As a centre right i would disagree with that. What i would say about the british electorate (maybe this is research) is that to win the election in modern times, it seems that there doesn't need to be any integrity at political level anymore and ministers and parties can get away with lies and dishonesty. You only need to see all the half lie truths that get peddled and the lack of any long term planning in government from any party. This isn't helped by everyone having a voice nowadays and media being so prominent in our lives but it is worrying how modern day politics has changed. Maybe it's just so much more obvious nowadays compared to back then but the feeling i have is that MPs and people wanted to work for communities and countries but by and large they are in it for themselves and their parties nowadays (on the whole not all MPs)
That's cobblers so feel free to shoot me down for what I am about to say even though the statistics seem to support it. The UK has a poorer education system than many civilised countries and certainly a lower standard than Germany does. That might be an indicator that they possibly are more intelligent than we are. Was that always so? Possibly but I doubt it. IMO, the UK has gone backward over the years whereas the Germans have had to learn some very hard lessons in the 20th century and with the aid of the West in rebuilding it. It has rehabilitated itself during a prolonged period of economic prosperity achieved because it had to while UK politicians have bleated on about past glories. The breeding grounds for fascism are poverty, a poor education system and the nationalist rhetoric of a demagogue. You can tick the first two in the UK. As for the UK rejecting fascism? By making deals with them.? That is what would have happened had Churchill not been around. Stop the self -delusion and open your eyes
Just because politicians on both sides peddle half-truths and over-optimistic manifesto policies does not mean the electorate are as thick as mince. It simply means the electorate vote for the party that they think is most likely to deliver some of the promises. In the last election, Corbyn was promising more money to different causes every day - free broadband, university fees paid, Waspi women, wholesale nationalisation etc without showing how he would pay for it. The electorate chose the least bad choice.
It is true that having been responsible for the death of tens of millions of people during WW2, Germany had to reinvent itself. I'm a big admirer of how they went about it. But the fact is, their population in the late 1920's and 1930's must take some responsibility for those deaths since they voted in Hitler. He was not imposed on them. They chose him. Britain did sit back on its laurels after the war, and the 1970's were dire industrially. Thatcher came in and changed it. Suddenly people were working and had a much higher standard of living. Some were left behind, it's true, and that's the main criticism of Thatcher. But Blair is on record as saying he was grateful of Thatcher's legacy. The Far Eastern countries come out best in terms of education, although it's still true that some of the best universities are still in the UK. I can't speak for Yorkshire, but around here in Sussex, the state education is good, and I haven't noticed the rise of fascism either, although the rise of the AfD in Germany is worrying given that country's past. We have a sophisticated electorate that can compare to any other country. Germany has changed and, sure, can now compare with us. Their electorate have shown themselves to be right minded members of society, although there is still darkness in East Germany. As for rejecting fascism in the 1930's, you have only to look at the demise of Mosley's BUF to see that the British rejected fascism. You have a warped understanding of history. What Chamberlain, Halifax and others were espousing in 1939 was not the adoption of fascism, but simply to stay out of a war in the East to save British lives. Churchill had the perspicacity to see beyond that.
Not sure we can be all that high and mighty about rejecting fascism when Farage’s old mob won 1/8 of the vote five years ago and the Tories had to move right to hoover up their support six months ago.
Tbf the money we are printing out now he could have done that or more (p.s. i think corbyn was having a laugh too) Politics nowadays is a dirty affair. We have turned more american and we are stuck in a 2 party political liefest. I think you hit the nail on the head about when you talk about picking the least worse option rather than actually choosing the right people for the job. I guess that digresses from your thick as mince debate anyway but the change in politics is a symptom of our electorate
Look up the definition. Throwing this description around re mainstream political parties simply undermines the issue when it does exist in another context. Same goes for racism
Description Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/) is a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society and of the economy which came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe. Not sure we’re that much better.
I think we're more in the realms of extreme, or crony, capitalism than actual facism https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crony_capitalism In its worst form, crony capitalism can devolve into simple corruption where any pretense of a free market is dispensed with. Bribes to government officials are considered de rigueur and tax evasion is common. ... Corrupt governments may favor one set of business owners who have close ties to the government over others.
He could have - and would have had nothing left for a very rainy day. A lot of those on the left [not saying you necessarily Bobby] seem to be claiming that because the Government is now printing £, Corbyn's spending proposals were feasible. If anything, the converse is true. It's exactly because of the need to print money in the bad times, like we see today, that you can't afford to do it in the good times. Put more simply, you fix the roof when it is shining.
We Brits are very selective of our history I find. Yet happy to bring up the Germans at a drop of a hat. To think that British history shows sophistication... well just ask the Indians in the late 40s, the people of Derry in 72, the Boer people in 1900, the Kenyans in the 50s ... the list is endless. Like the Germans the British people voted the people in who oversaw these atrocities.
Thankfully our proud history in Ireland hasn't come back to bite in our hour of finest jingoistic madness...oh, wait...
Yes, the Boers in 1900. Didn't Britain patent the first concentration camps then? We have a proud history of innovation don't we. And that was only 35 years before the Nazis came to power and later on, perfected our methods. Hmm what's another 35 years to the 87 that Goldie thinks is too short to ignore when making a duff point.
Germany was brought up when its electorate was held up as sophisticated, compared to British thick as mince. It's fair to look at recent history. Let's get things into scale. Nazi Germany tortured and murdered 6 million innocent Jewish civilians alone. India became independent in 1947. Bloody Sunday was tragic for the 13 protesters that were killed - In 1972 alone, the IRA killed 100 British soldiers. The Boer Camps should never have been created but British soldiers were dying of disease at the same rate as the Boer families. The Mau Mau were about as savage as any terrorist organisation could be, and against their own people.
Sorry to be pedantic Goldie but Nazi Germany had quite a bit of help from local Ukrainians, Latvians, Lithuanians and Poles etc to help murder their Jewish populations.
