So the Final 2 - Liz and Rishi

Here here Farzanah.

Someone needs to e plain this to Kirr Starmer.

Explain the need for PR to Kier Starmer.

DaisyAnne

Prentice

Mr Johnson will go, he has said so and really has had no choice but to resign, and has written a letter to that effect.
He has said goodbye in Parliament too.
It would be a conspiracy theory to believe that he will stay in Number 10.
The new PM will be announced early in September.

I think keeping an open mind about what someone, who has already shown he can act well beyond the bounds of acceptable behaviour, would do. I don't think that means we are conspiracy theorists.

Also, we have illustrations around the world of countries turning away from liberal democracy. Parliament is our legislative body. That is why people become MPs - to be able to change the law and move it in the direction they wish it to go.

Governments, including ours, show a rise in attempts to use the law to discriminate against specific individuals or groups. In the last 12 years, MPs have extended their actions to remove legal protection of our basic rights, such as freedom of assembly and free speech. They have also been underwhelming in provision of collective security against all forms of threat while dancing on the international stage via Ukraine. They have just about destroyed the final leg of liberal democracy by ending any thinking about equality in the distribution of our country's economic and social benefits.

Some in this government have said they want to turn the UK into Singapore on Thames. Singapore is a country which has rejected liberal democracy in favour of a one-party state. The people in Parliament who talk up Singapore want just that. Johnson wants it as long as he can lead it.

Burying your head in the sand is simply the lack of imagination that allows dictators to rise and thrive.

Excellent post DaisyAnne

Good twitter thread listing the actions of this government to limit democracy:

twitter.com/RussellEngland/status/1421474756449247238

That's chilling, Maisie. Seeing it all listed like that shows how far things have gone.

These posts have depressed the hell out of me. All we can hope for is the leader who does the least damage to the country before the next GE. That has to be Sunak.

I'm inclined to agree, Lovetopaint.

Roll on the GE, and let's hope whoever it is doesn't erode democracy further, to the point that there is no need to have one ?

At least the Lords seem to be attempting to block Johnson from creating so many peers. I’m not sure that I can face watching Truss and Sunak tomorrow night but needs must.

Only those who have been members of the Conservative party for at least 3 months get a vote in the upcoming leadership election.

Have just posted this picture on another thread and the devil in me couldn't resist posting it here too.

I can't argue with the sentiment

Talk off the record to people from Singapore and it is not such a happy little place. It looks great to us tourists and feels safe ,clean and orderly but at a price. I wouldn’t like to think the UK would go down that road or that Orchard come to that.

Callistemon21

nanna8

As a total outsider I think they both look very dodgy indeed. Can’t they get anyone better than those two ?

That's what my Australian relatives said about the choice there ?

...and your relatives are right IMO

Good morning all. Just read a batch of posts on here - it’s a busy thread! I suppose there’s nothing we can do about the change on leadership of the Tory party (apart from moan) but hang fire for 18 months and we will all get the opportunity to vote in a general election. Now THAT will be very interesting.

... Good Morning Urms!

If 'a week is a long time in politics', then 18 months is... well... a virtual lifetime away .

I just wish there wasn't so much voter apathy. Especially among the young. I've spoken to too many young people who say things like, "Oh, I don't really bother about politics". A young nurse asked me a few weeks back if Boris Johnson was a Labour or Conservative MP . I'm relieved she knows more about nursing...

Universal Suffrage was a hard-won battle (especially for women). They must be sighing in their graves and doing an eye-roll.

Dickens. You are right younger people don't care about Politics.
A few do as my DS was elected a Councillor at 23 yrs brought the mean age of the council down considerably.

Working in the NHS, I work with lots of younger people, they don't bother to vote, just not interested.
Majority didn't bother to vote in the Brexit vote.
And if you ask them thoughts on Party gate, they don't really give a toss just think it was a rubbish party, and not a party as such. Apprently they tell me, there is a difference between a "Gathering" and a Party.

These are all a Graduate Professional Health Care practitioners.
All very bright young people who are the future.
Every Political Party needs to be get these younger ones on board before anything changes.

Visgir1

Dickens. You are right younger people don't care about Politics.
A few do as my DS was elected a Councillor at 23 yrs brought the mean age of the council down considerably.

Working in the NHS, I work with lots of younger people, they don't bother to vote, just not interested.
Majority didn't bother to vote in the Brexit vote.
And if you ask them thoughts on Party gate, they don't really give a toss just think it was a rubbish party, and not a party as such. Apprently they tell me, there is a difference between a "Gathering" and a Party.

These are all a Graduate Professional Health Care practitioners.
All very bright young people who are the future.
Every Political Party needs to be get these younger ones on board before anything changes.

Congratulations to your DS - that's really heartening to hear.

I spent 4 months in hospital and, naturally, got to chat to the nurses etc. And you're right, it seems the majority are really just not interested in voting.

Considering that the NHS and the salaries of those that work in it are political footballs for governments to kick around, I'd have thought there'd be more interest.

My children have very little interest in politics they haven't got the time or the inclination.
My son probably has a little more interest especially now he runs his own company but with the daily run of full time work balancing childcare and household tasks politics comes pretty low down the list

I can see why some are too taken up with their hectic lives to think about politics and there isn't any point in casting a vote at random, with no idea what you are voting for.
Do none of these people see how their lives are affected by politics, though?
I'd have thought Brexit would have brought it home to people, at least.

The 'party' was a gathering, of course, that's the point since gathering was illegal at the time and anyone caught doing so was being fined while the rest of us stayed in isolation from each other.

I see that with regard to refugees this is now a race to the bottom.

Zonne

I see that with regard to refugees this is now a race to the bottom.

They are punting for votes from Tory members.

Tory members say one of their biggest priorities is to stop most immigration, especially those coming over the Channel.

The two candidates will promise whatever they feel will bring them the most votes.?

Dickens

... Good Morning Urms!

If 'a week is a long time in politics', then 18 months is... well... a virtual lifetime away .

I just wish there wasn't so much voter apathy. Especially among the young. I've spoken to too many young people who say things like, "Oh, I don't really bother about politics". A young nurse asked me a few weeks back if Boris Johnson was a Labour or Conservative MP . I'm relieved she knows more about nursing...

Universal Suffrage was a hard-won battle (especially for women). They must be sighing in their graves and doing an eye-roll.

I don’t agree, all the young people I know are very interested in politics, one thing the Covid pandemic, and now all the scandals and the cost of living and environmental crisis has done is really ramp it up in their minds. They talk about it all the time on our family Facebook group, and two under thirties I know have joined the Labour Party in the last few months.
I think that the apathy they have shown in the past is changing as the world around them changes, and they have realised that they can do something about it,

rosie1959

My children have very little interest in politics they haven't got the time or the inclination.
My son probably has a little more interest especially now he runs his own company but with the daily run of full time work balancing childcare and household tasks politics comes pretty low down the list

My children have more interest in politics than they used to, but their discussions, limited though they still are, focus on the fact that they feel no party has their best interests at heart and that the parties’ self interests are only either getting into power or staying in power rather than actually doing anything for the people.
Even my DGD, desperate to buy a house, dismisses their promises as ‘easily broken’ and says any failure to achieve is always blamed on the voters and the other parties.
Such cynicism in the young.

My children, both in their 20s, are very interested in politics too. My daughter's job means she can't be as involved as she was, but my son is about to start a masters in public policy and is very politically aware.

PS. Both of them voted in the referendum.