Politics Thread 5

[Oblomov Boblomov]

Conservatives have already confirmed a loss of 400 seats, with predictions of as many as 800 by the final count.

Liberal Democrats have already gained 270 seats, along with control of 8 councils, with hopefully more to come.

[Moggy]

It's great that the 3 Brexit parties are losing ground while the others are making gains. Hopefully that continues as more results come in.

[Lagamorph]

[Rex Kramer]

I think it depends on where those independents sit on the political spectrum. There could be vast swathes of gammon amongst though candidates though I guess the nature of it means they're a very varied group. I think there has been a swing to those because of the perceived all-encompassing nature of Brexit which would mean local issues getting sidelined.

[Cuttooth]

British people are more persuaded of the benefits of immigration than any other major European nation, according to a global survey, which has also found that almost half of Britons think immigrants are either positive or neutral for the country.

The YouGov–Cambridge Globalism survey found that 28% of Britons believed the benefits of immigration outweighed the costs, compared with 24% in Germany, 21% in France and 19% in Denmark. A further 20% of British people believed the costs and benefits were about equal, while 16% were not sure.

The findings contradict the assumption that Britain is more hostile to immigration than its European neighbours are. Britain was seen as taking a hardline and less compassionate response to the 2015 European migration crisis, while many argue concerns over immigration were the key driving force behind the Brexit vote.

But experts have detected a softening in attitudes towards immigration since that vote, which could in part be influenced by the prospect of the end of freedom of movement d the dramatic drop in net migration to the UK from EU countries, which in the last figures dropped to its lowest level since 2009.

In all, only 37% of Britons feel the costs of immigration outweigh the benefits – lower than in any other big European country apart from Poland. By comparison, 50% of Italians believe the net impact of immigration is negative, as well as 49% of Swedes and 42% of French and 40% of Germans.

The findings come weeks before the European parliament elections, where populist, anti-immigrant forces are projected to perform well across Europe.

Nigel Farage, whose anti-migrant “breaking point” poster came to symbolise the leave message in the 2016 EU referendum, is returning to politics with his Brexit party, while his former party, Ukip, continues to campaign on immigration issues.

However, the UK portion of the global YouGov survey suggests anti-immigrant messaging is unlikely to work across the party divide. While only 3% of Ukip voters thought benefits outweighed costs, this compared with 15% of Conservative voters and 42% who voted Labour.

The survey also suggested men were most open to the benefits of immigration, with 32% saying the overall the impact was positive, compared with 24% of women.

Sunder Katwala, the director of the identity and integration thinktank British Future, which last year published The National Conversation, a report on immigration in the UK, said studies were showing Britain was on the “glass half full” end of the debate.

“There’s an increasing body of evidence that attitudes, having been very sceptical, are becoming softer,” he said. “The salience of immigration has dropped significantly and there’s also been a warming up of attitudes.”

Katwala said a softening of attitudes had been noticed by politicians and as a result the likes of Farage had changed tone ahead of the European elections.

“There’s a lot of nuance in British attitudes. The nuance was missing in the last 10 years because we were having a debate about ‘are we able to talk about immigration or not?’,” he added.

The survey shows Britons are particularly supportive of migrants, either unskilled or qualified professionals, if they have a job offer in advance.

Forty-one per cent of Britons agreed that unskilled labourers arriving in the UK with a job offer were good for the country, a higher proportion than in all other major EU nations apart from Spain.

Similarly, Britons showed the highest level of support than any country surveyed for qualified professionals coming to the UK with a job offer, with 80% agreeing they were good for the country – compared, for example, with just 56% of French respondents.

Conversely, Britons are less supportive than other western nations in the survey of migrants arriving without a job in search for work.

Only 14% of Britons thought unskilled labourers coming to the UK to search for work were good for the country, with only Sweden and Germany showing lower levels of support for this kind of migrant.

