Categories
politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Local By-Election Preview: September 25th 2014
politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Local By-Election Preview: September 25th 2014
Result of last election to council (2014): Conservatives 37, Residents 12, Liberal Democrats 3, United Kingdom Independence Party 2, Independents 2, Greens 1, Labour 1 (Conservative majority of 16)
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
The father of the main prosecution witness in Britain’s biggest child sex grooming scandal has accused Nigel Farage of exploiting the issue for political gain as the UK Independence party attempts to unseat Labour in a Manchester byelection.
The man, known as Tom, whose daughter’s testimony led to the prosecution of nine Asian men and an overhaul of Crown Prosecution Service rules, said that the anti-federalist party had resorted to British National party-style tactics while campaigning to win Heywood and Middleton in Greater Manchester.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/sep/25/nigel-farage-ukip-heywood-middleton-child-sex-politics
I used to be a Mormon until mainstream people starting getting picky about me marrying my daughter. They persuaded me to leave the religion, which I eventually did becoming a Mormon fundamentalist. Now I've married both my daughters.
If he really did resign for purely personal reasons, of no public interest, then probably not. The resignation will give Republican commentators a chance to rake up all the scandals Holder was allegedly involved in - such as the fast and furious gun-walking scheme - but that's not likely to convince anyone who wasn't already going to vote Republican.
If he's really resigning because of some impending scandal in his personal life, that won't directly hurt the Democrats, but it could be a significant distraction from the campaign.
If he's resigning ahead of some major political scandal, then that will obviously have major consequences, but while that's probably what Republican activists will be hoping for, it doesn't feel too likely.
There's also the question of who Obama will pick to replace him, but I've no idea who the runners are in that race.
I don't think UKIP have to address quickly the issue of finding candidates for places like Frome North. All over the nation you will find funny little wards where LDs, or Labour or the Tories won't be standing for some reason. It would be better for them if they stand in as many areas as they can, sure, but it isn't an issue that needs resolving 'very quickly' I think.
Not a Labour set of areas today then I see. It is interesting to see how closed off to some parties certain areas of the country can be.
Oh.
There is an element of dog whistle politics from Labour as well.
Being rude to someone is impolite, to put it mildly. I don't think rudeness - even extreme rudeness (in the absence of a clear incitement to violence) should be a crime. If it were, the Koran - with its insulting references to Jews as pigs and dogs - would have been proscribed by now.
Criticising Islam is quite different. You appear to think that the limits on how we should discuss Islam should be limited by what Muslims themselves will permit. That is wrong.
That's like saying that the Pope should be able to determine what can be said (and how) about Catholicism. We didn't get rid of one Inquisition to have a Muslim one reimposed.
Life of Brian did cause a big furore at the time and as you probably know Mary Whitehouse tried to bring the blasphemy law against it. That law was successfully used against an amazing poem called 'The Love that Dares not Speak its Name.' http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2008/01/10/the-gay-poem-that-broke-blasphemy-laws/
I can remember once wanting to refer to that poem in a lecture and being unable to do so or I might have been arrested.
I actually thought LIfe of Brian was hilarious. I think it's highly significant that most Muslims in Britain decided not to support the fatwa against the Danish newspaper. Similarly they have condemned Isis. The point there is that it is reform from within. It's really not the place of non Muslims to be pointlessly insulting for no reason when they could achieve more by showing a little respect.
Another question: is it okay for a fundamentalist preacher to brand a child as a witch? Those of you defending freedom of speech for all presumably support his right?
Cyclefree: as above
Essentially, your view is that it's just bad manners to raise this topic.
Interesting. A tad hypocritical perhaps?
At least I believe it is right and proper to insult both.
In answer to your question; no it should not be illegal for a fundamentalist preacher to brand a child as a witch. It should be illegal for them to incite someone to act upon that belief or for them to act upon it themselves but certainly calling someone a witch should not be illegal. If it were then almost everyone in England would probably be guilty of the crime at some point in their lives.
