311–320 of 336 posts
Some people criticize May whatever she does. If she calls election, because she wants to destroy opposition or because the election will cause more political instability, and if she doesn't, because she is afraid of democracy or something. Honestly, this makes no sense at all.
I criticise her because of her strong authoritarian views and desire to turn the UK into an Orwelian nightmare...
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Too bad polls haven't been accurate for a while now.
As someone who made money betting on a Trump victory - certain topics / polls. Calling Brexit / Trump voters racist leads to a certain % of the population not disclosing their vote, oversampling of Democrats was another issue in the US polls.
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>Socialism is basically confirmed to be invalid now. I don't think that's true, I still think Socialism is a solution to the problems of society structured with class (capitalism, feudalism, slavery etc.)
I guess everyone is equal when we're all queuing for miles for bread.
Class is not about equality, it is about removing a power relationship. In the same way that the abolitionist movement removed the property relationship between master and slave, the Socialist movement seeks to remove the private property power relationship between bourgeois and proletariat in general.
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You don't understand the Lib Dems if you think we'd have voted for Brexit. Especially under Clegg.
I originally posted a smartass one-liner response ("I don't think even the Lib Dems understand the Lib Dems") but deleted it as it was not constructive or particularly fair on you. I think that it is worth explaining what I meant however. I genuinely admire that you are motivated enough to get involved with UK politics - and I wish you all the best. You've no idea the disappointment I had in the LDs though - I cheere…
Now, one thing we did with the coalition was do exactly what we'd been saying before the election. It wasn't what the media reported, but it is what we said. Which was that we'd consider coalition with any party that got the most votes and the most seats. Which was the Tories.
Now, you should also remember that the Lib Dems have a shared history with both the conservative and labour parties. The SDP may be much more recent, but the flight of the libertarians in the 1920s and 30s (along with the telegraph newspaper) lost us what was an originally liberal idea: the market. Suddenly we were no longer the party of the market. And the Tories were a mixture of market purists, capitalists and moral conservatives (political theists). They've purged most of the moral conservatives now, and we're just left with the capitalists (the libertarians forgot all about the social conscience of Adam Smith without the rest of the Liberal party to remind them.)
Now, the Liberals who were left in the 40s and onwards were several things. Social liberal, internationalist, a little bit CND, etc. Radicals. Protestors.
Then we got this influx from Labour in the 80s, the right wing of the Labour Party, the SDP. Vince Cable. Shirley Williams. We grew up and became less of a protest party and more professional. We started winning by-elections and having more than 6 seats.
It is important to distinguish us from a European Liberal (centre-right) party. It is also important to remember that we're internationalists. And it is important to remember that we're not too different from a European Liberal party; we definitely believe in free trade across borders.
So, the European project is a part of British Liberalism which cuts across both internationalism and market freedoms. It's in the political DNA of nearly all Lib Dems.
Brexit is one of the few things we pretty much all agree on (that it's a terrible catastrophe).
I hope that helps you understand us a bit better.
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That's assuming that no-one has shifted the other way: https://www.politicshome.com/news/europe/eu-policy-agenda/br...
I've never seen any detailed analysis of the reasons why people voted the way they did in the EU referendum, but I can think of one good reason why people who voted to remain might now think the UK should leave: because it was a democratic vote and they think its result should be acted upon, rather than ignored. That doesn't mean they regretted voting to remain in the EU.
Regarding detailed analysis, you might find the Ashcroft polls interesting if you haven't seen them before. He did a write-up shortly after the referendum[1], primarily about who voted which way and why. Then there have been a couple more interesting ones just a few days before today's announcement as well[2,3], looking at current expectations regarding Brexit and more general voting intentions.
Spoilers for [1]: The top three reasons identified for Leave voters were (most significant first) sovereignty, immigration, and lack of control over ever closer union and EU expansion in the future. The top three reasons identified for Remain voters were the economic risks of leaving, Single Market access without being in the Eurozone or Schengen area being seen as the best of both worlds, and the feeling of becoming more isolated if we left.
Spoilers for [2]/[3]: Everything you've been assuming about the Tories being dominant in British politics today is true, except that you've probably underestimated just how utterly dominant they actually are and how unpopular both Labour and the Lib Dems are. It's going to be a long few weeks if you're not a blues fan.
[1] http://lordashcroftpolls.com/2016/06/how-the-united-kingdom-...
[2] http://lordashcroftpolls.com/2017/04/new-political-landscape...
[3] http://lordashcroftpolls.com/2017/04/more-from-my-brexit-res...
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How is Corbyn playing political games? I suspect he's considering his own position and the general dissatisfaction he faces among his current crop of MPs, and he's probably figuring this is a chance to clean house a bit. I also suspect the extremely short notice given by May is designed to frustrate that effort. It's almost as if they'd rather have the Tories in government. I imagine some current Labour MPs with Blai…
I would hope that any Labour MPs who want the Tories to win rather than a Corbyn-led Labour Party would have the integrity to resign their seats and stand as Tories, instead of undermining the party from within. Theresa May's just taking advantage of her huge poll lead, which is mostly down to a divided official opposition.
When they were elected, Corbyn wasn't leader. The platform they were elected on wasn't Corbyn's, and the people who elected them were their local constituents, not just Corbyn-supporting members of the Labour party.
On the other hand, they ran under a Labour banner, which will be why quite a lot of them are MPs today, and it wasn't the New Labour of Tony Blair, it was the Labour of Ed Miliband, which now belongs to Jeremy Corbyn.
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You're being a bit of a bellend. We can hold conservative views and not be fascist, the same as you can hold relatively left-wing views and not want socialism. Life isn't black-and-white, you know that I'm sure and labelling doesn't help anything.
Please leave out the name-calling like the guidelines ask. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
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I guess everyone is equal when we're all queuing for miles for bread.
Like people were doing during the great depression? Or England before social democracy? Class is not about equality, it is about removing a power relationship. In the same way that the abolitionist movement removed the property relationship between master and slave, the Socialist movement seeks to remove the private property power relationship between bourgeois and proletariat in general.
The idea that inequality can be solved by handing all property to the government, the single biggest source of corruption in existence, is ludicrous and the sooner the ideas of socialism and communism die out the closer we'll be to an actual approach to raising up the working poor.
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Vote for your Progressive Alliance candidate. Both Greens and Lib Dems have signed up to this and will hopefully put forward one agreed candidate locally in your area. Basically you are voting for an Anti-Brexit and pro proportional representation candidate. This is not about party allegiance, this is all about brexit.
This is not about party allegiance, this is all about brexit. Which, frankly, is scary in itself. Brexit, in whatever form, is far the only thing that matters in government. We also have significant and immediate concerns about the NHS, the education system at several different levels, our transport and communications infrastructure, our energy infrastructure, the environment and natural resources, the changing natur…
However you are right that what should be happening is that the current intended prosecutions for electoral fraud should be completed (report due 12th of June) before any election is considered. The opposition parties should not be voting for to enact an election.
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This is why I have always thought the fixed term parliaments act is a nonsense. What opposition would ever vote against the motion to call an election?
One that expected to be in a worse position afterwards than before, presumably. For example, a party whose MPs are mostly opposed to the current leadership and think it will cost them a lot of seats they currently have if an election is held.