Politics Thread!

[Dio]

My favourite was "What have China, India and Brazil got in common?" It seems he wasn't looking for answers involving oligarchs, abject poverty, wage slavery, pollution or disregard for life.

[merman]

CALLING POGO! CALLING POGO!

Desperately trying to play devil's advocate with my brain and find anything in Cameron's speech that doesn't make him look like a complete fucking cunt but I'm not coming up with anything.

A little help?

The whole Britain can rise again bit.

Arrangements and wording for the Scottish independence referendum to be completed Monday. 16 and 17 year olds to be allowed to vote badly and make a terrible decision.

[pogo]

Yes, Mr Salmond's probably got the best result he could, and can spin it for all he's worth, which is a lot. Can only see them losing that vote badly though which might then be the end of his government.

I've been following the US election much more this year. It has much higher entertainment value and is by far the most significant contest taking place this year. And it results in things of beauty like this:

[gravy]

Can only see them losing that vote badly though which might then be the end of his government.

What are you basing that opinion on?

[pogo]

At best there's only ever been a minority support for independence. And now it looks like a much worse choice as a Scotland outside the UK would be faced with the unpalatable choice of using the Pound, euro or a new currency. The first two would mean monetary policy being set in London or Brussels, a recipe for disaster as much of Europe has discovered, and hardly a popular solution for a newly independent country.

Launching their own currency in the current climate would be even worse: it would be very expensive and contentious and would trigger years of disruption. It's basically the doomsday scenario facing Greece etc. if they leave the euro. Done at any other time it might be the best option but now with Europe likely to acquire from six to seventeen new currencies in the next few years there couldn't be a worse time.

[pogo]

More foreign politics. One wonders why politicians are so despised here; in part it's as we don't have anyone in parliament like this, the Australian PM laying into the leader of the opposition:



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens ... -card.html

[(o)(o)]

CALLING POGO! CALLING POGO!

Desperately trying to play devil's advocate with my brain and find anything in Cameron's speech that doesn't make him look like a complete fucking cunt but I'm not coming up with anything.

A little help?

The whole Britain can rise again bit.

Go on then.. how does this work??

[Harlequin]

CALLING POGO! CALLING POGO!
Desperately trying to play devil's advocate with my brain and find anything in Cameron's speech that doesn't make him look like a complete fucking cunt but I'm not coming up with anything.
A little help?

The whole Britain can rise again bit.

Go on then.. how does this work??

A new Empire, perhaps?

Or does he just mean hiring out most of the population as wage slaves?

[(o)(o)]

CALLING POGO! CALLING POGO!
Desperately trying to play devil's advocate with my brain and find anything in Cameron's speech that doesn't make him look like a complete fucking cunt but I'm not coming up with anything.
A little help?

The whole Britain can rise again bit.

Go on then.. how does this work??

A new Empire, perhaps?

Or does he just mean hiring out most of the population as wage slaves?

Let's not portray this in a negative light. Being a wage slave is " aspirational ".





You'll spend the whole time aspiring to do something else..

[merman]

They've spent two years blaming Labour for the economic problems. Now they are shifting the blame to Europe and the world economic situation. You can bet your boots in the run-up to the next election they will start whining that they need more time to put things right.

[venusian]

More foreign politics. One wonders why politicians are so despised here; in part it's as we don't have anyone in parliament like this, the Australian PM laying into the leader of the opposition:

Yes, that's what's wrong with politics in this country. Not enough bad-tempered, tribally orientated, petty infighting.

[pogo]

More foreign politics. One wonders why politicians are so despised here; in part it's as we don't have anyone in parliament like this, the Australian PM laying into the leader of the opposition:

Yes, that's what's wrong with politics in this country. Not enough bad-tempered, tribally orientated, petty infighting.

Did you watch it? The Australian PM spends 15 minutes methodically ripping the leader of the opposition to shreds, using his own words against him. Hardly bad tempered and far from petty.

My point was that politics in this country is so dull as we've few politicians with similar skills. Boris Johnson, but he's exempted himself from national politics. George Galloway maybe, but he is too extremist. Alex Salmond in Scotland. But no-one in Westminster.

[Harlequin]

More foreign politics. One wonders why politicians are so despised here; in part it's as we don't have anyone in parliament like this, the Australian PM laying into the leader of the opposition:

Yes, that's what's wrong with politics in this country. Not enough bad-tempered, tribally orientated, petty infighting.

Did you watch it? The Australian PM spends 15 minutes methodically ripping the leader of the opposition to shreds, using his own words against him. Hardly bad tempered and far from petty.

As the article points out, she did so to distract from the immediate scandal in her own government.

[venusian]

Did you watch it? The Australian PM spends 15 minutes methodically ripping the leader of the opposition to shreds, using his own words against him. Hardly bad tempered and far from petty.

Yes I did. It's the usual inter-party point scoring, 15 minutes of ranting. It's certainly not going down the in annals as a classic piece of rhetoric. Just because it's gone "viral" doesn't mean it's worthwhile.

My point was that politics in this country is so dull as we've few politicians with similar skills. Boris Johnson, but he's exempted himself from national politics. George Galloway maybe, but he is too extremist. Alex Salmond in Scotland. But no-one in Westminster.

Self-serving opportunists one and all. Westminster politics isn't meant to be a spectator event, it's not a Roman arena and the closer it gets to one, the less effective it is. I'm thinking PMQs here. The dullness of UK politics is down not to the personalities but to the lack of the pursuit of new ideas, and the media's focus on personality and performance is at least partly to blame for that.

[merman]

It's a Catch 22 - the public needs personality to be interested, but want the country needs is people who will work hard FOR the country, not their own personal power/influence.

Caught a bit of Question Time last night, switched off when someone asked if Boris should challenge David "Dave, man of the people even though I'm related to King William IV" Cameron for the leadership.

But the key point was a young man in the audience. He was right that young people are being punished for the greed of older rich people. Tuition fees and housing benefit cuts harm the prospects for a whole generation who did not cause the credit crunch.