The Politics Thread

[Bruce Rioja]

As I've said before and I shall doubtlessly say again, I don't mind there being a North/South divide - just so long as I'm on the northern side of it.

[mummywhycantieatcrayons]

I like living in the South... honest.

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[Lord Kangana]

That's understandable giving the massive government subsidies the south receives these days.

[thebish]

That's understandable giving the massive government subsidies the south receives these days.

i presume you mean the south east? I live in the south and I'll bet there's a shedload more govt money spent in the northwest than the south west...

the northwest will be linked into a high speed railway.. we haven't even got dual carriageway roads yet...

[Bruce Rioja]

the northwest will be linked into a high speed railway.. we haven't even got dual carriageway roads yet...

Shirley that very tranquility is one of the areas main appeals, no?

[William the White]

the northwest will be linked into a high speed railway.. we haven't even got dual carriageway roads yet...

Shirley that very tranquility is one of the areas main appeals, no?

Only if your definition of tranquility is sitting in a summer long traffic jam (from man who used to go to Cornwall every years)...

[Zulus Thousand of em]

Is it fook. It's a half thought-out typically trite 'twitter' response. This is how people communicate now, bollocks soundbites.

I'd have had that. If you hadn't framed it in a bollocks soundbite...


...possibly.

[thebish]

Daniel Hannan ‏had this to say (Tweet)

For 30 years, Lefties complained that we'd stopped extracting fossil fuels in the north. Now they're cross because we want to start again.

not really sure that's true regardless of how it is communicated...

1) in what sense are those complaining (which ones do you mean?) "lefties"?
2) how on earth do you know they are the same ones that complained about stopping the extraction of fossil fuels in the North?
3) I suspect they are not complaining about starting again - opinion is mixed about the merits of fracking in all areas of the country - amongst righties and lefties.. I think the complaints are about the implication (intended or otherwise) that it's fine to experiment with the North's uninhabited spaces - but not the South's (eg GG's South Downs) or vast expanses of uninhabited Kent because it doesn't really matter than much if you bugger up the North...

as it happens - I don't REALLY think he meant that - it was a throwaway and badly phrased remark that has been blown out of proportion...

[Bruce Rioja]

Daniel Hannan ‏had this to say (Tweet)

For 30 years, Lefties complained that we'd stopped extracting fossil fuels in the north. Now they're cross because we want to start again.

not really sure that's true regardless of how it is communicated...

1) in what sense are those complaining (which ones do you mean?) "lefties"?
2) how on earth do you know they are the same ones that complained about stopping the extraction of fossil fuels in the North?
3) I suspect they are not complaining about starting again - opinion is mixed about the merits of fracking in all areas of the country - amongst righties and lefties.. I think the complaints are about the implication (intended or otherwise) that it's fine to experiment with the North's uninhabited spaces - but not the South's (eg GG's South Downs) or vast expanses of uninhabited Kent because it doesn't really matter than much if you bugger up the North...

as it happens - I don't REALLY think he meant that - it was a throwaway and badly phrased remark that has been blown out of proportion...

Tweet it to him.

[BWFC_Insane]

Daniel Hannan ‏had this to say (Tweet)

For 30 years, Lefties complained that we'd stopped extracting fossil fuels in the north. Now they're cross because we want to start again.

not really sure that's true regardless of how it is communicated...

1) in what sense are those complaining (which ones do you mean?) "lefties"?
2) how on earth do you know they are the same ones that complained about stopping the extraction of fossil fuels in the North?
3) I suspect they are not complaining about starting again - opinion is mixed about the merits of fracking in all areas of the country - amongst righties and lefties.. I think the complaints are about the implication (intended or otherwise) that it's fine to experiment with the North's uninhabited spaces - but not the South's (eg GG's South Downs) or vast expanses of uninhabited Kent because it doesn't really matter than much if you bugger up the North...

as it happens - I don't REALLY think he meant that - it was a throwaway and badly phrased remark that has been blown out of proportion...

Oh I don't think he meant to say it like that or for it to come across like that. But I am certain that is exactly what he "means".

[thebish]

Daniel Hannan ‏had this to say (Tweet)

For 30 years, Lefties complained that we'd stopped extracting fossil fuels in the north. Now they're cross because we want to start again.

not really sure that's true regardless of how it is communicated...

1) in what sense are those complaining (which ones do you mean?) "lefties"?
2) how on earth do you know they are the same ones that complained about stopping the extraction of fossil fuels in the North?
3) I suspect they are not complaining about starting again - opinion is mixed about the merits of fracking in all areas of the country - amongst righties and lefties.. I think the complaints are about the implication (intended or otherwise) that it's fine to experiment with the North's uninhabited spaces - but not the South's (eg GG's South Downs) or vast expanses of uninhabited Kent because it doesn't really matter than much if you bugger up the North...

as it happens - I don't REALLY think he meant that - it was a throwaway and badly phrased remark that has been blown out of proportion...

Tweet it to him.

tweet what to whom?

[Bruce Rioja]

Daniel Hannan ‏had this to say (Tweet)

For 30 years, Lefties complained that we'd stopped extracting fossil fuels in the north. Now they're cross because we want to start again.

not really sure that's true regardless of how it is communicated...

1) in what sense are those complaining (which ones do you mean?) "lefties"?
2) how on earth do you know they are the same ones that complained about stopping the extraction of fossil fuels in the North?
3) I suspect they are not complaining about starting again - opinion is mixed about the merits of fracking in all areas of the country - amongst righties and lefties.. I think the complaints are about the implication (intended or otherwise) that it's fine to experiment with the North's uninhabited spaces - but not the South's (eg GG's South Downs) or vast expanses of uninhabited Kent because it doesn't really matter than much if you bugger up the North...

as it happens - I don't REALLY think he meant that - it was a throwaway and badly phrased remark that has been blown out of proportion...

