Off Topic Politics Thread

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But no one, even the republicans in your article were saying all abortions should be treated like a heinous crime. Which was my point the whole time. The journalist has extrapolated a provocative nonsense article to cause division, as usual.
Read the bill. All abortions apart from those that are done for health reasons are illegal and the new amendment is to class it as homicide.
 
Here is one such Republican lawmaker with some reasoned debate on the subject...

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People feel very strongly that killing babies is a bad thing. Obviously.

If your view is that the moment of conception is when a human life begins, then surely you can understand this outrage? Imagine if someone was systematically murdering 4 year old children, how angry would you be?

This is what these people believe and I don’t think that makes them evil. I think the divisive media rhetoric in the USA around this subject is shameful.
 
People feel very strongly that killing babies is a bad thing. Obviously.

If your view is that the moment of conception is when a human life begins, then surely you can understand this outrage? Imagine if someone was systematically murdering 4 year old children, how angry would you be?

This is what these people believe and I don’t think that makes them evil. I think the divisive media rhetoric in the USA around this subject is shameful.

If your view is that human life begins at the moment of conception, you should be far more angry at whatever deity you believe in than abortion-rights supporters. The rate of spontaneous miscarriage significantly exceeds the rate of abortion.
 
People feel very strongly that killing babies is a bad thing. Obviously.

If your view is that the moment of conception is when a human life begins, then surely you can understand this outrage? Imagine if someone was systematically murdering 4 year old children, how angry would you be?

This is what these people believe and I don’t think that makes them evil. I think the divisive media rhetoric in the USA around this subject is shameful.

The debate is should women who have had an abortion recieve the death penalty or a life sentence for murder and my own view is that it is barbaric and regressive.
America really is returning to the dark ages regarding denying abortion rights, white supremacy and voter suppression advocated by the extreme Maga Republicans (not all Republicans).
 
I normally don't wade in on these emotive subjects, but I am.

IMO to have an abortion isn't a binary decision, it is a lot more complex than that. Unfortunately, to pass any form of 'law' or agreement on it we have to have certain boundaries drawn up. These include things like "When is a foetus a human", "what reasons can you have one" etc etc. You will never get consensus on it entirely, especially as there are so many reasons for wanting one. Also, as many have said, in the main, these 'rules' for women (as they are the only ones who can biologically have a child) are made by men. IMO a man can never understand what it is like to have a child fully.

We also have the religious beliefs coming in, this is one area I feel shouldnt be relied on. To me, state and religion HAVE to be separated. There is an argument that the USA is a Christian country, but even that is BS really as what you will find is that those who identity with a religion are Christian in the majority, but I am sure that isn't the majority of the population. Also, what makes Christian values correct?

There will always be a debate about this, but my view is that the woman having the abortion, should be able to do so if she wishes (within reason - not 8 months down the line etc), and not criminalised for it. But the arguments will always be where do you draw the lines.

Just my 2p worth.
 
We also have the religious beliefs coming in, this is one area I feel shouldnt be relied on. To me, state and religion HAVE to be separated. There is an argument that the USA is a Christian country, but even that is BS really as what you will find is that those who identity with a religion are Christian in the majority, but I am sure that isn't the majority of the population. Also, what makes Christian values correct?

And what makes specific branches of Christianity correct? Not all denominations are in agreement on this subject. Hell, evangelicals -- who are the primary driving force behind abortion bans -- used to believe that abortion should be legal:

https://www.politico.com/news/magaz...istory-right-white-evangelical-1970s-00031480

The historical record is clear. In 1968, Christianity Today, the flagship magazine of evangelicalism, organized a conference with the Christian Medical Society to discuss the morality of abortion. The gathering attracted 26 heavyweight theologians from throughout the evangelical world, who debated the matter over several days and then issued a statement acknowledging the ambiguities surrounding the issue, which, they said, allowed for many different approaches.

