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[Closed] EU Referendum - are you in or out?

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Mattyfez plus 1.


 
Posted : 15/05/2019 10:17 pm
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Meanwhile back on planet earth, GE votes are legal, unlike brexit and May’s WD minus the backstop.

Well, if there is No majority and No party gives way then you will definitely need a "confirmatory vote", otherwise there will be "no" govt.

We might even see a multi party agreement between labour, lib dem and green, if if it keeps the bloody tories out.

Yes, that is a possibility but if that is still Not enough then what?

A multi party government might be quite good for keeping the fascists at arms length.

All depending on the outcome of the vote.


 
Posted : 15/05/2019 10:20 pm
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As as instinctively right leaning voter I am coming to the same conclusion from the opposite direction. Very sad.

Is it sad? Or is this actually the "new politics" Brexit allegedly triggered? People starting to question old (perhaps a bit entrenched?) main party habits? And actually start to vote for policies and candidates not party colours...

Fine for the euros as they’re completely meaningless. How will you vote in the approaching general election though?

As I said, I'm now more of a "floater" so by definition I can't tell you today who I'll be voting for in (anyone know?) N months time at a GE.
Can you tell me what the respective parties will be campaigning on for the GE once they've finished Brexiting and have to come up with opinions on other topics again?


 
Posted : 15/05/2019 10:21 pm
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And actually start to vote for policies and candidates not party colours…

Problem with policies are the faces behind them. You can have the best policies in the world but if the politicians have no intention of implementing them, then those so called policies are merely hot air. In that case they should be taken to court? No?

Can you tell me what the respective parties will be campaigning on for the GE once they’ve finished Brexiting and have to come up with opinions on other topics again?

Nahh ... it will be the same issue again. Some still want to remain arguing that they can change again to be in good terms with EU and want to join them again while others continue to Brexit.


 
Posted : 15/05/2019 10:27 pm
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Nahh … it will be the same issue again. Some still want to remain arguing that they can change again to be in good terms with EU and want to join them again while others continue to Brexit.

I disagree, the flip flopping between red and blue for all my life isn't really helpful or progressive.

Let's open up the field a bit, yes we'll get a few farage types as MPs, but we'll also get a lot more social -liberal MPs. On balance I think it's worth upsetting the rinse/repeat of the labour and Conservative apple cart that we've been stuck in for decades.


 
Posted : 15/05/2019 10:53 pm
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those so called policies are merely hot air.

Thus was it ever, but my point stands if the last three years have taught us anything its to apply a little more critical thinking when we're promised the earth perhaps?

Nahh … it will be the same issue again.

Anyone still banging on about Brexit in their GE campaign (either for or against) will not attract my vote then... Post Brexit voters should be looking for substance and evidence that parties and their members are actually thinking about the future.

I'm not bothered about "backing a winner" only the candidate who I believe is closest to my own values... Or nobody meets expectations and I spoil my paper...


 
Posted : 15/05/2019 11:29 pm
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Post Brexit … do mean the day after we have left, or after the first 15 years during which it will still dominate the business of government as it patches up the agreements and working arrangements it needs with 80 plus countries, as well as cleaning up the domestic fallout?


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 12:01 am
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I can't help thinking that the LibDems would be doing a whole lot better out of this than even they are if they had a leader who wasn't so successful at getting no-one to pay any attention to him.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 12:13 am
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I can’t help thinking that the LibDems would be doing a whole lot better out of this than even they are if they had a leader who wasn’t so successful at getting no-one to pay any attention to him.

The problem the lib dems have is they are very sensible and almost boring.

The media like to market car crash politics as it gets more views =advertising hits for them.

I'd love to have a sensible and boring government.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 12:24 am
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lib dems probloem is they have lost their USP of being truthful and safe. Once they lost this they have nothing.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 8:58 am
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Thus speaks the self-proclaimed political geek.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 9:19 am
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Sadly, I think you are right there TJ. Either of the two main parties can simply point to the LDs and say "Tuition Fees" and people will remember the shafting they got from that.

Also sadly, that's politics now. Just like people have said up there ^^^and echoed in every primary school playground in the world.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 9:20 am
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I’d love to have a sensible and boring government.

