Melissa Kite in argument with Peter Oborne on Channel 4 News. Melissa Kite sounded desperate. She was pulling poll numbers out of her backside. Not the brightest that's for sure.
Sorry for the late reply, as I've been out leafleting, but in the previous thread eristdoof asked me what I'm comparing this year's positive Lib Dem canvassing responses to.
The answer is I'm comparing to last year, 2018. In my city the wards are all triple member wards with one of the three council seats in each ward up for election each year in turn (excluding the one year in four that we have county council elections instead).
Local elections every year! There can't be many parts of the country that are blessed in that way.
It's quite common, I believe - the idea is to keep a level of party activism all the time and to effect change gradually rather than have a sudden swing from one party to another. Whether the voters like being consulted/pestered more often I don't know.
I'd quite like HoC elections for 1/5th of the seats each year. Hopefully governments would take a more long term view instead of coming up with bribes every 4 or 5 years.
Why not one tenth every six month? Or, even better, one twentieth every three months?
Annual parliaments is the only outstanding demand of the Peoples Charter of the 1840s.
Electing 130 seats each May would be a step that way, and keep 5 year terms. A reasonable compromise.
Only works if the Executive is elected separately. If the government is (as is likely) changing every 12-24 months nothing will ever get done in a strategic way
Breaking: If Cooper/Letwin is agreed today, Government confirms the House will be receiving a motion on an extension. Motion would be tabled later this evening, for debate tomorrow subject to Royal Assent. Government only offering 90 minutes for the debate.
89 minutes too many. MPs can just hold up placards saying “what I’ve said before, repeatedly”. Votes may have changed but there’s little evidence that anything said in Parliament has changed an opinion.
Can anyone tell me how the Cooper/Letwin Bill gets to Royal Assent if it's gone through unamended on third reading in the Commons but has just been amended by Pannick's amendment in the Lords?
Commons considers Lords' mendments. If accepted, Bill goes for Royal Assent. If rejected, Bill goes back to Lords, who decide whether to accept Commons' rejection of its amendments (which is usual) or to insist on the amendments, in which it goes back to the Commons to reconsider. In theory a ping-pong effect could occur (but I have a feeling at the back of my mind that Joint Committe of the Commons and Lords can be appointed to break any jog-jam).
Which means that unless the Commons feel it wrecks the bill, it will be accepted
I have done some more digging and understand that the Commons has set aside an hour this evening for just such a ping pong (legislative, rather than recreational).
For the ping, not the pong. The pong is the problem which is why I don't think they will ping.
Sorry for the late reply, as I've been out leafleting, but in the previous thread eristdoof asked me what I'm comparing this year's positive Lib Dem canvassing responses to.
The answer is I'm comparing to last year, 2018. In my city the wards are all triple member wards with one of the three council seats in each ward up for election each year in turn (excluding the one year in four that we have county council elections instead).
Local elections every year! There can't be many parts of the country that are blessed in that way.
It's quite common, I believe - the idea is to keep a level of party activism all the time and to effect change gradually rather than have a sudden swing from one party to another. Whether the voters like being consulted/pestered more often I don't know.
I'd quite like HoC elections for 1/5th of the seats each year. Hopefully governments would take a more long term view instead of coming up with bribes every 4 or 5 years.
Why not one tenth every six month? Or, even better, one twentieth every three months?
Annual parliaments is the only outstanding demand of the Peoples Charter of the 1840s.
Electing 130 seats each May would be a step that way, and keep 5 year terms. A reasonable compromise.
How about electing 1 MP every 3 days?
Imagine the betting opportunities!
Just imagine, 650 separate dodgy Lib Dem bar charts
What is "enhanced sincere cooperation" when it's at home?
Not deliberately being a massive tool and wrecking everything in sight to get our way.
They're listening to what the likes of Mogg and Francois are saying, and concerned these clowns would have influence under a new PM.
Farage. JRM, Boris, etc would love the EU to turf us out.
Imagine the fun Farage will have trying to get the EU to kick us out especially if his Brexit Party cleans up in the EU elections (which will be a mandate to be wreckers)
Nobody will "clean up" in a PR election unless you actually believe that Farage will get over 70% of the vote
Sorry for the late reply, as I've been out leafleting, but in the previous thread eristdoof asked me what I'm comparing this year's positive Lib Dem canvassing responses to.
