martin sheldrick

[Stan Collymore @StanCollymore]

I'm what old money would call a traditional Labour voter. A state that provides for everyone as a child( a school), free Healthcare for all, helping us all look for good work and to learn skills( careers advice and apprenticeships) , and in their old age support their lifelong graft which adds value to the nation via a pension and subsidised life assistance ( travel, social care)

At all points inbetween, a free market to use their skills to make a nest for them and their family and greater community. Whatever your political view, I don't think you'd find that general view unreasonable.

So after the success in the US of Trump, relative success in the UK of Farage and Reform, and an increasing move to the right by the Conservative Party, I'm out to learn a little more about people I live with but who's politics is very different from mine.

So in the spirit of amistad rather than name calling ( we've all done it, politics is important and tribal after all ), why do you vote Republican or MAGA, Reform or Conservative and what am I fundementally missing in my world view that ( certainly in the case of right if centre parties globally on the rise) I should consider?

No catch, no tantrums, no name calling, there are people I know who support Reform, Conservatives (Badenoch version) and in their bio, by extension support MAGA.

Thanks in advance.

Stan 🙌🏽

[martin sheldrick @martianmol]

@ourrachblogs Heal the pain

[martin sheldrick @martianmol]

@richardosman Some tune that, love The Lemonheads

[martin sheldrick @martianmol]

@KarlAntSlack @mrdanwalker Play Trent at right back

[martin sheldrick @martianmol]

@ZubyMusic I like France, when the Government tries to do shit that isn't right the people rise up against it.
We used to do that in England, now so subservient 😞

[martin sheldrick @martianmol]

@GMB @susannareid100 Shocking interview, that's me done with this show.

[Craig. @bambibristol]

Water - fucked
Trains - fucked
Energy - fucked
NHS - fucked
Education - fucked
Social Care - fucked
Economy - fucked
Pensions - fucked
Roads - fucked
Defence - fucked
International reputation - fucked

Apart from that, it’s been a good 13 years of Tory stewardship.

[Carol Vorderman @carolvorders]

Tory @GarethDavies_MP floundering on #PoliticsLive after Jeremy Hunt's #AutumnStatement

Tories have raised £100 bn extra tax since 2019.
Today giving back £10bn....drop in the ocean

Also
2010 interest paid on debt that year was £40 bn
2023 is £100 bn in interest paid on debt this year
Appalling fiscal management and then working people suffer

Also
DROP in living standards in next year will be 3.5% compared to pre pandemic according to Office for Budget Responsibility, biggest drop since records began

[martin sheldrick @martianmol]

@AndyGoode10 Care, smith, Lawrence, marchant, Arundel, malins, steward....sorted.

[Matthias Mueller💙 🇩🇪🇬🇧🇪🇺 @MatthiasMuell15]

Hi Sunak, Barclay, Hancock,Hunt, Johnson:

We NHS staff

who knew the NHS

20 years ago,

13 years ago
(when it was given to
you Tory-Traitors),

10 years ago
(when the NHS budget for each patient was cut by 50% during the process of handing the patient budget from government to GP’s and Tories then blamed the GP’s for any shortages in services. Probably one of the biggest betrayals which they tried to keep hidden from the Public),

5 years ago,

4 years ago
(before the Pandemic hit+when the waiting list for patients stood already at 4 Million,so don’t let the Tories lie to you
and say that THE STRIKES of your Nurses+Doctors is causing the (sometimes) deadly waiting list which is now over 7 Million (caused by them systematically in order to privatise. Many Tories have shares in those private companies),

and today in October 2023:

THOSE, Sunak, Barclay, Hancock, Hunt, Johnson,
those of us NHS staff

who watched you do all this

who have been seeing it clearly

and who see it clearly now

-and that includes myself,
I’ve seen it all in my career -

THOSE you cannot fool,
you cannot tell your LIES,
your made up cruel world,
your immeasurable arrogance and ignorance in which you declare yourself the noble part of society
and let the public suffer.

