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Takes a while before he gets to his actual suggestions, which are as stupid as you'd expect:
We know what a coherent right-wing agenda would look like: Net Zero immigration, energy sanity, a massive programme of planning reform, and housebuilding. We also know how to get there: identify, train, and promote talented people, primarily from the private sector, and smash the barriers to governing.
- 'Net zero immigration' - dystopian, unworkable, self-destructive
- 'Energy sanity' - meaningless, nobody thinks of themselves as proposing energy insanity, do they? I assume what he means is 'Keep exploiting fossil fuels even though revenues are falling, prices are rising, there are obvious alternatives and climate change is accelerating', which doesn't strike me as 'sane'. In any case, Labour's plans are sane: accelerate the transition to the cheapest, cleanest forms of energy and keep using fossil fuels to keep the lights on while we're managing the transition
- 'massive programme of planning reform, and housebuilding' - exactly what the Tories have failed to deliver and what Labour are proposing, which he assumes they'll fail at for no discernible reason
And his plans for how to get there are just as asinine:
- 'identify, train, and promote talented people' - again, meaningless. Who could oppose this?
- 'primarily from the private sector' - why? Because. Sunak is 'from the private sector'. So was Boris Johnson. How's that worked out? And notice the weaselly 'primarily', too. Is that most? Some? All?
- 'smash the barriers to governing' - again, just meaningless waffle, something the Tories have continuously promised and found themselves unable to deliver. Brexit was meant to do this. It didn't. Is this because, perhaps, the main 'barriers to governing' are that the Tories are totally detached from reality?
If you're worried about this, the best way to prevent it is to donate to and volunteer with the Labour party. Yes, there's a few places where voting for a different party is the better anti-Tory tactic if that is your priority, BUT:
- it's hard to know for sure who the best vote is because the various tactical tools, polls, etc., often don't agree
- very nearly everywhere Labour is your best bet anyway
This is what He wanted.
It's certainly possible that sayings of other people were later attributed to him, but to really make this case you'd need to have quotations that were attributed to multiple sources, including him, if you see what I mean. Absent that, it could be true, but there's no particular reason to believe it.
There are enough specific biographical details about Jesus of Nazareth to make it likely that there's a specific, real central figure. For example, the fact that he was from Nazareth was a problem for his early followers (it didn't match the Messianic prophecies), which is why they invented the odd story of the census, so that they could claim he'd been born in Bethlehem, the hometown of King David, from whom Jesus was supposedly descended. That seems unlikely to have happened if there hadn't been a real, central historical figure.
Also, none of the early non-Christian sources claim he wasn't real or that he was a composite, which they surely would have done if there was any doubt on the matter.
I agree with you that Jesus wasn't God, who doesn't exist, and that there were no miracles, which are impossible. However, this is not the same thing as saying that there's no evidence for the existence of Jesus, the Jewish apocalyptic preacher.
The earliest documents about Jesus, such as the Pauline Epistles, were written by people who knew people who knew him. In a mostly illiterate society 2,000 years ago, this is about as good as evidence gets. It's also the exact same kind of evidence as a journalist or researcher writing an account based on interviews with people. This was how, e.g, Herodotus wrote his histories. When Herodotus says 'A guy rode a dolphin once' we dismiss that. But we don't say 'The people in the Histories didn't exist, except those for whom there's physical evidence, which is about three of them, not including the author'. We do much the same with Jesus and the miracles.
If the Apostles had wanted, for some reason, to make up a guy, that would have been risky. Other people would have just said, 'That guy didn't exist'. If they had anyway decided to make up a guy, they'd have invented someone who actually fulfilled the Jewish propehcies of the Messiah, instead of inventing Jesus, who obviously didn't. This suggests they didn't invent him, which strengthens the plausibility of the evidence we do have.
A third way of looking at this is to ask if there are any comparable figures, religious founders from the historic era, who we now think were wholly made up in the way you're suggesting. But there aren't. The Buddha, Confucius, Mohammed, Zoroaster - they all certainly existed. Indeed, I can't think of any figures form the time period who were actually imaginary.