Amen to that. Remember the good old days where all you had to get your petticoats ruffled about was their duck-houses and moat cleaning, and things just seemed to tick along. Seems like a halcyon golden-age in the dim and distant past now, doesn't it? Replaced by chaos, ridiculous ideological posturing and rank incompetence across the board (see Chris Graylings latest billions-spanking cock-up-fest)

I did my postal vote for the EU elections last night. The remainer tactical voting website said the Green Party was my best bet to keep the Brexit Party nutters out, so thats what I did.

I'm 49 years old, have voted in every single election (GE, EU and local) of my adult life and its the first time I've voted anything other than Labour. I suspect I'll be among millions abandoning the two main parties who are both no longer fit for purpose. In fact, its difficult to see what purpose either of them serve other than perpetuating their own closed shop/chuckle brothers 'to me - to you' routine

Two cheeks of the same 'Will of the People' arse. A plague on both their houses


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 9:47 am
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the first 15 years during which it will still dominate the business of government as it patches up the agreements and working arrangements it needs with 80 plus countries, as well as cleaning up the domestic fallout?

Same thing innit? The day after A50 is finally executed I'm more interested in the party that have a plan for the next decade... Right now they are all equally deficient IMO but we're not quite in GE mode yet.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 9:49 am
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Post Brexit … do mean the day after we have left, or after the first 15 years during which it will still dominate the business of government as it patches up the agreements and working arrangements it needs with 80 plus countries, as well as cleaning up the domestic fallout?

The day after, I will be hassling my Leave mp to know why the roads aren’t fixed and why the hospital  back log isn’t cleared.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 9:50 am
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lib dems probloem is they have lost their USP of being truthful and safe.

That does seem to be the case, but what I don't get is why the tuition fees let down stays in public conscious, but other bigger things don't, like with the tories we have devastating welfare cuts, the Windrush scandal, police cuts, greyling wandering around in a daze hemorrhaging public money like it's not important and couldn't be put to better use elsewhere .. to name but a few...

... But oh no... The tututions fees are far more scandalous... Apparently.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 9:52 am
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mattyfez
That does seem to be the case, but what I don’t get is why the tuition fees let down stays in public conscious, but other bigger things don’t, like with the tories we have devastating welfare cuts, the Windrush scandal, police cuts, to name but a few…

At least we got this gem out of it

Instead of apologising, they should have just blamed the tories and denied/lied their way out of it like that teflon-coated **** Boris.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 10:06 am
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The tuition fees thing is just a convenient excuse for those that vote Labour but are full of guilt and remorse for doing so and so feel they need to justify it to themselves and others.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 10:10 am
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The problem with the Lib-Dems is that their raison-d'etre is to be in the government. Not to be the government but to be in the government. Any policy they claim to hold dear to their hearts is up for grabs in aid of their only true policy.

If they want to be a juniour player in government they should take a look at what the DUP are doing. Basically, wander around the halls of Westminster with a can of petrol and a lighter screaming 'I'll do it, you just see if I won't!!' until you get your way.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 10:17 am
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Amen to that. Remember the good old days where all you had to get your petticoats ruffled about was their duck-houses and moat cleaning, and things just seemed to tick along. Seems like a halcyon golden-age in the dim and distant past now, doesn’t it? Replaced by chaos, ridiculous ideological posturing and rank incompetence across the board (see Chris Graylings latest billions-spanking cock-up-fest)

And now on top of the risk of hard brexit, we have the risk of Corbyn nationalising the energy grid without paying the shareholders the market value for the company and flouting international law.

We either have people who don't know how to appropriately privatise things and who damage our reputation internationally. Or people who don't now how to nationalise appropriately and also like to damage our international reputation.

Definitely voting lib dem.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 10:34 am
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And now on top of the risk of hard brexit, we have the risk of Corbyn nationalising the energy grid without paying the shareholders the market value for the company and flouting international law.

To be honest, I think that the Labour party are now like the Lib Dems of the old pre-coalition days. They can basically say what they like. They know their never going to be in a position to ever have to deliver it. See above re: tuition fees

Team Jezza has looked at their (frankly unbelievable) total failure to make any impact at all on the most shambolic, incompetent government this country has ever seen, in the middle of an unprecedented national crisis, and thought '**** it!"

