Watch the press get their knives out!

I had a look at the clip, it’s not going to convince anyone, although it’s a good idea for young people to be more socially responsible it might not reach those that need it most.

As for military service it will appeal to some, I have a niece who was a total tear away, left home at 16 lived rough, then joined the Army at 18, did 2 tours in Iraq (logistics not front line), about to retire after a full career. At 16 the army was the last place you would have thought she would end up, young people change so much as they become adults.

Yes, I saw it tonight - oh my goodness, it was a Dad vid.

Has anyone seen Rishi's TikTok video trying to sell National Service to the 18+ voters? They showed it on Have I Got News For You. Cringeworthy wasn't the word! He must have lost a fair few young voters if they've seen it. I thought the PM was supposed to have advisors.

Not just bankers did well out of the 2008 crash, borrowing rates were stupid before the crash, the best known is Northern Rock lending 125% of value. IFAs arranging self accessed mortgages on very dodgy valuations, it could not last, it was against all prudent banking principles.

My cousin bought a farm at 1/4% over base rate, of 4% over 20 yrs, he still laughs at the bankers, when rates fell he paid 1% or less.

The very old saying applied with serious consequences, “ if you owe £1000 you have a problem, if you owe £1m the bank has a problem, if the bank owes £1 billion the government has a problem - and so it was.

Tony Benn owned large London house and country estate, he
willed five million

I do know and the bankers did very well out of it.

Sunak’s background was very middle class. He was born in Southampton. Both parents were professionals. Did he go to school at Winchester College? That is a very expensive school, not a minor, nobody’s ever heard of it, independent school. There’s nothing wrong at all with any of that, but it’s not ordinary. He went to Oxford University and Stanford University. He worked at Goldman Sachs and later at hedge fund firms. He became a millionaire before he married his extremely wealthy wife.

However Starmer lived in leafy Surrey. He was one of four children. His parents were a toolmaker, who worked for himself and therefore owned his own small business, and a nurse. He went to a prestigious grammar school which became independent whilst he was there. The government then paid the fees for children who were already there. He went to Leeds University, and Oxford University. He became a barrister, a QC, now KC, and did well at the bar. He is a millionaire, although that’s not difficult if you’re a barrister and live in London.

P.S. Sunak isn't wealthy just because of his wife's money. He worked in the finance industry and made a lot of money from the Global Financial Crisis. You know, when governments had to bail out the banks because of their reckless behaviour which threatened to destroy 'ordinary' people's lives...

And as has been said, his own home background was nothing extra special.

Solid middle class, Doctor and pharmacist parents with enough money to send him to a very expensive private school?

It's not exactly ordinary, is it?

Are there just too many middle class posters on here to realise that this is just NOT the common experience of most of the working population?

PinkCosmos, I agree about Rishi. It was a very poisoned chalice he took over, and I’m not sure anyone else would have done much better.

IMO at least some of the bile directed at him stems from racism and/or resentment/envy fact that he married an enormous amount of money. He would evidently have done very well for himself without a very rich wife. At least nobody can say he was in it for the money.

And as has been said, his own home background was nothing extra special.

I think the best governments are ones in which there is a strong opposition.

I agree.

Don’t know, I do not trust Davey

I know, but he’s one out of how many now?

Davey served in the coalition government

Grantanow

mae13

I can well remember the sight of Nick Clegg in the rose garden of No 10 practically jumping up and down standing next to David Cameron because he'd been given the chance to sit at the Prefect's Table and imagine that he had power - not that Cameron and Osborne would REALLY acknowledge the silly little pipsqueak.

Hey Nick! What happened to abolishing university tuition fees? You simply threw the students under a bus didn't you? And re-structuring the Care System? It's like Cameron was working you like a ventriloquists doll.

I don't want to see a repeat of those years, whichever side pulls the most votes!

Exactly. That's why I don't trust the Lib Dems. I hope they never hold the balance of power.

Like all the parties, the Lib Dem’s now are not the Lib Dem’s of 2010 though - I wonder how many current MPs of theirs were even in parliament then?

mae13

I can well remember the sight of Nick Clegg in the rose garden of No 10 practically jumping up and down standing next to David Cameron because he'd been given the chance to sit at the Prefect's Table and imagine that he had power - not that Cameron and Osborne would REALLY acknowledge the silly little pipsqueak.

