From https://www.theguardian.com/environ...HmfVgF_aWFUBs9nYHZMwmravXM#Echobox=1570798921 "Conservative MPs are almost five times more likely to vote against climate action than legislators from other parties, a Guardian analysis of 16 indicative parliamentary divisions over the past decade has revealed. The Tories also registered many more donations, shares, salaries, gifts and tickets to sporting events from fossil fuel companies, petrostates, aviation companies and climate sceptics, according to declarations made in the parliamentary record of MPs’ interests between 2008 and 2019". How did your MP score? Mine John Howell Henry on Thames 42. https://www.theguardian.com/environ.../11/guardian-climate-score-how-did-your-mp-do
The Guardian has ramped up its commitment to reporting on the climate crisis of late, and TG has been a front runner all the time. Brexit is stealing all the headlines, but this is by far the most important issue facing the UK and the world, long term.
James Heappey, my illustrious Tory MP from Wells, scores a magnificent zero points. Gawd bless him, he’ll probably have a crew of local peasants acting as punkah wallahs to keep him cool when things get really bad.
My MP, Caroline Nokes from Romsey & Southampton North, fares poorly with 23%. She found herself kicked out of the party when she finally did a "right thing" [against no-deal Brexit in this case], just a couple of months back.
My MP, Nia Griffiths, scored 85% and thankfully hasn't declared any gifts or donations from fossil-fuel interests.
Also, during the programme, Grant Shapps advised that he`d just got back from Portsmouth where he was reviewing preparations for a no deal Brexit at the port. Maybe he should have visited a big commercial port, such as, errr, Southampton.
Claire Perry in Devizes scored 10%...have consistantly voted for anybody but the Cons in every election since I moved to Wiltshire 20 years ago. Makes no difference here, it's never even close.
Look I know it's not nice to take the piss out of someone who's representing our interests as secretary of state for international trade and has no idea about the WTO but this is a funny https://newsthump.com/2019/10/11/li...O3-de6ojWGkl-lJRSwWYCi1dvr-gEh6kTmQjq1Y2V1GU4
Bit more ammo for my daughter fighting for Labour in Gloucester. Richard Graham MP (Education: Christ Church, Eton College, University of Oxford) scored 0.
No surprise our Dorset Toryboy Michael Tomlinson scored 0% I just vote on principle these days, no chance of anything else than a blue winner no matter how useless they are.
Naw. Sorry, but that's BS. There are Chinese people all over the world. Go to the smallest weirdest town in either of our countries, and I bet there's still going to be a Chinese takeout place. Also, Chinese people also speak and write English like everyone else so if they want to say something they can and do. South Morning China Post for example, is published in English and easily available online. No one is out there like "Trump's a dick!" *teehee* they can't understand me! China's propaganda works in China because they're born to it, because they control the press and social media, and because obviously you can't actually say what you want against China. Especially if you are a celebrity. China's propaganda doesn't work outside China because well, we know what's up. I don't think that many people in the US or UK have a very positive view of Chinese government. No one is really bamboozled by them and like cutting them slack that they don't give other countries. If anything it's the opposite. Tibet has been a pet cause of Hollywood for years. Falun Gong was tremendously successful at putting propaganda fake news on social media. So much so that Facebook had to shut them down. And they're dissidents. Imagine what China can do (and does, but we're just finding out about it). I mean no one actually DOES anything about it, because well... that's just politics. There's a million injustices like that. No, he's not. The best way to restrain China would have been to join the TPP, but Trump pulled out of that. Trump is fighting his trade war because he has some alt-right racists in his ear telling him what to do and because he sees something in it for him. So far, he's mostly making preposterous demands that China can't meet and wouldn't even help us if they could. But they are racist, sadly. They're not racist because I disagree with them. I disagree with them because they support a racist person who says racist things, employs racist advisors, and is backed by racists, and enacts racist policies, while propagating racist propoganda... which makes them racist. Knowingly or unknowingly or directly or indirectly. Never said they weren't. It's a huge problem there. I'm fully aware of that. Honestly, they're kind of assholes in general. It's a byproduct of being in a closed society with a corrupt government which fosters an every person for themselves mentality. When people are uneducated or worse intentionally miseducated and you lack basic rights or legit means of earning a healthy living, bad stuff happens. In contrast America is one of the least racist places in the world. Which is actually a little depressing since it is still kind of racist. Like, this is the best we can do? Well yeah. Because China has a population of 1.4 billion, and tons of land rich in various natural resources. We're like