Magic Grandad can basically promise to hand deliver a gold-plated unicorn to every household in the land, a week in Benidorm for everyone, and a kitten. He's never going to get the keys to number ten, so it really doesn't matter, does it? Its all academic


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 10:53 am
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It must surely be time for yet another Labour Party commitment to abolish the House of Lords. Funny how they've never got around to it whilst actually in government.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 11:00 am
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Lib Dem here - like last time & the time before that etc etc etc.....

God loves a trier! 🤣


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 11:06 am
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Maybe those Labour peers got upset at that plan.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 11:09 am
 Del
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Which is basically what Vince Cable said they would do.
Edit: this in response to Bruce wee's comment re the dup.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 11:10 am
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As its all been so quiet for a while, you should generally fear the worst, but it looks like Jezza's stitch up is go

After face-to-face talks between Mr Corbyn and Ms May, Labour said it would not support the bill without a compromise agreement complete with safeguards to avoid it being unpicked by a future Tory leader. “We are not in the business of getting into a car when we don’t know where it’s going,” said one source.

But senior Labour sources refused to rule out the party’s MPs being whipped to abstain in the crucial second reading vote, potentially saving the PM from defeat at the hands of Leave-backing Tory rebels and the DUP.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 11:13 am
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The Donkeys are back.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 11:14 am
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Labour Abstention was a danger last time but they didnt in the end, wuld be madness if they dead

good work Donkeys!

I see that Farages dodgy money harvesting scheme is working well he claimed 16000 donnations on day 1, records show 1200 website visits, so either he's lying or hes doing his very best to shield hs donors from scutiny AGAIN!


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 11:24 am
 piha
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It's great to see LBD's back.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 11:30 am
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you should generally fear the worst, but it looks like Jezza’s stitch up is go

It really doesnt.
You have to be spectacularly stupid/frothing cultist to think that Labour would whip for abstaining considering that a)people would just disobey them anyway and b)then they would get the blame.
They might have an unwhipped abstain but even that is unlikely.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 12:00 pm
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Morning Comrade. Hows the glorious revolution coming along? Are the proletariat ready to throw off off their chains, take on their capitalist oppressor and embrace a bold socialist future*?

* Via the medium of abstaining from crucial parliamentary votes


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 12:20 pm
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but it looks like Jezza’s stitch up is go

In your head maybe and that is the only place it has ever been. You are as stubborn about it as this guy would be.

.

See what I did there with a Monty Python reference.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 12:22 pm
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Morning Comrade.

I am sure all that made sense in your head. I now realise your talk of 6th form politics is actually a compliment being something you want to eventually reach from the primary school playground level.
Are you seriously mad enough to believe that they would go for a 3 line whip abstain? Please explain your reasoning given the recent(ish) whips and without resorting to childish insults.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 12:35 pm
 MSP
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/16/labour-brexit-remain-voters-european-elections

Just for those few who still don't get why labours non policy isn't working.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 12:44 pm
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Are you seriously mad enough to believe that they would go for a 3 line whip abstain?

Lets just have a quick refresher as to what he's three line whipped his MP's to support so far shall we comrade?

1. Triggering article 50
2. Leaving the EEA and the customs union
3. Leaving the single market

No, you're right. With that track record, theres no way he'd do anything to help facilitate Brexit, is there?

My apologies

Carry on.....


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 12:44 pm
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Just for those few who still don’t get why labours non policy isn’t working.

Without any data on the effect of any different policy/approach to it it tells us nothing. The current approach is not working but then any other approaches may not work either.

For example, I no longer support Labour but it has nothing to do with Brexit so don't jump to conclusions.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 12:50 pm
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Lets just have a quick refresher as to what he’s three line whipped his MP’s to support so far shall we comrade?

Yes lets. Personally I like using up to date information unlike cult members like yourself.
So lets have a look at the recent indicative votes shall we?
For Customs union - 3 line
For customs union membership - 3 line
Labour brexit plan - 3 line
Confirmation referendum - 3 line
Common market 2 - support but not whipped.

