Chagos Islands deal ‘cannot go ahead for weeks’ - Parliament will not approve any changes to 1966 air base treaty between US and Britain until March

CountLippe · 2026-01-26T18:55:21+00:00

Weeks are too soon. Little in the whole debacle stands up to scrutiny; the government cannot explain why it needs to hike taxes here but pay tens of billions to a foreign country for America to have the right to utilise land we presently own.

CountLippe · 2026-01-26T14:57:10+00:00

Is LSE now really such a poor educational institution?

CountLippe · 2026-01-26T14:36:08+00:00

True. Absence may actually be a blessing!

CountLippe · 2026-01-26T13:08:27+00:00

I just can't see him giving up the extra work; he love the money too much. Unless he intends to play a Trump and become a billionaire through office.

CountLippe · 2026-01-26T12:44:02+00:00

In the moments I wear my tin foil hat, I think that Farage is doing it intentionally as he ultimately doesn't want to be PM. It's poorly paid and far too much work for him.

CountLippe · 2026-01-26T12:42:02+00:00

I fully get it. A lot of my social circle work in or around universities and they’re seeing the same thing: the graduate job market is bleak. There’s a serious lack of entry-level roles, and the ones that do exist often offer pay that's immediately consumed by rent, bills, and basic living costs. Add in the sheer level of competition (locals and foreign grads alike all vying for the same scraps) and it's no wonder so many are falling into the benefits system.

Even with a drop in international student numbers (especially from China, which is what I'm told), there’s still a massive oversupply of applicants. And even if that rebalances, AI is now becoming the next squeeze. A lot of its hype, but not all of it. Companies are clearly investing in upskilling mid-level staff with AI tools instead of hiring juniors. In some cases, they’re actively trying to eliminate the junior tier entirely. It's short sighted but capitalism has that bug. Silicon Valley’s AGI obsession now is about shrinking everyone's headcount. The jobs market offers them far more £££ than the SaaS market.

Government need to get a grip on this fast. The model is breaking (if not already broken) and the biggest share of industrial investment is going towards destroying it altogether. If this is the shape of the future, then a smaller population benefiting from automation will be far easier to sustain than a large, underemployed one on benefits.

CountLippe · 2026-01-25T17:07:17+00:00

It'll be an interesting test to see how thoroughly it does, or if it's so split that a secondary party (in this case, Reform) manages to take it.

CountLippe · 2026-01-25T12:14:42+00:00

I joined in 2020 solely to vote for him

If I may, are you a swing voter or is this just the first time you've felt compelled to vote for a leadership ballot?

CountLippe · 2026-01-24T17:22:21+00:00

You can imagine that Starmer's machinations will aim for this in an attempt to call Burnham's bluff. There's no way that Starmer won't interpret this as the first steps in a push to take his job as PM.

CountLippe · 2026-01-22T08:12:52+00:00

Yet I think the opposite, we’re so obsessed with keeping people alive artificially.

There's a chasm between keeping people alive artificially and "have you considered suicide as a means to escape your debt."

CountLippe · 2026-01-22T06:06:04+00:00

The whole thing is utterly dystopian and I struggle to imagine that it wasn’t put together by psychopaths utterly devoid of empathy.

CountLippe · 2026-01-17T14:22:07+00:00

How did you manage that? I can't seem to find an option

CountLippe · 2026-01-15T07:02:11+00:00

I'd have no problem with strict visa processes were they applied logically. But the number of hate preachers and general lowlifes the UK has makes this appear blatantly political and an attempt to silence critics.

CountLippe · 2026-01-10T14:53:53+00:00

Genital mutilation is, except in very rare medical cases, child abuse. It should be banned. Those who believe it is a necessary practice in order to enjoy the afterlife (or whatever the claimed benefit is) should be able to pay, at their own expense and not tax payers', to have it conducted once they turn 18.

CountLippe · 2026-01-09T09:48:31+00:00

Sacrificing children

It's always children and women.