The answer is I'm comparing to last year, 2018. In my city the wards are all triple member wards with one of the three council seats in each ward up for election each year in turn (excluding the one year in four that we have county council elections instead).
Local elections every year! There can't be many parts of the country that are blessed in that way.
It's quite common, I believe - the idea is to keep a level of party activism all the time and to effect change gradually rather than have a sudden swing from one party to another. Whether the voters like being consulted/pestered more often I don't know.
I'd quite like HoC elections for 1/5th of the seats each year. Hopefully governments would take a more long term view instead of coming up with bribes every 4 or 5 years.
Why not one tenth every six month? Or, even better, one twentieth every three months?
Annual parliaments is the only outstanding demand of the Peoples Charter of the 1840s.
Electing 130 seats each May would be a step that way, and keep 5 year terms. A reasonable compromise.
How about electing 1 MP every 3 days?
Imagine the betting opportunities!
Just imagine, 650 separate dodgy Lib Dem bar charts
I quote, “the Conservatives are on a demographic conveyor belt to oblivion.”
Bleak.
Yet if you look at the attitudes the young have, they are much more pro-Thatcherite than their older compatriots. The Conservative party problem seems to be one of branding, not substance.
The recent and current Conservative administrations are not Thatcherite and haven't been for some time. It's a case of the congregation killing the God thru ritual: they pay lip service to the outward appearance (or their interpretation of it) but ignore the substance. In Orwellian terms, they do not bellyfeel her.
It's not confined to the Tories. How the hell Labour became a pressure group for the Palestinian people instead of its traditional role as the representatives of the working class to power is beyond me.
And as for the LibDems...let us draw a kindly veil...
Sorry for the late reply, as I've been out leafleting, but in the previous thread eristdoof asked me what I'm comparing this year's positive Lib Dem canvassing responses to.
The answer is I'm comparing to last year, 2018. In my city the wards are all triple member wards with one of the three council seats in each ward up for election each year in turn (excluding the one year in four that we have county council elections instead).
Local elections every year! There can't be many parts of the country that are blessed in that way.
It's quite common, I believe - the idea is to keep a level of party activism all the time and to effect change gradually rather than have a sudden swing from one party to another. Whether the voters like being consulted/pestered more often I don't know.
I'd quite like HoC elections for 1/5th of the seats each year. Hopefully governments would take a more long term view instead of coming up with bribes every 4 or 5 years.
Why not one tenth every six month? Or, even better, one twentieth every three months?
Annual parliaments is the only outstanding demand of the Peoples Charter of the 1840s.
Electing 130 seats each May would be a step that way, and keep 5 year terms. A reasonable compromise.
How about electing 1 MP every 3 days?
Imagine the betting opportunities!
Just imagine, 650 separate dodgy Lib Dem bar charts
Sorry for the late reply, as I've been out leafleting, but in the previous thread eristdoof asked me what I'm comparing this year's positive Lib Dem canvassing responses to.
The answer is I'm comparing to last year, 2018. In my city the wards are all triple member wards with one of the three council seats in each ward up for election each year in turn (excluding the one year in four that we have county council elections instead).
Local elections every year! There can't be many parts of the country that are blessed in that way.
It's quite common, I believe - the idea is to keep a level of party activism all the time and to effect change gradually rather than have a sudden swing from one party to another. Whether the voters like being consulted/pestered more often I don't know.
I'd quite like HoC elections for 1/5th of the seats each year. Hopefully governments would take a more long term view instead of coming up with bribes every 4 or 5 years.
Why not one tenth every six month? Or, even better, one twentieth every three months?
Annual parliaments is the only outstanding demand of the Peoples Charter of the 1840s.
Electing 130 seats each May would be a step that way, and keep 5 year terms. A reasonable compromise.
How about electing 1 MP every 3 days?
Imagine the betting opportunities!
Just imagine, 650 separate dodgy Lib Dem bar charts
I quote, “the Conservatives are on a demographic conveyor belt to oblivion.”
Bleak.
Yet if you look at the attitudes the young have, they are much more pro-Thatcherite than their older compatriots. The Conservative party problem seems to be one of branding, not substance.
The recent and current Conservative administrations are not Thatcherite and haven't been for some time. It's a case of the congregation killing the God thru ritual: they pay lip service to the outward appearance (or their interpretation of it) but ignore the substance. In Orwellian terms, they do not bellyfeel her.
It's not confined to the Tories. How the hell Labour became a pressure group for the Palestinian people instead of its traditional role as the representatives of the working class to power is beyond me.
