How cynical can today’s politicians get, and how do they get away with it?
Who is to say that they will?
Have you heard the rumour that Rishi is going for an election in May?
It’d be nice to get the thing over.
Phil Moorhouse of A Different Bias (a YouTube political commentator who is usually well-informed) reckons a May election is still the most likely option - or even late April !
His reasoning was a) that by the autumn the economic situation will be no better, if not worse, and b) that by hijacking some of Labour’s policies on reducing a few tax breaks for the rich and cutting some taxes in the budget the Tories would make it harder for Labour to find the money needed for capital spending and regeneration without raising taxes more generally.
But yes I’m with @John_Scully let’s get it over with and have a fresh start, even if Labour will struggle to turn things around anytime soon, such is the mess the UK is in.
I am looking forward immensely to voting that smug g*t Jeremy Hunt out of Parliament, having been moved into his constituency by boundary changes.
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Not sure how much notice he needs to give - it used to be 6 weeks prior to the (now repealed) Fixed Term Parliaments Act, I guess in practice you’d need around this figure which makes a May election increasingly tight.
However, he’s previously hinted at the end of the year.
according to Wiki
…"The prime minister can again request the monarch to dissolve Parliament and call an early election with 25 working days’ notice. Section 4 of the Act provided: "If it has not been dissolved earlier, a Parliament dissolves at the beginning of the day that is the fifth anniversary of the day on which it first met."
I presume you mean Next United Kingdom general election - Wikipedia
I wouldn’t be surprised if he hangs on as long as possible.
You might be right - but if he does so the Tory parliamentary massacre is likely to be even worse than if he gets it over with soon. And there are one or two by-elections coming up as well!
“fiscal drag” caused by not raising tax thresholds is going to outweigh any meagre cuts in tax or NI that Hunt the Shunt may have room for, and during the summer increased food costs, delays and shortages will kick in as Post-Brexit standards checks start to be implemented (both documentation and health checks are supposed to be in full swing by October, despite there not being enough vets and sanitary inspectors to cope with the demand.
Phil Moorhouse also mentioned that demographics is not on Sunak’s side - Tory voters tend to be older, and by January 2025 about 300,000 oldies will have popped their clogs, and are not being replaced by younger Tory voters - even those in the middle who used to get more right wing as they aged are not doing so apparently.
Waiting also gives Labour time to come up with new policies in response to next week’s budget - the thinking is that a snap April election would not give them time to do so, giving the Tories a marginal advantage, especially if there is any kind of post tax giveaway boost in their support (probably unlikely but they may be clinging to that hope).
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Hanging on keeps the faint hope of a miracle alive too.
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And the ‘older’ voters don’t pay NI so todays 2% mooted NI cut won’t ‘cut’ it with them - whereas they’ll definitely notice fiscal drag (alright, hopefully notice).
Hanging on will give more time to stir up racist hate though?
The Tories have hit a new low according to the latest Ipsos poll…
Thanks Gareth, it makes interesting reading. I wonder what the satisfied 10% are smoking or putting up their noses?
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