#british elections

[maplekae]

Who on god’s green earth is voting for bloody Reform😭

Chat we are actually cooked🥹🙏

[contemplatingoutlander]

Jonathan Pie (Tom Walker): 'It's 50 Shades of Beige.' Meet Britain's New Prime Minister. | NYT Opinion | July 5, 2024

Tom Walker does another satirical turn as "fictional newscaster" Jonathan Pie to report about how, after 14 years, Labour finally beat the Tories in a landslide. I wish Pie were a "real" newscaster, he'd be a blast to watch on the evening news.😉 Below are some gifs of select moments in the video:

Below the cut are some more gifs in which "Jonathan Pie" talks about right-wing populism, and why it was eventually discredited in the U.K. But this one gif sums up the major reason it lost favor in Britain:

See more gifs under the cut.

[edited]

[Obviously, I like to make gifs. But this video was so spot on, I just couldn't resist.🤷🏻‍♀️]

TRANSCRIPT USED FOR GIFS:

After 14 years of Conservative rule, the Labour Party have resoundingly won the U.K. election this morning, leaving the Tories with their worst defeat ever—  I’m sorry. I’m just going to do that again without a smile on my face. Sorry. I’m a professional. [PHONE RINGS] Well, the results are still coming in. Hey. Dum, dum, dum, another one bites the dust. It’s a bloodbath. It’s an absolute bloodbath. [...] But the people have spoken. Meet our new prime minister. Yes, it’s fifty shades of beige, Captain Whitebread, Sir Keir Starmer. […] Never heard of him? Don’t worry, neither have we. If he was a vegetable, he’d be a potato. But a little bit of dull and boring is exactly what the doctor ordered. […] [PHONE RINGS] Oh. This is brutal. This is like the opening of "Saving Private Ryan’." I’d almost feel sorry for them...if they weren’t seriously awful people. This morning’s Labour landslide bucks an international trend, a resounding rejection of right-wing populism...kind of. Yes. Whilst countries like Italy, Hungary, France, and Germany are having passionate love affairs with right-wing populism, and in America, you’re seriously considering a second helping, here in the U.K., we’ve been in an abusive relationship with it for some years. […]      The Tories took office in 2010. And prime minister David Cameron declared, "we’re all in this together," before implementing brutal austerity on the country’s poorest people.      Resentment and anger took hold. And populism thrives on little else.      Then Brexit, which gave all the fringe voices of British politics a mainstream platform with which to promise the world without fear they’d ever have to deliver.      That’s how populism works. It promises the moon, and instead, it hands you a DVD copy of ‘Apollo 13’.      Soon, the Looney Tunes who sold us the idea in the first place, were running the asylum.

[danteskygod]

Ok, well, this is the point I was trying to make.

YOUR VOTES COUNT.

In a year where billions of people are electing new governments it's important to consider that boycotts don't work, because all that happens is the same person gets back in and you are left asking "How the hell did that happen?"

Simple answer; because their power base turned up and voted, and everyone else went *shrug*.

Politics matters. You want a house, better rent control, a decent education, infrastructure, healthcare, kids, jobs? That's politics.

You will never find the perfect candidate who ticks all your boxes, whether it be for a district council, county council, mayor, PCC, or MP. So pick the closest ones to your values and vote for them.

Yes, there are occasions where you do have to suck it up and do a tactical vote (voting against a candidate rather than voting for one), but that's how it goes sometimes. (In my constituency, for example, they could put up a donkey wearing a particular coloured rosette and it would get elected so you sometimes have to think creatively).

Check out the flyers that come through your door. Who is actually interested in getting your vote? Is there a party that doesn't bother because they assume they'll win anyway? Also, don't believe that everything they declare on them is 100% true. (Remember there are lies. damn lies, and statistics!)

On that note, make sure you read news from a variety of sources to get the full picture. Left-wing and right-wing press. It really scares me how many people say they get their news from an unregulated source such as Tik Tok, or Facebook, rather than those written by professional journalists whose work is checked and verified for accuracy before being published.

Party politics sucks. We know this. Governments get elected with 30 - 40% of the popular vote. It sucks.

But vote anyway. At least try to make the change. Because if you don't at least try, nothing will.

"Decisions are made by those who show up." (Thank you The West Wing!)

[knarfire]

If I have any british/ UK followers, please by god go out and vote in your elections tomorrow! Vote with your brain and heart, instead with your fear.

[tearsofrefugees]

Five unresolved immigration challenges as election results add pressure

Britain’s local and Australia’s by-election this weekend delivered heavy losses for major parties, with immigration emerging as defining political issues.

[tearsofrefugees]

Labour targets international students claiming asylum after election losses to Reform

Exclusive: Ministers understood to be drafting white paper this month in move to reduce legal migration

[ir-tg-curvy-mature-feetworship]

Why British elections are superior to U.S. elections:

CNBC:

‘We don’t do God’ and massive ad spends: How UK election races differ from American ones

'We don't do God' and massive ad spends: How UK election races differ from American ones

The U.K. and U.S. have a lot in common. But when it comes to politics, Brits do things very differently from their American friends.

ENGLAND > UNITED STATES

[tearsofrefugees]

Reform plays down risk of small businesses going 'bust' over employer immigration tax plans

Reform UK events are usually light on policy but the party has been doing some brainstorming. Its latest offer in the general election camp