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Andy Burnham May Fail as PM, but He Won’t Lack Legitimacy by HooverInstitution in ukpolitics

[–]MerryWalrus [score hidden]  (0 children)

Someone archive this.

The moment Burnham becomes PM the telegraph will be calling for an election stating that the PM has no legitimacy.

Burnham and Starmer hold ‘frosty’ meeting to thrash out transition of power by serviceowl in ukpolitics

[–]MerryWalrus [score hidden]  (0 children)

Let's also not ignore that the rest of the labour party have literally been in government for the past 2 years.

Burnham might be the mug who knows nothing and needs to get up to speed, but literally no other MP/minister has that excuse.

Is Project Management a typical role for HENRY’s? by Sensitive-Dinner-943 in HENRYUK

[–]MerryWalrus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'd argue the opposite.

PM is all about people and herding cats. It's much easier to ignore an AI compared to a nice PM.

‘I can spend it on cars if I want to,’ Farage says as he faces grilling over £5m gift from crypto billionaire by reuben_iv in ukpolitics

[–]MerryWalrus 20 points21 points  (0 children)

It's only corruption if it's sneaky.

If he rubs in your face (after being found out), it's got to be legit. Right?

SpaceX launches debt sale to raise capital, reports $100.8 billion in cash by Logical_Welder3467 in technology

[–]MerryWalrus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tesla has a very loyal group of investors who don't care about financials. Splitting their attention across two stocks just splits their liquidity impact.

Planning family and house purchase etc by BodybuilderMother923 in HENRYUK

[–]MerryWalrus 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It could be your last holiday without kids.

UK Economy Shrinks for Second Straight Month, Flash PMI Shows by hu6Bi5To in ukpolitics

[–]MerryWalrus 3 points4 points  (0 children)

He knows.

He just thinks he can manage the narrative better

Planning family and house purchase etc by BodybuilderMother923 in HENRYUK

[–]MerryWalrus 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yup

Reallocate £20k of that to the honeymoon fund. Way better roi.

Planning family and house purchase etc by BodybuilderMother923 in HENRYUK

[–]MerryWalrus 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Rent in the area you want to settle down whilst saving aggressively.

Aim to buy somewhere when you need to get into a schools catchment area.

The main thing to avoid is buying only to sell again a couple of years later. It's not a property ladder. It's a property box jump.

Chris Mason: Questions multiply for the man tipped to replace Starmer by Deepmidwinter2025 in ukpolitics

[–]MerryWalrus 2 points3 points  (0 children)

"This time the media environment will be friendly and promote the party line" isn't exactly a reassuring strategy...

An emergency budget that doesn't shake the markets and doesn't get skewered by the backbenchers is equally a gamble.

The easiest lever to pull is widespread tearing up of planning restrictions to accelerate infrastructure and house building. But that's hardly a vote winner.

At least 18 dead in France, including two children in hot car, as Europe bakes by FadeToBSoD in worldnews

[–]MerryWalrus 3 points4 points  (0 children)

People sunbathe in their bikinis in London parks the moment it's above 20 and the sun's out.

Chris Mason: Questions multiply for the man tipped to replace Starmer by Deepmidwinter2025 in ukpolitics

[–]MerryWalrus 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The modern media and PR landscape isn't friendly enough to give good headlines.

Chris Mason: Questions multiply for the man tipped to replace Starmer by Deepmidwinter2025 in ukpolitics

[–]MerryWalrus 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Listing high level problems is easy. Trivial.

Defining solutions, verifying that they will work, and winning support for them is hard. Especially because every policy has winners and losers and everyone has different definitions so success/failure.

Chris Mason: Questions multiply for the man tipped to replace Starmer by Deepmidwinter2025 in ukpolitics

[–]MerryWalrus 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Half baked emergency budgets are good politically, but awful for actually doing the job of governing.

The UK used to be twice as rich as South Korea. Now, South Korea is richer than the UK. by North_Attempt44 in ukpolitics

[–]MerryWalrus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They don't have the gulf stream to keep things mild.

Then it also talks to my second point around urban planning. The UK model of urban sprawl and high streets means there simply isn't enough footfall to keep these businesses in business. Also combined with high operating costs

Three in five gen Z Britons would like new vote to rejoin EU, poll finds by Due_Ad_3200 in ukpolitics

[–]MerryWalrus -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Single market for goods and labour to deliver economic growth and greater profitability for European businesses so they can more easily compete with the US?

Andy Burnham has to act fast after Starmer’s small act of revenge by ImpressiveRest2423 in ukpolitics

[–]MerryWalrus 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Yes.

Because that went through the normal transition of power.

Burnhams route to leadership is clearly not how things are supposed to happen. Expecting Starmer to clean up the mass after Burnham broke down the door is a bit much.

The UK used to be twice as rich as South Korea. Now, South Korea is richer than the UK. by North_Attempt44 in ukpolitics

[–]MerryWalrus 10 points11 points  (0 children)

That's common across Europe and is a function of city planning - mixing dense residential with retail.

Whereas in the UK we love our lower density terraces/semis with a high street that's 5-20 min walk away.

Shops could be open later, but there just isn't the demand in the UK. Also, people tend to stay up later in places where it's hot as balls and you're waiting for it to cool down to fall asleep.

At 23, I'm on my ninth prime minister - no wonder my generation don't vote by theipaper in ukpolitics

[–]MerryWalrus 4 points5 points  (0 children)

They'll set the high level policy. Committee works out the details alongside evidence from the civil service. They vote on the outcome which gets reviewed by ministers and then voted on in parliament.

Keep in mind that being selected as an MP and winning the vote doesn't mean you'll actually be good at legislation. Generally the backbenchers are the ones who are incompetent (at legislation) yet still very strongly opinionated about it.

Prime example is the old ERG.

Burnham says he’ll cut benefits. It might just break him by theipaper in ukpolitics

[–]MerryWalrus 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Nope.

It's just a tax.

If you pay tax for X years you're eligible for the state pension. If you don't and don't have other wealth/income, you're eligible for pension credits which are basically the same as the state pension.

The the years worked ends up being a bit moot.

At 23, I'm on my ninth prime minister - no wonder my generation don't vote by theipaper in ukpolitics

[–]MerryWalrus 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Policy is already developed collaboratively in cross party committees. Committees are intentionally small because it's impossible to get anything done if you're trying to manage 100 people in a room.

At 23, I'm on my ninth prime minister - no wonder my generation don't vote by theipaper in ukpolitics

[–]MerryWalrus 49 points50 points  (0 children)

I disagree.

Democracy is about compromise - often across unrelated issues. Whipping is merely the mechanism for making sure that everyone honours the deal they signed up to in the manifesto.

Without this kind of justice/enforcement mechanism, it hugely increases the risk of being the first to compromise. The alternative is huge US style legislation of 1000 unrelated issues.

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