Oh and again Stop being a primary schoolkid with your "comrade" bollocks. Just because not everyone is as binary position as you doesnt mean they have to be in the opposite camp.

Now carry on being a useful idiot for the hard right.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 1:05 pm
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Without any data on the effect of any different policy/approach to it it tells us nothing. The current approach is not working but then any other approaches may not work either.

This is just silly bollocks, it would take months to carry out a study with that level of detail. Meanwhile labour would still be haemorrhaging support, so they need to change track now.

You don't need a methodologically and statistically rigourous poll if you know that only one in 8 brexiteers were working class labour. Look at the bloody defections. It's blindingly clear that labour should be remain


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 1:29 pm
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You have to admit that Farage is schooling the rest of them on both dog-whistle populist politics and obvious (in retrospect) stuff like this,

https://inews.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/GettyImages-1142935670.jp g" alt="" />

I mean, that is clever, particularly given the impairments, physical, emotional and intellectual, that many of his target voters will carry.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 1:39 pm
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/16/labour-brexit-remain-voters-european-elections

the stupid thing is that Labour couldve prevented this if theyd come off the fence sooner & be sitting pretty right now

In the 2016 referendum, Labour supporters divided two to one in favour of remain. Today the ratio is three to one. This means the number of Labour remain defectors to remain parties is three times as large as Labour leave defectors to leave parties – and has continued to grow.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 2:14 pm
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ON the Lib dems - its not just tuition fees. Its Carmicheals lying before the last election. Its Cable selling off the post office. Plus of course enabling a hard right tory government

If you have trust honesty and principles as your USp and then throw them all away then you are left with nothing. Thats the lib dems position right now. They have nothing to offer


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 2:21 pm
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It was never that simple TJ no matter how blinkered your own outlook is.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 2:22 pm
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Because the other parties are shining bacons of integrity?

Don't talk b11x man and stop perpetuating the anti LD propaganda that precipitated the current mess.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 2:37 pm
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It was also the the fact that most libdem voters would consider themselves left leaning centrists, more closely allied with the then labour party. So really in that election that ended up with the libdems supporting a tory government, the majority voted for left of centre politics, but rather than acknowledge that fact Clegg jumped into bed with the Tories because they had the largest minority. He ignored what the parties actually represented.

Tuition fees is an example of the policies they enabled, but mainly they enabled hard austerity, more tax liberation for the rich and punishment of those already victimised by society. The "hostile environment" for immigrants gets the headlines, but that same hostile environment has been applied to the poor and the disabled, and all that came from the libdem enabled tory government.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 2:38 pm
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Who said it? Farage or Corbyn?

Take the quiz now!

https://www.libdems.org.uk/corbyn-farage-quiz


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 2:45 pm
 scud
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I find myself in that situation of where i vote in next GE.

I would never vote Tory. I always used to vote Labour, but hate the direction and sheer stubborn views of Corbyn and his lack of pro-activity in providing any opposition of real note to the Tories. I feel genuinely let down by Labour now.

Could i vote Lib-Dem, i come from Portsmouth which was always a Lib-Dem stronghold growing up, but for me, they would be the equivalent of voting for magnolia as a paint colour, it may make sense, but it would be last resort and fail to excite me...

Change indie party, they just come across as Tories who don't have business interests that would benefit from leaving..


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 2:45 pm
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So you'd like to vote for a sensible party but they're not exciting enough?!?

No wonder the country's ****ed

Look squirrel!!!


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 2:59 pm
 scud
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Nope they fail to excite me through doing very little, they are profiting now, purely because they are the only "remain" party of any longstanding, not because their policies or actions do much for me, without brexit i would never normally vote for them, so it's not because i am distracted by bushy-tailed rats......it's because they're an alternative i feel i am being forced to vote for, not the one i actually want to vote for, due to the issue of the day (well the issues of the last 2 years and for the foreseeable future)


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 3:04 pm
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I find myself in the position of wondering not to who to vote into the EP but rather who is most likely to keep Farage and his bunch of weasels out.

