Off Topic Politics Thread

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Same applied during the pandemic, small aware populations with a sense of community regarding collective responsibility.
Much easier to have a sense of collective responsibility if you likely have a good bit of space between you. Population density in both countries much, much lower than the UK.
 
I see Jezzer is going to stand in the GE against the Labour candidate. I was wondering if you now think he was a terrorist sympathiser after all. You know, like he would have been all along if he had been a Conservative. :emoticon-0136-giggl
More importantly, a man who was not just a Labour MP but the party leader and loved from Islington to Glastonbury is standing against Labour. It must be putting the ":emoticon-0159-musicOh Jeremy Corbyn :emoticon-0159-music" brigade into a right old tail spin. Very strange but I'm sure someone will invent a very believable excuse, probably Jabbo. <whistle> UTS.
I have no idea how you could possibly think I would have any any excuses for brexiteer Jeremy Corbyn being the good European that I am, as well as an avid supporter of PR which distances me from the parliamentary Labour party. Completely beyond me unless it's a poor attempt at deliberately misconstruing my posts.
 
I see Jezzer is going to stand in the GE against the Labour candidate. I was wondering if you now think he was a terrorist sympathiser after all. You know, like he would have been all along if he had been a Conservative. :emoticon-0136-giggl
More importantly, a man who was not just a Labour MP but the party leader and loved from Islington to Glastonbury is standing against Labour. It must be putting the ":emoticon-0159-musicOh Jeremy Corbyn :emoticon-0159-music" brigade into a right old tail spin. Very strange but I'm sure someone will invent a very believable excuse, probably Jabbo. <whistle> UTS.
He's standing against all the other candidates, not just against Labour, he is standing for himself to represent his constituents.
 
Oh look, Angela Rayner faces no further action on the tax and housing issues, either from Greater Manchester Police, Stockport Council, or HMRC. A campaign to stir the **** against her has achieved nothing apart from wasting a great deal of public money.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-69063295
Not to mention police time and resources which could have been put to much better use.
 
Oh look, Angela Rayner faces no further action on the tax and housing issues, either from Greater Manchester Police, Stockport Council, or HMRC. A campaign to stir the **** against her has achieved nothing apart from wasting a great deal of public money.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-69063295
Not to mention police time and resources which could have been put to much better use.
The opposition parties don't need to campaign. Every utterance from the increasingly incompetent incumbents drops their standing.
 
Oh look, Angela Rayner faces no further action on the tax and housing issues, either from Greater Manchester Police, Stockport Council, or HMRC. A campaign to stir the **** against her has achieved nothing apart from wasting a great deal of public money.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-69063295

Should be arresting James Daly for wasting police time.

On the topic of **** campaigning, the Conservatives have also started trialing ‘Sleepy Keir’ because they obviously don’t know which country they are campaigning in.

Also they goaded Starmer over tv debates and now they have two one on one debates agreed between Sunak and Starmer, in what universe do they feel confident about that one?
 
You can't explain this to our boomer parents. It isn't possible. My parents had nothing when I grew up. We lived in social housing and often my dad was on the dole (and working some side hustle most likely). Yet we had a house with a garden on a very, very low rent. There was a fantastic library in town we could rent books from - and also music or even videos.

There wasn't the disposable culture we have today. People didn't have vast wardrobes - or at least not the ones I knew. In the 80s it definitely felt like we were satisfied with less "stuff" than today. I didn't know anyone who had a regular holiday. My parents could get lots of presents for me and my brother for Christmas for £50 each. More stuff than either of us ever dreamed of.

So, today we do have a lot of stuff. We have so much luxury compared to them. But, like you said, it is social sedative that hides all the stuff our parents' generation has stolen. Landlordism is - as I have said so many times - the most revolting crime against the people of the last 30 years. Thatcher started it. Nobody has done anything to stop it. We don't have to OWN property. That is a big old lie. We just need to protect the rights of ordinary people to affordable housing.

Sadly, this Labour party will do nothing to fix it. The version of Labour that cared is long dead. All I hope is that they don't let it get any worse.
Not all boomers are the same
I’m a boomer and so are a lot of my friends and we understand how lucky we were
You don’t notice how hard you’re working so much when you’re getting rewarded. You do when you’re getting shafted

Let’s not pre-judge the next govt. They have to acknowledge the zeitgeist which requires an element of populism during the election to avoid loony left headlines from the right wing media
 
The hope is that this version of the Labour Party allows an Overton window shift away from the right. Whether it is too late is another question
I’d not heard of this before, but yes Starmer has to stay central to be electable and needs to shift when in government

It needs to be managed well to carry popular opinion with it and that requires people seeing improvement
 