"@TimMontgomerie: Interesting first evening at #ukipconf14. They all read @ConHome. @TheTimes? Not so much."
http://p.im9.eu/mapporn-if-countries-populations-matched-their-size-3375-x-1900.jpg
But I'm the guy who forgot about UKIP being anti-federalist (although in my defence it is because they keep coming across as anti-union at the moment by being a little too much of an English Indy Party, which I doubt is their intention, and that confused me), so my words may not carry much weight.
The main reasons for this are local.
We've got a brilliant, well known candidate who's been a local parish councillor for yonks and we've run an effective, organised ground operation which is superior to every other party in this election.
At the same time, the Tory run borough council are placing to build 3500 homes nearby, mainly on the greenbelt, and, while the local Tory candidate opposes this, he and the Tory council leader dissolute each other so much that the Guildford constituency Conservatives have been forbidden to campaign for him in the by election.
Is it UKIP conference or something?
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=muhammad+muslim+art&client=ms-android-hms-tef-gb&source=lnms&biw=640&bih=239&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=pXckVJHnLoOV7Ab2qYHQAw&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ
But there is also a very strong tradition of intolerance of Mohammed being mocked, such as Asma Bint Marwans murder (while nursing) for mocking Muhammed in verse and calling for rebellion against him.
Interesting. Your point of view is at variance with AFRUCA (Africans Unite Against Child Abuse) who are trying to get the law altered to make it an offence to accuse a child of being a witch because the correlation from the accusation to incitement is so direct as to be a continuum. The Government's response to date has been that it falls under the category of emotional abuse which is prosecutable (there are four categories: Physical, Emotional, Sexual and Neglect.) However, a loophole means that only those in a position of care can be prosecuted for Emotional Abuse and, as such, a Church Pastor falls outside the scope, or at least so people think but no-one really knows. It's a massive grey area.
I guess my work has led me to reflect on this for many years. I've seen children scarred for life by being accused of being witches and it led me to question everything I thought I knew about freedoms of speech.
Being a saddo is also relative - as the kind of person who posts about politics at all sorts of hours, I would get defensive about being labelled as one myself, but hardly in a position to deny the charge. Also, where would I post my uninventive tedious screeds?
If enough people think it is a problem then it will be discussed and become a political issue.
You also left out the link between Heywood and Rotherham:
"She told the detectives that the perpetrators worked in the takeaway trade or as taxi drivers. The gang offered gifts to girls, won their trust and then forced them to have sex.
Some victims were driven between Rochdale, Oldham, Bradford and elsewhere to have sex with men for money."
An identical crime with Rotherham.
There is a lot in the Guardian article that can be used by local and national politics, even if the headline suggests otherwise (but Labour is on the defence and that is the Guardian).
Furthermore, there is no official statement in guidance or elsewhere to make clear that making such accusations constitutes abuse and many devout Christians do not accept this - not only Christians from African countries, but also members of the Catholic Church and the Church of England. For example, if you look at what the CoE's child protection manual (as revised in 2010) says about 'services of delivery' i.e. exorcisms, it does not say "don't do this because telling a child that they are possessed by the devil is likely to be deeply traumatic", it talks about informing the bishop, keeping publicity to a minimum etc.
By the way, there are also horrendous examples of abuse in mosques so don't think for a moment I'm just pointing the finger at Christian fundamentalists.
It's an example of how allowing people to say whatever they like is not simply disrespectful, it's abusive (in the case of a child) and should be prosecutable.
May I ask why?
Everyone here ribs other posters.
That still applies.
England & Wales Cricket Board’s case against the Yorkshire captain has been badly undermined by Ashwell Prince saying he did not take Gale’s comments to be racist
#http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/11121967/Andrew-Gale-racism-case-on-the-verge-of-embarrassing-collapse-after-Ashwell-Prince-admission.html
We're bombing people in Syria that, only a year ago, Cameron wanted to strengthen. Afghanistan is a bloodbath. Libya is a bloodbath. Iraq is a mess. Our "friends and allies" in the region are brutal oppressive dictators.
A big well done to George W Bush, Tony Blair, David Cameron and the Tory Party, the Rightwing and Tory Press, and all the other idiots who bought into the idea of war to re-shape the Middle East in their interests.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29357934
Israel's doing well though. Strangely enough.
