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This is the News!

Started by Funt Solo, 28 March, 2022, 05:16:33 AM

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Jim_Campbell

Quote from: IndigoPrime on 01 August, 2022, 11:17:21 AM
He's also ruled out any cooperation with any other party after a GE.

I'm not, by any stretch of the imagination, a fan of Starmer, but I don't see what any Labour leader could say on this particular issue, given the ferocity with which the Tories and the right-wing media pushed on the "Vote-Whatever-Get-A-Labour-Government" and "Vote-Labour-Get-A-Whatever-Government" in the past, mainly to try and keep wavering Tories in line.

There's no way Labour would allow a minority Conservative government to form if the only way to stop it was some kind of arrangement with the LibDems and/or SNP, however loose or informal.
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Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

IndigoPrime

Like with Brexit, he's driven himself into a corner. So if Labour gets in and he does more with the EU, he'll be branded a liar and a traitor. But if he sticks to his guns, he'll be branded a liar and ineffective. It's the same here. I'm not suggesting he cuddles up to the Lib Dems, but to rule out any cooperation after an election is deeply frustrating, because it suggests the UK cannot move on and embrace a remotely moderate democracy.

Perhaps it doesn't matter. Perhaps Starmer would see sense after a GE. I dunno. But when Labour voters, most Labour MPs, and even now most unions are in favour of PR, the Labour leadership shifting from cool to anti seems a strange trend. (My take: Labour could, if it so chose, push a line about voting fairness, and note that we should have a parliament – parliaments, even – that represents the vote itself. This shouldn't be a top-tier policy, but it should exist. Instead, it's the same old us vs them bullshit, with his team hoping they'll win a majority on 35–40% and do whatever they hell they like for five years, but always with an eye on regressive voters. If we had PR, chances are Labour would be in power more often than not, albeit as a reduced group.)

Richard

The difficulty with introducing PR is that we had a referendum about it only 11 years ago and people voted to keep FPTP. Politically it's hard to justify overturning a referendum result without another referendum (which might just go the same way as the first one).

IndigoPrime

We never had a referendum on PR. We had a referendum on AV, another majoritarian system, with the leading party being vehemently against it and lying through their teeth.

PR should be something passed through primary legislation, not a referendum, on the basis of making votes fair and parliament more representative of the vote. It's absurd we still exist in a country where as few as a third of voters backing a party can give said party a working majority. And everyone left of the Tories should recognise that. It's insane that Labour leadership – all flavours, bar, for a very short period, Blair – have not and still do not.

Richard

Maybe Labour think it benefits them, because when they win they have a majority instead of having to form a coalition? And when they don't win, that's fine too, because they secretly prefer being in opposition.

IndigoPrime

It's very odd. The party leadership would clearly rather it be the biggest loser most of the time (and achieve nothing), because it can occasionally run the show, rather than lead a coalition most of the time. (Despite what people might think of the Lib Dems, they since their foundation have more often mapped with the centre to right of Labour than the Tories on economics, although – like the Greens – they are far less authoritarian than either big party, which causes friction. Even so, I imagine Lab/Lib would work pretty well. And besides, we should have a system where our parliament resembles what we vote for. It's absurd that it doesn't.)

Hawkmumbler

https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/movies/batgirl-directors-say-are-saddened-movie-shelved-rcna41432

1. MARTIN SCORSESE: Superhero films aren't cinema, they're a film-like product released by studios who don't really care anymore.
FANS: Fuuck yooou.

2. WARNER BROS: Under U.S. tax laws, it would make us more money to shelve 'Batgirl' forever than release it.
FANS: Wait a second.

Definitely Not Mister Pops

Warner Bros now have the chance to release a director's cut with the most deleted scenes ever.
You may quote me on that.

Richard

The FBI raided Trump's home in Florida to execute a search warrant and opened his safe.

JayzusB.Christ

Quote from: Richard on 09 August, 2022, 12:09:55 PM
The FBI raided Trump's home in Florida to execute a search warrant and opened his safe.

I have a nasty feeling that, short of a prison conviction prior to the 2024 election, this is going to be a massive boost for him, sadly.  He'll play the martyr card successfully as he's always done.
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

wedgeski

Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 09 August, 2022, 09:09:42 PM
Quote from: Richard on 09 August, 2022, 12:09:55 PM
The FBI raided Trump's home in Florida to execute a search warrant and opened his safe.

I have a nasty feeling that, short of a prison conviction prior to the 2024 election, this is going to be a massive boost for him, sadly.  He'll play the martyr card successfully as he's always done.
I think/hope that with Murdoch turning on him, he's done for. Of course, with DeSantis in the wings to take up the throne of most despicable Republican/human, I'm in two minds whether this is a good thing.

sheridan

Quote from: wedgeski on 10 August, 2022, 09:08:56 AM
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 09 August, 2022, 09:09:42 PM
Quote from: Richard on 09 August, 2022, 12:09:55 PM
The FBI raided Trump's home in Florida to execute a search warrant and opened his safe.

I have a nasty feeling that, short of a prison conviction prior to the 2024 election, this is going to be a massive boost for him, sadly.  He'll play the martyr card successfully as he's always done.
I think/hope that with Murdoch turning on him, he's done for. Of course, with DeSantis in the wings to take up the throne of most despicable Republican/human, I'm in two minds whether this is a good thing.

Director of the FBI appointed by Trump himself, amusingly!

IndigoPrime

Quote from: wedgeski on 10 August, 2022, 09:08:56 AMI think/hope that with Murdoch turning on him, he's done for. Of course, with DeSantis in the wings to take up the throne of most despicable Republican/human, I'm in two minds whether this is a good thing.
Turns out, the right can get worse, in one of two ways: we either get someone who's equally awful but genuinely believes that shit and is potentially competent (USA) or someone who's equally awful but arguably dumber and seemingly far more rigid in their beliefs (UK).

Meanwhile, the centre and left continue to take chunks out of each other in both countries, talking to themselves and performing risky triangulation that is set to fail (USA) and probably has a 50:50 chance of failure, and a close to 100% chance of failing within a few terms (UK).

JayzusB.Christ

I can't help thinking that the 'greatest witch-hunt in US history' was the Salem witch trials.
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

sintec

It feels very hypocritical coming from a man who hounded his predecessor for evidence of his birth place and built a his campaign on "her emails".  Pot meet kettle.