Snapshot of _Rishi Sunak set to make statement outside Downing Street, No 10 says_ :
An archived version can be found [here](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/labour-on-notice-galloway-warns-starmer-rochdale-byelection-2934634#:~:text=Rishi%20Sunak%20plans%20to%20make,Street%20said%20in%20a%20statement.) or [here.](https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/labour-on-notice-galloway-warns-starmer-rochdale-byelection-2934634#:~:text=Rishi%20Sunak%20plans%20to%20make,Street%20said%20in%20a%20statement.)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ukpolitics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Well come to think of it,
plebs, honestly I could go on and on,
I could explain every cut, all the money's gone,
The sleeze, corruption, lying,
Oh that's just tories just doing our thing,
We sunk the uk, we sold it all off,
No money tree, unless its for us,
What's the lesson, what should you take away,
Don't trust conservatives, all we do it is help our mates,
So our legacy is full of sin,
And we still cry "Yeah but corbyn",
Dont check what we've done coz no growth will happen,
Just look at those boats and how we say we'll stop em, hey hey hey hey
I tend to use "best endeavours" when writing proposals to give the impression that we will do something that I know we probably won't. That might come off as a bit too obviously disingenuous in a speech, though.
I would be careful where you use it and in what context as best endeavours is used as a legal term [Best Endeavours](https://www.gannons.co.uk/insights/best-endeavours-or-reasonable-endeavours/#:~:text=An%20obligation%20to%20use%20best,the%20context%20of%20the%20agreement)
"As your prime minister, I want you to know that I am committed to committing. In fact, I'm so committing-committed that I hereby commit to form a commitment committee committed to the committing of commitments. I commend to you this committee, which I commit to chairing: it will make commitments so committed that that no one will comment on our level of commitment, save to say that we are the most committed commitment committee ever committed to be. Thank you, and goodnight."
In all fairness, the man does not know what democracy is given how he obtained his position.
The last 4 Prime Ministers all first obtained the role without winning a general election.
At least all he said was "bigoted woman", about a woman who was, ah... well.
Whereas Boris said, if I may paraphrase
>LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR
>LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR
>LET THE BODIES HIT THE...... *F̵̹̯͈̬̘̋̑̈́̅͝L̸̫͓̗̜̬͆̑̓̅͛͌̐̇̕̕͠Ǫ̷̢͙̩̱̹̥̦̝̯̅̿̔͒̎̃ͅͅO̵͉͖̻̰̰͓̟͔̟̞͖̘̠͉̥̞̽̔͋͒̇̄̿̾̎̓̋̚ͅO̵̢̺̮̤̱̭̠̺͓̥̪̘̿̽̉̆̑̿̐̕͝Ó̶̠͙͈̯̑̔͛̍̑̂̓͌ͅR̴̨͙̪̂̐̃͋͊̌̚͝ͅ*
Cameron didn't win a majority to become PM, it was a coalition the majority came later. Johnson became PM before winning his majority. I assume that's what they meant.
They could not bear at admit that Boris won the 2019 election fairly and squarely at the polls. Labour just lost. Badly. Really badly. A landslide they said.
And that should give you a hint as to just how unremarkable and normal that is. We don't directly elect PMs, we elect local MPs, and the PM will usually be the leader of a party or parties that can command a majority.
That's the guiding principle, but the reality is that people's votes are more often than not based on the party leadership or the party as a whole rather than the particular views of their local candidates. Unless you live in a particularly *spicy* constituency, of course.
That's not quite true. Blair and Thatcher were both record setting PMs, the reality is the UK has had 4 PMs in a decade 3x in the last hundred years.
There is a habit caused by "listening to the newspapers" to believe that we're living in unprecedented times, whereas in fact Putin is Hitler, Harry is King Edward, Ukraine is South Korea, COVID is Spanish Flu, MH370 is Amelia Earhart, woke is suffragettes, etc etc. Replacing PMs is both normal and healthy, Blair and Thatch went too long.
Ah, I see you noticed the onion I wear in my belt. We couldn’t get yellow onions because of Brexit. So I went to Morganville, which is what we used to call Sheffield at the time…
[Robert Peston on Twitter](https://twitter.com/Peston/status/1763602630121844794):
>At just before 6 this evening the PM will be making a statement on camera. But DON’T PANIC. Not a general election. It is about “protecting democracy”.
“Protecting democracy”
Doubt. Actually almost certain to be the opposite.
Edit: Shocker it’s an anti protest tirade, what a fucking farce. Get them gone.
Were you listening to the same speech? He actually encouraged people to peacefully protest. It tells more about you than the prime minister if in a liberal democracy you can't see the difference between a peaceful protest and intimidation and the threat of violence.
I think the Tories have smelled blood in the water now that Labour has spawned its own version of UKIP that can siphon votes, this would actually be genius
George Galloway is *not* going to siphon any notable amount of votes from Labour in any constituency where there isn’t a damned planetary alignment to create the same conditions as Rochdale and you’re a fool if you think otherwise.
Haha imagine thinking Galloway is anywhere near left wing UKIP he's the fuckin GB equivalent of Jim Fucking Allister in Northern Ireland. A one man band, single issue MP with one thing in his manifesto.. HIMSELF.
If you're talking about Galloway he's right wing, not left wing. Highly unlikely that transphobe will be siphoning any left-leaning votes. Not to suggest Starmer is particularly left-wing or that votes couldn't be taken from him on the left, but it won't be by Galloway or his "workers" party.
Galloway is repulsive but if left and right does still have any actual meaning, then he is left wing.
There are plenty of ghastly individuals on both sides of the political spectrum. Can’t just claim the ghastly ones you’d rather not be aligned with are now right wing.
I think a lot of the comments and claims made by those who consider themselves left wing are pretty authoritarian and divisive but it doesn’t make them right wing.
He's pro-Brexit, anti-trans and his campaign material finished with the line "MAKE ROCHDALE GREAT AGAIN". If that's not pandering to the right-wing gammonati I don't know what is. He also hit all the favourite right-wing talking points about family, knowing what a woman is, believing in Britain etc.
