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Poll: Who Should Be Leader of HM Most Loyal Opposition? This poll is closed. |
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| Jeremy Corbyn |
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95 | 18.63% |
| Dennis Skinner |
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53 | 10.39% |
| Angus Robertson |
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20 | 3.92% |
| Tim Farron |
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9 | 1.76% |
| Paul Ukips |
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7 | 1.37% |
| Robot Lenin |
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105 | 20.59% |
| Tony Blair |
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28 | 5.49% |
| Pissflaps |
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193 | 37.84% |
| Total: | 510 votes | ||
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Pissflaps posted:I think its ken Clarke. Yes, Ken Clarke is the new Father of the House.
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Mar 1, 2017 13:47
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 09:47 |
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As thrilling as the page after page about the Labour leadership is, I'm not sure it really matters all that much. Regardless of who leads the party, the problems of who the gently caress their base is remains. How to cope with losing 40 odd MPs in Scotland, while still appealing to English voters who feel Scotland gets an unfair share of the pie. How to appeal to potential voters "worried about immigration" while not losing the overwhelmingly pro-EU people who voted Labour in 2015. Not to mention any boundary changes to be proposed next year and likely enacted before a 2020 general election and a whole host of other issues large and small.. David Miliband or Tony Blair or Dan Jarvis or Clive Lewis or Jeremy Corbyn or Dennis Skinner or Zombie Keir Hardie/Clem Attlee mash-up would all still have to still deal with those concerns. Plus plenty others. Corbyn is a bad leader and if there was a general election Labour would do really badly under him. He's not popular. He's failed to get across his message effectively, and frankly I still don't really know what his message is yet. But the problems are much deeper and wasting so much time on this one issue is just not seeing the forest for the trees.
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Mar 1, 2017 17:54
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MikeCrotch posted:You to forgot to mention that English people seem to be really quite eager to vote for increasingly naked authoritarianism. I'm not really sure that there's much value in such hyperbolic generalisations though. Some English people might be OK with it but it's an oversimplification. Hell, at this point I'd consider taking naked authoritarianism if it lead to an increased standard of living for the poorest, general economic egalitarianism and an end to knee-jerk xenophobia, and I'm more on the libertarian left.
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Mar 1, 2017 18:56
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I know the turnout was very high for the Lords, but who the gently caress are the 200 Lords who couldn't be arsed turning up for this vote?
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Mar 1, 2017 20:33
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namesake posted:Why is it interesting? That's basically how they voted in the Commons, only the proportions of people is different. Labour voted with the Government in the Commons. People got quite mad about it, three line whip & all that. Remember?
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Mar 1, 2017 20:34
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mehall posted:Good chance there's quite a few life lords that aren't in the country, or are too old/ill to be in Parliament. It's so loving weird that the Church of England gets representation in the British parliament in this day & age. I always forget the Lords Spiritual are a thing. And not just from a "government not being secular is dumb" angle, but also from a "there's sure a lot of religious people in this country who aren't Anglicans" angle. I suppose a mix of old-fashioned Catholic fear & the fact there's no other established church. And of the 26 Bishops, 3 voted against the amendment, 2 for it. Which is pretty poor for a supposedly compassionate clergy.
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Mar 1, 2017 21:00
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CptAwesome posted:Whats considered a normal wait to see a GP? I rang earlier today to make an appointment at my surgery and I've been told the next appointment is the 29th - literally 4 weeks away. Is it me or is this a bit long? For a GP, I'd say anything over 2 weeks was abnormal. And they usually reserve a few appointments if you call up when they open, for emergency appointments. So if you've not tried that then give it a go.
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Mar 2, 2017 01:12
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TinTower posted:https://twitter.com/ryxnf/status/837076434761867269 Wow. That hurts. Doctor_Fruitbat posted:Edit: Never mind, it's from loving ages ago. Bad. How are you?
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Mar 2, 2017 20:27
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big scary monsters posted:Well maybe but where will students hear right-wing views expressed if they aren't taught on their courses??? In their newspaper, obviously. kustomkarkommando posted:If Sinn Fein actually becomes the largest party we will legit be ruled by Tories for several years Isn't that looking like the likeliest outcome at this point anyway?
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Mar 2, 2017 23:24
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JFairfax posted:deadly serious, the Cornish Nationalist Party got the referendum passed and date decided at the last session of the devolved Wessex parliament. That sword not being in the middle is so so so annoying.
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Mar 3, 2017 14:58
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Pistol_Pete posted:As long as we abolish hill farming in the uk, I'm good. gently caress paying farmers to raise sheep at a loss that do nothing but maintain our highland areas in their current state of barren wastelands. Kill all the sheep and let the forests grow back! I kind of enjoy the stark, barren wasteland nature of the Highlands. It's pretty.
