The Politics Thread

[Prufrock]

If we're relying on me to do it on here I wouldn't be holding my breath!

Seriously, no-one on tv, in the papers, anywhere seems to ask that question. Plenty try to argue that 'social' stuff some people say is bad for the economy is actually good, but no-one ever seems to say 'screw it, what if it's only a bit bad for the economy, but actually, life would be a lot nicer if we did it?'.

Are you writing for Farage now?!

This was him on the Today prgramme this morning:

"“If you said to me: ‘Would you want to see over the next 10 years a further 5m people come into Britain and if that happened we’d all be slightly richer?’, I would say: ‘Actually, do you know what: I’d rather we weren’t slightly richer and I’d rather we had communities that felt more united and I’d rather have a situation where young unemployed British people had a realistic chance of getting a job’”

“So yes, I do think the social side of this matters more than pure market economics,”

Ha! Gets my vote!

Are we really expecting five million?!

Anyway, overtones of xenophobia aside, I'm sad that it takes Nigel fecking Farage to make the point generally.

I've got a comedian friend who reckons David Cameron stole one of his jokes for PMQs; maybe Farage is stealing my rants.

I've got another friend, a veggie, enviromentalist, gay, card-carrying Lib-Dem, who met Farage at a dinner party who says that despite his best efforts he couldn't help liking him as a bloke. I think they'd make a great crime-fighting duo.

[Prufrock]

And the important thing about Billy Bragg is - he's fecking brilliant live.

[bobo the clown]

And the important thing about Billy Bragg is - he's fecking brilliant live.

.... and thus all the sense written above comes crumbling down around your ears.

[Enoch]

Reading Prufrock's posts above, puts me in mind of when a mate said he found the Harry Potter story a bit far fetched. Who ever heard of a ginger kid with two friends!!

Billy Bragg? His finest hour came when he took himself into the This Week studio, tosser.

[Hoboh]

Happy New Year to Daily Telegraph readers. I am sure 2014 will be a pivotal year in British politics, and I suggest this for a number of reasons.

From today 29 million people from Bulgaria and Romania have untrammelled access to Britain and our labour market. We shall learn very soon that our EU membership and adherence to EU free movement means free housing, free healthcare and free access to the British benefits system for every EU citizen who wishes to come here. At a time when school places are at a premium, when one million young people are unemployed and our transport system is overstretched to breaking point, this is a situation of utmost folly.

A recent EU Commission-sponsored report has informed us that there are already 600 thousand economically inactive EU citizens resident in the UK. We do not know in advance how many Romanian and Bulgarian people shall come here, but past experience and huge British draw factors combined with Balkan push factors point to hundreds of thousands of economic migrants coming here in the next five years.

By allowing this monumental change to take place, Mr Cameron is laying asphalt on the road to lower wages, poverty and unemployment for many British people. This is utterly intolerable.

Over the next year, we shall be confronted with the full consequences of the loss of control of our borders, loss of our sovereignty and the impotence of our parliamentary democracy. I expect ministers of the Tory Government will beat their chests, and make noises about their plans to make minor changes to the benefit system, but this shall all be to no avail.
This crisis of powerlessness for the Coalition is an opportunity for Ukip and we expect to gain electoral strength as people turn against unrestricted mass immigration and membership of the EU.

In May of this year, I shall do everything possible to turn the election for the European Parliament into a quasi-referendum on EU membership and expect an electorate frustrated with the present and hopeful of future change to come out in great numbers to vote for Ukip.

It does not matter which parties people voted for in the past, going forward I expect to pick up a lot of support from across the political spectrum, and we have every opportunity to top the poll in the European elections.

When this happens, we will see a huge shake-up in the three pro-EU parties, with a change in policy and personnel.

I shall continue to push for an EU exit, and far from the scare stories put about by the Three Old Parties that the UK will become isolated, if we leave the EU we'll be free; free from EU legislation, from EU taxes, and Euro induced recessions,

In the next year, the UK can become a beacon of light and democracy in a Europe that is falling into democratic darkness and economic recession. The EU on the other hand continues to follow Churchill's description of success as going 'from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm'.

A fine example of this is that Latvia is today joining the Euro currency against the wishes of 60 per cent of its people. As you read this, people are burning EU flags in Riga although incredibly we read nothing about it in the British media.

The political elite of Latvia wants to join the Euro, the people do not and in great EU style, the people are not asked their opinion or for their approval.

How lucky were we to escape from joining the Euro currency, as EU fanatics in the UK were fighting with all their might and furious determination for a centralised EU with a common currency, government, foreign policy and even defence policy. All utter madness of course.

Another aspect of the coming year I foresee is the confrontation between the sovereignty of the British court system and sovereignty of the House of Parliament with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. It could be on the ECHR's demand to give prisoners the vote or again, it could be on its insistence on giving freedom or asylum to some convicted murderer, rapist or terrorist. The moment of denouement is sure to come. Our adherence to the judgements of the ECHR is another requirement linked to our EU membership. UKIP shall be bringing this to the fore and arguing for our freedom from its harmful embrace.

I have a dream that one day our children will live free in an independent, democratic nation called the United Kingdom.

Dear readers, we have nothing to lose but our EU shackles and we have our sovereignty to win. Join me this year in the fight for our freedom.

