A Little Bit of Politics ...........

[mezzaninedoor]

I thought maybe we needed a misc. thread that isn't about Trump or Brexit so we can talk about general politics. I know politics can be divisive so I thought a very obvious titled thread would mean that folks can avoid if they hate politics though Im pretty keen that people don't hide their head in the sand regards politics.

This week I've noticed a couple of different things: -
#1 George Osbourne appears to have changed his views on a lot of things. He thinks that all the following were wrong. He was wrong over the banking crisis, immigration targets, EU referendum, & to wish Theresa May ill. He also thinks that the Philip Hammond budget was wrong footed, trying to our Corbyn Corbyn by spending on public services etc in an unsustainable manner. So basically he thinks his Tories under Cameron & himself were wrong & he thinks the current Tories under Theresa May are wrong.

#2 Tony Blair thinks that Jeremy Corbyn is wrong, he thinks that Brexit is wrong, he thinks that Corbyn & Momentums leadership of the Labour party & of impact on policy is ending up with an unelectable party though he did vote Labour & for Corbyn in the last election. He doesn't apologise for getting things wrong though in his 10 years as PM. Though to be fair he did some good stuff until he went puppy dog into George W Bushs outstretched arms.

But this leaves us in a situation where half the Tory party are not behind the Tory leader and half the Labour party are not behind the Labour leader, but also any alternative Leadership would likely have the same problems.

it feels like we are going through huge change in the country & we are in a position where a lot of our political leadeship is very weak. Theresa May under siege, Jeremy Corbyn under siege, now Nicola Sturgeon is under siege as well, Vince Cable & the Lib Dems have huge finance and membership problems ........... It all just feels very messy amongst the political classes

[MyNameIsTerry]

Blair being a narcissistic person will mean apologies will be sparse and even then used for his gain. Those emotional teary speeches don't do the same nowadays.

He did some good, some bad. He's known for the bad over Iraq but the hospitals are royally screwed over PFI for years to come which is only colliding more with austerity.

He also enjoyed massaging the figures as they all do just in his case it was reducing standards so we now have every man & his dog with a degree to show how educated we British are yet how many of them mean anything? Employers got into a habit of seeing them as a useful standard meaning some potential employees just get sidelined for not having a completely irrelevant degree.

The forcing of equality was also prevalent in his time. X bodies needed regardless of better candidates as long as they tick some equality boxes.

I think Osborne is just an opportunist. I'm not sure he's so different to Boris other than sounding more appropriate.

Cable is just flushing the LibDems further into obscurity. He seems stuck on Brexit and trying to steer the youth vote from Corbyn. He has no chance on the latter.

I agree with you, more politics that are useful to people. Less ideology. Sadly Brexit has taken over and the NHS remains every party's political football. Push for standard of living, that benefits many of us.

One of the problems with this polarisation is that the country also becomes more fractured. Many of the Labour brass now are metropolitan politicians and their causes are often less important outside of the South. They seem to be more interested in Israel not realising a lot of their voters aren't and are more interested in things like minimum wage.

[mezzaninedoor]

US midterms

Though the poll has rated 57-42 to the Democrats its likely that the voting will narrow to more likely 53-46/47 or some such on the day, which might not deliver the House or the Senate for the Democrats due to Democrat voting pooling in some States, that which cost Clinton the election though she won the popular vote with Trump.

Lots of little battles over social media as well
Rhianna wants Trump to stop playing here music at MAGA rallys
Trump is saying that the Democrats are stealing the election with facebook ADS
Obama has recorded one or two appearances where he is effectively ridiculing Trump
Michael Bloomberg has spent $5million very late on in the campaign
Democrats are hoping there is a Youthquake, Republicans are hoping not

in UK news Raab has said that he WILL NOT shift on Irish backstop which could point to a No Deal Brexit if thats the case. Im not sure what the drop dead date is for any pre agreements to meet the March 2019 date are?

USA midterm timelines:-
19:00 EST (midnight GMT): Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia
19:30 EST (00:30 GMT): North Carolina, Ohio, West Virginia
20:00 EST (01:00 GMT): Alabama, Conneticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massacheutts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee
20:30 EST (01:30 GMT): Arkansas
21:00 EST (02:00 GMT): Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin, Wyoming
22:00 EST (03:00 GMT): Iowa, Montana, Nevada, Utah
23:00 EST (04:00 GMT): California, Hawaii, Idaho, North Dakota, Oregon, Washington
01:00 EST (06:00 GMT): Alaska

[MyNameIsTerry]

Oh no, the US is set for a Brexit split then. That will only result in lots of shouting matches for years then...

I would have thought it's up to the record company that own Rihanna's music to decide? Can't he use some of "Ye's"?

[MyNameIsTerry]

Republicans strengthened in the Senate and the house flipped to Dems.

Several years of recrimination in the house and frustration of legislation to follow?

[mezzaninedoor]

Sounds like the House will frustrate the President.
Sounds like the Senate will frustrate the Democrats.
Sounds like the President will continue to crow on Twitter.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Brexit it is then

[mezzaninedoor]

Im not actually sure how genuine this is.
The Guardian doesnt really intimate the value of the source?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...-the-narrative

[MyNameIsTerry]

Im not actually sure how genuine this is.
The Guardian doesnt really intimate the value of the source?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...-the-narrative

I read recently we are now entering a period of secrecy known as "the corridor".

I wonder if this is the same kind of secrecy that involves the many leaks to the media where we are told "an official source said" or "we have been shown a document?

I would argue we've had the best secrecy there is so far by way of misdirection. Has anyone got a bloody clue what the hell is going on?

[mezzaninedoor]

my Brexit poem in full:-

https://tonyamis.blogspot.com/2018/1...oemparody.html