Off Topic Politics Thread

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I'm not saying you love Trump or that you weren't a leaver. I meant "you" as in "the voters."

I'm saying that ultimately this is what people voted for, and they are responsible. Are the politicians ****ty? Sure, but they keep getting elected and many of them were elected precisely because they were ****ty. The hardliners were never going to side with May, because they want to blow up the system. Mostly for their own power and enjoyment, but whatever they've fooled enough people. You can't blame the government as being dysfunctional if the majority of people voted for Brexit, and they are getting what they voted for.

It's the exact same in the US. The more Trump is exposed as a buffoon and a liability, the more they like him because they think if he is annoying the rest of the world he must be on their side. We can blame our Republican party for rolling over for Trump, possibly even strategize a way to vote them out of office. Maybe even defeat Trump himself. But the Trump voters will still exist, they will still feel the same way they do now, probably even more adamantly. Things will not change. The broken politics and lousy policy decisions are just the symptoms. The voters are the cause.

There's no political way out of it. For either of our countries. The far-right is either going to have to come to their senses somehow-- and only they can do this because they certainly won't listen to anyone on the left or center-- or this goes on until the whole country falls.

The only real way out is that at least the crazy people are mostly old and the reasonable people mostly young. So maybe we can manage to keep our **** together until the old people naturally die out. Horrible way to win, but I don't see another way out other than by attrition.

Shame the mostly reasonable people didn't go out and ****ing vote then isn't it!
 
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Yeah, polling on no-deal Brexit -- which is the only option remaining -- is way less than 50%. If this is the best deal that the government can get (and apparently, it is), a referendum between "stick with the EU" and "set our genitals on fire in a psychotic blaze of self-destructive glory", and that feels like it ought to be a fairly straightforward decision.
 
I'm not saying you love Trump or that you weren't a leaver. I meant "you" as in "the voters."

I'm saying that ultimately this is what people voted for, and they are responsible. Are the politicians ****ty? Sure, but they keep getting elected and many of them were elected precisely because they were ****ty. The hardliners were never going to side with May, because they want to blow up the system. Mostly for their own power and enjoyment, but whatever they've fooled enough people. You can't blame the government as being dysfunctional if the majority of people voted for Brexit, and they are getting what they voted for.

It's the exact same in the US. The more Trump is exposed as a buffoon and a liability, the more they like him because they think if he is annoying the rest of the world he must be on their side. We can blame our Republican party for rolling over for Trump, possibly even strategize a way to vote them out of office. Maybe even defeat Trump himself. But the Trump voters will still exist, they will still feel the same way they do now, probably even more adamantly. Things will not change. The broken politics and lousy policy decisions are just the symptoms. The voters are the cause.

There's no political way out of it. For either of our countries. The far-right is either going to have to come to their senses somehow-- and only they can do this because they certainly won't listen to anyone on the left or center-- or this goes on until the whole country falls.

The only real way out is that at least the crazy people are mostly old and the reasonable people mostly young. So maybe we can manage to keep our **** together until the old people naturally die out. Horrible way to win, but I don't see another way out other than by attrition.

Not sure if a GE would resolve matters but I feel JC would bea better person to try and heal the divisións that exist the length and breadth of the country. I would prefer David Lammy myself to lead the Labour party. As for the Tories, they could do worse than recruit the out of work Rajoy. If Guardiola and Klopp are good enough to lead footballing empires, Rajoy is more than adequate to replace May.
 
Some one give me some hope!

Here's some. Betfair's odds (which have been shown in general to reflect the true chances of something actually happening) on a revocation of Article 50 currently imply a 31% chance of it happening.

The best I can manage, I'm afraid.

Vin
 
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Not sure if a GE would resolve matters but I feel JC would bea better person to try and heal the divisións that exist the length and breadth of the country. I would prefer David Lammy myself to lead the Labour party. As for the Tories, they could do worse than recruit the out of work Rajoy. If Guardiola and Klopp are good enough to lead footballing empires, Rajoy is more than adequate to replace May.

A GE would pretty much certainly result in a hung Parliament. Also, you need to factor in the fact that Corbyn is a Leaver, so we'd be out of the frying pan and into another identical frying pan just along from it.

And I know it's tedious to keep repeating this but in the absence of action by the government, the UK will cease to be a member of the EU by the action of international law at 11pm on 29th March. So a GE wouldn't sort out the looming cliff. And GEs take (I think) six weeks to get through, so we'd be in dire trouble.

Vin
 
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On May: "It's not right to pity her. She has been utterly hopeless throughout. She gave away her red lines in 2016 to win Conservative party support and has been limited by that decision ever since. She triggered the timetable of Article 50 without bothering to have a plan and then wasted precious months calling a snap election which only suceeded in removing her majority. She made countless political decisions to placate the extremist wing of her party rather than seek the kind of consensus which might conceivably have united the country. She treated parliament with utter contempt.

She lied and lied and lied. She lied as easily as she breathed. She followed a path based on the most mean-spirited and inward-looking of all possible political convictions. Her strategic failure has been equal only to her moral failure. She deserves all of the consequences of her actions and none of the pity which might normally have come with them."

