General Election 2015

[ashtray girl]

In parts of the UK the level of immigration has had negative impact on public services. Do you agree on this? (probably not)

There is migration into the UK, then the migrant population get shoved into ghettos. The racist attitude of those in government (and parts of the general population, including those who don't understand how their views contribute and further racism) cause certain area's to be "over-populated" with immigrants, putting "a strain" on public services.

But that is by-the-by, the problem is down to political ideologies, not some people crossing borders.

 

[Ceres]

in a related aside did you lot know katie hopkins & the sun have been referred to the ICC for their racist hate speech http://rt.com/uk/254861-icc-hopkins-sun-legal/

also politicians blaming the countries woes on immigrants and the disadvantaged is just them deflecting rage that should be directed towards them onto vulnerable people, which is a despicable tactic.

 

[Eveleivibe]

I was driving through Alderley Edge in Cheshire yesterday and passed row upon row of blue flags with 'George Osborne, Conservative' emblazoned on them. Being a political ignoramus, I didn't realise it was part of his bleeding constituency! Still, it makes sense what with the proliferation of rich cunts in that area. I should have really stopped the van and Burned them all down...

Yes, Yes, Yes, YES!!!! :D

Serious WOWWWWWW what has happened to this thread? So much anomosity. PLUR people

I think that both SHM n Swedger have valid points. I cannot comment on the immigration levels in Scotland to dispute Swedger's argument, however I do feel that in parts of the UK that immigration is a problem n affecting services. I also believe that privatising parts of the NHS is having affects on the NHS too.

I don't believe that anyone here has said any racist remarks. For one isn't it against the BLUA to do so? and so I'm sure that if anyone had made racist remarks the moderators would have something to say.

I agree with Virtual also, that people are also confusing the term, "racist " with the term, "Xenophobia."

Again, PLUR Disagreements in discussions are healthy.

Evey

 

[Ceres]

http://www.theguardian.com/commenti...rate-welfare-research-public-money-businesses

 

[felix]

I've just stumbled upon this article in the Guardian from 2008, which I found quite hilarious and interesting:

Hands off our music!

Bands such as the Jam and the Smiths were at the forefront of the resistance to Thatcherism in the 1980s. Twenty years later, Tory leader David Cameron lists them as among his favourite acts. Is nothing sacred, asks John Harris

On January 10 this year, David Cameron was in the north-west, visiting a youth project in Salford, Greater Manchester. On the face of it, the trip chimed with his passion for "social enterprise", but as Cameron well knew, his destination was a local holy-of-holies: Salford Lads Club, the local Victorian landmark where the Smiths were photographed in 1986 for the inside cover of their finest album, The Queen Is Dead. In PR terms, the visit was thus a "twofer": a chance for Cameron not only to push the new compassionate Toryism, but to once again yak on about one of his supposedly favourite rock groups and thus remind us that the Conservative party is now groovier than anyone could have imagined.

The plan was for him to have his photo taken in front of the building à la the Smiths, but the local Labour party got wind of the script, and dispatched a pack of activists to foil him. Their placards featured such slogans as "Salford Lads not Eton snobs" and "Oi Dave - Eton Toffs' club is 300 miles that way", and they would not be moved, so Cameron went home without his snap.

 

[mydrugbuddy]

TBH I can imagine Nick Clegg having good music taste. Im not entirely sure I believe Cameron's stated favourite acts is true, i cant really imagine him being into broadly speaking 'anti-establishment' 'alternative' acts. But he came of age at the hey day of the smiths etc so it may be true. Hes probably more into classical and stuff but his PR team advised him that woul alienate him from "the masses". These are cynical times we live in.

I was impressed with all 3 leaders in the Question Time thing the other night, they all spoke extremely persuasively if a little patronisingly but they succeeded in engaging with the audience at least. If they werent told in advance what questions they would be asked they must have anticipated and prepared for them, a bit like a job interview. Clegg even managed to partly account for his tuition fees fiasco and to turn things around and focus on the positvies instead. True to form, Milliband geeked up his exit, tripping slightly as he waved to the audience on leaving the stage. You had to laugh.

I wish i lived in a constinuency where my vote would matter, but labour always win by 10,00 votes or so, like a 85% share of the vote every time. So if you're not entirely convinced that labour wont fuck up the country again theres not much you can do about it if you live in the Moss Side ward. If i can find my postal voting pack in time i will vote, it will be a vote for one of the "protest parties" if i do.

 

[felix]

TBH I can imagine Nick Clegg having good music taste. Im not entirely sure I believe Cameron's stated favourite acts is true, i cant really imagine him being into broadly speaking 'anti-establishment' 'alternative' acts. But he came of age at the hey day of the smiths etc so it may be true. Hes probably more into classical and stuff but his PR team advised him that woul alienate him from "the masses". These are cynical times we live in.

When David Cameron said that "Eton Rifles" was one of his favourite songs (with a smug grin on his face), it made me want to stab him. It was a cynical and shameless "fuck you" to everyone.

If i can find my postal voting pack in time i will vote, it will be a vote for one of the "protest parties" if i do.

What sort of mess do you live in?? Away and find it, ye messy muppet.

 

[mydrugbuddy]

When David Cameron said that "Eton Rifles" was one of his favourite songs (with a smug grin on his face), it made me want to stab him. It was a cynical and shameless "fuck you" to everyone.



