Ozanne

He’ll get away with it again, that’s what happens in this country.

He really is, look at this face.

@Wellyboot and everyone else, say hi to Ted my sisters new kitten, he’s adorable and currently laying out like in the 2nd picture on my lap 😍

It really doesn’t seem low enough does it, I guess we’ll see in 2 weeks how that goes.

I don’t get the flag thing either, then again I’m not very patriotic these days.

As we discussed yesterday, this is being done to ensure no pubs or people end up taking this piss to try to limit the spread of the virus. You showed us evidence yesterday which is why they are having to clarify the rules.

I meant in the courts, it’s not like the courts can turn around and kick them from office or bar them from running again. It’ll just be a fine of some kind.

What would the repercussions be though?

The different in polls from 6 months ago is huge, roughly 20 points has been wiped out of the Tory lead. That is big in modern day politics. It also takes time in this country for the electorate to turn against a governing party. You can see that with the Tories in the 90s, and then with the end of Labour in 2010. It’s not a quick thing and this shows that it takes many events over time for the public to turn off and see the opposition as a credible party of government. That last poll shows good, steady work wiping out the Tory lead in 6 months which is a great achievement in my view.

Starmer has achieved the highest poll ratings of any leader of an opposition since Blair back in the summer. Whilst not unusual for a new leader to see a honeymoon period this was still significant given Blair and Cameron went on to win General Elections.

I don’t think Corbyn should resign from his seat as he is clearly a very good MP and his constituents like him. I would say he should probably just drop it and wait for the 3 months and which point he will hopefully be silently given the whip back instead of taking legal action; thus dragging Labour through the mud again.

Surely the biggest aim should be getting the Tories out of and keeping them out of power?

It’s all linked in a way, Starmer/Labours handling of this will impact public perception of the Labour Party, plus their standing in the polls and as such their ability to hold the government to account. This thread has become a broad discussion thread on various things that connect into UK politics. Plenty of people clearly find it interesting and it generates plenty of discussion so it’s definitely a good thing.

Cracking TV though. In all seriousness and this won’t be a surprise but I trust Starmer and if he feels voting for a deal is the best way forward then I’ll try to understand and see where they are coming from.

That’s why they might vote for a deal, to ensure we don’t fall into no deal. They would show they’ve learned their lesson from last year where if they voted in the indicative votes for a customs union then we wouldn’t be where we are now.

My take is that they want to try to get past Brexit and the thought is that if they don’t vote for a trade deal then it makes no deal more likely; it gives the Tories near sole control over the vote. So if a large enough pocket of Tories wanted to vote down their own deal to get a no deal then Labour voting against a deal would help, it’s the same for abstaining. Labour could then be painted as being blamed for no deal by the Tories and would be associated with any harm that comes with it. Another aspect is that there isn’t really any major downside to a deal when the alternative is no de

I don’t think it’ll make a huge difference, I can’t see the majority of voters even caring about this Corbyn story given everything else that’s going on.

Sorry but that’s slightly taking the piss. I fully appreciate publicans have to earn a living but these rules are in place for a reason. They’ll be the people that are hurting if we have a 3rd lockdown. You see this quite a lot people trying to find any small loophole in the rules when they are put in place to try to save lives.

Think of it like this you aren’t allowed to mix with indoors with someone from a different household in tier 2.

Maybe that’s part of the reasons cases started to rise in those areas as some were ignoring the social distance rules. I know it’s not a fun view point but if people will mix households in high cases areas then restrictions will get tighter as cases will rise.

There we go, the PM himself has pretty much admitted there is a chasm of leadership in this country.

Boris has said we don’t want to ‘take our foot off the throat of the beast’. Yet they are relaxing measures considerably for Christmas. Such a contradiction.

It is ridiculous. There aren’t many legit reasons to be going into an office for work, businesses just don’t like staff having freedom.

Boris press conference in a mo.

I agree. I’d also say me sitting in a pub with 1 friend is safer than having 1,000 people inside for an event like it is for tier 2 but those are the rules sadly.