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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 4, 2017 19:29:04 GMT
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jun 4, 2017 19:53:38 GMT
thank you. I know so many people who keep saying that they can't vote Labour because they think Jeremy Corbyn is ' weak'. I've was a liberal democrat voter for years until the great betrayal of lib-dem politics during the coalition. British politics is a mess and the politicians aren't listening to what we want, instead they're trying to run the country like a business. Selling arms because they're supporting British manufacturing industry? Well perhaps we should be manufacturing something useful instead...?
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Post by mossie on Jun 5, 2017 18:10:39 GMT
thank you. British politics is a mess and the politicians aren't listening to what we want. This is the nub of the problem, and until the politicians break free of the Westminster bubble, and leave Islington and Notting Hill to the bankers, we cannot make progress. I feel very sad about the state of this country, and very sorry for the youngsters coming along.
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Post by onlyMark on Jun 5, 2017 20:22:39 GMT
Bring back Dennis Skinner. He was always good for a laugh and often had the right idea.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jun 6, 2017 9:34:59 GMT
I voted days ago..as my OH and I are both registered for postal voting. My son prefers to go along to the polling station on the day itself. The downside to postal voting I suppose is that if something happens in the last 10 days leading up to the election...like a party leader being exposed as being devious or corrupt...it's too late to change your mind.
Not a problem in my case...altho the Labour MP for Leicester West (Liz Kendall) was anti-Corbyn in the past. I voted Labour because I like Corbyn...but if he gets into number 10 the chances are that the PLP will rebel again. They want to go back to Tony Blair's New Labour whereas Corbyn is more of a socialist (note small 's' )
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 6, 2017 10:12:46 GMT
I know so many people who keep saying that they can't vote Labour because they think Jeremy Corbyn is ' weak'. I always wonder what is behind people in a democratic society wanting a "strong" leader. Is it because they want to be led? As was pointed out further up the page, our politicians are supposed to represent us, not shove what they want down our throats. Yes, an elected official should be strong in protecting the rights of all the people and not caving to various political forces within and without, but is that person going to be isolated and eventually brought down? From an outsider's point of view, should Corbyn be elected he will wind up being blamed for everything that ever happened before he was elected and will eventually be ousted in order to reinstate a conservative regime, not unlike what happened in the US in 1980.
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Post by mossie on Jun 6, 2017 13:36:24 GMT
We desperately need a strong leader, not only has the country to be led, but Brexit has to be successfully accomplished. Of all the possible leaders Corbyn is the worst of a very poor selection.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jun 6, 2017 13:46:40 GMT
I disagree...but respect your opinion of course
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 6, 2017 13:52:07 GMT
I"m glad we are meeting up the day after the election.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jun 6, 2017 14:00:34 GMT
We won't argue don't worry ... we're grown ups. I may be inconsolable tho...don't think my preferred leader will win. We're more likely to end up with a coalition...so they will spend all the time arguing and do very little.
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Post by patricklondon on Jun 6, 2017 14:11:45 GMT
Another one of those "who do you match with" political quizzes for those who want to see where the parties stand. The opinion polls (taken before Saturday night's events) all trend towards a substantial uplift in Labour support from the doldrums, but nobody knows who will actually turn out to vote, and whether the increase in Labour's support is where they're already strong, or whether it would have much effect in marginal seats. Nor doese anyone know what effect the terrorist attacks will have (the Tories had already switched their fire to immigration as an issue after Mrs M took a drubbing over the social care issue, and now they're back on the traditional ground of accusing Corbyn personally and Labour generally of being a bunch of weak softies on security and foreign policy issues. So far I have had two more leaflets from the LibDems, who obviously (and probably rightly) think this estate and/or this ward are keen on their strongly anti-Brexit message (though as I've also had a phone call I'm probably still on their database as a former member). I've also had the one free Royal Mail delivery of an "election communication" that's available to every candidate, from the Tory candidate (who like the national party is playing down the party label and playing up the "Theresa May team" tagline, though the content is all about local issues - obviously he's aiming at next year's local council election), Greens, and the "independent centrist" candidate. It looks as though Labour and the LibDems may have missed the Royal Mail deadline, or are confident in their own leaflet delivery arrangements (not that I'd have had any from our local Labour MP - safe he may be, but they've missed a trick there, I think). My blog | My photos | My video clips"too literate to be spam"
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Post by patricklondon on Jun 6, 2017 14:26:08 GMT
Oh dear (wait until the last few seconds). It's almost like one of those "Just minutes from this cinema!" adverts you used to get for your local Indian restaurant. My blog | My photos | My video clips"too literate to be spam"
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jun 6, 2017 14:33:03 GMT
good grief
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Post by bjd on Jun 6, 2017 14:40:58 GMT
Indeed, it's Mr Personality himself.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 6, 2017 14:47:47 GMT
Weasels!
