The United Kingdom Elections 2010

[Myrddraal]

Furunculus, I'm sure you're happy to see Trident in the headlines again. What do you make of the letter to the times?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle7103318.ece

[Idaho]

Looking at the (largely Murdoch owned) newspaper front pages in the shop at lunch time was hilarious and instructive about where the power lies. All of them were desperately attacking Clegg for anything and everything. Murdoch has got the willies thinking that his preferred candidate might not get elected. How very dare they! Free and fair press? Not a chance.

Sky are hosting the debate tonight - I wonder if Murdoch is pulling some strings and making it known to the production team that they are to show Clegg in the worst possible light.

And all you Tories are quite happy with it, because, like all right wingers, your belief in a true democratic process is just a thin layer of paint over your desire to maintain your own priviledge and status.

Still - I couldn't give a toss about Clegg, as he is no different to the others. I just think Murdoch's control of the media is an afront to a modern society.

[Furunculus]

Looking at the (largely Murdoch owned) newspaper front pages in the shop at lunch time was hilarious and instructive about where the power lies. All of them were desperately attacking Clegg for anything and everything. Murdoch has got the willies thinking that his preferred candidate might not get elected. How very dare they! Free and fair press? Not a chance.

And all you Tories are quite happy with it, because, like all right wingers, your belief in a true democratic process is just a thin layer of paint over your desire to maintain your own privilege and status.

please, grow up and ditch the conspiracy theories, the rules around the debate are stifling and structured it defies belief:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2...ates-will-work

d00d, that class-war chippiness is SOOOOOO twentieth century, why don't you bury alongside Marx for crying out loud!

[Idaho]

please, grow up and ditch the conspiracy theories, the rules around the debate are stifling and structured it defies belief:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2...ates-will-work

d00d, that class-war chippiness is SOOOOOO twentieth century, why don't you bury alongside Marx for crying out loud!

You are a wealthy young man, living at the peak of a wealthy time for this country. Your knowledge and experience of the world are limited. You mistake what you have through luck as what you deserve and what you believe with what suits your circumstances.

Some of us have seen these cycles come and go. And we are about to see it happen again.

[Furunculus]

You are a wealthy young man, living at the peak of a wealthy time for this country. Your knowledge and experience of the world are limited. You mistake what you have through luck as what you deserve and what you believe with what suits your circumstances.

Some of us have seen these cycles come and go. And we are about to see it happen again.

as i consider the approach of my mid thirties, looking back at the times when i have been an executive director, unemployed, self-employed and more, currently living in a deprived part of britain, previously having lived in africa, as well as quite some time in rural poland, i fail to recognise in myself that silver-spoon attitude that makes me impervious to the needs of others......?

[Idaho]

as i consider the approach of my mid thirties, looking back at the times when i have been an executive director, unemployed, self-employed and more, currently living in a deprived part of britain, previously having lived in africa, as well as quite some time in rural poland, i fail to recognise in myself that silver-spoon attitude that makes me impervious to the needs of others......?

None are so blind as those who will not see.

[InsaneApache]

None are so blind as those who will not see.

Indeed.

[Furunculus]

None are so blind as those who will not see.

What straight-jacket?

Clegg makes the fair point that a view of history best left to the schoolyard and football stadium, has an altogether too large influence on civilised English society. Best to leave 'Two World Wars and One World Cup' to the football stands. (Never mind that the World Cup and at least one World War owe a good deal to Russians. Never mind too that it has never occurred to the singers of it that German fans, Europe's most succesful football nation, are of course not the least bit impressed by foreigners celebrating their one little success of fifty years ago)


Perhaps the real significance is that Murdoch send his bloodhounds to scour over the whole of Clegg's past, and this non-issue is the best they could dig up.

simply unimportant, and thus still utter bobbins.
thanks for the biblical style metaphor, but what of substance were you trying to say...............?

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just watched the foriegn policy debate; all came over well, but nick clegg interrupted a lot, had fewer good answers, and gordon got shot down a lot.

[Vladimir]

When I saw Jeremy Clarkson's name on this page it reminded me of a Top Gear episode. The guys were competing against a German trio and arrived, late, of course, in a trio of Spitfires. This and the occasional jab at the U.S. seem to be more in the British "sporting" tradition rather than anything malevolent. Clarkson even make a 1966 reference in the episode.

Any kind of guilt felt by the Germans is theirs to bear. They were beat twice in the same century and it will take *another* 50 years to move on. The Soviet Union bears as much responsibility as Germany for this. Much of Europe leads to the left and the USSR no longer exists as political entity so Germany gets the majority of the flack (pun intended).

Over here I don't see much official bias against Germany by the UK. The former will always be a competitor to the latter so things will never entirely normalize.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Any kind of guilt felt by the Germans is theirs to bear. They were beat twice in the same century and it will take *another* 50 years to move on. The Soviet Union bears as much responsibility as Germany for this. Much of Europe leads to the left and the USSR no longer exists as political entity so Germany gets the majority of the flack (pun intended).

It took West Germany nearly a quarter century to really recover from the war. Then they absorbed the East where little had been done and, arguably, enviornmental etc. conditions were even worse in 1989-90. Sounds like another 25+ from that point.

Collective guilt is a funny thing. I've never molested a child and never will, yet as a Catholic I do feel a sense of guilt over those who have been wronged and pray for God to comfort their spirits. So Germans feeling a hard-to-define sense of guilt for something they never personally did at all isn't quite so strange to me.

...well that's if from this right wing "son of privilege." Idaho, you and I don't quite define things the same way. Separated by a common language no doubt.

[Myrddraal]

Perhaps the real significance is that Murdoch send his bloodhounds to scour over the whole of Clegg's past, and this non-issue is the best they could dig up.

Sounds about right, and the fact that they made such a big deal out of it should do more harm to their own reputation than Clegg's.

[Fragony]

nvm

[Banquo's Ghost]

This is rather an amusing questionnaire for those who might be undecided. It accurately reports my predilection towards being a barely convinced Tory (although in the extra questions, my disagreement with the Iraq war immediately turns me over to being a LibDem).

[InsaneApache]

UK Independence Party:

36%
Liberal Democrats:

34%
Conservative Party:

34%

:p

[Tellos Athenaios]

Lots of odd questions. “The administration costs of the NHS should be reduced by one third”. Agree/Disagree. Yes, and what are the consequences of that, eh?

Anyway I am apparently a Liberal Democrat by 80%, Green by 56%, UKIP 52%, Labour 36%, BNP 25%, Conservative 25%. After extra questions BNP and Conservative swapped; and mysteriously my alignment with each party increased by at least 1%.

[CountArach]

This is rather an amusing questionnaire for those who might be undecided. It accurately reports my predilection towards being a barely convinced Tory (although in the extra questions, my disagreement with the Iraq war immediately turns me over to being a LibDem).

Green Party: 77%
Liberal Democrats: 73%
Labour Party: 61%
UK Independence Party: 41%
British National Party: 39%
Conservative Party: 33%

Though the Greens are closest to my political views in reality I would be voting Lib Dem were I a pom, so yeah that's close enough.

[Furunculus]

Furunculus, I'm sure you're happy to see Trident in the headlines again. What do you make of the letter to the times?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle7103318.ece

i am always happy to see Defence hit the headlines.

what must be realised here is that four, only four, retired generals are having palpitations because they know that defence is going to be truncated to live within its budget, rather than the unfunded ambitions of SDR98, and they are terrified that Liam Foxes pro-navy comments mean that the army is going to bear the brunt of that truncation.