[LeverEnd]

Reading Prufrock's posts above, puts me in mind of when a mate said he found the Harry Potter story a bit far fetched. Who ever heard of a ginger kid with two friends!!

Billy Bragg? His finest hour came when he took himself into the This Week studio, tosser.

Was your mate Jimmy Carr?!

[Prufrock]

Reading Prufrock's posts above, puts me in mind of when a mate said he found the Harry Potter story a bit far fetched. Who ever heard of a ginger kid with two friends!!

Billy Bragg? His finest hour came when he took himself into the This Week studio, tosser.

See that the problem with modern comedy. It's all mean-spirited and derivative .

Seriously though, fab live.

[Bruce Rioja]

I'll take your word for it. Cheers.

[bobo the clown]

Reading Prufrock's posts above, puts me in mind of when a mate said he found the Harry Potter story a bit far fetched. Who ever heard of a ginger kid with two friends!!

Billy Bragg? His finest hour came when he took himself into the This Week studio, tosser.

See that the problem with modern comedy. It's all mean-spirited and derivative .

Seriously though, fab live.

I can only assume you are generally pissed when you do this .... oh, & you're tone deaf, don't hear/mind exaggerated "cockney" in music and, finally and probably overwhelmingly, you've got shite musical taste !!

You'll be saying you like Lily Allen next.

[Lord Kangana]

Steady.

[thebish]

Reading Prufrock's posts above, puts me in mind of when a mate said he found the Harry Potter story a bit far fetched. Who ever heard of a ginger kid with two friends!!

Billy Bragg? His finest hour came when he took himself into the This Week studio, tosser.

See that the problem with modern comedy. It's all mean-spirited and derivative .

Seriously though, fab live.

I can only assume you are generally pissed when you do this .... oh, & you're tone deaf, don't hear/mind exaggerated "cockney" in music and, finally and probably overwhelmingly, you've got shite musical taste !!

You'll be saying you like Lily Allen next.

i haven't seen/heard billy bragg live, so i wouldn't know - but it surprises me that you have bobo!! blimey!

[bobo the clown]

Reading Prufrock's posts above, puts me in mind of when a mate said he found the Harry Potter story a bit far fetched. Who ever heard of a ginger kid with two friends!!

Billy Bragg? His finest hour came when he took himself into the This Week studio, tosser.

See that the problem with modern comedy. It's all mean-spirited and derivative .

Seriously though, fab live.

I can only assume you are generally pissed when you do this .... oh, & you're tone deaf, don't hear/mind exaggerated "cockney" in music and, finally and probably overwhelmingly, you've got shite musical taste !!

You'll be saying you like Lily Allen next.

i haven't seen/heard billy bragg live, so i wouldn't know - but it surprises me that you have bobo!! blimey!

I don't need to have suffered typhoid to know I wouldn't like it.

Some things you simply just know.

(sorry LK, but c'mon).

[thebish]

I don't need to have suffered typhoid to know I wouldn't like it.

Some things you simply just know.

(sorry LK, but c'mon).

yeah, yeah bobo - like you're fooling anyone!! you've been to see billy bragg live, haven't you!!

[Beefheart]

Reading Prufrock's posts above, puts me in mind of when a mate said he found the Harry Potter story a bit far fetched. Who ever heard of a ginger kid with two friends!!

Billy Bragg? His finest hour came when he took himself into the This Week studio, tosser.

See that the problem with modern comedy. It's all mean-spirited and derivative .

Seriously though, fab live.

I can only assume you are generally pissed when you do this .... oh, & you're tone deaf, don't hear/mind exaggerated "cockney" in music and, finally and probably overwhelmingly, you've got shite musical taste !!

You'll be saying you like Lily Allen next.

i haven't seen/heard billy bragg live, so i wouldn't know - but it surprises me that you have bobo!! blimey!

Kate Nash, there's another one who sings in 'exaggerated cockney', can't stand her.

I don't know much of Billy Bragg's stuff, there's one song I particularly like but prefer the Kirsty McColl version anyway.

[Prufrock]

Weller does it too and he's a king.

If you're willing to dismiss the idea he might be good based on your prejudices, I'm sad for you, coz it's your loss. The man can play.

[bobo the clown]

Weller does it too and he's a king.

If you're willing to dismiss the idea he might be good based on your prejudices, I'm sad for you, coz it's your loss. The man can play.

Ah ... & there we have the issue. Paul Weller is nowhere near as good as his myth.

[thebish]

Weller does it too and he's a king.

If you're willing to dismiss the idea he might be good based on your prejudices, I'm sad for you, coz it's your loss. The man can play.

Ah ... & there we have the issue. Paul Weller is nowhere near as good as his myth.

you've been to see paul weller AND billy bragg live! blimey charlie!!!

[LeverEnd]

Weller does it too and he's a king.

If you're willing to dismiss the idea he might be good based on your prejudices, I'm sad for you, coz it's your loss. The man can play.

Ah ... & there we have the issue. Paul Weller is nowhere near as good as his myth.

All mod-style and macho cockney bravado, most of the songs are on the wrong side of average. Except Tube Station, which is a masterpiece.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Never could stand him after Eton Rifles. What's this got to do with Politics?

[Harry Genshaw]

You're all mad

Billy Bragg's 'accident waiting to happen' with it's ode to Hoboh - "You're a dedicated swallower of fascism". Great stuff.

Paul Weller over rated?