Politics

[Gullscorer]

The socialism of the BBC shines through once again and will attack UKIP whenever they can. UKIP say something that is different to the Lib/Lab/Con and the media doesn't like it.

It would be a mistake to describe the BBC's attitudes as socialism. It is rather a longstanding culture of obeisance to prevailing establishment theories, strategies and policies, combined with a fear of upsetting powerful lobby groups, whether they be big business, pro-Israeli Jewish, feminist, or the 'politically correct'.

Just as capitalism is not synonymous with democracy, so socialism should not be confused with the underhand undemocratic tactics of groups adhering to totalitarian ideologies. To do so would be to ignore, for example, Democratic Socialism and Christian Socialism. Or, on the other hand, the monopolies of global corporations who blackmail and impose dictatorial policies upon employees, customers, communities and nation states alike.

Totalitarianism arises out of extremism, of both the political left and right. Indeed both fascist and communist governments have in the past described themselves as 'socialist' in attempting to gain legitimacy among the populations they ruled.

Move far enough to the left or to the right round the circumference, and you will find the totalitarian extremists of left and right together on the far side of the table, diametrically opposed to democracy, reasonableness, fairness and freedom. Socialism and for that matter Conservatism are not even halfway round that circumference, but are always liable to be high-jacked by those extremists. And so it is up to the rest of us to be ever vigilant against that possibility..

[Gullscorer]

Scottish independence: I've been torn both ways.

Part of me feels that if anybody, or any group of people, wants to go their own way, that's fine by me, since I'm all for people being independent. Except that nobody can ever be completely independent, certainly in a material sense, and particularly in this modern age. And so another part of me says: united we stand, divided we fall.!!

It's a complicated issue, with regards to, for example, economics and the currency, politics and the EU, and it's really all a question of where we draw the line. Too big is too big, and comes with a tendency to stifle independence of thought, even of free will. Too small is too small, and results in an inability to achieve anything much at all. For example, I remember somebody saying that one person working alone can achieve only so much, but two people working together can achieve four times as much. And it's true.

So a happy medium, with compromise and moderation, is usually best. Which is why I now support the continuation of the United Kingdom, with one currency, one government (located outside London), a democracy which does not trample over minority interests (so allowing for regional parliaments), and above all, an exit from the disastrous political entity which is the European Union, so allowing the UK to trade with the rest of the world as well as with Europe, without being dictated to by an EU which is becoming less and less democratic (if it ever was).

Being resident in England, I'm not allowed to vote in the Scottish Independence Referendum. And that itself is undemocratic. Everyone living in the UK should be allowed a vote in this momentous decision.

But at least we can still vote for UKIP. We should do so while we still can..

[Gullscorer]

Back in 2007 the EU passed the so-called 'Floods Directive' 2007/60/EU. This piece of law spelt it out in plain terms: areas such as the Somerset Levels were to be allowed to flood. DEFRA called it 'Making Space for Water'; others called it flooding. And so future government policy was revealed: flood defence was to give way to 'management'. In EU terms that meant more flooding. The EU even invented a new word: 'washland', an area of floodplain that was to be allowed to flood or was deliberately flooded for 'flood management' purposes.

When the Environment Agency stopped dredging the rivers they were only obeying orders. (This might also explain why English Nature encouraged Somerset farmers to maintain their land in a permanently waterlogged state to encourage lapwings and other wetland birds). Most striking of all is the total silence from politicians and the media about who is really to blame. Certainly in heavy rainfall the Levels will flood; that's natural. But the EU, which makes 70% of our laws without democratic accountability, is directly and deliberately responsible for the policies which led to the lack of preparation for the flooding and devastation seen in Somerset this winter.

[Gullscorer]

The Farage/Clegg debate prompted me to revisit some of the posts on the Politics thread. The arguments here about the EU, including one or two of my own, are worth looking at again in the light of that debate. Having heard them discuss the issues regarding jobs, trade, law, democracy, independence, etc., I feel that Farage made the stonger case, and I'm still inclined towards the view that we should get out of the EU.

[arcadia]

I expect many can remember that the tories were telling us to vote to go into the common market in the 70's saying we would have more work etc. but the opposite happened. The print industry was decimated the Poles came over we taught them then the company moved to POLAND. Paper we were making it in Keynsham paper mill and Kent, then we were told it was cheaper to import it as soon as we went into the common market.

I like the idea of being in charge of our own country and would like to see a leader like Farage who knows what he wants. The other parties are wait and see merchants and people who do that go down.

[Colorado Gull]

A common free trade market where European countries are on equal terms with no political interference.

