Labour imploding. Regardless of your political views surely it's a good idea to have a functioning opposition? Instead of scoring points from the divided Tories they decide to go for their own disastrous infighting instead.
In other news, apparently the semi brain dead Priti Patel is considering running for the leadership of the Tory party. And we thought Brexit was bad news!!
Dis Boris hurt himself playing cricket over the weekend? I didn't think that they allowed runners anymore!
Exactly, that was the point I was trying to make on post #477 on this thread earlier. Not only we haven't got a functioning opposition, we don't have a functioning govermment. The only one talking sense appears to be Osbourne, (never thought I'd ever say that).
Do we have any balanced, sensible politicians left? Backstabbing, corrupt, slimey bullshitters or dedicated, idealistic, unrealistic fruitcakes.
Yep. The UK had a good 5 yrs too much of Maggie and True Labour that a decent opposition would have highly likely prevented. Or a perhaps a new third party with real promise. Like the SDP seemed to be before they decided to link to the Liberals.
If I remember correctly (which is not always the case!) the SDP was doing rather well in the polls before the Falklands war and the Tories were doing rather badly. Thatcher was saved, and the country blessed with many more years of Thatcherism, thanks to the boost that she received from the Argentinians. I think the SDP merged with the Liberals in order to give the third party a decent chance, which culminated with the betrayal of the millions who voted LibDem prior to the coalition. But as I say I may not remember the circumstances exactly.
All I remember as an early teen is all the adults in the block were quite energised by the formation of the SDP (the political seniority/gravitas of the "gang of four" and being traditional Labour voters) , but come 1983 and the alliance with the Liberals, they seemed to have no desire for the Liberals.
You remember correctly, SDP held the lead in polls pre Falklands - all 3 parties were close. It was always going to be an SDP Liberal alliance though - the merger was ahead of the 87 election. I think Thatcher would have won in 83 regardless though. Unfortunately.
A socially liberal, centrist party who opposed nuclear disarmament and leaving Europe? I wonder when someone's going to relaunch it and how many MPs will race from other parties to join. Most of Labour and about half of the Tories would fancy it, especially if they could find a half-decent leader. In other "Make Britain Great Again" news, Gibraltar are in talks with Scotland about remaining in the EU. Northern Ireland are also interested, apparently. It'd be interesting to hear what the Leave leaders have to say about this, but they all appear to have been abducted by aliens. Possibly illegal ones, if Farage is to be believed.
Farage showed up in the European Parliament today and other than being asked 'why was he there!' by the Chair, also received this slap from Belgian ex-Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt who came out with this excellent one-liner: "Finally we get rid of the biggest waste of EU budget, which we have paid for 17 years, your salary!" Who said the Belgians don't have a sense of humor!!
The fallout continues from this madness. The UK's shares in RBS & Lloyds have declined by £7.8bln. Merkel starts to play hardball The ratings agencies, who have already downgraded UK debt, put the UK on negative watch for another possible downgrade. http://bloom.bg/297Fo7j
He doesn't attend committees where the work is done, but loves a bit of grandstanding in the Parliament.
Can the knives in the hands of 40 people prevent a man being stabbed by the knives in the hands of 172 ... ?? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36647458