What sort of mess do you live in?? Away and find it, ye messy muppet.

the kind of mess where tons of stuff is heaped in big piles willy nilly all over the place. I might take a pic, but I fear i will have Kate on my case if i do. The strange thing is i feel good abouit myself and my house when everything is clean and tidy and all in order, but its very rarely in such a state.

I simply cannot beleive that cameron likes Eton Rifles. He probably only likes it cos of the title bearing the name of the school he went to.

Didnt Gordon Brown say he liked the Arctic Monkeys? What utter bollocks. I simply cannot believe that is true. Polticians will say anything to try to win votes.

 

[Sammy G]

The Jam were openly Tory though, weren't they?

 

[mydrugbuddy]

I thought Weller was deeply into left wing causes and movements? He was a notable member of Red Wedge?

http://liberation.typepad.com/liberation/2007/04/the_politics_of.html

" The highlight was the excellent album Our Favourite Shop, which included the upbeat anthems Walls Come Tumbling Down and Shout to the Top. During this time Weller was an almost musician ultra-activist, organising the pro-Labour Party Red Wedge collective with Billy Bragg amongst other benefits for striking miners etc."

 

[Sammy G]

Only because he'd previously made pro-Tory comments and people stopped buying his records.

 

[felix]

Only because he'd previously made pro-Tory comments and people stopped buying his records.

Source, please! I don't remember that.

 

[mydrugbuddy]

I'll take your word for it. The only other 'pop star' that i knew of being openly Tory was Gary Numan. Most of them steer clear of politics, unless its anything to do with 'anti-establishment protest' which appeals to rebellious youths.

The Cameron Smiths thing does not ring true at all. Someone as driven and ambitious as him could never be into 'wallowing in maudlin woe is me, self pitying, powerless, 'anthems for losers'. That insults peoples intelligence IMO, someone should unexpetedly ask him to name his favourite Smiths tunes, albums and lyrics, i bet he'd be totally caught out.

 

[StoneHappyMonday]

"It was a stupid quote and I regret it now" - in reference to telling people to vote Tory. He said it to wind up The Clash.

http://www.ijamming.net/Jammingmagazine/PaulWellertranscript.html

I think playing several miners benefits and red wedge gigs kinda overrides that don't you?

 

[Sammy G]

It was the eighties.

If you didn't play 300 benefit gigs and participate in Red Wedge, you didn't get in the NME. Ask Killing Joke about that.

 

[StoneHappyMonday]

And in the 2000's he refused to accept a CBE.

I'm no Weller fan but if you are going to hold one stupid statement (that he is on record as regretting) said when he was 19 years old against him then you're a harsher man than I.

 

[F.U.B.A.R.]

If Paul Weller's a Tory, then I'm the fuckin Queen

 

[felix]

"It was a stupid quote and I regret it now" - in reference to telling people to vote Tory. He said it to wind up The Clash.

http://www.ijamming.net/Jammingmagazine/PaulWellertranscript.html

-What about your famous quote of “We’ll all be voting Conservative at the next election”, what prompted you to say that?
Well that... it was more like a private joke. I mean it’s easy for me to justify myself, now, but I suppose at the time it was... We was on The Clash tour at the time and everything was like left wing and socialist maaan, and all that crap. I just thought I’d, you know...
-Get yourself hated?
Well in a way. I was just trying to make the point that we’re not into whatever they want to do. We’re just our own band and that’s that. It was a stupid quote anyway, and I regret it now, but there you go...
-Would you vote in The next election?
I dunno, maybe I’ll vote for Labour. I don’t really wanna talk about politics, I’m not clever enough.

THANK YOU for finding that.

A half-synapse fired in my brain when SammyG posted that, but I'm glad you cleared that up. For some reason this is important to me. :D

 

[Allein]

Only because he'd previously made pro-Tory comments and people stopped buying his records.

I guess we all make some fuking outlandish and frankly stupid / deluded statements from time to time, at least Mr Weller has the decency to admit when he's been talking out of his arse.

 

[BecomingJulie]

If you feel so strongly that the system has no value you can register that by submitting a spoiled ballot paper, if many did this it couldnt be ignored.

Actually, I think even if everybody spoiled their ballot paper, they would find a way to ignore it.

Even if you turned your ballot paper into a beautiful work of art which carried the unambiguous message None of these candidates are worth my vote, the only people who are ever going to see it are the election officials, the candidates themselves and their assistants at the count. Nobody is ever going to get the chance to understand that message.

All my grand plans to fill in my ballot paper as though it were an STV, complete with RON standing against the real candidates, in protest at the unfit-for-purpose, first-past-the-post electoral system will end up coming to naught; because it would be lumped in together with all the other spoiled papers. Actually, it probably will end up with even less notice taken of it than if I had just drawn a huge boypart.

I can see how deliberately spoiling a ballot paper probably might be a valid protest technique against compulsory voting; but for all that's wrong with our voting system, it does at least recognise a voter's right to abstain from voting.

Tactical voting is being relied on by the big parties IMO discouraging people from voting for the party that best reflects their genuine views and beliefs on how our country should be run

It shouldn't still be this way in 2015, but the 2011 Alternative Vote referendum was sabotaged.

Basically, you have to imagine that the first round of counting has already happened, and the candidate to whom you gave your first preference eliminated. And after second-guessing everyone else's vote, you then mark your single X against your second preference. Because if you just voted honestly, then some candidate might get elected that you really don't want elected.

And all the while this terrible system stays in use, the voters are forced to conceal their real choices from one another. Thus making it even easier to manipulate the result .....