Dinosaurs aren't people.
A great example of someone who seemingly logged into Twitter one day and said, It'd be neat if I let this website drive me completely insane.
Why only some?
No. But physical proof is not the standard we use for determining someone's historical existence.
True, and worth noting. But what he says is inarguably true: no votes have been cast and if people assume they don't need to bother voting, that could have a dramatic effect on the final result.
I don't see how this can be the case. Labour were miles behind the Tories for the entire campaign on every metric, having been behind for virtually the entirety of the previous five (or more) years!
This is the kind of thing I mean when I say that some of the Tories' own goals should be partly credited to Starmer.
It's similar to all the ridiculous flag shagging: that suddenly paid off when Sunak made the unforced error of bailing on the D-Day celebrations, which left Labour an open goal but only because Labour had set themselves up well in the first place. There's suddenly an obviously 'patriotic' party for the people who think that matters (and that it's indicated primarily by flag shagging). Ditto the Truss budget. Labour wouldn't have benefited from that if they hadn't already been banging on about fiscal responsibility.
The Tories want people to assume the outcome is decided but the only way to remove this government is to vote them out, says Labour’s national campaign coordinator
![No way is Britain’s general election a done deal. Polls disguise huge uncertainty | Pat McFadden](https://feddit.uk/pictrs/image/ffddba27-1cb9-42b1-afba-4ce508fc115d.webp?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
Yeah, I agree. They have to reform the planning system in a way that ignores nimbys, otherwise this will come to nothing.
This is a fair point, as far as it goes, and I'm happy to accept 'mass shooters curently engaged in a mass shooting' as an exception to the rule!
I'd suggest checking the recent actual election results (previous GE, locals and any by-elections), then checking a few different tools to see the predictions, and kind of taking the average of that.
Of course, you can always donate money and/or campaign somewhere other than where you live. I'm in a 100% Labour hold, according to electoral calculus, so I've been doorknocking elsewhere.
You cannot achieve any good by hurting people.
People are so convinced that if we're more cruel to criminals, they'll stop committing crimes, or if we're harsher to workers, we'll work harder, or if you're tough on border controls, immigrants will go away. It does not work and it cannot work.
Well, you've convinced me! What should I do, o wise one?
Cool, well now the link's working, and not to sound like a looping spambot, but I wouldn't use this MRP to decide your vote. The MRPs have such huge variance this time because of the historic size of the swing from the Tories to Labour (and everyone else) that it's really difficult to be accurate with this analysis.
Link is broken for me! Is it this one?
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner has promised the party will scrap no-fault evictions immediately if they win the general election.
![Labour unveils plan to fix rental crisis and immediately axe no-fault evictions](https://feddit.uk/pictrs/image/1a0f2681-d3a5-45e4-9994-0c121208dfe6.webp?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
‘Tory big beasts’ like Liz Truss and Jeremy Hunt could be for chop as well as once-safe seats like Maidenhead, formerly held by Theresa May
![Tactical voting could make Tories lose once safe seats, according to guide](https://feddit.uk/pictrs/image/0bbc5449-7dbd-4318-ba49-de04f16f97a3.webp?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
This is according to research by Get Voting. Seems worth sharing just to potentially have Liz Truss lose her seat!
Labour may currently have a commanding lead, but a second lacklustre half to the campaign could lead some voters to stay at home, writes political scientist Robert Ford
![A wobbly left and a wary right could cut the Labour vote with low turnout | Robert Ford](https://feddit.uk/pictrs/image/59946d2b-7e69-4e2d-9b06-d4cfb4a4d7d4.webp?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
This is what's keeping me up at night, and also exactly why I think all the predictions of four or five hundred seats for Labour are overblown.
