Off Topic Politics Thread

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Bob's mate said:
The media has had plenty of time to stir things up as the inquiry into the Scottish Government's unlawful handling of the internal investigation was set up in January 2019. There has been nothing to speak of until the Spectator published Alex Salmond's evidence in late January 2021. Perhaps when Nicola faces the inquiry she will bring along the document of the legal advice she was given back in 2018, it would certainly clear matters up. Don't hold your breath.
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Timing is everything in politics!! Add in the fact that it was the Spectator (who do they back???) indicates there is a media groundswell to damage the prospects of the SNP getting a massive vote in the May elections.
 
Kaito said:
Please, no more Donald Trump. We have been suffocated by the media obsession with that orange imbecile over the past four years.

Now he is gone, let's make sure he is forgotten, even if only on here.
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Sad that he got coverage on both BBC and Sky News ...... FFS - like Farage he’s a vampire for media coverage .... ignore him .....
 
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The Ides of March said:
Timing is everything in politics!! Add in the fact that it was the Spectator (who do they back???) indicates there is a media groundswell to damage the prospects of the SNP getting a massive vote in the May elections.
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Oh come on Ides, Nicola Sturgeon has been a media darling right up until her wee wobble on the Marr show earlier this year. I believe some people even wished she was in power in the House of Commons.

For balance, Andrew Rawnsley wrote an opinion piece in the Guardian:

The SNP has been dominant in Scotland for 14 years and this affair illustrates that it is no less vulnerable than any other party to the dangers associated with being in power for such a prolonged stretch. If anything, the risks that come with one-party hegemony are amplified in a country with a population similar in size to that of Yorkshire and where everyone in public life knows everyone else. Critics have long complained that the SNP runs a highly centralised regime that has a with-us-or-against-us mindset hostile to anyone who does not share the party’s view of what it means to be a patriotic Scot. One veteran of Scottish politics says the country has become “a cold house” for anyone working in the public sector or for civic organisations who do not entirely adhere to the SNP’s worldview. It becomes harder for civil servants to maintain their due impartiality when there seems a vanishingly slight chance of anyone other than the SNP being in charge. You don’t have to think Mr Salmond a good man or to be persuaded by every one of his allegations to see force in his case that the boundaries between government business and party interests have become blurred during the SNP’s long reign.

An example of the 'With-us-or-against-us-mind-set' and 'wheesht for Indy', has been the reaction to women's groups who have dared to question the wording of the proposed Hate Crime Bill or the changes being made to the Gender Recognition Act in Scotland-another may even be for the sacking of Joanna Cherry MP from the front bench as some have suggested.

It is no surprise that people have called for Nicola Sturgeon to resign as First Minister; she presided over an unlawful Harassment policy and in the process wasted millions of taxpayers money. But timing is everything in politics Ides, and I would suggest that the SNP have neither the time nor the talent to change leadership before May. There may be a few casualties but I'd be shocked if Nicola Sturgeon resigns - even if James Hamilton QC finds that she has breached the ministerial code. As you said Ides, 'the SNP are mired in controversy...' and while you might think that the media and voters should 'Wheesht for Indy' I think the people of Scotland deserve better than the Sturgeon cabal.
 
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Bob's mate said:
Oh come on Ides, Nicola Sturgeon has been a media darling right up until her wee wobble on the Marr show earlier this year. I believe some people even wished she was in power in the House of Commons.

For balance, Andrew Rawnsley wrote an opinion piece in the Guardian:

The SNP has been dominant in Scotland for 14 years and this affair illustrates that it is no less vulnerable than any other party to the dangers associated with being in power for such a prolonged stretch. If anything, the risks that come with one-party hegemony are amplified in a country with a population similar in size to that of Yorkshire and where everyone in public life knows everyone else. Critics have long complained that the SNP runs a highly centralised regime that has a with-us-or-against-us mindset hostile to anyone who does not share the party’s view of what it means to be a patriotic Scot. One veteran of Scottish politics says the country has become “a cold house” for anyone working in the public sector or for civic organisations who do not entirely adhere to the SNP’s worldview. It becomes harder for civil servants to maintain their due impartiality when there seems a vanishingly slight chance of anyone other than the SNP being in charge. You don’t have to think Mr Salmond a good man or to be persuaded by every one of his allegations to see force in his case that the boundaries between government business and party interests have become blurred during the SNP’s long reign.

