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 Orlanth wrote:

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
May has a big majority in her constituency, she's in a factory in her constituency, so it stands to reason that some of those factory workers voted for her, and yet, she won't take questions from her own supporters?

I often wonder at this nation...

This is not in any way uncommon actually. Theresa May is being singled out here for what all politicians do in election time. Those that don't normally have a seeded audience. Q&A's are handled with great care, as activists and hecklers bee-line for them. To minimise this actual public Q&A are taken during walkabouts to minimise the chances of a politcal ambush and as the meeting is mobile the politicans can move on.

When a politician, of any stripe and any party has a hostile activist on them they have to terminate the dislogue as the activist will be loud and persistent and the politician will look bad no matter the respective merits of argument.

They seemed to cope years ago.

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:

 Orlanth wrote:

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
May has a big majority in her constituency, she's in a factory in her constituency, so it stands to reason that some of those factory workers voted for her, and yet, she won't take questions from her own supporters?

I often wonder at this nation...

This is not in any way uncommon actually. Theresa May is being singled out here for what all politicians do in election time. Those that don't normally have a seeded audience. Q&A's are handled with great care, as activists and hecklers bee-line for them. To minimise this actual public Q&A are taken during walkabouts to minimise the chances of a politcal ambush and as the meeting is mobile the politicans can move on.

When a politician, of any stripe and any party has a hostile activist on them they have to terminate the dislogue as the activist will be loud and persistent and the politician will look bad no matter the respective merits of argument.

They seemed to cope years ago.

Don't be fooled, its how professional political campaigns have been run in the UK in the television age, and is now universally true in the age of the selfie.

May has a lot more to lose than she does to gain from to debates.


The media does a good job of ridiculing Corbs, she doesnt want to give him a platform where he can show the UK that he isn't an idiot.

Corbyn could actually profit from this.

If the disenfranchised as motivated to vote, and there are a lot of them, and he is otherwise underestimated he might well increase Labours seats in th house.

Sticking to his hard left guns in the current climate is not as stupid as it looks, there are a lot of have nots, and even while most will not see Corbyn as an actual solution to the nations problems many may well vote for him to throw a shoe in the machine.

.... did the Tories help them with the maths perchance...?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39671163

The chancellor has given a major hint that he is no fan of the 2015 Tory manifesto pledge not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT.
After the embarrassing U-turn on the attempt to raise taxes for the self-employed, Philip Hammond told me the government needed "flexibility" on taxes.
The manifesto is not yet final, so no irreversible decisions have been taken.
The chancellor said he didn't come into politics to "increase taxes".
But it is the clearest hint yet that Mr Hammond would like to see the 2015 manifesto promise on taxes significantly amended if not abandoned all together.
"We do need flexibility to manage the system and we do need to make sure that Theresa May and her government have a clear mandate to execute our plan," he told me.
"All chancellors would prefer to have more flexibility in how they manage the economy and how they manage the overall tax burden down [rather] than having to have their hands constrained.
"But what we put in the manifesto will be decided in the next few days and we will publish that.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39670703

Theresa May has ruled out cuts to the UK foreign aid budget if she wins the election but doubts have been cast on other existing Conservative pledges.
The prime minister said the commitment to spending 0.7% of national income on aid "will remain" although it must be spent "in the most effective way".
It follows speculation she was ready to drop it from the Tory manifesto.
But she declined to guarantee existing spending on state pensions which ensures a minimum 2.5% annual increase.

.. so the Tories are saying they'll raise taxes, maintain foreign aid and give pensioners less money...?

meanwhile :







Conservatives are attacking Corbyn for second referendum "Brexit disruption" ...whilst the LibDems attack Corbyn for second ref Remain "betrayal"
..best of luck there then Jezza


..not sure there's any truth to the story/idea going around that Corbyn plans/wants to parachute his son into a (safe) Labour seat..... doesn't strike me as being quite his MO but strange days indeed eh ?

http://www.markit.com/Commentary/Get/21042017-Economics-UK-retailers-suffer-worst-quarterly-sales-fall-for-seven-years

An ugly March meant retailers suffered their worst quarter for seven years, with sales down 1.4% in the first three months of 2017. The extent of the sales decline in the first quarter is the clearest indication yet from the official data as to how rising prices are hitting consumer spending and hurting economic growth.

