EU faces migrant crisis of 'biblical proportions' as Germany registers 3,500 new refugees in just one day
I can see this hitting Merkel's party in the polls,she's mad.
Not so far. The polls show virtually no change whatever since the last election, except for the usual pattern that the junior governing party (the social democrats) is losing a bit of ground. The anti-immigrant AfD are drifting down too, Greens and far left slightly up.
Pretty much spot on. And as I pointed out earlier a leading member of Corbyn's campaign team - a close associate - is Cat Fletcher ''now Deputy Mayor on Islington council ''
It all goes back to 1992
...at which time Kat Fletcher was 12 years old. Your point about her is?
We will see in the months ahead.
Did you see the German football fans this weekend? I think you're underestimating the Germans
As this shows
@iankatz1000: Stirring detail frm refugee drama in Europe: Munich police urge people to stop bringing food + gifts for refugees bcause they are overwhelmd
UK gives 0.72% of GDP as foreign aid, while Germany only gives 0.38% of GDP so it probably all balances out in the end.
I've got to say.. and this sounds very sexist, but German women aren't that sexy, even the gorgeous ones. They just all look a bit too demanding.
If we had given the Germans a better settlement at Versailles, the world would be a different place. The Germans are superior- I don't know why that is, but they just are.
What? Like wearing a dress & stuff? (And maybe red shoes)
I have a weakness for the Germans. If I wasn't an Englishman, I'd wish I was a German.
I quite like the Germans. I love their cars. However, If I were not an Englishman then I would wan't to be Irish, Welsh or Scottish. That way, I could still be British.
I love their cars too.
I love the fact every German I have spoken to, have spoken better English than most Brits.
And the establishment has been protecting the guilty for a couple of decades.
If McAlpine had died that would have been the icing on the cake if my little theory is correct:
'Innocent man hounded to an early grave by fantasists and rumourmongers' stories would make it harder to pursue other investigations.
.
That ship sailed long ago
Or we could believe everything the establishment tells us.
Like you did when it said that there was nothing happening in Rotherham.
I was specifically referring to some of the stuff you had said, and had to retract.
As an aside, I was going through the PB archives the other day, there are some corkers when Louise Casey asked for an extension into her report.
Stuff along the lines, it'll be a whitewash, establishment cover up, it's being kicked into the long grass etc.
I remember you saying some stuff as well, but all water under an endless series of bridges.
I am impressed you have time to go through old PB archives - that's real commitment to the job.
BTW have I missed anything of interest during the last three months - interesting PBers either new or returnees, new acroynms, SeanT flounces etc ?
As to Casey its hardly surprising that people (was I one of the sceptics or were you referring generally ?) suspected a whitewash etc, that tends to be the standard with government enquiries. Chilcot for instance. Fortunately Pickles chose someone both honest and purposeful - its a pity we haven't had a similar enquiry into the SYP.
And I wonder if you'd like to post a thread based on that old Sion Simon article - remember the 'Pushkin Princes' - given the dismal efforts of Cooper and Burnham over the summer it should be worth a talking point.
I have a long stint as guest editor starting this week, and went through the archives looking for some references for data points. Of course nothing will ever top IOS' comments in the days leading up May 7th.
One of the threads I've written references Sion Simon's piece.
I think it is an interesting piece, that'll you enjoy.
As for South Yorkshire Police, all I will say is that, I'm hard pressed to think of another public service organisation that has failed so spectacularly, so many times in the last 30 years.
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
Merkel is certainly by far the brightest world leader around today
Merkel has a doctorate in Physical chemistry - which is the study of macroscopic, atomic, subatomic, and particulate phenomena in chemical systems in terms of laws and concepts of physics.
And the establishment has been protecting the guilty for a couple of decades.
If McAlpine had died that would have been the icing on the cake if my little theory is correct:
'Innocent man hounded to an early grave by fantasists and rumourmongers' stories would make it harder to pursue other investigations.
He would never have been proved innocent, and certainly not in the way he did: in court.
I fear that's one conspiracy theory too far.
I'm not denying there are paedophiles in politics: there are bound to be. Firstly because there are paedophiles in the general population, and secondly because politics attracts people who like power, and many sexual abusers also like power.
But I think you're stretching things a little too far.
That ship sailed long ago
Or we could believe everything the establishment tells us.
Like you did when it said that there was nothing happening in Rotherham.
I was specifically referring to some of the stuff you had said, and had to retract.
As an aside, I was going through the PB archives the other day, there are some corkers when Louise Casey asked for an extension into her report.
Stuff along the lines, it'll be a whitewash, establishment cover up, it's being kicked into the long grass etc.
I remember you saying some stuff as well, but all water under an endless series of bridges.
I am impressed you have time to go through old PB archives - that's real commitment to the job.
BTW have I missed anything of interest during the last three months - interesting PBers either new or returnees, new acroynms, SeanT flounces etc ?
As to Casey its hardly surprising that people (was I one of the sceptics or were you referring generally ?) suspected a whitewash etc, that tends to be the standard with government enquiries. Chilcot for instance. Fortunately Pickles chose someone both honest and purposeful - its a pity we haven't had a similar enquiry into the SYP.
And I wonder if you'd like to post a thread based on that old Sion Simon article - remember the 'Pushkin Princes' - given the dismal efforts of Cooper and Burnham over the summer it should be worth a talking point.
The Pushkin Princes ? Something about a mazurka, was it not? Yet the detail eludes me.
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
Merkel is certainly by far the brightest world leader around today
Merkel has a doctorate in Physical chemistry - which is the study of macroscopic, atomic, subatomic, and particulate phenomena in chemical systems in terms of laws and concepts of physics.
I gather it’s a bit more demanding than a PPE.
Indeed, she could still be a serious research scientist if she had wanted to stay in that area and is married to an academic, I don't think you could say that about Dave or indeed most of the G20 leaders
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
You should love Thatcher too. She signed the Single European Act.
You talk up Thatcher alot,what was immigration like under her,let's put it one way,she's no merkel,infact she would have the same feeling has me,she's mad.
She did say she dreamt of a day when she could get on a train to Paris and not bring her passport.
Of course, as prime minister, she was probably one of about five people who could get away with not bringing her passport.
Mrs. Free, I am not sure that the experts in the FCO would have thought that. If indeed there are any experts left after that fine old institution was hollowed out under Blair (like much of the UK he couldn't understand the FCO so he buggered it up). However, the FCO can only advise. One can have a the best briefing document possible but if the minister is focused elsewhere, or is as thick as two short planks (we have had both types of Foreign Secretary in recent years) one might just as well write the damn thing in swahili.
