Off Topic Political Debate

On another topic, I see that the BBC has decided to withdraw free TV licences for people over 75. They claim that the government has reduced funding for this. Not surprisingly people are upset about this. Do people not realise that with an aging population governments of any shade will not be able to subsidise the elderly to the same extent as they have in the past. I was told this when I was at school in the seventies and told to prepare for it. (I married a woman 11 years younger than me so when I retire she can keep me,)

In NZ governments are finding it hard to increase the pension age. It will start to rise in 2037, which I think will be far too late, but I suspect that the hope is that immigration will make this possible. What is happening in the UK?

 

The TV licence fee is a problem. The government handed the whole thing over the BBC so that they could take the flak when unpopular decisions had to be taken and reduced their funding at the same time. As it was universal for the elderly no matter if they could afford it or not, it was looked on as a money saving exercise. The BBC have scrapped it except for those who are receiving state benefits. Some are now saying that the BBC is an arm of the welfare system. Others have pointed out that some who are only just paying their way will not be able to pay out for a licence, and the thoughts of elderly widows being dragged through the courts is not popular. A few people who didn't need a free licence because they were well off tried to send the BBC a similar sum, but the BBC has no way of accepting it.

Pensions are another bone of contention. The age to receive one has been going up there. There are court cases in progress because women have claimed that it went up too quickly depriving them of time to plan, and they have lost quite large sums sometimes. I am rather out of touch with the regulations and ages now, so someone else would know better than me.

 

I have just seen Margaret Hodge on hard talk. Clearly there is a relation between JCs views and the hard left. She pretty much said that it is anti semitic not to respect the right of the Jewish people to the nation state of Israel. By that definition many of us are anti Semite... There is a real melange going on here.. Fuelled by the media and the old right of the Labour Party..
I for one question the current rights of a nation state of Israel....

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the use of coke by Boris is hardly surprising, th

Scrapping Brexit would be the height of irresponsibility. This anti democratic action would ensure the kind of civil unrest which has plagued France for the past year. It is common in the EU to disrespect national referendums but the British expect our normal democratic processes to be honoured, to not do so would be a national disgrace leading to a great loss of confidence in the UK.

This idea is merely the last desperate attempt by those who have never accepted the result.

 

Accepted What result? There are many different versions of Brexit espoused even by your own band of brothers and sisters in the Tory party? I don't know why you keep returning to the same tabloid rhetoric.
You want so you say one version of Btxii.. But others want different versions...
Then you use denigrating language against those who have a different view.
Your party that brought this on the population is split.. As we see from the commencement of hustings.


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Watching some of the candidates yesterday, a song from the 1960's came to mind.

Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same,
There's a pink one and a green one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

 

There are no 'normal democratic processes' with regard to referendums in the UK. The normal democratic process in the UK. is the sovereignty of Parliament.

 

Not really the point of what I was drawing attention to. It was quite simply a comment on how the readership of that paper are now showing a more enlightened view of the disaster. A couple of years ago the wot we voted for brigade would have down voted such comments in their hundreds, whereas today they are likely to get approval. It has taken time, but it seems that what it is going to do to the whole of the UK is penetrating the minds of some.

 

An eye watering FT analysis of why the Tory party keeps getting it wrong...

Well worth a read.. Especially as the FT is a more objective establishment paper ...
https://www.ft.com/content/8d7d7e0e...Dz0g43x5Aog6X9B1BxgljfmluGgzUJZP4bpXserJ6yQEU

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You suggested scrapping Brexit, I responded with why that would be a daft idea.

 

I think he was quoting from the Daily Mail website actually.

 

The same message he has been pushing for the last three years.

 

Which is now appearing on websites of national newspapers that are more renowned for the polar opposite view, That was his point.

 

There have always been views for and against Brexit in these papers. He is obviously desperately searching for any negative titbits where he can.

 

Something that you will like then. The Daily Telegraph has a piece coming up which says:

“Rory Stewart just gave a speech that blew his Tory leadership rivals out of the water”.....It showed intelligence, wit, maturity, and real feeling. It extolled such unfashionable conservative virtues as moderation, and the spirit of compromise, and economic prudence, and realism (“I’m a Conservative because I’m a realist… I’m a Conservative because I believe in prudence. In that, I’m more of a Conservative than anybody in this race”). And it elegantly dismantled what he called the “fairy stories” of both Jeremy Corbyn, and the leadership rivals who believe, or claim to believe, that a no-deal Brexit would be easy.

I guess that is his chances gone then.

 

Shame as I favoured him
Hang on.... I am not a grey rinse

 

I confess to exercising my own private boycott as to commenting on who will be the next leader of the Tory Party - I don't really care. They got us into this mess by calling an unnecessary referendum in the first place, due to a knee jerk reaction as a result of a few voters and MPs going to Ukip - thus laying the ground for further knee jerk reactions today. Cameron could have stipulated that there would be a referendum only if it were followed by a second one once the conditions of our departure were better known - he didn't do this. He could have established a safeguard ie. that a majority of the electorate (not just those who voted) needed to vote for change for it to actually happen - again, he didn't. Any moron could tell you that if you hold such a referendum, on a straightforward 50/50 basis then you must be prepared to lose it. After having promised to activate article 50 immediately after a defeat - again he didn't do it - he announced his resignation instead, thus allowing someone else the privilege of clearing up his mess. He is in turn replaced by someone who never sought dialogue until it was too late. So after having had 2 clowns in succession I am presuming that another will follow, until they give me reason to think otherwise. For 3 years we have been lied to by Tories - or by ex Tories who jumped ship to Ukip or Brexit - this whole shambles of today has been created as a result of inner party strife. And now the PM is going to be forced on us by the will of fewer than 100,000 party members (mostly over 65), many of whom think in a similar way to our resident WUM. And if the Brexiteers don't get their way then they are prepared to try to suspend parliamentary democracy, thus making our descent into a banana republic compete !

 

What you said. Verbatim.

 

I thought you knew everything about political party membership, clearly you don't. The Tory party membership has grown rapidly in the last year and now stands at 160,000. We have many new members like myself who joined specifically to be able to choose somebody most suited to deliver Brexit.

 

Another adversarial post sadly.
I actually was just going to post to offer some agreement to Colognes honest reflections..
You are beating your own chest again.. If we are going to debate we need not to be antagonistic..

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