• Security incident: ISF was recently accessed by intruders. Please change your password, and change it anywhere else you used it. Read more

The Official UK Election Thread! 6th May it is!

It's something I've observed in the LibDem party over many years. Everything is spun to suit their audience, and to make them look like the good guys in any situation. Nothing is ever a point of principle for them, not even PR.
But it's not really an accusation I'd level at Labour or the Tories in the way I level it at the LibDems. With them, it's a constant pattern of behaviour that at first shocked me when it originally registered with me, but now I just expect it.

Rolfe.

And the LibDems are pro being seen as the nice guys and slagging off any parties that threaten them. They'll be pro anything and anti anything that suits them, to this end.

Anecdote. ....

When I lived in England, I mostly lived under a LibDem council. I even voted for them a couple of times. However, again I started to notice the pattern of behaviour. Promise anything, to gain popularity, then renege on it once in a position to do something. Take credit for anything that's popular, but wriggle out of responsibility for anything unpopular.

Rolfe.

Yes, it's just a series of anecdotes. You're not required to agree with me.




Ouch, there's another one.

Rolfe.

The candidate is David Steel's daughter, for goodness sake. Not that she has a reputation for bright shining honesty, mind you.

Rolfe.

Ming was quite embarrassing about the donation from the convicted fraudster. Oh, it was OK to keep the money because some commission said it had been accepted in good faith and spent as the fraudster had intended. So they kept it. Too bad about the people whose life savings it was.

Rolfe.

Still on dear old Ming and the fraudster's donation. It was OK because they didn't give the fraudster a peerage! Here's the story.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...emocrat-donor-convicted-of-fraud-1039869.html


Rolfe.

Spin anything in a way that makes their opponents look bad.
I agree with you, negative campaigning is distasteful.
 
Not what I was talking about, I don't think pointing out that donation, or CatBat's reputation, are dirty campaigning, but never mind.

Rolfe.
 
Not really relevant to this election, but I just saw this, from Ben Goldacre's blog.

Gillian McKeith spat out by the Tories

I thought it was going to tell of how they saw through her as a blatant fraud, but it's much tamer than that. She herself withdrew her candidacy.

Rolfe.
 
Now I think many of us have had a pop at her for her advice and products but that article is very unfair:

....., she harboured pretensions to taking a seat in the House of Commons. ....

Why was that "pretensions" - the HOuse of Commons (for good and bad) is open to us all, I would say it is very snobbish to consider that someone else's ambitions are "pretentious" .

.....

Her candidacy was scuppered when she stood down from being selected.


...snip...

"scuppered" - no it wasn't she just decided to not stand for selction. It would have scuppered if they went on to reveal that something scandalous had come to light or she was ineligible for some reason. Your candidacy isn't scuppered if you no longer want to be a candidate!

What a needlessly nasty piece of so-called journalism.
 
I suppose it's writing from 20/20 hindsight, after the exploding of not-a-doctor Gillian's pretentions in other areas. I imagine her naivety in just coming out with "I want to be "an" MP for Hampstead" did cause a bit of amusement - it might be fairly easy to get selected as a council candidate, but you have to jump through an awful lot of hoops to make it as an approved parliamentary candidate for any of the major parties, never mind actually get selected for a constituency. I suspect that's the "pretensions" they were talking about. If she'd just stood as an independent, it would have been a different story.

However, I agree the article puts a nasty spin on a fairly innocuous episode where she tried out as a Conservative council candidate but subsequently withdrew her application. What I found interesting was the description of the pushy American husband. I wonder how much of that is true?

Rolfe.
 
Worth bringing up again:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/18/charlie-brooker-bnp-racism

The BNP represents Britain's workers? They don't even represent basic British craftsmanship

Nick Griffin's first line is "Don't turn it off!", which in terms of opening gambits is about as enticing as hearing someone shout "Try not to be sick!" immediately prior to intercourse.

This years broadcast:


God, it's awful. It's like a satire. The 'interviews' (cough) with people on the street are -as Brooker said about the last one- like the participants in a particularly bad B&Q advert, or reminiscent of one of Al Qeada's hostages being forced to denounce the West.

For a party that makes one of its signature policies the fight against Islam, they certainly share a lot with Islamists. Both send out videos with poor sound, grainy quality and hideously unattractive representatives of their idealised religion/race.
 
It's below the belt I know but I can't help myself - he says he has four "beautiful" children - are they adopted?
 
Have a close look at the section that mentions they are Britian's fastest growing political party (about the 2.02 mark) note the island of BNP posters in the sea of empty seats!
 
