And the rest of the Thatcher years, we are still getting the effect of her governments.

It's not 14 years, it is 31 years with an interim right wing Labour government of 13 years.

​@@chrisjordan4210which made things better for everyone in the interim. 1997-2010 some of the best sustained growth on record, good reductions in child, pensioner poverty etc

the mess it is in today. Worst I recall in my lifetime, 80 years old!!

They’re not Tories

Too true

You seem to be under the impression that the Tories and Sunak care about this country. They don't. Sunak is clearly in it to make his family richer. The rest of the Tory MPs enjoy the perks of being an MP and the money it brings them.

Agree see my comment. This is tory BS

Spot on, all they are doing is building more resentment with the electorate.

they would sooner call a war.

Except that they don't even seem to represent their voters any more. Just their donors and members, in that order.

Agreed, but Labour seem to focus on giving England away to Muslim interests.

@@williamjenman6902 Did they ever? Perhaps they just duped their voters, in a manner similar to how brexit voters were duped? I think it is likely that the penny has dropped with their one time supporters, rather than a significant change in the party's attitude.

Absolutely!

Get brexit done.. another one of those three word slogans..aimed at the more intelligent people in society

Sure, but let's all keep in mind that whatever happens, any government is improved by having a reasonable opposition in place to keep them on their toes making sure they do not become complacent or blatantly corrupt. Don't think having Reform in place as the opposition is good for the country, but perfectly happy with the Lib Dems as the opposition

Agree with you totally we can only hope...

Best you'll ever get is a reprieve. Our political system ceases to function if the red/blue duopoly goes away and takes the illusion of democratic choice with it. Sorry, but that's just how it is unless the brits develop a spine and stop trying to solve everything through votes and passive aggressive tutting.

Any politician for that matter

That shows in the opinion polls when 22% want the Tories to disappear entirely and only 14% want them to win the GE. Stop the Tories. Vote

Do you really think that starmer and the labour party are gonna be any better, there all WEF puppets...now give your head a wobble

@@TheRadFactormostly Tory, although Starmer is making himself electable in England by joining them, it would seem.

Yes, including the parent company of this radio station!

There's only so much makeup and lipstick you can put on a pig The failure of the Boris coalition then the reign of Liz Truss is what will doom them, he promised everything to all sides, Levelling up, social care, HS2/3, Net Zero, a booming get brex1t done economy with the end to Austerity and Sunak comes along and destroys the lot. Now everyone can see it was all Bullsh1t the entire Boris Manifesto

Labour appointed appalling leaders also - the public didn’t want vote for them.

If this is so can you explain why most papers plus both the BBC and ITV are left wing?

@AuntieFloTravels there not left wing, all UK media including the BBC is at least centre right, they fall over themselves to give lunatics from Libertarian think tanks like the IEA a voice on serious political discussion shows. Farage was constantly on tv as is Tice now yet they represent a very minority view while the Lib-Dems hardly get a look in. The Rwanda policy should be torn to shreds every time a Con is on as should there economic record and plans with borrowing going through the roof

Like patriotic alternative maybe,labour will be worse

Sensible parties, who is that then?

@@CharlesKenwright Trouble is, when somebody says 'patriot', I hear 'armband'.

@@CharlesKenwright I'd rather not have people goose stepping in their spare time, I'd rather see the right wing and mostly the elderly try and move away from that lunacy. As for labour, they will do far less damage than the current fractured party that is in power.

@@samthompson7568 Are you willing to hang your reputation and savings on that ? No Labour government since Wilson has really been focussed on the electorate, rather than the Unions.

😂 true

Hi Trev, I'm from Burry Port, near Llanelli. Will you be giving Reform UK a go, as I and most of my pals will ?

@@michaelarchangel1163Are Reform a thing in Wales ? I’m in Scotland, and Reform don’t show up in any polling at all. That indicates less than 1% support. UKIP did reach 1% in Scotland way back in 2015. Indeed Reform may not even waste their money putting up candidates here. They are ignoring Northern Ireland. They might just turn out to be a Reform England Ltd party.

