The Politics Thread

[boltonboris]

More media waffle...Why wouldn't the President of France have an expensive watch and why did the B.B.C make it a headline?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65069823

Optics - Imagine you telling your wife that she's gonna have to turn the heating off and pull up her sleeves to get by in these tough times whilst you're sat there with an £80,000 watch on

[boltonboris]

Just another example of a government imposing austerity measures that will never affect them personally

[TANGODANCER]

Never did see watches as much more than something reliable to tell the time. I found it rather strange as news worthy is all.

[BWFC_Insane]

More media waffle...Why wouldn't the President of France have an expensive watch and why did the B.B.C make it a headline?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65069823

Optics - Imagine you telling your wife that she's gonna have to turn the heating off and pull up her sleeves to get by in these tough times whilst you're sat there with an £80,000 watch on

Its a bit like Sunak's vast wealth. Its fine. But then as you say it means they literally have no comprehension what their policies or actions mean for real people.

And he was born into it too. Its not like these people have ever really led normal lives.

I think that you can still be empathetic but still not really 'get it'.

[TANGODANCER]

Our local voting papers arrived through the post today; reminded me of Mark Twain's quote on such:

"If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it" . Mark Twain

[Hoboh]

I never thought politics in Scotland was as big a mess as it is until this week.
Reading about how guidance in Scottish law encourages judge's to be more lenient on under 25's because their brain has not matured fully yet they can vote at 16, drive at 17, booze, get married etc, all below 25 actually beggers belief!
The SNP truly are a bunch of brainless berks.

[TANGODANCER]

Are we so far removed from the same Hobes? The Law is an ass" was never truer than right now. Kids killing each other and committing suicide are recent events, whilst wrist slapping is almost a legal pastime.

" May you live in interesting times" Old Chinese saying and quoted by many versions including the Kennedys. A British politician, Joseph Chamberlain, in a speech to Parliament in 1898 is crediting as saying it first. I'm afraid none of them are my idea of interesting, more worrying and at times, even frightening. Such insanity isn't restricted to the law. Stand up parents..

My grandaughter recently attended a school event where one of her class mates turned up in eye-lashes and high heels. She's eleven. Interesting? I find that terrifying.

[boltonboris]

I see that once again, our junior doctors, teachers, fire fighters etc are the scum of the earth and are the ones holding the country to ransom..

It's definitely not the Tory bastards who would rather cut public spending so they can continue to not collect Taxes from their mates and sell our land, resources and infrastructure to foreign companies who will sell it back to us

I fvckin hate those Eton cvnts with every ounce of my being

[TANGODANCER]

I see that once again, our junior doctors, teachers, fire fighters etc are the scum of the earth and are the ones holding the country to ransom..

It's definitely not the Tory bastards who would rather cut public spending so they can continue to not collect Taxes from their mates and sell our land, resources and infrastructure to foreign companies who will sell it back to us

I fvckin hate those Eton cvnts with every ounce of my being

Time for a rant..

Who's really to blame for the sorry state England as a country is in Hobes? Everything is so screwed from the image we once had as land of the free, that forecasting the future our grandkids and great grandkids face is frightening. Absolutely nothing is "free" from the crazy cost of living to traditional values and everything that made England unique. Real estate rules and privatisation is slowly making ghost towns of places like Bolton. Even our famous National Health is slowly heading for the rocks.

On a side issue: Our new King is apologising about the slave trade of two hundred years ago, (and so he should considering royalty and the wealthy were living comfortably from its profits, not Joe blue-collar slaving away as mill workers,miners, engineers etc) yet a variation of slavery under a different name is alive and well under our very noses in our major cities. "England" is not and never was to blame for slavery, just a small section of its peoples. Let's make that very plain.

Quo Vadis (whither go'est thou?) used to refer to Biblical times, now it's as relevant as tomorrow. Answers on a polling list, which are not as useful as Bingo cards where at least there's an outside chance of winning.

Rant endeth....

[Prufrock]

That's got to sting, Boris

[Hoboh]

Thank you for your warm reception, I've waited for a while for this visit to Iceland, God bless you all from the USA

[Harry Genshaw]

Thank you for your warm reception, I've waited for a while for this visit to Iceland, God bless you all from the USA

Pity I missed the Ireland v Black and Tans rugby match.

[boltonboris]

I genuinely think and I'm sorry that it sounds insensitive, that Biden has got some form of dementia. If he hasn't, then he's just thick as a castle wall

[Worthy4England]

I genuinely think and I'm sorry that it sounds insensitive, that Biden has got some form of dementia. If he hasn't, then he's just thick as a castle wall

Unfortunately, it seems to be a vote winner in the US of A, being a bit gaga...I've made no secret of not being a Trump fan, but Biden doesn't come across as more in control of his faculties...(not talking policies)...Given how US Presidential candidacies are pretty much driven by how much someone is willing to throw at it (how good is that for democracy?), I suspect we're not far short of the "brain in a jar" scenario....

[TANGODANCER]

I have a little sympathy with his age and what it entails, but then again I'm not President of anywhere. He's in County Mayo, where my dad and all his family come/came from and he's a Catholic, yet no mention of Knock, one of the most famous Catholic sites in the world? Strange?

[Worthy4England]

I have a little sympathy with his age and what it entails, but then again I'm not President of anywhere. He's in County Mayo, where my dad and all his family come/came from and he's a Catholic, yet no mention of Knock, one of the most famous Catholic sites in the world? Strange?

He landed in Knock about an hour ago...

[TANGODANCER]

I have a little sympathy with his age and what it entails, but then again I'm not President of anywhere. He's in County Mayo, where my dad and all his family come/came from and he's a Catholic, yet no mention of Knock, one of the most famous Catholic sites in the world? Strange?

He landed in Knock about an hour ago...

Ah, cheers Worthy. Even for him it would have been odd. I've been there a couple of times to visit uncles and aunts who lived only six miles away in my dad's old home. We actually stayed in Knock at a nuns hostel.

[TANGODANCER]

Just been catching up on Joe "Patrick O" Biden going "Home" to County Mayo Ireland.

"If you're Irish, come into the parlour, there's a welcome there for you" : Might we see a shamrock on the stars and stripes flag ? Got to love America...lol:

[Gary the Enfield]

Don't know if it's relevant for this thread but as we're talking about USA and Ireland maybe it is. I was in Ireland last fortnight visiting friends in Donegal and relatives in Tipperary (yes, it is.)

I was told before I went about a story of the Choctaw Nation (native american tribe) The Choctaw had recently been displaced by the US government and forced to move West to Oklahoma in the 1930s/40s. They, on hearing of the Irish plight during the mid-nineteenth century famine (or genocide depending on which side of the Irish Sea you were on), put together a sum of money (about £5,000 in today's value) and sent it to the people of Cork in a gesture of solidarity. To this day the bonds of friendship are still strong. Exchanges of gifts are common and Choctaw (or rather their nearest descendants including Navajo) are sponsored and educated in Ireland.
There is a statue in Midleton, Cork which is a symbol of this friendship, nearly 175 years old.

https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=b28c3640 ... yZS8&ntb=1

[Worthy4England]

So here we are again. Inflation still over 10% - higher than Germany, France, US, Japan...and our answer to supply side issues is going to be to raise interest rates again, which is already higher than most developed countries, to cool consumer demand which isn't causing the problem in the first place. Anyone in government got a clue what the fcuk they're doing?

Oh and whilst we're at it - Fox News £787m - nowhere near enough. Got off lightly.