Also, you blame Bush, Blair, Cameron 'and the Tory party'. Why has Labour escaped specific censure, and only had its leader namedropped in this list of shame? Were Labour itself not involved, somehow?
http://news.err.ee/v/politics/19608659-4e91-4c78-8989-5684e815343c
Turns out their former KGB agents.
Salami slices.
So you can't call Israel's defence policy a success, they along with their silly goons in Washington have brought them thousands of miles from Afghanistan all the way to the mediterranean in just a dozen years.
Saying he wanted to back Syrian rebels doesn't qualify. That's not a blanket endorsement of all the Syrian rebel factions, just a statement there are some among them he wanted to back.
Infers that either the Greens or Scot Nats are up.
The brilliant, principled (and popular) Liberal Democrat Party of Charles Kennedy is long gone too.
But in recent weeks on this topic, he has made several defamatory comments, we asked him nicely, not to go down that route, but allowed him to talk about the topic in general.
He was unable to adhere to that and we have to protect Mike Smithson.
Broadly speaking, I think that people like the Shah, Saddam Hussein, Mubarrak, were less bad than their successors. I think the vile Saudi regime is better than any likely alternative. What do you propose?
What are you, always banging on about race and muslims?
And we were not proposing to support ISIS in Syria earlier in the year. The vote spearheaded by Labour, and supported by thick tory backbenchers against bombing, actually helped ISIS and hurt the rebels we wanted to support.
Far from intervening inn the middle east we saw Labour act to stand idly by and let ISIS gain strength. Non-intervention has created the problem.
Imitation(or even the pretence of imitation) is usually the sincerest form of flattery, but in your case, it is pathetic.
Just a load of inexpert obsessives wittering on endlessly.
Not my bag.
And I said proportionally more of the parliamentary party tried to stop the war than Tories (though not Lib Dems)
And thankfully most of those who were at the top of the Party at the time are long gone.
Your dream of monoculturalism has been tried, and did not end well.
Why would anyone want to vote for a party that has already resigned itself to defeat and spends all its time blaming everyone else for its failings.
If the Tories were offering a convincing enough offering they would win. Blaming others just makes them look pathetic......
Surely, the moment the housewife inserts the key, the prisoners would jump the door?
Where are all the milk floats?
Doesn't anyone at the milk depot notice employees disappearing on the same round?
Don't the customers on the round after no. 48 notice not getting delivered milk?
The Daily Record @Daily_Record 1h
Bungling MEP David Coburn accused of describing Ruth Davidson as 'fat lesbian' in train rant http://dlyr.ec/H4kfMa pic.twitter.com/kQWdwvShnO
Seriously, try talking to one of them sometime. It's not THAT scary.
Must admit I'm skipping most of the lengthy posts on religions. My general feeling is that it should be legal, but bad form, to be nasty about someone else's religion. At a glance, that doesn't seem to agree with anyone else, as the choice of views seems to be "Being nasty about other religions is fine" and "Being nasty about other religions should be illegal". I'm an atheist, but isn't it simply slightly boorish behaviour to be horrible about something that other people think precious? Legal, just as it's legal to tell someone their child is hideously ugly, but not really defensible.
It's neither good nor bad, something to like or dislike. You might as well moan about the days getting shorter because it's autumn. Though no doubt there's plenty of that going on at the UKIP conference too.
Example, what about the spanish inquisition?
50+ woman, grew up in London, moved to Kent and then to Essex.
will be voting UKIP for the bye election (for the first time)
But she says will not vote for them at the General
She had a phone survey and a doorstep visit (both) today
There is nothing wrong with cultural additions to our culture, as long as they are not backwards ones. It's just those cultures should be assimilated into the mainstream, rather than be split apart in cultural ghettoes.
I will get my coat......
Must be some incredibly well informed passengers who had the presence of mind to contract Scotland's leading tabloid.
I cant think who it is but they were a sad obsessivemuppet too.
Though I enjoyed seeing Coburn kicking the SNP in the balls.
The moment I became a fan of him:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJIjgCCcD5c