UK Politics #6

[Ndrangheta]

I posted this in another thread (LBC Chit Chat) and it's not strictly UK Politics but as whatever happens in the US invariably affects us so I thought I'd post it here because it's important (at least to me).

... Trump was convicted by a grand-jury of sexual-assualt against a woman (by fingering her in a department store without consent), he then defamed her by saying essentially 'she loved it and it made her famous' and was subsequently found guilty by a jury of 12 members of the public and ordered to pay millions of dollars. Ask yourself, how would YOU feel if you daughter or loved-one was sexually assualted? Ask yourself about the kind of person who normalizes this sort of stuff by defending Trump by not mentioning it.

Trump has been declared bankrupt numerous times. He has numerous cases of corruption pending. He incited an insurrection and still contends the last election was a fix. Anyone who defends him in the media is doing so for one of two reasons: (a) They want to be paid and are liars or (b) they have a psychiatric disorder. Anyone who normalizes him is complicit in his crimes. Admittedly, that last bit could be viewed as extreme, but that's how I feel personally. The man is utterly vile. He also wears a diaper and shits his pants, but I haven't got the evidence for that right now.

I do agree though, LBC, like all commercial media outlets sows seeds of division. If it bleeds, it leads. Whatever Nick Ferrari may say, the legacy media (Global in this case) exist for one reason and one reason alone: to make a profit for their shareholders. The best way to create profit is not to broadcast reasonable, fair-minded, non-divisive, educational material. That's BORING, no one wants to listen to THAT. THAT doesn't make MONEY.

 

[Moley1]

So, they are still at it. A paltry tax refund that is designed to placate the Daily Mail, Express, Telegraph readers and which will effectively come from a £20 billion cut in public spending at a time when we need more public spending. And people will still vote for this party
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£1 million for a statue for WW2 losses... wtf.

It seems very reasonable to me. Why not commemorate those who gave their lives so that we can live in a society that enables people to complain about spending money on a statue to honour people who gave their lives so that we have a right to complain?
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I'm not convinced the next GE will result on the massive landslide for Labour that everyone is predicting.

Hopefully Reform will hoover up the votes from those who don’t think that the Tory Party haven’t lurched far enough to the right leaving the rest who are disaffected to vote Labour, LibDem, Green, Independent or to just stay at home. Labour will win, maybe not with a massive landslide but hopefully we shall see the current Tory Party presence greatly diminished and no sign of a Reform MP at all.
After 14 years of near criminal level of incompetence and self interest, the country is desperate for a Parliament populated by those who want the best for the country, not for themselves and their mates.

 

[monga]

 

[Ndrangheta]

Next year we also think there will be a rise in people using various statistics to make political captital. A year-on-year increase of 150 percent.

 

[monga]

Next year we also think there will be a rise in people using various statistics to make political captital. A year-on-year increase of 150 percent.

Thing with statistics is we usually see them in real time , they can’t be hidden .

 

[WeepingCassandra]

It seems very reasonable to me. Why not commemorate those who gave their lives so that we can live in a society that enables people to complain about spending money on a statue to honour people who gave their lives so that we have a right to complain?

I just don't think the top of a speech about how much more money we're all going to be losing out on is the time, place or tactful way to announce it. Also a million pounds... when there are people who can't afford to pay their bills, are choosing between feeding themselves or their kids, and can't keep the electric on it feels incredibly tasteless and without a doubt the creator of the memorial will be someone who is friendly with a Tory in power somewhere. 1 million feels excessive for a memorial, most built originally to commemorate the war dead were around £2100 - £5000 in the mid 1920s, which is about £150 to £350 thousand today (Crewe cost the town £1500 in 1924 and was largely funded by private investors, a town in Northumberland paid £2100 in 1925 and even the Cenotaph itself 'only' cost £7325, equivalent to £500k today roughly). I want to be clear that I have nothing against a memorial, or the people who it commemorates. People should be honoured and remembered but there's a time and a place to announce it and at the start of a budget in a country where more people have fallen into poverty under our current government than ever before is not it.

Finally, the fact that not a single person in this Government can seem to say the word Palestine really annoys me.

 

[Blueblue123]

The memorial thing came off like the Tories attempting to bat away the recent accusations of Islamaphobia imo

 

[Laughingforlife]

What do we all think of reform UK?
Not voting for them obviously, but would they be considered far right?
I have a friend who wants to vote for them and I find it all terribly worrying

 

[Miss Begotten]

What do we all think of reform UK?
Not voting for them obviously, but would they be considered far right?
I have a friend who wants to vote for them and I find it all terribly worrying

The current iteration of the Conservative Party is far right, so they and Reform could almost be seen as two cheeks of a particularly unpleasant arse.

 

[Laughingforlife]

The current iteration of the Conservative Party is far right, so they and Reform could almost be seen as two cheeks of a particularly unpleasant arse.

But people who vote Reform think that the conservatives are not right enough.

 

[Jen667]

You can hate the Conservative party all you want, but they are in no way 'far right'.

 

[Miss Begotten]

You can hate the Conservative party all you want, but they are in no way 'far right'.

They are.