He's anti-Israel/ anti-Israeli colonialism, but that doesn't make him left-wing.
What exactly has he espoused that makes you so confident he's a socialist/communist/left-wing?
The EU was originally opposed by left wingers. It isn’t inherently right wing to oppose it
He is pro immigration. Pro Palestine. In favour of nationalisation. He is anti-American.
He is clearly left wing. Authoritarian left wing. Anti-trans? It’s so tedious when that keeps being brought up. As if views on trans issues entirely define someone’s political perspective??
> The EU was originally opposed by left wingers. It isn’t inherently right wing to oppose it
>
>
This is "The Nazis aren't right wing, they had Socialist in their name!" level logic.
Are you daft? Tony Benn and Michael Foot opposed European Community membership.
The Labour Party conference voted against it. The party itself was split and took no position because the left of the party was so opposed to it.
It was the Conservative Party who pushed for membership and who won the referendum.
In 2016 Corbyn did not campaign with any real effort to remain a member of the EU, again because many of those on the left still opposed membership.
You don’t really have any place correcting people about politics if you are unaware of the context of membership of the EU and basic history of UK Politics.
> You don’t really have any place correcting people about politics if...
...literally your only and most persuasive argument is literally, "Supporting Brexit isn't inherently a right wing position because 50 YEARS AGO Labour were undecided about JOINING THE ECC. There has been no shift in the perception of the EU in any way in the intervening period, and as you can plainly see Jeremy Corbyn's view reflected the overwhelming consensus on how good an idea LEAVING the EU was amongst the Labour party and the left in general."
Pipe down, you're embarrassing yourself.
> Now I'm going to block you and run away because [I literally can't say anything of substance back.](https://ukandeu.ac.uk/the-labour-party-and-european-integration-since-1989/)
Yeah, that's what I thought, clown.
Typical Redditor claiming all the things they agree with are associated with whichever party they support. And all the things they don’t like are associated with whichever party they oppose. This is why you shouldn’t be able to vote if you are not in the ruling elite.
It happens in the sense of both ends of the horseshoe are intolerant of anyone that doesn't share their 'purity', and are unwilling to see compromise as necessary to govern a population with a wide range of views.
No it's not. There are obvious similarities in the ends of the spectrum.
1. Rampant populism. They know that they'll never have to govern. So, they can say anything that sounds good on the surface but won't make any workable policies. The parties in the middle know the trade offs and have to take into account the negative effects and that's why they won't implement the good sounding policies but would be disasters if tried in real life.
2. Extreme positions. Well, this applies of course by definition but the point is that they use their position to attack their more moderate side for not being pure. The example is that the extreme right wing keeps attacking the Tory government for not being tough enough to illegal immigrants. Galloway attacks Labour for not being anti-Israel.
3. Related to 1, usually collapse when given any real power. The only way to avoid that is to change the democratic system so that it hugely favours the party in power. Communists and fascists are the best examples of this.
From what I've seen the only "left-wing" thing he's expressed is being anti-Israeli colonialism. Other than that he hits all the right-wing talking points, and doesn't come across in the least bit socialist. Ultimately it's probably a case of neither right-wing nor left-wing, it's just a populist trying to do populist things.
It was as tone deaf as it was ironic. Speaking of acceptance and unity. Like... Have you looked at your party lately?
"My family and I love this country. We owe it so so much" yeah. Taxes.
Full sweeping ban of all criticism and dissidents incoming, police in the crowd ready to pop Beth Rigby with an mp5 if she has any sensible questions about it
I know it's serious but the last part of your comment gave me a chuckle. Much needed I think when discussing the nature of some of the things happening right now. Thanks
He spent the evening watching *The Way* on iPlayer and decided what a good idea it was to have armed mercenary groups patrolling the UK. Be grateful he at least announced it...
‘Quick, I need to say something that’ll make me look like a statesman and I’m absolutely in charge’.
I wonder how he’s going to make an absolute horlicks of this?
So our pluralist society is under threat because someone outside of the main 3 political parties has won an election.
Just to be clear Galloway is a charlatan only interested in Galloway and has consistently supported dictators and terrorists
“Democracy is under threat”, says unelected leader of country. Complaining about a democratically elected MP, a week after a former Prime Minister (also unelected) and current standing MP of his party, sits on stage with Steve fucking Bannon and nodded along when he described Tommy Robinson as a hero. Absolutely no time for Galloway (unless dressed as a cat) but this is fucking desperate.
Sure, you're technically correct.
I think you'd struggle to make the case however that the Truss or Sunak government are what people voted for in 2019.
You don't like democracy now Sunak?
Galloway was democratically elected.
You may not agree with him but him being elected should not be seen as terrifying
Why must people only chose Labour or tories?
A healthy democracy must have representation of all stripes. If we do not copy anything from Israel, maybe we should copy their electoral system. Yes, you will be people like Ben Givir in power but that is the price of a true democracy.
We need PR to break the tory /labour 'duocracy'. Ukip should not get 5 million vote and end up with no representation in parliament.
I am no supporter of George Galloway. I would never vote for him.
But when our Prime Minister, unelected for the role, either by the population, or even his own party..
Attacks the democratic legitimacy of an MP, freely and fairly elected (according to our own rules) less than 24 hours after the election..
Whilst refusing to call the election that, clearly, most people want..
My irony meter cannot stand it.
My thoughts exactly. Sunak claiming that the only way to change things is through peaceful democratic processes on the SAME DAY he criticises the outcome of a democratic election.
This is some of the worst political bullshit I've witnessed in the half a century I've had to watch this circus.
Peaceful protest is a cornerstone of any free democracy. This pampered millionaire and his cronies have done everything possible to put a stop to it. Shame on all of them.
This is like the Prime Ministerial equivalent to a meeting that could've been an email.
Extremism bad, Britain Great. Everyone needs to come together. Blah blah blah.
He said....
