The Politics Thread

[malcd1]

The whole TV debate just struck me as being nothing other than pantomime the last time out.

Exactly this ... and ones where Brown & Cameron were so keen to appear decent and reasonable that they gave Clegg an easy ride and watched his rating soar as a result.

Interesting to see RedEd today pronounce that he will bake them into the law. This great British tradition which has happened precisely once.

Well what a surprise to see you two chaps, spiritedly defending good to honest Tory thinking.

I didn't actually bother my arse to watch most of them last time, but it does strike me as odd, that when we have rules to ensue that parties get equal coverage in the election run-up that one party is saying they don't fancy it. I reckon he's more worried about Farage and trying to defend the immigration numbers than owt else.

You can't blame him can you? It doesn't make good reading.

[bobo the clown]

You can see that a head-to-Ed wouldn't worry him.

He's got himself in a hole .... but I genuinely feel they are not a great thing. Just that upsetting the meeja is always going to get a reaction these days.

But it's not like they have decades of history.

[thebish]

just for the record... Cameron's views on TV debates last time around...

1.“I absolutely believe in these debates and think they are great.” – David
Cameron and Jeremy Thompson, Sky news, 14 April 2010

2.“I think it is great we are having these debates and I hope they go some way to
restore some of the faith and some of the trust into our politics because we
badly need that once again in this country.” – David
Cameron, Leaders Debate, ITV, 15 April 2010

3. “Look, I’ve been calling for these debates for five years, I challenged Blair, I
challenged Brown, I challenged when I was ahead in the polls, and when I was
behind in the polls. I just think they are a good thing.” – David
Cameron, Daily Telegraph, 17 April 2010

4. “I’ve always wanted these debates to happen. I mean they happen in every country.
They even happen in Mongolia for heaven’s sake and it’s part of the modern age
that we should be in.” – David Cameron, BBC3, 21 April 2010

5. “I think these debates are here to stay. They clearly engage people in politics
which is what we need.” – David Cameron, News of
the World, 2 May 2010

6.“If you want the TV debates to go ahead you have got to do it fairly between
the main parties and look, having said I want them, having challenged people to
have them and quite right, Sky saying let’s have them, it would have been
feeble to find some excuse to back out so I thought we’ve got to stick at this,
we’ve got to do it. It will be challenging, it was, but I think I came
through them.” – David Cameron, Sky News, 3 May 2010

7. “You know we’ve been going on for years about let’s have these debates and I think
it really vindicated having that. I think people will be asking
themselves why on earth, what was all the fuss about? Why on earth didn’t we
have these things before? We should have done and it’s great they’re underway
now and I think we’ll have them in every election in the future and I think
that’s a really good thing for our democracy.” – David
Cameron, BBC Radio Manchester, 16 April 2014

8. “On TV debates, I’m in favor of them, I think they’re good and we should go on
having them and I will certainly play my part in trying to make that happen.” – David
Cameron, Coalition midterm review, 7th Jan 2012

9. “I think TV debates are good. I enjoyed them last time – particularly the last
one.” – David Cameron, David Cameron, Press
Association, 10th December 2012

10. (And finally – here’s a time when he criticized candidates for pulling out of the
debates) – “Blair pulled out against, against Major and Major pulled
out against Kinnock, Thatcher pulled out against Callaghan. I’ve just always
believed that these need to happen. It’s good for democracy. It’s good to
see.” – David Cameron and Allan Berwick, BBC Radio Manchester, 16
April 2014

[bobo the clown]

If a politician isn't allowed to change his view you'd call his closed minded.

[thebish]

If a politician isn't allowed to change his view you'd call his closed minded.

awwww... sweet! your ongoing defense of cameron is all rather touching! bless!

truth be told - a debate between cameron and milliband would just be 2 hrs of dumb and dumber...

[Prufrock]

He's supposedly worried about Ed - the thinking being that everyone will be expecting him to be so appalling shit that even a merely "bad" performance would raise people's idea of him.

A bit spineless from Cameron though, surely you have to just back yourself?!

Also, conspicuous by its absence from the Tory website is their pre-election "contract" with the electorate last time in which they said folk should vote them out if they didn't do a load of stuff they haven't done! Disappeared!

[Lord Kangana]

I didn't really care for the Sky-lead charge for Americanised TV debates last time out, but seeing as this vacuous shit is here to stay, then Cameron can go f*ck himself if he thinks he can back out now when he doesn't fancy it.

I think they should be banned and replaced with Dog Baiting. Where one of the participants in the pit (with very high concrete walls) is the current Prime Minister. And I'd televise it. On all channels simultaneously.

[Worthy4England]

He's supposedly worried about Ed - the thinking being that everyone will be expecting him to be so appalling shit that even a merely "bad" performance would raise people's idea of him.

