Starmer’s enemies are not in front of him, but behind him.
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Yeah, twas always the way of the Labour Party that there a lot of factions that would rather the party not be in power if their faction isn’t running the show. They’d rather be protesting from the opposition benches than sitting on the other side of the house.
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I genuinely think the Labour Party would end up stronger if it split up.
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Proportional representation is a necessity!
The problem here is factions trying to stick as one party so they don’t split their vote and lose.
We need nuance of political opinion represented authentically in the commons and at the ballot
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Look at PR around the world, Israel has it and governments are held in hock to minority parties, Belgium is split badly, Holland, Rutte is in control until when or if Wilders can form a government. Germany governmentally is tettering at the moment.
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PR is a horrendous system
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First past the post is a horrendous system too and results in the balance of elected MPs being completely unrepresentative of the popular vote. Governments often get a large majority in Parliament even though they don’t have anywhere near a majority the popular vote.
House of Commons Library and others have published loads about this https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/general-election-2019-turning-votes-into-seats/
As a result some parties are heavily over-represented (SNP and Conservatives), while others are heavily under-represented (Lib Dems and Greens)
The German system seems pretty neat. Seems to be PR, except they also then give extra seats to the party that gets the most? Or something like that anyway…
No system is perfect unless you move towards the Swiss system and allow referendums as well on subjects.
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And that system has caused all the problems that the German government now faces.
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Because the Brexit vote went well 
Yeah, it’s by no means perfect. As you say above, no system is perfect!
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Referendums can actually be very useful, at least the people directly chose a position.
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Could you all kindly reflect on the fact that this is a thread about Israel and Gaza.
I am disappointed to see it degrade into an argument over unrelated topics, something I had specifically hoped to avoid with the wording of my comment.
Let’s not act as immaturely as our MPs did yesterday, and are continuing to do today, on a topic that is literally about life and death.
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We need a Sunday Politics thread
#soundinglikeabrokenrecord
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This is no argument. Earlier in the thread, we (including yourself) were discussing how the speaker gets elected. There’s been plenty of other interesting discussions throughout the thread, that are only tangentially related.
I don’t think anyone is trying to detract from the atrocities going on. We’re just very good at not staying on topic 
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Let’s leave the tangent there
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Well, that’s a new twist.
It’s honestly really sad. He live streamed himself doing it. It’s horrific.
This is the second time this has happened. Last time was outside an Israeli embassy in Atlanta I think?
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I wasn’t aware it had happened before.
I question the chap’s mental state. There must have been a lot going through his head to drive him to that, especially given there’s no direct US involvement in the conflict at this point.
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He was saying "I will no longer be complicit in genocide” and “Free Palestine” before he set him self on fire. I do wonder, given he’s Air Force, if he sort of was involved. The US have been flying UAVs over the area pretty regularly, so there is involvement to some extent.