And as for the LibDems...let us draw a kindly veil...
Labour got that way because they were brought up on, or on their parents' reminiscences of, twattish anti apartheid demos and were looking for another racial injustice in a faraway country of which we know little to fill the void. It was bad luck that israel fit the bill because you were then combining all that stuff with the traditional far left demonizing of the Jews.
Sorry for the late reply, as I've been out leafleting, but in the previous thread eristdoof asked me what I'm comparing this year's positive Lib Dem canvassing responses to.
The answer is I'm comparing to last year, 2018. In my city the wards are all triple member wards with one of the three council seats in each ward up for election each year in turn (excluding the one year in four that we have county council elections instead).
Local elections every year! There can't be many parts of the country that are blessed in that way.
It's quite common, I believe - the idea is to keep a level of party activism all the time and to effect change gradually rather than have a sudden swing from one party to another. Whether the voters like being consulted/pestered more often I don't know.
I'd quite like HoC elections for 1/5th of the seats each year. Hopefully governments would take a more long term view instead of coming up with bribes every 4 or 5 years.
Why not one tenth every six month? Or, even better, one twentieth every three months?
Annual parliaments is the only outstanding demand of the Peoples Charter of the 1840s.
Electing 130 seats each May would be a step that way, and keep 5 year terms. A reasonable compromise.
How about electing 1 MP every 3 days?
Imagine the betting opportunities!
Just imagine, 650 separate dodgy Lib Dem bar charts
I think Sunil would actually explode...
I actually wouldn't mind annual elections
It's not whether you would mind them, it's whether you would suffer a full systems overload that was concerning me!
The recent and current Conservative administrations are not Thatcherite and haven't been for some time. It's a case of the congregation killing the God thru ritual: they pay lip service to the outward appearance (or their interpretation of it) but ignore the substance. In Orwellian terms, they do not bellyfeel her.
It's not confined to the Tories. How the hell Labour became a pressure group for the Palestinian people instead of its traditional role as the representatives of the working class to power is beyond me.
And as for the LibDems...let us draw a kindly veil...
Without wanting to sound too adversarial, what kind of politics do you want? You do plenty of moaning. griping and playing the hackneyed old anti-politician game but come up with some ideas of your own to improve the lot of the country and its governance.
I quote, “the Conservatives are on a demographic conveyor belt to oblivion.”
Bleak.
Yet if you look at the attitudes the young have, they are much more pro-Thatcherite than their older compatriots. The Conservative party problem seems to be one of branding, not substance.
The recent and current Conservative administrations are not Thatcherite and haven't been for some time. It's a case of the congregation killing the God thru ritual: they pay lip service to the outward appearance (or their interpretation of it) but ignore the substance. In Orwellian terms, they do not bellyfeel her.
It's not confined to the Tories. How the hell Labour became a pressure group for the Palestinian people instead of its traditional role as the representatives of the working class to power is beyond me.
And as for the LibDems...let us draw a kindly veil...
Labour got that way because they were brought up on, or on their parents' reminiscences of, twattish anti apartheid demos and were looking for another racial injustice in a faraway country of which we know little to fill the void. It was bad luck that israel fit the bill because you were then combining all rust stuff with the traditional far left demonizing of the Jews.
"twattish anti apartheid demos" Do you really believe they were silly waste of time?
Sorry for the late reply, as I've been out leafleting, but in the previous thread eristdoof asked me what I'm comparing this year's positive Lib Dem canvassing responses to.
The answer is I'm comparing to last year, 2018. In my city the wards are all triple member wards with one of the three council seats in each ward up for election each year in turn (excluding the one year in four that we have county council elections instead).
Local elections every year! There can't be many parts of the country that are blessed in that way.
It's quite common, I believe - the idea is to keep a level of party activism all the time and to effect change gradually rather than have a sudden swing from one party to another. Whether the voters like being consulted/pestered more often I don't know.
I'd quite like HoC elections for 1/5th of the seats each year. Hopefully governments would take a more long term view instead of coming up with bribes every 4 or 5 years.
Why not one tenth every six month? Or, even better, one twentieth every three months?
Annual parliaments is the only outstanding demand of the Peoples Charter of the 1840s.
Electing 130 seats each May would be a step that way, and keep 5 year terms. A reasonable compromise.
How about electing 1 MP every 3 days?
Imagine the betting opportunities!