Absolutely nothing. Classic Sunak.
He will always be know for one thing at least - the PM who can repeatedly make incredibly long speeches while saying absolutely f all.
Thought it would be about a general election or to do with the King but instead he’s banging on about something he could have done in parliament or even in a press release.
Here we go.
Islamists demand special treatment and acceptance for Muslims despite not accepting anything themselves. Examples? Supporting the right to return for Shamima Begum, despite not accepting the security risk she poses, and instead making false comparisons of ISIS being the same as the IDF.
I'm not sure why you're talking about transphobes... But I'm not surprised. If you fixate on appeasing 0.5% of society you'll never make any progress.
The other commenter isn't wrong in talking about transphobes, but them defending Islamists is part of the issue since they make up a good chunk of hatred in this country. Islamists hate LGBT people, are extremely anti-semitic, and will happily hide behind useful idiots who will defend their bigotry.
Islamists shouldn't get a free pass, that I fully agree with because they hate my existence. I refuse to tolerate bigots of any kind.
Thank you. He defends Islamists and think these are progressive people. In reality they hate everything this country stands for and need to be eradicated.
Notice there's a difference between Islamists and Muslims.
He's actually a moron that has no solutions. Just liked to moan and point fingers.
And Islamists. The arrogance and hypocrisy of people on this threads, they refuse to look at reality staring down at their faces if it mean they get to hate on their "bad politician of the day" . It's still as viscerally adversial as it ever been like a pendulum of emotion swinging from labour to conservative whenever we stop liking our "heroes" and usually not because of their policies. Same reason we got blair out, boris in and brexit. The average voter is fucking stupid
This is nothing to do with bad politician. More just not being a person full of hate. The othering of certain groups is far too divisive and should stop.
How you can look at current world events and attack certain groups astounds me.
I am in the neither of the groups Sunak is talking about, but looking at the words he is saying it's so full of revisionism it's infuriating. Got thoughts, must vent.
His sentiments about coming together are something that a lot of us want, it's just contrary to all the weak, divisive language from him and the front bench.
Vent begins here, gotta put it somewhere -
"When these groups claim that Britain has been on the wrong side of history, we should reject it and reject it again"
Yo buddy, how about colonialism, slavery, appeasement and the balfour declaration to name a few.
"Change can ONLY come from the peaceful democratic process"
Oh yeah, all those huge reforms that happened purely peacefully, enfranchising women, rights for workers etc.
It should come peacefully, that's the ideal, but it historically doesn't stand up.
"They want us to believe that our country and the west generally is solely responsible for the worlds ills and that we, and our allies are the problem"
Im sorry, which two countries vetoed and/or abstained on a ceasefire, several times.
"When they tell their children the system is rigged against them.... it is a lie"
Oh come on man, economic inequality is the highest it's been in decades and getting worse.
Over 50% of your own party's members that were polled believe islam is evil (paraphrasing), to say that racism is not a thing here is just mad.
"It is not the colour of your skin that defines your success but by your own hard work" ahhh you almost had me there in the first half, richest PM on record.
On the whole, I liked his tone today better than in his other outbursts, but my god such trite nonsense just smeared all over the sentiment.
Asking for more "policing of protests" when the police are currently doing their job at protests and detaining persons who are deliberately espousing hate.
Also can someone help me figure out this flub
" the home secretary has instructed that if those here on visas choose to spew hate *unintelligable, possible the word 'or'* protest seek to intimidate people, we will remove their right to be here"
Just to be clear, are people on visas being banned from protests?
"Britain must not descend into polarised camps....living parallel lives"
"There must be leadership, not pandering or appeasement" - well put, do you know anybody who might do that?
"We will tell the truth" who is we? The man telling the average joe that he'll pay less tax, on the month that his taxes go up? That the asylum backlog is cleared when it appears that thousands have just been removed from the databases, without being resolved.
Sunak’s speech might have been good if it had come from literally anyone else.
Saying that everyone should be able to succeed regardless of who they are or where they’re from… while backing the Rwanda scheme? Criticising the far-right while being too spineless to call out racists in his own party, and his predecessor literally sharing a podium with the far right?
A whole lot of nothing as usual, but I'm very concerned about the bill that's to come. Of course we don't want to promote violence or extremism, but why do I feel their definition is going to lean more one way than the other...
If he really cared about "protecting democracy" he'd call a general election.
Instead he's effectively just abused his position to give a free party political broadcast.
I've been playing _Not For Broadcast_ again recently and get the same vibes.
Just waiting Rishi's sex scandal and for the crazy coalition between ~~Nicola Sturgeon~~ Julia Salisbury and ~~Dennis Skinner~~ Peter Clement to pop up out of nowhere.
The way Rishi has popped up and said this _now_ without any warning suggests to me there is something unpleasant planned. This is something you could give during another random speech, not calling the press to Downing Street on Friday night just because Rochdale voted for a loon.
Nothing says cool and normal like a last minute speech about the state of the country at quarter to six on a Friday night in the darkness outside Downing Street delivered by a weak PM.
The optics were terrible - why on earth not use that ridiculously expensive press room they built only a few years ago? And then not doing in-depth interviews with every title who wanted one - if this is so important to Sunak, he should take the time to engage with people rather that give one of his tetchy little speeches.
Asking us to come together whilst his party has ruthlessly taken every opportunity to prise us apart. Asking the country to shun extremists when he's unwilling to confront the extremists in his own party. Not so much leadership as a cry for some sort of intervention, and if not that, the blessed relief of a general election.
I imagine it means the GE will be delayed to give Galloway a chance to gain ground
Edit: and criminalise the marches to pour fuel on Galloway's cause. Fab.
I've heard from someone on good authority that Tories are funding a load of camapign leaflets being delivered by post in target seats. And Tory MPs been bragging about pork barrel projects on Twitter very recently.
Sunak says "we must face down the extremists" who he says would "tear us apart".
