Archie Gemmill Goal
Banned
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2015
- Messages
- 8,324
It more or less is now. Nobody actually seems to care about policies any more.
-
Security incident: ISF was recently accessed by intruders. Please change your password, and change it anywhere else you used it. Read more
UK - December 2019 General Election
- Thread starter The Don
- Start date
It more or less is now. Nobody actually seems to care about policies any more.
And yet, faced with a good deal less than flogging off the NHS, a goodly number of Tory MPs rebelled against their Govt. just a few weeks ago. I don't think the UK is anything like as immovably polarised as the US, either in Parliament or within the electorate. Plus, a UK voter can switch to Lib Dem, SDP, Plaid or whatever without taking the nuclear option of switching from Con to Lab or vice-versa.
And to think that we in the B household are planning to move right back into this
Pixel42
Schrödinger's cat
Virtually all of whom are standing down at this election.
The Tories are currently the furthest right they have been in my lifetime (and I'm 66). Their crackpot right wing, whose silence Cameron bought in the 2015 election by agreeing to a referendum so they didn't bugger up his chances of being elected, are now in total control of the party. More moderate Tories (and I can't believe I'm describing Michael Heseltine and Kenneth Clarke, Margaret Thatcher's loyal lieutenants, as moderate) have been expelled and/or are standing down.
Let this lot in with a majority and the damage they can do in five years will not be fixable by the next bunch, whoever they are. We're not just talking about the hardest and most damaging of Brexits, we're looking at the systematic dismantling of the welfare state and, quite possibly, the end of the United Kingdom.
Last edited:
And to think that we in the B household are planning to move right back into this
We'll welcome you with open arms.
Do you prefer rat, squirrel or pigeon?
Archie Gemmill Goal
Banned
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2015
- Messages
- 8,324
And yet, faced with a good deal less than flogging off the NHS, a goodly number of Tory MPs rebelled against their Govt. just a few weeks ago. I don't think the UK is anything like as immovably polarised as the US, either in Parliament or within the electorate. Plus, a UK voter can switch to Lib Dem, SDP, Plaid or whatever without taking the nuclear option of switching from Con to Lab or vice-versa.
And to think that we in the B household are planning to move right back into this
The Tory MPs rebelled, got kicked out of the party and now will pretty much all disappear and be replaced with alt-right headcases.
I'm not in the US so I can't do a direct comparison but the UK is certainly on that direction of travel and it's moved quite a way. The BBC isn't quite Fox News yet but it is getting that way.
A UK voter has options of course but in the vast majority of cases there are only really 2 options for any individual. In many cases it matters not a jot as the incumbent is so far ahead they will never be unseated.
Add in Russian billionaires, alt-right social media, a complicit media and a compliant electorate and you have a recipe for disaster.
Fortunately living out here in the countryside I can add pheasant, rabbit and boar to the alternatives, though the latter is more difficult to subdue.
Regarding Boris Johnson, I agree with Darat. The Conservative Party have clearly discovered that there is little or no blowback from refusing to appear on a TV debate - indeed you may even get a little righteous indignation bump - so why bother at all.
Instead, allow the Boris character to appear in a number of set pieces.
Are they dead? If so, don't mind. I also like eels (preferably dead).
Quite.
Matthew McGregor, who was part of Ken Livingstone's Mayoral campaign against Johnson in 2008, summed him up as "A very, very big character outside of election time and then in campaigns he makes himself as small a target as he possibly can.”
https://audioboom.com/posts/7435766...olicy-a-chastening-week-for-the-election-camp
Archie Gemmill Goal
Banned
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2015
- Messages
- 8,324
But it's effective.
Look at the other leaders, when they appear on interviews or debates they get slaughtered by the biased media. But they need to do it because they are behind and playing catchup.
Boris is miles in front and can only lose votes by being held to account. Especially when he can't be trusted not to say something stupid.
Speaking of holding him to account, he was on Nick Ferrari's LBC show this morning and took a couple of phone-in questions. That went about as well as you can imagine, yet he still managed to dodge and weave away from the worst of it. Not to mention tell his usual amount of lies and distortions about Labour.
Edit: A highlight, this was from Nick Ferrari:
Edit: A highlight, this was from Nick Ferrari:
That last one is a especially rich, given how Johnson has absolutely refused to even be drawn into how many children he has himself.
Last edited:
It is - and continues to be - remarkable how Johnson & Gove keep saying parliament blocked Brexit, when it was Johnson who withdrew the Withdrawal Agreement after MP's made it clear they wanted more time to scrutinise it.
It's even more remarkable how none of the reporters seem to call him on it.
It's even more remarkable how none of the reporters seem to call him on it.
Sorry, pigeon has now been removed, apparently some fly across the channel so we are of course having to deal with that in our new UK manner, we are killing all of them!
Grey Squirrels are foreign too, whilst red ones are too difficult to find and rather too small for a decent meal - so that's squirrel off the menu
3point14
Pi
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2005
- Messages
- 23,211
Stop the world I want to get off.
The bare faced cheek of the man. If this cretin wins an election I will cry
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...eer-general-election-brexit-itv-a9225601.html
The bare faced cheek of the man. If this cretin wins an election I will cry
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...eer-general-election-brexit-itv-a9225601.html
Archie Gemmill Goal
Banned
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2015
- Messages
- 8,324
There's also video doing the rounds because BoJo forgot he was being filmed and can be seen giving Nick Ferrari a 'cut throat' gesture to indicate he wants him to stop asking him about a topic and move on to something else. Which Ferrari does.
catsmate
No longer the 1
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2007
- Messages
- 37,042
catsmate
No longer the 1
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2007
- Messages
- 37,042
Actually you are both wrong; I refer you to the British Nationality (Falkland Islands) Act 1983.
3point14
Pi
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2005
- Messages
- 23,211
AI assume you'll be supporting this with facts and evidence? Specific instances of pro-Corbyn bias for example...
I don't assume this at all.
Any study of the issue at all demonstrates that Corbyn is the most smeared man in British politics.
That the poster who denies the conclusion of the article hasn't quoted it, refuted it or brought any other evidence to the table is extremely telling.
Information Analyst
Penultimate Amazing
The Labour Party is changing its approach to campaigning in the last two weeks. Apparently they have been surprised by the failure of the LibDem's "Stop Brexit" message in England and Wales and they're not losing support to that. Now they're going to attempt to court Leave voters in Leave constituencies by being more pro-Brexit:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50580699
Personally I think this is a terrible idea. IMO they will lose more Remain supporters than they will gain Leave supporters.
That said, Labour is the only possible alternative to the Conservatives in my constituency so I will be voting Labour despite my HUGE misgivings over their Brexit policy.
As I've pointed out before, the polling clearly shows that Labour has lost significantly more support to the pro-Remain parties than to pro-Leave ones. Trying to overtly court any residual pro-Leave supporters is just going to further alienate and drive away any residual pro-Remain ones.