That said not every ruler in the Middle East is either a bastard or unpopular with his own people. HM Sultan Qaboos of Oman being the obvious example of a popular monarch who has moved his people and country a very long way forward without compromising those matters that are important to them or falling into the Islamist medieval mindset. Mind you what happens after he snuffs it is anyones guess (HM being one of nature's bachelors).
It's an irony that monarchies or empires may be better for the people living under them than their replacements. It took a long time before the peoples of the Austro-Hungarian Empire ended up in a better position than they were in in 1913.
Not so sure about the latter stages of the Austro-Hungarian empire. However any people will be better off for being governed by good people who are motivated and seek to govern for the good of those for whom they are responsible. The problem with much of the discussion about the promotion of democracy is that it often holds up democracy as an end in itself, when really it should be seen as the best (least imperfect) means of ensuring the basic aim of having a Govt pursuing the interests of its people. But democratic systems can easily be designed that don't do this effectively. And non-democracies sometimes can. Enlightened despotism is not a theoretically bad model. Just has the flaw of how you get the right person in the post!
There are two flaws in the notion of "enlightened depotism".
1: "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" 2: Even the most enlightened despot will run out of good ideas eventually and be less open to newer ideas.
Democracy works because our rulers end up with an expiration date. Good rulers can be renewed but get removed before/not that long after they become bad rulers. Bad rulers can be removed relatively swiftly.
The British FPTP system is probably the closest you can get to "enlightened despotism". A PM with a landslide majority is effectively a temporary despot.
All gets a bit tedious in the end. He really does hate this county. What I find most disturbing is his inability to place any blame on the perpetrators, blaming us first and them second. Ugh.
Yes - the refusal to blame unequivocally the perpetrators of crimes for the crimes they commit is deeply disturbing. Not least because he's quite prepared to do so when it comes to others eg Blair.
It may be tedious but this person could end up being in charge of our security. So, tedious or not, I think his statements need to have a bright light shone on them.
Still he says these things "straight" and "politely". So according to NickPalmer it's all good, even if you don't agree with the sentiment!
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
Merkel is certainly by far the brightest world leader around today
She's that bright,she's part of the cause of a immigration crisis in Germany/Europe.
Come and all,then she has the cheek to tell Britain to take it's share,she's mad.
I just cannot believe what a fucking joke Corbyn is.. a caricature of a caricature. What can you say- apart from the fact that I don't think I've ever spelt out the f word on this site before.
Even if Corbyn repudiated all his comments, you know what still lies in his head.
With Osborne, and his Bullingdon Club and Young Tories and Hang Mandela- when he talks about compassion today he is sort of (very sort of ish...) believable. You kind of give him the benefit of the doubt, even though you probably still think that he is pretty evil inside still.
Corbyn you know is, always was, and always will be an unreconstructed throwback to a Trotskyite 70's lefty. ffs he's 66- he's someone whose never grown up. That is why all the youngies love him.
There have been some tweets tonight about former Corbyn supporters who have switched to Burnham at the last minute, Corbyn must still be strong favourite but Burnham may be worth a punt to scrape home on preferences
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
Merkel is certainly by far the brightest world leader around today
The levels of immigration she has endorsed are unsustainable.
Mrs. Free, I am not sure that the experts in the FCO would have thought that. If indeed there are any experts left after that fine old institution was hollowed out under Blair (like much of the UK he couldn't understand the FCO so he buggered it up). However, the FCO can only advise. One can have a the best briefing document possible but if the minister is focused elsewhere, or is as thick as two short planks (we have had both types of Foreign Secretary in recent years) one might just as well write the damn thing in swahili.
That said not every ruler in the Middle East is either a bastard or unpopular with his own people. HM Sultan Qaboos of Oman being the obvious example of a popular monarch who has moved his people and country a very long way forward without compromising those matters that are important to them or falling into the Islamist medieval mindset. Mind you what happens after he snuffs it is anyones guess (HM being one of nature's bachelors).
It's an irony that monarchies or empires may be better for the people living under them than their replacements. It took a long time before the peoples of the Austro-Hungarian Empire ended up in a better position than they were in in 1913.
Not so sure about the latter stages of the Austro-Hungarian empire. However any people will be better off for being governed by good people who are motivated and seek to govern for the good of those for whom they are responsible. The problem with much of the discussion about the promotion of democracy is that it often holds up democracy as an end in itself, when really it should be seen as the best (least imperfect) means of ensuring the basic aim of having a Govt pursuing the interests of its people. But democratic systems can easily be designed that don't do this effectively. And non-democracies sometimes can. Enlightened despotism is not a theoretically bad model. Just has the flaw of how you get the right person in the post!
There are two flaws in the notion of "enlightened depotism".
1: "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" 2: Even the most enlightened despot will run out of good ideas eventually and be less open to newer ideas.
Democracy works because our rulers end up with an expiration date. Good rulers can be renewed but get removed before/not that long after they become bad rulers. Bad rulers can be removed relatively swiftly.
The British FPTP system is probably the closest you can get to "enlightened despotism". A PM with a landslide majority is effectively a temporary despot.
Even the most radical thinker quickly becomes the establishment; more content to defend their record than improve things. True in sciences, arts, and government.
EU faces migrant crisis of 'biblical proportions' as Germany registers 3,500 new refugees in just one day
I can see this hitting Merkel's party in the polls,she's mad.
Not so far. The polls show virtually no change whatever since the last election, except for the usual pattern that the junior governing party (the social democrats) is losing a bit of ground. The anti-immigrant AfD are drifting down too, Greens and far left slightly up.
Pretty much spot on. And as I pointed out earlier a leading member of Corbyn's campaign team - a close associate - is Cat Fletcher ''now Deputy Mayor on Islington council ''
It all goes back to 1992
...at which time Kat Fletcher was 12 years old. Your point about her is?
We will see in the months ahead.
Did you see the German football fans this weekend? I think you're underestimating the Germans
As this shows
@iankatz1000: Stirring detail frm refugee drama in Europe: Munich police urge people to stop bringing food + gifts for refugees bcause they are overwhelmd
Yes I did and we had a conversation on one of the threads here,we will see how long the patience of the German people last with record numbers of migrants coming.
Did you see this on the news or saw it in the newspapers.
There is a reason why politicians obfuscate. It is basically a necessary part of the job. Even more so for those in Government who will often have to keep secret about things which they would much rather reveal to avert political flak.