Retail sales fell 1.8% in March, according to the Office for National Statistics, the fourth fall in the past five months. The retail data follow news that consumer prices rose 2.3% in March, the joint-highest rate of increase since September 2013
The March sales downturn means the retail sector acted as a drag on the economy in the first quarter (shaving 0.1% off GDP growth, according to the ONS). The quarterly decline in sales was the first since the closing quarter 2013 and the largest since the opening quarter of 2010.

Business surveys have already indicated that the pace of economic growth looks to have waned to 0.4% in the first quarter, warning that the slowdown was being caused mainly by weaker consumer spending.

The consumer is clearly coming under increasing pressure to rein in spending amid rising prices and weak pay growth, a trend which looks to have continued into the second quarter. Latest survey data showed the amount of cash that households had available to spend fell in April to the greatest extent for two-and-a-half years, blamed on rising living costs as inflation accelerates, as well as stubbornly subdued pay growth.

The survey showed spending was supported by households eating further into their savings and taking on more debt. Official data have already shown the household savings ratio to have fallen to a record low of 3.3% in the fourth quarter of 2016. Such spending is clearly unsustainable in the long run, and it’s looking likely that the economy has lost one of its main pillars of growth as households pull back on their spending.

and prices aren't going down anytime soon either...

..still BLUE passports eh ?!111


...
...all in all one keeps thinking of an episode of the New Statesman ..

Alan is summoned to the office of Sir Greville, who gives him terrible news: Professor Eugene Quail, the Government's leading oil expert, has rechecked his figures and discovered that the North Sea oil, the foundation of all of the Tories' fiscal policies, will run out any day now, triggering a depression. A snap election is called in the hopes that it will occur before the oil runs out, and Alan is put in charge of the Tory campaign. His strategy of offering free lottery tickets to all Tory voters and putting scantily-clad women in the party's ads is a massive success, and soon the Tories have a 15-point lead. Once again, Sir Greville summons Alan, and explains that the Tory leadership had actually hoped that appointing Alan would be an electoral disaster, as whichever party is in power when the oil runs out will take the blame for the consequences. Alan suggests appointing Piers to run the campaign, which results in the total collapse of Tory support. Alan then sells the information about oil supplies to Labour and the Liberal Democrats, and they too begin running deliberately awful campaigns, causing support for all parties to crater


never happen right ?

obligatory PE plug :

http://www.private-eye.co.uk/issue-1442/street-of-shame

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:

 Orlanth wrote:

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
May has a big majority in her constituency, she's in a factory in her constituency, so it stands to reason that some of those factory workers voted for her, and yet, she won't take questions from her own supporters?

I often wonder at this nation...

This is not in any way uncommon actually. Theresa May is being singled out here for what all politicians do in election time. Those that don't normally have a seeded audience. Q&A's are handled with great care, as activists and hecklers bee-line for them. To minimise this actual public Q&A are taken during walkabouts to minimise the chances of a politcal ambush and as the meeting is mobile the politicans can move on.

When a politician, of any stripe and any party has a hostile activist on them they have to terminate the dislogue as the activist will be loud and persistent and the politician will look bad no matter the respective merits of argument.

They seemed to cope years ago.

Before all the online digital media and such alot of events could of happened that never left the local area.
News was pretty much national and local papers and radio etc only.

Not the modern everyone can post to world stuff.

https://www.gov.uk/performance/register-to-vote/registrations-by-age-group

58,000 people under 25 registered to vote on Tuesday

 reds8n wrote:
https://www.gov.uk/performance/register-to-vote/registrations-by-age-group

58,000 people under 25 registered to vote on Tuesday

Interesting, however it doesn't necessarily mean that there will be a surge of support for the Lib Dems, although itd be nice if it was. Quite a few under 25s I work with are conservative leaning.
Could be an upswell of young conservatives rallying behind Brexit and May?
Who knows in today's political climate.

 reds8n wrote:


obligatory PE plug :

http://www.private-eye.co.uk/issue-1442/street-of-shame

Murdoch - utterly despicable, utterly predictable. Desmond did the same thing with the lottery - the Express and Star (and Channel 5 when he owned it) slag off the National Lottery on a daily basis, whilst he launches his own 'Health Lottery', which gives around half as much of every pound spent to charity, and he makes another fortune to add to that from his media and pornography empires. These are the people leading much of the political discussion in this country, which explains rather a lot.

 r_squared wrote:

 reds8n wrote:
https://www.gov.uk/performance/register-to-vote/registrations-by-age-group

58,000 people under 25 registered to vote on Tuesday

Interesting, however it doesn't necessarily mean that there will be a surge of support for the Lib Dems, although itd be nice if it was. Quite a few under 25s I work with are conservative leaning.
Could be an upswell of young conservatives rallying behind Brexit and May?
Who knows in today's political climate.