Just imagine, 650 separate dodgy Lib Dem bar charts
I think Sunil would actually explode...
I actually wouldn't mind annual elections
It's not whether you would mind them, it's whether you would suffer a full systems overload that was concerning me!
Annual elections do have the advantage that, in marginal areas, you don't get big swings from one council to another and the organisation itself can often see changes of control coming, that the council is more responsive to residents concerns (which has pros and cons), and that the composition of the council isn't determined for four years by short term national politics or coincidence with other sets of elections. On the other hand it is fairly relentless for councillors and activists with an annual cycle of forever campaigning for the next election.
I quote, “the Conservatives are on a demographic conveyor belt to oblivion.”
Bleak.
Yet if you look at the attitudes the young have, they are much more pro-Thatcherite than their older compatriots. The Conservative party problem seems to be one of branding, not substance.
The recent and current Conservative administrations are not Thatcherite and haven't been for some time. It's a case of the congregation killing the God thru ritual: they pay lip service to the outward appearance (or their interpretation of it) but ignore the substance. In Orwellian terms, they do not bellyfeel her.
It's not confined to the Tories. How the hell Labour became a pressure group for the Palestinian people instead of its traditional role as the representatives of the working class to power is beyond me.
And as for the LibDems...let us draw a kindly veil...
Labour got that way because they were brought up on, or on their parents' reminiscences of, twattish anti apartheid demos and were looking for another racial injustice in a faraway country of which we know little to fill the void. It was bad luck that israel fit the bill because you were then combining all rust stuff with the traditional far left demonizing of the Jews.
"twattish anti apartheid demos" Do you really believe they were silly waste of time?
No, but it is possible to do something useful in a twattish manner.
I've been busy local electioneering (the important thing) and ignoring all the nothing happening with Brexit (the not important thing) - have I missed anything?
I do remember forecasting that May would rescind A50 - a few days away from it coming to fruition...
I quote, “the Conservatives are on a demographic conveyor belt to oblivion.”
Bleak.
Yet if you look at the attitudes the young have, they are much more pro-Thatcherite than their older compatriots. The Conservative party problem seems to be one of branding, not substance.
The recent and current Conservative administrations are not Thatcherite and haven't been for some time. It's a case of the congregation killing the God thru ritual: they pay lip service to the outward appearance (or their interpretation of it) but ignore the substance. In Orwellian terms, they do not bellyfeel her.
It's not confined to the Tories. How the hell Labour became a pressure group for the Palestinian people instead of its traditional role as the representatives of the working class to power is beyond me.
And as for the LibDems...let us draw a kindly veil...
Labour got that way because they were brought up on, or on their parents' reminiscences of, twattish anti apartheid demos and were looking for another racial injustice in a faraway country of which we know little to fill the void. It was bad luck that israel fit the bill because you were then combining all rust stuff with the traditional far left demonizing of the Jews.
"twattish anti apartheid demos" Do you really believe they were silly waste of time?
No, but it is possible to do something useful in a twattish manner.
Big_G won't be pleased - he's been telling us for weeks that MPs won't allow Euro elections to proceed.
Quite the contrary I am pleased that a way has been found - anything to annoy Baker and Francois is fine by me
Glad to hear it Big_G.
Assuming we are still in the EU on May 23rd the EU elections are going to be fun - plenty of opportunities for those PB gamblers to lose some money, I bet! (sorry)
I quote, “the Conservatives are on a demographic conveyor belt to oblivion.”
Bleak.
Yet if you look at the attitudes the young have, they are much more pro-Thatcherite than their older compatriots. The Conservative party problem seems to be one of branding, not substance.
The recent and current Conservative administrations are not Thatcherite and haven't been for some time. It's a case of the congregation killing the God thru ritual: they pay lip service to the outward appearance (or their interpretation of it) but ignore the substance. In Orwellian terms, they do not bellyfeel her.
It's not confined to the Tories. How the hell Labour became a pressure group for the Palestinian people instead of its traditional role as the representatives of the working class to power is beyond me.
And as for the LibDems...let us draw a kindly veil...
Labour got that way because they were brought up on, or on their parents' reminiscences of, twattish anti apartheid demos and were looking for another racial injustice in a faraway country of which we know little to fill the void. It was bad luck that israel fit the bill because you were then combining all rust stuff with the traditional far left demonizing of the Jews.
"twattish anti apartheid demos" Do you really believe they were silly waste of time?
