Keir Starmer

[Gaybutton]

Apparently Keir Starmer will be the UK's next Prime Minister. I confess until now I've never heard of him. I suppose I've been paying too much attention to Biden and Trump.

What do those of you from the UK think of him?

[Jun]

What do those of you from the UK think of him?

Even the Conservatives have become too left wing for my tastes, so I'm obviously no fan at all of the Labour party, which is the most left wing of the 3 main parties.

I haven't watched any of the debates. I can't think of any reason to suffer it, since I knew who I was voting for.

I have read extracts of their manifesto & that's the limit of it.
Given the choice, I'd prefer to vote for something like the Singapore PAP.

I'm not representative of the electorate, but you did ask what board members think !

Incidentally, from a brief look, the Labour party haven't increased their share of the vote much, just + 1.6%.
It's mainly Conservative voters going elsewhere (-20% !!!) & the largest gain of votes were by the Reform party, + 12.3% (& NO I did not vote for Reform).

[Gaybutton]

I'm not representative of the electorate, but you did ask what board members think !

Yes I certainly did and I appreciate your response. As I said, the total I know about him is his name.

What do you suppose he will do, or at least try to do, as Prime Minister?
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Thailand’s expats unaffected by UK general election

By Barry Kenyon

July 5, 2024

Media rumors that the pound would suffer a setback following the UK poll proved to be unfounded. In the past, Labour victories have been accompanied by a fall in the value of the British currency on fears that the party could not be trusted with the nation’s coffers.

However, the July 4 election produced such a huge win for the Labour opposition, amid a collapse without precedent of the Conservative vote, that currency dealers and commentators have taken the view that firm government with a huge majority will benefit the country. The pound is holding steady at around 46.68 to the Thai baht.

The other British expat preoccupation, the frozen state pension, is also a no-change scenario. At any rate for now. No major political party committed itself to reform in its manifesto. Although research from pension pressure groups suggests that Labour MPs are more inclined to favor reform than their Conservative peers, nothing is known of the views of huge swathes of Labour members of parliament in the new intake.

Along with Brits resident in many countries, those in Thailand do not receive the annual rise in state pensions operating for those resident in the UK, the EU and some other states. The unjustness has been frequently debated and referred to the European human rights court. However, a change to benefit 500,000 British pensioners living in affected countries abroad would require Parliamentary assent for a change in the law. Given the state of British finances and urgent domestic matters, such as the crisis in the health service, pensioners abroad are not likely to be a priority.

https://www.pattayamail.com/news/thaila ... ion-464836

[Jun]

What do you suppose he will do, or at least try to do, as Prime Minister?

Tax, spend and interfere in matters where a government has no business to do so.
They will continue to throw money at the NHS & the NHS will still be a mess. After the Soviet Union, the NHS is doing a fine job of proving that state controlled monopolies still don't work.

Media rumors that the pound would suffer a setback following the UK poll proved to be unfounded. In the past, Labour victories have been accompanied by a fall in the value of the British currency on fears that the party could not be trusted with the nation’s coffers.

1 The pound could have only fallen had there been a surprise Labour victory. When it was a nailed on certainty, the market would have already priced it in.
2 The last time the Conservatives were responsible with the nations finances was under David Cameron. His regime attempted to correct the borrowing excesses from the previous Labour government. They were criticized for it and didn't really promote their policy properly.
More recently, they have been borrowing almost as badly as a Labour government.