www.mainstream.org.uk Here and the rest of Europe - back to normal. Now.

JOHNSON'S SHAMBOLIC COVID POLICIES - THE WORST OF ALL WORLDS "Eat out to Help out "- Johnson's request is an insult to the majority who can't afford to EAT IN Boris Johnson's Covid-19 policies have created two Britains - and the two are moving further apart. The minority of lucky "Haves" can chill at home, for months they've been paid their salary, in the main for doing nothing. They've bought new mountain bikes online to keep fit. They chill in their garden, drinks on the table after their Waitrose online food shopping arrives. Or they can watch TV and mull the ads (infuriating to everyone else) - aimed at this minority who've got money to spend. Shall we get ourselves a new SUV? Some good interest-free deals on offer. Or a new fitted kitchen? Get that house extension built? Now the other half - actually the majority; the unlucky "Have Nots" who fell through the wide crevasses in Johnson's rescue package. Nearly all the self-employed. Millions working for small and micro-businesses. Millions more in agency work and zero-hours contracts. Their incomes have all but vanished. To them, Johnson's "Eat out to help out" plea is a sick joke. They're struggling to buy the weekly food to eat in. Far less money to spend - far greater costs than before the pandemic. Why? Because the supermarkets have cut down on cheaper lines; less choice means higher prices. On top of this, all the Covid-related stuff - masks, hand gel, sanitiser, soap, tissues, wet wipes, disposable gloves (where it's even possible to obtain these items) - they all cost money. We knew Johnson and Hancock are on a different planet: With their distancing rule "Two metres apart" instead of plain English "six feet" Right from Day One of the lockdown on March the 23rd, it was obvious the clique of top tories in charge, are in a world of their own. That very first press conference - remember? "Wash your hands for 20 minutes with alchohol-based sanitiser". What? Where from? There wasn't any to be had in the shops. (Obviously still on sale in the Downing St area). "Just do all your food shopping online". Er - have you actually thought about this? All online delivery slots were booked up for months ahead. There wasn't the infrastructure, or the amount of vans, to increase the capacity. Supermarkets quite rightly, prioritised their existing online customers - people living in isolated areas, the housebound - and of course all our care homes. And the social distancing "Stay two metres apart!" (Why not just say "six feet"? - we describe a tall man as being six feet tall; not "two metres" tall.) This is a critical medical public message - why can't our "leaders" use ordinary people's language? Continued ......

For the Majority, not the Minorities Why can't there be a party that gets 60% of the electorate's vote? We all have different views but there are plenty of views shared in common by at least 60% of people. In opinion polls you include the 'dont knows' - or the poll is meaningless. So in analysing actual election results, you must include the 'no-shows' - those who stay at home instead of voting. They're just as important as the ones who turn out to vote. So percentages must be based on the whole electorate, not just those who vote. Non-voters are NOT lazy young people who can't be bothered to get off the sofa - they're people who would LIKE to vote - if only there was a party / candidate they could support! They in effect DID vote - for 'none of the above'. In the 2017 snap election called by Theresa May to 'improve' her position, but which turned out a disaster for her, the Tories were marginally the most popular party but with just 29% of the electorate's votes. And Labour who came second, got 27% of the electorate. No party gets even half the electorate's support - nowhere near! This continues the trend for the last 40 years . Is it any surprise when you look at how out of touch ALL of Parliament's MPs are, with ordinary people? a new party for the centre We need a populist party . A popular party, a people's party, to represent the majority who don't identify with the establishment parties of 'right' and 'left'. With new populist policies from the centre, a party for the centre ground, for the political MAINSTREAM. "NO to Ex-treme" "YES to MAINSTREAM "

Statue Toppling - pointless gestures cause more harm than good The demonstrations triggered by the Floyd killing need to go on hold till later in the year, when the coronavirus epidemic has slowed down, and crowds are permitted again. The anger is understandable: Everybody's haunted by the video of one man in Minnesota, USA, pleading for his life for nine minutes, ignored, dying. Closer to home we have the same injustices. Too many deaths while in police custody. The common factor? All were young men. Young men of all colours and backgrounds. Unlike in America, there's no preponderence of any specific ethnic group here. Like innocent electrician Charles de Menezes, shot seven times in the head on the Northern Line tube, by a plain-clothes policeman. Not for Charles, the luxury of spare minutes to plead for life: his was snuffed out in seconds, without being arrested or cautioned, or even spoken to. The subsequent "enquiry", a total whitewash. A young man killed not in faraway Minnesota, but right here in our country - but no demos, no protests, no banners, no tweets. . It's NOT a colour issue - it's a police accountability issue. In that moment when our life is in the hands of the police, then EVERY SINGLE life is important - not only those from selected groups. But crowds are prohibited for a reason - they spread the virus; and black communities such as in Brent, Peckham and Brixton have more Covid deaths than other areas of London. When selected groups or individuals give themselves the 'right' to flout the restrictions, it's demoralising for the rest of us who've kept the 'no travel, no crowds' rules. Like our anger when Dominic Cummings did the same thing. And why should the police and emergency workers, stretched to the limit with the pandemic, now have to cope with disorder and injuries on the street? Continued .....

Could Boris be gone BEFORE 2024? After the surprise Christmas election tory win Boris Johnson crowed "we're in power for ten years now". (Working on some wierd theory that an overall majority of 80, takes more than one election to be wiped out. Really? Could someone Explain ?) At the Coronavirus outbreak, Johnson had a commanding lead in the polls, helped by his own hospitalisation and near-death experience, and becoming a father again. But his shambolic, chaotic "management" of the pandemic has totally lost the public trust. The final straw was to continue to back his non-elected number two, Dominic Cummings, saying he believed Cummings's 'eye-test' explanation when he knows, as do all the rest of us, this was a pack of lies. Many tory MPs are furious, at least one having considered resigning the Conservative whip to become an independent - this after just four months in the job. Don't forget - for every one MP the tories lose, their majority gets cut by two. It only needs 40 MPs to defect as Independents, and Johnson would lose his majority and be, like Theresa May, leading a minority administration. Could this actually happen? Back in January you'd have said "impossible". But now, with the economy totally wrecked for the foreseeable future and all the worst decisions and U-turns on Covid - added to the possibility that the current protests could turn into large-scale riots this summer - anything becomes possible. Johnson could be toppled as leader by his own party; or even - yes - another general election BEFORE the set date of December 2024.

MAINSTREAM - a brief history MAINSTREAM is a small, new political party - founded in 2005 and based in the West Midlands. The idea of MAINSTREAM is to try and re-create, what we always had up to about 40 years ago - a party capable of getting majority support - i.e., the support of more than 50% of voters, in an election. continue ....

Changing the EU from the inside is IMPOSSIBLE. Now we can put pressure on them from OUTSIDE, to return to the original Free-Trade, free movement zone, an assembly of sovereign states each with its own laws and parliament, WITHOUT any EU 'directives' and 'European Parliament'

2005-2020   Published by Mainstream

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