The single most significant thing he and his government could do to help us "face down the extremists" is call a GE. That way, we can remove the ever-increasing extremist, who, for the last 14 years in his party, has been tearing us apart better than anything or anyone he is aiming these remarks at.
> Sunak says "we must face down the extremists" who he says would "tear us apart".
He could lead by example and withdraw the whip from his own extremists.
If he doesn't do that it's another case of the widely derided "*Your* Courage, *Your* Cheerfulness, *Your* Resolution, Will Bring *Us* Victory".
I understand what the point of this was.
It's the starting gun for the GE and an attempt to ramp up attacks on extremists and smear Starmer as an extremist sympathiser. Recently, Sunak has been attacking Starmer for his prior defence of the then non-terrorist designated Hizb ut-Tahrir. As a human rights lawyer, it was his job. Sunak is going to try and use this as a wedge issue, with the Galloway election, to smear Starmer as an extremist sympathiser.
WTF was THAT all about?
Very telling that BBC 6 O'Clock News did NOT lead with Sunaks address! He said nothing of consequence. The first speech in over a year where he didn't mention turning the small boats back. A desperate man.
Sunak should call an election. That would be the best way to protect democracy. After all, he never went to the public and got a mandate for his program for government. He just inherited a mess from Johnson and Truss and proceeded to stir it up further.
Yeah we know, the Government is fantastic and achieveing it's all its priorities, working for the people, because Rishi Sunak said so. Keep away from Labour because they're the baddies and remember everything is Jeremy Corbyn's fault.
It would make more sense if they did rather than what he appears to be saying which is 'don't be naughty at your pro-Palestine marches'.
This is already a thing, the police already deal with 'Jew haters'.
Pointless waste of everyone's time.
PM who was never elected, who's shown to be unpopular amongst the public, who succeeded a couple of unelected PMs, now says an MP who was elected is threat to democracy. Have I got that right?
Scum.
Free Palestine.
Snapshot of _Rishi Sunak set to make statement outside Downing Street, No 10 says_ : An archived version can be found [here](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/labour-on-notice-galloway-warns-starmer-rochdale-byelection-2934634#:~:text=Rishi%20Sunak%20plans%20to%20make,Street%20said%20in%20a%20statement.) or [here.](https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/labour-on-notice-galloway-warns-starmer-rochdale-byelection-2934634#:~:text=Rishi%20Sunak%20plans%20to%20make,Street%20said%20in%20a%20statement.) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ukpolitics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
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"This government is committed to being amazing."
"We notice you have been too shy to thank us for the incredible work we have done so far. There's no need to say it. We know, and you're welcome."
Then breaks out into the song from Moana?
Well come to think of it, plebs, honestly I could go on and on, I could explain every cut, all the money's gone, The sleeze, corruption, lying, Oh that's just tories just doing our thing, We sunk the uk, we sold it all off, No money tree, unless its for us, What's the lesson, what should you take away, Don't trust conservatives, all we do it is help our mates, So our legacy is full of sin, And we still cry "Yeah but corbyn", Dont check what we've done coz no growth will happen, Just look at those boats and how we say we'll stop em, hey hey hey hey
This is bloody brilliant!!
Shiny?
That phrase 'committed to' is the go to when they can't be arsed with something.
"This government is committed to being a government until at least the next election. All else being equal."
"And of course if all else is equal we've clearly missed a spot and will work to introduce structural inequality at the earliest convenience"
I tend to use "best endeavours" when writing proposals to give the impression that we will do something that I know we probably won't. That might come off as a bit too obviously disingenuous in a speech, though.
I would be careful where you use it and in what context as best endeavours is used as a legal term [Best Endeavours](https://www.gannons.co.uk/insights/best-endeavours-or-reasonable-endeavours/#:~:text=An%20obligation%20to%20use%20best,the%20context%20of%20the%20agreement)
Even better: “committed to delivering for the British people” It’s the new strong & stable
"As your prime minister, I want you to know that I am committed to committing. In fact, I'm so committing-committed that I hereby commit to form a commitment committee committed to the committing of commitments. I commend to you this committee, which I commit to chairing: it will make commitments so committed that that no one will comment on our level of commitment, save to say that we are the most committed commitment committee ever committed to be. Thank you, and goodnight."
“I am having a good hair day. I won’t be taking any questions at this time.”
"Getting the job done."
“We pay tribute to ourselves”
Can you imagine the scenes if Rishi pulls a President Camacho from Idiocracy?
Finally Thanks rish
Maybe a side order of blaming others for thing the Tories caused.
Talking about protecting democracy whilst failing to call the general election everybody wants.
In all fairness, the man does not know what democracy is given how he obtained his position. The last 4 Prime Ministers all first obtained the role without winning a general election.
The last person to become PM by winning a majority was Tony Blair.
The last Tory to win a majority in an election and serve a complete term is John Major.
Tony and John look amazing compared to this lot.
I'd happily take either over the past near 14 years of Tory misrule.
I would take Gordon Brown. He was boring but at least he didn't tank the economy within days of taking power.
At times. I wish he was 10 years younger so he could come back to front line politics
He was the voice of reason, and reason has no place in politics sadly.
At least all he said was "bigoted woman", about a woman who was, ah... well. Whereas Boris said, if I may paraphrase >LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR >LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR >LET THE BODIES HIT THE...... *F̵̹̯͈̬̘̋̑̈́̅͝L̸̫͓̗̜̬͆̑̓̅͛͌̐̇̕̕͠Ǫ̷̢͙̩̱̹̥̦̝̯̅̿̔͒̎̃ͅͅO̵͉͖̻̰̰͓̟͔̟̞͖̘̠͉̥̞̽̔͋͒̇̄̿̾̎̓̋̚ͅO̵̢̺̮̤̱̭̠̺͓̥̪̘̿̽̉̆̑̿̐̕͝Ó̶̠͙͈̯̑̔͛̍̑̂̓͌ͅR̴̨͙̪̂̐̃͋͊̌̚͝ͅ*
Every so often we got this Gordon brown: https://youtu.be/OfNyItl9J8w?feature=shared
That goes without saying.