a quarter of that population. And you are like a quarter of our population. It's kind of messed up that either of our nations have as much power as we do. And it's probably fair to say we didn't get to where we are by being nice guys and treating everyone fairly. This is the problem with Trump's worldview. He's all hung up on trade deficits and who has the larger economy. One of the reasons why China is getting more powerful is precisely because they're participating more in the global market, have opened up trade, and de-centralized their markets to some small degree. Twenty years ago, it would be crazy to suggest that Southampton would have a Chinese owner. They still have a loooooong way to go, but actually that's what's keeping us ahead still. Once you open things up and allow resources to flow, things to tend to even up. It's pretty hard to maintain a GDP per capita four times that of another country on the open market, which is what has to happen for the US to be the larger economy. If a country is a ****-ton larger production capacity than you, but you're pretty rich then guess what happens? You're going to buy a bunch of stuff from that other country, because they can make it and you can't, and you have the money to just buy it from them rather than go without. China becoming more powerful in the world economy's is a good thing. A fifth of the world's population was not being put to work efficiently to achieve maximum value. Which means everyone suffers a little and one fifth of the world suffers a lot. China turning into powerful dickheads though, is a bad thing. Both because no one likes to suffer under dickheads and because dickheads don't get the maximum value out of human resources. It's bad economically and awful morally. I would have no problem at all if Trump took a hard stance against China in favor of the Hong Kong protestors. I want him to do it, because it's morally right and because the Hong Kong protestors are literally risking their lives thinking Trump will help them. But he's having trade talks with China instead, where he'll tell them he will raise tariffs on them, but then give an exception to half that **** because it turns out it hurts his buddies or it will hurt consumers at Christmas and he wants the votes. Trump is wrong because he doesn't give a **** about China being dickheads but he cares tremendously about not allowing China to be powerful (at least until they pay him first). As with most things, the right priorities are exactly the opposite of what Trump's priorities.
Tory MP private school, Eton, (no matter how dumb I am) Oxford. Place on the board of directors of a bank. Sent out to the sticks to endure 10 years as an MP. Me comprehensive school, Polytechnic, **** job and my MP is that Tory ****
Hmm, well there's Chinese propaganda and then there's Western propaganda, then there's every Other propaganda, and then there's Truth. We like to think that we know what's going on as, I suspect the average Chinese likes to think he/she knows what's going on. And then there's what's actually going on. I'm the last person to be a conspiracy theorist, but we have to question our side of the political "truth" every much as we might dismiss the Chinese idea of it. Don't get it? OK, just watch 3-4 countries reporting of a single major political event. For example, mainstream USA, UK, Saudi Arabia, Australia. You'll get 3-4 different views. Which one is the absolute truth? Answer, almost certainly none. Because the facts get shaded by the politics. However, I accept that you were probably writing in relative terms there.
You’re absolutely correct. We can’t hold ourselves as immune to propaganda. Certainly in both our countries there are widely read publications that skew left or right in order to convince and in some cases outright lie an people fall for it. Like you, I don’t know if we ever get the absolute truth. I am always amused by people who attack the media and the public at large as rubes for blindly believing what they are told. Then you ask them how they get the truth and they proudly say something like, “I read a left wing source. I read a right wing source. Then I make up own mind.” So, they are basically just reinforcing their own biases. Whether the media are lying or not, they almost certainly have better access to evidence and sources than we do, and a better sense of what happens in the political sausage factory. So how much can we put our judgement over theirs? They’re Deciding which version of the truth to believe... based on what exactly? Just because it was your “decision” to pick a truth, doesn’t mean your decision was informed. But yeah, at the same time we are all muddling through, trying in our on way to get the truth it has to be said that relatively we are probably much closer with a free press in our countries than those without. At least we do have multiple sources to consult, they get one. At least it’s possible that someone might just be reporting the honest truth...in China you know they are telling you what the government wants.
That's a nice interesting read. I'm going to suggest something. The political truth aligns to the truth when everyone is counted as equal and nobody is "more equal than" or favoured over someone else. I accept that that might be a biggie. Feel free to picks holes because I just decided to write that - although the thought is not new.
