Maybe it’s just me, but I find this a bit of an obnoxious way to ask the question.

Interesting but unsurprising polling perhaps. Although the headline is only 18% of leavers think Brexit has been a success, it does also include 61% still think it will turn out well in the end. 72% of the leavers would still vote for Brexit even knowing how it’s turned out.

Given how close the referendum was, this is yet another poll suggesting the vote would have tipped the other way if run now. Although that is just illustrative, it’s quite different to voting to join the EU now which I doubt would be popular.

I think the threshold for rejoining is much higher than it was for leaving - we’d have to sign up to the Euro, we’d get no rebates despite the ongoing borked common agricultural policy, and all the negative aspects of the EU would come back to the fore. I was a remainer, but many of the negatives of the EU have often been ignored due to the polarisation of the debate, including by EU citizens who have focused on a them-vs-us mentality thanks to the antagnostic approach of the Conservative government.

But the EU does have serious problems - structural problems in the Eurozone, unfixed since the 2008 debt crisis, major issues with democratic accountability and unaddressed financial corruption, difficulties effectively dealing with members like Hungry and Poland as they slide towards more authoritarianism, and lack of consensus on dealing with the migration issues which continue to cost lives and are a stain on the entire EU’s (and the UK’s) reputation. Despite being a remainer, if I’m honest I’m not sure how I’d vote.

Truss seem’s unable to accept that her ideas and approach were fundamentally broken. Borrowing to fund tax cuts for the wealthy is just a bad idea. The supposed logic that it would stimulate growth as it is based on an over reliance on “trickle down economics” and also a lack of appreciation of the reality of the last 13 years since the 2008 economic crisis. Interest rates have been low, and “quantitative easing” created cheap money amassed by the wealthy and cheap credit with a low return economy; the wealthy have been hoarding this money rather than investing it in growth and enterprise.

Borrowing to invest in infrastructure such as the hospital rebuilds, HS2 and the Northern Power House rail, and to build a fund for a UK public alternative for business & investment financing to foster entrepreneurs - that would have been a good approach. Using the money to build and buy assets, and invest in growing new companies would both stimulate the economy by putting money into peoples & businessed pockets, while getting something directly in exchange - assets and loans/shares in new companies - and should reassure the markets that the money isn’t just being frittered away on a crazy experiment.

Yeah. Ultimately this is the BoE’s fault for not acting faster and harder. Interest rates would still have gone up but the pain may have been less severe.

Sunak was a fool for trying to take credit for Inflation. He based it on the optimistic predictions that inflation would rapidly come under control and improve towards the end of the year. Instead inflation is not shifting, and interest rates are likely to need to stay higher for longer and probably go up further, plus we’re now realistically looking at a potential recession.

Sunak is out of his depth, and it’s yet another poor leader in a run of 4 now (May, Johnson, Truss) showing how depleted the Conservative party is of talent and any sort of vision.

Expect companies to push hard against anything that costs them money. In this case, there is a smal overhead for reminding subscribers, but the “subscribe and forget about it” is an important source of revenue. Particularly the users who get a “free” subscription, barely used it but it converts to a paid subscription. I’m sure they can live without the revenue stream, but of course they want to keep it if they can as it’s zero effort money.

The whole reason this is being proposed is because this is a widespread issue affecting consumers.

We really need electoral reform - enough of parties getting big majorities in the commons and stuffing the lords with supporters.

Even starting with proportional representation in local elections would be a game changer. Although the tories got rid of it in London to increase their chances of winning the mayoralty.

The best outcome in the next election is a hung parliament with Labour depending on the Lib Dems for a majority, and the Lib Dems forcing through electoral reform. No referendums, no more dicussion. They should do what all the other parties do and say “parliament is supreme and our manifesto was clear”.

Yeah I agree - subsidising solar and also subsidising heat pump conversions and insulation for for older properties are essential parts of the mix. These would be impactful on energy generation / energy saving, and in removing our reliance on gas for heating.

I’m not sure how I feel about this. Credit to him for changing his mind but that he thought it was appropriate in the first place says a lot. To be clear, tory MPs are abstaining not to “move on from the drama” as he puts it, but because they are worried about how Tory members in their local associations will react if they vote in favour. This is tempered by concerns that in the upcoming election next year opposition candidates might use their unwillingness to vote against them.

The tory mess just keeps going and going.

Here’s hoping. Unfortunately they do have a lot to show for 13 years of governing - a path of destruction and devastation!

Yeah this sounds reasonable and I hope it’s how things playout.

My concern is that he remains popular with the Tory membership who do not reflect the general views of the population, and the tories ejected a lot of the moderate centerist MPs over Brexit. The rump party may be decidedly right wing, obsessed with brexit and a good breeding ground for a Boris comeback. He certainly won’t be leader before the next election but I can see him being painted as a messiah in a narrower deminished party desperate for success. They struggled to replace him already with a disasterous right wing Truss despite the MPs not favouring her.

He reminds me of Silvio Berlusconi in some ways - that guy was dogged with scandals throughout his career and his governments collapsed, but he bounced back multiple times. Italian politics is very different of course and Berlusconi was a media mogul so he could control the narrative in a way Boris cannot. But also Donald Trump, that guy has done things that would have seemed shocking only 10 years ago, and yet he remains the leading candidate for the Republican nomination for the next presidential election.

