Best Of

What if we are still all stuck in a Left v Right framework and therefore missing the point of what is actiually happening.

I think it was Solzhenitsyn who said the problem wasn't so much the Communist ideology but ideology itself, the way we can become so committed to an ideal or way of thinking that we become blinkered. We start to suffer from chronic comfirmation bias, believing the things we like and dismissing those we don't.

What if what we are seeing isn't a struggle between Left and Right but rather between Rational and Emotional, between what we can prove is true and what we want to believe .

It doesn't matter if what Reform or the Greens are offering those who want change doesn't work, if people are willing to vote for it because they want to believe it will work.

One thing that draws me to this is the fact that for all the attempts that Harris and the Democrats made to successfully show that much of what Trump proposed from Trade to Investment and Tax cuts was close to Bonkers, people still were willing to vote for it it the hope it wasn't.

If systematically demolishing the other sides economic policies can be overcome by them calling you Radical Marxist Haters and voters believe them how do you fight that?

I watched reform at Holyrood claim they could save £2bn from a £6.5bn budget by cutting many of Scotlands 130+ Qango's and giving power to MSP's and a slimmed down Civil Service. Problem is of the total administrative cost of all of them is estimated at under £700m. Benefits Scotland administers £6.3bn but it's admin cost is only £320m. You can't save three times the admin budget by cutting the admin budget.

It doesn't take much to dismantle this kind of thing and it applies to all parties including the SNP, but the challenges seem to be ineffectual. We seem to be in a kind of doom loop that the bigger the lie ,the more popular it is and the more votes you get, from an electorate that says they don't trust politicians because they all lie.

Peter.

Why is the Duchy exempt from cleaning it up?

Is there an exception in EPA 1990 or something?

This must be seriously obscure.

In general, the monarch isn't subject to the courts. It's where the concept of Crown immunity comes from, and why Civil Servants technically don't have employment rights.

So it's not so much that there is no duty to clean it up, more that the Duchy can't be made to do so.

Despite generally lefty views I'm pretty neutral on the monarchy (they behave much as an elected non-party president would). But the Royal exemption from the law is indefensible and makes republicanism much more desirable.

Only the reigning monarch is immune from prosecution not the other royals but then again so are the Presidents of the US and France immune from prosecution when in office. It is more something given to heads of state than a monarchy v republic issue

Yes, silly argument.

Still, Prince Andrew going to prison (if not for the reasons he probably should) would go some way towards showing some accountability.

Couldn't we compromise by reviving the American monarchy and offering them Andy as King?

He's got to win Makerfield first.

Why is the Duchy exempt from cleaning it up?

Is there an exception in EPA 1990 or something?

This must be seriously obscure.

In general, the monarch isn't subject to the courts. It's where the concept of Crown immunity comes from, and why Civil Servants technically don't have employment rights.

So it's not so much that there is no duty to clean it up, more that the Duchy can't be made to do so.

Despite generally lefty views I'm pretty neutral on the monarchy (they behave much as an elected non-party president would). But the Royal exemption from the law is indefensible and makes republicanism much more desirable.

Only the reigning monarch is immune from prosecution not the other royals but then again so are the Presidents of the US and France immune from prosecution when in office. It is more something given to heads of state than a monarchy v republic issue

Yes, silly argument.

Still, Prince Andrew going to prison (if not for the reasons he probably should) would go some way towards showing some accountability.

Couldn't we compromise by reviving the American monarchy and offering them Andy as King?

Why is the Duchy exempt from cleaning it up?

Is there an exception in EPA 1990 or something?

This must be seriously obscure.

In general, the monarch isn't subject to the courts. It's where the concept of Crown immunity comes from, and why Civil Servants technically don't have employment rights.

So it's not so much that there is no duty to clean it up, more that the Duchy can't be made to do so.

Despite generally lefty views I'm pretty neutral on the monarchy (they behave much as an elected non-party president would). But the Royal exemption from the law is indefensible and makes republicanism much more desirable.

Only the reigning monarch is immune from prosecution not the other royals but then again so are the Presidents of the US and France immune from prosecution when in office. It is more something given to heads of state than a monarchy v republic issue

Yes, silly argument.

Still, Prince Andrew going to prison (if not for the reasons he probably should) would go some way towards showing some accountability.