The Politics Thread

[bristol_Wanderer3]

Its pretty interesting to contrast today's political map of the US, with the position the country held on slavery at the time of the civil war...

[mummywhycantieatcrayons]

not now - no! it was back in October sometime!! He was in the news - making a speech about poor people who play the system.

what's your problem with me pointing out that someone in the news making a speech telling poor people they can't play the system was himself caught playing the system??

I don't think he was 'caught' doing anything and I don't think it's a helpful addition to any debate about benefit cheats.

His speech was two weeks ago - if the newspaper articles you say exist actually do (and they might I suppose), evidence of this would not be difficult to come by.

I'm still not really understanding your problem or your point...

Quite rightly, you hold people to a high standard of accuracy when they say something.

You said:

Several newspapers reported his speech and made the link to his expenses claims.

And I doubt the veracity of this statement.

Is that clear enough?

He's calling you a liar Bish. He wants his nuts crushing, the dirty filthy Privilege-monger!
If I was speaker, I'd let you borrow my mace.

I would never suggest such a thing.

Just that even the Bish nods, from time to time.

[mummywhycantieatcrayons]

So there was one single person in the national press who noticed and made my point about the nonsense of the Living Wage methodology.

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/11/ ... ving-wage/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[americantrotter]

Mr Crayons needs to stop with the think tank-esque dispersions on President Obama's ability to lead. Like him or not he was known as a consensus builder before he took office. He pushed through several unpopular items (he thought were needed, you can debate that they weren't) that the opposing party did not like. He certainly raised the defecit and has his faults. However, the rap over him being diffficult to work with comes from initial missteps and fundamental disagreements on policy.

As has been pointed out many times his inability to build a consensus recently has been down to the opposing party's manner of negotiation. It is very unusual for the Democrats to have made gains during this election cycle. There is a reason for that. It is a mark of the public swinging back from the extremism of the past few years.

The last thing i will leave you with is the number 88. That's the percentage of Romney voters who were white. Consesus builder my ass.

[mummywhycantieatcrayons]

Mr Crayons needs to stop with the think tank-esque dispersions on President Obama's ability to lead. Like him or not he was known as a consensus builder before he took office.

In what roles?

[Harry Genshaw]

Just seen a bit on Camerons interview on This morning with Philip Schofield. Where Pip apparently handed him a list of names who had been linked in the North Wales child abuse scandal. Cameron to his credit refused to look at it but then said he didn't want it to turn into a 'gay witch hunt'.

Schofield has been rightly criticized for his behaviour. Must say I'm surprised nobodys given Cameron a kicking for his choice of words though.

[thebish]

Just seen a bit on Camerons interview on This morning with Philip Schofield. Where Pip apparently handed him a list of names who had been linked in the North Wales child abuse scandal. Cameron to his credit refused to look at it but then said he didn't want it to turn into a 'gay witch hunt'.

Schofield has been rightly criticized for his behaviour. Must say I'm surprised nobodys given Cameron a kicking for his choice of words though.

not really sure what to make of it... his aides claim there is some kind of witch hunt where people are equating politicians who tried to conceal the fact they are gay with paedophiles.. and Dave is very angry about it - but I can't say I have heard ANYONE anywhere make that association in this matter before Dave did...

has anyone else come across this interweb witch hunt against gays that Cameron claims is going on associated with this matter?

if not - then I suspect my first thought might be closer to the mark - that he was flustered - and spouted the first thing that came into his head... and it is alarming (if this is the case) that this association was there in his head near the surface...

[mummywhycantieatcrayons]

The names that tend to be tossed into the ring are very often gay. That's the association.

[Lord Kangana]

I can't see Giles Brandreth forcing himself on anyone.

Lovely jumpers though.

[Verbal]

U MAD

http://melaniephillips.com/america-goes ... e-darkness" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's not that funny - these people exist and are influential. They came close to getting their candidate elected. Crayons thought electing Romney would have been good but those of us who live nearby could not agree. Romney won big majorities (60-70%) of those heartland states all painted red on your election map. I have been to all of them. The people are warm and generous, salt of the earth, so long as they stick to growing potatoes in Idaho or falling off horses in Montana. Yet when they get in power you realize how monumentally ignorant they are. Over half the adults believe in a literal interpretation of Genesis, so Darwinism is out, not to mention their beliefs that homosexuality, abortions, racial minorities and welfare programs are some sort of crime against God. They don't like Canadians much because we allow civil partnerships, have medicare, abolished the death penalty, etc. - in short we are a bit Godless. Christian fundamentalists are every bit as disturbing as their Muslim brothers (and sisters) in my view. You cannot have a rational dialogue with them.

I don't know if anyone has mentioned Alec Baldwin's bon mot: "You know your party is in trouble when people ask did the rape guy win, and you have to ask which one?".

And those two were amongst the political elite of the GOP.

Oh yes of course I agree.

I've just lost any form of faith in the ability of people with any form of influence to have a reasonable, rational debate, and thus feel all that is left to do is to point and snigger using tired internet memes.