Hey Nick! What happened to abolishing university tuition fees? You simply threw the students under a bus didn't you? And re-structuring the Care System? It's like Cameron was working you like a ventriloquists doll.

I don't want to see a repeat of those years, whichever side pulls the most votes!

Exactly. That's why I don't trust the Lib Dems. I hope they never hold the balance of power.

I can well remember the sight of Nick Clegg in the rose garden of No 10 practically jumping up and down standing next to David Cameron because he'd been given the chance to sit at the Prefect's Table and imagine that he had power - not that Cameron and Osborne would REALLY acknowledge the silly little pipsqueak.

Hey Nick! What happened to abolishing university tuition fees? You simply threw the students under a bus didn't you? And re-structuring the Care System? It's like Cameron was working you like a ventriloquists doll.

I don't want to see a repeat of those years, whichever side pulls the most votes!

It's going to take years to sort out the mess this country is in whoever gets in. Bet the no10 decorators are ready to go in again

I think we need some common sense.
Some proper housekeeping. Not keep throwing money at all these things like NHS, Railways, Councils etc they all need to do their jobs properly and be made to do their jobs properly, that includes all MP's there are too many clipboard people being paid too much
money doing very little at home.

Just wish they would up and give us a break! They have nothing nice to write.
The mail just loves showing naked women!
They are boring us all already & will put us off voting

maddyone

I dislike the disdain that some people express when they speak of Oxbridge. The young people who go there work extremely hard to get there. I should know, my son went to Oxford, and he most certainly was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

Incidentally Leeds is a perfectly good and well thought of university. And so is Oxford!

My granddaughter got her masters at Oxford last year and will be studying law this year, her parents both work in their pub. Every penny goes on her education, they both work every hour god gave to finance this.

Heppington

We won't have a real choice until there is proportional representation

So very true. This is what we should all be campaigning for if we want a fair and balanced democracy.

ronib

I thought the LDs much prefer to work with Labour?

The Lib Dems sold themselves to the Tories under Cameron and Clegg. I don't trust them.

An actual campaign season of three months (which is usually your norm?) is an adequate time for all candidates to speak their piece and get around, also keeping campaign funding at a respectable level. Ninety days is a blessing!!

Forty-two days is a miracle!! People have enough time to make up their minds.

No one should complain - imagine being in the U.S. and having to endure a whole year of it! Worse than that, perceived candidates start campaigning almost immediately after each election. Four years of psycho-babble‼️ And look where we are sitting now - on the brink of autocracy/fascism.

Long campaigning does irreparable harm.

LottieLouise

I honestly do not know why Sunak puts himself through all this stress. He has enough money to retire for the rest of his life. We need someone in charge who knows how the other half live. Sunak has no idea and neither have all the other cronies in parliament and don't talk to me about the old codgers in the House of Lords who were never elected but still have input, get them out. I think we would be better off voting for the Wombles of Wimbledon if they were still around, they couldn' do any worse than this lot. Some people say, oh goody, goody, we got the triple lock pension rise but what good is it when the personal pension tax has been frozen until 2028. I pay tax because I have small private pension on top of my state pension because we were told many years ago to save for a rainy day and now that rainy day has arrived I am worse off than people on benefits as I pay for everything, glasses, dental treatment, they have even stopped some of my prescriptions because many of them are now over the counter so I have to pay for them when they used to be free. I have not seen a doctor since I had Double Pneumonia four years ago and even then it was the hospital doctors I saw as my doctor could not see me as there were no appointments so was told to go to A & E. I was in hospital for two weeks.

God, I detest politicians and their underhanded ways.

This is a good post. I agree with you about those with money not understanding the majority of the population. I remember Sunak's wife and the 'non dom' fiasco; that put me off him. Pensioners are treated so unfairly, work for nearly 50 years and they tax everything they can get their mitts on. The House of Lords should go, not least of all because if a lord turns up even for half an hour they can claim over £300 per day tax free; who made that law?

TanaMa

I would find it difficult to vote for Starmer, for one thing he doesn't seem to know what a woman is! As for giving the vote to 16 year olds - I guess that's one way of securing votes!! For the first time ever I don't feel there is a strong enough Party to get me to vote and will probably abstain.

What a lot of rubbish perpetrated by the media on this topic. To be honest, the ignorance of some voters soaking up everything the see in the media makes me quite pleased some people don't bother voting.
That was one of the mistakes of Brexit.