“Whether the performance of an induced abortion is sinful we are not agreed,” the statement read, “but about the necessity of it and permissibility for it under certain circumstances we are in accord.”

Two successive editors of Christianity Today took equivocal stands on abortion. Carl F. H. Henry, the magazine’s founder, affirmed that “a woman’s body is not the domain and property of others,” and his successor, Harold Lindsell, allowed that, “if there are compelling psychiatric reasons from a Christian point of view, mercy and prudence may favor a therapeutic abortion.”

Meeting in St. Louis in 1971, the messengers (delegates) to the Southern Baptist Convention, hardly a redoubt of liberalism, passed a resolution calling for the legalization of abortion, a position they reaffirmed in 1974 — a year after Roe — and again in 1976.

When the Roe decision was handed down, W. A. Criswell, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas and sometime president of the Southern Baptist Convention, issued a statement praising the ruling. “I have always felt that it was only after a child was born and had a life separate from its mother that it became an individual person,” Criswell declared, “and it has always, therefore, seemed to me that what is best for the mother and for the future should be allowed.”
 
I mean you can manipulate the words to mean whatever definitions you like, but it’s a simple fact that abortion is ending the life of a human.

That is what I would define as murder. I’m not sure why that makes me a patriarchal right winger. It’s just a statement of fact.

To answer the prison thing, no, obviously a child born in prison isn’t made to stay in prison with the mother. So that’s a totally false equivalence.

How am I manipulating anything...?

A child is a birthed human before it reaches adulthood.

Murder is slightly more complicated but broadly means planning and then killing someone.

You legally can't murder an embryo or early stage fetus. As 24-weeks is the latest you can have an abortion in the UK. It would be sensible to understand if any woman gives birth at 24-weeks there is almost zero chance it can survive.

I haven't once called you a right winger nor do I know why you are telling me about the prison analogy. I take each issue in isolation, identity politics as you say is royal pain in my modern arse. But you are as much a guilty party of it as anyone else on here.

It would help your cause if you didn't do what you accuse others of. Words have meanings and plenty of people know what they are...
 
Here's a question: if a woman that has a condition that causes repeated miscarriages (and there are a lot of those) keeps intentionally getting pregnant, is she guilty of several counts of negligent homicide? Or is she a serial killer?
 
There are a number of international treaties which successive UK governments had an influential part in drawing up that form international law. The current bunch of incompetent arseholes appear to think they can renage on them with impunity or are they pandering to voters with illegal immoral unworkable legislation.

I suspect you're missing the point. This isn't intended to be a piece of working legislation. Plnlenty of people have opined that it breaks international law. It'll probably be heavily attacked in the courts on that basis.

No the purpose of this bill is to present it and argue it until it's defeated. Nothing more. It's purely red meat for their target voters. They are playing with people's lives, possibly for years, in search of votes. Which isn't a particularly nice trait.

Vin
 
I suspect you're missing the point. This isn't intended to be a piece of working legislation. Plnlenty of people have opined that it breaks international law. It'll probably be heavily attacked in the courts on that basis.

No the purpose of this bill is to present it and argue it until it's defeated. Nothing more. It's purely red meat for their target voters. They are playing with people's lives, possibly for years, in search of votes. Which isn't a particularly nice trait.

Vin
I should have added to "illegal immoral unworkable legislation" saying which may not get passed with the blame going to woke lefty lawyers, judiciary and
politicians. All champagne socialists living in Islington.
 
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So, which of you lucky people will be putting an extra £20k a year into your pension pot, taking it up to £60k a year?
Nothing in the budget for public services but I guess they will either be saving that for their last budget before the next election or, more likely, they are just doubling down on their efforts to destroy and privatise the NHS before they get kicked out, potentially for ever.
Given the number of unnecessary deaths as a result of their deliberate failure to fund the NHS and Social Care adequately, perhaps the Cabinet should be renamed with one of those 3 word phrases that the Tories love so much, something like Tory Death Squad.
With regards to longevity of life, in 2010 the UK ranked 19th in the world. In 2021 the UK was ranked 29th, after 13 years of the Tories.
 