In office, something very different will be required, but steady caution has brought Labour to the brink of power, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland
![Is Keir Starmer really a ‘political robot’? If he is, he’s one that’s been programmed to win | Jonathan Freedland](https://feddit.uk/pictrs/image/fceefde9-356c-4c45-9646-8015b1488662.webp?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
>The left is only able to demand that an apparently imminent Labour government be bolder in office because Starmer has got the party to the brink of victory – and has done it by doing the very things they opposed.
Never have I 'this'ed so hard.
Labour Party Manifesto 2024: At this election we can change Britain. We can stop the chaos, turn the page, and start to rebuild our country.
![Change – The Labour Party](https://slrpnk.net/api/v3/image_proxy?url=https%3A%2F%2Flabour.org.uk%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F06%2FKS_05_1324_RGB_CUTOUT.png&format=webp&thumbnail=256)
The 2024 Labour Manifesto is now online!
I am genuinely excited by loads of it, especially the green policies and the expansion of workers' rights, but probably the most important part of it is the stuff aimed at economic growth.
What do you think? Love it? Hate it? Inspired to volunteer? Some more sensible, moderate emotion?
Hartlepool is on track to lurch back to Labour in the election. Reform UK is in second spot
![Our first constituency poll has awful news for Britain’s Conservatives](https://feddit.uk/pictrs/image/6310a480-ac85-4530-8dc7-b5775bc5d01a.jpeg?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
... But great news for Britain!
>Hartlepool is on track to lurch back to Labour in the election. Reform UK is in second spot
Came across this via LabourList, so giving them a shout, too.
![](https://feddit.uk/pictrs/image/32b414c3-ea25-4b8d-9154-df0ca68a0cf8.jpeg?format=webp&thumbnail=512)
YouTube Video
Click to view this content.
HOW IS HE SO BAD AT THIS?
He should've said, 'Look, I was very fortunate growing up, there's no point denying that. What I want is for every child to have the opportunities I had, that's why our policy is to blah, blah first-time buyers blah tax, etc., unlike Labour who want blah VAT on private schools, blah'.
Instead, he gets immediately rattled and starts gibbering at the first follow-up question. He is just the worst.
By the way, this is the interview he thought was so important he had to run away from Normandy to do it. Apparently, it wasn't important enough for him to do any prep.
Conservative manifesto expected to announce cut in national insurance and measures to help people buy homes
![Rishi Sunak to publish Tory manifesto as party ads warn of Labour getting ‘massive majority’ – UK politics live](https://feddit.uk/pictrs/image/0be1c4aa-1476-463f-84fd-ac3c235c6dfe.jpeg?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
Harper said the vote was:
>a now-or-never opportunity to remove the Tories from power. Only Labour is able to do this across the UK and only Labour has a plan to halt environmental destruction.
I couldn't have put it better.
The US atmospheric chemist on why she doesn’t share the pessimism of most climate scientists, fixing the ozone layer, and why Jacques Cousteau is her hero
![Climate scientist Susan Solomon: ‘Let’s not give up now – we’re right on the cusp of success’](https://feddit.uk/pictrs/image/0ba2279b-9b94-4e94-945a-e58b3164533e.jpeg?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
Sharing this here as I feel it's relevant to the GE campaign.
The evidence suggests that in about three weeks, we're going to give a landslide to the party promising the most radical green policies in this country's history. Environmentalism is just about to win the argument in Britain, as long as we vote for it on the 4th of July. Don't give in to cynicism and despair!
On the TV debate and its aftermath, and how the Tories managed to turn a row about £2,000 into a row about their own integrity
![Fight!](https://feddit.uk/pictrs/image/7494aca5-8dce-4583-aef8-8cc966862a6e.jpeg?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
I was pretty furious about Sunak lying, and I still am, but it's interesting and a little bit reassuring to hear a perspective suggesting it will only hurt his campaign.
Jeremy Corbyn drew fresh-faced crowds at Glastonbury and beyond. But his successor has younger fans too – sort of
![We asked young Keir Starmer fans to explain his appeal](https://slrpnk.net/pictrs/image/5c54e58a-96f2-4747-85fd-3c7625ed6e77.webp?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
Found this kind of interesting. I remember during the Corbyn era a lot of people saying it was actually better for politicians not to have devoted 'fans' of the kind Corbyn did. I'm inclined to agree.