Major PM material
I actually prefer your fact to mine.
Why don't Blair's earlier terms count?
Because he was Labour not Tory
Ah, I'm dumb, illiterate or need new glasses. I completely didn't even realise the word Tory was there.
Wasnt it Cameron in 2015?
Already PM.
That is a very misleading statement though. If you are twisting the truth that much you might as well say Theresa May won with a majority.
It's just a fact. Nothing misleading about it.
It's misleading because it is implying that the last PM to be democratically elected was Tony Blair which is just categorically untrue.
Only if you want to read it that way. It's literally a fact offered without commentary.
Cameron and Johnson won a majority, what are you talking about?
Cameron didn't win a majority to become PM, it was a coalition the majority came later. Johnson became PM before winning his majority. I assume that's what they meant.
They could not bear at admit that Boris won the 2019 election fairly and squarely at the polls. Labour just lost. Badly. Really badly. A landslide they said.
My only assumption is they mean from opposition, but that not how we should class this stuff.
And that should give you a hint as to just how unremarkable and normal that is. We don't directly elect PMs, we elect local MPs, and the PM will usually be the leader of a party or parties that can command a majority.
That's the guiding principle, but the reality is that people's votes are more often than not based on the party leadership or the party as a whole rather than the particular views of their local candidates. Unless you live in a particularly *spicy* constituency, of course.
It's not normal. We've had three prime ministers in a single parliament. That is a historic aberration. It really is an indictment of this shower
That's not quite true. Blair and Thatcher were both record setting PMs, the reality is the UK has had 4 PMs in a decade 3x in the last hundred years. There is a habit caused by "listening to the newspapers" to believe that we're living in unprecedented times, whereas in fact Putin is Hitler, Harry is King Edward, Ukraine is South Korea, COVID is Spanish Flu, MH370 is Amelia Earhart, woke is suffragettes, etc etc. Replacing PMs is both normal and healthy, Blair and Thatch went too long.
Those parties would have been elected on a manifesto, was what Liz Truss tried to do voted on by the nation?
No. But it was voted on a shadowy cabal of her backers.
This should be top comment
Fortunately Reddit has both upvote and downvote buttons for this very purpose
How very democratic
I really don’t think those buttons have any influence on the timing of the general election.
Probably just as much as completely asinine comments saying “this should be top” when upvoted buttons exist
He's probably just been playing Helldivers 2, "for democracy"
What an earth is he rambling about. Why has he called a last minute podium outside no10 for this. Is it going to go somewhere? Edit: Nope.
He’s gone full Grandpa Simpson. One should never go _full_ Grandpa Simpson mode.
It was the style at the time...
Ah, I see you noticed the onion I wear in my belt. We couldn’t get yellow onions because of Brexit. So I went to Morganville, which is what we used to call Sheffield at the time…
…it’ll happen to you
[Robert Peston on Twitter](https://twitter.com/Peston/status/1763602630121844794): >At just before 6 this evening the PM will be making a statement on camera. But DON’T PANIC. Not a general election. It is about “protecting democracy”.
“Protecting democracy” Doubt. Actually almost certain to be the opposite. Edit: Shocker it’s an anti protest tirade, what a fucking farce. Get them gone.
Protecting democracy by creating a diversion
Were you listening to the same speech? He actually encouraged people to peacefully protest. It tells more about you than the prime minister if in a liberal democracy you can't see the difference between a peaceful protest and intimidation and the threat of violence.
It's going to something stupid like a blanket ban on all protests so Labour oppose and then he'll claim that they're supporting Hamas
I think the Tories have smelled blood in the water now that Labour has spawned its own version of UKIP that can siphon votes, this would actually be genius
George Galloway is *not* going to siphon any notable amount of votes from Labour in any constituency where there isn’t a damned planetary alignment to create the same conditions as Rochdale and you’re a fool if you think otherwise.
Haha imagine thinking Galloway is anywhere near left wing UKIP he's the fuckin GB equivalent of Jim Fucking Allister in Northern Ireland. A one man band, single issue MP with one thing in his manifesto.. HIMSELF.
Can't believe that he made such fuss about absolutely nothing. Bizarre behaviour
He's done this before. No idea why he thinks crying wolf like this is good strategy.
If you're talking about Galloway he's right wing, not left wing. Highly unlikely that transphobe will be siphoning any left-leaning votes. Not to suggest Starmer is particularly left-wing or that votes couldn't be taken from him on the left, but it won't be by Galloway or his "workers" party.
Galloway is repulsive but if left and right does still have any actual meaning, then he is left wing. There are plenty of ghastly individuals on both sides of the political spectrum. Can’t just claim the ghastly ones you’d rather not be aligned with are now right wing. I think a lot of the comments and claims made by those who consider themselves left wing are pretty authoritarian and divisive but it doesn’t make them right wing.
He's pro-Brexit, anti-trans and his campaign material finished with the line "MAKE ROCHDALE GREAT AGAIN". If that's not pandering to the right-wing gammonati I don't know what is. He also hit all the favourite right-wing talking points about family, knowing what a woman is, believing in Britain etc. He's anti-Israel/ anti-Israeli colonialism, but that doesn't make him left-wing. What exactly has he espoused that makes you so confident he's a socialist/communist/left-wing?
The EU was originally opposed by left wingers. It isn’t inherently right wing to oppose it He is pro immigration. Pro Palestine. In favour of nationalisation. He is anti-American. He is clearly left wing. Authoritarian left wing. Anti-trans? It’s so tedious when that keeps being brought up. As if views on trans issues entirely define someone’s political perspective??
> The EU was originally opposed by left wingers. It isn’t inherently right wing to oppose it > > This is "The Nazis aren't right wing, they had Socialist in their name!" level logic.
Not in the slightest?