It is very easy being a "straight talker" when you only need to appeal to a narrow constituency and aren't in a position to wield power. Being attracted towards someone for these purposes is just an indulgence, and they will soon be forced to disappoint once the reality of their position intrudes.
I have a long stint as guest editor starting this week, and went through the archives looking for some references for data points. Of course nothing will ever top IOS' comments in the days leading up May 7th.
One of the threads I've written references Sion Simon's piece.
I think it is an interesting piece, that'll you enjoy.
As for South Yorkshire Police, all I will say is that, I'm hard pressed to think of another public service organisation that has failed so spectacularly, so many times in the last 30 years.
At a certain level IOS was right about Labour's 'groundgame' as I suspect much of Corbynmania is being driven by it.
Likewise Labour's strong urban performance was associated with it and that I suspect is where Corbynmania is also strongest.
There's clearly some feedback loop operating there but while its positive feedback for Labour lefties and Labour urbanites its a negative feedback for Labour everywhere else.
And its everywhere else where Labour needs to make gains.
I just cannot believe what a fucking joke Corbyn is.. a caricature of a caricature. What can you say- apart from the fact that I don't think I've ever spelt out the f word on this site before.
Even if Corbyn repudiated all his comments, you know what still lies in his head.
With Osborne, and his Bullingdon Club and Young Tories and Hang Mandela- when he talks about compassion today he is sort of (very sort of ish...) believable. You kind of give him the benefit of the doubt, even though you probably still think that he is pretty evil inside still.
Corbyn you know is, always was, and always will be an unreconstructed throwback to a Trotskyite 70's lefty. ffs he's 66- he's someone whose never grown up. That is why all the youngies love him.
There have been some tweets tonight about former Corbyn supporters who have switched to Burnham at the last minute, Corbyn must still be strong favourite but Burnham may be worth a punt to scrape home on preferences
It's funny, I've spent part of this evening, genuinely defending Corbyn.
EU faces migrant crisis of 'biblical proportions' as Germany registers 3,500 new refugees in just one day
I can see this hitting Merkel's party in the polls,she's mad.
Not so far. The polls show virtually no change whatever since the last election, except for the usual pattern that the junior governing party (the social democrats) is losing a bit of ground. The anti-immigrant AfD are drifting down too, Greens and far left slightly up.
Pretty much spot on. And as I pointed out earlier a leading member of Corbyn's campaign team - a close associate - is Cat Fletcher ''now Deputy Mayor on Islington council ''
It all goes back to 1992
...at which time Kat Fletcher was 12 years old. Your point about her is?
We will see in the months ahead.
Did you see the German football fans this weekend? I think you're underestimating the Germans
As this shows
@iankatz1000: Stirring detail frm refugee drama in Europe: Munich police urge people to stop bringing food + gifts for refugees bcause they are overwhelmd
Yes I did and we had a conversation on one of the threads here,we will see how long the patience of the German people last with record numbers of migrants coming.
Did you see this on the news or saw it in the newspapers.
I have a long stint as guest editor starting this week, and went through the archives looking for some references for data points. Of course nothing will ever top IOS' comments in the days leading up May 7th.
One of the threads I've written references Sion Simon's piece.
I think it is an interesting piece, that'll you enjoy.
As for South Yorkshire Police, all I will say is that, I'm hard pressed to think of another public service organisation that has failed so spectacularly, so many times in the last 30 years.
At a certain level IOS was right about Labour's 'groundgame' as I suspect much of Corbynmania is being driven by it.
Likewise Labour's strong urban performance was associated with it and that I suspect is where Corbynmania is also strongest.
There's clearly some feedback loop operating there but while its positive feedback for Labour lefties and Labour urbanites its a negative feedback for Labour everywhere else.
And its everywhere else where Labour needs to make gains.
It was weird, Marquee Mark, Notme and I were all out canvassing for the Tories in different parts of the country, and our reports were so much different to what IOS was saying.
I cannot remember the Germans destabilising Iraq and then Syria and Libya by destroying the regimes in these countries.
The British Numero Uno are the main European culprits for the migrant crisis, followed by France.
If Britain was prepared to actively help to destroy the governance in Iraq, Syria and Libya then it should be prepared to take the consequences. Why should the Germans?
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
Merkel is certainly by far the brightest world leader around today
She's that bright,she's part of the cause of a immigration crisis in Germany/Europe.
Come and all,then she has the cheek to tell Britain to take it's share,she's mad.
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
Merkel is certainly by far the brightest world leader around today
She's that bright,she's part of the cause of a immigration crisis in Germany/Europe.
Come and all,then she has the cheek to tell Britain to take it's share,she's mad.
Are there any people on here who would qualify to play for a national team other than England if they were good enough?
Interesting question. Do you have to have foreign-born grandparents or great grandparents?
Seems so.
"Any Player who ... [assumes] a new nationality and who has not played international football [in a match ... in an official competition of any category or any type of football for one Association] shall be eligible to play for the new representative team only if he fulfills one of the following conditions: (a) He was born on the territory of the relevant Association; (b) His biological mother or biological father was born on the territory of the relevant Association; (c) His grandmother or grandfather was born on the territory of the relevant Association; (d) He has lived continuously for at least five years after reaching the age of 18 on the territory of the relevant Association."
It's an irony that monarchies or empires may be better for the people living under them than their replacements. It took a long time before the peoples of the Austro-Hungarian Empire ended up in a better position than they were in in 1913.
There is no irony involved, Mr. Free. The idea that universal franchise democracy is somehow of itself good is a very new concept and one which maybe turning out to be less than optimal for the people living under it. I certainly expect it to disappear if not in my son's lifetime then in his children's. Dante wrote a very good piece in which he argued that the population can only be truly free under a monarchy.
I think we'll all pretty much agree on what a monarchy or a dictatorship or any other kind of government is but democracy can mean different things to different people. "Will of the people" perhaps covers it generally but who qualifies as a participating person and how do we count their votes? I think the major virtue of democracy is its ability to evolve, survive and recover. Dictators and monarchs once kicked out mostly tend to stay kicked out. I expect it to outlast me.
Yes - the refusal to blame unequivocally the perpetrators of crimes for the crimes they commit is deeply disturbing. Not least because he's quite prepared to do so when it comes to others eg Blair.
Next time a whole load of Brits are killed by terrorists, an inevitability, he may be the Labour leader. Every stupid, prejudiced, ignorant, treacherous word he has ever said on such subjects will be dug up and repeated until the Labour Party's name is mud. I can not fathom how anybody thinks Corbyn will do the Labour Party good.
