ml1dch

2 hours ago, NurembergVillan said:

Are we 100% certain she didn't start it?

People's vote,  Novichok, Boris Johnson, Hancock
Change UK, Donald Tusk, Harry Kane, Elon Musk
Royal wedding, porn laws, John Bercow's Brexit wars
Amber Rudd, business slump, holding hands with Donald Trump

Doo doo doo doo doo doo....

While he divides opinion, I imagine pretty much everyone who isn't a prick will wish him the very best of luck.

Hope he takes the repulsive little goblin to the cleaners. 

35 minutes ago, MCU said:

Not sure if this is the correct topic to ask but I overheard a conversation at work last week talking about when Sunak is likely to call a GE. Person A predicts his egotistical 'insert swear word here' won't call it until he's had 2 years as PM, which would be what - November? Surely they would want to campaign before that, no? But then on the other hand I'm thinking, they must know they're **** either way and will just end up dragging it on for as long as possible?

They're currently working on "something might turn up" as being the best hope. The longer you leave it, the more chance there is of that happening. 

There are three realistic windows - May (at the same time as the local elections), Autumn or January.

If you go in January you have the triple threat of activist and voter apathy (knocking doors in December or early January?), timing resentment (you're spending my Christmas period shouting at me about politics?) and cowardice (lots of people believe Gordon Brown would probably have stayed in power in 2010 if he hadn't let the Tories build the narrative about being scared of the voters). Plus campaigning happening during the annual NHS collapse when it's nearly always the most important issue for voters at that time of year would be pretty brave.

I think Autumn would be even worse than January. Again, three reasons.

In reverse order of importance; (1) small boats. They'll still be coming in large numbers, and given he's stupidly decided to make it the main focus of his entire time in office, the campaign is happening when they are greatest in number and when the spotlight of failure is shining brightest on him.

(2) America. The UK campaign would be happening at the same time as the US one. I'm pretty confident that neither party wants to spend the whole campaign being asked who they will want to win and their opinion on the latest piece of culture-war idiocy that is getting people excited over there.

(1) Most importantly, local elections. An Autumn election would be called in the immediate aftermath of the May locals. I reckon these will be some of the worst results that the Tories have ever seen. Consider last years. The Tories lost over a thousand councillors, from the previous election in those seats which saw Theresa May also lose over a thousand in 2019. The seats happening in May next year were last contested in the post-Covid / vaccine bounce - the Tories had a +550 swing on councillor numbers. So there are a lot more left to be lost, and if they go Autumn then they will calling a General Election and campaigning in the middle of "worst ever election for the Tories" headlines, and a party that is furious with the leadership for overseeing (what I think will be) the worst local elections for the Tories ever.

It's still not ideal sending people to the polls and asking them to kick out a load of Tory councillors as well as the Government, but at least in May there are more motivated Tories trying to help Sunak win an election.

Obviously all his options are terrible, because he's a shit person, from a shit party, leading a shit Government with a record of nothing but failure. But I think the later he leaves it, the worse it'll be. But given they probably know they're going to lose, why not get another six months of being important? It's not like he's going to have to deal with the aftermath.

6 hours ago, Davkaus said:

Genuine question, how much did he "achieve" in his previous twenty years or so? I didn't pay much attention to him.. He's got a list of controversies as long as your arm where he's spouted bollocks and everyone's condemned him, and we'll doubtlessly see more of the same, but I'd not expect it to amount to anything

It really depends on your definition of @bickster's "achieve". Him being there for for 3-10 months isn't going to lead to revolution, the overthrowing of Parliament or anything like that. So no, politically, there's no scenario where this leads to much changing at the next election. 

But socially? Parliament is a pulpit, we're in a different world to 2005 or 2012 and Galloway is going to use it. Back then, you didn't have terrible people sharing what he was saying with millions of stupid people worldwide saying "this is what the British parliament said today about Israel and Gaza", with clips of Galloway bloviating. He exists to make people hate each other, so he can make money off of it. And we're in an age where people who do that can make a lot more money off that sort of content than they could in 2005 or 2012, so he's going to do it lots more than he did. And the people who make money off that will keep throwing more tyres on the fire to keep it burning and people hating each other, so they make even more money. And the result is that a few dozen radicalised kids probably do something a bit stupid because they think they're fighting for Palestine.

As a comparable, it's a bit like when the Express quote Guy Verhofstadt's latest suggestion that King Charles should be replaced by a councillor from Leuven and a bunch of half-wits say "this is what the EU want to to do!". And all the dopey Brexit types get all excited. Only Galloway's types don't just get excited, they go and fire-bomb the office of the MP for Golders Green.

The achievement is going to be some of the worst people in the world making a lot more money for themselves and probably a few Jewish and Muslim lives are ruined that otherwise wouldn't have been, were people not so dim-witted as to treat George Galloway as anything other than one of the worst people in the world. He'll lose the seat at the General Election, but that doesn't mean that his presence in Parliament isn't an absolute disgrace. It's really no different to Farage or Griffin being elected. It doesn't mean the BNP are taking over, but him being there makes everything even worse than it was before.