We don’t believe your ‘Britannica Unchained’ ideology that you published 10 years ago.

We see that you are a rotten-to-the-core-Party who followed a deadly clown who caused deaths and suffering by being so hedonistic and narcissistic that even a deadly pandemic didn’t cause him to put protective measures in place for this Country when this was the one top priority he was employed for.The deadly clown Johnson.

Many moons later- when you Tories have ALL turned full on right-wing, trampling and abusing the weak of society,blaming those who should be called heroes of Health Care,dragged Nurse-Unions in front of courts,have effectively cut NHS staff’s wages by 20-30% over the past 13 years,got rid of right to strike,to protest,to say out loud what shambles you all are,you have severely polluted the environment+agreed AS A PARTY to continue this for the next 15 years!, you have a child-of-immigrants-Home Secretary who spills out Nazi-like paroles like a snake her/his venom,you have crumbling schools,lack of police, fire services,youth centres,you destroyed normal families finances,caused debt+really we of mortgages+left many no other choice than to sell their home etc etc …you name it-Tories have DESTROYED it!,

… those many moons later you Tory-Ministers with all that blood on your hands are standing there in Manchester after your newest billions-worth failure with the high speed plans which is ruining further lives ,you’re standing there in your expensive outfits , paid for by our tax payers money or your Covid PPE VIP lane fraud money , Gove is waffling/blatantly lying how Brexit was exactly the promised success, Braverman is spitting out insult+utter toxic hate+delusional statements in which she herself would be a minority that would be prosecuted if fully implemented and followed+inflamed like 1933,

You Tories are all standing there thinking this right wing society is normal only because a deadly clown+the seriously dangerous Treason-guilty and Traitor like Sunak have shown you “the paradise”where you can do harm to the British Public as you wish while getting rich in the process .

You Tories really believe the British Public is so stupid.
You think you control them by the media now.
And to a degree you do.

Nothing about the harm of Brexit in the media most days.

But the day will come
when normal mothers and fathers,sons+daughters
will stand up+say:

Enough is enough.

Enough suffering.
Enough corruption.
Enough lies.

Enough talk of “piling up the bodies by the thousands” and insulting our loved ones
who died because the Tories couldn’t get enough in their greed.

And then there may be unrest.
Vote them out of power before unrest happens.

#GTTO

[Edwin Hayward @edwinhayward]

Imagine if a referendum were held in which 52% of those who voted declared that the Earth was flat.

And that subsequently everyone in the UK was forced to behave as if the Earth was indeed flat, and all main parties said "Ok, flat it is. Evidence be damned."

That's Brexit.

[martin sheldrick @martianmol]

@AndyGoode10 He needs to start somewhere for England

[martin sheldrick @martianmol]

@AndyGoode10 100%

[martin sheldrick @martianmol]

@AndyGoode10 @EnglandRugby Can we get Stuart Lancaster back now please?

[martin sheldrick @martianmol]

@EnglandRugby England are so bad under this coaching team I'm not sure it matters who plays 😞

[Henning Wehn @henningwehn]

He lost today but the hope and sanity Djokovic gave millions of people over the past few years, at great personal cost, won’t be forgotten. 🌱

[Edwin Hayward @edwinhayward]

Here's how the future is going to play out.

(Long - please expand the tweet.)

1. The Tories will wreck everything at an ever increasing pace as the GE approaches, like irresponsible teenagers who know they're not going to be the ones cleaning up the morning after their wild drunken binge.

2. Labour will win the GE on a desperate tide of people wanting to Get the Tories Out, but (and this will be VERY important later) their future freedom to manoevre will be hampered by the bright red lines they laid down on things like Brexit.

3. Labour will start trying to fix some of the stuff the Tories broke. It will prove very expensive. Mending is always more expensive than breaking.