I just cannot believe what a fucking joke Corbyn is.. a caricature of a caricature. What can you say- apart from the fact that I don't think I've ever spelt out the f word on this site before.
Even if Corbyn repudiated all his comments, you know what still lies in his head.
With Osborne, and his Bullingdon Club and Young Tories and Hang Mandela- when he talks about compassion today he is sort of (very sort of ish...) believable. You kind of give him the benefit of the doubt, even though you probably still think that he is pretty evil inside still.
Corbyn you know is, always was, and always will be an unreconstructed throwback to a Trotskyite 70's lefty. ffs he's 66- he's someone whose never grown up. That is why all the youngies love him.
There have been some tweets tonight about former Corbyn supporters who have switched to Burnham at the last minute, Corbyn must still be strong favourite but Burnham may be worth a punt to scrape home on preferences
You could say which imbeciles put him on the ballot. Contrary to others I don't think the Labour system for this election is especially stupid, it is good to encourage greater involvement and participation to create ownership of the elected leader. It just fails to allow for stupid MPs.
Are there any people on here who would qualify to play for a national team other than England if they were good enough?
Interesting question. Do you have to have foreign-born grandparents or great grandparents?
Seems so.
"Any Player who ... [assumes] a new nationality and who has not played international football [in a match ... in an official competition of any category or any type of football for one Association] shall be eligible to play for the new representative team only if he fulfills one of the following conditions: (a) He was born on the territory of the relevant Association; (b) His biological mother or biological father was born on the territory of the relevant Association; (c) His grandmother or grandfather was born on the territory of the relevant Association; (d) He has lived continuously for at least five years after reaching the age of 18 on the territory of the relevant Association."
I could only play for England.
I could only play for England. They'd be pretty desperate by that stage.
However, I'm entitled to an Irish passport if I want one.
I cannot remember the Germans destabilising Iraq and then Syria and Libya by destroying the regimes in these countries.
The British Numero Uno are the main European culprits for the migrant crisis, followed by France.
If Britain was prepared to actively help to destroy the governance in Iraq, Syria and Libya then it should be prepared to take the consequences. Why should the Germans?
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
Merkel is certainly by far the brightest world leader around today
She's that bright,she's part of the cause of a immigration crisis in Germany/Europe.
Come and all,then she has the cheek to tell Britain to take it's share,she's mad.
EU faces migrant crisis of 'biblical proportions' as Germany registers 3,500 new refugees in just one day
I can see this hitting Merkel's party in the polls,she's mad.
Not so far. The polls show virtually no change whatever since the last election, except for the usual pattern that the junior governing party (the social democrats) is losing a bit of ground. The anti-immigrant AfD are drifting down too, Greens and far left slightly up.
Pretty much spot on. And as I pointed out earlier a leading member of Corbyn's campaign team - a close associate - is Cat Fletcher ''now Deputy Mayor on Islington council ''
It all goes back to 1992
...at which time Kat Fletcher was 12 years old. Your point about her is?
We will see in the months ahead.
Did you see the German football fans this weekend? I think you're underestimating the Germans
As this shows
@iankatz1000: Stirring detail frm refugee drama in Europe: Munich police urge people to stop bringing food + gifts for refugees bcause they are overwhelmd
Yes I did and we had a conversation on one of the threads here,we will see how long the patience of the German people last with record numbers of migrants coming.
Did you see this on the news or saw it in the newspapers.
What? Like wearing a dress & stuff? (And maybe red shoes)
I have a weakness for the Germans. If I wasn't an Englishman, I'd wish I was a German.
If I wasn't an Englishman, I'd wish I were an Englishman.
Every day, I thank a deity whose existence I doubt that I was born in this country, and that I'm a Yorkshireman.
I won the lottery of life when I was born in this country.
But if you had been really, really lucky you would have been born a Lancastrian.
(Retires quickly to nuclear bunker while donning kevlar body armour)
I work in Manchester, I spend 3 nights a week in Manchester, I'm also a member of Lancashire County Cricket Club (I'm also a member of Yorkshire County Cricket Club)
EU faces migrant crisis of 'biblical proportions' as Germany registers 3,500 new refugees in just one day
I can see this hitting Merkel's party in the polls,she's mad.
Not so far. The polls show virtually no change whatever since the last election, except for the usual pattern that the junior governing party (the social democrats) is losing a bit of ground. The anti-immigrant AfD are drifting down too, Greens and far left slightly up.
Pretty much spot on. And as I pointed out earlier a leading member of Corbyn's campaign team - a close associate - is Cat Fletcher ''now Deputy Mayor on Islington council ''
It all goes back to 1992
...at which time Kat Fletcher was 12 years old. Your point about her is?
We will see in the months ahead.
Did you see the German football fans this weekend? I think you're underestimating the Germans
As this shows
@iankatz1000: Stirring detail frm refugee drama in Europe: Munich police urge people to stop bringing food + gifts for refugees bcause they are overwhelmd
Yes I did and we had a conversation on one of the threads here,we will see how long the patience of the German people last with record numbers of migrants coming.
Did you see this on the news or saw it in the newspapers.
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
Merkel is certainly by far the brightest world leader around today
She's that bright,she's part of the cause of a immigration crisis in Germany/Europe.
Come and all,then she has the cheek to tell Britain to take it's share,she's mad.
She caused ISIS?
She was the cause of mass migration to Germany with her soft stance on immigration and her speeches.
I just cannot believe what a fucking joke Corbyn is.. a caricature of a caricature. What can you say- apart from the fact that I don't think I've ever spelt out the f word on this site before.
Even if Corbyn repudiated all his comments, you know what still lies in his head.
With Osborne, and his Bullingdon Club and Young Tories and Hang Mandela- when he talks about compassion today he is sort of (very sort of ish...) believable. You kind of give him the benefit of the doubt, even though you probably still think that he is pretty evil inside still.
Corbyn you know is, always was, and always will be an unreconstructed throwback to a Trotskyite 70's lefty. ffs he's 66- he's someone whose never grown up. That is why all the youngies love him.
There have been some tweets tonight about former Corbyn supporters who have switched to Burnham at the last minute, Corbyn must still be strong favourite but Burnham may be worth a punt to scrape home on preferences
You could say which imbeciles put him on the ballot. Contrary to others I don't think the Labour system for this election is especially stupid, it is good to encourage greater involvement and participation to create ownership of the elected leader. It just fails to allow for stupid MPs.
I just cannot believe what a fucking joke Corbyn is.. a caricature of a caricature. What can you say- apart from the fact that I don't think I've ever spelt out the f word on this site before.