I don’t think Boris will achieve the same success as people like Berlusconi or Trump, but I wouldn’t put it past a rump defeated Conservative party to be so desperate they’re drawn to him again and we see him back in frontline politics unfortunately.

They’re hoping that but it’s looking increasingly unachievable. In particular the time bomb is people who fixed at 1-2% but next year they’ll be facing deals new deals next year that are looking like 5-6% at a minimum barring a rapid cooling of inflation.

But yeah, it’s not impossible they can benefit from an improvement in the economy and slashing taxes. I just don’t see it working personally even if they can get into a position to do it.

These concerns are valid.

Some are transitory however - 1, 3 and 4 all reflect the current state of Lemmy and the similar Kbin are in currently. The Reddit issues were unexpected and people have migrated en masse to Lemmy/Kbin and have found was is in many ways Alpha software. This issues will mostly be resolved with time, and that is probably accelerated now as more people means more people interested in development, and motivated by anger at Reddit. I don’t think Lemmy/Kbin will replace Reddit right now, but I think a new trajectory has been set. Communities are hitting critical mass to keep growing.

Look at Mastodon, it’s at 1.2m-2m active users each month; it is still small fry and niche compared to Twitter but it exploded thanks to Twitter’s mess, and is growing. I think we’re seeing something similar with Lemmy and Kbin, but this is just the start of a long road and an expanded community will accelerate improvement and growth.

But point 2 is fundamental to the fediverse - fragmentation due to defederating could be a concern. I get Beehaw’s motivation but I think their actions will consign them to a niche part of the Fediverse, but that may be what they want. Ultimately I suspect the biggest servers will dominate a main interconnected fediverse through sheer size and notoriety - new servers will need to federate to the big players to grow. It’s not necessairly a bad thing - but people may end up signed up to a “main” large interconnected “fediverse” and separately to smaller niche communities they’re interested in but sitting in their own walled gardens/bubbles. It’s not necessairly a bad thing though - it is just different to what people are used to with social media like Reddit. It’ll be a trade off - servers and communities have complete independence and some will go for what suits them - part of a big fediverse or only federating to smaller aligned communities.

Part of the problem may be the bugs on the Lemmy instances which have not been showing “hot” content correctly. This may be giving a false impression of an obsession over reddit as posts are stuck on the front page?

I’ve been browsing a few different communities and am finding things are active, they’re just not reaching the default Lemmy front pages. Sorting by new or diving deeper into communities shows a lot of new content.

For example I’m currently browsing from Feddit.uk and this seems to have exploded into an active community in just a week; it’s really heartening to seen. I’ve also seen different content when viewing from Kbin based instances like Kbin.Social or Fedia.io (including from Lemmy.world).

This is now two Tory run authorities in similar boats with very similar reasons - extreme bad management, breaching of fiscal rules, and lack of accountability for their actions.

Woking Council is in even more dire straits, with £1.2bn deficit (guardian article - Jun 23).

And on top of that two Tory county councils have warned they are on the financial brink - Kent and Hampshire (guardian article - Feb 23).

It may not just be Tory councils of course, but so far it looks like a pattern - at the minimum poor governance and a lack of oversight of councils by central government for loans given to councils.

It’ll be interesting if the Tories can hold any of them. May give a hint at how much their core vote holds up in the next election. Could be the difference between a Labour government and a Hung parliament. A tory revival looks extremely unlikely.

The question is what does Boris do next? In some ways resigning made sense as a gamble - he could get out of his marginal seat and potentially step into a safe seat vacated by an ally. But if the Tory leadership block him for being a candidate then what does he do? Stand as an independent? Stand for Mayor of London again as is rumoured (which would be a disaster for him as he’s not popular in London anymore).

I can’t see him just giving up and returning to journalism. Maybe the next leader of the tories will be an ally who will work to bring him back to “save the party” (as the party will probably be a rump party after the next election and has been shaped in his image)

The article is behind a pay wall but accessible here: https://archive.is/CELPA

I think they’re right - this is a ticking time bomb and even if the mortgage market comes under control in the next few months, rate are going to be high all the way through to the next election in Autumn/Winter 2024.

An economy under pressure, with people having to sell their homes in a depressed property market or worse families having their homes repossessed - I can’t see the tories coming back form this.

No party has come back from so far back in the polls to win an election at this stage. Also the tories are hopelessly divided - everything they feel like they’re “getting somewhere” their divisions come to the for again.

On top of all that, the mortgage timebomb alongside the inflation problems are looking like they’re lasting longer than expected/hoped. I’d expect much of next year to be dominated with stories about families struggling to cope with the high mortgage rates, being forced to sell their homes and the property market being a mess. It’s not a good situation to be in but I can’t see how the Tories can see that out.

This drama is going to play out all the way up to the election. At the moment it looks like he star is on the wane but it really depends on how much support he really has amongst the Tory members.

The party after the next election is going to be a mess. They’ll either elect someone to the right of the party and fester in irrelevence for years or possibly back to Boris for more drama. Could he even stand as an independent if the leadership try and keep him out of a seat?

This drama never seems to end.