the same and they won't. Ireland sits of periphery of Europe on an island and it regularly criticises other countries and the stance they take about asylum and immigration and yet when people started coming over their borders they were like - take them away, we haven't got room, we don't have the money- we are going to make the UK take them back. It has always been relatively easy to get in and out of Palestine if you have an Irish passport and people like the IRA have links going back a long way. But if the US doesn't go to the UN and ask for Palestine to be a separate state then it just isn't going to happen.

What we and other countries could have been better at would have been forcing Israel to allow aid in. We can do that by threatening to suspend trade agreements unless they allow a steady supply of aid. Israel are not wrong in saying that Hamas have embedded themselves into the community. Unfortunately the community are in the cross wires.

Could we do more internationally, probably. Should we be looking at all the sports washing going on the in Gulf, yes we should. However, on our own it is pretty meaningless. Although I don't mind it when we do sometimes take a stand. I was always happy that Wilson did not take us into the Vietnam War and not happy that Blair took us into Iraq. We can say no to the US sometimes and we should. It's not a two way street, they said no to us over the Falkands.

Ashworth has secured a job in a Research & Marketing Role for Labour. I think he'll be happy with that and if he wants to he can stand again somewhere.

Hilda, Israel only got possession of that land via GB, they got it because of persecution, that's exactly how they are treating the Palestinians now. They have locked Palestinians up for 57 years, Palestine is not part of Israel and never will be.

There are 5,350,000 Palestinians involved here.


[As of June 2024, the State of Palestine is recognized as a sovereign state by 145 of the 193 member states of the United Nations. It has been a non-member observer state of the United Nations General Assembly since November 2012.]