If George Galloway didn't exist it would be necessary to invent him. Say what you like about the man's politics, he is one of the very few MPs in Westminster prepared to offer a counter-narrative to the heavily whipped line of the three main parties, parties that have become almost indistinguishable as far as what they stand for and what they say goes. Unfortunately he's not a very good MP, putting his own agenda first quite often gadding about internationally and speaking on international issues that matter to him without being all that available to his constituents or speaking on their behalves about local issues that matter to them. And his comments on the Julian Assange case asserting that sex with an unconscious woman who by definition cannot consent is not cos she's previously consented when awake were beyond the pale really. You could get away with that line where two parties know each other well enough to have given each other permission for 'surprise sex', but not a one-night stand where nothing of the sort's even come up. Stupid. And in UK law consent must be made clear every time, there's no conception of ongoing, standing consent for sexual acts in the future so the position is wrong-headed anyway
A lot on the left fucking cringed at that, it's one of his most bizarre pronouncements, feeds into the perception that the left are loonies and with that undoing a lot of his efforts to push a more left-leaning agenda. He doesn't do credible very well. Though he is quite often bang on the money with a lot of what he says he is too easily dismissed as a loon, and his arguments with it. Still, he was probably the most watchable of the panel and got some of the loudest cheers, he clearly struck a chord with the young on a lot of issues.
Oh, and Too Hot, the 'kids' in the audience did pretty well for me. Better informed and than quite a few of the 'adults' I come across here and there. ;)
Hahaaaaa, but you fail to understand the cunning of yer alien mind Rob. When you're submitting your subject to the old anal probing you don't really care what they've got in the cranial department, do you? You only care that when they're dropped off half-naked and hemorrhaging from a prolapsed rectum outside an all-night service station they are dismissed as complete bleedin' fruitloops when they start banging on about UFOs and shit. Devious buggers yer reptilian shapeshifters so they are, oh yeah.
*scrunches down tin-foil hat*
Mind you, saying that it is all complete bollox though, innit? Over a billion smartphones with mega-pixel cameras out there across the globe, best anyone can do is a blurred, shaky shot of a string of chinese lanterns half the time.
In the news today, Milliband confounds those who thought his 'Red Ed' moniker at all deserved by being every bit as blue as the Tories. FFS, he's as good as repeated their lie about generations of the workless, something already found to be complete bollox and utter shite by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation study. Labour peddling scrounger narratives to middle England to try and secure an election win. Jesus, what is the point of 'em? How about, and I know this must sound dangerously radical, you get some policies of your own Ed and at least make a stab at effective opposition, cos if you're gonna accept the Tory benefit cap, and ATOS assessments, and the bedroom tax, the breaking of the link between benefit rate and inflation, an end to universality in favour of expensive to administer means testing, yadda, yadda, ya the electorate might well conclude they're as well with the devil they know come next election, who can at least say that they weren't in charge when it all went tits up in 2008. FFS.
. Hahahahahaha. Quite. Except of course it ain't fucking funny.
Oh well, best get on with trying to build a genuinely radical party of the left I s'pose then, eh, cos three main parties all being right of centre does not a democracy make.
Sorry John, got sidetracked, as usual. ;) I'd be surprised now you mention it if it's not occurred to someone in UKIP already. Like GnV said at the minute we can't even have that kinda discussion because forbids capital punishment for signatories to it. No point in a referendum unless we withdraw from the Council of Europe, we couldn't implement it. It would be an excellent propaganda tool for them in the current climate, I'm sure they'll seek to exploit it.
I would not be more likely to vote for them, in fact I would find the strategy even more cynical than usual, and would have even less respect for them for trying to make political capital of the murder this week when emotions are high and reasoned, balanced arguments hard to find amid some heavily polarised, overly emotive positions.
