Off Topic The Politics Thread

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Should the UK remain a part of the EU or leave?

  • Stay in

    Votes: 56 47.9%
  • Get out

    Votes: 61 52.1%

  • Total voters
    117
  • Poll closed .
Atrocities carried out by troops has happened forever. In modern times, perhaps the last 100 years or so, it's usually been soldiers carrying out revenge on other soldiers, maybe having witnessed their mates being wiped out etc. Rape and murder will undoubtedly have occurred too.
All sides have done this, including our own, although discipline in the British armed forces is among the most stringent.
But......these rapes and summary executions of innocent people by the Russian soldiers is absolutely horrific and is quickly dispelling the believe that they are blameless and that it's just Putin's war.
Add to this the opinion polls showing overwhelming support for this invasion in Russia and it looks as though Russia could be an international pariah for a generation.

As more and more instances of atrocities come to light the utter ****s need to be stopped.
 
BBC news routinely calling Marine Le Pen and National Rally as ‘extreme right’ or ‘far right’. Personally I think the right/left definition of everything is both simplistic and misleading. I have no doubt that she and her followers have got some pretty horrible ideas about people who don’t look like them, but if she is ‘extreme right’ Nigel Farage and several cabinet members should also be called that. Consistency, Beeb.
 
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BBC news routinely calling Marine Le Pen and National Rally as ‘extreme right’ or ‘far right’. Personally I think the right/left definition of everything is both simplistic and misleading. I have no doubt that she and her followers have got some pretty horrible ideas about people who don’t look like them, but if she is ‘extreme right’ Nigel Farage and several cabinet members should also be called that. Consistency, Beeb.

Which cabinet members would you describe as 'far right'?
How would you define 'far right'?
 
Which cabinet members would you describe as 'far right'?
How would you define 'far right'?
As I said I don’t think right and left is a useful definition anymore, so I haven’t got a clear definition, but if we are talking social values and nationalist tendencies (as opposed to patriotic feelings) which can be combined with socialist or free market economic policies, I’d say Rees Mogg, Dorries, Patel, Coffey, possibly Truss could be called ‘far right’ if Le Pen and Farage are characterised as that. But, once again, I don’t think it’s a helpful phrase (‘far left’ equally misleading) and I’d prefer not to use it.
 
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As I said I don’t think right and left is a useful definition anymore, so I haven’t got a clear definition, but if we are talking social values and nationalist tendencies (as opposed to patriotic feelings) which can be combined with socialist or free market economic policies, I’d say Rees Mogg, Dorries, Patel, Coffey, possibly Truss could be called ‘far right’ if Le Pen and Farage are characterised as that. But, once again, I don’t think it’s a helpful phrase (‘far left’ equally misleading) and I’d prefer not to use it.

As I’ve said before, Le Pen has dissolved herself and her new party of the previous policies and rhetoric of her father, which colluded definitely be described as “far-right”.

I agree with your point G……I really don’t know what I am anymore.
 
As I said I don’t think right and left is a useful definition anymore, so I haven’t got a clear definition, but if we are talking social values and nationalist tendencies (as opposed to patriotic feelings) which can be combined with socialist or free market economic policies, I’d say Rees Mogg, Dorries, Patel, Coffey, possibly Truss could be called ‘far right’ if Le Pen and Farage are characterised as that. But, once again, I don’t think it’s a helpful phrase (‘far left’ equally misleading) and I’d prefer not to use it.

Agree that 'left' and 'right' aren't useful as descriptions.
I presume you mean that 'far right' is being used incorrectly, as that used to be Nazis etc?
The cabinet members you mention I agree are certainty well to the right.
Dorries is possibly the worst politician I can remember for a long time and there is ample competition.
 
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Agree that 'left' and 'right' aren't useful as descriptions.
I presume you mean that 'far right' is being used incorrectly, as that used to be Nazis etc?
The cabinet members you mention I agree are certainty well to the right.
Dorries is possibly the worst politician I can remember for a long time and there is ample competition.
It’s just misleading Col, because you can have right wing economics (free market, Hayek, Friedman etc) combined with very liberal social values, and left wing economics (Marx to Keynes) combined with very anti liberal social values (anti immigrant, anti abortion etc etc)with every possible combination in between. Stainsey’s mob are classic old style economic, class based leftists who have no truck with the identity politics of Labour at all. But they would be lumped together under a lazy ‘far left’ definition. Most of the parties that were once called extreme right have two things in common - ultra nationalism, and corporatist/statist economics - certainly not Tory free market. Add in a blood/race obsession and you have fascists.
 
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It’s just misleading Col, because you can have right wing economics (free market, Hayek, Friedman etc) combined with very liberal social values, and left wing economics (Marx to Keynes) combined with very anti liberal social values (anti immigrant, anti abortion etc etc)with every possible combination in between. Stainsey’s mob are classic old style economic, class based leftists who have no truck with the identity politics of Labour at all. But they would be lumped together under a lazy ‘far left’ definition. Most of the parties that were once called extreme right have two things in common - ultra nationalism, and corporatist/statist economics - certainly not free market. Add in a blood/race obsession and you have fascists.

Ahem…..Stainseys lovely bunch of chaps and ladies ;)
 
Every radio and TV news report on the French election describes LePen as 'far right' but gives no description of any other candidates. Hard to see how this can be fair reporting. They never described Corbyn as 'far left' during the general elections...