There have been some tweets tonight about former Corbyn supporters who have switched to Burnham at the last minute, Corbyn must still be strong favourite but Burnham may be worth a punt to scrape home on preferences
You could say which imbeciles put him on the ballot. Contrary to others I don't think the Labour system for this election is especially stupid, it is good to encourage greater involvement and participation to create ownership of the elected leader. It just fails to allow for stupid MPs.
Anyone living in London has probably received mail telling them that they can vote on the Conservative candidate. Don't even have to pay £3 or declare yourself in tune with "Conservative values", I think. Of course they have taken care to filter the candidates first...
Actually, coming being quite close to death with some close family (very catholic) at the moment, I think we are all atheist deep down. We kind of want to believe, and hope and all that.... but actually we really do know that there isn't something on the other side when we think about it all a bit.
Well, it certainly led to a civil war in Syria, anarchy in Libya and the replacement of a stable, if not very nice regime, in Egypt with a less stable but even less nice regime. Elsewhere aside from lots of people dying not much seems to have changed.
If that is your idea of a good thing, I dread to think what you would regard as a bad one looks like.
When communism collapsed in the Eastern Bloc it took a long time for the new states to turn around and for democracy and liberal values to take root. The Arab Spring will likely follow a similar if more difficult path, and it's worth nothing that some countries are doing a lot better than others, such as Tunisia and Algeria.
Whatever the end result of the Arab Spring turns out to be it was not a Western plot. The people in North Africa and the Middle East wanted change and acted, lets hope they get something better in the long run.
Interesting that you judge Tunisia as a top performer. The collapse of the Soviet Union did not have a very significant religious complication (Yugoslavia yes, SU no). The other Arab Spring issue is that Islam and democracy are not comfy bedfellows. I think it's extremely unlikely to end well in Western terms, ie with democracy for all.
Religion and democracy are not good bedfellows at all. The rise of democracy in the west has come with (by necessity) a rise in secularism. A religious democracy is an oxymoron.
I'm an atheist so I don't feel biased when I say that I think Christianity has coped with democracy best. I think it's also played a part in its evolution. But I do take your point
It's an irony that monarchies or empires may be better for the people living under them than their replacements. It took a long time before the peoples of the Austro-Hungarian Empire ended up in a better position than they were in in 1913.
There is no irony involved, Mr. Free. The idea that universal franchise democracy is somehow of itself good is a very new concept and one which maybe turning out to be less than optimal for the people living under it. I certainly expect it to disappear if not in my son's lifetime then in his children's. Dante wrote a very good piece in which he argued that the population can only be truly free under a monarchy.
I think we'll all pretty much agree on what a monarchy or a dictatorship or any other kind of government is but democracy can mean different things to different people. "Will of the people" perhaps covers it generally but who qualifies as a participating person and how do we count their votes? I think the major virtue of democracy is its ability to evolve, survive and recover. Dictators and monarchs once kicked out mostly tend to stay kicked out. I expect it to outlast me.
I think your last point is completely wrong. Monarchies have been far for stable than democracy has, the era of democracy is still very nascent. Yes an evicted monarch may tend to stay kicked out, but so too does an evicted PM/President tend to stay kicked out. The institution of a monarchy has proven to be very stable for centuries in many nations. Democracy does not have such a track record yet.
I just cannot believe what a fucking joke Corbyn is.. a caricature of a caricature. What can you say- apart from the fact that I don't think I've ever spelt out the f word on this site before.
Even if Corbyn repudiated all his comments, you know what still lies in his head.
With Osborne, and his Bullingdon Club and Young Tories and Hang Mandela- when he talks about compassion today he is sort of (very sort of ish...) believable. You kind of give him the benefit of the doubt, even though you probably still think that he is pretty evil inside still.
Corbyn you know is, always was, and always will be an unreconstructed throwback to a Trotskyite 70's lefty. ffs he's 66- he's someone whose never grown up. That is why all the youngies love him.
So you're not impressed by Corbyn.
As I remember you weren't impressed by EdM either.
Are the EdM fans now pro-Corbyn ?
I'll have a guess that Southam is anti-Corbyn as well.
I just cannot believe what a fucking joke Corbyn is.. a caricature of a caricature. What can you say- apart from the fact that I don't think I've ever spelt out the f word on this site before.
Even if Corbyn repudiated all his comments, you know what still lies in his head.
With Osborne, and his Bullingdon Club and Young Tories and Hang Mandela- when he talks about compassion today he is sort of (very sort of ish...) believable. You kind of give him the benefit of the doubt, even though you probably still think that he is pretty evil inside still.
Corbyn you know is, always was, and always will be an unreconstructed throwback to a Trotskyite 70's lefty. ffs he's 66- he's someone whose never grown up. That is why all the youngies love him.
There have been some tweets tonight about former Corbyn supporters who have switched to Burnham at the last minute, Corbyn must still be strong favourite but Burnham may be worth a punt to scrape home on preferences
You could say which imbeciles put him on the ballot. Contrary to others I don't think the Labour system for this election is especially stupid, it is good to encourage greater involvement and participation to create ownership of the elected leader. It just fails to allow for stupid MPs.
I just cannot believe what a fucking joke Corbyn is.. a caricature of a caricature. What can you say- apart from the fact that I don't think I've ever spelt out the f word on this site before.
Even if Corbyn repudiated all his comments, you know what still lies in his head.
With Osborne, and his Bullingdon Club and Young Tories and Hang Mandela- when he talks about compassion today he is sort of (very sort of ish...) believable. You kind of give him the benefit of the doubt, even though you probably still think that he is pretty evil inside still.
Corbyn you know is, always was, and always will be an unreconstructed throwback to a Trotskyite 70's lefty. ffs he's 66- he's someone whose never grown up. That is why all the youngies love him.
So you're not impressed by Corbyn.
As I remember you weren't impressed by EdM either.
Are the EdM fans now pro-Corbyn ?
I'll have a guess that Southam is anti-Corbyn as well.
Southam reserves his real ire for those who are voting for Corbyn.
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
Merkel is certainly by far the brightest world leader around today
She's that bright,she's part of the cause of a immigration crisis in Germany/Europe.
Come and all,then she has the cheek to tell Britain to take it's share,she's mad.
She caused ISIS?
She was the cause of mass migration to Germany with her soft stance on immigration and her speeches.
Don't put the cart before the horse, ISIS are the cause of mass migration to Germany. She's taking a realistic stance rather than putting her head in the sand hoping the problem will go away.
I wan't impressed by Brown either if you go back long enough. It would be hard to say who is the most useless- Brown, Miliband or Corbyn. A bit like comparing Doncaster to Halifax and Crewe.
I just cannot believe what a fucking joke Corbyn is.. a caricature of a caricature. What can you say- apart from the fact that I don't think I've ever spelt out the f word on this site before.
Even if Corbyn repudiated all his comments, you know what still lies in his head.
With Osborne, and his Bullingdon Club and Young Tories and Hang Mandela- when he talks about compassion today he is sort of (very sort of ish...) believable. You kind of give him the benefit of the doubt, even though you probably still think that he is pretty evil inside still.
Corbyn you know is, always was, and always will be an unreconstructed throwback to a Trotskyite 70's lefty. ffs he's 66- he's someone whose never grown up. That is why all the youngies love him.
So you're not impressed by Corbyn.
As I remember you weren't impressed by EdM either.
Are the EdM fans now pro-Corbyn ?
I'll have a guess that Southam is anti-Corbyn as well.
I just cannot believe what a fucking joke Corbyn is.. a caricature of a caricature. What can you say- apart from the fact that I don't think I've ever spelt out the f word on this site before.
Even if Corbyn repudiated all his comments, you know what still lies in his head.
With Osborne, and his Bullingdon Club and Young Tories and Hang Mandela- when he talks about compassion today he is sort of (very sort of ish...) believable. You kind of give him the benefit of the doubt, even though you probably still think that he is pretty evil inside still.
Corbyn you know is, always was, and always will be an unreconstructed throwback to a Trotskyite 70's lefty. ffs he's 66- he's someone whose never grown up. That is why all the youngies love him.
There have been some tweets tonight about former Corbyn supporters who have switched to Burnham at the last minute, Corbyn must still be strong favourite but Burnham may be worth a punt to scrape home on preferences
Tyson, I seem to remember a few weeks ago you were quite enthusiastic about Corbyn, if your about turn is followed by others beyond the Corbyn diehards his election may not be assured
I work in Manchester, I spend 3 nights a week in Manchester, I'm also a member of Lancashire County Cricket Club (I'm also a member of Yorkshire County Cricket Club)
I hope you hide that post from @Morris_Dancer! As a proud Yorkshireman himself, the knowledge that another fellow Yorkshireman is contributing financially to the enemy cricket team would give him an attack of the vapours!
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
Merkel is certainly by far the brightest world leader around today
She's that bright,she's part of the cause of a immigration crisis in Germany/Europe.
Come and all,then she has the cheek to tell Britain to take it's share,she's mad.
Intelligence does not always go together with Common Sense
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
Merkel is certainly by far the brightest world leader around today
The levels of immigration she has endorsed are unsustainable.
Though Germany does have a lower birthrate than we do
I just cannot believe what a fucking joke Corbyn is.. a caricature of a caricature. What can you say- apart from the fact that I don't think I've ever spelt out the f word on this site before.
Even if Corbyn repudiated all his comments, you know what still lies in his head.
With Osborne, and his Bullingdon Club and Young Tories and Hang Mandela- when he talks about compassion today he is sort of (very sort of ish...) believable. You kind of give him the benefit of the doubt, even though you probably still think that he is pretty evil inside still.
Corbyn you know is, always was, and always will be an unreconstructed throwback to a Trotskyite 70's lefty. ffs he's 66- he's someone whose never grown up. That is why all the youngies love him.
There have been some tweets tonight about former Corbyn supporters who have switched to Burnham at the last minute, Corbyn must still be strong favourite but Burnham may be worth a punt to scrape home on preferences
You could say which imbeciles put him on the ballot. Contrary to others I don't think the Labour system for this election is especially stupid, it is good to encourage greater involvement and participation to create ownership of the elected leader. It just fails to allow for stupid MPs.
And what is wrong with demanding women?
Fit frauleins don't seem scary to me, best check with SeanT, he'll know.
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
Merkel is certainly by far the brightest world leader around today
She's that bright,she's part of the cause of a immigration crisis in Germany/Europe.
Come and all,then she has the cheek to tell Britain to take it's share,she's mad.
She caused ISIS?
She was the cause of mass migration to Germany with her soft stance on immigration and her speeches.
Don't put the cart before the horse, ISIS are the cause of mass migration to Germany. She's taking a realistic stance rather than putting her head in the sand hoping the problem will go away.
Rubbish,ISIS was telling them to go to Germany or Sweden ? record numbers of migrants to those two countries because of those Goverments.soft stance.
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
Merkel is certainly by far the brightest world leader around today
The levels of immigration she has endorsed are unsustainable.
Why?
Given that Germany has a negative population growth rate it will take a hell of a lot of migration to make it a dramatically positive population growth rate.
@Tykejohnno Well, for a start that they are in a permanent state of paranoia.
I also completely agree with @tyson and @TheScreamingEagles on Merkel. She's the last decent leader in Europe. The rest of Europe's leaders, really are an absolute joke.
Are there any people on here who would qualify to play for a national team other than England if they were good enough?
Interesting question. Do you have to have foreign-born grandparents or great grandparents?
Seems so.
"Any Player who ... [assumes] a new nationality and who has not played international football [in a match ... in an official competition of any category or any type of football for one Association] shall be eligible to play for the new representative team only if he fulfills one of the following conditions: (a) He was born on the territory of the relevant Association; (b) His biological mother or biological father was born on the territory of the relevant Association; (c) His grandmother or grandfather was born on the territory of the relevant Association; (d) He has lived continuously for at least five years after reaching the age of 18 on the territory of the relevant Association."
I could only play for England.
One of my great grandparents was born In Riga. That probably doesn't qualify me to play for Latvia, but since the only football match I've ever attended was the USA vs Canada women's Olympic match at Old Trafford in 2012 it probably doesn't matter much.
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
Merkel is certainly by far the brightest world leader around today
She's that bright,she's part of the cause of a immigration crisis in Germany/Europe.
Come and all,then she has the cheek to tell Britain to take it's share,she's mad.
She caused ISIS?
She was the cause of mass migration to Germany with her soft stance on immigration and her speeches.
Don't put the cart before the horse, ISIS are the cause of mass migration to Germany. She's taking a realistic stance rather than putting her head in the sand hoping the problem will go away.
Rubbish,ISIS was telling them to go to Germany or Sweden ? record numbers of migrants to those two countries because of those Goverments.soft stance.
Record numbers have been going to lots of nations no matter what stance they're taking. The Hungarians haven't had a soft stance but how many are in Hungary? Kind of makes a mockery of your claims.
Merkel is being realistic. You hate her for that it seems.
Jeremy Corbyn in the Telegraph talking about the challenges of an aging society. Nothing obviously crazy pops out at me, though he brings up the 45p top rate of tax, and I have to admit in my gut I've never felt going above 50 was right. The economics would be debated endlessly, I have no doubt, but it just seems wrong that over half of what somebody gets paid should be immediately taken away. So that trigger point doesn't work on me, but we probably do generally have to pay more tax to pay for the things we claim to want and the things we need.
I have a long stint as guest editor starting this week, and went through the archives looking for some references for data points. Of course nothing will ever top IOS' comments in the days leading up May 7th.
One of the threads I've written references Sion Simon's piece.
I think it is an interesting piece, that'll you enjoy.
As for South Yorkshire Police, all I will say is that, I'm hard pressed to think of another public service organisation that has failed so spectacularly, so many times in the last 30 years.
At a certain level IOS was right about Labour's 'groundgame' as I suspect much of Corbynmania is being driven by it.
Likewise Labour's strong urban performance was associated with it and that I suspect is where Corbynmania is also strongest.
There's clearly some feedback loop operating there but while its positive feedback for Labour lefties and Labour urbanites its a negative feedback for Labour everywhere else.
And its everywhere else where Labour needs to make gains.
It was weird, Marquee Mark, Notme and I were all out canvassing for the Tories in different parts of the country, and our reports were so much different to what IOS was saying.
In a certain way the AV vote was a predictor of the GE - lefties talking to lefties in the urban areas and telling each other how well things were going.
Now we have Corbyn supporters talking to Corbyn supporters in urban areas and telling each other how well things are going.
The comfort zone and the echo chamber are perhaps the most dangerous places in politics.
@Tykejohnno Well, for a start that they are in a permanent state of paranoia.
I also completely agree with @tyson and @TheScreamingEagles on Merkel. She's the last decent leader in Europe. The rest of Europe's leaders, really are an absolute joke.
She's better than most, very formidable, though I think her dithering on Greece in recent years has shown up that some of her much lauded patience is in fact the sign of someone paralyzed with indecision due to domestic concerns as much as the next politician on occasion.
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
Merkel is certainly by far the brightest world leader around today
The levels of immigration she has endorsed are unsustainable.
Why?
Given that Germany has a negative population growth rate it will take a hell of a lot of migration to make it a dramatically positive population growth rate.
A million migrants a year for 10 years would mean that Germany society and culture wouldn't exist anymore in a lot of German cities. Since the reason the migrants are coming to Germany is to benefit from German society and culture, that would be a bit of a problem, hence the unsustainability.
"The question of war and peace has entered a critical phase for us. Its solution depends entirely on the position which will be taken by the Soviet Union. We are absolutely convinced that if we conclude a mutual assistance pact with France and Great Britain, Germany will back off from Poland and seek a modus vivendi with the Western Powers. War would be avoided, but further events could prove dangerous for the USSR.
On the other hand, if we accept Germany's proposal, that you know, and conclude a non-aggression pact with her, she will certainly invade Poland, and the intervention of France and England is then unavoidable. Western Europe would be subjected to serious upheavals and disorder. In this case we will have a great opportunity to stay out of the conflict, and we could plan the opportune time for us to enter the war...
It is not difficult to envisage the importance which we would obtain in this way of proceeding. It is obvious, for us, that Poland will be destroyed even before England and France are able to come to her assistance. In this case Germany will cede to us a part of Poland… Our immediate advantage will be to take Poland all the way to the gates of Warsaw, as well as Ukrainian Galicia...
Comrades, I have presented my considerations to you. I repeat that it is in the interest of the USSR, the workers' homeland, that a war breaks out between the Reich and the capitalist Anglo-French bloc. It is essential for us/Everything should be done so that it drags out as long as possible with the goal of weakening both sides. For this reason, it is imperative that we agree to conclude the pact proposed by Germany, and then work in such a way that this war, once it is declared, will be prolonged maximally. We must strengthen our economic/propaganda work in the belligerent countries, in order to be prepared when the war ends." excerpt of Stalin's speech to the Politburo, 19th August 1939, as reported in both Moscow and Geneva.
I wan't impressed by Brown either if you go back long enough. It would be hard to say who is the most useless- Brown, Miliband or Corbyn. A bit like comparing Doncaster to Halifax and Crewe.
I just cannot believe what a fucking joke Corbyn is.. a caricature of a caricature. What can you say- apart from the fact that I don't think I've ever spelt out the f word on this site before.
Even if Corbyn repudiated all his comments, you know what still lies in his head.
With Osborne, and his Bullingdon Club and Young Tories and Hang Mandela- when he talks about compassion today he is sort of (very sort of ish...) believable. You kind of give him the benefit of the doubt, even though you probably still think that he is pretty evil inside still.
Corbyn you know is, always was, and always will be an unreconstructed throwback to a Trotskyite 70's lefty. ffs he's 66- he's someone whose never grown up. That is why all the youngies love him.
So you're not impressed by Corbyn.
As I remember you weren't impressed by EdM either.
Are the EdM fans now pro-Corbyn ?
I'll have a guess that Southam is anti-Corbyn as well.
Brown is the progenitor of the other two. His skewed world view and his sense of entitlement (maybe there are other reasons which others can demonstrate that can explain him) has had the effect of lobotomising the Labour Party. To me now its like they have locked themselves in the lavatory and the door handle or latch has come away in their hand. Its hard to see how they get out. I'm not sure they will be missed.
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
Merkel is certainly by far the brightest world leader around today
She's that bright,she's part of the cause of a immigration crisis in Germany/Europe.
Come and all,then she has the cheek to tell Britain to take it's share,she's mad.
She caused ISIS?
She was the cause of mass migration to Germany with her soft stance on immigration and her speeches.
Don't put the cart before the horse, ISIS are the cause of mass migration to Germany. She's taking a realistic stance rather than putting her head in the sand hoping the problem will go away.
Rubbish,ISIS was telling them to go to Germany or Sweden ? record numbers of migrants to those two countries because of those Goverments.soft stance.
Record numbers have been going to lots of nations no matter what stance they're taking. The Hungarians haven't had a soft stance but how many are in Hungary? Kind of makes a mockery of your claims.
Merkel is being realistic. You hate her for that it seems.
Well ever time I hear a news report from the immigrant crisis in Hungary,the immigrants seem to be wanting to get to Germany,funny that.
