The Politics Thread

[a1]

nearly , its coz she's frightened to say what theyd do.

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[Prufrock]

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...

I don't think they quite have the staff and researchers of the other three...

They're writing it.

And that awful bint from UKIP who was on question time last summer (with Joey Barton) got away with saying they'd be a serious force for the General Election with their manifesto that they were "going to write over the summer". At least the Greens are giving themselves a full Parliament to come up with some stuff for next time.

[Bruce Rioja]

Can one of you explain to me how Gordon Brown's much lauded "British jobs for British workers" is in any way different from Nigel Farridge's comments for which he's branded a racist?

[jaffka]

Anyone ever worked anywhere where quotas decide the workforce and promotion?

[thebish]

Can one of you explain to me how Gordon Brown's much lauded "British jobs for British workers" is in any way different from Nigel Farridge's comments for which he's branded a racist?

I'm not sure it is - but then I don't think that's what the controversy was about today...

I can't see anything much wrong with "British jobs for British workers" myself - and I think (generally speaking - and of course there are odd exceptions) British jobs ARE available for british workers.. whether the "young British white and black men" that farage was very careful to say repeatedly today

a) want
b) are qualified for
c) can be bothered to turn up for interviews for the british jobs that are on offer is another matter...

the controversy today was about a recorded interview farage did for channel 4 where he was asked a direct question on whether there would be a law against discrimination on the grounds of race or colour - and he replied "no".

today he is backing off that and offering a smoke-screen of vague nonsense about employing young black and white brits - which is all fine and dandy - except that's not what he said in the recorded interview - that was about race and colour and his denial that there should be any laws about discrimination on those grounds.

i think it goes too far to brand farage as a racist - but he appears to be proposing that racism is a thing of the past - in fact he says his kids wouldn't recognise the concept - and that laws against race discrimination should be scrapped. well - he saus that - then says that he didn't say that (when clearly he did)...

they wheeled out neil hamilton on r5 to address the situation - and whilst he performed mildly better than that green party spokeswoman (!!) - he ran her pretty close and made a complete and total tit of himself...

[Worthy4England]

Can one of you explain to me how Gordon Brown's much lauded "British jobs for British workers" is in any way different from Nigel Farridge's comments for which he's branded a racist?

Yes - Brown wasn't suggesting repealing the legislation on discrimination in the workplace. That's a significantly different approach.

[Salford Trotter]

Is it just me or is Charles Kennedy looking a little worse for wear on QT tonight? He has form after all

[a1]

gonna be fun boring as feck on the 26th in bolton.

i hope the roadworks spoil it.

[Beefheart]

I've applied to go on. I'll take any suggestions for questions. At the moment all I want to know is what the major parties will do about the fact they're using different chocolate in creme eggs now and that there's only 5 in a box instead of 6. Y'know, the big issues.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Anyone ever worked anywhere where quotas decide the workforce and promotion?

Yep. The EU

[Bruce Rioja]

Can one of you explain to me how Gordon Brown's much lauded "British jobs for British workers" is in any way different from Nigel Farridge's comments for which he's branded a racist?

Yes - Brown wasn't suggesting repealing the legislation on discrimination in the workplace. That's a significantly different approach.

Then how else was Brown going to ensure 'British jobs for British workers'?

[a1]

I've applied to go on. I'll take any suggestions for questions. At the moment all I want to know is what the major parties will do about the fact they're using different chocolate in creme eggs now and that there's only 5 in a box instead of 6. Y'know, the big issues.

who gives a f , lindt lindor eggs FTW

[thebish]

Can one of you explain to me how Gordon Brown's much lauded "British jobs for British workers" is in any way different from Nigel Farridge's comments for which he's branded a racist?

Yes - Brown wasn't suggesting repealing the legislation on discrimination in the workplace. That's a significantly different approach.

Then how else was Brown going to ensure 'British jobs for British workers'?

who knows!! but it's a bit late to be losing any sleep over that!

[Bruce Rioja]

Can one of you explain to me how Gordon Brown's much lauded "British jobs for British workers" is in any way different from Nigel Farridge's comments for which he's branded a racist?