With Labour saying that they want 16/17 year olds to vote I think there has never been a more important time to introduce politics into the school curriculum.
The teachings would need to be agreed by independent bodies and delivered in an agreed manner, to try and prevent bias, but the children (because that is what they are) really need to understand what each individual political party stands for and the benefits or negatives that each party might bring to the country and to the individual, to help them make an informed choice.
TBH, there are millions of people of all ages who still don’t understand what they are voting for because they don’t have the basic understanding of the political principles (or lack of) of each party, but like a specific policy on the manifesto.
The education could include guiding the children towards looking at the bigger picture rather than get swept away by one or two snappy catchphrases that promise much but deliver little.
Indeed :emoticon-0148-yes:
A working democracy demands buy in from the voters and to not cover it in a practical way in education is madness

People need to understand that politicians aren’t ‘all the same’ and that it’s their job to decide which are the good ones and which aren’t, vote on that basis, judge them on their actions and support or replace them the next time based on that

The ‘all politicians are #%^*+ (insert insult here)’ shtick is a con to undermine the imperfect yet best system we currently have to manage ourselves

Apparently all politicians are fantastic in Russia <badger>
 
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Not all boomers are the same
I’m a boomer and so are a lot of my friends and we understand how lucky we were
You don’t notice how hard you’re working so much when you’re getting rewarded. You do when you’re getting shafted

Let’s not pre-judge the next govt. They have to acknowledge the zeitgeist which requires an element of populism during the election to avoid loony left headlines from the right wing media


Spot in. Compared to every other period in history my generation was blessed, and it really annoys me when some of my contemporaries can’t see it. Okay, we had no central heating or double glazing and sometimes our clothes had holes in them, but we had no wars to fight, and the near universal conviction that things were going to go on getting better. Hard work payed off, and public services actually served the public. Unfortunately that is no longer true for a lot of young people, who may end up having to fight again for the rights our grandparents thought they’d gained for successive generations.
 
Christ Labour do like to shoot themselves in the foot don't they? The way they've handed this Diane Abbott stuff is nothing short of a debacle.

I don't think so, sadly. Labour want all those right-leaning votes. This nation has historically voted with a lean to the right in 90% of elections so it is a sound tactic. Right leaners all hate Diane Abbot (wonder why?). The people who support Diane Abbot are all desperate to get rid of the Tories anyway.

A no lose tactic here. Except loss of integrity - but Starmer doesn't have much of that anyway.
 
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Ticket touts had secret plans to undermine Labour’s proposals to prevent touts from hoovering up tickets for events

The touts organisation doing this is, and this is classic 1984 Doublespeak, CTF, the Coalition for Ticket Fairness <laugh>
 
I don't think so, sadly. Labour want all those right-leaning votes. This nation has historically voted with a lean to the right in 90% of elections so it is a sound tactic. Right leaners all hate Diane Abbot (wonder why?). The people who support Diane Abbot are all desperate to get rid of the Tories anyway.

A no lose tactic here. Except loss of integrity - but Starmer doesn't have much of that anyway.


You can’t deny it’s been badly handled though, which was Tom’s point I think. Either rehabilitate her completely, or expel her. Either of which could have been done months ago, by the sounds of it.
 
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You can’t deny it’s been badly handled though, which was Tom’s point I think. Either rehabilitate her completely, or expel her. Either of which could have been done months ago, by the sounds of it.
I do agree. I just don't think it makes any difference. And Labour has decided Abbott is a liability. Because Labour has no balls and tries to appease our press rather than push back against some of its nonsense,

All I am hoping for from this Labour government is Tory Light with competence.
 
I do agree. I just don't think it makes any difference. And Labour has decided Abbott is a liability. Because Labour has no balls and tries to appease our press rather than push back against some of its nonsense,

All I am hoping for from this Labour government is Tory Light with competence.
I agree, I doubt it makes much difference but the Tories will grab onto anything and ram it down the public's throats. I just think it creates unnecessary negative headlines.
 
I don't think so, sadly. Labour want all those right-leaning votes. This nation has historically voted with a lean to the right in 90% of elections so it is a sound tactic. Right leaners all hate Diane Abbot (wonder why?). The people who support Diane Abbot are all desperate to get rid of the Tories anyway.

A no lose tactic here. Except loss of integrity - but Starmer doesn't have much of that anyway.

I politically hate Abbot because of her stance on Russia/Ukraine and Assad and because she’s said some pretty racist things in the past.

I don’t disagree with her politics but that doesn’t make me hate her, while the things above do.

It’s baffling that Labour didn’t just let her bow out with dignity unless they are very clearly saying they don’t want the left vote but would prefer the centre right vote. All a bit odd.