Younger voters are good though. Gives a wider view of the population.

 reds8n wrote:


..still BLUE passports eh ?!111

I'm still assuming I get to send the bill for that to the UKIP head office?

 jhe90 wrote:

 r_squared wrote:

 reds8n wrote:
https://www.gov.uk/performance/register-to-vote/registrations-by-age-group

58,000 people under 25 registered to vote on Tuesday

Interesting, however it doesn't necessarily mean that there will be a surge of support for the Lib Dems, although itd be nice if it was. Quite a few under 25s I work with are conservative leaning.
Could be an upswell of young conservatives rallying behind Brexit and May?
Who knows in today's political climate.

Younger voters are good though. Gives a wider view of the population.

I absolutely agree, it's frustrating that only the interests of the elderly voters are consistently represented in Govt. Politicians should be trying to appeal to a broad swathe of society, it should stop them being polarising dicks.
I genuinely cannot understand how pensions are untouched, yet education is being hammered. It's time to genuinely take back control, and not in a UKIP way.

 Future War Cultist wrote:
I don't know if it's worth voting. Sinn Fein will win in my area, and they'll continue to not take their seats whilst milking it for all it's worth.

What do Sinn fein MPs actually do for their constituencies then, if theyre always boycotting parliament? What good is an mp, if they don't participate in and represent their constituency in Parliament?

 r_squared wrote:

 jhe90 wrote:

 r_squared wrote:

 reds8n wrote:
https://www.gov.uk/performance/register-to-vote/registrations-by-age-group

58,000 people under 25 registered to vote on Tuesday

Interesting, however it doesn't necessarily mean that there will be a surge of support for the Lib Dems, although itd be nice if it was. Quite a few under 25s I work with are conservative leaning.
Could be an upswell of young conservatives rallying behind Brexit and May?
Who knows in today's political climate.

Younger voters are good though. Gives a wider view of the population.

I absolutely agree, it's frustrating that only the interests of the elderly voters are consistently represented in Govt. Politicians should be trying to appeal to a broad swathe of society, it should stop them being polarising dicks.
I genuinely cannot understand how pensions are untouched, yet education is being hammered. It's time to genuinely take back control, and not in a UKIP way.

I think there might be a pretty even mix of opinions among the newly registered.

If they're forming their opinions based on what they hear from other young people who already vote, they're probably pro soft-Brexit, as a reasonable majority of young people voted Remain. If they've been speaking to their parents, or older people at work, it's probably 50/50, as is the country (more or less). If it's based on the media, particularly the print media, then probably hard-Brexit. And if they've registered today because they went on The Express online looking for wardrobe malfunctions and like (which they will find in abundance on that 'family newspaper' website), and have been reading the news comments, they probably want T May H U N G as a T R A I T O R for giving all our sovereignties to forrins. Or something.

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:

 Future War Cultist wrote:
I don't know if it's worth voting. Sinn Fein will win in my area, and they'll continue to not take their seats whilst milking it for all it's worth.

What do Sinn fein MPs actually do for their constituencies then, if theyre always boycotting parliament? What good is an mp, if they don't participate in and represent their constituency in Parliament?

I'm trying to work that out myself too. At the council and MLA level Sinn Fein are pretty active, but they're big into what our American friends would call pork barrel spending. Greviance mongering too. They're always demanding Irish language programmes and signposts, or inquiries into historical shootings (but only ones involving the police or army. Republican shootings are not to be investigated at all, ever). But when it comes to real issues like setting budgets or creating jobs, they just start demanding independence. Just like the SNP. Meanwhile, Sinn Fein MPs refuse to take their seats but somehow still need to travel to London and back whilst claiming all they can in expenses. It's a puzzle.

 Darkjim wrote:

 r_squared wrote:

 jhe90 wrote:

 r_squared wrote:

 reds8n wrote:
https://www.gov.uk/performance/register-to-vote/registrations-by-age-group

58,000 people under 25 registered to vote on Tuesday

Interesting, however it doesn't necessarily mean that there will be a surge of support for the Lib Dems, although itd be nice if it was. Quite a few under 25s I work with are conservative leaning.
Could be an upswell of young conservatives rallying behind Brexit and May?
Who knows in today's political climate.

