There are two kinds of U-Turn. One is a landlord promising your first pint, on Friday, will be free, tempting you to go then saying it isn't. The other is someone saying that, if he was the landlord, he'd consider giving you a free pint ... ... then saying he's considered the ramifications and probably wouldn't.
And she wants to be PM ffs. Steve Baker withdraws support for Braverman over grooming gangs rhetoric, says ally Influential Brexiter backed home secretary’s leadership bid but is said to object to her singling out British-Pakistani men Peter Walker Deputy political editor @peterwalker99 Sun 2 Jul 2023 14.00 BST
Lib dems had some solid results in the last week. Increasing vote share against tories and labour. Fielding candidates in all places as well. Important they field everywhere in my opinion if we are going to see a more balanced longer term politics.
They seem pretty stable at the moment although they're under little pressure ... ... at least they're not infighting corrupt grasping egotists like the Tories. There's possible excuses for what they've accomplished, not for how they behave.
I wish my mam hadn’t threw that 6x4 poster out of Bardot on a motor bike Could it be their time ? Nothing could be worse surely.
I do find it difficult to believe any MP would risk their career and launch a savage racist attack, at a total stranger, on the back of such a totally benign subject, Tina Turner's passing
So it's now ok to simply dismiss the opinion of someone who believes they're the victim of racial abuse. I'm glad we're getting these ground rules established.
I wouldnt excuse their behaviour. I think post Brexit they have been awful. Not the Brexit deal itself, but their attitude to a lot of socially important things. I drink with a mix of poltical supporters. Few whose values are conservative. To a man they wont vote for them again next time around. A couple of lifetime Labour blokes wont vote for the current Labour people or policies either mind. Seems a fair opening for the Lib Dems. I find it a bit odd that we have tories and labour wanting the centre ground. Liberals were always the centrist party when I was learning about politics. If Ed Davey can get more air time I think people would like the policies they stand for. Someone might correct me, but I am sure I once read there was a rule which allowed the press to cover any party other than the main 2 less. Seems counter productive if true. The lib dems wont be winning an election anytime soon, but if they can take enough of the share of votes, and translate that to seats, at least we might have a 3rd political voice in the debate. Would be a step forward.
I reckon if they ditched having another referendum they would walk the next election. Can’t understand why they don’t do that, get in and just change their mind. Just copy off Labour.
I dont know if it was racist or not but I dont think Jess Phillips does herself any favours. According to the report I read she called her 'that headteacher woman'. Seems a bit OTT to me. Then something along the lines wanting to see her domestic abuse policies in school and lesson plans or something. The whole tond of her tweet seemed to be mocking the speech at the national conservative conference. All in all I am not convinced it is a good look for an MP to go on like that at someone on twitter, but maybe I am old fashioned.
Still suffering from the alliance with the tories mate. Easy political points even after 13 years. Their climbdown on tuition fees was epic and cost them a big chunk of supporters. They do need to be back being heard though. They have decent mix of common sense and common decency, and a leader who seems genuinely committed to poltics. Not a bad start.
Cant fins anything about a rule for political coverage I mentioned earlier. Probably dreaming. What I did find though was research by Loughborough uni. In the run up to 2019 election Labour got 43% of the media coverage, in terms of labour reps being on the tv news. Tories got 39%. Lib dems got 7%. That seems pretty poor to me, and I bet has an impact on their voting numbers. The Brexit party were only just behind them. Surely we need to find a way to give them a bit of a platform this time around.
Well you've obviously read through and made various judgements, is it racist in your opinion ... ... after all that's by far the most critical aspect, the rest is just two women pulling each other's hair.
Based on what I have read if pushed I would say no, but then I have never been in the shoes of someone who can be racially abused. The interesting accusation is around unconscious bias. I believe that is a real issue, but is so hard to prove. I have done assessments on it and have unconscious biases. I have sat on disciplinary cases where the accusation is discrimination based on race. It is a really rough ride for both parties. I have a feeling both ladies are feeling awful tonight, for very different reasons. Social media is rubbish in my opinion. There are so many problems that arise from people inferring meaning from written word, and in the social media world the written word is often really short. I have never been on twitter, facebook or any other thing. This site is my only social media site, and my posts are often interpreted in ways I never mean. My thinking is if we all had to be face to face half of these disputes wouldnt happen. Likely Phillips was not being racist, likely also the teach felt the reaction was OTT and wants to understand why an MP would react so.
The most concerning thing about the Birbalsingh/Phillips spat is that people are implying that Birbalsingh condones domestic violence and saying that her school is unsafe for women and children. Just because she posted a picture of Tina Turner with Ike. Now, that could be construed as insensitive and in poor taste but it is a huge leap to reach these other conclusions. The fact that people are saying these things makes my blood run cold. We should be much more concerned about such attitudes than we seem to be.
