The Political Thread

[ZenArcade]

Trivial maybe, but it just alienates people the protesters need to be reaching out to and having a conversation with. We get enough of this vandalism in NI and it just pushed people into negative entrenched positions.
Protest against those who send young men and women to the slaughter but to deface something which people see as a memorial to those who were butchered seems to me to be morally wrong and incredibly short sighted. Z

[Ghost MacRoth]

Trivial?  Try selling that line to a bunch of military folk.

[ZenArcade]

Quite so, it is devisive when unity is paramount. Z

[The Legendary Shark]

I wonder if those "military folk" who lost arms and legs and minds and returned to Britain for inadequate healthcare and unaffordable housing would be so outraged at a bit of easily scrubbed-off graffiti on a hunk of inanimate stone? I should imagine these people have far more important things to worry about, as do we.

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

I can understand why a few people would be so appalled by a Tory victory they might go on a rampage in Central London, but considering what they were actually protesting about it is a free and fair election result, and how they protested against it was by defacing a memorial to the "Women of World War Two", they have no chance whatsoever of taking the country with them.

Oh, and Harry Patch actually fought in World War I, and he died in 2009, the year before the coalition came into power. If he's ever denounced the Cameron government's policies he's done it from the spectral plain.

[Hawkmumbler]

Dissapointed that protesters with such clear motives would stoop so low as to deface a memorial, assuming it was them at all and not a coincidence of poor timing. Not furious, just dissapointed.

I'm not happy with theresult, and will be proactive in bringing change. Honestly, i'm seeing more of a point to Bears argument to cull the bastards.

[The Legendary Shark]

The protests were actually mostly peaceful but reported as anything but, with incidents like the graffiti blown out of all proportion. Strange how the violence only starts when the police weigh in.
.
As I've said before, the only thing "authority" brings to these situations is immoral violence.

[Jim_Campbell]

My apologies: confused my Harrys. I was thinking of Harry Leslie Smith, a WWII veteran who did do what I said, not Harry Patch, a WWI veteran who didn't.

I should have checked before posting and I didn't. Apologies, once again.

Jim

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

Jim's right, it's absolutely true that Harry Leslie Smith is a left-leaning WW2 veteran who isn't too bothered about the vandalism:

The tories have defaced society with austerity and that is something that unlike the war memorial won't wash off soon

[Banners]

In response to the protesters' demands, the Government has announced a national election where everyone gets to have a vote.

[IndigoPrime]

I suspect people are angry that we now have a toxic Tory majority government that got there with under 37% of the vote (meaning 57% voted for something else). They've already said now the Lib Dems aren't a barrier, they can "quickly" get on with rushing through all the laws and changes they really wanted to. We'll see sweeping changes to the NHS, the effective death of the BBC and Human Rights Act, boundary changes to stitch up every other party in 2020, disabled and homeless people getting less help, the Snoopers' Charter and other restrictions on communications, an increasingly Victorian education system, the possible withdrawal from the EU (not least given that remember Cameron is resigning before 2020—he won't give a shit), and then a likely end to the UK.

Yes, we had a democratic election. Yes, it wasn't rigged. But the system is broken and this government scares the hell out of me.

[The Legendary Shark]

Don't be scared. Frightened people are easier to control.

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

It's very important that pro-Europeans win the vote to stay in the EU.

I agree that the UK is doomed in all sort of ways if we let the xenophobes take us out.

[Karl Stephan]

There's a petition going round for proportionate representation:

https://www.change.org/p/david-cameron-reform-our-voting-system-to-make-it-fair-and-representative-makeseatsmatchvotes

Change can only be achieved through democracy, not through a protest by a few hundred vandals demanding that their opinion is worth more than the several million that participated in the election.

[Karl Stephan]

Jim's right, it's absolutely true that Harry Leslie Smith is a left-leaning WW2 veteran who isn't too bothered about the vandalism:

The tories have defaced society with austerity and that is something that unlike the war memorial won't wash off soon

It's in very poor taste. Disrespecting the people who ensured that you have a democracy to enjoy is just bullshit, especially in such close proximity to VE day. You may have found one vet trying to make a point, but the rest certainly won't let it slide. They supported the prosecution and imprisonment of this useless little shite: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8195146/Tuition-fees-riots-Pink-Floyd-stars-son-could-be-prosecuted-over-attack-on-Cenotaph.html