UK Government Thread

In the last ten years, it has been the mistake of centrists (or moderates if you prefer the term) to vastly overestimate the intelligence of the electorate.

Maybe not intelligence per se, but there’s a presumption of good intentions/empathy that is overestimated. Those with fewer principles, shall we say, realise and exploit that, while the rest of us wake up the morning after an election or referendum and wonder HowTF that just happened.

Some people see everyone to the left of them as left wing, and others see everyone to the right of them as right wing. I know people who honestly considered and called Theresa May a Left Wing PM! Anyway, it can all result in pointless navel gazing circular arguments.

I suppose the same goes for “centrist”, the term can be applied to nearly everyone if you yourself are on the fringes politically. Moaning about “centrists’ can come across as “everyone is wrong apart from me and my little band of brothers”. I used to use the term for people who accepted a mixed economy…  but as that’s now nearly everyone, it’s become a meaningless term to me.

On the question of why the need for a collective noun the answer is because it is the bog standard practice when discussing politics, not just on stw.

Then maybe it’s time to break the cycle

On stw, which is not in any way reflective of wider voter attitudes, there are basically two political camps, on the political threads at least.

Your side and the other side? Really there are way more. Not every political issue is binary

Then maybe it’s time to break the cycle

Good luck with that. The practice of  categorising political camps dates back to the French Revolution when politics as we know it first became a thing. I would suggest that as a first step you end all class antagonism.

Your side and the other side? Really there are way more. Not every political issue is binary

I very much agree but that however isn’t the case on stw political threads which are generally echo chambers. Any political disagreement is generally between the two camps which I described.

Look at this thread, any significant disagreement is mostly based on those who support the current Cabinet and those who don’t consider it to be radical/left-wing enough.

Even before you have clicked on this thread when you see who the last poster was you can often pretty much predict what stance will.

Merry Christmas you Marxist bastards! 😀

I don’t think that’s a “truth” at all, I don’t think any of the regular posters on here would describe themselves as either centrist or intellectually superior to anyone

Well I haven’t been wasting my time arguing about **** all so you can draw your own conclusions there. As for policy, I think I’ve actually just given up caring, nobody else seems to be interested in anything other than being right.

This is so funny.  the political compass has moved so far to the right.

As far as I am concerned there is only one vocal lefty on here.  Ernie.  ( including me – )  Lots of self described lefties that are actually centre to centre right when viewed objectively.

None of our major parties are actually leftwing objectively.  None believe in redistibution of wealth, state ownership or any of the other key left wing policies. There is nothing left wing about Starmers labour party.

I’m left of Starmer, but probably not by a wide margin. Not sure if I’m a centrist or that much of a regular poster but definitely intellectually superior to most of you.

Happy Christmas to you all anyway.

Chaps, have a day off, eat some food, be with your friends and family, go ride your bike, do whatever you do for Christmas, just let the politics have a day off as well.

I don’t think so TJ. Sure the lefties might be a minority on stw but I am definitely not the only one. Although I grant you that I am probably the only one who binners can fairly accuse of being Marxist.

What is surprising IMO is how pretty much universally no one wants to admit to being right-wing, which for a period fooled me, to a certain degree.

I remember a time when witnessing the level of anger, bile, and hatred,  directed towards the previous Tory government that I thought to myself “there are going to be a lot of extremely disappointed punters on stw when Starmer becomes PM and they discover that his government isn’t massively different to the Tories”.

But then in the months before the general election when Starmer increasingly made it clear that despite all the criticism Labour would govern in a fundamentally similar way, and many so passionately defended him, I realised that anti-Toryism for many has no depth. For them it is much more a game of personalities rather than politics.

Obviously like the wider public a few former strong Starmer supporters have expressed disappointment at the direction that the government has taken, but these imo are individuals who have a tendency to display a certain level of honesty anyway.

Chaps, have a day off, eat some food, be with your friends and family, go ride your bike, do whatever you do for Christmas, just let the politics have a day off as well.

Why aren’t you taking your own advice?

It is Christmas morning and you have decided to click on a thread titled “UK government thread”

Have you just outed yourself as a mod? It’s the only explanation I can think of.

No rest for the wicked 😉

Chaps, have a day off

I have no relatives visiting this christmas, who am I going to argue with about politics?

Last night’s Father Ted Christmas special had a chat line for priests – need one similar for stw argumentalists.