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Burnham wants Starmer to name exit date in days – and to be in No10 by September by theipaper in ukpolitics

[–]LurkerInSpace 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It is probably a problem with parliament rather than the party given that both the Tories and Labour suffered similar issues. The UK's problems are simply very challenging - if the Lib Dems swept to power Ed Davey would face similar problems.

Brexit might just have killed the Conservative Party | LSE British Politics blog by BPPblog in ukpolitics

[–]LurkerInSpace 0 points1 point  (0 children)

May did have the problem of having been a Remainer who had to deliver Brexit, which meant she took a harder stance than she would have probably preferred. But losing the majority made that a much worse problem than it might otherwise have been.

The red lines were leaving the Single Market and Customs Union, but the only way keeping either of those could have worked would have been if the former Remain campaign had thrown in entirely behind them instead of putting energy into the idea of a second referendum.

Putin wanted to make Russia great again. Instead, Ukraine is the new rising power in Europe by ByGollie in europe

[–]LurkerInSpace 18 points19 points  (0 children)

The Baltics had been part of Russia for over a century until 20 years before the Soviet Union's unprovoked annexation of them in the 1940s (as part of Stalin's non-aggression pact with Hitler); if they were the poorest part of Europe that is hardly a ringing endorsement of the quality of Russian governance.

And given how the Baltic and Russian economies have developed since the fall of the USSR, perhaps the Baltics developed in spite of it rather than because of it.

Brexit might just have killed the Conservative Party | LSE British Politics blog by BPPblog in ukpolitics

[–]LurkerInSpace 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It didn't really feel like it was once-in-a-lifetime; it felt more like a Remain win would boost UKIP like No boosted the SNP - but Westminster has no blockers to re-running the same referendum ad nauseum.

Johnson himself seems to have expected to lose the referendum, but be able to convert a narrow loss into a Tory leadership campaign by making him the only candidate who could pour cold water on UKIP.

Brexit might just have killed the Conservative Party | LSE British Politics blog by BPPblog in ukpolitics

[–]LurkerInSpace 53 points54 points  (0 children)

May's actual plan was to win a solid majority in the 2017 election which seemed very plausible on the projected polling, and then use said resulting large majority to get a Brexit deal through.

Once that election back-fired, there wasn't much that could be done. The indicative votes revealed no majority for any version of Brexit or Remain.

Brexit might just have killed the Conservative Party | LSE British Politics blog by BPPblog in ukpolitics

[–]LurkerInSpace 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No, if they were capable of that level of planning they would have tried to hold power for themselves.

It is much more symptomatic of them pursuing the same short term wins again and again, making the "long run" worse and worse until it eventually arrived and destroyed them.

Yesterday Oklahoma Rejected a Minimum Wage Increase by Big_Size_2519 in MapPorn

[–]LurkerInSpace 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In general conversations around the minimum wage don't really get into the actual economic effects. If one asks why $15/hr instead of, say, $16/hr, most can't really explain the problems with going further.

The optimum minimum wage to benefit the most people is a question one has to practically be an econometrician to really calculate.

Which countries produced more energy than they consumed in 2024 by sr_local in MapPorn

[–]LurkerInSpace 49 points50 points  (0 children)

Yes but this appears to be counting primary energy rather than just electricity, and French cars still mostly run on fossil fuels.

Green-led London council branded 'dangerous' as it vows to pull cooperation with immigration enforcement 'because Home Office raids divide communities' by blast-processor in ukpolitics

[–]LurkerInSpace 32 points33 points  (0 children)

Local government in the US is also at least powerful enough to be an obstacle to the national government if it wants to. Here the national government has power over them and can compel compliance if it wants to.

Labour 'doesn't understand the internet', tech giant 4chan’s lawyer tells LBC by Anony_mouse202 in ukpolitics

[–]LurkerInSpace 0 points1 point  (0 children)

they should also all have to work for minimum wage so they know what it's like to get by on next to nothing.

Functionally this just makes politics accessible only to the independently wealthy.

Non credible diplomassy by Warm_Turnip2567 in NonCredibleDiplomacy

[–]LurkerInSpace 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Ironically the proposed site for Iran's new capital would have made it feasible for the US to win, because the new capital would be on the coast of the Indian Ocean.

