Rayvin

So it's good news then.

Renton isn't a socialist man Why does the right think that anyone left of Thatcher is a socialist? As far as I know, no one on here is a socialist. Not even me Also, wait, are you claiming that Neoliberalism hasn't been royally fucked in the past few years? With idk, Brexit for instance? Neoliberalism being the ideology of Thatcher.

Is that good news or bad news? I get that it's been thwarted by the psychos, but have they made it a more even run between sanity and lunacy now?

Why would you get banned for this? I recall us having banned some heavily pro-Thatcher guy some years back but it was all he talked about and came up across the forum, so that the whole general chat section was arguing with him. He got about 200 posts in 48 hours.

Venezuela The strawman resorted to by the internet right wing 'thinkers' who can't actually challenge Labour's current policy direction with anything of substance.

I would like Alex's response to CT a thousand times if I could. I didn't have it in me to reference Scandinavia for the nth time.

...

The IQ bit? I guess maybe.

They do have a Boris Johnson though. An openly racist foreign secretary with an IQ of about 10.

And yet we are entering into an age where automation and robotics will make job creation for the individual even more difficult. Surely in the end, we need some kind of universal income or we will simply have to start a cull. I was also under the impression that claiming benefits was such a degrading and inhumane process now that very few who are capable of getting a job would actually want to go through with it.

How about thinking of society this way - by giving poor people welfare, you are in effect paying them not to kill you and take everything you own by force. So I could argue that the rich are being allowed to keep the manmade concept of wealth under a system they do very well within, on the proviso that they give those at the bottom enough to justify their continued apathy to the concept of change. So they're being 'handed' stability in which to make money and enjoy their lives, by paying out welfare. The lower the welfare payment, the lower the stability.

What if reducing tax for businesses comes at the cost of reducing spending on welfare? There's an argument that reducing tax on business allows for more job creation, but at the same time surely you would accept that a lot of this will also just be pocketed by those who are already extremely wealthy. Why do they deserve to be given handouts and not those at the bottom?

Essembee, as a total aside - any chance you could get an avatar? I'm curious as to what you would choose. Tempted to suggest that the forum could post suggestions, but I don't know if there are enough creative people on here for that

Well aye, he might well be in that camp but I really don't care about the personal beliefs of politicians as long as they're not openly hostile to any particular section of society. I'm far more interested in their openly hostile policy positions. Even as an atheist I won't attack a politician for their religious positions unless they're actually making a concerted attempt to justify policy with them.

I mostly posted for my own catharsis.

At the risk of defending someone whose politics are a long way from my own, my view on Mogg concerning his faith is that he has actually made it clear that religion is personal and politics should be kept free from it. I watched the interview on Piers Morgan's latest vehicle for self-fellating (whatever it's called) with him and I respect that he at least just said what he thinks; and also that he made clear that Parliament makes the laws of the country and that any government under his leadership would not be influenced by personal religious philosophies. I don't really have an issue with him on that basis if this is the sum total of the 'muddle' you refer to. My problem is more the policies he stands for.

I don't care if he did or not, he voted for Cameron and that's where this latest waterfall of ever-cascading shit came from. The Tories record for the past 10 years has been one of barely managed decline.

Nah you woulda been fine with Miliband in charge too tbh. Corbyn has energised a lot of non-voters in a way that Miliband wouldn't have, so while yeah, you would have retained the Rentons and ewerks of the world under Miliband (although I believe both still voted Labour last time out), you woulda lost the youth. The Tories are in control of this right up until Brexit collapses IMO - where they go from there is anyone's guess frankly. I'm not sure who is supposedly waiting in the wings to revitalise them. Mogg maybe although you would think his appeal is limited.

CT - Imagine feeling 5 times as dismal about Corbyn as you already do. If you manage that, you'll be about 10% of the way to how the I feel about May. You'd need to treble it again to get to where Renton is on Brexit. Tbh I'm at the stage now where I would happily oust Corbyn to replace him with a younger, prettier, smoother talking version of the the same, just so that everyone could stop bleating about him and actually look at the charlatans who have been systematically annihilating the country for the past 10 years. The biggest problem with Corbyn now, IMO, is that his existence serves as a distraction to the incomprehensible, devastating incompetence of the biggest gaggle of fuckwits I have literally ever seen, in any organisation, anywhere. And to think you actually voted for these people... I'm staggered CT, that you could ever have thought, that any of the utter turgid horseshit we have seen from the Tories since Labour were last in, is even remotely acceptable. Look at them man. Fucking look at them. Stop worrying about Corbyn for a second and just look at the Tories. These people are "leading" the country. What have you done? What the fuck have you done?

Don't think she's racist tbh, I think she just lacks a spine and is prepared to do whatever it takes to get ahead. If that means throwing racist policies around to pick up votes, then she'll do it. I suspect if she thought she could get ahead by deporting all white people, she'd probably try.

Comes to something when some of us on the left are sitting here thinking "maybe we should just let her off with this one, cos fuck knows what we'll get if she goes"

Ah so that's the Fulwell thing. I actually don't really know what went on there...?

She must have a plan. There's surely no way she would blindly walk up this alley with governmental collapse on one hand and the break up of the union on the other, if she could even get that past the DUP. I refuse to believe the Tories are that stupid.

Its a hugely significant date for him but i'll be damned if i remember why. Im going to guess it's a record low attendance. Essembee, can you remind us?

I haven't followed it very closely tbh but the guy thought he was going to prison from what I understand (ended up with a fine), and was clearly deeply distressed about this. He took the video down as soon as it became a legal complication. Now that he's been fined, I think he may well play a martyr though.