As an Englishman I have always seen Labour as a Welsh Nationalist Party

@@michaelarchangel1163 No.

As an Englishman i always have and thats for 50 yrs in my case

Agreed, in the days of Ken Clarke there were some recognizable one nation Tories who could be regarded as statesmen and "first rate". For the current crop of Tories, those days are long gone and now we're down to merely fourth, fifth and sixth rate so-called politicians who you couldn't trust to organise a f*ck-up in a wh*rehouse.

Very true, they never have or will experience what it’s like to just keep your head above water and the real fear of going under.

Vote tactical, there's no safe seats anymore .. just be careful you find a non Tory site for advice

I live in a Blue wall seat there virtually gone from the local council That means no activists door knocking and pressing the message and with the local parties withering and being staffed by 70 & 80 year olds their time is up

tactical voting. Never give up. Go to stopthetories,vote before the GE. Tell all your friends and family. there are very few truly safe tory seats with tactical voting, Mordaunt, gove are all vunerable

Excellent!.

As a fellow Bungalow Bil sufferer ( Leominster ) I know exactly what you mean !!

Lots of copeium being smoked here. The guy is right that there are two clusters of polls one putting the Tories on 25/26/27% the other putting the Tories on 19/20/21% there is a big difference between those polls in terms of seats but it is the difference between 20-40 and 70-90 not between 70-90 and 130-150 where he puts it. That also doesn’t take into account tactical voting which could push those figures down by 30-60 seats. The difference between 2010 and 2015 wasn’t anything that Cameron did. It was the unwinding of the anti-Tory tactical vote for the Lib Dems Don’t worry about the Labour vote figures if the Labour figure is 42 or 46% mainly represents vote piling up in safe seats the key figure at the moment is the Tory % vote not the lead. Also ignore the “it would break historical records to have a swing that big” guff. Labour did very badly in 2019 a bounce back to a 2015/17 performance is almost baked in before we add in an actual good Labour performance.

​@@davidwright7193Also no mention of Reform and the damage they are doing to there vote share.

⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠@@davidwright7193I mean it depends on the reliability of the polster is the thing, and figuring out number of seats won from voting intention polls is an inaccurate art. There was an MRP poll recently (which is more focused on figuring out how specific seats may swing) where Reform choosing to stand candidate would make the difference between a bit above 100 to below 100. You also can’t predict how tactical voting will effect things because tactical voting is always more effective in a by-election where the focus and campaigning is tight. Whether tactical voting will manifest in the GE we’ll have to see. I hope so, but if you tell yourself that 30 seats is possible or that 110 isn’t you’ll set yourself up for disappointment. This may as well function as a warning. The Tories will be wiped out, but be prepared for the party to stick around and try and come back.

To preserve and protect the wealth of the already wealthy

@@dj_cakes and increase the wealth of the already wealthy

Because the opposition are so awful. Reform4me.

They have traditionally been the only right wing party while the left and centre is split, because of first past the post elections it means the Tories can gain all the power with minority support.

@@maccagrabme "The opposition are bad so I'm voting for the far right loony party" Yeah, nah. You were always going to vote for the loonies

Careful. Mr Potatohead might send you to Rwanda

Clegg allowed the Lib Dems to be a human shield to deflect blame on all the Tory policies that damaged the country. Lib Dems were just glad to have some power in government.

Sure, but this is no longer really the conservative party that your local head teacher might have voted for; I hope to see some sort of one nation Tory party emerge (personally I wouldn't vote for them per se, unless it was some sort of scenario where it kept a far right candidate out; having a 'reasonable' opposition is ultimately good for the country as no party should have too much power least they try to abuse it)

One Tory MP is too many corrupt mfers in the HoC.

No real loss at this stage. Reform4me.

Reform are actually much worse, just listen to habib go on about what we need is automation and deregulation ! Wasn’t the brexit affect on the country enough to show u that.

