The Politics Thread 2019

[Norman]

9 minutes ago, 1of4 said:

Glad to hear you had New Year's Day off this year.

I had 2 weeks off over Xmas. But then again, I was in a different job.

[uttoxram75]

Frankie Boyle sums up the absolute mess we're in very well.....

"Pretty soon we will have to unite to fight climate breakdown, or die. Maybe this election is our last chance to hate each other, let's try to enjoy it."

 

 

[ariotofmyown]

1 hour ago, Dappled Ram said:

Thank you for your comments.  Certainly numeracy and formal English ( grammar, punctuation, and spelling) have improved but at what cost? Children are pressurised to achieve good results.  In my later years of teaching children were removed from PE, Music, Art and other subjects in order to receive extra coaching in Maths and English. This often happened on Friday afternoons.  Mental health in children is a major cause for concern. There is a very interesting article in the Guardian about escalatingmental health issues in children and as many teachers know pressure to achieve is one of several factors in this.  I  know of several children and young people who have have committed suicide, self harmed or developed anorexia in recent years.  Working in the seventies in Sheffield for over 10 years I honestly can't remember any and that was in Pitsmoor, an area of deprivation.  For children suffering now there is an incredibly long wait for psychological intervention.  The government brings in all these initiatives and doesn't think of the consequences or make provision for them. It's a bit like giving people statins to prevent deaths by heart attacks or strokes which is great except people live longer, develop dementia and then find there is no care available. Lack of forward planning once again!

I think we got lucky in our kids school as it's a decent area and a great school. Talking to my mate in Manchester last week and his 5 yr old goes to school in a good area. She is overwhelmed by the amount of homework she has to do and they spend time doing it each weekend/half term. My kids are in year 5 and only just started getting the odd bit of homework now.

[ariotofmyown]

1 hour ago, Van der MoodHoover said:

Here's a fun stat I've nicked from private eye.....

3% is the new budget deficit target that sajid javed says is sustainable and will provide investment. 

2.8% was the budget deficit just before the financial crash which sajid javed says was labour "trashing the economy ".......

I know Corbyn isn't everyone's cup of tea but I really don't know why people think this current Tory mob won't be so much worse.

Oh actually, I do, a lifetime of been slowly brainwashed by newspapers owned by right wing interests and now the same continual drip feed on internet advertising and fake news.

[Wolfie]

11 hours ago, uttoxram75 said:

Is it not a hypothetical theory that Labour will create “inflation in the millions”?

It may be your opinion but that’s all.

It's not an opinion or a prediction even, but it is a possible outcome of following the socialist policies of that country - which Corbyn is/was such a fan of.

[Angry Ram]

9 hours ago, ariotofmyown said:

I know Corbyn isn't everyone's cup of tea but I really don't know why people think this current Tory mob won't be so much worse.

Oh actually, I do, a lifetime of been slowly brainwashed by newspapers owned by right wing interests and now the same continual drip feed on internet advertising and fake news.

Don't actually agree with that last sentence. There are both left and right wing press, why is one side 'brainwashing' people and not the other?

[GboroRam]

11 minutes ago, Angry Ram said:

Don't actually agree with that last sentence. There are both left and right wing press, why is one side 'brainwashing' people and not the other?

Well, I'm for one seeing an impressive increase in the number of adverts on Facebook from "community" groups telling me how much labour will cost me. 

Strangely I don't get any with the other argument. These campaigns must have cost loads of roubles. 

[1of4]

37 minutes ago, Van Wolfie said:

It's not an opinion or a prediction even, but it is a possible outcome of following the socialist policies of that country - which Corbyn is/was such a fan of.

Or we could follow the USAs policies. Where millions of it's citizens can't afford good health care, resulting in the unnecessary death of thousands of people. Where the top one percent of it's population control more of the country's wealth than the bottom fifty percent. Where the police unjustly kill hundreds of their own citizens and are never punished because of the bigotry that is still allowed to flourish there. Where food standards are far worse an our own country's present standards.

[Wolfie]

46 minutes ago, 1of4 said:

Or we could follow the USAs policies. Where millions of it's citizens can't afford good health care, resulting in the unnecessary death of thousands of people. Where the top one percent of it's population control more of the country's wealth than the bottom fifty percent. Where the police unjustly kill hundreds of their own citizens and are never punished because of the bigotry that is still allowed to flourish there. Where food standards are far worse an our own country's present standards.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm advocating ?

[sonofmidnight]

43 minutes ago, GboroRam said:

Well, I'm for one seeing an impressive increase in the number of adverts on Facebook from "community" groups telling me how much labour will cost me. 