[Worthy4England]

Just seen a bit on Camerons interview on This morning with Philip Schofield. Where Pip apparently handed him a list of names who had been linked in the North Wales child abuse scandal. Cameron to his credit refused to look at it but then said he didn't want it to turn into a 'gay witch hunt'.

Schofield has been rightly criticized for his behaviour. Must say I'm surprised nobodys given Cameron a kicking for his choice of words though.

not really sure what to make of it... his aides claim there is some kind of witch hunt where people are equating politicians who tried to conceal the fact they are gay with paedophiles.. and Dave is very angry about it - but I can't say I have heard ANYONE anywhere make that association in this matter before Dave did...

has anyone else come across this interweb witch hunt against gays that Cameron claims is going on associated with this matter?

if not - then I suspect my first thought might be closer to the mark - that he was flustered - and spouted the first thing that came into his head... and it is alarming (if this is the case) that this association was there in his head near the surface...

I do think there's some inconsistency here. Whilst picking his words fairly carefully (so not actually saying Savile was guilty) he's pretty much condemned Savile without any trial or any proven allegations and pointed a large finger of accusation, in a Witchfinder General sort of sense, in the direction of Auntie.

Something similar comes to light involving someone he might know, and there's to be no witch hunt....

[Lord Kangana]

Like the Witchsmeller pursuivant maybe?

[Worthy4England]

Like the Witchsmeller pursuivant maybe?

Just need to look for cats called Bubbles and it'll be reet.

[Prufrock]

It was a list of names gleaned from internet rumours. Internet rumours about paedophilia tend to follow gay people around.

What Cameron actually said: "There is a danger if we are not careful that this can turn into a sort of witch hunt, particularly about people who are gay, and I'm worried about the sort of thing you are doing right now, taking a list of names off the internet".

[mummywhycantieatcrayons]

I do think there's some inconsistency here. Whilst picking his words fairly carefully (so not actually saying Savile was guilty) he's pretty much condemned Savile without any trial or any proven allegations and pointed a large finger of accusation, in a Witchfinder General sort of sense, in the direction of Auntie.

Something similar comes to light involving someone he might know, and there's to be no witch hunt....

Inconsistency is treating similar cases differently.

Now I haven't followed Cameron's comments on the Savile case very closely, but it seems to me in that case there was an overwhelming and public body of evidence by the time he made the comments you refer to.

Can the same be said of any of Philip's names that makes it a similar case?

[Lord Kangana]

Has that evidence been held up to any scrutiny yet?

[mummywhycantieatcrayons]

Has that evidence been held up to any scrutiny yet?

No, which is presumably why the PM has been careful with his words and set up an inquiry or six.

[Montreal Wanderer]

U MAD

http://melaniephillips.com/america-goes ... e-darkness" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's not that funny - these people exist and are influential. They came close to getting their candidate elected. Crayons thought electing Romney would have been good but those of us who live nearby could not agree. Romney won big majorities (60-70%) of those heartland states all painted red on your election map. I have been to all of them. The people are warm and generous, salt of the earth, so long as they stick to growing potatoes in Idaho or falling off horses in Montana. Yet when they get in power you realize how monumentally ignorant they are. Over half the adults believe in a literal interpretation of Genesis, so Darwinism is out, not to mention their beliefs that homosexuality, abortions, racial minorities and welfare programs are some sort of crime against God. They don't like Canadians much because we allow civil partnerships, have medicare, abolished the death penalty, etc. - in short we are a bit Godless. Christian fundamentalists are every bit as disturbing as their Muslim brothers (and sisters) in my view. You cannot have a rational dialogue with them.

I don't know if anyone has mentioned Alec Baldwin's bon mot: "You know your party is in trouble when people ask did the rape guy win, and you have to ask which one?".

And those two were amongst the political elite of the GOP.

Oh yes of course I agree.

I've just lost any form of faith in the ability of people with any form of influence to have a reasonable, rational debate, and thus feel all that is left to do is to point and snigger using tired internet memes.

Well, I can see why people find the lunatic right amusing - indeed I would laugh out loud at what tghey say if I wasn't so close and they didn't scare me so much. I mean "a women's body shuts down if she is legitimately raped and she cannot become pregnant". This guy graduated from a private university in Massachusetts. The worst thing was the number of people who supported his view. Mummy is a college education conservative lawyer, but it is possible to have a rational discussion with him. You can't argue with American social conservatives - they suck in urban legends at their mother's breast and do not change their minds (actually to be fair to Akin he did publicly say he was misinformed, but only after the entire world and half his party called him on it). Mind you, I'm grateful to him and Mourdock and Hurricane Sandy - between them they might have made a difference for Obama.

[Prufrock]

[Hoboh]

A bit closer to home!!!

http://news.uk.msn.com/uk/ukba-caseload-out-of-control" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is disgraceful to the extreme just how the feck do you 'loose' 25,000 people who should have been on the first boat home after being refused the right to asylem???
P*ss take UK the world joke and dumping ground of the unwanted.