I'm in the north west of England so it's a toss up between the Greens and Lib Dems. I'd hate to waste the vote.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 3:08 pm
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Whatever the Liberal Democrats may have done or not have done in the past they are the party that want to stay in the E.U. If you want to show a majority for staying in the E.U then I suggest you vote Liberal Democrats. Voting Labour will be seen as endorsing leave. At the moment the Brexit Party are in the lead, according to the polls, can you imagine what Farage will be like if they get a majority and the right wing of the conservative party will take it as a vote for no deal.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 3:20 pm
 scud
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For the European MEP elections i'd vote for George and Bungle if it kept that smug-faced cockwomble out of it.......


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 3:24 pm
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@Coyote - if you're in the north west then the tactical voting site says a vote for the Green Party is the most likely to keep the faragists out if you don't want to vote for the Labour/Tory Brexit coalition.

We both voted Green with our postal votes last night.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 3:35 pm
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I mean, that is clever

That logo is smart isn't it… they were so much more ready for this election than any of the other parties. Bloody scary who helped them be ready though. Dark days. For what it's worth James Baker is pretty good… but I don't see the LibDems getting two MEPs. One each for LibDems & Greens looking far from impossible though. Let's hope they get to represent us for years… oh, and…

VOTE !


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 4:06 pm
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Yeh, I bet they were laughing when we were all joking about Farage heading to the right.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 4:08 pm
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Could i vote Lib-Dem, i come from Portsmouth which was always a Lib-Dem stronghold growing up, but for me,

In that case you do vote lib dem as the tactical anti tory vote.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 4:10 pm
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[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47810449492_53be088c8a_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47810449492_53be088c8a_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2fQR3WG ]DSC_0918[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/25846484@N04/ ]TandemJeremy[/url], on Flickr


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 4:11 pm
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Literally a shit-eating grin.

(I didn't mean it, Binners!)


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 4:13 pm
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It was never that simple TJ no matter how blinkered your own outlook is.

Because the other parties are shining bacons of integrity?

When integrity compared to the other parties is your USP - Also what MSP says.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 4:13 pm
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@binners Thanks, I was leaning that way anyway. Voted Green in locals and nationals so at least I'm consistent.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 4:22 pm
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I will check the polls and predictions for Scotland. Last time a uikpper sneaked in with the greens just missing out so green seems the best anti brexit vote in the europeans for me.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 4:25 pm
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Enjoy the cakes Uncle Jezza 😃


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 4:50 pm
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FFS that’s not pro-brexit, it’s simply honouring a democratic vote. I still can’t get my head around why people can’t grasp this simple point.

If you're going to claim that you cannot get your head around it after having had multiple people including myself explain it to you countless times over the last few months, then you're either being spectacularly dense or disingenuously trolling. And I don't really believe for a moment that you're dense.

But we know the answer to this one now don't we, after you finally revealed your hand the other day. You understand it perfectly well; you just don't like it. Which, k'now, is absolutely fine and we can agree to differ, I can't help but think that debate would be much simpler on both sides and might actually progress somewhere if you were simply more honest about that.

Fine for the euros as they’re completely meaningless.

This literally made me laugh out loud.

Brexiters for the last three years: "unelected bureaucrats!"

Us: "Oh look, the European elections, you can actually go and elect your MEPs after all, just what you wanted!"

Our resident RINO: "... they’re completely meaningless."


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 4:57 pm
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binners

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Enjoy the cakes Uncle Jezza 😃

Wot these cakes?
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/46946497255_99a4890494_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/46946497255_99a4890494_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2ewv53t ]DSC_0917[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/25846484@N04/ ]TandemJeremy[/url], on Flickr


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 5:09 pm
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ON the Lib dems – its not just tuition fees. Its Carmicheals lying before the last election. Its Cable selling off the post office. Plus of course enabling a hard right tory government

I don't think this is true.

I'm a member of a Remain echo-chamber Facebook group. Whenever a political party gets mentioned, for whatever reason, with depressing regularity someone will always pop up with a reason why they can't support that party. With the Lib Dems it's the tuition fees argument, without exception; in three years I don't think I've ever seen any other reason cited (if it has it's rare). I've never seen the post office mentioned and I've never even heard of Carmichael. It's exactly the same with Labour and the Iraq War.

