Politics Thread!

[Portland]

nuff said

[pogo]

That LBC interview raises an important point. It would be easy to end immigration on the scale we now have. Make it a crime to employ illegal immigrants. Start closing businesses and throwing their owners in jail. Pretty soon illegal immigrants would not be able to get jobs, would stop coming here, and go home.

It’s why they’re so keen to leave France and come here. France is not really that bad; sure it’s being run into the ground by idiots but there are jobs. Or they could easily go to Germany, or Holland where they’re crying out for workers. The difference is though that these countries make it much harder to employ illegals. They end up selling trinkets on the streets as no-one will employ them. But they can get jobs easily here.

Politicians know though that clamping down on employers would be very unpopular. It would also do large amounts of damage to the economy, not least the service economy in places like London, which would suddenly find itself short of cleaners, shop assistants, restaurant workers. In theory they could replace them with Brits but London is just too stupidly expensive for someone on the minimum wage. Rent alone would cost more than you earn. Even if jobs in London paid double it’s not enough to compensate people for the extra expense.

[gravy]

haha!

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... rantee-law

[pogo]

How the fuck would that work? If the law passed but someone still declined to attend how would it be different from now? Would the police be able to arrest the erring leader, the PM even, and physically compel them to attend?

It might be sensible to take it out of the hands of broadcasters. Set up an independent commission to organise debates, much as happens in the US. Broadcasters will broadcast them anyway, they need not be involved in planning them. An independent commission could take a longer view and draw up guidelines for participation well in advance.

[gravy]

It'd guarantee that the debates took place and the broadcasters wouldn't be hamstrung by an obligation to be politically neutral if someone didn't turn up.

That's the situation right now, Cameron's trying to close this down and it may well be illegal for broadcasters to empty chair him.

[zip accident]

Is there any normal citizen who hasn't learned by now to turn the TV off when party political broadcasts start?

TV is bad at it's best, but those are the least entertaining programmes they make.

[Ollie]

"I'll get you Butler!!"

[Ollie]

I reckon they should empty-chair Cameron and Miliband should do a Clint Eastwood. I'd tune in to see that.

[Portland]

"I'll get you Butler!!"

My original on FB and Twitter was for #UKIPWithTheShits and I labelled it "Nigel knew he could only hold back the flock of sparrows for a little longer..." or something to that effect.

[tufty]

Meanwhile, some quallerty KIPPERING!

[(o)(o)]

Don't bury carbon!

Duh!

UKIP requires carbon be stored and used properly... to help trees grow.. and for blacking up to perform on the 'The Black and White Minstrels Show' when it returns to our TV schedules.

[(o)(o)]

"Lord Monckton" is for those who don't know, UKIPs resident-affiliated 'climate change is a hoax' nutter.

Here's the guy in action :



I don't know if it's improper to mention the mans googly eyes and buffoon like nature, that UKIP supporters often adhere to.

[F-ZeroOne]

The eyes I think are due to the same condition Marty Feldman had. As far as buffoonery goes, though, Feldman was a comedian.

[pogo]

The polls are looking interesting at the moment:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/poll-tracker

Labour 33%
Conservative 32%
UKIP 15%
Liberal Democrats 9%
Green 6%
Others 5%

Right now (e.g. on Question Time which is on in the background) everyone is assuming there will be hung parliament. But that’s not at all clear, from the above numbers.

Last time the Lib Dems did very well, with 23% of the vote and 57 seats. Problem is no party comes close to that this times. The Lib Dems and UKIP together have about (within rounding errors) that many votes. But that doesn’t mean they will split the Lib Dem seats. The Lib Dems only did so well last time as their vote is concentrated in a few areas. They will be mostly wiped out and Labour and the Tories will be the main beneficiaries. UKIP are having to win seats from scratch and with only 1/6 the vote will win very few.

Other English parties will do even less well. The Greens are unlikely to do any better than last time (and hearing them talk up their position in a coalition is comically optimistic). The only parties likely to improve are PC and the SNP. The latter are probably the only partly other than the main two able to pick up many seats, but it’s unclear how many from their current 6.

It seems likely therefore that the middle will be much smaller this time, with more SNP and maybe PC but far fewer Lib Dem. If so the chance of a hung parliament is much less. Labour look most likely to win, given the polls and the fact they need far fewer votes to win a majority.

[Darkflame]

Real shame about the Greens and Others.
People say "better the devil you know" but Id to try some new devils myself.