An example of the 'With-us-or-against-us-mind-set' and 'wheesht for Indy', has been the reaction to women's groups who have dared to question the wording of the proposed Hate Crime Bill or the changes being made to the Gender Recognition Act in Scotland-another may even be for the sacking of Joanna Cherry MP from the front bench as some have suggested.

It is no surprise that people have called for Nicola Sturgeon to resign as First Minister; she presided over an unlawful Harassment policy and in the process wasted millions of taxpayers money. But timing is everything in politics Ides, and I would suggest that the SNP have neither the time nor the talent to change leadership before May. There may be a few casualties but I'd be shocked if Nicola Sturgeon resigns - even if James Hamilton QC finds that she has breached the ministerial code. As you said Ides, 'the SNP are mired in controversy...' and while you might think that the media and voters should 'Wheesht for Indy' I think the people of Scotland deserve better than the Sturgeon cabal.
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Thank you for posting such an articulate response BM. My PoV is confined to an intense dislike of Johnson and the thought of the Tories making any inroads at the expense of the SNP or other parties contesting the May elections fills me with horror.
 
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Archers Road said:
I would like to hear Keir Starmer banging the drum for the NHS, and reminding us all of the debt of gratitude we owe to Aneurin Bevan. Being named after an historic Labour figure himself, that shouldn’t be too much to ask.

People are incredibly, almost wilfully ignorant though. How many Brits even know who Nye Bevan was? How many care?
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I must admit I had heard the name and associated with it vaguely the words “strike”, “1926” and “Atlee”. Didn’t really know why or where those associations came from until a quick google.
 
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This is the poor woman who had to sing the Star Spangled Banner at CPAC.
Warning to those with sensitive ears: Lady Gaga she ain’t. Note also the stage is designed to look like a symbol used by Nazi SS units.
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thereisonlyoneno7 said:
I must admit I had heard the name and associated with it vaguely the words “strike”, “1926” and “Atlee”. Didn’t really know why or where those associations came from until a quick google.
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Shocking, really, that so little is known about the architect of one of the UKs most civilised institutions. We all know who Francis Drake and Oliver Cromwell were; yet both of them were responsible for many thousands of deaths.

That's not a criticism of you btw. It's a failure of our wider historical narrative, and the stories we as a country tell ourselves about who and what we are.
 
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Archers Road said:
Shocking, really, that so little is known about the architect of one of the UKs most civilised institutions. We all know who Francis Drake and Oliver Cromwell were; yet both of them were responsible for many thousands of deaths.

That's not a criticism of you btw. It's a failure of our wider historical narrative, and the stories we as a country tell ourselves about who and what we are.
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Again, the problem has always been that since 1948 when the Attlee government created the NHS, we have only had brief periods when it wasn’t under attack, by financial cuts, meaningless reorganisations, or by privatisation by stealth, as is happening with London GP services right now.

I absolutely agree that Attlee and Bevan’s story should be taught in schools. As a retired NHS worker I honestly believe my former employer, for all its faults, stands as one this country’s greatest all-time achievements.
 
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Starmer is getting it in the neck this morning about his failure to push corporation tax.

I have always voted Green or Labour, but from now in it will be Green. That man is everything I despise. He reminds me of a rich girl slumming it with a common boy, but we know she is getting hand outs from Daddy to keep her going.
 
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- Doing The Lambert Walk said:
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That went well didn't it? Along with Cheltenham, Liverpool vs Atletico, the Rugby and other public gatherings, we should add the test trace and isolate failure, include the PPE fiasco and a dollop of ongoing cronyism to come up with the recipe for an inept response to the pandemic. Mitigated only by the vaccination campaign, well done the NHS and those that have driven it.
 
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