UK election announced for July 4

In UK Parliament “groups of delegates” = MPs in a party, so not really the case in the same way, here. If you mean random groups of MPs from any party, there are Early Day Motions, but they are more an expression of a view than a real chance to get a debate on the floor of the House.

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Sure. But that’s not its purpose. It’s stated purpose is simply “get theTories out”. :man_shrugging:

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I like how “starmerite” and “starmerism” sounds like a science fiction future ideology of cliched radical action-obsessed german-flavored totalitarianism, but the reality appears to be some kind of optimally flavorless, clinically depressed middle-class centrism.

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:face_with_hand_over_mouth:

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I could get behind the “at least we’ll be honest about it” part. :thinking:

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But I was going to vote for the Cybermen, and their plan to end inequality by scooping out all our brains and putting them in identical metal bodies.

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doctor who dance GIF

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UK election: Sunak pitches mandatory conscription for 18-year-olds | AP News

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I’m sure that involuntary servitude at the behest of a tax-dodging multimillionaire finance bro is the perfect solution for anyone who might have let the behavior of the GINI index over the past 50 years give them the accurate impression that supplies of common purpose are limited…

If there are any actual details; I’m morbidly curious to know how this plan will manage to involve mass conscription and reliance on overpriced contractors.

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(As the draftees are getting off the bus)

“Good morning maggots! Welcome to your National Service training, here at the lovely Chevron Gardens Camp! Your training fatigues will be available at the Debenhams on the left, the cost will be deducted from your, for want of a better word, ‘pay’. Any infractions will be punished with fines, so if you’re really lucky you’ll graduate basic training with enough to pay off your training fatigues, room and board, and purchase the compulsory uniform that you’ll need for graduation and wear into service. Meals will be available for purchase from the Wetherspoon Mess Hall on the right. There will be no IOUs. You will sleep in the YHA bunkhouses at the edge of the parade ground, and I will remind you not to interact with or annoy the G3 specialists who are patrolling the grounds for your protection. Now line up at the Supercuts here for your head shave and delousing! Move! Move! Move!”

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Somewhat prescient Charlie Stross blog post from January, gently pointing out how fucking stupid an idea it is:

https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2024/01/same-bullshit-new-tin.html

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The actual proposal is still fuzzy(whether because it doesn’t actually exist and is still being made up on the fly, or whether because it is intended for pre-electoral interpretation as as many things to as many people as possible); but it seems like they’ve gone with somewhat differently stupid:

In order to “get back to a situation where young people are mixing with people - in different areas, different economic groups, different religions - to try and find a way of addressing the kind of fragmentation that we see too much of,” the “best and brightest” would be assigned to 30,000 positions in “cyber security, logistics, or civil response operations”(because those are definitely things you want handled by fresh conscripts who are learning-by-doing and will have the option to leave in a year); while everyone else(potentially, “There’s going to be no criminal sanction. There’s no one going to jail over this,” and a fine is just a price) will be doing something else part-time.

That skips most of the logistical issues with actual mass conscription, by just not doing it; but it’s hard to be optimistic about the prospects of unpaid internships for national solidarity; which appears to the be the actual core of the program

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And he would’ve been in fine company.

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I don’t think it was a wrong thing for Keir Starmer to accept a knighthood. He got it for his work running the Crown Prosecution Service, which is an important job he did very well.

Other people who have accepted knighthoods or damehoods (the female equivalent) include Sir Ian McKellen – a great example of a “theatrical” knight – Dame Sarah Gilbert, who led the team which created the Astra-Zeneca Covid vaccine, and Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who discovered pulsars.

The system has been tainted by people such as Boris Johnson ennobling a personal assistant essentially for being a leggy blonde.

The UK doesn’t have a democratic system of honours so we have to make the best of what we’ve got until we can reform it.

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Amusingly, that was the government’s position as of the 23rd.

The statement that there “are no current plans” a couple of days prior to the announcement might explain the depth and careful thought evident in the announced plans. Possibly.

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