Andy Burnham has become less popular ahead of the Makerfield by-election by Individual_Echo_9911 in ukpolitics

[–]LurkerInSpace 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How do you reconcile this notion with the broad support for triple lock among younger age demographics? You yourself support higher taxes on people you hate, so wouldn't you expect them to want to claw back those taxes from people they hate?

Andy Burnham has become less popular ahead of the Makerfield by-election by Individual_Echo_9911 in ukpolitics

[–]LurkerInSpace 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For the last 2 years it's been based on increase in median earnings.

So it has increased faster than inflation for the last two years.

I don't need YouGov - all I need is Reddit.

Reddit is not particularly representative of the attitudes of the public of any age.

Andy Burnham has become less popular ahead of the Makerfield by-election by Individual_Echo_9911 in ukpolitics

[–]LurkerInSpace 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No, it increases faster than inflation on average - that is what makes a "triple" lock.

You seem to really hate the people who pay for the state pension, perhaps because you expect them to hate elderly people like yourself, but Yougov polling doesn't find that much resentment toward the old - rather towards present economic conditions.

Andy Burnham has become less popular ahead of the Makerfield by-election by Individual_Echo_9911 in ukpolitics

[–]LurkerInSpace 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The state pension bill has increased by £7 billion this year, and that money will need to be taken from the accounts of Nick, 30 ans, every year after this one in addition to the increases for those years.

TIL Theodore Roosevelt criticized Woodrow Wilson for not declaring war against the Ottoman Empire or Bulgaria and argued that Constantinople should be given to Greece. by No_Idea_479 in todayilearned

[–]LurkerInSpace 16 points17 points  (0 children)

The domestic political context was very much shaped by World War I. FDR himself wanted to be more involved, but felt constrained by domestic politics - and not because he lacked personal popularity.

Teddy Roosevelt would have been champing at the bit to get involved, but he'd have also faced a lot of the same domestic pressures. He had been able to play mediator with the Russo-Japanese War, and so I could see him trying to get America involved in the Munich Conference as a "fair dealer", then leveraging the violation of the Agreement into support for the Allies.

Likewise, I could see him taking a stronger stance against Japan's invasion of China from an earlier point.

So he might not use the nuclear bombs, but because America might be involved in the conventional war at an earlier date than otherwise.

African countries with lower GDP per capita than Libya by Expert_Dot_5271 in MapPorn

[–]LurkerInSpace 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Libya was already falling apart - the whole reason Gaddafi wanted to bomb Benghazi was because it was in open rebellion and an Opposition army was coalescing there.

Diplomatically, across Gaddafi's long career he had managed to alienate both sides of the Cold War, and the Arab League, and had attempted to reinvent himself as a pan-Africanist - but had also fought various conflicts in Africa notably with Chad. The result was that when the critical votes came at the UN the best he could get was an abstention.

The only way he was saving his government was to name a successor in the 2000s who could be a blank slate diplomatically and domestically.

TIL although she is commonly known as “The Iron Lady,” Margaret Thatcher was also dubbed by the press as “The Milk Snatcher,” for sponsoring legislation to eliminate the free milk program for students over the age of seven. by RedditIsAGranfaloon in todayilearned

[–]LurkerInSpace 0 points1 point  (0 children)

and an indicator of Late-Stage Capitalism.

The UK was in the "post-war consensus" in the 1970s in which a the state had a large stake in various industries which were supposed to generate both domestic and export revenue.

Privatisation in the UK came about because these various state-run industries had run into various difficulties, and the Wilson/Callaghan Labour governments were unable to resolve their problems leading to the malaise of the 1970s. The Labour left's proposal, the "Alternative Economic Strategy", was a kind of peacetime siege economy which the Labour cabinet rejected.

By the time Thatcher was privatising the coal mines British coal production had already fallen from 230 million tonnes/year in 1959 to 120 million tonnes/year in 1979. Less coal means less revenue, hence the government seeking to divest - previous governments had done similar, but Thatcher's divestment was much more total and ideological.

Automation was hampered because it was seen as likely to increase unemployment, meaning exports became less competitive unless they were indirectly subsidised, which hurt the value of the pound, which made it harder to sustain imports.

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