The Political Thread

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

How's that then?

They're actually three parties, one for England and Wales, one for Scotland and another for NI.

Or they could collapse if and when people finally understand they are party with racist polices, lead by a racist.

Maybe so. Certainly Question Time exposure didn't help Nick Griffin.

[CrazyFoxMachine]

[Professor Bear]

So you're saying that it's complete coincidence that that protest vote went to a party that 18 months ago no-one had heard of?

No, for several reasons, one of which is that they've been around a hell of a lot longer than that.

I didn't say they hadn't been around - I said no-one had heard of them.  They weren't even a bad joke on the political landscape when being fronted by Robert Killroy Silk, a spokesperson who didn't get them the kind of publicity they've garnered after being fronted by an old-school millionaire with connections to a lot of people in the media.

Cameron trying to court the UKIP vote: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/david-cameron-in-race-row-after-posing-with-blackedup-morris-dancers-9791733.html

Don't underestimate Dave The Murderer's ability to appeal to other races, RAC - for a while now he's managed to get some humans to vote for him.

[Richmond Clements]

They're actually three parties, one for England and Wales, one for Scotland and another for NI.

Neither Labour nor the Conservatives have any kind of representation in NI either - so by this logic, they are not national parties either.

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

Greens: 1 MP. UKIP: Up until last week, ZERO MPs. How many times has Nigel Farage been on Question Time? And how many times has anyone from the Greens been on?

That's media bias. It's not censorship to suggest that the publicly-funded state broadcaster doesn't massively favour one minority party over another, regardless of how distasteful one might find one or other of those parties.

Jim

It would be censorship to try to force them to stop, though.

The BBC get's accused of bias a lot, but really I think the truth is they're pretty unbiased and the rest of us are not.

[The Legendary Shark]

Do you believe in a particular party?
.
Do you believe in the party system?
.
Why and why?
.
Just wondering.

[Richmond Clements]

It would be censorship to try to force them to stop, though.

No it wouldn't. It would be the opposite of that.

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

Neither Labour nor the Conservatives have any kind of representation in NI either - so by this logic, they are not national parties either.

I think it wouldn't be an issue if any of the multi-Greens were in any danger of getting a significant amount of support. Apart from from me. I'll be voting for them. Even despite Farage being on the telly.

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

No it wouldn't. It would be the opposite of that.

Great as a BBC that only reflected the views of Richmond Clements would undoubtedly be, I tend to think you'd actually enhance UKIP support by trying to silence them and a better idea would be to tackle the issues they raise head on.

[Frank]

Greens: 1 MP. UKIP: Up until last week, ZERO MPs. How many times has Nigel Farage been on Question Time? And how many times has anyone from the Greens been on?

As I'm certain you already know, UKIP polled 3 times the number of votes the Greens managed at the 2010 general election. Poor, old, bankrupt, ugly, racist Nick Griffin's BNP won twice the number of votes as Caroline Lucas's lovelies.

Whether you think a show like Question Time should be a venue for politicians who speak for the greatest number of people or reflect the deliberately weighted nature of the UK electoral system are moot points - Dave Dimbelby's weekly roundtable almost certainly has less influence on the opinions and voting intentions of its 3 million viewers than newspapers, which have no obligation to be impartial, overwhelmingly back Farage, and are read by 8 million people every single day.

All that's obviously a load of tendentious fucking bollocks though, because 22 million folk voted in the 2010 general election; at least half of them were obviously not influenced one jot by Question Time and/or the papers, and almost two thirds as many of them voted for the BNP - who weren't endorsed by any paper and managed just one, controversial appearance next to a Dimbelby - as media darling Farage.

[The Legendary Shark]

If I remember correctly, it's in the BBC's Charter that it must support the government. That doesn't just mean whoever's in power and the opposition, it means the basic framework and mechanisms, the very idea of the government. Minor parties have very little to do with the overall subject of government so it's easy for them to get swamped by everything else. It's no great conspiracy, just a poor system.

[Proudhuff]

How's that then?

They're actually three parties, one for England and Wales, one for Scotland and another for NI.

That's the same for Labour and The Tories and Lib Dems, they all claim to have separate parties organisation Scotland and I believe Wales.

[Jim_Campbell]

Great as a BBC that only reflected the views of Richmond Clements would undoubtedly be, I tend to think you'd actually enhance UKIP support by trying to silence them and a better idea would be to tackle the issues they raise head on.

Are you being deliberately obtuse, or have you sustained a head injury recently? No one is saying that UKIP should be "silenced", we're saying that the clearly, provably disproportionate coverage of UKIP is certainly inappropriate from a state-funded broadcaster with a formal commitment to impartial political coverage.

Jim

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

Are you being deliberately obtuse, or have you sustained a head injury recently?
Jim

No, but you're being deliberately abusive.

[TordelBack]

Great as a BBC that only reflected the views of Richmond Clements would undoubtedly be...

My unconditional support for this idea would be contingent whether this would be drunk-posting Underware[sic]-era RAC, or his mild-mannered alter ego of today.  The difference being between 'Adult Themes' and adult themes.  Shan't say which one gets my vote.