The Political Thread

[JamesC]

So, "the uneducated, uncultured and old" were intelligent enough to use their hard won democratic rights.
The educated, cultured and young sat on their arses and didn't bother.  Not looking so educated and cultured now, are they!

I don't think you can group in everyone that didn't vote as lazy.
There are many reasons people don't vote and probably the most useful thing to do would be to understand the reasons and go some way to addressing them.
Politics are very obscure, there's so much reading between the lines to be done. The politicians themselves don't seem very representative of much of the population and the actual mechanics of voting seem very old fashioned.
I don't agree 100% with Russell Brands assertion of 'don't vote for people that don't represent you' but I don't think it can be brushed aside either.

As for all the UKIP voters, I'm not convinced most people actually know what they've voted for. I think many people have been blinded by the anti-Europe stance and looked no further.
I don't think that everyone who voted for UKIP is a racist. There are lots of people out there who genuinely believe that their lives are being made worse because of Europe and immigration. They've been sort of indoctrinated to think that anyone who defends Europe is a left wing do gooder and that the media are only concerned with political correctness and appeasing some obscure multi-cultural elite.
The only way to reach these people is through education. Unfortunately our society is failing in that and our media is only interested in cheap political point scoring and circus debates.

[Hawkmumbler]

Just heard about the Elliot Rogers shooting. First and for most my condolences to the victims families. They must be going though and awful time at the moment and I wish them the best.

However, even with very little research their are issues regarding Elliot I feel I should address, namely the condition of his mental disorder, and my own, Aspergers syndrome. I intend to read his 'manifesto' and watch his video log with the sole porpoise of at least uncovering as much about the man himself without media bias before I formulate a full opinion. Because I have serious concerns, if the allegation over his disorder are true, that other young, autistic people, including many I work with, may try and copycat his crime. This worries me like nothing else.

[TordelBack]

UKIP are xenophobes

UKIP are opportunists trading on the fears of xenophobes, if we're going to get into nuance. I doubt Farage fears Poles one way or the other.

While we're at it, our own dear SF are opportunists trading on disillusionment (and the oh-so-exciting lingering whiff of cordite - you dashing rebel, you!), without offering the vaguest suggestion of where the money's coming from (another Noraid whipround?).

[ZenArcade]

Yep, the stiuation both north and south is nothing to be proud of. In NI we can look forward to more years of socially and economically illeterate extremists f**king the thing up! Z

[CrazyFoxMachine]

Brother of a friend, aged 15, furious on FB today at the far-right results. His friends openly mock him for caring - I remind him the actual voter turn-out was less than 35% and that he should remember his anger when he's legally allowed to voice it booth-wise.

Strange things happen when people give a shit.

[Professor Bear]

If he's 15, he's too young to vote in the next election, and by the time the one after that comes around he'll either be knee-deep in booze and fanny and not care to vote, or he won't be able to find the time seeing as he'll be a year into Herr Farage's now-compulsory national service for the working classes.

Me, I'm all made up.  As a 2000ad fan, I have found that the book is at its best when working in an oppressive political landscape and has something to rebel against, as to me it's no coincidence that the Summer Offensive came during a period in the UK where the population had hope for the future for the first time in nearly two decades.
The book will perhaps regain some of its biting satirical edge around 2015, and I hope that we'll be allowed to read it in the camps.

[JOE SOAP]

While we're at it, our own dear SF are opportunists trading on disillusionment (and the oh-so-exciting lingering whiff of cordite - you dashing rebel, you!), without offering the vaguest suggestion of where the money's coming from (another Noraid whipround?).

I might prefer a bit of disillusionment for a while instead of the tax and succumb policy as an answer to everything of FG, though I wouldn't worry too much about it lasting, the re-electrified corpse of FF will rise again for the next general election- a party whose only economic policy is self-enrichment.

[Proudhuff]

It's already been said on the BBC that even if every vote goes to the second place party, they still can't beat UKIP.

Just shows we too have our share of nutters, again I'd point out that at 33% turnout ( and then only a small precentage of that) it hardly represents the general population or indeed all the praise and worship being directed at Ukippers by the BBC is really representive.

[ZenArcade]

The Sinners have the taste of blood now that they have overed the Labour Party, FF are just next on the menu. The SDLP learned this to their cost in NI. when SF get a vote it's nigh on impossible to wrest it back....be warned! Z

[TordelBack]

I might prefer a bit of disillusionment for a while instead of the tax and succumb policy as an answer to everything of FG..

Well indeed, but voting SF as a protest isn't going to get the job done either - it's so '30s they might as well have run Josephine Baker as a candidate.  I can certainly see their uses in the Locals, they're very good at being approachable and getting things done, especially in sub/urban constituencies, and bizarrely they have the advantage of not being tied into Civil War political divides, but the idea of their topping the polls in the Euros baffles me.  What exactly are their policies at a European level?  Their main international policy seems to be 'neutrality', which while I applaud the sentiment isn't actually something that's even a function of the European parliament.  Other than 'no to austerity', which while equally admirable is not broken down into practical steps at all, and the flat refusal of European financial loans would seem to me to demand infinitely greater austerity than obtains.  The degree to which all this is fantasy is exposed by their record in government in NI, which makes the Labour party's role in the coalition look like a Trotskyist takeover.

The pretence that voting SF represents a mature liberal attitude to a divisive history and a final embracing of the peace process annoys me more than anything. They know full well that a large amount of their support comes from the mystique of violence and sectarianism, and they're not afraid to trade on it when it suits.  Painting themselves as the second coming of Nelson Mandela ushering in a socialist alternative is just laughable.

Right old relic, I am.

[johnnystress]

Belfast folk can rejoice that this charming lady has been elected

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2014/05/26/a-traditional-voice/

[JOE SOAP]

voting SF as a protest isn't going to get the job done either ... but the idea of their topping the polls in the Euros baffles me.  What exactly are their policies at a European level?

This is the electorate that voted-in 'Kenneth' -keeping it real- Egan. Half of them don't consider what a European policy is actually for and vote according to their current grievances. 

The pretence that voting SF represents a mature liberal attitude to a divisive history and a final embracing of the peace process annoys me more than anything. They know full well that a large amount of their support comes from the mystique of violence and sectarianism, and they're not afraid to trade on it when it suits.  Painting themselves as the second coming of Nelson Mandela ushering in a socialist alternative is just laughable.

I've yet to find a party with a mature attitude to anything but we don't do justice or atonement for anything in this country very well -whether its crime or corruption- and recent editorials indicate the media establishment will go after SF full-throttle in the next few years; but I doubt much of it will be out of a will to construct a better state and some will just see them as another threat to the worth of their property portfolios.

[Professor Bear]

Belfast folk can rejoice that this charming lady has been elected http://www.broadsheet.ie/2014/05/26/a-traditional-voice/

"Scum elect scum" shocker!

I wouldn't worry - JoBu is a sideshow attraction and in the long run she's more of a help because she forces political adversaries into moderate alignments elsewhere by siphoning off their nutters for herself, a not exactly unheard of circumstance in NI.  Think of her like the Fred Phelps of Norn politics - she's something everyone else can agree upon.

[mogzilla]

well, ukip had topped the polls in the European elections.

[Professor Bear]

Six countries that went towards the left instead of the right in the European elections: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/shortcuts/2014/may/26/european-elections-six-countries-went-left?CMP=twt_fd

It seems Romania went left, so now we know why Herr Farage hates that particular nationality so much - they're all lefty puffs.
All joking aside, having a country that's politically to the right of Italy and Portugal should worry most sensible people.