UK XI: Now Is The Winter Payment Of Our Discontent

[Neon Ignition]

https://bsky.app/profile/tom--scott.bsky.social/post/3lo7wfkaeys2m

[Asura]

Said it before; we're going to get a reform government. Reform are going to keep saying this complex problem has simple solutions out of a mixture of ignorance and genuine malice, and when they win, we'll have our own Trump clownshow. Which we deserve (I mean, not individually, but as a country if we let it happen)

[egparadigm]

Kemi was visibly shaking on the BBC this morning, I was worried she was going to collapse in a heap. She filled in her nerves with lots of words but it was clear she doesn’t know the right way to respond. A hard watch.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Kemi was visibly shaking on the BBC this morning, I was worried she was going to collapse in a heap. She filled in her nerves with lots of words but it was clear she doesn’t know the right way to respond. A hard watch.

Only hard if you have any sort of feelings and/or sympathy for her in the first place.

She is absolute vermin.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Another three local council seats for Reform in Essex, but yeah, they're only a passing fad/phase and we should deffo wait for them to just fade away.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cewg9p7gx98o

[Neon Ignition]

All the more reason to hope for a Tory reboot, there's no left wing leaning save on the way. How long till the next vote or event that will push Kemi out the door?

[Nu-Eclipse]

All the more reason to hope for a Tory reboot, there's no left wing leaning save on the way. How long till the next vote or event that will push Kemi out the door?

LOL. You make it sound like ANYBODY wants the Tories back in power. Have you been sleeping for the last fourteen years??

How about Starmer and the Labour Government get on with properly changing and improving things like, y'know, they were elected to do in the first place, instead of this 2010s Tory austerity tribute act that they're currently hellbent on doing???

[Baseley09]

I think what he means is we need a return to conservatism currently, whoever can deliver that.

[Nu-Eclipse]

I think what he means is we need a return to conservatism currently, whoever can deliver that.

How can people genuinely look at what's gone on/going on and seriously think that we're returning to conservatism in any, way, shape or form? If Badenoch gets sh1tcanned, it'll almost certainly be Jenrick replacing her....there is NOTHING traditionally conservative about either of them.

It's either Labour get their sh1t together and start delivering more progressive offerings (THAT THEY WERE LITERALLY ELECTED TO DO) or it's Farage as PM in 2029 and extremism/populism and the dire consequences that go with that. Those are literally the choices.

[egparadigm]

Only hard if you have any sort of feelings and/or sympathy for her in the first place.

She is absolute vermin.

It’s not sympathy, it’s empathy: putting yourself in the other person’s shoes. It’s the lack of it that’s got us to this point politically and, the longer it goes on, the closer to the far right it seems we go.

[Nu-Eclipse]

It’s not sympathy, it’s empathy: putting yourself in the other person’s shoes. It’s the lack of it that’s got us to this point politically and, the longer it goes on, the closer to the far right it seems we go.

Where has her empathy been for minorities racially abused (a lot of it because her and her party have helped to normalise that behaviour)?

Where has her empathy been for immigrants and asylum seekers (a stunning lack of it which is extraordinary given that she herself is one)??

Where has her empathy been for the people of Palestine???

Where has her empathy been for LGBTQ+ people????

Where has her empathy been for working people and single mothers who can't afford childcare like she - married to a rich man - can?????

You're absolutely having a laugh (to say the least) if you think Kemi Badenoch deserves any "empathy" whatsoever when you actually consider a lot of things she has publicly come out and said.

Go actually look at the things she has come out with in recent times. Dog-whistling and culture-warring doesn't even begin to describe it.

Jesus Christ.

[egparadigm]

Where did I say she had any empathy?

Calm down, we are in violent agreement about the various things you just listed.

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/may/05/no-10-reviewing-winter-fuel-payment-cut-after-labour-slump-in-local-elections

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/may/05/reform-accused-of-seeking-ban-on-flying-ukrainian-flags-over-council-buildings

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/may/05/bank-of-england-interest-rates-uk-economy-trump-tariffs

[Asura]

Can I just check...

The "winter fuel payment" thing - this is a total media fabrication, right? A clickbait thing which has been somehow allowed to become a big deal?

My understanding was that it was means-testing the winter fuel payment, so the ones who are no longer to receive it are those who, upon analysis, have enough money to pay for themselves. This is out of pensioners who are almost entirely people who benefited from the post-war economy, and therefore have many people who are comparably wealthy with things like 'final salary' pensions that don't exist anymore for the rest of us.

Is that not correct? Have I misunderstood something? The media talks about it like it's about some poor defenceless grandma who can barely afford her weekly shop and the mean government is taking money away from her. I thought the whole point was that my retiring neighbour who owns a 5-bed detached house (in a place where such a thing costs ~2-3m) and works on a soft-top jag in his garage on a weekend won't recieve a paltry £300 extra a year because it's clear he doesn't need it!

EDIT: Okay, I spoke to a pensioner I know and I understand now; the issue has to do with the criteria? Apparently if you have a private pension alongside the state pension, the threshold is really low to cause the cutoff, and maybe the government was too severe with that.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Can I just check...

The "winter fuel payment" thing - this is a total media fabrication, right? A clickbait thing which has been somehow allowed to become a big deal?

My understanding was that it was means-testing the winter fuel payment, so the ones who are no longer to receive it are those who, upon analysis, have enough money to pay for themselves. This is out of pensioners who are almost entirely people who benefited from the post-war economy, and therefore have many people who are comparably wealthy with things like 'final salary' pensions that don't exist anymore for the rest of us.

Is that not correct? Have I misunderstood something? The media talks about it like it's about some poor defenceless grandma who can barely afford her weekly shop and the mean government is taking money away from her. I thought the whole point was that my retiring neighbour who owns a 5-bed detached house (in a place where such a thing costs ~2-3m) and works on a soft-top jag in his garage on a weekend won't recieve a paltry £300 extra a year because it's clear he doesn't need it!

EDIT: Okay, I spoke to a pensioner I know and I understand now; the issue has to do with the criteria? Apparently if you have a private pension alongside the state pension, the threshold is really low to cause the cutoff, and maybe the government was too severe with that.

It's absolutely wild that you thought to actually post this instead of, y'know, using the internet to find out for yourself.