Off Topic Political Debate

Bet you wish you hadn't mentioned the Quakers Leo !!!!

 

Glad he did - told me something I never knew. Everybody's a school day.

 

Yes - that accords exactly with what I have learned about Quakers - a kind of loose affiliation of like minded people - totally different to what I understood at school where the only Quaker I knew was at WBGS - my Latin master called Ben Marrow - and a more fearsome beast you could never imagine. Loved spanking boys bottoms - hmmm - wonder how that would play out today.

 

You just seem to over analyse. Blow all the Keynesianism and monetarism etc - we all understand what is meant by left wing and right wing or we cannot listen to the telly or radio. The terms may be loose and undefined but when we say someone is a lefty we mean they will be anti the right rather than define precisely where they do stand - and vice versa. Not sure anyone thinks capitalism has to grow or wither - what we do see is that when growth is halted as per 2008 there is a financial and economic mess. That is why the Greens fail the litmus test - until they can show how the world can "manage" a decline their philosophy can only be wishful thinking. Look at where Japan went from 1990 onwards. My economic dissertation at Uni was on the economics of a declining population - it was difficult to research as so little has been studied on it as populations generally grow. Democracy just exist in many forms - it does not grown shrink wither or anything. It isl ike trying to "define" a species of cat - there are many breeds but they are all cats. On Greens - I highlighted in blue the points I disagreed with on economics - there was so much I gave up and did not bother with the rest of their manifesto. It is a bit like Labour. If I thought they could actually run an economy I would vote for them but as they have proved to be total incompetents time and again I have to find other social minded groups - but exclude the likes of the Greens who are even worse economy wise than Labour. I did no mean any controversy on employment - again you go so deep - to me you are "employed" if someone (even yourself employs you) My wife has always been a housewife - she worked harder than most with 5 kids to raise - but she never described herself as in employment.

 

I bet he's the life and soul at parties.

 

You forget to add '..whilst incanting softly under his breath, amo...amas...amat...'

It was his wife who I couldn't stand - the RME teacher. I think that she recognised the heathen in me, even at that tender age - and directed her dislike accordingly. Whilst muttering darkly under her breath 'Suffer little children....'

 

Leo, it is precisely that - our descriptions of left and right depend on where we are on that spectrum, they also change through time because most of the parties in the 60s were, by todays definitions, left of centre. We have seen it in our debate here - for some on here the Labour party are left wing for others they are centre or right. So, when somebody uses an expression like 'lefty' I must guess exactly what is being referred to - for me Miliband is on the right. If you are interested in the economics of falling populations then you may like to look at Germany which is the closest example - it will be interesting to observe the development here. Rural depopulation is a big problem here and it is only the boom towns eg. Hamburg, Stuttgart, Cologne, Düsseldorf which have rising populations - everywhere else is either stagnating or falling. Overall Germany is the only industrial land in the West with a sinking population. To few children being born, an aging population and not enough immigration (although many Germans would contest the last statement).

 

If they pay the bus fare we will send them some of our immigrants.

 

I think you will find it is taking many more than the UK.....

 

and you as a Tory must see the benefits of a group who are a NET GAIN to our economy....?

 

If you had actually looked at the graph which Yorkie introduced over British emigration to the EU you would have noticed that it is around the same as the number of immigrants from the EU. Thereby implying that if Britain does have a problem it is not one of numbers. But as always you only see what you want to see and ignore all material which you find awkward.

 

If you expect your own style to be recognised then perhaps you should be more generous with others. Mine tends to be flippant at Times..hence the smiley after my original comment. "That's me told"always gets a laugh in our house and I did say I thought I was being patronised "for a moment". As for taking your remarks personally it's nonsense...your lectures are nothing compared to Mrs H's. However if my casual remarks really "f*ck you off" I will steer clear off serious threads in future.

 

It is a problem with numbers, whole areas changed forever.

 

I do hope we can return to the mutual respect, fun and friendship which has been a hallmark of these boards.

It seems to be the religion and politics threads which cause us the problems

 

can you evidence your argument please....

 

Naturally -as they are the only "edgy" ones.

 

OK - I took it too seriously - apologies.
In our house though we have a view of people who criticise others and then say - oh can't you take a joke , it was only a laugh. Still knowing you and your style I should have realised you were genuinely being humourous.

 

I don't think it is possible to discuss immigration on this board without somebody abusing others with stereotype insults - so I'm out!!

 

Accepted...in our house we aspire to perfection but we're not there yet, We accept we're human enough not to judge our criticisms of others perfectly every time.

 

Excuse me ... where is the stereotype argument in my posting?

Pot calling kettle black methinks .......