Off Topic Political Debate

Maybe all the irrelevant UK political parties, Lib Dems, Greens, UKIP, BNP etc should have a joint annual conference. A village hall would be sufficient to keep the costs down.

 

Actually I believe that the Lib Dems now have more members than the Tories. They have 108,000 members - the Tories do not give out figures any more, probably because it's too embarrassing. The Greens have 39,000. Bearing in mind that Labour has 570,000 members they could probably rent out their cloakroom to the Tories for their next conference. I believe that at the last Tory conference 70% of those present were lobbyists or potential sponsors.

 

Not surprised the old 'party membership' comparison comes up again, and again, and again. Of course it is completely irrelevant on how the electorate vote.

 

You are burying your head in the sand SH. Looming on the horizon is electoral oblivion as far as the Tories are concerned. At the last election Labour were hugely ahead in all age catagories under 40, and it is not hard to see why. It is estimated that Tory membership may be as low as 70,000 - of these 71% are men and 44% are 65 or over - Labour can put 6 times as many campaigners onto the streets at election times, and they are also younger and more active. This is why, whatever the polls tell us at the beginning of a campaign, Labour wins the campaign itself. Corporate donations and hired help might help for a while, but the writing is on the wall. They have alienated the youth of this country through their actions so I'm afraid that history is not on your side. If the one great result of this sorry Brexit mess is that we never get a Tory government again then I will be content with that.

 

The problem with your theory is when the young mature they lose the naive socialist thinking and turn into pragmatic Tories. The Momentum infiltration will cause huge ructions in the Labour Party, they will be in no condition to fight an election. Corbyn will need a rocking chair and blanket by the time of the next election. You will then be left with the foul mouthed, no brain, Mc Donnell, utterly unelectable.

 

Again pure conjecture on your part. What is not wrong in my theory is that the Tory Party is dying out - where is the party of tomorrow ? They are rapidly becoming a geriatric party which has no link with the real World whatsoever.

 

The recent election saw the Tories gain their highest percentage of votes for 30 years. That was also with the 'own goals' which kept some traditional supporters at home. They remain the most popular political party in the UK, they are set to complete a continuous 12 years in power.

 

I sense the Establishment were at it again today with their favourite tool - the Scottish Media. These appeared today in the Herald -


The Oxfam report that the story is based on, Reward Work, Not Wealth, can be found here - https://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxf...ments/bp-reward-work-not-wealth-220118-en.pdf
For anyone so inclined, a read through it reveals one word missing - Scotland.

And some still deny media bias...

 

Again that doesn't really answer the question ?

 

It answers your negative prognosis. The Tories naturally gain support as the obvious choice for responsible governance. They do however need to solve the housing shortage, so far they have not taken up my suggestions.

 

How is the self build going? Last time you mentioned it nothing was happening. Maybe your suggestions were not thought to have much merit, who knows?

 

The main builder is coming on Thursday, hopefully the price rises on Jan 1st he wants to add will not blow him out of the water. The government have foolishly not made contact yet.

 

It doesn't answer anything SH. If they only have 70,000 members now what will the situation be in 10 years time ? Even now we are talking about one to every thousand population - which is very stretched when it comes to fielding candidates for every council seat in the UK. This situation can only get worse until they have, literally, no choice of candidates. You are forgetting that the party once had 4 million members and there has not been a decline in the number of political posts which have to be covered in the meantime.

 

Well if they had 4 million members and just had their highest percentage in 30 years with a declining membership it just shows party membership has no correlation to votes. Your hoped for decline has no actual visible signs yet. The Tories had a stunning local election victory last year.

 

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Calling the thousands of Watford supporters that happen to also support Conservative ideas and / Brexit. This political forum desperately needs your contributions to balance the views of the majority of current posters. You can expect a lively debate and a thick skin is definitely essential.

A warm welcome awaits.......

 

http://anonhq.com/marinaleda-spanish-town-equal-wage-full-employment-housing-food-residents/

Interesting article about a different approach to life in a Spanish village. Looks like there are still some bits that don't add up, but the idea behind it is amazing.

 

53% unemployment amongst the young in parts of Spain, a shocking indictment of the unfairness of the EU.

 

A very refreshing article.....
I worked in Bhutan in the 1990s which had a farming economy.. no one was unemployed and no one went hungry.... incidental money was incidental to the village economy. In the last 15 years there has been a move to towns, jobs and so on. There is more crime, drug taking and now of course unemployment.

The same people but as a result of development and 'modernisation' the same social problems we see in the western economies are now appearing....

 

The joys of globalisation...

That village are obviously not self-sufficient, but approaching life in a different way and ensuring the local population can afford to live a much nicer life than they would otherwise. It must form a real bond in the community, and people would care about the wellbeing of all rather than fighting to ensure their lives are better than their neighbours...

That's a sad story from your Bhutan village, hopefully the world will change again soon but I think we're too far gone now

 

The Bhutanese Govt have tried very hard to balance the need for development versus the threats of modernisation..... I hope they can hold back the worst ravages of it in their beautiful Himalayan kingdom