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Mar 4, 2017 13:09
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Poor Gerald is spinning in his grave at the idea of being replaced by that shite.
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Mar 4, 2017 14:27
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Pistol_Pete posted:I don't find eroded, ecologically devastated hillsides particularly pretty or picturesque myself. I think they'd be much nicer covered in forests, like they're supposed to be. There's a huge nature reserve in Scotland that they've replanted with native species, then just left it alone to do its own thing. I'd like to see more of that. So long as that's actually what they do, that'd be OK. Although retain some rolling, heather covered hillside. There's just something about it that I find very moving any time I travel up or down the root from Inverness to the south. My fear is that a lot of it ends up covered in quick growing wood for the purpose of being cut down, which is what's already happened to a reasonable amount of the Scottish Highlands. And that's boring as gently caress. But actual native species, Scots Pine & the like, regrowing the Caledonian Forest, I can get behind that. LemonDrizzle posted:Looks like the wheels have been slowly grinding away on the Tories' 2015 campaign financing shenanigasn: Not like there's much chance they'll lose the by-elections is it?
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Mar 4, 2017 15:25
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Pissflaps posted:He's put it under the heading 'other pensions and retirement annuities'. There's nothing to understand. It's a mistake. Will you do my tax return for me? You must be an expert, probably an accountant. Wait, you're not? Huh. Shocked.
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Mar 6, 2017 10:15
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Contemporary politics is miserable. Labour are either completely shambolic or endorse the majority of the status quo depending on which wing of the party they are on, Tories are hellbent on making Thatcher look like a living embodiment of empathy in comparison to Theresa May, the SNP are for the status quo in regards to everything except for Scotland's membership of the Union, & the Scottish people don't even want that little change, the Liberals, Greens & everyone else are an irrelevancy. Totally unconnected to all that, I picked up a book on the history of the Labour Party in a charity shop, I'd been looking for a book on the foundation of the Labour Representation Committee or the labour movement & trade unionism in general but this has had to do now. Mostly I've been wondering why Britain has a total lack of a tradition of a radical working class movement. Why syndicalism made an impact on unions in places on the continent while our own unions seemed depressingly conservative on the whole? Is there something to learn there? Because it seems like we need to get back to basics. We often moan about how the public are ill-informed, misinformed by the media, and all that's true but complaining about it doesn't really achieve anything. How do you work around that? How do you educate people so they have a better understanding that household debt is not remotely comparable to national debt and other basic economic ideas? Probably impossible questions to answer but I'd rather dwell on that than on Jeremy Corbyn doing a Chris Iwelumo & missing an empty net from 5 yards out yet again.
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Mar 6, 2017 16:05
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Moving away from anime (as rapidly as possible), here's a fun take on the ol' Political Compass, Who Are You In 1917 Russia? I'm somewhere between the Left SRs & Anarchists.
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Mar 6, 2017 21:12
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Namtab posted:How's the evening not-anime politics? I haven't looked but I imagine it's terrible.
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Mar 6, 2017 21:13
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fridge corn posted:Well he's much smarter than you, for a start Dick Dawkins is a good lesson that smarts in one area do not necessarily lead to smarts in other fields.
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Mar 7, 2017 11:27
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Pochoclo posted:Please explain how saying "you're not #1 best place to live in forever" is being rude. You guys -do- know how lowly I rate my own birthplace, right? Please explain how you think responding to Pissflaps will go anywhere interesting. fridge corn posted:So you'd rather see a tory government then a left centrist labour one? This is a dumb & bad post. Corbyn is the centre left option. He's a social democrat. And the idea that Dan Jarvis or Liz Kendall or Yvette Cooper or Chuka Umunna will lead Labour to government is barely less fanciful than Corbyn leading Labour back to government in 2020. It's a false choice you've presented.
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Mar 7, 2017 15:54
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Today's the 100th anniversary of the start of the February Revolution. Workers from the Putilov factory in Petrograd (the largest in the city & a key industry providing artillery for the war) joined women celebrating International Women's Day & people upset at the new food rationing ended up flooding the streets demanding an end to rationing, to the war & the autocracy. When other workers from other factories joined in, 50,000 were on the streets. The following day, that number quadrupled. By March 10th, almost every factory in the city was closed by striking workers, 250,000 people taking the streets. By the 12th the Petrograd Soviet came into being, successor to the 1905 St Petersburg Soviet & the Central Workers' Group formed by the Mensheviks in 1915. And the rest, as they say, is history. Anyway, roll on the budget, how crippling depressing it will be, how feeble & disorganised & shambolic the Labour response is and all the rest. Business as usual in British politics.