No, but it is possible to do something useful in a twattish manner.
Mmmm... ok that's a neat get-out.
Fuck off. You have obviously never witnessed a self important bunch of arseholes debating motions in jcr meetings about urging the college to stop banking at Barclays.
Sorry for the late reply, as I've been out leafleting, but in the previous thread eristdoof asked me what I'm comparing this year's positive Lib Dem canvassing responses to.
The answer is I'm comparing to last year, 2018. In my city the wards are all triple member wards with one of the three council seats in each ward up for election each year in turn (excluding the one year in four that we have county council elections instead).
Local elections every year! There can't be many parts of the country that are blessed in that way.
It's quite common, I believe - the idea is to keep a level of party activism all the time and to effect change gradually rather than have a sudden swing from one party to another. Whether the voters like being consulted/pestered more often I don't know.
I'd quite like HoC elections for 1/5th of the seats each year. Hopefully governments would take a more long term view instead of coming up with bribes every 4 or 5 years.
Why not one tenth every six month? Or, even better, one twentieth every three months?
Big_G won't be pleased - he's been telling us for weeks that MPs won't allow Euro elections to proceed.
Quite the contrary I am pleased that a way has been found - anything to annoy Baker and Francois is fine by me
Glad to hear it Big_G.
Assuming we are still in the EU on May 23rd the EU elections are going to be fun - plenty of opportunities for those PB gamblers to lose some money, I bet! (sorry)
Brexit in the ERG sense has been lost through their own stupidity and a softer brexit or no brexit looks on the cards and both are fine by me, once no deal is kicked into touch
Local elections every year! There can't be many parts of the country that are blessed in that way.
It's quite common, I believe - the idea is to keep a level of party activism all the time and to effect change gradually rather than have a sudden swing from one party to another. Whether the voters like being consulted/pestered more often I don't know.
I'd quite like HoC elections for 1/5th of the seats each year. Hopefully governments would take a more long term view instead of coming up with bribes every 4 or 5 years.
Why not one tenth every six month? Or, even better, one twentieth every three months?
Annual parliaments is the only outstanding demand of the Peoples Charter of the 1840s.
Electing 130 seats each May would be a step that way, and keep 5 year terms. A reasonable compromise.
How about electing 1 MP every 3 days?
Imagine the betting opportunities!
Just imagine, 650 separate dodgy Lib Dem bar charts
I think Sunil would actually explode...
I actually wouldn't mind annual elections
It's not whether you would mind them, it's whether you would suffer a full systems overload that was concerning me!
Annual elections do have the advantage that, in marginal areas, you don't get big swings from one council to another and the organisation itself can often see changes of control coming, that the council is more responsive to residents concerns (which has pros and cons), and that the composition of the council isn't determined for four years by short term national politics or coincidence with other sets of elections. On the other hand it is fairly relentless for councillors and activists with an annual cycle of forever campaigning for the next election.
I think that can be quite beneficial for local parties in terms of keeping the activist base engaged and enthused. I was active in the Lib Dems in Winchester in the '90s and I feel the the Local Party there was fortified by having annual local elections (three out four years for the district and the fourth for the county). I don't think the LDs would have won the parliamentary seat in 1997 without this.
I quote, “the Conservatives are on a demographic conveyor belt to oblivion.”
Bleak.
Yet if you look at the attitudes the young have, they are much more pro-Thatcherite than their older compatriots. The Conservative party problem seems to be one of branding, not substance.
Not entirely sure about that, they may not support mass nationalisations and paying a high tax rate but they support funding the NHS and core public services as much as older voters and are also more socially liberal and less pro Brexit than their elders
I quote, “the Conservatives are on a demographic conveyor belt to oblivion.”
Bleak.
Yet if you look at the attitudes the young have, they are much more pro-Thatcherite than their older compatriots. The Conservative party problem seems to be one of branding, not substance.
The recent and current Conservative administrations are not Thatcherite and haven't been for some time. It's a case of the congregation killing the God thru ritual: they pay lip service to the outward appearance (or their interpretation of it) but ignore the substance. In Orwellian terms, they do not bellyfeel her.
It's not confined to the Tories. How the hell Labour became a pressure group for the Palestinian people instead of its traditional role as the representatives of the working class to power is beyond me.
And as for the LibDems...let us draw a kindly veil...
