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ml1dch

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Everything posted by ml1dch

  1. It's less about who deserves criticism for what, it's about assuming that somebody's political motives are going to be significantly swayed as a result of money or favours that they have received. I don't think that a politician that has been flown to Tel Aviv for a fact-finding trip (sic) is going to suddenly think "well I now clearly have to be on Netanyahu's side because of those nice dinners that I had on the beach that time". In the same way that I don't think the likes of Corbyn receiving money from Russian and Iranian state television means that his ideology automatically aligns with theirs.
  2. I don't really have much of a dog in this fight, but if we're suggesting that someone unpleasant giving some favour means that their ideology in forever entwined and their future policy will be based around a free plane ticket or a paid-for-interview, then they really have accept that the Labour party 2015 - 2020 was aligned with the theocracy of Iran and Vladimir Putin. I don't personally think that they were, I just think that they're naive hypocrites. But their supporters should definitely reflect over which glass houses they're chucking their stones at.
  3. As you say, threats and intimidation are A Very Bad Thing, and no MP of any flavour should have to deal with what he has had to deal with. But no, cynicism is probably appropriate - he's currently expected to get around 28% of the vote at the next election, behind both the Labour AND Lib Dem candidates. I'd probably think that it was worth "taking the risk" for the next nine months or so of salary, and then choosing to not lose an election.
  4. And loses his counter-claim of defamation for being described as a racist. What a pity.
  5. It must be decades since we had an actual "McCarthyism was good and right, it was all the fault of the lefty infiltrators" take.
  6. I don't think anyone is really arguing contrary to that position. Perfectly sound, and it's definitely not a bad thing that this is being raised in The Hague, whoever is bringing the case. The problem was with South Africa being described as "a beacon of hope and morality". Which is nonsense.
  7. Looks like yesterday he went on This Morning to talk about anti-social behaviour, then met with Holocaust and Srebrenica survivors for Holocaust Memorial Day today, the day before that he was in Milton Keynes talking about knife crime, day before in the Commons for PMQs. Pretty normal LOTO stuff.
  8. No running / no diving / no heavy petting / no thumping etc.
  9. I was pretty confident that would be the case, mainly as @MakemineVanilla clearly isn't a massive wrong 'un. Even so, I feel its still a fairly sensible policy to have.
  10. That might be the most insightful video in the world, but without a sentence or two of context as to what it's about first, there's no way I'm corrupting my YouTube algorithm with the sort of video that a guy with a Union Jack in his title talking about "British Democracy" could potentially be.
  11. Oh, "senior party figures" is Simon Clarke. Imagine the state you've got yourself into for Simon Clarke to be someone whose opinions are considered important.
  12. Tonight's "the polls will definitely close as we get closer to the election" news:
  13. Also, take a quick glance at the polling for "rejoin EU" and "rejoin EU if required to adopt the Euro" and they are wildly different. The second of those points (whether we should / whether we would have to promise to / whether we actually would) is something with a lot of nuance - but you can bet now what the other side of any future "rejoin or not" campaign is going to be based around.
  14. Nobody is disputing that they wouldn't welcome back a stable, united version of the UK back into the fold. And everything suggests that will happen within a couple of electoral cycles. But they will take the current (massively imbalanced in their favour anyway) relationship over constant accession / secession talks with every new government who sees it as an easy wedge issue to squeeze an extra half dozen seats out of Lancashire and Cumbria. And have whatever referendum you like. As long as you know what is in the Government's power to offer in the question that they ask.
  15. Because it's not up the voters of the UK whether we are members or not. And while it is a subject that could be flipped every five years on the whim of an electorate that is happy to judge EU = good / bad as lazy shorthand for what they think of the Prime Minister of the day, they're comfortable leaving us to sort that shit out until there is consensus, one way or the other. There is no "referendum to go back in". There is plausibly something like "general election manifesto commitment to negotiate accession terms, subject to future confirmatory referendum". Probably in six or eleven years time. Don't hold your breath, either way.
  16. It's a glorious mess of a seat. It's only happening due to the resignation of the former (Labour) councillor after he was pictured consoling another former (Labour) councillor after he'd been found with child porn (the latter has since been convicted of said offence). Then the new Labour candidate goes on a big anti-trans rant online (not really popular with your average Labour council voter) so they suspend her. Then realise that there is no time to get a new candidate, so unsuspend her the day before the election. So the other guy, (16 years of being a Lib Dem councillor in the same ward and appearing to know everyone) decides that he may as well now be a Tory, having previously been a Labour councillor on top of his Lib Dem history. He stands on a Tory "we hate ULEZ" campaign, sweeping up the dozen Tories in Hackney, all his Lib Dem mates from the last two decades he's been a councillor and all the Labour voters upset at all the stuff in the first two paragraphs. Lib Dems, who normally share the seat with Labour drop to 3% of the vote because the guy that the Lib Dem voters have liked for twenty years now wears a blue tie. Labour mired in every scandal possible. Massive turnout too - 32% for a local council by-election, more than some parliamentary by-elections. It's silly that Iannuci didn't follow up TTOI with a Vicar Of Dibley / Yes, Minister type crossover thing about local government. Absolutely mental stuff.
  17. It's not heresy, it's just pointless to say it. Given it can't be "reversed" even if there were the political will to do so.
  18. Oh yes? Care to share the £169k per person arguments?
  19. One for @bickster's "death of the Tory party" theory.
  20. No, it's just to whine at the House Of Lords not to change his silly Rwanda bill.
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