It’s Dogs at Polling Stations day.
And Colin the dalek.
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And more!
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They are local elections
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Well spotted. I hadn’t noticed. 
I assumed it was today. I see now it’s from 2024.
I’m beginning to think that Angela Rayner is Labour’s best hope, as long as she’s smart enough to stay away from the McSweeneys of the world.
The choices are little better than those for the Tories (because the latter still have plenty with toxic relations) but I think she might resonate more with traditional Labour voters.
I’m probably wrong.
Well compared to Kemi who seems delusional.
Andy Burnham?
I think the problem with Burnham is that he doesn’t have a seat and going for a seat is high risk both of failure to win a seat and to lose the Manchester mayoralty in a by-election. It’s not clear what would constitute a safe seat in the current environment, far less one which would be available for him to contest.
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Unfortunately the local elections in the UK seem to be demonstrating that the answer to the question “Are British voters stupid?” Is a resounding Yes. 
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Although we have known this since Brexit.
Quote of the day by William Shakespeare: ‘The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool’ ; life lessons from The Bard
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Yes but one would hope the maxim “once bitten twice any” would apply where Farage was concerned. But apparently not.
They don’t know what they don’t know. (Being polite as I can) its tricky when a freedom of information request turns up 1.5 million refugees on benefits. Essex doesn’t like immigrants
FTFY
As we see, people generally vote for those who make the offer they like best, not the ones experience tells one that they might be better in the long run.
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Yes, it is really very effing depressing.
Though it’s not necessarily the “best offer” - Reform are all but promising to dismantle the NHS in their manifesto, hough couched in terms that make it seem like they are offering “private care” standards across the board - because Brits stupidly think private health care is “better” without realising that it is incomplete, cherry picks more profitable procedures on fitter patients and leaves the NHS to pick up the rest (and any acute post procedure complications to boot) and is quite expensive for what you get.
What there is, is a lot of “we didn’t much like the last lot, so we will try you”. Labour benefited from this in 2024 but Farage will do so in 2029 - even more so because Farage (like a lot of his RW compatriots) is very good at persuading people that the country is “broken” and only he knows how to fix it.
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I wonder how it would go down if the cons and Kemi anounced they were going to end the NHS? Outrage or lots more votes. A Nigel con man and his band of ex torries are just that but such is the dislike of Keir he needs to sack his PR team.
??? I’d be interested to see the actual Government statistic on this (as opposed to a partisan newspaper report that claims it).
UNHCR says this:
As of mid-2025, there were approximately 548,400 refugees in the UK
Even if every single one of them were on benefits, that’s a third of the figure you quoted, and less than 1% of the UK population, according to this House of Commons article:
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn01403/
In 2025, there were 82,100 applications for asylum in the UK, relating to 100,600 individuals
- The number of asylum applications peaked in 2002 at 84,100. It then fell sharply, reaching a twenty-year low point of 17,900 in 2010. Between 2011 and 2020, annual numbers were relatively stable, averaging around 27,500 applications per year.
- The number of asylum applications has been high by historical standards in each of the past four years.
Correlation is not causation, but it’s interesting to note that the big rise in asylum seekers corresponds to Brexit and the UK ceasing to participate in the European mechanisms for handling refugees, asylum seekers, immigrants call them what you will…
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Yes indeed Chris, its the damage that such possibly false information can do as we are seeing right now. If a government spokesperson actually stood up and publicly rubbished the statement and the media who drove it, a bold but necessary step.
I do remember watching a commitee interview on the topic where the civil servants waffled their reply as it seems they didn’t actually know the real number.
Sadly this is the country we now live in where everything we hear is manipulated.
The funniest thing you’ll read on the internet today.
Starmer appoints Labour veterans Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman as advisers after election losses
Digging Keir Hardie up couldn’t rescue Starmer.
Hopefully puting T Blair back in his box forever as G Brown didn’t like T Blair