Labour got that way because they were brought up on, or on their parents' reminiscences of, twattish anti apartheid demos and were looking for another racial injustice in a faraway country of which we know little to fill the void. It was bad luck that israel fit the bill because you were then combining all rust stuff with the traditional far left demonizing of the Jews.
"twattish anti apartheid demos" Do you really believe they were silly waste of time?
No, but it is possible to do something useful in a twattish manner.
Hmm. The anti-apartheid movement was moving, important and successful. That you sat on your hands gives you no right to sneer at others.
The recent and current Conservative administrations are not Thatcherite and haven't been for some time. It's a case of the congregation killing the God thru ritual: they pay lip service to the outward appearance (or their interpretation of it) but ignore the substance. In Orwellian terms, they do not bellyfeel her.
It's not confined to the Tories. How the hell Labour became a pressure group for the Palestinian people instead of its traditional role as the representatives of the working class to power is beyond me.
And as for the LibDems...let us draw a kindly veil...
Without wanting to sound too adversarial, what kind of politics do you want? You do plenty of moaning. griping and playing the hackneyed old anti-politician game but come up with some ideas of your own to improve the lot of the country and its governance.
Its not a bad point (although I would have phrased it less rudely). However I do not have any power to implement any solutions. Given that, my only realistic option is to observe and describe: given the parlous state of today's politics a certain ranty tendency is difficult to avoid. Insofar as I have a mission on this board, it's to answer questions when asked, correct errors when found, and provide occasional entertainment. I also like talking about betting if you'd like to do that instead.
Sorry for the late reply, as I've been out leafleting, but in the previous thread eristdoof asked me what I'm comparing this year's positive Lib Dem canvassing responses to.
The answer is I'm comparing to last year, 2018. In my city the wards are all triple member wards with one of the three council seats in each ward up for election each year in turn (excluding the one year in four that we have county council elections instead).
Local elections every year! There can't be many parts of the country that are blessed in that way.
It's quite common, I believe - the idea is to keep a level of party activism all the time and to effect change gradually rather than have a sudden swing from one party to another. Whether the voters like being consulted/pestered more often I don't know.
I'd quite like HoC elections for 1/5th of the seats each year. Hopefully governments would take a more long term view instead of coming up with bribes every 4 or 5 years.
Why not one tenth every six month? Or, even better, one twentieth every three months?
Annual parliaments is the only outstanding demand of the Peoples Charter of the 1840s.
Electing 130 seats each May would be a step that way, and keep 5 year terms. A reasonable compromise.
How about electing 1 MP every 3 days?
One STV constituency of three MPs every week. Each MP sits for about four years.
I quote, “the Conservatives are on a demographic conveyor belt to oblivion.”
Bleak.
Yet if you look at the attitudes the young have, they are much more pro-Thatcherite than their older compatriots. The Conservative party problem seems to be one of branding, not substance.
The recent and current Conservative administrations are not Thatcherite and haven't been for some time. It's a case of the congregation killing the God thru ritual: they pay lip service to the outward appearance (or their interpretation of it) but ignore the substance. In Orwellian terms, they do not bellyfeel her.
It's not confined to the Tories. How the hell Labour became a pressure group for the Palestinian people instead of its traditional role as the representatives of the working class to power is beyond me.
And as for the LibDems...let us draw a kindly veil...
Labour got that way because they were brought up on, or on their parents' reminiscences of, twattish anti apartheid demos and were looking for another racial injustice in a faraway country of which we know little to fill the void. It was bad luck that israel fit the bill because you were then combining all rust stuff with the traditional far left demonizing of the Jews.
"twattish anti apartheid demos" Do you really believe they were silly waste of time?
No, but it is possible to do something useful in a twattish manner.
Hmm. The anti-apartheid movement was moving, important and successful. That you sat on your hands gives you no right to sneer at others.
Well, I was young and foolish then, and I never heard of anyone actually dying of apartheid, except poor young black victims of Mandela's necklacing campaigns.
Big_G won't be pleased - he's been telling us for weeks that MPs won't allow Euro elections to proceed.
Quite the contrary I am pleased that a way has been found - anything to annoy Baker and Francois is fine by me
That a way has been found will annoy much of the Conservative Party before the elections and the entire Conservative Party once the results are declared.
Big_G won't be pleased - he's been telling us for weeks that MPs won't allow Euro elections to proceed.
Quite the contrary I am pleased that a way has been found - anything to annoy Baker and Francois is fine by me
Glad to hear it Big_G.