A bit spineless from Cameron though, surely you have to just back yourself?!

Also, conspicuous by its absence from the Tory website is their pre-election "contract" with the electorate last time in which they said folk should vote them out if they didn't do a load of stuff they haven't done! Disappeared!

I'm stunned.

[thebish]

never fear, Pru - here it is so you can make your mind up!

(page 3)

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/files ... spaper.pdf

[Lord Kangana]

"We will introduce a new tax on the banks following
their taxpayer bailout."

Really? The Tories?

[thebish]

they'll also get net migration down to tens of thousands and cut the number of MPs by 10% and give us the right to sack our MP.. Create National Citizen Service for every 16 year old, to help bring the country together... Support families, by giving married couples and civil partners a tax break... give more people the right to request flexible working and helping young families with extra Sure Start health visitors....

page four about the dire threat of what might happen in a hung parliament is also interesting!

2. The parties will get behind closed doors and horse-trade between each other over posts and power.

3. There will be haggling between politicians rather than any clear leadership.

I guess he got that one right... (though when he announced the coalition and had that love-in in the garden of Number 10 with Cleggy - he suddenly started using the left-hand list rather than his "more likely" forecast right hand list!)

[thebish]

of course - the tories would claim that the contract is null and void cos they didn't win the election...

[Bruce Rioja]

Well what a surprise to see you two chaps, spiritedly defending good to honest Tory thinking.

I don't see either of us supporting anything.

[Worthy4England]

Well what a surprise to see you two chaps, spiritedly defending good to honest Tory thinking.

I don't see either of us supporting anything.

Ok, so neither of you, given Cameron's current position on not attending a series of debates, mentioned that you both thought they were fairly worthless anyhow, ratifying Mr Cameron's "good to honest Tory thinking" by so doing? My apologies, good Sir! I must've misinterpreted.

[Bruce Rioja]

Well what a surprise to see you two chaps, spiritedly defending good to honest Tory thinking.

I don't see either of us supporting anything.

Ok, so neither of you, given Cameron's current position on not attending a series of debates, mentioned that you both thought they were fairly worthless anyhow, ratifying Mr Cameron's "good to honest Tory thinking" by so doing? My apologies, good Sir! I must've misinterpreted.

Me thinking that the TV debates are little more than pantomime doesn't have anything to do with anyone. Do feel free to carry on making it up though

[Worthy4England]

Well what a surprise to see you two chaps, spiritedly defending good to honest Tory thinking.

I don't see either of us supporting anything.

Ok, so neither of you, given Cameron's current position on not attending a series of debates, mentioned that you both thought they were fairly worthless anyhow, ratifying Mr Cameron's "good to honest Tory thinking" by so doing? My apologies, good Sir! I must've misinterpreted.

Me thinking that the TV debates are little more than pantomime doesn't have anything to do with anyone. Do feel free to carry on making it up though

I didn't actually say it had anything to do with anyone - I pointed to defence of good to honest Tory thinking - which isn't of course a person - I see in your last two offerings you're a) not supporting anything and b) not supporting anyone. True politician. Grand! What was the post about again?

[Bruce Rioja]

Well what a surprise to see you two chaps, spiritedly defending good to honest Tory thinking.

I don't see either of us supporting anything.

Ok, so neither of you, given Cameron's current position on not attending a series of debates, mentioned that you both thought they were fairly worthless anyhow, ratifying Mr Cameron's "good to honest Tory thinking" by so doing? My apologies, good Sir! I must've misinterpreted.

Me thinking that the TV debates are little more than pantomime doesn't have anything to do with anyone. Do feel free to carry on making it up though

I didn't actually say it had anything to do with anyone - I pointed to defence of good to honest Tory thinking - which isn't of course a person - I see in your last two offerings you're a) not supporting anything and b) not supporting anyone. True politician. Grand! What was the post about again?

Well, not just yet.

[a1]

this (i think its libertarian , or randian or summat ), but thats not why i'm posting it, its related to them CAGE knobs from before-

http://order-order.com/2015/03/05/jihad ... arliament/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

^ one of the MPs listed is one from parachuted into Bolton .

the proverbial pig with a red rosette on.

sort the fecking roads out instead of hobnobbing with the new age Bizarro George Wallace* ** types



*or whoever.

** bizarro sounds like a shakespeare character , but its a superman comics thing.

[thebish]

am listening to the R5 health-care debate (interesting as they have a team of fact-checkers on hand to check everything that's said..)

UKIP didn't turn up - but there's 4 of them - and it's quite good

the Green Party candidate - she has not spelled out one actual policy yet - not ONE... every issue she has covered (basically) by agreeing with the caller that their question is really really important, and the Green Party would do it better because the NHS is precious... yet not ONE word yet on HOW...

[jaffka]

Probably dares not to go into anything seeing as they are great at making arses out of themselves.