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Post by mossie on Jun 6, 2017 18:24:58 GMT
That is pathetic, he is just another yesman like my local candidate. Trouble is the two other major parties are worse. I sound like the Scotsman in Dads Army. "We're all doooomed"
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Post by mossie on Jun 6, 2017 18:26:37 GMT
P.S. in this area I say that if you put a blue rosette on the collar of a donkey, it would stroll in.
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Post by lagatta on Jun 6, 2017 19:21:07 GMT
Corbyn hasn't come across as "soft on terror" at all. Unlike George Galloway. Many people supported Galloway due to his opposition to the Gulf and Iraq wars (and I certainly agreed with him about that) but he was far from clear about radical Islamism.
And I do mean Islamism; not the Muslim faith. There are doubtless fewer equivalent violent Christianist nutcases in the UK than in the US and some parts of Western Canada - we certainly had an Islamophobic terrorist here in Québec but it isn't such a trend here. But no religion should be a cover or excuse for violent hatred.
Right now I'm tending to think that nobody will get a majority, but I'm not there so don't really get a sense of what is actually happening.
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Post by mossie on Jun 6, 2017 19:43:42 GMT
Have you forgotten Corben's support of the IRA, not to mention his sidekick Diane Abbott, who would become Home Secretary. GHU. Also standing by is his commie chancellor McDonnell with his money tree.
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Post by lagatta on Jun 6, 2017 19:56:22 GMT
I was talking about Corbyn's current stance. I think he supported the IRA's demands about Irish independence, not bombings or killings, but remember that I'm far away and was very young then, so I'm fuzzy about the details. I know very little about Diane Abbott, except that long ago they were a couple for a while, and nothing whatsoever about McDonnell. Commie, like socialist, can mean such a range of things that it is pointless, like calling someone a bit rightwing a Nazi. I'd be very surprised if an MP from any British party intends to send opponents to the Gulag or the Lager.
By the way, I like you very much Mossie and don't want to get on your case, moreover it is none of my business how you vote - I don't even live in your country, and sadly, have spent far less time there than I'd like to. They don't need English-language translators, though Canadians are very skilled at interpreting and editing between UK and US... My main point was Corbyn's current stance as contrasted with the fuzzy outlook of Galloway. I agree that all the Western powers (and some others) are letting Saudi and other Salafists get away with murder, without even a peep of criticism.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 6, 2017 21:25:31 GMT
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Post by lagatta on Jun 6, 2017 22:18:38 GMT
That is funny. Lotto Québec organised a wager on whether Trump would still be in office in X time, and for some reason that was called off.
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Post by patricklondon on Jun 7, 2017 13:12:53 GMT
For the sake of completeness, here's the Labour "election communication" which arrived in the nick of time this morning. Now I've got the set. As we enter the home straight, the Tories have been hammering the security line as hard as they can, even letting Boris Johnson off his leash, and with the full-throated support of the usual suspects: Coincidentally, or not, Labour's home affairs spokeswoman who stumbled over her statistics quite early on, has announced she's standing back from the campaign because of health issues - whether this is a convenient euphemism or this might explain her distractedness in the campaign, who knows. Meannwhile Corbyn has continued to draw the crowds, with a fortuitous rainbow to help. One opinion poll company has forecast a hung parliament, though with the Tories as the largest party - but we have been seen forecasts like that before, in 1992. Remains to be seen if there are "shy Tories" hiding from the pollsters, or whether the youth vote will turn out. Since betting has been mentioned, here are the odds being given at the moment, though who knows if the punters know better than anyone else. My blog | My photos | My video clips"too literate to be spam" Now I've got th
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 7, 2017 13:22:51 GMT
The sudden rise of Corbyn just before the election is quite similar to the sudden rise of Mélenchon just before the election in France. Even though he ended coming in 4th, if there had been a couple more days of campaign, there is a good chance that he would have come in 3rd or maybe even 2nd. So I will not scoff at Corbyn's chances.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jun 7, 2017 19:43:17 GMT
I would despute the newspaper reports claiming Corbyn was an IRA sympathizer. As an MP at the time he was encouraging the participation of all parties in the peace process. I apologise if I'm incorrect but a lot of inflammatory rubbish has been published in the media. Just saying something doesn't make it true...and a carefully cropped photograph showing Mr Corbyn smiling with Sinn Fein members doesn't mean anything. Lots of politicians were involved in resolving the troubles in Northern Ireland, and many of them appeared in photographs with Sinn Fein members. Some of them smiling.
