Sephiroth

The fact that some people in England seem to be narrowly focussed on the eejit that is mandelson whilst ignoring the real villains in the whole Epstein thing is… revealing and those villains are lauded and unaffected

I’m not trying to say anything. I’m explicitly citing the example of the party with most to gain by saying “councils waste money. We will go in and bust that whole nonsense up!” Only to go in and go whoops. We need more money not less ive deliberately posted a link to a sympathetic (to them) news outlet specifically so no one can go “well the guardian would say that” why try and hypothesise?

I would respectfully and strongly disagree. they are targeting Southwark in exactly the same way they target other councils and will have exactly the same outcome you would have to say why Southwark is the outlier here and not reform for it to be a meaningful differentiation

Oh I agree - we shouldn’t just blank cheque anyone but I would still say as we aren’t running a council it’s difficult to be part of the decision making process and understand what the cost-benefit of something we see as wastage is versus something else The fact that ideological purists like reform think they can take over a council and boast about the savings only to find they can’t suggests a wider picture

But what are you basing that judgement on? Vibes? where exactly and under what council is money being spent wisely? what about parties which promise to cut waste, come to power and find out there is no waste?

“What do councils spend all the money on?” Is, in my view, one of the most profoundly emblematic of our times we go about our lives, backed up by councils and governments and complain they aren’t needed reform win elections based on “we’re gonna go in and slash all the waste!” Only to later admit there effectively isn’t any oh and by the way we need to increase council tax Now all we have to offer is racism and ineptitude sorry about that https://www.gbnews.com/money/reform-elon-musk-doge-failed-savings So where does the money go? On a multitude of services - but the increasingly aged population and the care provision required is a large part of it the government could give councils more money to avoid council tax rises - but the we would have to pay more in jewels taxation and as a country we tend to pay less than other similar countries so we end up with an expensive mend and make do approach I don’t see any political parties offering a solution Starmer is obviously lacking in many areas but he is the result of a hostile media and a reluctant population willing to hear truths (wait until we hear how much we will need to increase defence spending by in the coming years) If a party stopped pretending all the money was wasted but published a list of costs, projections and proposals that wasn’t gutted to suit the landscape of needing to not bemonstered by the press or deemed too expensive by voters I would be very interested can’t see that happening tho (also worth reminding ourselves of all the brexiters who said things like “I don’t care how much it costs I don’t care if I lose my job it’s about taking back control!” And yet now we find them complaining about increasing costs. As they always will complain about everything because it’s always someone else’s fault)

Ah good old days where many of us fought over this dumb policy and now the jury appears to be in - but as with Brexit, the years pass, the warnings ignored and the pain is somehow dissipated because “reasons” https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/feb/01/long-term-cost-student-loan-debt-labour-uk-rachel-reeves?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other https://www.ft.com/content/82f5f8c1-4061-4b68-8c07-3e64e996b6b1

He isn’t just stirring things up he is ordering and excusing the killing of people in cold blood he is abandoning western allies and leading the whole world to scary places do not underplay what he is

With grokai now so prominent I’m not sure I agree with this tbh

Today’s announcement has been cancelled probably because it would put farage support of the orange madman in the spotlight and we can’t have that now can we

I couldn’t disagree more - Trump is an idiot and he was voted for by a combination of idiots, racists and arrogance you can complain about weak opponents all you like - but when the alternative is a “strong” thug then the problem is those who favour the thug. All we face was predicted - and he doesn’t have widespread support across many parts of America. So that leaves parts of America responsible for this oh and in the list of things you call him you forgot the bit about being a p(that’s enough! Ed) Vance might be worse in many ways - but he doesn’t have the “glam” that Trump has. Once Trump is exposed properly or dies, nowhere near as many people will vote for his successor see also his embarrassing fanboy: Farage

Glasman

I think they should as well - but in my view they don't recognise the problem. And if you can't recognise a problem you can't deal with it And this is where I crowbar my reference to Bre (NO YOU DON'T. Editor)

I agree - but it's where everyone else in their circle is. All the other MPS, journos etc - they all still exist on there (some finger-wagging at "liberals" to come back as the space isn't the same without them) so I guess the fear is if they don't all jump at the same time there will be... I dunno. What would actually be so bad? But paralysis/habit seems to be main obstacle. Plus an inability to acknowledge when something/anything changes so fundamentally it's no longer what it was.

or ANY governments really - not just a UK problem But it's all tied in with this endless entanglement with American products and services and the Trump administration where everyone knows that as soon as you do take action (even pulling away in a vehicle) sees way out of proportion response On a personal level I left twitter over a year ago - it was already filling u p with bots and Musk's own algorithms and felt increasingly like a nazi bar - so I left. But way too many people think it's just like it was with a few more ads and where everyone else is so.... their own worldview gets warped as well. So it's not JUST a government problem