Britons also appeared relatively hostile to refugees. Only 29% of Britons thought people fleeing war or persecution were good for the country, less than any other EU or anglophone country in the survey. Almost half of Canadians (45%) and French (44%), in contrast, expressed support for refugees.

UK respondents also showed the lowest level of support of all countries surveyed for migrants coming to join family members who already live here, with just 22% of respondents thinking this was good for the country, compared with 56% of Polish respondents who, among the EU and anglophone countries, showed the highest level of support.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/ ... -europeans

In much shittier news even second generation UK citizens can't be truly British in the eyes of the majority of this country, including many Remainers.

twitter.com/D_Shariatmadari/status/1123951287622676486

https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-in ... es-compare

I think it depends on where those independents sit on the political spectrum. There could be vast swathes of gammon amongst though candidates though I guess the nature of it means they're a very varied group. I think there has been a swing to those because of the perceived all-encompassing nature of Brexit which would mean local issues getting sidelined.

The majority of independents I've seen in my local elections have tended to be NIMBYish ex-Tories.

[Moggy]

It’s great news if they all do that.

[Drumstick]

Can't wait to see the full results. It will be interesting to see how far this ant-Tory/Lab sentiment goes - this are has been Tory everything for decades so I'm keeping a keen eye out for the results of our ballot.

[Cuttooth]

twitter.com/johnmcdonnellMP/status/1124210656146862080

Hearing ya loud and clear. strawberry float me.

[That's not a growth]

It’s great news if they all do that.

I wonder what's been blurred out in the lib Dems bit.

[Lagamorph]

It’s great news if they all do that.

I wonder what's been blurred out in the lib Dems bit.

Probably the address.
My ballot paper had the full home address of every candidate except one.

[Rex Kramer]

One of the wards near me had a massive amount of spoiled ballots but it's difficult to determine whether the inbred knuckle draggers just couldn't actually write an x in the box.

[Hexx]

twitter.com/johnmcdonnellMP/status/1124210656146862080

Hearing ya loud and clear. strawberry float me.

Yep.

If you ignore the gains by the Green and Lib Dems, the loses to UKIP - the clear message is that Lab haven't been doing what they said they'd do well enough!

It's a vote of confidence in Lab's position!

(The tory spin hasn't begun yet, but I expect it'll be similar doubling down on their position)

[Hexx]

twitter.com/NicolaSturgeon/status/1124216095383150593

[Squinty]

twitter.com/johnmcdonnellMP/status/1124210656146862080

Hearing ya loud and clear. strawberry float me.

He really has not got a clue.

[Dual]

Ice cold Nicola.

[Moggy]

I don’t understand why the Labour leadership thinks sitting on the fence over Brexit is going to help them. All they are doing is alienating Leavers and Remainers who will turn to other parties.

If Corbyn wants to go for Brexit then he needs to say it so that we can all be clear on what Labour now stands for. If Corbyn doesn’t want to go for Brexit then he needs to say it so that we can all be clear on what Labour now stands for. This wishy-washy “Oh we respect the will but would prefer a general election over a Tory Brexit” is just not working.

The working class Leave voters that Labour fears have already deserted Labour in favour of UKIP/Brexit Party. They are not coming back any time soon whatever happens.

[Cuttooth]

twitter.com/johnmcdonnellMP/status/1124210656146862080

Hearing ya loud and clear. strawberry float me.

Yep.

If you ignore the gains by the Green and Lib Dems, the loses to UKIP - the clear message is that Lab haven't been doing what they said they'd do well enough!

It's a vote of confidence in Lab's position!

(The tory spin hasn't begun yet, but I expect it'll be similar doubling down on their position)

He has since said his words could be misinterpreted and that he means Brexit needs to get sorted out one way or the other. In fairness, this actually is the message being given to Labour but I can't see any immediate change of course happening.

[Moggy]

twitter.com/davidschneider/status/1124265425745973248

[Moggy]

twitter.com/channel4news/status/1124265025873567747

strawberry float me

[Hexx]

twitter.com/adampayne26/status/1124276708989968384