All talk and no action? (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)
In MetroTalk, readers are talking about the general election and the never-ending promises being made by the Conservatives and Labour party.
And does Lord Mandelson have something to do with Labour’s leftwing candidates being excluded from running as MPs? One reader thinks so.
And, another thinks the Conservatives response to striking unions has been all wrong.
Share your thoughts on these topics and more in the comments.
Standing up to unions results in more strikes
John from Redhill (MetroTalk, Mon) challenges Tory critics by asking whether a Labour government would stand up to union pay demands.
The cost of the Conservatives ignoring disputes creates more strikes and costs the economy way more than if proper negotiations had taken place and agreements had been made.
He also contradicts himself – noting the 2.5million people of working age on benefits yet ringing alarm bells about workers getting too many rights and a proper wage.
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Is Labour blocking its left-wing candidates?
Faiza Shaheen has instructed a lawyer to challenge her exclusion from running as the Labour candidate for Chingford and Woodford Green (Picture: Guy Smallman/Getty Images)
Leading up to the 2019 elections, the UK was fed a lot of pre-election promises by Boris Johnson et al, mostly around Brexit.
Now, five years down the road, the country knows that it was sold a sick pup.
Yet still we are told that Johnson’s win in 2019 was down to anti-Jeremy Corbyn votes. It was a lie back then and it is still, though oft repeated.
The Labour Party today, under Sir Keir Starmer, claims its obvious recent moves to block left-wing candidates Diane Abbott, Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Faiza Shaheen are because he wants ‘the highest quality candidates’.
Really? Is that why he welcomed – either their candidacy or their endorsement – ex-Conservative MPs Mark Logan, Dan Poulter and Natalie Elphicke?
All of these moves serve only the openly stated anti-left agenda of ‘New’ Labour’s Machiavellian back-room operator, Lord Peter Mandelson.
These and other misdirections of the once proud Labour movement, from and for the masses, have the dark lord’s grubby fingerprints all over them.
Sir Keir further claims not to take potential voters for granted but he should remember that trust, like a bubble, can pop and disappear in an instant. Judy Baldwinson, via email
Will Starmer’s Labour prioritise the rich?
A reader thinks it won’t be long until Starmer brings up trickle-down economics (Picture: Andy Buchanan / AFP via Getty Images)
It’s less than two weeks since the election was called and I’m already struggling to keep up.
Although Sir Keir Starmer’s five missions did not include wealth creation he now tells us that wealth creation is his ‘number one mission’.
Wealth creation is fundamental to creating a decent society but usually overlooked is how the wealth generated is distributed.
We are used to the Conservatives prioritising the better off when it comes to wealth distribution. Will Starmer’s Labour be any different?
He went on to say he’s relaxed about people making money. Will he soon be talking about trickle-down economics, whose advocates included Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Liz Truss?
And in the days before the election will he be found writing on a wall somewhere,‘All people are equal but some are more equal than others’? Chris, Stockport
Promises, promises
Maybe make continue on those 44 hospitals Boris announced first (Picture Aaron Chown/PA Wire)
The Conservatives have promised 100 new doctors’ surgeries. More pie-in-the-sky promises. They have only built four of the 48 hospitals Boris Johnson announced.
As Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting once said, ‘The only place these hospitals exist is in the prime minister’s imagination.’ Henry Page, Greenwich
Sir Keir Starmer is going to scrap VAT relief for private schools. So where are the places for the thousands of pupils who will no longer be able to go to them?
Still, I suppose the hundreds of teachers laid off as a result will be able to go to the local comprehensive and teach their former pupils in a corridor somewhere.
Don’t count your chickens ‘prime minister-elect’ – there’s still time for the silent majority to wake up… Jim, London
Trump’s affair cover up
Donald Trump has been found guilty of all 34 counts in a hush money trial (Picture: Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
So let me get this straight. While Donald Trump’s wife, Melania, is at home with their newborn son, Donald is out having an affair with porn star Stormy Daniels.
As he didn’t want anyone to know because he didn’t want to lose the election, he paid her $130,000 to be quiet, and falsified documents to cover it up. A jury of 12 men and women, agreed by Trump’s defence team, find Trump guilty on all 34 counts.
Fox News and the Maga cult blame Joe Biden. So Trump has an affair with
a porn star, pays a large sum of money to hush her up and millions of Americans believe Joe Biden is guilty? Martin Hyde, Brighton
Eastenders is far from doom and gloom
Remember when the King visited the Square? (Picture: Aaron Chown – WPA Pool/Getty Images)
We’ve had a string of attacks on EastEnders in recent weeks on MetroTalk. Where is the balance?
If people watched it, they would know it is far from doom and gloom.
We’ve had Charles and Camilla appearing for the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, the incredibly moving storyline involving Lola’s brain tumour, and even in the most recent storyline about a sexual assault, you had moments of tenderness and cathartic humour between the characters affected, deftly performed by Angela Wynter and Rudolph Walker.
Accusing EastEnders of being depressing is a lazy trope wheeled out by those who don’t actually watch it. Greg, London