Not just big Rob, though they are big, yeah. Sharp too. Wilkinson Sword have got nothing on these bad boys, could have your face off with 'em if I wanted. Probably wouldn't even know I'd done anything to you till the whole thing just slid off yer 'ead. Luckily I don't have much need of the freeform surgery skills these days, I've gone all lovely, fluffy, bunny rabbit. Obviously. Hence the big, daft pink ears. Lulls people into a false sense of security see, they'll never see me next stealth attack coming. :mrgreen:
Shhh. Not so loud Flower. She might hear you and come back and then where will we be? N00bs ((( Well, might as well be a n00b with twelve posts in six years. It's a shockingly poor effort Gerty, what d'you think you're playing at!? Eh? ))), posting in the forum and wanting to join in, upsetting the equilibrium and glacial pace we've come to expect and everything, that's where, you mark my words! Steady on son, steady.
I cannot understand for the life of me how anyone could seriously think of voting for those clowns. Apart from their anti-immigrant, anti-EU stance does anyone even know what they stand for? Really? I don't see how they can, even UKIP don't bloody know. Emails between Farage, Godfrey Bloom et al talk about buying policy off the shelf from right-wing think tanks to flesh out their manifesto and save them the trouble of having to work out what they think between them themselves. The flat tax rate they've been banging on about so much seems now in doubt, with Farage apparently distancing himself from it as policy on last week's Question Time, and talking now about a two-tier flat tax in recent days. WTF is a two-tier flat tax? It's an oxymoron, that's what it is. These guys are making it up on the bag of a bloody fag-packet as they go, what they have put forward do not a program of government make.
'Ah but Neil, we're not expecting them to form a government. It's a protest vote against the three main parties', I hear you cry. Well fair enough, but what message does that send to government? That a large chunk of the electorate want an even sharper turn to the right than we've had under this government already? Seriously? After seeing the impact of this government's austerity measures on public services, not to mention on their own pockets and those of the working poor that's what people want? They are even further to the right than the bloody Tories, you only have to look at their proposals on , etc to know that. Members of the disaffected Tory right, and those still further to the right of them, fair enough, that I can understand, but how anyone who previously voted Labour, presumably cos they believed in social justice could even think of voting for them is beyond me. Madness. Absolute madness.
^Hahahaha! That took me a minute. I'm not sure crossing the streams is the major issue Staggers? It seems to me it would be more a synchronisation issue ensuring both streams fire at the correct moment. Stream one fires too early it's all over isn't it, which could lead to some frustration for both stream two and the streamee.
Not a celebration as such, but a peaceful protest for those who'd like to make their disgust at the 10m cost of her not-State funeral ( plus policing and clean-up of course ) known on Wednesday:
Me, I'll be marking her funeral by going to the first planning meeting of my local group to see if the time might be ripe for the formation of a true consensus party of the broad left seeing as there's no opposition whatsoever any more to the neo-liberalism of Tory, Lib-Dem and Labour alike.
Was discussing this with someone on FB last night. Never mind street parties, we're both expecting something much more serious to kick off next week. The funeral's going two ways: pageant by day, riot by night I have no fucking doubt. I think the 10m cos of the funeral is gonna pale into insignificance alongside the policing and cleaning up bill for afters, small potatoes really. I hope the Met are ready for it.
The anger has been coming anyway with this current administration, bedroom tax and the like, the funeral is just perfect timing to light the blue touch paper. What a class bitch, kicking off riots and burning streets even in death! Part of me thinks it's a good thing if the anger does come, but for the sensible humanitarian in me that recognises it will be a world of pain for some of it does.
Been thinking about this thread again today. Hey, I was bored at work knee-deep in spreadsheets and had exhausted my usual fantasies so for some reason this popped into my head. Go figure!? Anyways, what I was wondering was . . . how many of those who so often vehemently proclaim their opposition to speed cameras on threads like this would be first in the queue to endorse CCTV cameras in our city centres for the prevention / detection of other kinds of criminal offences?
I'm guesstimating it would be a rather large proportion, which strikes me as odd. You know, that motorists seem not to view their own criminal behaviour in quite the same light as they would view the criminal behaviour of others, the risk of causing injury or death being equal in some circumstances depending on the behaviour engaged in.
Just sayin'.
:rotflmao: :rotflmao:
