"Lords from all main political parties will unite next week in a last-ditch attempt to block the Government’s introduction of gay marriage."
What does everyone think will happen? Surely there is no way the Lords are going to defeat this?
Even if main parties break approx. Lab 75/25, LD 80/20, Con 30/70 (which would surely be the absolute worst possible position for "Yes") then it would still easily pass (even allowing for Bishops).
TSE, superb as his performance is, Tyrion's darker side does get underplayed.
That's true, although I tend to think people forget how much worse, and thus unsympathetic, some things would seem onscreen, just as the more villainous become more symapthetic in the books only once we see their POVs, but since we see them out of others' povs in the show, they are often more sympathetic already. Imagine Tyrion as played by Peter Dinklage being more like the book version in the recent wedding scenario than it was done in the show! Truer to his bookcharacter, but would lost him too much sympathy than
Particularly as so many people complained that Tyrion was later too dark. Can't please some people.
I'm off for the night, but I must say one thing I am deeply looking forward to in Game of Thrones, is the bookpurists (for there are still plenty) who decry every little change as terrible - for the most part there are solid reasons why, though not always - hoping that the show does differ from the books in areas which are not as beloved as things like Tyrion's character or whatever. Things like the Ironborn and Dorne stuff.
That stuff is bound to be beloved by some fans, who will hate any changes, but I'd bet large sums most of the current bookpurist complainers would not mind in the slightest.
With the Conservatives ensnarled in the biggest political scandal in their seven years in government, a new poll suggests Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are en route to winning a massive majority in the next election.
More than four in 10 Canadians, 44%, said they would vote Liberal in the next federal election, according to latest Forum Poll for the National Post, compared to 27% support for the ruling Conservatives and 20% for the opposition NDP.
The Liberals would claim 192 seats in the 308-seat House of Commons with that support, leaving the Tories with 77 and dropping the NDP all the way back to 37.
The poll comes after Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s chief of staff, Nigel Wright, resigned when it was revealed he gave Senator Mike Duffy a $90,000 personal cheque to cover the senator’s housing expenses. The terms of the deal remain unknown, although the controversy does not appear to be dying as new documents show a Tory-dominated Senate committee whitewashed a report into Duffy’s expenses.
Harper has denied any knowledge of the deal and said he was “frustrated and sorry and angry” over what occurred.
But the repeated controversies within the senate — two Conservative senators, Duffy and Pamela Wallin, quit the caucus amid expense audits and a third, Sen. Patrick Brazeau, was booted out from caucus amid criminal charges — have hurt the prime minister, pollsters say.
“Mr. Harper’s very bad week has had a drastic effect on his approval and his party’s. It doesn’t help, when the Liberals are surging as they have been, to be stonewalling a controversy. Justin Trudeau needs only to listen to ['Art of war' author] Sun Tzu, and stay out of the way. Meanwhile, the NDP appear to have functionally ceded the role of the opposition to the Liberals in the public’s mind,” Forum Research President Lorne Bozinoff said in a statement.
The poll comes not long after the Liberals easily bested a former Conservative cabinet minister in a byelection. Yvonne Jones defeated incumbent Peter Penashue by 16 percentage points in the Labrador byelection, earlier this May.
Trudeau, the son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, is proving to be massively popular on a personal level, with his approval rating as high as Harper’s is low.
Trudeau’s net favourable rating [approval minus disapproval] is an impressive +23, with his 49% approval the highest ever registered for a party leader in a Forum poll.
Meanwhile, Harper’s net favourable rating is a dismal -35 and NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair is a mediocre +3.
Trudeau’s Liberals are drawing their support from women (48%), the least-wealthy Canadians (56%), Atlantic Canadians (57%) and both those who have seen the Conservative attack ads on Trudeau (48%) and the Liberals’ response ads (50%).
The public’s response to the Conservative attack ads — which show Trudeau performing a mock strip tease at a charity event and declare the new leader “in over his head” — suggest that the Tories have not been able to define their Liberal opponent the way they did with former leaders Michael Ignatieff and Stephane Dion.
WRT Game of Thrones, what made it stand out ... was the blunt depiction of sympathetic characters conducting mass executions, live burning, torture, murder etc. Yet somehow remaining sympathetic.
Conn Iggulden's historical fiction Emperor/Conqueror also succeeds at that.
21"18 If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them, 19 then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gateway of his home town. 20 "And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey us, he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ 21 "Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so you shall remove the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear of it and fear,"
22 "20 But if this charge is true, that the girl was not found a virgin, 21 then they shall bring out the girl to the doorway of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death because she has committed an act of folly in Israel, by playing the harlot in her father’s house; thus you shall purge the evil from among you,"
This is from the holiest book in the Christian faith. Our children are encouraged to read this book to this very day.
Richard, if you had studied Christianity a little more rather than just dismissing all religions you'd understand that the New Covenant had entirely replaced the Old Covenant. Deuteronomy is only interesting as a historical record of the Jewish law at a point in time 2000 years ago
And yet 2000 years later our children are still taught old testament stories, large swathes of the Christian world still cite old testament arguments to support their position on social issues and right now both the mainstream Anglican and Catholic hierarchies are using making arguments based on old testament beliefs to oppose extending equal rights to gays.
Another less contentious example is that the the Catholic code of Canon law still proscribes the eating of meat on Fridays.
I was bought up a Catholic and taught by nuns so I have a pretty damn good idea about Christian teachings.
By the way, one of the main reasons for the split between the early Christians and the Gnostics was that the Gnostics wanted to exclude the Old Testament from the Bible whereas the Christians successfully fought to have it kept in. You are also being rather parochial since I suspect you are looking at this from a purely western Christian position. The Orthodox Church sees the Old testament in a very different light and it is far more central to their beliefs.
Fair point on the Orthodox - I spend enough time with the ROC that I should know better!
There is a difference between teaching stories and citing arguments and the fundamentalist position. The Old Testament is still an important part of the Christian Tradition, but it is no longer the Law.
I need to be careful and measured here because my aim was not to end up doing to Christians what Socrates has been doing to muslims. My point was that both the fundamental texts of the two religions contain material which we would consider extreme and unfortunately in both cases there are sections of the following who adhere to those extreme beliefs.
What I find very disturbing is his wild accusation that the extremes in Islam represent the views of the majority of that faith. If that is his belief then there are groups such as the EDL who will welcome him with open arms.
It is surprising how recently in some states the law making oral sex illegal was repealed. In some cases it wasn't until a supreme court ruling in 2003
It is surprising how recently in some states the law making oral sex illegal was repealed. In some cases it wasn't until a supreme court ruling in 2003
Indeed.
Mind you, I was shocked recently when I found out that it wasn't until the 1980s that homosexuality was decriminalised in some parts of the UK.
WRT Game of Thrones, what made it stand out ... was the blunt depiction of sympathetic characters conducting mass executions, live burning, torture, murder etc. Yet somehow remaining sympathetic.
Conn Iggulden's historical fiction Emperor/Conqueror also succeeds at that.
Possibly the Feist/Wurts empire trilogy too.
Yes, very good that. So many authors try to match the grittiness and brutality of something like ASOIAF and forget that somebody at least still needs to be sympathetic, if not actually admirable. I myself may have been a bit too blunt in my own attempts of a novel once with the main character ordering someone be tortured (offscreen) in the very first chapter. The well written stuff generally waits a little while longer and be a bit more subtle in saying 'these characters are complex, man, see!', and you can take time to step in and make them seem sympathetic still. Oh well, we live and learn (400,000 words later)
The Mongol series of Iggulden's was generally a bit less symapthetic, but that might just be because they were so much harsher on the steppes in that series.
Rod - Isn't Dan Snow a descendant of Lloyd-George, the UK Trudeau? On FPTP you are spot on, shows if the circumstances and leader are right any party can come back from the political dead, as indeed both Labour did after 1983 and the Tories after 1997, despite present problems
BlackAdder @LibertAdder Paris attacker still at large. If you know where, please contact the bbc-they'd like to send him a bunch of flowers & have him on #newsnight
WRT Game of Thrones, what made it stand out ... was the blunt depiction of sympathetic characters conducting mass executions, live burning, torture, murder etc. Yet somehow remaining sympathetic.
Conn Iggulden's historical fiction Emperor/Conqueror also succeeds at that.
Possibly the Feist/Wurts empire trilogy too.
Mistress of the Empire and the other two in the trilogy is a very fine work by Feist/Wurts. I wonder who wrote the most Janny or Raymond?
WRT Game of Thrones, what made it stand out ... was the blunt depiction of sympathetic characters conducting mass executions, live burning, torture, murder etc. Yet somehow remaining sympathetic.
Conn Iggulden's historical fiction Emperor/Conqueror also succeeds at that.
Possibly the Feist/Wurts empire trilogy too.
Mistress of the Empire and the other two in the trilogy is a very fine work by Feist/Wurts. I wonder who wrote the most Janny or Raymond?
It always surprises me how much writing is done by teams. You picture the starving artist in the attic, but that's only a fraction of it.
I thought the Canadian Liberals were on the road to oblivion, with the two main parties being the Conservatives and the New Democratic Party from now on...
8th June: Bermondsey & Old Southwark 23rd June: Enfield North 23rd June: Hornsey & Wood Green ??? June: Manchester Withington 6th July: Stourbridge 7th July: Brighton Pavilion 7th July: Hendon 13th July: Cardiff Central 13th July: Kingswood 14th July: Crawley 14th July: Hampstead & Kilburn
Sherwood is in progress too - started last week, should end around mid-July, I think. Broxtowe and Amber Valley won't be far behind. For some reason, Amber Valley has attracted a particularly large number of strong candidates.
Comments
Oh never mind!
"Lords from all main political parties will unite next week in a last-ditch attempt to block the Government’s introduction of gay marriage."
What does everyone think will happen? Surely there is no way the Lords are going to defeat this?
Even if main parties break approx. Lab 75/25, LD 80/20, Con 30/70 (which would surely be the absolute worst possible position for "Yes") then it would still easily pass (even allowing for Bishops).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/10080814/Peers-plot-gay-marriage-revolt.html
Particularly as so many people complained that Tyrion was later too dark. Can't please some people.
I'm off for the night, but I must say one thing I am deeply looking forward to in Game of Thrones, is the bookpurists (for there are still plenty) who decry every little change as terrible - for the most part there are solid reasons why, though not always - hoping that the show does differ from the books in areas which are not as beloved as things like Tyrion's character or whatever. Things like the Ironborn and Dorne stuff.
That stuff is bound to be beloved by some fans, who will hate any changes, but I'd bet large sums most of the current bookpurist complainers would not mind in the slightest.
Which means it's illegal to use something other than your hand.
With the Conservatives ensnarled in the biggest political scandal in their seven years in government, a new poll suggests Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are en route to winning a massive majority in the next election.
More than four in 10 Canadians, 44%, said they would vote Liberal in the next federal election, according to latest Forum Poll for the National Post, compared to 27% support for the ruling Conservatives and 20% for the opposition NDP.
The Liberals would claim 192 seats in the 308-seat House of Commons with that support, leaving the Tories with 77 and dropping the NDP all the way back to 37.
The poll comes after Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s chief of staff, Nigel Wright, resigned when it was revealed he gave Senator Mike Duffy a $90,000 personal cheque to cover the senator’s housing expenses. The terms of the deal remain unknown, although the controversy does not appear to be dying as new documents show a Tory-dominated Senate committee whitewashed a report into Duffy’s expenses.
Harper has denied any knowledge of the deal and said he was “frustrated and sorry and angry” over what occurred.
But the repeated controversies within the senate — two Conservative senators, Duffy and Pamela Wallin, quit the caucus amid expense audits and a third, Sen. Patrick Brazeau, was booted out from caucus amid criminal charges — have hurt the prime minister, pollsters say.
“Mr. Harper’s very bad week has had a drastic effect on his approval and his party’s. It doesn’t help, when the Liberals are surging as they have been, to be stonewalling a controversy. Justin Trudeau needs only to listen to ['Art of war' author] Sun Tzu, and stay out of the way. Meanwhile, the NDP appear to have functionally ceded the role of the opposition to the Liberals in the public’s mind,” Forum Research President Lorne Bozinoff said in a statement.
The poll comes not long after the Liberals easily bested a former Conservative cabinet minister in a byelection. Yvonne Jones defeated incumbent Peter Penashue by 16 percentage points in the Labrador byelection, earlier this May.
Trudeau, the son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, is proving to be massively popular on a personal level, with his approval rating as high as Harper’s is low.
Trudeau’s net favourable rating [approval minus disapproval] is an impressive +23, with his 49% approval the highest ever registered for a party leader in a Forum poll.
Meanwhile, Harper’s net favourable rating is a dismal -35 and NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair is a mediocre +3.
Trudeau’s Liberals are drawing their support from women (48%), the least-wealthy Canadians (56%), Atlantic Canadians (57%) and both those who have seen the Conservative attack ads on Trudeau (48%) and the Liberals’ response ads (50%).
The public’s response to the Conservative attack ads — which show Trudeau performing a mock strip tease at a charity event and declare the new leader “in over his head” — suggest that the Tories have not been able to define their Liberal opponent the way they did with former leaders Michael Ignatieff and Stephane Dion.
This link is not for the easily shocked
http://digitaljournal.com/article/280303
I predict the next leader of the LibDems will be named Gladstone...
Possibly the Feist/Wurts empire trilogy too.
What I find very disturbing is his wild accusation that the extremes in Islam represent the views of the majority of that faith. If that is his belief then there are groups such as the EDL who will welcome him with open arms.
Mind you, I was shocked recently when I found out that it wasn't until the 1980s that homosexuality was decriminalised in some parts of the UK.
Looks like the Conservatives and Liberals will have both succeeded in coming back from the dead under FPTP.
Ain't supposed to happen!
The Mongol series of Iggulden's was generally a bit less symapthetic, but that might just be because they were so much harsher on the steppes in that series.
Night all.
BlackAdder @LibertAdder
Paris attacker still at large. If you know where, please contact the bbc-they'd like to send him a bunch of flowers & have him on #newsnight
If that were true politicians would soon be an extinct species...
"When we get in we're going to do A,B,C...X,Y,Z.
ONLY KIDDING!!!!!"
8th June: Bermondsey & Old Southwark
23rd June: Enfield North
23rd June: Hornsey & Wood Green
??? June: Manchester Withington
6th July: Stourbridge
7th July: Brighton Pavilion
7th July: Hendon
13th July: Cardiff Central
13th July: Kingswood
14th July: Crawley
14th July: Hampstead & Kilburn
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0At91c3wX1Wu5dDg0aFJBdFJ2OVdBTS1OUVZXaU4xMVE#gid=0
What price "Keep Calm and Carry on"?
https://mobile.twitter.com/hendopolis/status/338416375473242113/photos