I would presume Zac Goldsmith, who Johnson gave a life peerage to, after Goldsmith had lost his MP seat to the Lib Dems. He is a good friend of Johnson, who can now claim £323 per day (unless it’s gone up) just for popping into the House of Lords. Goldsmith owns the villa and if you or I wanted to rent it for 1 week, it would cost a “measly” £25,000.
That's something we can agree on and you can add McDonnell to that list too. I don't hide the fact I detest them all and it's always a response to a post that praises them. I try not to compare people not in the government with those who are for eg "Labour wouldn't do any better" type comments because it's irrelevant. It's the government of the day that is responsible for it's own decisions but the daily reports of the latest cock up is an obsession for some. You'll make yourselves ill. Conspiracy against me? No, I don't feel that, but there is definitely a holier than thou attitude that runs through this thread.
I actually found the opposite. I thought I was centrist, but found myself more to the left. Since I’ve started reading more history and politics I’ve found myself veer to the right more. I think that a lot of the more leftist papers are just as bad as the right , they just hide under the disguise of pretending to care for others. I think that C4 and the guardian are actually quite far left and promote socialism almost as heavily as the daily mail promotes right wing nonsense. None of the media has anyone’s best interests at heart.
Are there many leftist papers? Certainly not enough to come close to challenging the daily sales figures of the right wing papers, or to change the political status of this country, sadly. And isn’t being leftist more likely to mean having socialist principles, which are generally more caring, which would mean that they aren’t pretending? You say that none of the media has anyone’s best interests at heart, but if one small part of the media is trying to expose the lies and corruption of the Tory party/government/right wing media, then I would say that they don’t only have the interests of other people at heart, but the interests of the country as well.
There are actually. In my opinion the leftist socialist agenda is actually being pushed at least as much as right wing political views. Your association of leftists to be more caring is in someways true… Leftists generally believe in putting a group mentality before an individual mentality. Which - on the surface can be mistaken for caring about others more. In truth, socialism and left wing politics subverts that care for others and weaponises it into authoritarian governments and the erosion of freedoms and rights. I believe what we are currently seeing from the media is the subtle erosion of people’s sovereignty
There isn’t a single daily newspaper in this country with a socialist agenda, with the exception of the Morning Star. The Guardian and the Independent are probably more centrist than the rest, but neither went as far as supporting Corbyn, for example. The rest of the media including the BBC are uniformly right-wing. Sure, the BBC and C4 allow alternative voices, mostly in the form of comedians, to be heard. I simply don’t recognise the picture you paint in your post. I do agree that people’s sovereignty has been steadily eroded, but it isn’t the media who are driving it but our very own government.
I don't know where I got the impression from but I am beginning to feel that politicians tell lies. However, I am sure if I asked one if he or she did tell lies they would tell me "Most definitely not".
Indeed, and when we had the referendum on SAV voting during the coalition at the Lib Dem’s insistence, the question was asked in the form of “Would you like to eat this dog turd, or would you rather it was smeared on your face?”
So really very unlikely to be ever introduced? If no Gov in last 30-40 years (probably longer) has tried to reform, what’s the likelihood / possibly any future will?
Things change. The ERS (Electoral Reform Society), a politically unaligned pressure group campaigning for some form of PR, had several Labour Party members among candidates for the recent election to it’s board of governors, along with the more traditional Lib Dem and independent candidates.
Those wheels of change grind exceeding slow. Would it take another referendum? The last one was heavily loaded to maintain the FPTP status quo. I think it'll take collaboration between the opposition parties to unseat the incumbents and then maybe the PR question can be raised.
[QUOTE="StJabbo1, post: 15253942, member: 1048057"]Those wheels of change grind exceeding slow. Would it take another referendum? The last one was heavily loaded to maintain the FPTP status quo. I think it'll take collaboration between the opposition parties to unseat the incumbents and then maybe the PR question can be raised.[/QUOTE] Exactly Jabbo. Can’t believe it’ll ever happen in my lifetime. The incumbents won’t / don’t really want; whoever they are. 50 years & running? Apologies if I’ve ruffled; just the way I see.
Exactly Jabbo. Can’t believe it’ll ever happen in my lifetime. The incumbents won’t / don’t really want; whoever they are. 50 years & running? Apologies if I’ve ruffled; just the way I see.[/QUOTE] No need to apologise and thank you for putting the issue so forthrightly. I would love Labour to adopt PR as oñe of their mainstream policies leading up to the next general election. It will result in more extremist.parties getting elected but that does not necessarily mean they will be part of future Government if mainstream parties seek alliances with other level-headed parties as in Germany.
I think this shows that the true Daily Mail readers are the elderly, those who want the good old days, when we had an empire and everyone knew their place. This broadly equates to supporting the Tories, and disliking foreign influence, but when the Tories do things (or don't do things) that make life worse for the elderly, the Daily Mail will always side with their reader base.