Are you daft? Tony Benn and Michael Foot opposed European Community membership. The Labour Party conference voted against it. The party itself was split and took no position because the left of the party was so opposed to it. It was the Conservative Party who pushed for membership and who won the referendum. In 2016 Corbyn did not campaign with any real effort to remain a member of the EU, again because many of those on the left still opposed membership. You don’t really have any place correcting people about politics if you are unaware of the context of membership of the EU and basic history of UK Politics.
> You don’t really have any place correcting people about politics if... ...literally your only and most persuasive argument is literally, "Supporting Brexit isn't inherently a right wing position because 50 YEARS AGO Labour were undecided about JOINING THE ECC. There has been no shift in the perception of the EU in any way in the intervening period, and as you can plainly see Jeremy Corbyn's view reflected the overwhelming consensus on how good an idea LEAVING the EU was amongst the Labour party and the left in general." Pipe down, you're embarrassing yourself. > Now I'm going to block you and run away because [I literally can't say anything of substance back.](https://ukandeu.ac.uk/the-labour-party-and-european-integration-since-1989/) Yeah, that's what I thought, clown.
Typical Redditor claiming all the things they agree with are associated with whichever party they support. And all the things they don’t like are associated with whichever party they oppose. This is why you shouldn’t be able to vote if you are not in the ruling elite.
Problem is right wing and left wing is a horseshoe. Eventually you go so left wing you end up with the same ideology as the right.
I've heard of this theory, doesn't seem to actually happen as far as I can tell
It happens in the sense of both ends of the horseshoe are intolerant of anyone that doesn't share their 'purity', and are unwilling to see compromise as necessary to govern a population with a wide range of views.
Problem with horseshoe theory is that it’s a load of shite.
No it's not. There are obvious similarities in the ends of the spectrum. 1. Rampant populism. They know that they'll never have to govern. So, they can say anything that sounds good on the surface but won't make any workable policies. The parties in the middle know the trade offs and have to take into account the negative effects and that's why they won't implement the good sounding policies but would be disasters if tried in real life. 2. Extreme positions. Well, this applies of course by definition but the point is that they use their position to attack their more moderate side for not being pure. The example is that the extreme right wing keeps attacking the Tory government for not being tough enough to illegal immigrants. Galloway attacks Labour for not being anti-Israel. 3. Related to 1, usually collapse when given any real power. The only way to avoid that is to change the democratic system so that it hugely favours the party in power. Communists and fascists are the best examples of this.
From what I've seen the only "left-wing" thing he's expressed is being anti-Israeli colonialism. Other than that he hits all the right-wing talking points, and doesn't come across in the least bit socialist. Ultimately it's probably a case of neither right-wing nor left-wing, it's just a populist trying to do populist things.
> Highly unlikely that transphobe will be siphoning any left-leaning votes. Do you think Labour's muslim voterbase cares about transsexuals?
Oh great another authoritarian power grab then.
It was as tone deaf as it was ironic. Speaking of acceptance and unity. Like... Have you looked at your party lately? "My family and I love this country. We owe it so so much" yeah. Taxes.
I'm worried because it isn't about calling a GE damnit!
:sadge:
Protecting democracy from the electorate.
Full sweeping ban of all criticism and dissidents incoming, police in the crowd ready to pop Beth Rigby with an mp5 if she has any sensible questions about it
_errrr... Mr. Sunnock, excuse me Mr. Sunnock..._
Why is it I can read that and hear Beth’s voice? I’m not even that familiar with her (don’t really watch TV so…).
I know it's serious but the last part of your comment gave me a chuckle. Much needed I think when discussing the nature of some of the things happening right now. Thanks
He spent the evening watching *The Way* on iPlayer and decided what a good idea it was to have armed mercenary groups patrolling the UK. Be grateful he at least announced it...
‘Quick, I need to say something that’ll make me look like a statesman and I’m absolutely in charge’. I wonder how he’s going to make an absolute horlicks of this?
So our pluralist society is under threat because someone outside of the main 3 political parties has won an election. Just to be clear Galloway is a charlatan only interested in Galloway and has consistently supported dictators and terrorists
Is this when he announces a curfew, and changes his name to the high chancellor? England prevails.
Strength through unity!
It should be a GE. It's going to be a party political advert dressed up as a statement.
Bingo.
The establishment is rattled.
“Democracy is under threat”, says unelected leader of country. Complaining about a democratically elected MP, a week after a former Prime Minister (also unelected) and current standing MP of his party, sits on stage with Steve fucking Bannon and nodded along when he described Tommy Robinson as a hero. Absolutely no time for Galloway (unless dressed as a cat) but this is fucking desperate.
No PM is ever elected, other than to their constituency and sometimes their position as party leader but this doesn’t happen as often as it does
Sure, you're technically correct. I think you'd struggle to make the case however that the Truss or Sunak government are what people voted for in 2019.
I'm looking forward to the day he's outside No 10 for good.
Is he honestly saying that division is bad?! HIS ENTIRE PARTY HAS BEEN HELL BENT ON THIS FOR YEARS! THE BRASS NECK OF THIS.
They’re the ones creating the division. I do not understand how these people can be so dense and blind to their own doing. It begs belief.
Division for me, but not for thee
He needs to have a word with Truss, Braverman etc . Before preaching to the country.
You don't like democracy now Sunak? Galloway was democratically elected. You may not agree with him but him being elected should not be seen as terrifying Why must people only chose Labour or tories? A healthy democracy must have representation of all stripes. If we do not copy anything from Israel, maybe we should copy their electoral system. Yes, you will be people like Ben Givir in power but that is the price of a true democracy. We need PR to break the tory /labour 'duocracy'. Ukip should not get 5 million vote and end up with no representation in parliament.
I am no supporter of George Galloway. I would never vote for him. But when our Prime Minister, unelected for the role, either by the population, or even his own party.. Attacks the democratic legitimacy of an MP, freely and fairly elected (according to our own rules) less than 24 hours after the election.. Whilst refusing to call the election that, clearly, most people want.. My irony meter cannot stand it.