British fascists join Johnson’s Conservative Party

The Johnson government is an expression of the global rise of authoritarian and far right forces, sponsored by the ruling class as a necessary bulwark to confront social unrest and growing socialist sentiment.

www.wsws.org

“The character of Boris Johnson’s new government has been made clear by the entry of members of the fascist Britain First into the Conservative Party.”
“The majority of our followers appreciate Priti Patel’s and Boris Johnson’s hardline approach.”
“..the significance of an avowed fascist party endorsing the xenophobic and anti-socialist agenda of Johnson’s government.”
“Besides Britain First, the Tories’ putrid political agenda has won the support and membership of far-right figureheads”

The Far-Right Takeover of the Tory Party Is No Laughing Matter

The National Conservative movement is pushing the UK’s Tories further right, and poses a threat to British politics in general.

www.worldpoliticsreview.com

And before you say it, yes I know that Johnson and Patel are no longer in the government, but Sunak has doubled down on everything those two stood for.

 

[monga]

What does the Cenotaph commemorate?

 

[Jen667]

They are.

British fascists join Johnson’s Conservative Party

The Johnson government is an expression of the global rise of authoritarian and far right forces, sponsored by the ruling class as a necessary bulwark to confront social unrest and growing socialist sentiment.

www.wsws.org

“The character of Boris Johnson’s new government has been made clear by the entry of members of the fascist Britain First into the Conservative Party.”
“The majority of our followers appreciate Priti Patel’s and Boris Johnson’s hardline approach.”
“..the significance of an avowed fascist party endorsing the xenophobic and anti-socialist agenda of Johnson’s government.”
“Besides Britain First, the Tories’ putrid political agenda has won the support and membership of far-right figureheads”

The Far-Right Takeover of the Tory Party Is No Laughing Matter

The National Conservative movement is pushing the UK’s Tories further right, and poses a threat to British politics in general.

www.worldpoliticsreview.com

And before you say it, yes I know that Johnson and Patel are no longer in the government, but Sunak has doubled down on everything those two stood for.

'Far right' means a party is extreme. It's, increasingly, a term that's used by the likes of Owen Jones to describe anyone who doesn't agree with him. Right leaning isn't 'far right.'

 

[Bobby Chariot]

What does the Cenotaph commemorate?

It's all in here

The Cenotaph - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[monga]

 

[Moth]

'Far right' means a party is extreme. It's, increasingly, a term that's used by the likes of Owen Jones to describe anyone who doesn't agree with him. Right leaning isn't 'far right.'

'Far right' isn't quantifiable, it's a subjective and largely a comparative term. So 'right leaning' is a pretty useless description unless you're going to qualify it by saying that a party is right leaning and another party is leaning a bit more to the right than that party while another is leaning even further!
While 'far right' is historically only used to denote fascism or Nazism, in a modern sense it encompasses groups that primarily espouse radical conservatism, ultra nationalist and authoritarian thinking e.g the 'alt-right' in the US. You can't have missed Liz Truss cosying up to the 'face' of the Alt-right i.e. Steve Bannon and how many member of the current Tory party still support her and her ultra 'free-market' libertarianism. When you also consider some of the policies that recent Tory party has adopted e.g limiting the right to strike, the right to protest, seeking to limit human rights it is hard not to come to the conclusion that the Tory party are now further 'right' than they have been. Parties like Reform (previously the Brexit party) and before that UKIP are just as economically right -wing as the Tories but socially (even) more authoritarian which places them closer to what 'far right' has traditionally been held to mean.

 

[Jen667]

'Far right' isn't quantifiable, it's a subjective and largely a comparative term. So 'right leaning' is a pretty useless description unless you're going to qualify it by saying that a party is right leaning and another party is leaning a bit more to the right than that party while another is leaning even further!
While 'far right' is historically only used to denote fascism or Nazism, in a modern sense it encompasses groups that primarily espouse radical conservatism, ultra nationalist and authoritarian thinking e.g the 'alt-right' in the US. You can't have missed Liz Truss cosying up to the 'face' of the Alt-right i.e. Steve Bannon and how many member of the current Tory party still support her and her ultra 'free-market' libertarianism. When you also consider some of the policies that recent Tory party has adopted e.g limiting the right to strike, the right to protest, seeking to limit human rights it is hard not to come to the conclusion that the Tory party are now further 'right' than they have been. Parties like Reform (previously the Brexit party) and before that UKIP are just as economically right -wing as the Tories but socially (even) more authoritarian which places them closer to what 'far right' has traditionally been held to mean.

I agree they're more to the right than they have been for a while. Under Cameron they took such a swing to the centre that you could argue this is just a return to more traditional conservatism.

 

[Miss Begotten]

View attachment 2802421

Good. Dreadful woman.

 

[Chocolategoggler]

Just watching Question Time and cackling at Fiona Bruce's behaviour butting in and tripping up the speaker every time they launch into their spiel.
She seems fed up with politicians waffling and not answering the question, and only seems to be letting Stephanie Flanders and Guto Harri speak.
ETA I was fully expecting one of the blokes to turn to her and say will you stfu and let me speak! - especially the conservative bloke!