Yes - Brown wasn't suggesting repealing the legislation on discrimination in the workplace. That's a significantly different approach.

Then how else was Brown going to ensure 'British jobs for British workers'?

who knows!! but it's a bit late to be losing any sleep over that!

Oh, true enough, Bish. Don't get me wrong, I'm no defender of Farridge, I consider him a duplicitous tosser, but I'm wondering why it seems to be open season on him when he comes out with some stuff that others have been lauded for. Eddie Mair's programme on R4 yesterday evening had this whole section dedicated to comments made by Farridge that he'd then either denied or contradicted. I was just left thinking that surely the same is true of every party leader, no?

[thebish]

Can one of you explain to me how Gordon Brown's much lauded "British jobs for British workers" is in any way different from Nigel Farridge's comments for which he's branded a racist?

Yes - Brown wasn't suggesting repealing the legislation on discrimination in the workplace. That's a significantly different approach.

Then how else was Brown going to ensure 'British jobs for British workers'?

who knows!! but it's a bit late to be losing any sleep over that!

Oh, true enough, Bish. Don't get me wrong, I'm no defender of Farridge, I consider him a duplicitous tosser, but I'm wondering why it seems to be open season on him when he comes out with some stuff that others have been lauded for. Eddie Mair's programme on R4 yesterday evening had this whole section dedicated to comments made by Farridge that he'd then either denied or contradicted. I was just left thinking that surely the same is true of every party leader, no?

i think you may be re-inventing history if you say Brown was lauded for it... he wasn't... he was accused of being xenophopic and racist and Cameron said he was borrowing ideas from the BNP...

still, though - as me and Worthy have pointed out - Brown's dog-whistling was not the same as the things Farage said - then denied he said - so to compare one with the other and assume equivalence would be as if to compare chalk and chips...

politicians often talk about being misinterpreted in a weasley way - but farage (in this case) denies saying what he clearly said on a recorded interview... that's rarer, I think...

[Worthy4England]

Can one of you explain to me how Gordon Brown's much lauded "British jobs for British workers" is in any way different from Nigel Farridge's comments for which he's branded a racist?

Yes - Brown wasn't suggesting repealing the legislation on discrimination in the workplace. That's a significantly different approach.

Then how else was Brown going to ensure 'British jobs for British workers'?

By creating more jobs than we currently had. He didn't anywhere say anything about exclusivity to British workers, changing discrimination legislation or anything like that - I think it's called Election promises....Mr Cameron in his last speech to Tory Conference promised British people a number of things...here's an example.

So here’s our commitment to the British people:

No income tax if you are on Minimum Wage.

A 12 and a half thousand pound tax-free personal allowance for millions of hardworking people.

I don't think he was suggesting legislation to exclude non-British people working in the UK.

[Athers]

Is it just me or is Charles Kennedy looking a little worse for wear on QT tonight? He has form after all

Didn't look well did he?

Lucy Powell is my MP and I can't think of a single contribution other than muddling around the answer before finally getting to the party line about the SNP

Typical bollox when the first question is about defence spending and she rushes in to say how brave everyone serving is. Yeah sure we all agree with that, it's a given, stop talking about that and answer the question. About which she actually had no clue despite knowing she'd be up against the Tory Defence Minister!

[Bruce Rioja]

He didn't anywhere say anything about exclusivity to British workers

So saying "British jobs for British workers" isn't exactly that then? Fair enough! You'd say the same had Cameron made the same claim, of course?!

[thebish]

i'm still not sure where this 5yr overdue attack on Brown has come from or what the point of it is!

Brown wasn't lauded for his slogan - so you needn't feel sorry for farage
it wasn't the same as what farage said - so you needn't feel sorry for farage

you can sleep easy! farage has not been hard done by here!

[Bruce Rioja]

Attack? Which attack is this?

You seem to be more than a little oversensitive here. I just asked a very straightforward question.

I'm sorry that you failed to see it that way.

Please, don't lose any sleep as a result.