I think perhaps people generally are largely disengaged from politics, so latch on to a single policy be that a positive or negative one. We saw it in the referendum - "well, I voted leave because I thought giving more money to the NHS was a good idea" - and we're seeing it right now with Toadface's Brexit Party which is gaining support despite not even having a single word on a manifesto. (Farage actually said that they were tired of politicians lying which is why they weren't going to have a manifesto, and people actually bought that rather than going "um, well, have you tried not lying?")

Couple this with inertia - people often vote for who they've always voted for, which is essentially a zero policy vote rather than even a single policy - and it's really not difficult to see why we've been stuck with the same shower of shit in different pyjamas for decades.

We have to start looking forwards rather than backwards. What happened ten years ago is an irrelevance, we can't change that now.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 5:13 pm
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Voting LibDem would be easier if Carmichael was no longer an MP. I can't stand the man, he's dodgy. Sad that so many good MPs lost their seats because of being tainted by their party being in coalition with the Tories… yet he held on.

Anyway, the weird thing about the coalition "punishment" is that the other parties have been in coalitions with the Tories in other bodies across the UK, but, with voters being mostly politically unaware, that's ignored.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 5:49 pm
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Cougar

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With the Lib Dems it’s the tuition fees argument, without exception

I don't disagree but, I think "tuition fees" is pretty much the figurehead/most obvious thing to mention when it comes to the coalition disaster, if it wasn't for that there'd most likely be something else.

But I kind of agree with TJ too, in that they haven't done enough to move past that. Carmichael was the perfect example, faced with a perfect moment to take a moral stand, they instead backed him to the hilt. And their leader in Scotland is casually dishonest when he thinks there's a trivial point to score. That sort of dishonesty just reinforces the legacy of the coalition, rather than doing anything to repair their reputation.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 6:07 pm
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if it wasn’t for that there’d most likely be something else.

I don't doubt that for a second. Point was, all those other reasons, and I'm sure they must be legion for all parties, rarely if ever get a look-in.

As transgressions go, I think it's a pretty lame stick to be beating them with. They were a minority voice in a coalition government and as such had to pick their battles. They couldn't object to everything the Tories came up with, and we quickly saw what happened when their influence was removed. They surely were a force for good overall in that government even if they made some mistakes along the way.

I don't really know what they can do to repair that in honesty, people simply have long memories. I've oft wondered whether the best thing they could do would be to rebrand so that they aren't called the LDs any more.

It's essentially what Farage has just done with his new UKIP 2.0 party, it's a canny move. Same shit only without all the previous baggage. Change could do the same with a mass defection from the LDs and the less bonkers aspects of Labour, could end up essentially being the new liberals without the millstone of something something tuition fees something.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 7:03 pm
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In other news and with a crushing sound of inevitability, Boris has confirmed that he's going to run for leadership (and by extension, PM).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48299424

"International Development Secretary Rory Stewart and former work and pensions secretary Esther McVey have announced they will run and Commons leader Andrea Leadsom has said she is "considering" doing so.

Other widely touted possible contenders include former and current members of the cabinet, including Michael Gove, Amber Rudd, Sajid Javid, Dominic Raab, Jeremy Hunt, Penny Mordaunt and Liz Truss."

Gods help us all. Everyone wants May gone, but like Cameron before her this is a big fat case of "be careful what you wish for."


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 7:19 pm
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Not for the first time in the last couple of years, I find myself deferring to the wisdom of Douglas Adams.

“It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"
"What?"
"I said," said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, "have you got any gin?"
"I'll look. Tell me about the lizards."
Ford shrugged again.
"Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happened to them," he said. "They're completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone's got to say it."
"But that's terrible," said Arthur.
"Listen, bud," said Ford, "if I had one Altairian dollar for every time I heard one bit of the Universe look at another bit of the Universe and say 'That's terrible' I wouldn't be sitting here like a lemon looking for a gin.”


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 7:19 pm
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I said essentially the same about 1000 pages ago. Lib Dems need to drop the party name and rebrand themselves. The traditional meaning of the word liberal, in the political sense, is no longer understood. For vast swathes of the population the term "liberal" has major negative connotations. Even if the LDs were the only party left those people wouldn't be able to vote for them just on the name alone.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 7:20 pm
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Our resident RINO

Chuckle.