From an excellent piece at: https://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2019/03/12/lost-broken-ruined-may-humiliated-once-again-by-commons

Vin
 
On May: "It's not right to pity her. She has been utterly hopeless throughout. She gave away her red lines in 2016 to win Conservative party support and has been limited by that decision ever since. She triggered the timetable of Article 50 without bothering to have a plan and then wasted precious months calling a snap election which only suceeded in removing her majority. She made countless political decisions to placate the extremist wing of her party rather than seek the kind of consensus which might conceivably have united the country. She treated parliament with utter contempt.

She lied and lied and lied. She lied as easily as she breathed. She followed a path based on the most mean-spirited and inward-looking of all possible political convictions. Her strategic failure has been equal only to her moral failure. She deserves all of the consequences of her actions and none of the pity which might normally have come with them."

From an excellent piece at: https://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2019/03/12/lost-broken-ruined-may-humiliated-once-again-by-commons

Vin

Without doubt the worst PM in my lifetime and that's saying something!...
 
Without doubt the worst PM in my lifetime and that's saying something!...

Disgree!! Cameron was the worst. He lacked leadership and visión and it was under him that the Tories became increasing euro-sceptic, and he allowed it to fester. As for his leadership in the referéndum campaign, it was again somewhat lacking. God how miss the days of Tony Blair, John Prescott, David Blunkett, Mo Mowlam, Gordon Brown, Robin Cook, Tony Banks. A Government with characters and very forward looking compared with anything before or since, save the days of the Labour Government 64-70.
 
On May: "It's not right to pity her. She has been utterly hopeless throughout. She gave away her red lines in 2016 to win Conservative party support and has been limited by that decision ever since. She triggered the timetable of Article 50 without bothering to have a plan and then wasted precious months calling a snap election which only suceeded in removing her majority. She made countless political decisions to placate the extremist wing of her party rather than seek the kind of consensus which might conceivably have united the country. She treated parliament with utter contempt.

She lied and lied and lied. She lied as easily as she breathed. She followed a path based on the most mean-spirited and inward-looking of all possible political convictions. Her strategic failure has been equal only to her moral failure. She deserves all of the consequences of her actions and none of the pity which might normally have come with them."

From an excellent piece at: https://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2019/03/12/lost-broken-ruined-may-humiliated-once-again-by-commons

Vin

This is all true. But if it hadn't been her it would have been someone else. Only a con artist on a desperate gamble would have wanted that job or been allowed to take it. Just look at all the other con artists who got out as soon as Brexit happened.

It's like a Ponzi scheme. Each person taking the reins will be successively shadier, stupider, and more desperate until the whole thing collapses.

I don't think Corbyn is that stupid. However, he also doesn't seem like a solution either. He's just sitting on the sidelines criticizing the people in charge while trying to play both sides without committing himself. It's politically smart both for him personally and probably for Labour. But it's not going to fix anything.

I dunno. You guys are better informed about this stuff than I am but from my perspective it looks pretty bleak. You can get the EU to give you some more time, but what is going to change in 50 days or six months or a year?
 
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Is anyone else just sick of it all? I'm sick of talking to narrow minded people, people that don't care about anyone else but themselves. I'm sick of trying to reason with illogical people. Sick of watching bickering politicians point scoring, whilst the nation will be the thing that suffers.

I wanted to remain in the EU, but now I honestly wouldnt mind leaving England. Until this referendum, I had no idea how many people I have nothing in common with in this country.
 
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Nissan next to leave maybe? Sad times for the car industry:(
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47542011

Don't tell me: it's because of diesel, the universal scapegoat of the Brexiteers. It's a problem that only manufacturers of cars in the UK have (BMW/Audi/Peugeot/Seat don't suffer from the diesel problem because... er, magic) and diesel is the reason companies are moving production from the UK as fast as they can up sticks. Nothing to do with Brexit, oh no. It's diesel.

If you meet someone who makes this claim (and, boy, I've spoken to several), beware. Their critical thinking skills have been suborned by reading Brexit propaganda with common sense switched off. Handle with care.

Vin
 
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I dunno. You guys are better informed about this stuff than I am but from my perspective it looks pretty bleak. You can get the EU to give you some more time, but what is going to change in 50 days or six months or a year?

Fifty days, MPs will be forced into a May Deal vs Crash Brexit decision.

Six months, possibly nothing but we'd be forced to take part in the European elections at which point further extensions become possible and the below could happen.

A year, MPs will admit halfway through it that there's no consensus and they'll hand it back to the people. Remain would be a 75:25 chance, IMO. There'd also be time such that it could become possible that Corbyn is ousted, Labour chooses a pro-Remain leader and it's a slam-dunk Remain.

Or something else, of course. These are strange times.

Vin
 
Don't tell me: it's because of diesel, the universal scapegoat of the Brexiteers. It's a problem that only manufacturers of cars in the UK have (BMW/Audi/Peugeot/Seat don't suffer from the diesel problem because... er, magic) and diesel is the reason companies are moving production from the UK as fast as they can up sticks. Nothing to do with Brexit, oh no. It's diesel.

If you meet someone who makes this claim (and, boy, I've spoken to several), beware. Their critical thinking skills have been suborned by reading Brexit propaganda with common sense switched off. Handle with care.

Vin
This.
17.4m duped, cheated and hoodwinked by the Barclay brothers and Rothermere propaganda machine https://thebrexitsyndicate.com/2018/07/04/the-barclay-brothers/ https://mobile.twitter.com/bydonkeys?lang=en this is what was voted for. What sort of result have we got?
Jab
 
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