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I got downvoted on Lemmy the other day because I said that I prefer Bill Gates to Musk.

Maybe there are things about Gates I don't know. Maybe he is actually quite an evil person; I don't know. But he does at least spend billions of dollars helping vulnerable people, right? And Bill's stances on global politics are far more sensible than those of Musk.

The centrists were booted out, yes. Philip Hammond, Kenneth Clarke, David Gauke, Justine Greening, Dominic Grieve, Rory Stewart, etc.

Anyway, I assume that by the next election, due to First Past the Post, there will be two main groups again. One will probably be a Trump-lite, pro-Brexit faction (either Reform or the Tories, or a pact of both maybe). The other will be a more liberal, pro-Europe faction (either Labour or Lib Dems, or a pact of them with maybe the Greens).

I dunno, I'm a political novice to be honest, I'm just guessing.

Fair enough. I just googled the meaning of "hegemony" and it said "leadership or dominance, especially by one state or social group over others". So what I mean is that Europe doesn't necessarily need to be dominant in the world, but it should be able to stand up for itself.

we literally need to get to a single-world-government as soon as possible to secure our survival as a species

I've thought about that a little bit. Perhaps such a government could help resolve disputes. It could perhaps prevent terrible wars like those in Gaza, Ukraine, and Sudan. Maybe a single world government will happen at some point, in the distant future.

Maybe Europe doesn't need to be a hegemony. Maybe instead Europe should just be a self-reliant world power, capable of standing up for itself against other large powers like the US, China, and Russia.

Apparently experts don't agree on whether Covid is still a pandemic. As that article says: "these days, a lot of people refer to the pandemic in the past tense".

What do you mean by this

True, it's a long time until the next UK general election. Maybe Reform's vote will suffer before then. Alternatively the local elections and by-elections could be a boost for them, I dunno.

Anyway, maybe we should have proportional representation in the UK. Even if Reform had 25% of the vote and therefore 25% of the seats in parliament, that would mean that 75% of parliamentarians wouldn't be Reform members.

Our current system allows a party with minority support (potentially Reform in the future) to win a majority of parliamentary seats. In 2019, the Conservatives won 44% of the vote, which gave them 56% of seats. Last year, Labour won 34% of the vote, which gave them 63% of seats.

He spends quite big sums on healthcare I think? I'm not saying he's a perfect guy. Maybe the world would be better if taxes were such that nobody could be a billionaire. I just think I prefer Bill Gates to other billionaires, especially the prominent South African one.

My guess is that Labour have done some polling, showing them what red wall voters want, and Labour want to appeal to those voters - voters who are tempted by Reform's message.

But on this climate change issue, the article is saying that voters don't even want anti-green policies. And I haven't seen signs that Labour are tempted to copy Reform's anti-green stance.

At least Bill gives away a lot of his money, and his stance on politics seems relatively sensible and measured. Whereas the South African billionaire gets a kick out of being stupid and damaging to the US (and beyond the US if you look at his comments on foreign politics).

In my case I buy my own food because I just have different tastes I guess. But yes I get the point about judgement. I definitely plan to move out as soon as it's feasible to do so.

Christ I need my own place

Same in my case. Living back with parents, after having lived independently, is annoying.

It's similar in the UK currently. The UK's equivalent of AfD is Reform UK who are apparently the leading party in the polls (source):

Reform UK in front on 25%, Labour on 23% and the Conservatives on 20%, with the Lib Dems on 16% and Greens on 10%

I know people want to hate on Bill for being rich, and I can understand that, but I still prefer him to a certain South African billionaire.

Maybe some people will say that's like comparing a giant douche to a turd sandwich though.

I think you're right it would be "nonsense" if the press said that joining the customs union would be "undemocratic". The referendum only asked whether the UK should leave the EU - people didn't vote explicitly to leave the customs union or single market.

I think democracy does a pretty good job of surviving when you have free and fair elections, and proportional representation probably makes politics even more democratic. In European countries that have maintained free and fair elections, they generally haven't plunged into populism. Macron defeated Le Pen twice, for example. AfD have obviously grown their base in Germany, but they haven't entered government. Hungary is arguably ruled by a populist, but some people would say their politics aren't really free and fair anymore. If their politics remained free and fair then populism might have less power.

I know Brits like to joke about the French but I like France. And they're a pretty similar country to the UK from a geopolitical standpoint. Both countries have their own nukes, both are permanent members of the UN Security Council, and both have very similarly sized populations and economies (both have about 68 million people, while Germany has 83 million people).

So maybe France is a natural European ally for the UK. And of course France is right next to the UK.

Maybe we need a new special relationship...

They do those things to some degree, but those things remain banned for under 18s, which I suppose reduces harm, even if it doesn't fully eliminate harm.

That attitude probably won't win any political contests though... voters do not like being thought of as stupid. They want their concerns taken seriously. If we have a political system where we don't listen to certain members of the public then that's basically autocracy.