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Granny Danger

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Out of nowhere, does anyone think that the Thalidomide, Watergate or the expenses scandal would have broken when they did, or at all, without a much maligned MSM? A frightening amount of people seem to take their "news" and form their opinions from random Youtubers, rather than hacks with some accountability to get the facts right. And I can't think of any big story that's been broken by "citizen journalists".  I'd be happy for someone to put me right on that. With an increasing number of people getting their information from random sources and unverified, it's no wonder that political discourse and a consensus at least on what the debate is about has fallen apart. 
Your argument had validity 20 years ago, but most contemporary UK newspapers are a pale imitation of their former selves, and likewise television. The trick in the new media age is to know where to look for what we remember as robust, fact-checked journalism.
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1 minute ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:
24 minutes ago, welshbairn said:
Out of nowhere, does anyone think that the Thalidomide, Watergate or the expenses scandal would have broken when they did, or at all, without a much maligned MSM? A frightening amount of people seem to take their "news" and form their opinions from random Youtubers, rather than hacks with some accountability to get the facts right. And I can't think of any big story that's been broken by "citizen journalists".  I'd be happy for someone to put me right on that. With an increasing number of people getting their information from random sources and unverified, it's no wonder that political discourse and a consensus at least on what the debate is about has fallen apart. 

Your argument had validity 20 years ago, but most contemporary UK newspapers are a pale imitation of their former selves, and likewise television. The trick in the new media age is to know where to look for what we remember as robust, fact-checked journalism.

Where do you find it? I still find the rare bits of the MSM still committed to objectivity and a semblance of balance  much more reliable than anywhere else. Social media is handy for pointers but when you check them out it's far more often shite than the MSM. 

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Bellingcat could be one too but their enemies think they're spooks and somehow their Moscow based collaborating partner The Insider who revealed the identities of the Salisbury boys is alive and free. A weird one.

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On 14/05/2019 at 12:17, NotThePars said:

The SNP didn't really have any sort of message in 2017 and were wrong-footed by the snap election. I don't know how Cherry or Robertson would've inspired the numbers that turned out in 2015 but maybe I'm missing their appeal.

In general, people have underestimated the Leave vote in Scotland. Nearly as many voted Leave as voted SNP a month previously. The Tories obviously benefited from this especially in the fishing communities in the North East. The Tories and the Brexit Party will probably now pick up  a seat each next week and the media will still go on like it is unbelieveable, as they did with Coburn last time around

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6 hours ago, sparky88 said:

The Tories and the Brexit Party will probably now pick up  a seat each next week 

The most recent full Scottish EU Election poll I'm aware of (YouGov 27 April) gives the following figures:

SNP 40%
Labour 14%
Brexit Party 13%
Conservatives 10%
Greens 7%
Liberal Democrats 6%
Change UK 6%
UKIP 3%

That works out as 1) SNP 2) SNP 3) LAB 4) SNP 5) BRE 6) tie between SNP/CON 

Seats = 3 or 4 SNP, 1 LAB, 1 BRE 0 or 1 CON

The most recent Scottish EU Election subsample (YouGov 14 May) gives the following figures

SNP 38%
Brexit Party 21%
Liberal Democrats 11%
Labour 10%
Greens 9%
Conservatives 6%
Change UK 2%

That works out as 1) SNP 2) BRE 3) SNP 4) SNP 5) LD 6) LAB

Seats = 3 SNP, 1 BRE, 1 LD, 1 LAB

 

Accordingly, can you explain why you believe that CON & BRE will "probably" win 2 seats between them if these figures are anywhere near correct? It's a 50/50 shot on the full poll, and extremely unlikely on the subsample figures

EDITED TO ADD

I miscalculated above. On these figures, the Brexit Party will win the 6th seat on the Scottish subsample, not Labour.

The Tories are still f*cked though.

So, Scotland may elect 4 remain MEP's and 2 extreme right loonies.

Fantastic. Yet another UK Union dividend

 

Edited by lichtgilphead
miscalculation
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11 hours ago, MixuFixit said:

It's fraud, plain and simple.

A get rich quick scheme for the wealthy with no downside or risk to them, as the tax payer / workers / pensioners are guaranteed to pick up the tab once the asset stripping has run its course.

In this case the red flags were already there for all to see, as per this article from 2017.

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-5153241/Monarch-owner-making-millions-British-Steel.html

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1 hour ago, MixuFixit said:

Private equity is a tory wet dream. No wonder they rebranded from calling it a leveraged buyout.

 

James Meek's Private Island covers loads of the privatisation schemes from the Post Office to the railways to water and it's absolutely maddening. Pure fraud and incompetence on an industrial scale all to deliver a much shitter and unaccountable service.

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War with Iran appears to be looming large, the Germans, Spanish & Dutch have all withdrawn their troops from the Coalition forces in Iraq, however I'm sure we'll be standing shoulder to shoulder with the yanks in yet another illegal war.

Some things just never change...........

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7 minutes ago, MixuFixit said:

The Americans aren't going to go to war with Iran.

They're to busy and will just try to strong arm everyone else into sanctioning the shit out of them. Yanks have the eyes on the Venezuela prize all systems go for oil reserves and install puppets from the upper class white folks to govern.

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Looks like the Liberal/National coalition in Australia are going to pull off an upset and hold on to power.

 

However, former Liberal PM, Tony Abbott, lost his seat. Though I like to think he’s better known for once being filmed biting in to a raw onion like an apple.

 

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On 5/18/2019 at 18:37, MixuFixit said:

Am I basically right in saying that Australia is upside down land for political parties? Like the liberal party are tories etc.?

The Liberal Party means more fiscally liberal, not socially liberal, so they're the equivalent of the Conservatives.  The Australian Labor Party are basically like New Labour.  I don't think he's there anymore but there used to be the brilliant named Senator Xenophon.  He was very anti-gambling.

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