[Gullscorer]

The ultimate conspiracy theory:
[youtube]Wbs5kNxi7fE[/youtube]

[Gullscorer]

From our US correspondent: http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/ ... n-deficit/

[cambgull]

I do love this wonderful idea the Conservatives have of making everyone on JSA turn up to the Jobcentre EVERY DAY. Sounds great, get those lazy bastards off their arses and get them doing something. Wonderful, right?

So let's get down to the nuts and bolts of it, shall we?

There are 1.2m JSA claimants must attend a Jobcentre once a day, of which there are 740 Jobcentres. This works out to around 1,620 attendees per day at each Jobcentre, 249 an hour (accounting for staff taking their breaks), 4 per minute. Of course it would be completely pointless to make people come in just to stamp a book, so we'll assume that each meeting lasts for 5 minutes. That means you'd need somewhere around 25 members of staff each day (accounting for breaks) just to clear through the amount of people, and this is assuming the next person is ready to sit down as soon as the last one leaves.

Utterly ridiculous, people bitch about UKIP but at least most of their policies will be put into place.

EDIT: To add to that, my town doesn't have a Jobcentre, and the next one is around 10 miles away. If I were on JSA, it would cost me a return ticket on a bus at around £3.50 which takes 1 1/2 hours as it goes all around the houses to get to Huntingdon. So that's 3 hours a day plus any time spent hanging around because the busses don't run often enough. So we'll add on an extra hour. 4 hours a day, 20 hours a week (a part time job) at the cost of £17.50 a week just to get £71 back.

So it might well mean that quite a few people get off their backsides and get a job. At the cost of millions of extra staff who you then need to lay off, putting more people into unemployment. Brilliant.

[AustrianAndyGull]

I have a revolutionary new idea. Accept that whoever is in power makes decisions based on their own agendas and not for the good of British society. Accept that you will be on the receiving end of many of these decisions and when they make a policy which is actually beneficial to you then accept that there will be a caveat meaning they will take something away somewhere else to leave you no better off but possibly worse off.

Accept that these decisions will be made on your behalf by people who don't give a toss about you and that you just have to live with these decisions as a course of life. Once you have done this then you can lift the disillusionment once and for all and you longer have to feel guilty for not voting. If you don't vote then you don't have a right to complain about things IMO. Therefore don't vote and don't complain because both are totally futile exercises.

Leave them all to make noises like farm animals in the commons and to employ their partners for a six figure income (like Farage I may add). Leave them all, forget about them all, just get on with your life and if an issue arises in your life as a result of a decision that one of these cretins has made then deal with it quietly and move on because the war against institutionalised nest feathering can NEVER be won. Not even by voting.

Oh and I agree with your post Luke and about UKIP but nobody can be trusted so let them live their lives and we'll pay for theirs and live ours.

[AustrianAndyGull]

The views of a Yorkshire simpleton. =D

[Gullscorer]

=D Just what I was going to say Andy. In fact, a number of other MEP's, and MPs, employ their wives, because they offer better value for money. However, the main criticism against Farage, in view of his anti-EU stance, was that he employed a German when he could have employed a British person. Farage countered this by saying that nobody else could have assisted him late into the night as his wife did. Following which, hundreds of British women volunteered their services.. =D

But having seen a picture of his wife in this article (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... aking.html) I am now definitely voting UKIP..!!

[Colorado Gull]

The Tories have told people on JSA to go to the Job Centre every day to hide the fact they haven't made any real difference in the unemployment rate and especially young people. By doing this, they can say the people are no longer "sitting on their backsides" and actually "finding work". It's short term bollocks just like this Government.

[Glostergull]

I hate politics anyway.

Polly Ticks. does she tock as well

[Gullscorer]

Modern western societies are enormously complicated affairs composed of byzantine organisations and influences, often difficult to understand and navigate – despite which most of us get how the system works.

We vote for our local politicians, they have certain powers, they do things that influence our lives. We vote for national politicians, they have wider powers with further reaching effects.

Changes to these powers and the results of legislation created under this authority are closely scrutinised by voters and political pundits, journalists and special interest groups – not much is missed, as a rule.

And yet we are often blind to the very real power wielded by those in faraway offices and boardrooms, often acting on a transnational basis, which will unquestionably reach down and touch every one of us in our day-to-day lives through that same political system we so confidently feel we understand.

The very existence of the Istanbul Convention is unknown to many, even to high level journalists in national newspapers, politicians and pundits alike. It has been quietly put together, quietly pressed, and quietly ratified by enough EU member states to make it binding across the European Union from the first of August 2014, with the last three being Spain, Andorra and Denmark .

What is the Istanbul Convention?

by John Gormley. Full article here: http://www.menshumanrightsireland.org/index.php?n=72