Are NHS waiting lists falling, would family taxes be up by £2,000 a year under Labour – what is the truth amid the claims and counter-claims?
![Reality check: how do the leaders’ claims in TV debate stack up?](https://slrpnk.net/pictrs/image/1217d9ec-e529-45c8-9853-48eeb74d124a.webp?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
Summary:
>Would every family’s taxes go up by £2,000 under Labour?
No.
>Are NHS England waiting lists going down?
It depends how you measure it, but mostly no.
>Have the Conservatives abolished non-dom status?
Not yet; they're phasing it out.
>Will the UK be less energy-secure if it stops new North Sea drilling?
No.
So, that's four claims made by Sunak, none of them clearly true, two of them clearly false.
Not surprising, really. He has no positive legacy so he has to make things up. And this is, after all, a man who was fined for partying in Downing Street while the rest of us were in lockdown.
Labour and the Conservatives want to reduce national debt, but Resolution Foundation says promises ‘detached from reality’
![UK faces £33bn hole in finances or return to austerity, thinktank says](https://feddit.uk/pictrs/image/80ae778e-e8b2-47d2-8a59-40307ef385af.jpeg?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
I am both glad this nonsense is over and still annoyed it ever happened.
Labour quietly released its finalised employment reforms on May 24th – although some parts of it, for instance a single status of worker and sectoral…
![‘How Labour’s New Deal for Working People will strengthen trade unions’ – LabourList](https://feddit.uk/pictrs/image/595ec4ec-7f6a-44c5-9259-82428f1353fc.jpeg?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
>It makes labour a more secure commodity, removes legal prohibitions on trade union activity, and provides unions with more rights.
>Trade union pragmatism means that while the New Deal is far from perfect, the affiliated unions will now back it to the hilt, as they recognise how, if combined with effective and strategic action on their part, it has the potential to be transformative for their movement and reverse decades of decline. Within the comforting confines of labourism, all else is secondary.
Exclusive: Labour’s deputy leader talks openly about the impact on her of the Tory-led controversy about her past living arrangements
![‘I love campaigning’: Angela Rayner on being back in action after being cleared in tax row](https://feddit.uk/pictrs/image/ad4b2025-78d3-4d81-b16e-d165944870d3.jpeg?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
From Beergate to Angela Rayner’s tax affairs, politicians are using the police for electoral ends
![The rise of political misuse of the law](https://feddit.uk/pictrs/image/eeb5c3e9-5be6-4f75-aa27-e2b4c4236efa.jpeg?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
Odd to say 'politicians' in the headline when what is meant is 'Conservatives'.
I think he's right Abbott will run (and should), but mainly sharing for the handy historical reminder that, far from being some uniquely awful event in the annals of Labour party history, this sort of thing is unfortunately par for the course.
As Bush puts it: 'Labour starts every short campaign with a row over its selections'. Similar bitter arguments happened in 2019 with candidates who won local selections but were then replaced by the NEC with someone loyal to the leader. Another egregious example Bush cites was Blair's NEC selecting a former Tory MP to run for a safe seat in 2001 when it became obvious he wouldn't hang on to his own (can you imagine if Starmer had done that with Natalie Elphicke?).
Labour's selection system is rubbish (the members have too little deselection power and the NEC have too much). On the other hand, given that our system of government relies on having lots of parliamentary allies, it's totally unsurprising that leaders are keen to get as many allies as possible elected to parliament. The NEC is a particularly blunt instrument they use to do that.
People may dislike the Government but it is difficult to see how Labour win a landslide when there is such little enthusiasm for them as an alterna...
![There's little enthusiasm for Labour. Does it matter?](https://feddit.uk/pictrs/image/1e8cc44a-09b8-4e2e-86ca-9dc8a0206dd8.jpeg?format=webp&thumbnail=256)