Younger voters are good though. Gives a wider view of the population.

I absolutely agree, it's frustrating that only the interests of the elderly voters are consistently represented in Govt. Politicians should be trying to appeal to a broad swathe of society, it should stop them being polarising dicks.
I genuinely cannot understand how pensions are untouched, yet education is being hammered. It's time to genuinely take back control, and not in a UKIP way.

I think there might be a pretty even mix of opinions among the newly registered.

If they're forming their opinions based on what they hear from other young people who already vote, they're probably pro soft-Brexit, as a reasonable majority of young people voted Remain. If they've been speaking to their parents, or older people at work, it's probably 50/50, as is the country (more or less). If it's based on the media, particularly the print media, then probably hard-Brexit. And if they've registered today because they went on The Express online looking for wardrobe malfunctions and like (which they will find in abundance on that 'family newspaper' website), and have been reading the news comments, they probably want T May H U N G as a T R A I T O R for giving all our sovereignties to forrins. Or something.

I think a pretty even mix though US /UK shows a odd trend that newer generations seem to have slid slightly more conservative than proceeding.
Not sure why. I'm at a loss to explain the social science.

It could be that increased social darwinism as experienced from the internet generation has hardened young people.

There is also a quiet cultural backlash against SJW's which leads to increased conservatism.

 jhe90 wrote:

I think a pretty even mix though US /UK shows a odd trend that newer generations seem to have slid slightly more conservative than proceeding.
Not sure why. I'm at a loss to explain the social science.

Fear. And/or despair.

Ever since the financial crisis politics has been going through the same journey as it did in 1930's Europe. Whilst I don't think living conditions have got to the absolute low they did following the 1928 depression (for most people), there is an awful lot of uncertainty and struggle in the world. Wages are stagnant, or falling. Long-term jobs prospects are poor, particularly if you want a rewarding career rather than just a means to pay bills and don't have high levels of academic qualification. Living costs are rising and our social support structures are being eroded by massive public debt and the stagnant economy. Pensions and old age healthcare are looking increasingly poor, particularly given how long you might need to depend on them with our increasing average age.

All of this has the inevitable reaction that people close ranks and try to protect the little chunk of what they already have, to the exclusion of everyone else. And no one wants to admit that we, collectively, screwed up by under regulating banks, over using credit and not proactively managing the loss of employment caused by offshoring and, increasingly, automation. So they turn to political parties that offer them an easy "it's all their fault, them over there." answer. Sometimes that's a left-wing "them" of the top 1%, etc., but more often it's the right-wing "them" of immigrants/minorities/"undeserving" poor.

Ironically said right-wing parties then tend to cut social services even further, reinforcing the whole damn thing.

And all of that is without the presence of a very real existential threat that supports the right wing message, i.e. Islamic fundamentalism. And whilst that represents a very small minority and, IMHO, the scale and organisation of the threat frequently gets overstated, it is very real. Having a group of actual foreigners who genuinely do want to kill us all and destroy our way of life is absolute gold for right wing media and politicians.

/cynicism :(

Front page of the Sun made me chuckle this morning...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-39675342

I hope that the working age people, and pensionable Tory supporters who read that finally start to see what she's all about. Potentially increased taxes, potential cuts to pensions, potential increases in foreign aid, has she accidentally spilt coffee on her notes, and got her speeches back to front in the confusion?

Coupled with the first day without coal that we celebrated, it's the first bit of good news i've had for a while.

She missed the line at the top of the list that said "things JC might do that we need to scare the public about"!

Orlanth wrote:It could be that increased social darwinism as experienced from the internet generation has hardened young people.

There is also a quiet cultural backlash against SJW's which leads to increased conservatism.

Jadenim wrote:

 jhe90 wrote:

I think a pretty even mix though US /UK shows a odd trend that newer generations seem to have slid slightly more conservative than proceeding.
Not sure why. I'm at a loss to explain the social science.

Fear. And/or despair.

Ever since the financial crisis politics has been going through the same journey as it did in 1930's Europe. Whilst I don't think living conditions have got to the absolute low they did following the 1928 depression (for most people), there is an awful lot of uncertainty and struggle in the world. Wages are stagnant, or falling. Long-term jobs prospects are poor, particularly if you want a rewarding career rather than just a means to pay bills and don't have high levels of academic qualification. Living costs are rising and our social support structures are being eroded by massive public debt and the stagnant economy. Pensions and old age healthcare are looking increasingly poor, particularly given how long you might need to depend on them with our increasing average age.

