The nastiest part of the nasty party

13 watchers

gcwenn Oct 2015 11:52am, 13 Oct 2015 994 posts	0 gcwenn The horse racing page in the Morning Star is crap though
ChrisHB Oct 2015 12:02pm, 13 Oct 2015 11,685 posts	0 ChrisHB I expect the BBC to define balance as attempting to represent each party's view as equally desirable. That's not my wish but it seems reasonable. All other commentators should stick to their own guns, but papers should, in the interests of informing and educating their readers, acquire commentators who support the various parties' views.
Duchess Oct 2015 12:47pm, 13 Oct 2015 6,228 posts	0 Duchess I look forward to the day when Polly Toynbee starts writing for the Telegraph and Charles Moore for the Guardian for anything other than standalone articles.
Chrisull Oct 2015 12:54pm, 13 Oct 2015 8,027 posts	0 Chrisull Spleen - we've been through this before, he's not talking a planned economy that's bullshit- nationalisation of railways is something most Labour and many Tory voters agree with, he doesn't hate Israel he advocates talks with Hamas and Hezbollah (which just like talking with the IRA is sensible, and had to done at the end of the day) - I don't agree with his referring to them as "friends" but equally calling them "terrorists" isn't likely to bring them to the debating table is it? And as for Russia - well I despise Putin as continuation of the old "Brezhnev" order, but I do note that the Ukrainian government was being backed by fascists, that Crimea was historically part of Russia until Khrushev "gave" it away, and that Putin is actually helping build secure refugee camps in Syria. As the article points out, the BBC isn't being even handed - Cameron's speech the first commenter is Michael Heseltine - surprise, surprise, "best speech ever", Corbyn's speech, the first commenter Lance Price, one of Blair's team surprise, surpise "worst speech ever". Cameron's speech was airy fairy bollocks. Corbyn's was all over the place too. Your blinked bias here is wilfully ignoring the details, I've already pointed out the leftist rags are more interested in revolution and criticising each other for not being pure enough left. Let's remember that what McDonnell is currently proposing is to the right of the SDP of the 80s. I'm not looking for uncritical praise, I think Corbyn's already got loads wrong, but there's some ideas in there I approve of, (people's questions at Question time - this could be developed), decrying the idiotic idea to bid for the Saudi's prison contract (which surprise, surprise they've just dropped), scrapping tuition fees (as in Germany), rent controls (as in Germany), it would be nice if they could stick to scrapping Trident and instead diverting the money into conventional armed forces but that seems to have gone by the way side. IF a right wing Labour leader had presented many of those arguments, there would not have been the same hoo-haa. The issue seems to be with presentation and perception rather than politics. I rather suspect for Corbyn to survive he'll have to move further right than Burnham or Cooper would ever have done.
Too Much Water Oct 2015 9:52am, 14 Oct 2015 5,247 posts	0 Too Much Water Merkel wants to hold the 2 million plus migrants coming to Germany in "transit zones" near the border to sift through the purely economic migrants and only keep the ones she believes are deserving - I presume using the term "concentration camps" was deemed a bit too soon. The next German election will be very interesting, she is surely finished
DeeGee Oct 2015 10:06am, 14 Oct 2015 16,727 posts	0 DeeGee "Concentration camps" was a rather cheap shot, don't you think, TMW? I expected better of you than that.
Shadowless Formless Legs Oct 2015 10:10am, 14 Oct 2015 202 posts	0 Shadowless Formless Legs "I expect the BBC to define balance as attempting to represent each party's view as equally desirable. That's not my wish but it seems reasonable." I actually think they do a reasonably good job of keeping things balance but unfortunately they do it by representing each party's view as equally undesirable rather than equally desirable. (Don't forget that the origin of this thread was an anti-conservative BBC article). The downside, I believe of this approach is that it generates a thoroughly negative view of politics and while I don't agree with the position of various political parties, I don't doubt that they hold their views with the best (albeit misguided) intentions. The end result is that the Conservatives are 'the nasty party', Labour are now 'the loony left', UKIP are 'closet racists', the SNP 'hate the english'. Hardly a picture that inspires young people to take an interest in politics and arguably the constant negative message of mainstream politics is part of the reason that people are being increasingly driven to the radical fringes.
Chrisull Oct 2015 10:13am, 14 Oct 2015 8,033 posts	0 Chrisull SFL - Actually I agree with just about everything in your last post!
Binks Oct 2015 10:16am, 14 Oct 2015 6,760 posts	0 Binks This was an interesting little read, focused on the states but potentially relevant in the UK too. (Obviously you should never assume that what goes in one country should be neatly transposed to another..) fee.org "We are encouraged to believe that we are running the system. So we flatter ourselves that our opinions matter. After all, it is we the voters who are in charge of building the regime under which we live. But look deeper and you discover a truth that is both terrifying and glorious: the building of the great society can’t be outsourced. It is up to you and me."
Too Much Water Oct 2015 10:26am, 14 Oct 2015 5,248 posts	0 Too Much Water DeeGee, nevertheless it is an image which many will conjure up