So, which of you lucky people will be putting an extra £20k a year into your pension pot, taking it up to £60k a year?
Nothing in the budget for public services but I guess they will either be saving that for their last budget before the next election or, more likely, they are just doubling down on their efforts to destroy and privatise the NHS before they get kicked out, potentially for ever.
Given the number of unnecessary deaths as a result of their deliberate failure to fund the NHS and Social Care adequately, perhaps the Cabinet should be renamed with one of those 3 word phrases that the Tories love so much, something like Tory Death Squad.
With regards to longevity of life, in 2010 the UK ranked 19th in the world. In 2021 the UK was ranked 29th, after 13 years of the Tories.
I've done my time, retired, living in the Netherlands and enjoying the benefits of Dutch/EU permanent residence. I'll be busy campaigning for tactical voting amongst the community hoping to rid the the country of the pustulating boil that is the tory government.

One of the other expat (or is that emigrant) bonuses is being able to place my pension pot in a Qualified Recognised Offshore Pension Scheme which gives me far greater control of it's investment portfolio. Also, unlike many UK annuity plans, it doesn't die with me and goes to Mrs Jab when, as is inevitable, I pop my clogs.
 
I've done my time, retired, living in the Netherlands and enjoying the benefits of Dutch/EU permanent residence. I'll be busy campaigning for tactical voting amongst the community hoping to rid the the country of the pustulating boil that is the tory government.

One of the other expat (or is that emigrant) bonuses is being able to place my pension pot in a Qualified Recognised Offshore Pension Scheme which gives me far greater control of it's investment portfolio. Also, unlike many UK annuity plans, it doesn't die with me and goes to Mrs Jab when, as is inevitable, I pop my clogs.
Clogs ! - I see what you did there!
 
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So, which of you lucky people will be putting an extra £20k a year into your pension pot, taking it up to £60k a year?
Nothing in the budget for public services but I guess they will either be saving that for their last budget before the next election or, more likely, they are just doubling down on their efforts to destroy and privatise the NHS before they get kicked out, potentially for ever.
Given the number of unnecessary deaths as a result of their deliberate failure to fund the NHS and Social Care adequately, perhaps the Cabinet should be renamed with one of those 3 word phrases that the Tories love so much, something like Tory Death Squad.
With regards to longevity of life, in 2010 the UK ranked 19th in the world. In 2021 the UK was ranked 29th, after 13 years of the Tories.


Expect more of this in their last year or so in power. Classic scorched earth policy from a failing populist government.

They know labour will go in and reverse this immediately which will give their media chums full license to say Labour attack entrepreneurial spirit and hate success.

It takes a special kind of idealogue to damage your own country. But not enough people were paying attention to the winner of the recent Tory civil war.
 
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Janet Yellen admitting yesterday that the entire financial system was about to break, unless they backstopped all the depositors at the Silicon Valley bank.

This sets a new precedent for government intervention now. Bankers basically face zero risk as they know they will be bailed out by the Fed/Gov.

I am speechless watching this. There will be huge ramifications from this week. Capitalism hasn’t existed since 2008, but now the banking system is basically fully nationalised.

(Side note; if they can this quickly and easily intervene in the banking system with tens of Billions, you guys still really think they don’t do it in the case of certain media stories etc.? V naive)
 
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Janet Yellen admitting yesterday that the entire financial system was about to break, unless they backstopped all the depositors at the Silicon Valley bank.

This sets a new precedent for government intervention now. Bankers basically face zero risk as they know they will be bailed out by the Fed/Gov.

I am speechless watching this. There will be huge ramifications from this week.

(Side note; if they can this quickly and easily intervene in the banking system with tens of Billions, you guys still really think they don’t do it in the case of certain media stories etc.? V naive)


(What are you on about????????)