All of this has the inevitable reaction that people close ranks and try to protect the little chunk of what they already have, to the exclusion of everyone else. And no one wants to admit that we, collectively, screwed up by under regulating banks, over using credit and not proactively managing the loss of employment caused by offshoring and, increasingly, automation. So they turn to political parties that offer them an easy "it's all their fault, them over there." answer. Sometimes that's a left-wing "them" of the top 1%, etc., but more often it's the right-wing "them" of immigrants/minorities/"undeserving" poor.

Ironically said right-wing parties then tend to cut social services even further, reinforcing the whole damn thing.

And all of that is without the presence of a very real existential threat that supports the right wing message, i.e. Islamic fundamentalism. And whilst that represents a very small minority and, IMHO, the scale and organisation of the threat frequently gets overstated, it is very real. Having a group of actual foreigners who genuinely do want to kill us all and destroy our way of life is absolute gold for right wing media and politicians.

/cynicism :(

I was working in office last year when the whole Brexit was kicking off and the vote.
Fairly large. Most of the worker bee or above where remain, but a good majorityof lower staff went leave, and not much left wing views.
A few foreign names, UK citizens, even used assumed names on phone to sound more English.

But yeah your points seem to have truth to them thinking about it.
And the terror point... Yeah, there's a real enemy they don t even have to make one up! It does all work for them.

 r_squared wrote:
Front page of the Sun made me chuckle this morning...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-39675342

I hope that the working age people, and pensionable Tory supporters who read that finally start to see what she's all about. Potentially increased taxes, potential cuts to pensions, potential increases in foreign aid, has she accidentally spilt coffee on her notes, and got her speeches back to front in the confusion?

Coupled with the first day without coal that we celebrated, it's the first bit of good news i've had for a while.

Well the Times headlines, if true, made me laugh. What was this about Trump favouring the UK in trade deals? Oh no wait they want one with the EU first. Guess we'll end up with the scraps then. Still we have our cakes, biscuits and tea (that we would like to sell to India).

The first day without Coal is good news but I would note a word of caution. Co2 emissions are still increasing. We have to be careful to ensure that we look at this holistically. Our heavy industry (steel etc) has been declining considerably over the last few decades and they use a lot of energy. However we are now using more of these resources than ever before, its just they are manufactured elsewhere (such as the far east) where there are still huge amounts of coal fire plants in operation. All we have done is shifted these carbon emissions to other parts of the world. We may locally be reducing CO2 but our overall global impact is almost certainly still increasing its just its difficult to determine precisely.

However there is definitely some good news today...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39677950

I'm sure there are people who work with Councils across the Country that will raise a cheer to this pile of proverbial leaving politics.

 Orlanth wrote:
There is also a quiet cultural backlash against SJW's which leads to increased conservatism.

The comments here -

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/795013/BREXIT-Donald-Trump-European-Union-Britain-trade-deal-ahead-Angela-Merkel-queue

are just some of that quiet cultural backlash, it's very dignified. Good spelling too.

 Darkjim wrote:

 Orlanth wrote:
There is also a quiet cultural backlash against SJW's which leads to increased conservatism.

The comments here -

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/795013/BREXIT-Donald-Trump-European-Union-Britain-trade-deal-ahead-Angela-Merkel-queue

are just some of that quiet cultural backlash, it's very dignified. Good spelling too.

What ae you trying to say? That Trump was talking out of his rear and making it up as he went along?

Well, knock me down with a feather.

Personally, I blame American dakka members for not warning us about Trump


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And another thing, we've all bemoaned the gak poor state of British politics, well, British journalism is fast going to hell in a hand cart as well.

This latest puff piece from the Guardian, devoid of any critical analysis, was probably spoon fed to it from No.10

Is this what passes for journalism these days?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/apr/22/the-walks-give-clarity-how-wales-hike-helped-pm-decide-on-next-step

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And another thing, we've all bemoaned the gak poor state of British politics, well, British journalism is fast going to hell in a hand cart as well.