Unfortunately I'm expecting the Tories to be elected. In times like these people are understandably afraid of change.
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Post by lagatta on Jun 8, 2017 0:14:26 GMT
Well, also it depend on what is meant by that. Here in Québec, many people were sympathetic to the AIMS of the IRA, but not to violence against innocent people. Believing in national self-determination is a hell of a lot different from supporting violence.
Moreover not all the violence was on the Republican side. There was horrible violence by the Unionists as well. Both were wrong.
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Post by mich64 on Jun 8, 2017 1:58:25 GMT
I have not read any reports of interference by another Government like there was in the recent French and US elections. Does anyone know if this is accurate and if so, any reasons why they were not interested in this election? Perhaps because the election was called and not on a planned date like the others are?
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Post by bjd on Jun 8, 2017 6:09:23 GMT
I have not read any reports of interference by another Government like there was in the recent French and US elections. Does anyone know if this is accurate and if so, any reasons why they were not interested in this election? Perhaps because the election was called and not on a planned date like the others are? Maybe the Russians didn't need to bother because the Brexit vote has already put the UK on the way out of the EU, thus fulfilling one of Russia's desires -- breaking up the European Union.
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Post by patricklondon on Jun 8, 2017 8:49:16 GMT
We have newspapers capable of creating their own fake news. Russian spammers are far too clumsy by comparison. I went to vote about 9am. No photographs are allowed inside the polling station (the primary school across the road), but it was all very quiet. There was a policeman outside, and an area of pavement marked out in tape to show where any party tellers may not stand (a new development since we had some local issues with supporters of our unlamented former mayor), but where once there would have been party volunteers sitting to find out if their promised voters had actually turned out, today there were none. On the way in through the playground are all the prescribed official notices listing the candidates, the instructions on what to do and what not to do, and summaries of the law on the possible electoral crimes that very rarely seem to happen - and just to back it up in view of our previous local difficulties a set of cartoons telling people to report any cases of attempted bribery and intimidation. Inside, the school hall had all the children's play equipment and chairs moved to the edges, leaving room at one end for the clerks to dole out the papers for people from addresses A-M and at the other the T-Z addresses. When I got there there were a handful of voters from my end of the alphabet and none from the other. You just give them your address and name, they mark you as having voted and issue a ballot paper, noting your voter number against the number on the ballot paper (so there's an audit trail if ever a later reinvestigation is needed of possible frauds). Then you go into one of the semi-open cubicles which has a little shelf with a pencil tied down, and another notice of instructions for the hard of understanding, you put your cross in the box and move over to post the paper in the ballot box. And then it's all over, bar (as they say) the shouting. Until the next time. My blog | My photos | My video clips"too literate to be spam"
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Post by bjd on Jun 8, 2017 9:38:03 GMT
The French voting procedure is a bit more bureaucratic. For one, I have never seen anyone outside to check on promised voters. You have to sign onto the voting lists before December 31 of the previous year and you receive a voting card in the mail. It's usually good for several elections and it tells you where to go and vote.
The voting usually takes place in a school or a municipal building of some kind. When you go in, the bulletins and envelopes are on a table and you pick up one (or more just to fake out anybody who might be watching!), then go into a booth with a curtain to put your bulletin into the envelope and the unwanted ones in the wastebasket provided. You then go to the voting box. One person takes your ID and your elector card, reads out your name. There are two people on either side, one confirms with your voting number and checks you off the book. Then you put your envelope in the transparent box, hear "a voté" and get your card stamped with the date, pass to the other person and sign the register. Usually there are a couple of other people sitting around just to see how things go.
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