Assuming we are still in the EU on May 23rd the EU elections are going to be fun - plenty of opportunities for those PB gamblers to lose some money, I bet! (sorry)
Will turnout be higher than the 24% reached in 1999 - the last year we had stand alone EU elections?
Big_G won't be pleased - he's been telling us for weeks that MPs won't allow Euro elections to proceed.
Quite the contrary I am pleased that a way has been found - anything to annoy Baker and Francois is fine by me
Glad to hear it Big_G.
Assuming we are still in the EU on May 23rd the EU elections are going to be fun - plenty of opportunities for those PB gamblers to lose some money, I bet! (sorry)
Will turnout be higher than the 24% reached in 1999 - the last year we had stand alone EU elections?
Motivated brexiteers and remainers may see a good turnout
I quote, “the Conservatives are on a demographic conveyor belt to oblivion.”
Bleak.
Yet if you look at the attitudes the young have, they are much more pro-Thatcherite than their older compatriots. The Conservative party problem seems to be one of branding, not substance.
Not entirely sure about that, they may not support mass nationalisations and paying a high tax rate but they support funding the NHS and core public services as much as older voters and are also more socially liberal and less pro Brexit than their elders
True and therefore very much at odds with the current leadership. Unfortunately this may only become apparent to them through the bitter experience of a Corbyn government.
To the leavers irritated that he is seen as their representative; to the remainers incredulous that such a man should get so much air-time; to the innocent children set to suffer because if his behaviour...
I give you Twitter's collective opinion of Mark Francois.
I quote, “the Conservatives are on a demographic conveyor belt to oblivion.”
Bleak.
Yes, thanks for the link - one to file away for anyone interested in constituency betting at the next GE.
The stark age differential in voting patterns is extremely unhealthy for our democracy. But taking a narrow political view, the key for the Tories is ensuring that as the general population ages, people continue to switch in their direction as they move through middle age. But the evidence isn't encouraging. Being excluded from home ownership is reducing middle aged propensity to vote Tory. An increasing proportion of people approaching middle age are from ethnic minorities. The UK population continues to become more urban. And the 2016 referendum has frozen attitudes in time, with remainers then almost all being remainers now despite three years' more age.
The deepest problem for the Tories is that the sort of things they need to be doing to attract back people of working age are the precise opposite of where their obsession with a hard Brexit is taking them.
MayDay’s demob happy and having a laugh. If she has any sense she’ll use this one-off opportunity to finally scythe this once great party of state of its moondog right. A tilt at immortality for Tess.
Sorry for the late reply, as I've been out leafleting, but in the previous thread eristdoof asked me what I'm comparing this year's positive Lib Dem canvassing responses to.
The answer is I'm comparing to last year, 2018. In my city the wards are all triple member wards with one of the three council seats in each ward up for election each year in turn (excluding the one year in four that we have county council elections instead).
Local elections every year! There can't be many parts of the country that are blessed in that way.
It's quite common, I believe - the idea is to keep a level of party activism all the time and to effect change gradually rather than have a sudden swing from one party to another. Whether the voters like being consulted/pestered more often I don't know.
I'd quite like HoC elections for 1/5th of the seats each year. Hopefully governments would take a more long term view instead of coming up with bribes every 4 or 5 years.
Why not one tenth every six month? Or, even better, one twentieth every three months?
Selected completely randomly.
To get through the whole lot in a FTPA parliament you'd need one about every third day. You could pull it out with the lottery numbers.
I quote, “the Conservatives are on a demographic conveyor belt to oblivion.”
Bleak.
Yet if you look at the attitudes the young have, they are much more pro-Thatcherite than their older compatriots. The Conservative party problem seems to be one of branding, not substance.
The recent and current Conservative administrations are not Thatcherite and haven't been for some time. It's a case of the congregation killing the God thru ritual: they pay lip service to the outward appearance (or their interpretation of it) but ignore the substance. In Orwellian terms, they do not bellyfeel her.
It's not confined to the Tories. How the hell Labour became a pressure group for the Palestinian people instead of its traditional role as the representatives of the working class to power is beyond me.
And as for the LibDems...let us draw a kindly veil...
Labour got that way because they were brought up on, or on their parents' reminiscences of, twattish anti apartheid demos and were looking for another racial injustice in a faraway country of which we know little to fill the void. It was bad luck that israel fit the bill because you were then combining all rust stuff with the traditional far left demonizing of the Jews.