That’s actually a possibility if tactical voting gets off the ground in a big way.

Lets make it happen......seach StopTheTories .Vote

If you look at those in the red wall who were voting UKIP Brex1t, Boris they were male uneducated and over 50 just with the march of time that cohort is declining given a push with Cov

They will be replaced by a real English Nationalist Party.

Agreed, they're dishonest appropriators of gaseous oxygen.

You read polls? Seems not😂

We have had no opposition from Labour 😊

​@@maureenstarr5744All an opposition can do when the government have a large majority is just wait for the next election and hope the govt make a mess of things(which they are doing big time). It's how parliament works unless it's a coalition or the governing party have a small majority. You do know that right?

​@@nicks4934 yes, William Hill put the chances of the Tories losing 201 seats at 71%, up from 65% last year.

Yes they have been pedalling really hard to get on side with the Guardian types, Unpleasant indeed.

No, it's the Realist Party as opposed to the Left's collection of Fantasy Parties.

The ghastly left are really nasty. If you were properly educated you’d know.

@@heathercooper6043 What? By trying to push the Rwanda bill through the Lords and other culture wars fluff, trying to court the far right vote before the GE. Pointlessly I might add, they're done.

The Tories are away beyond being the nasty party. The Tories are vile, torrid and toxic and extremely uncaring to the point of brutally evil.

Do you seriously think the Tories are cruel, greedy and evil or is this some sort of bot?

A few cracks.

Well, this is a Conservative who was expelled from the party after voting against them and encourages tactical voting to kick them out. He also cast Brexit as a "mistake". Why not try listening to what people say? Or is jumping to conclusions in the first 30 seconds how you roll?

Ha, ha, ha . . . no, it's become the Blairite Party and shifted away from real Conservativism because it began having "wet dreams" about Tony Blair the "all things to all people" Utopian nightmare.

@@davidmurphy563 It's not entirely clear but if the point being made is that The Times, like most of the British news media, has a clear bias in favour of calling upon commentators from the right, then I (as someone who is on the majority of issues a pragmatic centrist) think the claim is entirely legitimate. Which is problematic. Because a majority of the electorate consistently vote for centre/left parties and politicians. Combine this state of affairs with the unrepresentative nature of FPTP and millions (e.g. Green, LD voters) are left with virtually no representation or voice in public 'debates'.

@@_Stroda And the Guardian is left wing. The beeb attempts to be neutral. There's freedom of the press, that's freedom to be biased. If you want truly neutral follow the AP or Reuters, they're about as close as you can get. This commentator is on the right of politics but is highly critical of the government and encourages voting against them. So it's not like they're not airing dissenting voices. How is that problematic? Not a rhetorical question.

The SNP is a joke! Scots must put to rest any if this "independence" nonsense, no more referendums!

Current evidence would suggest that independence and democracy are mutually exclusive.

Agreed, the union is not fit for purpose. it's time for a collaborative Federation of independent Kingdoms. Common standards on defence , trade and environment. other wise operating independently and closer ties with our other european cousins.

Lib Deb the Man in chatge jas disappeared since tje Post Officr scandal

You're quoting Samuel Johnson who himself was patriotic,. He denounced those who claimed to be patriotic falsely. Bad quote bro he believed in English superiority.

Patriotism or nationalism ? Nationalism gets you to hate people you have never met and take credit for things you didnt do

@@kincaidwolf5184 I well know who I'm quoting. He meant false Patriots and that what I'm talking about, too. Tories are not patriotic...they're far too selfish for that. Look at our patriotic Baroness Michelle Mone. A Pandemic Profiteer, skimming £29,000,000 of taxpayers' money. A patriot?

Religion also.

@@DoubleDragon539 Absolutely.

Yes. And this is why the LibDems could get half the votes of Reform and still make lots of gains.. because their votes are much less evenly distributed.