Strangely I don't get any with the other argument. These campaigns must have cost loads of roubles. 

All parties are targetting who they think will vote for them. This means people will inevitably received very unbalanced views and information. It sounds like they are completely wrong with you.  I think the only way we can get all the information and views from each party is to do our own research.  

[Wolfie]

49 minutes ago, GboroRam said:

Well, I'm for one seeing an impressive increase in the number of adverts on Facebook from "community" groups telling me how much labour will cost me. 

Strangely I don't get any with the other argument. These campaigns must have cost loads of roubles. 

It's a fact, though, that Labour's spending plans are a lot higher than the Tories, whatever our opinions of that may be.

Therefore isn't it reasonable that you won't see posts from Labour groups saying how much Tory plans will cost you?. People in glass houses & all that.

There are pleny of other things the Tories can be attacked on.

[maxjam]

1 hour ago, Angry Ram said:

Don't actually agree with that last sentence. There are both left and right wing press, why is one side 'brainwashing' people and not the other?

Exactly.  How many people only post articles from The Guardian on this forum?

The media has got a lot to answer for with regards to the escalating division and the inability of both sides to talk to each other.  If you are 'for' one side then you have to be 'against' everything the other side does, the shared middle ground is rapidly shrinking. 

[Curtains]

Who gives planning permission for new houses in flood plains. 
 

lots of Labour Councils up North I suspect. 

[Ramshankered]

23 minutes ago, Curtains said:

Who gives planning permission for new houses in flood plains. 
 

lots of Labour Councils up North I suspect. 

Who made cuts to the UK's flood defences?

David Cameron and his successors, that's who. 

[Curtains]

4 minutes ago, Ramshankered said:

Who made cuts to the UK's flood defences?

David Cameron and his successors, that's who. 

So Blair did his best did he. 

[Stive Pesley]

38 minutes ago, maxjam said:

The media has got a lot to answer for with regards to the escalating division and the inability of both sides to talk to each other.  If you are 'for' one side then you have to be 'against' everything the other side does, the shared middle ground is rapidly shrinking. 

Agreed - as I said the other day they stoke the flames as the only means necessary to generate their income and ultimately their survival

But I also think that this hasn't happened in a bubble - rapidly rising inequality in the western economies is the fuel that all this runs on.

It's all a vicious circle

[GboroRam]

2 hours ago, Angry Ram said:

Don't actually agree with that last sentence. There are both left and right wing press, why is one side 'brainwashing' people and not the other?

According to Wikipedia, you've got:

On the right, you've got the Torygraph and the Times broadsheets, plus tabloids in the Mail, the Express, the Sun and the London Standard. City AM are mentioned but they are nothing I've had any experience of or seen in my life.
On the centre/liberal you've got the Observer, Independent, i, and the Financial Times.
On the left of centre you've got the Guardian and the Mirror.

They list the Morning Star but it's circulation is around 5, so hardly mainstream. They list the Star as largely non political but I think they lean right overall, personally.

With regards to the TV outlets I think we'd agree that Sky are on the right, that ITV are fairly neutral and C4/BBC have at least a liberal bias - many would say left bias but they're hardly on a par with the Morning Star.

Certainly feels like more of the media, particularly print, are right biased.

[maxjam]

6 minutes ago, SchtivePesley said:

But I also think that this hasn't happened in a bubble - rapidly rising inequality in the western economies is the fuel that all this runs on.

It's all a vicious circle

I'd argue that its increased censorship preventing us from talking about stuff we need to talk about, but whatever the divide is there and its widening.

[Stive Pesley]

7 minutes ago, maxjam said:

I'd argue that its increased censorship preventing us from talking about stuff we need to talk about, but whatever the divide is there and its widening.

That's definitely a massive factor in what makes every subject so flammable - so a big part of the picture

I wouldn't say it was the root cause though. People are just generally fed up with the way the world is. Obscene amounts of wealth in the hands of a few and the rest of us scrapping through life. Political systems just not working. That's nothing new I know - but social media has given people a voice and a method by which to congregate online with those who are fed up about the same things.

 

[TuffLuff]

1 hour ago, Curtains said:

Who gives planning permission for new houses in flood plains. 
 

lots of Labour Councils up North I suspect. 

Largely agree about building on flood plains in principle, but thought this was an interesting read on The Guardian site (who are seemingly propping up the ‘left leaning press’ with the mirror despite both being less popular than the sun, mail, times and telegraph)

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/12/flooding-caused-by-poor-management-and-floodplain-building

Essentially it’s not just building on flood plains, that’s probably ok aslong as you keep trees and moorland that help halt the worse of the impact. Once you build, then take out large parts of natural defence then that’s a major factor.