Quo Vadis Labour?

**Montmorency** · 05-24-2021, 03:03

Originally Posted by Furunculus

a great comfort in these dark times, no doubt.

If by "dark times" you mean for Labour, then according to the passage it's the opposite of their comfort.

**Furunculus** · 05-24-2021, 07:48

i meant the comfort to be found in dark times from a little idle malice directed at the perceived cause.
won't advance ones circumstances, but a temporary salve no doubt in the absence of useful action.

**Montmorency** · 05-25-2021, 03:43

Originally Posted by Furunculus

i meant the comfort to be found in dark times from a little idle malice directed at the perceived cause.
won't advance ones circumstances, but a temporary salve no doubt in the absence of useful action.

Now I'm confused, because that just sounds like Brexit.

**Furunculus** · 05-25-2021, 07:36

**yawns**

**Pannonian** · 06-20-2021, 00:40

Might as well go here as anywhere, as a non-Brexit UK politics thread.

Democracy in the UK is being undermined by a “small but vocal minority”, the Culture Secretary has said after multiple brands pulled advertising from GB News.

Oliver Dowden has warned that basic democratic values can no longer be taken for granted after the upstart channel saw the withdrawal of advertising from companies such as Ikea, cider firm Kopparberg and Octopus Energy.

The network, which launched last Sunday, has promised to take on so-called cancel culture.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Dowden said: “When he launched the channel, veteran broadcaster Andrew Neil vowed that GB News would not be ‘an echo chamber for the metropolitan mindset’, and that it would ’empower those who feel their concerns have been unheard’.

...

Mr Dowden said the channel seeks to “empower” those who feel their “concerns have been unheard”.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/removal-ad...214723364.html

A couple of questions. Why is it the government's business what private businesses decide to do with their advertising? And why is a government minister promoting a commercial media channel?

**rory_20_uk** · 06-20-2021, 21:33

Originally Posted by Pannonian

Might as well go here as anywhere, as a non-Brexit UK politics thread.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/removal-ad...214723364.html

A couple of questions. Why is it the government's business what private businesses decide to do with their advertising? And why is a government minister promoting a commercial media channel?

The UK seems to have caught the "politics is a soap opera" bug and in a world where Sir Kier is doing badly because he's boring, the way to success is constant drama. Oh, and that probably helps keep people from seeing what idiocy Boris is currently up to.

**Pannonian** · 06-21-2021, 12:31

Originally Posted by rory_20_uk

The UK seems to have caught the "politics is a soap opera" bug and in a world where Sir Kier is doing badly because he's boring, the way to success is constant drama. Oh, and that probably helps keep people from seeing what idiocy Boris is currently up to.

Follow up questions to the above. Is the government minister justified in pushing commercial media channels as long as they are re-elected, and the PM does not sack them? Or are there standards that stand regardless of whether or not they are elected? And relating to that, given the format of our democracy. Is the government justified in doing anything they like, as long as they are elected?

The UK does not have a formal constitution, because the argument in the past has been that the electorate will punish any errant government. However, this government has contravened a number of parliamentary customs that served to check past governments, and the PM has been repeatedly shown to be more often lying than telling the truth. But he was re-elected, nonetheless. Does this validate anything the PM does, and his government? Is media popularity the only requirement for any government?