There current polling is 20% on YouGov which ties into the demographic that still thinks there actually worth a vote Quote The age at which Britons are more likely to choose the Tories over the Labour opposition has risen to 70 from 39 at the last general election in 2019 The NI tax cut was a big mistake as raising the thresholds is seen as a must with pensioners. Adding £500+ to pensioners tax bills is not a smart move when they are literally the last demographic supporting you.

Evenly distributed… as if. they have Heartlands and Strongholds in the South same as Labour has strong presence in industrial/urban/poorer areas They do well in rural areas which makes it look spread out but there’s plenty of Tory “blue wall” seats, places that get high turnout and 90% support for the conservative candidate They won a lot of seats marginally last time, a lot of those were gone before Labour even overtook them in the polls, 30% isn’t the threshold for those places, and I doubt it’s as easy as saying it’ll be the tipping point for vast swathes of the country

@@BurningTNT OK, I get some of your reasoning . The Tory vote is less concentrated than Labour's but that doesn't mean there aren't some areas of concentrated Tory votes . That aside, Labour's low point was the 1983 GE , where their vote was heavily split by the SDP Alliance. Even then, despite gaining only 27.6% of the popular vote , Labour returned 209 MP's. On the other hand , the Tories low point was the 1997 GE .They got 30.7 % of the vote but returned only 165 MP's . Although at this time Labour were dominant in Scotland, the next GE will likely see a much improved Labour performance North of the Border. Also this is the first GE in modern times where the Conservatives are facing a meaningful split in their vote from a rival party.

​@@SlowhandGreg William Hill betting says that the Tories chances of losing 201 or more seats at the GE is at 71% chance, up from 65% last month. The bookies are astute at predicting odds as they don't like to lose money. The Tories are in for a hiding at the GE. There's nowhere to hide for Sunak and the Tory Party.

Labour would never agree to this, in fact their rulebook requires them to run in every GB constituency (except the Speaker's) unless there is a motion carried that overrules this.. for example when they stood aside for Martin Bell way back in 1997

Conservatives and Labour just the samr

​@@maureenstarr5744Your inability to spell is only matched by your stupidity!

@@rachel.mcgowan I didn't say stand them down. I was thinking no help with canvassing for Labour in 50 seats and none for 50 liberal seats. Using the last election stats for reference. It's not like ukip didn't do the same in the last GE. I'm labour but live in south Devon so have voted liberals for 7 elections. GTTO.

​@@maureenstarr5744They are both the same message isn't working, only the really dim think that.

The UK tax burden is the highest ever 😂😂😂

Yes and who is paying it? Certainly not the financiers in London. The billionaires on Wall Street pay less proportionally than their office workers. I’m from the US and we used to be able to deduct small contributions to charities or churches. That’s all gone. Millionaires can deduct large gifts but workers can’t. The tax system is so complex that only people with lots of money can deal with it. The rich people in the government (mostly Republicans but some Democrats, too) have convinced voters that we shouldn’t pay for IRS agents that go after, wait for it, rich people with complex returns! Make a simple, graduated return that is fair and gets rid of the tax breaks for the wealthy.

​@@Joekd6.1And yet the nordic countries pay more tax, have better public services and better growth and a better standard of living. Falling for the myth of low taxes mean more money to spend isn't true if everything is at sky high prices. Only the really wealthy benefit from tax cuts.The way forward is raising the tax threshold not giving people a couple of quid off national insurance etc.

@jimglenn6972 the top 10% income earners in the UK pay over 60% of the tax

@royboy565 the UK will never be like the Nordic countries

Good afternoon epincion, thank you for your informative comment. I see parallels to Germany no one has mentioned. The DDR (GDR) and Honecker had finally made their dream come true, As equal partners Honecker and Helmut Schmidt, representing their states, were sitting next to each other in the Helsinki peace conference 1975. But it was the beginning of the end of the DDR, Honecker had to sign many treaties, for example that people have the right to leave their country and move to another one. "Get Brexit done" led to a super majority for the Tories but it was in the same way the begining of the end. Promises and predictions have not become true, Sunak often repeats the phrase "We have a plan", people have become sceptical. Those adamant Brexiteers are not convincing, all they have is "Sovereignty", and of course, those who can now work a Dover, this is a benefit. If Brexit is not really implemeted then do it and don't use it persistently as apology. The positve result of the election in 2019 has turned to a kind of defeat.

yeh they got a professional racist leader suella bravermen.