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Mar 8, 2017 12:37
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Oberleutnant posted::trotsay: but also for real True that. Still listen miserable than reading about the Budget, at least there was a year or so of hope after the February Revolution. Going to have nightmares about that video of May guffawing. forkboy84 fucked around with this message at 14:21 on Mar 8, 2017 |
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Mar 8, 2017 14:19
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Pissflaps posted:Why is that a shafting for Wales isn't it slightly more per head than Scotland? Because it says £200 & not £200m. Regarde Aduck is aware it is a typo, he was making a joke about it.
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Mar 8, 2017 15:43
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Regarde Aduck posted:Sorry. I now feel it wasn't worth it. It was better than anime chat.
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Mar 8, 2017 15:46
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ookiimarukochan posted:Terrible news - I've found a typo on page 22 of the new Private Eye, they've misspelt "Bukkake" as "Bukkaka" That's just Hislop trying to pretend he's not knee deep in bukkake.
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Mar 8, 2017 17:59
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Pochoclo posted:I don't know if that's such a good burn though, I definitely wouldn't want to live in Japan - their workaholic culture is too extreme for my taste. They need to relax. But what if they relax by watching anime? Better they work themselves into an early grave than that.
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Mar 8, 2017 18:44
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MikeCrotch posted:Am I the only one who is finding how much flak the government is taking weird, over what feels like a "business as usual" budget? Like of all the things to criticise in this or previous budgets the "white van man" tax seems pretty small fry. People also seem quite mad about the return of grammar schools. Also, the NIC increase isn't really a "white van man" tax. More people than ever are technically unemployed (just shy of 5 million as of a year ago), it's the brave new world of the gig economy. Go look at the Universal Jobsearch website, see how many vacancies in your area are "self-employment opportunity" swindles, where you effectively work for another company but get no union recognition, nothing like maternity or holiday pay and even have to work out your own taxes rather than just have them deducted PAYE style. But the main reason the press hate it? As the gig economy trend has grown, newspapers have lowered their contracted staff numbers & increased the number of freelancers they use. And freelancers are self-employed. So of course the press don't like it. Still doesn't mean it's a good thing.
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Mar 9, 2017 10:46
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Pocky In My Pocket posted:Wage growth so bad last time it was this bad bicycles didn't exist This is my favourite rage-inducing stat. Sure, wages are stagnant in ways not seen since before the Highland Clearances, but everything is fine, look over there, an immigrant!
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Mar 9, 2017 13:34
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Breath Ray posted:I dont think the 50p top rate is very effective Agreed. It's no where near high enough. John Lennon hardly lived in poverty when there was a 98p top rate.
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Mar 10, 2017 11:23
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hand-fed baby bird posted:Still great The edit with Liz Kendall's face on the doll was funnier tbh
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Mar 10, 2017 12:07
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Breath Ray posted:I like him. He is a lovely bloke when you get to know him and a drat good MP in a tough ward. This is an exciting new line of trolling for you. Interesting. I wish you well in your endeavour of pretending George Galloway is not a shithead and not a terrible constituency MP. 10th March 1944: The National Liberation Front was formed in the mountains of northern Greece in opposition to the Nazi occupation. forkboy84 fucked around with this message at 14:44 on Mar 10, 2017 |
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Mar 10, 2017 14:40
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Breath Ray posted:Someone asked for opinions on George so why shouldn't I share mine? It's not actually your opinion though, is it? If it was, I look forward to all the reasoning behind thinking Galloway isn't a self-promoting shitehawk who has continually used religion in the most grotesque & divisive way during his career.
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Mar 10, 2017 15:10
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LemonDrizzle posted:So BT's been forced to sell off Openreach to improve competition in broadband provision: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39228115 What you do is take all telecommunications services, be it cable TV, satellite TV, broadband, telephones, and bring it under state ownership, for the benefit of everybody in the country instead of some shareholders. Top stuff.
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Mar 10, 2017 19:32
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Wheat Loaf posted:Corbyn's position on Brexit seems to be the only thing that's come close to shaking his dyed-in-the-wool supporters. I'm pretty sure that even the Canary seemed to have a moment of doubt over that. It's probably more that people didn't really give it much thought because the overwhelming majority of us complacently thought we'd win the referendum & it'd be a non-event. Hell, I only decided that Remain was hosed one or two days before, and based on nothing really other than general pessimism.
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Mar 10, 2017 21:09
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Coohoolin posted:Scottish Labour is dumb though and they'd have a lot more support if they'd never campaigned for the Union. No they'd not. Scottish Labour's rot is a lot deeper than one issue.