Tweet it to him.

tweet what to whom?

Your response there, to Daniel Hannan. Only, I doubt that he comes on here very often.

[thebish]

Daniel Hannan ‏had this to say (Tweet)

For 30 years, Lefties complained that we'd stopped extracting fossil fuels in the north. Now they're cross because we want to start again.

not really sure that's true regardless of how it is communicated...

1) in what sense are those complaining (which ones do you mean?) "lefties"?
2) how on earth do you know they are the same ones that complained about stopping the extraction of fossil fuels in the North?
3) I suspect they are not complaining about starting again - opinion is mixed about the merits of fracking in all areas of the country - amongst righties and lefties.. I think the complaints are about the implication (intended or otherwise) that it's fine to experiment with the North's uninhabited spaces - but not the South's (eg GG's South Downs) or vast expanses of uninhabited Kent because it doesn't really matter than much if you bugger up the North...

as it happens - I don't REALLY think he meant that - it was a throwaway and badly phrased remark that has been blown out of proportion...

Tweet it to him.

tweet what to whom?

Your response there, to Daniel Hannan. Only, I doubt that he comes on here very often.

ahhh.. i see... no - I don't think so (I'm not a tweeter!) I was responding to you because it seemed from your "floor is yours" response to Pru that you were endorsing Hannan's comment. maybe I'm wrong and you actually don't think Hannan's comment is true?

[Prufrock]

Is it fook. It's a half thought-out typically trite 'twitter' response. This is how people communicate now, bollocks soundbites.

So - it isn't a fair point because of the way it's been communicated? Go on, the floor's yours.

That even an MEP, whose job is politics, communicates his thoughts in one-liners means glibness replaces actual thought. I'm a big Oscar Wilde fan, but I wouldn't want him in charge of stuff.

It 'sounds' clever, but is actually meaningless as others have pointed out. Furthermore it isn't even hypocritical, as implied, to say that getting rid of an industry which employs lot is bad, but starting up a new one around which there are environmental and health worries is bad. Even if you are a lefty, and thought both of those things. They're different things.

It's a rubbish point, badly made. But it *sounds* nice, so all fecking hail.

[Prufrock]

Is it fook. It's a half thought-out typically trite 'twitter' response. This is how people communicate now, bollocks soundbites.

It's true. I remember the good old days when you'd never post a few words when a densely-formatted essay would do.

Quite. I sold out when I started putting spaces between paragraphs. In fact, who needs paragraphs at all?!

[Bruce Rioja]

I was responding to you because it seemed from your "floor is yours" response to Pru that you were endorsing Hannan's comment. maybe I'm wrong and you actually don't think Hannan's comment is true?

I've neither endorsed nor dismissed Hannan's comments. Pru appears to be questioning the validity of Hannan's comments due to him having 'Tweeted' them rather than, I don't know, written a column for a newspaper or something. My question to Pru is why does he think that Hannan's method of communication invalidates whatever it is that he has to say. That's how Pru's post reads to me and I'm interested to learn his thinking.

[Prufrock]

As above^.

If he'd been writing a newspaper column, he might have actually thought about it.

Twitter is a useful tool, but sometimes you need more than 140 characters!

All this, by the way, is assuming it wasn't *meant* to be a glib off the cuff mark, which is what I think it actually was. It isn't then, really, a 'fair point'.

[Lord Kangana]

Bish would have a job tweeting that lot, unless he resorted to txt spk, wudnt e?

[Bruce Rioja]

As above^.

If he'd been writing a newspaper column, he might have actually thought about it.

Twitter is a useful tool, but sometimes you need more than 140 characters!

All this, by the way, is assuming it wasn't *meant* to be a glib off the cuff mark, which is what I think it actually was. It isn't then, really, a 'fair point'.

Interesting. Cheers. I'm not a big user of Twitter. In general I find it to be full of people with precious little to say but an obsession with saying it anyway. However, on the other hand due to it only allowing 140 characters it restricts those that otherwise have plenty to say down to what you deem to be soundbites.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

That's understandable giving the massive government subsidies the south receives these days.

i presume you mean the south east? I live in the south and I'll bet there's a shedload more govt money spent in the northwest than the south west...

the northwest will be linked into a high speed railway.. we haven't even got dual carriageway roads yet...

Anywayyyyyy... I very much doubt that HS2 will go ahead. It's all Tory talk for zoomconomic reasons at the moment. When it was Labour talk, the Tories whose territory it would transgress were up in arms. The LibLabradors sit on the fence as usual. But, from what I know, (and I know a damned sight more than the parliamentary oversight committee on transport on this particular topic) the overspend at this very moment is at least £10 billion more than the £10 billion overspend they are already worrying about - that is, at minimum, a £60 billion project to inject trains into Birmingham and Manchester 20 minutes faster. It will not be happening.

Secondly, the worst thing that has happened to the north and northwest of Scotland was the upgrade of the A9. More tosspots pollute the place than ever before and its tranquility is beginning to be eroded. The latest news is that average speed cameras are going to monitor the entire length of the A9 from Dunblane to Inverness, which means it will still take you as long as it used to in the olden days* but you'll be doing the journey in the company of a tenfold number of nice people.

*obviously I'm talking about the 70s and 80s here, not back when pack mules were de riguer for the journey.