This latest puff piece from the Guardian, devoid of any critical analysis, was probably spoon fed to it from No.10

Is this what passes for journalism these days?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/apr/22/the-walks-give-clarity-how-wales-hike-helped-pm-decide-on-next-step

If I was to hazard a guess it's similar to the suggestions we heard about businesses publically criticising the ongoing Brexit negotiations

i.e. "Fall in line otherwise you'll be excluded from the conversation"

It's the same strategy Trump is using to ensure that he looks a lot better than he actually is (deny/exclude negative criticism, positively support those who give you an easy ride).

It doesn't help that papers are no longer anything but party political broadcasts (depending on which side the owner supports) apart from the more niche ones like Private Eye where there is a more independent and critical analysis.

I think I will book a holiday in Wales. It sounds nice.

I haven't been since I was a child.

 Whirlwind wrote:

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And another thing, we've all bemoaned the gak poor state of British politics, well, British journalism is fast going to hell in a hand cart as well.

This latest puff piece from the Guardian, devoid of any critical analysis, was probably spoon fed to it from No.10

Is this what passes for journalism these days?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/apr/22/the-walks-give-clarity-how-wales-hike-helped-pm-decide-on-next-step

If I was to hazard a guess it's similar to the suggestions we heard about businesses publically criticising the ongoing Brexit negotiations

i.e. "Fall in line otherwise you'll be excluded from the conversation"

It's the same strategy Trump is using to ensure that he looks a lot better than he actually is (deny/exclude negative criticism, positively support those who give you an easy ride).

It doesn't help that papers are no longer anything but party political broadcasts (depending on which side the owner supports) apart from the more niche ones like Private Eye where there is a more independent and critical analysis.

In my personal pseudo-liberal totalitarian utopia, anyone who reads any newspaper would also have to read Private Eye. All of it mind, not just the funny bits. Maybe not the really tortuous stuff about fraud trials that almost invariably result in nothing whatsoever. That way, everyone would know what an essential free press say, but also, crucially, why they say it. I have no idea how it would change the political landscape, but everyone would be a lot better informed.

Edit - more on (a moron from) our Great British press -

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/apr/22/the-sun-prints-apology-for-kelvin-mackenzie-column-on-ross-barkley

WARNING - the above link contains a photograph of Kelvin Mackenzie.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
I think I will book a holiday in Wales. It sounds nice.

I haven't been since I was a child.

I wouldn't do that.


It's full of Welsh people.

 Darkjim wrote:


In my personal pseudo-liberal totalitarian utopia, anyone who reads any newspaper would also have to read Private Eye. All of it mind, not just the funny bits. Maybe not the really tortuous stuff about fraud trials that almost invariably result in nothing whatsoever. That way, everyone would know what an essential free press say, but also, crucially, why they say it. I have no idea how it would change the political landscape, but everyone would be a lot better informed.

I think you are asking quite a lot, after all this means a good fraction of the UK populace would have to start thinking about the world they live in whereas they can otherwise live in a strange fantasy land where they can occasionally scream at someone randomly for the world not doing what they want it to do. It's a strange thing but if you suggested to these people that they go and have a lobotomy they would be opposed yet they happily only read the Daily Fail and Scum papers which in reality are just doing exactly the same thing to them.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 welshhoppo wrote:

 Kilkrazy wrote:
I think I will book a holiday in Wales. It sounds nice.

I haven't been since I was a child.

I wouldn't do that.


It's full of Welsh people.

It could be a lot worse, you could have holiday in England and that is full of English people.

Wales is a lovely place though, plenty of dramatic scenery even if the weather can be a bit wet at times.

However I am unsure what this has to do with UK politics?

 Whirlwind wrote:

 Darkjim wrote:


In my personal pseudo-liberal totalitarian utopia, anyone who reads any newspaper would also have to read Private Eye. All of it mind, not just the funny bits. Maybe not the really tortuous stuff about fraud trials that almost invariably result in nothing whatsoever. That way, everyone would know what an essential free press say, but also, crucially, why they say it. I have no idea how it would change the political landscape, but everyone would be a lot better informed.

I think you are asking quite a lot, after all this means a good fraction of the UK populace would have to start thinking about the world they live in whereas they can otherwise live in a strange fantasy land where they can occasionally scream at someone randomly for the world not doing what they want it to do. It's a strange thing but if you suggested to these people that they go and have a lobotomy they would be opposed yet they happily only read the Daily Fail and Scum papers which in reality are just doing exactly the same thing to them.

It's a good point, but in my own personal pseudo-liberal totalitarian utopia, everyone would think precisely the way I do, so it wouldn't be a problem