@@andydudley1775 I can imagine exactly what you look like 😂

What benefits the voters is a matter of opinion.... Hence the word politics.

@@royboy565 I think he's talking about things like treaty obligations, international courts and direct action by environmentalists. Add to that constitutional reform, like extending suffrage to overseas citizens and reducing the age of voting to 16. It's all intended to water-down the vote. Pluralism has been replaced by cynicism and contempt. You can see it in the language used on this comments section.

Ok 🤡. There are no Brexit benefits.

Because the interviewee is a Tory, who would regard their current predicament as disastrous.

Remember the times is a Murdoch publication so expect a Tory slant to everything.

Yes, because you're clearly English/British with that grammar and capitalisation. Mind your own business.

You obviously haven't looked at all the election results since the late 1950s. UK voters vote more for left leaning or centrist parties than right leaning parties. Even when Johnson won with 80 seat majority the tories got 44%of the vote. The other parties got 56%.Its been similar to that since the late 50s. It's because of fpp that the tories have won most elections. A political guru worked out that if the UK had used pure P R. (%of votes turned into seats) every election since the late 50s would have a coalition of left and centrist parties in charge. The only way the tories would share if the lib dems decided to go with them instead of labour. But even then the SNP vote could make it difficult if they went with Labour.

Far right how exactly? You don't know what you are talking about, this is the most leftwing so called Tory party I've every known so you need to educate yourself.

Comedy gold. Not very original either with the old 'far right' and 'nationalist'. Nationalist incidentally is about love of ones heritage/culture etc and not about the hate of someone else's nation culture etc. as is so often ignorantly assumed. So the Cons. have increased immigration, refuse to stop the illegal immigration, ramped up the Equality/diversity nonsense, ramped up political correctness and various laws against speech......all Blair attributes kept in place, yet you see the 'far right' bogeyman. Any changes they are making to that now is pure window dressing for the election, nothing more.

Far right?😂😂😂 😂😂 I WISH 😊

​@@robbeales5516Some of their policies are far right.... Trying to ban protests, making striking as difficult as possible, sending asylum seekers to Rwanda without processing either here or there, illegally prorouged parliament, cutting benefits in order to fund tax cuts. Hardly socialist utopia is it?

There more left wing than right

Not happening. Abolish the monarchy and zero seats for Tory grifters.

Fascists.

@@alanhutchins5916 I was going to suggest Farage’s Black Shirts, so yes, fascists fits perfectly.

The same

It's what they get for your being greedy you mean. Covid?

Because National front supporters and the like hijack the flag and cause trouble even look for trouble. The Scots and the welsh don't.

English Nationalism is quite quite different to Irish, Scottish or Welsh Nationalism. English Nationalism is based on supremacy, exceptionalism and hatred of others rather than based on civic pride. Hate only ends up destroying the haters who end up imploding from their own hate. Brexit is a perfect example of that self-imposed damage.

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

​@jamesprivet If you had an iq higher than room temperature you would know Brexit wasn't implemented on purpose because they didn't like the idea of leaving the new soviet union(The EU), so they tried to mess it up so people would regret choosing it, it's not difficult to understand

& this kind of paranoid casual high horse Anglophobic bigotry is why the English are the only Nation in the Union without a representative democratic body & set to be rendered a minority in England in mere decades.

Let me guess, Reform for you now is it?

So it's Reform for you I guess?

@@royboy565Reform or not vote. Either way, I fear the country is in an unrecoverable death spiral to a dystopic dysfunctional future.

If everytime Johnson told a lie he lost an inch of his height, he wouldn't exist now.