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Mar 11, 2017 18:21
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Baron Corbyn posted:What was the Clement Attlee quote about referendums again? Either “the referendum is a device of dictators and demagogues” or "the public are too poorly informed, lets ask them as little as possible", I forget which.
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Mar 11, 2017 18:50
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Lightning Lord posted:Who in loving hell is Paul Cattermole and why do half of the posters in this thread have redtext about him? You don't remember S Club 7? Shameful. Was a guy on another forum I posted on who was convinced that Rachel Stevens from S Club had put out the best pop album of the '00s. He was otherwise quite reliable on liking good music. Regarde Aduck posted:That sounds really scary to those of us unlikely to be able to leave. I don't see anywhere in Europe as particularly enticing and while I have a degree it's not STEM or in demand so the chances of getting a job or being head hunted is low-impossible. Am I going to die? If the best course of action is to literally flee if you can what the gently caress is going to happen to us that can't? You're giving me a panic attack. Ach, it'll not be that bad. I'd leave if I could but no qualifications, no foreign languages & no money is a bit of a hurdle. But that's more because Britain is a depressing burning trash heap & I'd maybe not be so deeply invested in the politics of another country if I lived there. But if you're that worried, maybe you can phone up the Russian Embassy & ask if they are still offering land in the Far East. Assuming you are white. Although it really wasn't very much land from what I remember, it'd probably be a pretty rubbish life. And I bet internet speeds in rural Primorsky Krai or Amur Oblast are shite. March 11th, 1708. Last time a British monarch vetoes legislation, as Queen Anne refuses to give royal assent to Scotch Militia Bill. forkboy84 fucked around with this message at 20:58 on Mar 11, 2017 |
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Mar 11, 2017 20:51
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Guavanaut posted:It's like two acres or something, but I think you're able to log and hunt in the surrounding common land too. I think it was open to Europeans, which lead to some obvious insinuations of racism but seeing as nothing was reported about it after the initial press release 18 months ago or wherever I never heard more on it. I just remember looking at it & realising the area granted was loving piddly compared to stuff like various American Homesteading acts, despite the Russian Far East obviously being both massive and empty. Quickly decided it was far more effort than reward so never looked into it any further despite being a bit of a Russophile (in the sense of the people, their culture & history rather than the current government). Also, I'm far too lazy to be good at living off the land. forkboy84 fucked around with this message at 21:11 on Mar 11, 2017 |
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Mar 11, 2017 21:09
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Lord_Adonis posted:Can anyone anticipate any employers on the Continent that might be looking to employ a foreigner with these qualifications? Does my lack of a degree present problems? Would my stunning lack of ability to learn foreign languages be a great impediment (Some people are poo poo at maths, others like me are poo poo at languages)? Am I physiologically or genetically predisposed to foreign language obtuseness- or can I develop the skills required to learn a new language? If the Continent is out, then what about Scotland? Would a viable strategy to avoid poverty and maintain my EU citizenship be to look for work in Scotland and move up there, wait for independence, then wait again for Scotland to join the EU? What is the state of the job market up in Scotland? Are employers looking for people with my sort of qualifications? Scotland would welcome you with open arms. And they are always looking for more electricians, you'll have few problems finding work. Don't go to Australia, it's far too loving racist.
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Mar 12, 2017 10:39
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jBrereton posted:Also the weather is crap The weather isn't the problem. It's much of a muchness with the rest of the UK & he's clearly capable of handling it. Maybe live on the east coast if it's that much of a worry, it's a lot drier in Edinburgh than Glasgow, but tbh Glasgow is a much nicer place to live. The thing to consider is over an hour less sunshine on the winter solstice in Inverness than in London. Winter is dark. If you get affected by SAD then maybe consider that. On the other hand, there's 18 hours of daylight in June & that's really nice, it only gets properly dark for about 3 hours before you are into twilight. Obviously this is all slightly less extreme if you live in Glasgow & Edinburgh than Aberdeen or Inverness or Wick.
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Mar 12, 2017 11:09
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jBrereton posted:If you had the chance to go anywhere (and sparkies do), why suffer the drearyness of Scottish weather? I dunno, I'd rather have the weather of Perth, Scotland than Perth, Australia. Can't imagine living in a dry place, it'd be very depressing. Truth is that weather in this country isn't tha bad. Bit damp, very grey, but I'll take occasional dreariness over extremes of hot, cold, wet, dry or winds. Plus, Britain is much less racist than Australia and I'd tend to value something like that quite highly.
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Mar 12, 2017 12:20
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