Although shouldn’t that really be ‘Leaver in RINO’s clothing’.

In any case the mask slipped too far a couple of weeks ago with the ‘E.U. is basically a dictatorship’ slip-up.

Credit where it is due, though, it was 4-5 months before the inevitable.

But in the end it was, quoting the immortal Captain E Blackadder “about as convincing as a giraffe in dark glasses trying to get into a Polar Bears Only golf club”.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 8:12 pm
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“International Development Secretary Rory Stewart and former work and pensions secretary Esther McVey have announced they will run and Commons leader Andrea Leadsom has said she is “considering” doing so.

Other widely touted possible contenders include former and current members of the cabinet, including Michael Gove, Amber Rudd, Sajid Javid, Dominic Raab, Jeremy Hunt, Penny Mordaunt and Liz Truss.”


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 8:31 pm
 piha
Posts: 729
Free Member
 

St Nige of Faarange doesn't like answering difficult questions does he.......

Awkward

Grrrr, I have no idea how to link a twitter feed......


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 8:34 pm
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St Nige of Faarange doesn’t like answering difficult questions does he…….

That last few seconds needs to be cropped and shared far and wide. The leavers like out-of-context quotes, they'd love it.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 8:42 pm
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The LibDems are for being allowed into someone else's government and against not being allowed into someone else's government. That is the only policy that isn't getting thrown out.

When they were in government they quietly went along with the Tories instead of raving and threatening to tear everything down if they didn't get their way.

Sure, people always say the tuition fees but I think that's because tuition fees represent what would probably happen again with pretty much any policy if they were given a sniff of a government job.

If TM had been lucky enough to get a coalition government with them her deal would have passed months ago. And without any kind of confirmatory referendum.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 8:47 pm
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When they were in government they quietly went along with the Tories

Selective memory much? The tories have since undone most of what the lib dems achived in the coalition but here's a short list of what they did get done...

The snoopers charter was consistently blocked by the lib dems
Blocked tory plans to reduce the number of commons MPs from 650 to 600
The allocation of 0.7% of GDP to International Development, both in practice and as law
The raising of the Income Tax personal allowance from £6475 to £10,600
Steve Webb delivered the “triple lock” on the State Pension
Nick Clegg saw through the pupil premium of (eventually) £1320 per primary school child and £935 for secondary children to reduce the attainment gap in England and Wales
A £2.5 billion banking levy
Free school meals for infant-school children and in the first three years in primary school in England
Vince Cable vetoed a proposed “fire-at-will” employment law
Stopping welfare cuts and ensuring benefits kept up with inflation
Same sex marriage legislation
15 hours free child care for disadvantaged children
Prohibition of the export of chemicals to where it is known they may be used to carry out the death penalty
Strong and stable government (true!)
5p charge on plastic bags.

Not too shabby considering they were a complete minority and had to pick thier battles very carefully.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 10:00 pm
Posts: 7971
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Grrrr, I have no idea how to link a twitter feed……

Depressing thing is many of the comments. Apparently its the elite being nasty to him asking awkward questions.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 10:06 pm
Posts: 18011
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if you’re in the north west then the tactical voting site says a vote for the Green Party

Which of the several sites is that one binners? The advice I've seen is for LibDem.


 
Posted : 16/05/2019 11:44 pm
Posts: 3348
Free Member
 

Grrrr, I have no idea how to link a twitter feed……

Depressing thing is many of the comments. Apparently its the elite being nasty to him asking awkward questions.

Reading the twitter feed , like most open Brexit discussions to be honest, is pretty depressing reading. I despair at the willful ignorance of these people.

"We" get everything we deserve.


 
Posted : 17/05/2019 12:28 am
Posts: 66098
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mattyfez

Member

Not too shabby considering they were a complete minority and had to pick thier battles very carefully.

Half od what you list there is "stopped the Tories from doing X" but literally everything the Tories did for that entire term was made possible by the Lib Dems. You don't get patted on the back for putting someone in government then standing in front of them occasionally.


 
Posted : 17/05/2019 12:38 am
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