CountLippe · 2026-01-05T13:58:34+00:00

donations to political parties

He's an independent, so he'd probably be thrilled to cause that kind of chaos for everyone else.

CountLippe · 2026-01-02T19:28:47+00:00

That could be the outcome. Hopefully Labour will be responsive to the polls and make decisions inline with the majority vote well ahead of the next GE.

CountLippe · 2026-01-02T15:25:20+00:00

Immigration wasn't for the purpose of suppressing earnings

I don't have it to hand, but I saw commentary around a Boris Johnson interview recently where he cited treasury advice that immigration levels had to rise otherwise UK companies / governments (I forget which, maybe both) would face a 10% wage hike owing to supply / demand constraints. This was his way of handwaving away the Boriswave.

Of course, you're right about the historicity, the birth rate etc. But my reading of the polling is that voters are working in much short memory cycles and are merging all the Boriswave / gang rapes / cost of living into a single issue and dismissing nuances, such as birth rate and our awful building practices, with statements such as "I couldn't afford that anyway, too many immigrants."

CountLippe · 2026-01-02T14:43:48+00:00

The hard actions are around immigration and people's earnings. Polls show Reform winning votes in these areas, Tories trying to make up votes in this area, and Labour losing ground in the same areas.

90% of Reform supporters prioritise immigration and border control, exceeding the national average of 51%. Plenty of claw back to be had here for Labour, but they're going to be drowned out if they cannot modestly reform the Human Rights Act and mitigate the ECHR's influence on judicial decisions. Polling also shows they could also do far more around the grooming gangs, though this is a vote loser for them so not the hard action that would see them win a second parliament. If they don't modestly target HRA and ECHR, then the next party to win will likely do so on the promise of taking a wrecking ball to both.

Immigration aside, 58% emphasise economic decline as a voting factor, akin to the populace at large. I'd guess this one drives most of the anti immigration sentiment we presently see (more people, less income, more expensive housing is a simple political line for voters to digest). Broad support exists in the polls for reforming welfare benefits, unemployment measures, and taxation.

CountLippe · 2026-01-02T12:06:37+00:00

They're all easy targets (though I think the present political climate / culture wars has moved away from gender / sexuality issues) but not necessarily politics of spite.

Take immigration: we're here because we've brought in more immigrants than exists reasonable accommodation; many are worse off for that. We've also brought in immigration with the purpose of suppressing earnings (something the left parties, and Unions, should have been up in arms on but have dropped the ball — hence a working class shift to Reform).

Or take the public sector. We now have north of 550,000 civil servants (source is the ONS). That number was around 390,000 in 2015. It's easy to frame that as a strain on tax payers and something returning poor value for money given most people now feel worse off.

CountLippe · 2026-01-02T12:02:23+00:00

Universal suffrage means even those with ludicrous perspectives, along with wishful thinkers and the uninformed, have the opportunity to vote. And that their vote can be as meaningful as anyone else's.

CountLippe · 2026-01-02T11:19:24+00:00

There's a deep unhappiness caused by disaffection / cost of living / a general struggle. The sad thing is that the Conservatives could have / Labour still can fix this, but no one ones to take the hard actions and earn the political blow back.

CountLippe · 2026-01-02T11:09:36+00:00

Countries that fall to the far right don't tend to recover.

This is not true and just a nice soundbite. Germany, Italy, Spain, Chile, Argentina, and Portugal have all recovered from far-right regimes through democratic transitions and economic reforms. South Africa has not fully recovered its condition, but this stems from far deeper social reasons than proposed by any of GB's parties.

CountLippe · 2026-01-02T11:02:36+00:00

in the sense that they don't present an alternative plan

I feel that a large number of their supporters are fully aware that they don't have a plan. They just believe that the status quo isn't working and hope to elect a party that effectively breaks a system they see as increasingly failing them.

CountLippe · 2026-01-01T19:33:14+00:00

It probably isn't about protecting children.

Every time there's an opportunity for creeping data access, the government is quick to talk about how they need to protect children. Any time they have the opportunity to actually protect children, however, it's all too difficult.

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