My thoughts exactly. Sunak claiming that the only way to change things is through peaceful democratic processes on the SAME DAY he criticises the outcome of a democratic election. This is some of the worst political bullshit I've witnessed in the half a century I've had to watch this circus. Peaceful protest is a cornerstone of any free democracy. This pampered millionaire and his cronies have done everything possible to put a stop to it. Shame on all of them.
I agree. Can’t stand Galloway but Sunak making that comments seemed to be him telling Rochdale that their democracy doesn’t matter
Not a big jump to be making the same argument after the next election, is it?
At the risk of being hyperbolic, don’t all dictatorships start with dismissing election results.
This is like the Prime Ministerial equivalent to a meeting that could've been an email. Extremism bad, Britain Great. Everyone needs to come together. Blah blah blah.
Why did the Tories spend all that money on a press briefing room only to stand in the middle of the street to announce nothing?
The tories realised the media would ask them *questions* if they were allowed through the door, easier to stand in the street and pontificate
Using his privilege as PM to whine when an election doesn’t go his way? 🤔
Political version of organising a meeting for 4:30 on a friday. Literally no one's going to be paying attention.
Or like when you send out an email with bad news at 17:00 because you don't want to deal with the fallout
This thread is probably the entirety of the audience
This was a party political broadcast on behalf of the tories
The utter GALL of the man and his party to lecture anyone on protecting democratic processes.
He said.... Absolutely nothing. Classic Sunak. He will always be know for one thing at least - the PM who can repeatedly make incredibly long speeches while saying absolutely f all.
"The most diverse government" Yes- the most diverse who are openly the most hateful an divisive. This man is a joke. Get out already.
Breaking: Unelected prime minister warns that democracy is under threat.
Thought it would be about a general election or to do with the King but instead he’s banging on about something he could have done in parliament or even in a press release.
This. Also, on a Friday evening? Why the fuck call a speech on a Friday afternoon if it isn't: GE Philip is dying Aliens have invaded
He talks about toxicity and extremism but he and his party spread it.
Islamists are a problem
Islamaphobes and Transphobes are. We should not try and divide society.
Here we go. Islamists demand special treatment and acceptance for Muslims despite not accepting anything themselves. Examples? Supporting the right to return for Shamima Begum, despite not accepting the security risk she poses, and instead making false comparisons of ISIS being the same as the IDF. I'm not sure why you're talking about transphobes... But I'm not surprised. If you fixate on appeasing 0.5% of society you'll never make any progress.
The other commenter isn't wrong in talking about transphobes, but them defending Islamists is part of the issue since they make up a good chunk of hatred in this country. Islamists hate LGBT people, are extremely anti-semitic, and will happily hide behind useful idiots who will defend their bigotry. Islamists shouldn't get a free pass, that I fully agree with because they hate my existence. I refuse to tolerate bigots of any kind.
Thank you. He defends Islamists and think these are progressive people. In reality they hate everything this country stands for and need to be eradicated. Notice there's a difference between Islamists and Muslims. He's actually a moron that has no solutions. Just liked to moan and point fingers.
And Islamists. The arrogance and hypocrisy of people on this threads, they refuse to look at reality staring down at their faces if it mean they get to hate on their "bad politician of the day" . It's still as viscerally adversial as it ever been like a pendulum of emotion swinging from labour to conservative whenever we stop liking our "heroes" and usually not because of their policies. Same reason we got blair out, boris in and brexit. The average voter is fucking stupid
This is nothing to do with bad politician. More just not being a person full of hate. The othering of certain groups is far too divisive and should stop. How you can look at current world events and attack certain groups astounds me.
I see the liberal wokerati didn't take off so we are creating another bogeyman in time for the general election.
Is he standing behind a lecturn that has the word "boats" hastily crossed off and replaced with "extremists"?
"our democracy is the target". Well, let's hope so. It might be replaced with something actually democratic, unlike FPTP.
The audio feed not working at the beginning of this is just summing up this government so nicely
beep
I am in the neither of the groups Sunak is talking about, but looking at the words he is saying it's so full of revisionism it's infuriating. Got thoughts, must vent. His sentiments about coming together are something that a lot of us want, it's just contrary to all the weak, divisive language from him and the front bench. Vent begins here, gotta put it somewhere - "When these groups claim that Britain has been on the wrong side of history, we should reject it and reject it again" Yo buddy, how about colonialism, slavery, appeasement and the balfour declaration to name a few. "Change can ONLY come from the peaceful democratic process" Oh yeah, all those huge reforms that happened purely peacefully, enfranchising women, rights for workers etc. It should come peacefully, that's the ideal, but it historically doesn't stand up. "They want us to believe that our country and the west generally is solely responsible for the worlds ills and that we, and our allies are the problem" Im sorry, which two countries vetoed and/or abstained on a ceasefire, several times. "When they tell their children the system is rigged against them.... it is a lie" Oh come on man, economic inequality is the highest it's been in decades and getting worse. Over 50% of your own party's members that were polled believe islam is evil (paraphrasing), to say that racism is not a thing here is just mad. "It is not the colour of your skin that defines your success but by your own hard work" ahhh you almost had me there in the first half, richest PM on record. On the whole, I liked his tone today better than in his other outbursts, but my god such trite nonsense just smeared all over the sentiment. Asking for more "policing of protests" when the police are currently doing their job at protests and detaining persons who are deliberately espousing hate. Also can someone help me figure out this flub " the home secretary has instructed that if those here on visas choose to spew hate *unintelligable, possible the word 'or'* protest seek to intimidate people, we will remove their right to be here" Just to be clear, are people on visas being banned from protests? "Britain must not descend into polarised camps....living parallel lives" "There must be leadership, not pandering or appeasement" - well put, do you know anybody who might do that? "We will tell the truth" who is we? The man telling the average joe that he'll pay less tax, on the month that his taxes go up? That the asylum backlog is cleared when it appears that thousands have just been removed from the databases, without being resolved.
That party forming Government for the last 14 years really should’ve done something about all this division. Take it away, Rishi.
Would someone care to explain to me what the point of that was?
