Open mike 06/07/2024

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, July 6th, 2024 - 20 comments
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20 comments on “Open mike 06/07/2024 ”

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  2. adam 2
    6 July 2024 at 11:21 am

    Good little bit of reporting from over the ditch. Who broke Britain?

  3. Bearded Git 3
    6 July 2024 at 1:05 pm

    Starmer's craven support for Israel's invasion of Gaza (and the West Bank) has cost him dearly in the UK election. Five pro-Gaza independent candidates were elected. The Muslim community will not forget this.

    Wonderful how Faiza Shaheen stood as an independent in Chingford when she was dumped by Labour for pro-Palestine comments. She got just about the same number of votes as the official Labour candidate, splitting the vote and allowing Conservative former leader Ian Duncan Smith to win the seat.

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/5/pro-palestine-candidates-including-corbyn-secure-wins-in-uk-election

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/iain-duncan-smith-general-election-result-labour-chingford-b1168748.html

  4. Michael Scott 4
    6 July 2024 at 2:05 pm

    Biggest wedding in 200 years but the honeymoon will be disappointing.

    Like NZ Labour in 2020 Starmer will have a huge majority because the voters were desperate for change and their only option under FPP was Starmer.

    Who polled poorly right up to the election.

    Labour had few policies because they didn't need them- they understood that voters were finished with the conservatives after 14 years.

    Starmer has committed to no tax changes until 2028

    The policies that they did stand on though are enough to sink them financially. A strong military and support of Israel. A huge housebuilding programme of 1,500,000 new homes within 5 years. Greater availability of medical services at cheaper prices. And sorting out the big pay rises the Public Service Unions are demanding.

    Dissension in the caucus is most likely to be around Gaza, the treatment of illegal immigrants and the nuclear issue

    • Bearded Git 4.1
      6 July 2024 at 4:18 pm

      Labour under Starmer got 33.8% of the vote yesterday.

      Labour under Corbyn in 2017 got 40.0%.

      In yesterday’s election Labour got less than 5 times the Greens’ vote but got 103 times the number of seats the Greens got.

      Talk about a crap system.

      • Ad 4.1.1
        6 July 2024 at 4:30 pm

        Weird that we're only talking about a 'crap system' now when the disproportionality affects the extreme right Reform party, but not when it affected the Greens or Lib Democrats or Sinn Feinn in previous elections.

        Don't be sucked in.

        • adam 4.1.1.1
          6 July 2024 at 10:10 pm

          Bullshit Ad,

          FPP is a bullshit system which has kept the conservatives in power for almost a century.

          And for a very long time people have been calling it out as a bullshit system.

    • Ad 4.2
      6 July 2024 at 4:27 pm

      The first job is easy: Steer Calmer with Keir Starmer.

      Starmer can cope with a bit of dissent, and if he gets really stuck he can turn to the LibDems or the Greens. He's spoilt for choice.

      There is nothing material the UK can do about Israel. Those pro-Gaza independent MPs will achieve nothing except polishing their own righteousness.

      Starmer is in the enviable position of looking and being stable and moderate while most of Europe goes into an extremist meltdown. Maybe the Brexit choice was right after all.

      Starmer's position is also to be envied as the Conservatives tear themselves apart for at least a term internally and Farage pours petrol on them.

      Starmer's job is to calm the farm. The real one to watch is Rachel Reeves. Plenty know that the Labour majority enables a very bold reform programme. They simply did the smart thing of keeping a lid on it until they were in. If only Ardern had had the political sense for that.

      • Obtrectator 4.2.1
        6 July 2024 at 5:32 pm

        In idle moments I've found myself wondering if the UK Labour party might conceivably "do a Livingstone" once elected*. They won't, though. Sir Keir has been too careful and thorough in his purge of extremists.

        * Ken Livingstone was leader of an extremist Labour party faction on the Greater London Council (GLC). When the party gained control of the GLC in 1981, a coup by this faction saw Livingstone replace moderate Andrew McIntosh as leader, and begin a controversial programme of radical reform.

      • Obtrectator 4.2.2
        6 July 2024 at 5:45 pm

        "There is nothing material the UK can do about Israel. "

        Absolutely. Why should they concern themselves with it in any way, beyond offering succour to the wounded and impoverished on both sides? Let the antagonists sort it out for themselves. They've more in common with each other than either of them has with Christianity.

        I regard the Israel vs Palestine demonstrations in the UK as being rather like the India vs Pakistan quarrels that have caused some strife among immigrants from those places lately in cities like Leicester. Foreigners importing their disputes into a third-party country which has nothing to do now with either of the warring parties.

      • Michael Scott 4.2.3
        6 July 2024 at 5:55 pm

        It won't be easy for Starmer to pursue a moderate path with that majority. Like NZ Labour in 2020 with a similar once in a lifetime majority their activist supporters will be pushing for bold reforms.

        The biggest issue is housing, and like NZ Labour he has promised to build a specific number of houses (1.5m) within a specific timeframe (5yrs)

        The anaemic Lib Dem's housing policies and the privileged Greens won't strongly support Labour here foe fear of being tarred with the failure brush.

        Britain is an aging society with a fragile and ailing economy. It desperately needs growth to fund Labours agenda as they have reached the limits of borrowing.

        And although Starmer told the Times that his top priority would be wealth creation (which is admirable) he shows no signs of any ideas to achieve it.

      • tWig 4.2.4
        6 July 2024 at 7:45 pm

        Master-r is a useful anagram of Starmer, someone who (I, I, I statements up the wazoo) believes it's they, and not the Party or the zeitgeist, that's delivered the victory.

  5. Incognito 5
    6 July 2024 at 5:36 pm

    Governing NZ by ignorance & incompetence, denial & disrespect, or absolute arrogance? Take your pick.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/521445/pm-on-defensive-after-minister-admits-not-reading-interim-abuse-report

    • tWig 5.1
      6 July 2024 at 7:53 pm

      To be fair, it's stretching things a bit, an issue that is almost not one. For example, the Minister in question was probably briefed, and could have been well-informed on the report contents and the people he was meeting. And such a document would be a harrowing read. I'm no supporter of the Govt, but this seems tenuous criticism.

      • Incognito 5.1.1
        6 July 2024 at 8:31 pm

        This has been the pattern and big picture since 27 Nov. Don’t come up with pathetic excuses and apologies for a Minister not being to the job.

        • tWig 5.1.1.1
          6 July 2024 at 9:24 pm

          No, I am not being a pathetic aplogist at all, I believe. There is no law that says Ministers must read all material coming across their desks, especially interim reports. As well, a Minister can read all the material, but still make crap decisions that I vehemently disagree with. That is why the issue looks weak to me.

          I did go wikiing into Doocey's background (surname souns Irish-y). As he attended St Bede's, and comes from a prominent Canterbury family, I assume he had a Catholic upbringing with links to the local Catholic hierachy.

          In that case not reading the interim report for abuse in his balliwack, religion-wise and electorate-wise, looks more like deliberate ignorance, and is less excusable.

          On the other hand, the Brothers of God are an Aussie order, and placement of abusive brothers wouldn't have been under direct control of the local Bishop, although he likely knew about it from gossip.

  7. SPC 7
    6 July 2024 at 9:13 pm

    Stuff also mounted a defence of a news alternative to that from TVNZ.

    https://archive.li/eSw9m#selection-2585.0-2589.153