"twattish anti apartheid demos" Do you really believe they were silly waste of time?
No, but it is possible to do something useful in a twattish manner.
Hmm. The anti-apartheid movement was moving, important and successful. That you sat on your hands gives you no right to sneer at others.
Well, I was young and foolish then, and I never heard of anyone actually dying of apartheid, except poor young black victims of Mandela's necklacing campaigns.
I quote, “the Conservatives are on a demographic conveyor belt to oblivion.”
Bleak.
Yet if you look at the attitudes the young have, they are much more pro-Thatcherite than their older compatriots. The Conservative party problem seems to be one of branding, not substance.
The recent and current Conservative administrations are not Thatcherite and haven't been for some time. It's a case of the congregation killing the God thru ritual: they pay lip service to the outward appearance (or their interpretation of it) but ignore the substance. In Orwellian terms, they do not bellyfeel her.
It's not confined to the Tories. How the hell Labour became a pressure group for the Palestinian people instead of its traditional role as the representatives of the working class to power is beyond me.
And as for the LibDems...let us draw a kindly veil...
Labour got that way because they were brought up on, or on their parents' reminiscences of, twattish anti apartheid demos and were looking for another racial injustice in a faraway country of which we know little to fill the void. It was bad luck that israel fit the bill because you were then combining all rust stuff with the traditional far left demonizing of the Jews.
"twattish anti apartheid demos" Do you really believe they were silly waste of time?
No, but it is possible to do something useful in a twattish manner.
Hmm. The anti-apartheid movement was moving, important and successful. That you sat on your hands gives you no right to sneer at others.
Well, I was young and foolish then, and I never heard of anyone actually dying of apartheid, except poor young black victims of Mandela's necklacing campaigns.
Astonishing ignorance!
Eugene De Kock amongst others has freely confessed to his murders, often of peaceful activists.
I quote, “the Conservatives are on a demographic conveyor belt to oblivion.”
Bleak.
Yet if you look at the attitudes the young have, they are much more pro-Thatcherite than their older compatriots. The Conservative party problem seems to be one of branding, not substance.
In terms of individualism, but not in terms of attitudes to international co-operation, the environment or the EU, for instance.
Also a historically unprecedented, and arguably contradicting mix of things like greater support for economic and cultural individualism and support for state nationalisation of utilities and public services.
Not to mention, whenever almost any social ill is revealed, the knee jerk response of "something must be done to censor the Internet!" Young people tend to find that creepy, unnatural and, almost always, promoted by a Minister without the foggiest idea how it works.
This has turned my eight year old son into a leaver!
Comments
It's not confined to the Tories. How the hell Labour became a pressure group for the Palestinian people instead of its traditional role as the representatives of the working class to power is beyond me.
And as for the LibDems...let us draw a kindly veil...
Perhaps we can all vote for the Viewcode Party.
I do remember forecasting that May would rescind A50 - a few days away from it coming to fruition...
Assuming we are still in the EU on May 23rd the EU elections are going to be fun - plenty of opportunities for those PB gamblers to lose some money, I bet! (sorry)
In future years, will Mark Francois be the Graham Kendrick of the Conservative party?
http://banmarchive.org.uk/collections/mt/pdf/78_09_hobsbawm.pdf
His greatest hit would presumably be Whine - Jesus! - Whine...
https://twitter.com/Artifactorficti/status/1115339012053643270
I give you Twitter's collective opinion of Mark Francois.
https://twitter.com/search?q=#MarkFrancoisMP&src=trend_click
Safe to say he doesn't emerge well.
The stark age differential in voting patterns is extremely unhealthy for our democracy. But taking a narrow political view, the key for the Tories is ensuring that as the general population ages, people continue to switch in their direction as they move through middle age. But the evidence isn't encouraging. Being excluded from home ownership is reducing middle aged propensity to vote Tory. An increasing proportion of people approaching middle age are from ethnic minorities. The UK population continues to become more urban. And the 2016 referendum has frozen attitudes in time, with remainers then almost all being remainers now despite three years' more age.
The deepest problem for the Tories is that the sort of things they need to be doing to attract back people of working age are the precise opposite of where their obsession with a hard Brexit is taking them.
bites the dust
Eugene De Kock amongst others has freely confessed to his murders, often of peaceful activists.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_de_Kock
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/what-is-article-13-article-11-european-directive-on-copyright-explained-meme-ban