4. Labour will try to Make Brexit Work. The RW tabloids will tear even bigger strips off them than usual.

5. Make Brexit Work won't. Work, that is. Trying to make Brexit work is like trying to get the toothpaste back in the tube after you've brushed your teeth with it.

6. Meanwhile, Labour are having to spend more more more just to keep stuff from literally falling apart (think sewers, water pipes, collapsing schools, crumbling hospitals etc.)

7. Tories watch from the sidelines, laughing and jeering. "Typical Labour. Always spending money they don't have."

8. If they're VERY lucky, Labour will go into the GE-after-next with the overall situation in Britain slightly better than it was when they took office. The country will only be knee-deep in metaphoric and real sewage, rather than thigh deep.

9. The Tories and the RW media will tag team to blame everything that's (still) broken in Britain on Labour. "Same old Labour. Can't be trusted with the economy. Can't be trusted with anything. Can't even fix Brexit, despite their lofty promises."

(Important intermission: Labour will never get fair coverage in our British media. But this is a "known known". They need to figure out how to win, repeatedly, anyway.)

10. GE2: Electric Boogaloo. Labour are stuck. The taunts about having failed their flagship Brexit fixing policy hit home, because they're true. That lubricates the way for all the lies the Tories and RW media are spinning about their wider performance to slip down like honey.

IF Labour pivot towards SM/CU/Rejoin, they might as well tattoo "we wasted 5 years because we didn't have a clue about what we were doing when it comes to Brexit" across their collective foreheads. They may pivot anyway, because the alternative is even worse. This is where those bright red lines (remember them?) will bite them in the fundament so hard they won't be able to sit down for the next six months. Because the press can absolutely legitimately scream "U-turn! Come and see the U-turn so big, it's visible from the Moon." And it will be true.

(Absolutely critical point: there is no "Get the Tories Out" vote. "Ooh, the scary Tories will get back in if you don't vote for us" doesn't have anything like the same impact, especially with non-core Labour voters who lent their votes last time but who are absolutely livid about Labour's failing approach to the Brexit they detest.)

11. Labour lose GE2. A one-term wonder, and they're done. The Tories do what they do best: keep blaming everything on Labour, while picking their looting back up where they left off last time.

-----------

Scroll back up through the scenario above, and look at how Brexit runs through it like a vein pumping pure poison.

That is why Labour need to change their fundamental approach to Brexit, and they need to do so now.

Stop ruling anything out (not saying you won't do something isn't the same as proactively saying you will). Think along the lines of "Labour will do whatever it takes to mitigate the damage Brexit is causing". Make the change far enough ahead of the GE that the fuss about the U-turn is reduced to the constant every-day moaning and carping of the RW press by the time the GE comes around.

Also, Labour need to reconsider PR. It's the only hope they (and we) have of anything approaching long-term stability.

Many of the problems Britain faces will take 2, 3, 4+ election cycles to fix. And they need to be fixed. But the only conceivable way of getting the time necessary to do so is to form long-term partnerships via PR.

That way, you get rid of the short-termism that has dominated British politics to the ruin of us all. (In the current 5-year political cycle, the first year is spent learning the ropes and the last gearing up for the GE, so there are really only 3 even vaguely "productive" years to be wrung out of incumbency.)

Phew, and we're done. You may disagree. You probably will disagree. But please take a very deep breath and a big step back, and think about whether your disagreement comes because it feels genuinely too horrible to contemplate the real world in the stark terms I painted above, and whether your support for a particular political party is blinding you to the reality of what they can achieve in a short 5-year (really 3) period in office.

[martin sheldrick @martianmol]

@MindsOfEuropa24 @GaryLineker You really got me going.

[Samuel West 💙💛 @exitthelemming]

That 45-day debacle cost the country £30bn, enough for an inflation-equalling pay rise for every public sector worker in the country.

But tell me again how the real problem is Meghan and Harry, train drivers and asylum seekers https://t.co/fJu3GNw8zw