Ah, the excitement is palpable as the United Kingdom and the United States gear up for their highly anticipated political upcoming elections.

In the UK, all attention is on the battle for your votes, while in the US, the spotlight is on the geriatric gladiators. Both countries are currently embroiled in political divide and unrest, with the UK dealing with the endless drama of Brexit fallout and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic sagas and the US still licking its wounds from the dramatic 2020 presidential election.

These elections are being hyped up as pivotal moments in shaping the future of each nation, with voters eagerly awaiting to see who will emerge victorious and lead them into the unknown abyss of the future. Oh, the thrill of democracy in action! Anyone for tennis??

The departure of Tory MPs has become a stampede with Gove and Leadsom being two of the latest big names to annouce their departure from politics.

So many of them absquatulating

https://twitter.com/susie_dent/status/1794071784687325664

Got to love a bit of Susie Dent.

Bob in Spain wrote:

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And the election hits keep on coming.

Ian Dale announced last week that he was standing down as an LBC presenter in order to stand as the parliamentary candidate for Tunbridge Wells on behalf of the Tory Party. And then somebody unearthed this classic from a podcast he had made with Harriet Harman.

"I have lived in Tunbridge Wells since 1997, slightly against my will. Ive never liked the place. Still dont, and would happily live somewhere else.

He has now reversed his decision to run. 

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And in an effort to out do Ian Dale, the one and only Nigel Farage has decided to run for MP of Clacton.  Here's what he said in Feb of this year:

"Richard Tice probably does want me to replace him. But do I want to be an MP ?  Do I want to spend every Friday for the next 5 years in Clacton".

Voters of Clacton need to send him a message. He has no interest in representing you.  It's all about him.

Bob in Spain wrote:

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Did anyone else watch the leaders' debate ?

Putting politics aside, I thought the format and moderation were awful. Limiting the answers to 45 secs led to both sides just trying to tick off their soundbites and didn't allow them time to give any real answers. And the moderator just allowed them to talk over each other.

It was not a good spectacle and I learnt nothing.

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   Thanks Bob, I'm glad I didn't\t watch it then and I shan't bother to catch up.

Got my overseas postal vote all set up. Not sure who to vote for (other than Not Tory) as my main concern is immigration (in relation to myself). Labour have said they are "concerned" about the increase in the wages required for spousal visas (I've you/your partner needs to earn £29k, increasing to nearly 40k in 2025) which impacts the majority of people outside of London who aren't politicians....

JonH comes home wrote:

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Blue_Belle wrote:

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Got my overseas postal vote all set up. Not sure who to vote for (other than Not Tory) as my main concern is immigration (in relation to myself). Labour have said they are "concerned" about the increase in the wages required for spousal visas (I've you/your partner needs to earn £29k, increasing to nearly 40k in 2025) which impacts the majority of people outside of London who aren't politicians....

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 When youre overseas, as in long term, what constituency do you get allocated to? Your last one in the UK? Or some sort of choice or random allocation? As we dont have a single one that covers overseas voters like the us has in its electoral college? 

and would your constituency impact your voting choice depending on possible results or winners? 

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 Last constituency so in Edinburgh. Was most recently SNP. But has been Labour years before. 

My constituency has generally been Tory for a good while, with a Lib Dem MP maybe 15 years back called Phil Willis who was held in good regard. Lib Dems generally fight it out with Conservative and this year its a big target for them but, with the polling as it is, labour are in the mix this year - and weve just got a new labour mayor for the York mayoral seat which we are in.

So it could be a three way fight.

I didnt see the debate, Im not really interested in who performs best so much as what they say and my personal choice will always be between Lib Dem and Labour up here; in the past Ive always voted Lib Dem (I can never bring myself to ever vote Tory, my personal DNA wont allow me to even consider it) but Im not sure between the two L parties. Likely to be whoever I feel has the best chance of winning the seat, but the 7 way party debate were the smaller parties take part and the 4 way question time one with Lib Dem and SNP joining the big two parties will interest me more.

-- Edited by JonH comes home on Wednesday 5th of June 2024 06:20:17 AM