A quibble with the line about British servicemen in WW2: "They fought to keep Britain British".

No, they fought to keep Britain Britain, i.e. a country which isn't run by racist anti-intellectuals. In simple terms, the kind of country in which stiff lipped Mr Montague discusses the West Indies chances with Mr Patel over his garden fence. To be binded together over something as whimsical and charming as Cricket or Tea rather than something as outdated and pointless as race.

A cup of tea is undoubtedly British, and the fact that it originated from outside these Isles doesn't make it less so. The BNP's philosophy would have to contest that.
 
Last edited:
Now I think many of us have had a pop at her for her advice and products but that article is very unfair:

Why was that "pretensions" - the HOuse of Commons (for good and bad) is open to us all, I would say it is very snobbish to consider that someone else's ambitions are "pretentious" .

"scuppered" - no it wasn't she just decided to not stand for selction. It would have scuppered if they went on to reveal that something scandalous had come to light or she was ineligible for some reason. Your candidacy isn't scuppered if you no longer want to be a candidate!

What a needlessly nasty piece of so-called journalism.

I agree with you on this.
 
A quibble with the line about British servicemen in WW2: "They fought to keep Britain British".

No, they fought to keep Britain Britain, i.e. a country which isn't run by racist anti-intellectuals. In simple terms, the kind of country in which stiff lipped Mr Montague discusses the West Indies chances with Mr Patel over his garden fence. To be binded together over something as whimsical and charming as Cricket or Tea rather than something as outdated and pointless as race.

A cup of tea is undoubtedly British, and the fact that it originated from outside these Isles doesn't make it less so. The BNP's philosophy would have to contest that.
Haven't wathed the clip yet. Not sure if I can face it. In WWII the Indian Army was under British command, 2 1/2 million Indians fought for Britian along with other colonial troups. There were also Poles, Czechs, French, Belgians, Dutch, Norwegians, Finns, Danish fighting for Britian. Without the Poles Enigma would not have been cracked.
 
Haven't wathed the clip yet. Not sure if I can face it. In WWII the Indian Army was under British command, 2 1/2 million Indians fought for Britian along with other colonial troups. There were also Poles, Czechs, French, Belgians, Dutch, Norwegians, Finns, Danish fighting for Britian. Without the Poles Enigma would not have been cracked.

When they talk about foreigners "flooding" the country there is some black and footage of (I think) a spitfire - given their cock-up with the Polish squadron you'd have though they'd have remembered that we needed those "foreigners flooding us" to help "us" fight WWII.
 
A quibble with the line about British servicemen in WW2: "They fought to keep Britain British".

No, they fought to keep Britain Britain, i.e. a country which isn't run by racist anti-intellectuals. In simple terms, the kind of country in which stiff lipped Mr Montague discusses the West Indies chances with Mr Patel over his garden fence. To be binded together over something as whimsical and charming as Cricket or Tea rather than something as outdated and pointless as race.

A cup of tea is undoubtedly British, and the fact that it originated from outside these Isles doesn't make it less so. The BNP's philosophy would have to contest that.

Well said.
 
Nick Griffin was just on the radio: he was talkng about the repatriation policy. Forced deportation for certain people (radical muslims mainly) and generous financial incentives for others. He went on to say that muslims who can accept there is no place for radical islam are not a problem so long as they agree that we need to tackle their higher birth rate

Whatever can this mean???:boggled:
 
So not only will he waste millions on giving money for 're'patriation, he will cause our country to lose billions when he realises that our hospitals and other institutions are chronically understaffed, causing him to waste even more billions when he has to fund the training of all the unskilled 'British' workers he wants to fill their place.

Withdrawing from Europe will lead to the UK far more vulnerable to terrorist attacks (Fairwell Europol, Eurojust), and all the thinking intellectuals -scientists, artists, historians, sociologists- will collectively slit their throats with their polling cards when they wake up to Griffin's hideous half-alive mug standing outside No10 on the morning of May 7th.

Just what you need in a time of global uncertainty!
 
Last edited:
Oh I don't know UW: later I am going to start researching my family tree: I am hoping for french or spanish ancestry ideally: but anywhere nice and warm and civilised will do. And a generous package for repatriation will be just what I need....
 
:) I don't think I'd find anything. My cousin who's been doing the research has turned up a singularly parochial and insular lot. Even the ones that emigrated to Texas married each other!

Rolfe.
 
I am not sure how honest it has to be, Rolfe.....it is only to convince the BNP, after all...
 

ISF - Join now!

Every member here is approved by hand. No bots, no spam, just people who care about evidence and honest debate.

Membership is free!

Create your free account

Back
Top Bottom