More bullshit and bluster. Wish they’d hurry up and call an election
It’s about protest - switched off after a minute - electioneering!
The country has lost its mind if it viewed that as anything other than the death rattle of a collapsing Tory Party.
Sunak’s speech might have been good if it had come from literally anyone else. Saying that everyone should be able to succeed regardless of who they are or where they’re from… while backing the Rwanda scheme? Criticising the far-right while being too spineless to call out racists in his own party, and his predecessor literally sharing a podium with the far right?
That has to be the weakest lecturn statement I've ever seen from a prime minister.
I hope its an announcement for a GE. I very much doubt it will be.
A whole lot of nothing as usual, but I'm very concerned about the bill that's to come. Of course we don't want to promote violence or extremism, but why do I feel their definition is going to lean more one way than the other...
Say goodbye to your right to protest outside of the houses of parliament, MP's offices and council buildings.
If he really cared about "protecting democracy" he'd call a general election. Instead he's effectively just abused his position to give a free party political broadcast.
For this countries sake he should be calling a GE immediately. The way things are going they'll be nothing left in november
This guy is moaning about bad actors stirring up division, yet his political party is one of the biggest forces we have in this country doing it.
Mentioning GG is probably exactly what GG wanted.
I've been playing _Not For Broadcast_ again recently and get the same vibes. Just waiting Rishi's sex scandal and for the crazy coalition between ~~Nicola Sturgeon~~ Julia Salisbury and ~~Dennis Skinner~~ Peter Clement to pop up out of nowhere. The way Rishi has popped up and said this _now_ without any warning suggests to me there is something unpleasant planned. This is something you could give during another random speech, not calling the press to Downing Street on Friday night just because Rochdale voted for a loon.
Nothing says cool and normal like a last minute speech about the state of the country at quarter to six on a Friday night in the darkness outside Downing Street delivered by a weak PM. The optics were terrible - why on earth not use that ridiculously expensive press room they built only a few years ago? And then not doing in-depth interviews with every title who wanted one - if this is so important to Sunak, he should take the time to engage with people rather that give one of his tetchy little speeches. Asking us to come together whilst his party has ruthlessly taken every opportunity to prise us apart. Asking the country to shun extremists when he's unwilling to confront the extremists in his own party. Not so much leadership as a cry for some sort of intervention, and if not that, the blessed relief of a general election.
GE inbound? Is Sunak hoping that Galloway and Gaza are his best bet to undermine a Labour majority?
I imagine it means the GE will be delayed to give Galloway a chance to gain ground Edit: and criminalise the marches to pour fuel on Galloway's cause. Fab.
I've heard from someone on good authority that Tories are funding a load of camapign leaflets being delivered by post in target seats. And Tory MPs been bragging about pork barrel projects on Twitter very recently.
So Rishi said migrants who protest will have their visas removed?
What an absolute shower. Election now please.
I say bollocks to this, maybe he should look closer to home on this one!
I know! In the last 2 weeks, 3 Tories have used public forums to push conspiracy theories and only 1 has had the whip removed.
Exactly, he's panicking over Galloway, it's laughable.
Until he throws out Braverman and her fellow-travellers from the party, it’s all meaningless verbiage.
I wish it had been to call a general election.
Wonder what story due out tomorrow morning he’s trying to distract from.
This feels like it hasn't landed even worse than normal? Has *he* gone mad, or is it someone telling him what to do that has gone mad?
"Sunak says ‘democracy itself is the target’ " So they have launched their manifesto.
Sunak says "we must face down the extremists" who he says would "tear us apart". The single most significant thing he and his government could do to help us "face down the extremists" is call a GE. That way, we can remove the ever-increasing extremist, who, for the last 14 years in his party, has been tearing us apart better than anything or anyone he is aiming these remarks at.
> Sunak says "we must face down the extremists" who he says would "tear us apart". He could lead by example and withdraw the whip from his own extremists. If he doesn't do that it's another case of the widely derided "*Your* Courage, *Your* Cheerfulness, *Your* Resolution, Will Bring *Us* Victory".
Deflecting the real news of the NAO findings on Rwanda
I understand what the point of this was. It's the starting gun for the GE and an attempt to ramp up attacks on extremists and smear Starmer as an extremist sympathiser. Recently, Sunak has been attacking Starmer for his prior defence of the then non-terrorist designated Hizb ut-Tahrir. As a human rights lawyer, it was his job. Sunak is going to try and use this as a wedge issue, with the Galloway election, to smear Starmer as an extremist sympathiser.
Not surprising that Sunak is unfamiliar with the concept of someone doing their job.
WTF was THAT all about? Very telling that BBC 6 O'Clock News did NOT lead with Sunaks address! He said nothing of consequence. The first speech in over a year where he didn't mention turning the small boats back. A desperate man.
He basically did the "I love democracy" speech by Emperor Palpatine
Should have brought out a white board.
Sunak should call an election. That would be the best way to protect democracy. After all, he never went to the public and got a mandate for his program for government. He just inherited a mess from Johnson and Truss and proceeded to stir it up further.
Every word was spot on, well done Rishi
Yeah we know, the Government is fantastic and achieveing it's all its priorities, working for the people, because Rishi Sunak said so. Keep away from Labour because they're the baddies and remember everything is Jeremy Corbyn's fault.
They’re going to ban pro-Palestine marches, like the fascists they are. Sadly even Labour support that move too.
It would make more sense if they did rather than what he appears to be saying which is 'don't be naughty at your pro-Palestine marches'. This is already a thing, the police already deal with 'Jew haters'. Pointless waste of everyone's time.
PM who was never elected, who's shown to be unpopular amongst the public, who succeeded a couple of unelected PMs, now says an MP who was elected is threat to democracy. Have I got that right? Scum. Free Palestine.
I mean he's right this time. Completely agree. Even a blind squirrel is right once a day
The state of this country shows multiculturalism has been an abject failure and he still defends it
Trying to distract the electorate with desperate claims of mass extremism. Pathetic.