I had a one day, mid summer, flirtation fling with the old crooner Jezza Corbyn, kind of like by chance listening to an old Status Quo song, that kindles something, and then within a flash you know it's shyte and you're quite happy not to listen to it again for another few decades, or ever again.
I just cannot believe what a fucking joke Corbyn is.. a caricature of a caricature. What can you say- apart from the fact that I don't think I've ever spelt out the f word on this site before.
Even if Corbyn repudiated all his comments, you know what still lies in his head.
With Osborne, and his Bullingdon Club and Young Tories and Hang Mandela- when he talks about compassion today he is sort of (very sort of ish...) believable. You kind of give him the benefit of the doubt, even though you probably still think that he is pretty evil inside still.
Corbyn you know is, always was, and always will be an unreconstructed throwback to a Trotskyite 70's lefty. ffs he's 66- he's someone whose never grown up. That is why all the youngies love him.
There have been some tweets tonight about former Corbyn supporters who have switched to Burnham at the last minute, Corbyn must still be strong favourite but Burnham may be worth a punt to scrape home on preferences
Tyson, I seem to remember a few weeks ago you were quite enthusiastic about Corbyn, if your about turn is followed by others beyond the Corbyn diehards his election may not be assured
@iankatz1000: .@BBCAllegra hs learned govt considering holding EU ref as early as April 2016 to exploit weakness of Corbyn-led Labour Party #newsnight
This seems something of a non-sequitur? How does the weakness of Labour have anything to do with the EU referendum?
Good question - I've twice started posts with initial theories in response which collapsed immediately I thought about them. For better or worse it means Cameron will be the face of In, so while he will lose many Booers he might bind some Inner centrists to him which would not be the case if a surging Labour party is leading the campaign as much as him?
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
Merkel is certainly by far the brightest world leader around today
She's that bright,she's part of the cause of a immigration crisis in Germany/Europe.
Come and all,then she has the cheek to tell Britain to take it's share,she's mad.
She caused ISIS?
She was the cause of mass migration to Germany with her soft stance on immigration and her speeches.
Don't put the cart before the horse, ISIS are the cause of mass migration to Germany. She's taking a realistic stance rather than putting her head in the sand hoping the problem will go away.
Rubbish,ISIS was telling them to go to Germany or Sweden ? record numbers of migrants to those two countries because of those Goverments.soft stance.
Record numbers have been going to lots of nations no matter what stance they're taking. The Hungarians haven't had a soft stance but how many are in Hungary? Kind of makes a mockery of your claims.
Merkel is being realistic. You hate her for that it seems.
Everyone knows if you start inviting people with open arms who live in poverty,your asking for trouble.
No, Mr Jessup, at the time the bleeding hearts were encouraging the Arab Spring nobody had used chemical weapons. That came later when deluded people on the ground started to believe in the "Arab Spring" nonsense and civil war broke out.
Nobody in the bleeding-heart crowd seems willing to own up to actually have some responsibility for the resultant God-awful mess. No great surprise I don't see Cameron saying much about the state of anarchy in Libya either.
However, I know now that Assad is a very bad man and the Arab Spring was a very good thing, even though it has led to tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of deaths and a flood of refugees banging at Europe's gates (to say nothing of what it has done to Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey).
I suppose Assad and Gaddafi were a very good thing in your eyes? I'm sure you'd have been happy to be ruled by them?
Being contrarian for the sake of it does not make you big or clever.
In my view Assad and Ghaddafi were complete and utter bastards, and the latter was probably also certifiable. However, what has that got to do with anything.
Is the population of Syria better off now than they were before the Arab Spring which was aided and abetted by the people groups I have already mentioned? With half of them dead or fled and the country in ruins, I think it would be a hard thing to justify the assertion that they are.
Libya seems to be now in a state of pure anarchy where divers criminal gangs compete for control. Oh, and an awful lot of sophisticated weaponry has also disappeared but which will probably resurface in some later terrorist attack. What life is like for the ordinary Libyan now compared to how it was I don't know. I doubt it is any better and from an international point of view overthrowing the ghastly Ghaddafi regime has been a disaster.
You think I am being contrarian for the sake of it.
The Arab Spring was led by the local populace not the people you mentioned. The people you mentioned promised to back up the populace but when push came to shove we flaked out and didn't. Therefore the variance in our activity is not starting the Arab Spring (which we didn't do) but the refusal to back up the local populace (which we did do).
If we had a do-over then we couldn't prevent the Arab Spring because our actions weren't responsible for it. But we could honour our word and our ethics and have acted. The ruins are not caused by the Arab Spring, the ruins are caused by standing back and letting two evils fight it out because we won't take a stand.
And we have an example of what happened when we 'stuck to our word' in Libya.
I think you are right. Brown was so disastrous he led to Ed, who was almost as disastrous and led to Jezza.
I think out of the three Brown is the worst. He was singularly unfit to be a leader of anything- flawed psychologically more than everything else. Ed was just pathetic... watching him was quite excruciating.
Jezza out of the three is by probably the best....how sad is that...
I wan't impressed by Brown either if you go back long enough. It would be hard to say who is the most useless- Brown, Miliband or Corbyn. A bit like comparing Doncaster to Halifax and Crewe.
I just cannot believe what a fucking joke Corbyn is.. a caricature of a caricature. What can you say- apart from the fact that I don't think I've ever spelt out the f word on this site before.
Even if Corbyn repudiated all his comments, you know what still lies in his head.
With Osborne, and his Bullingdon Club and Young Tories and Hang Mandela- when he talks about compassion today he is sort of (very sort of ish...) believable. You kind of give him the benefit of the doubt, even though you probably still think that he is pretty evil inside still.
Corbyn you know is, always was, and always will be an unreconstructed throwback to a Trotskyite 70's lefty. ffs he's 66- he's someone whose never grown up. That is why all the youngies love him.
So you're not impressed by Corbyn.
As I remember you weren't impressed by EdM either.
Are the EdM fans now pro-Corbyn ?
I'll have a guess that Southam is anti-Corbyn as well.
Brown is the progenitor of the other two. His skewed world view and his sense of entitlement (maybe there are other reasons which others can demonstrate that can explain him) has had the effect of lobotomising the Labour Party. To me now its like they have locked themselves in the lavatory and the door handle or latch has come away in their hand. Its hard to see how they get out. I'm not sure they will be missed.
You have to admire the migrants' ambition. They could stay in Hungary, which must be paradise compared to Syria at the moment, but, no, they want to go to Germany or Sweden at all costs.
Really Nick- that is not interesting, not in the slightest. It is really quite sad and it is not nuanced. Clearly, those who are on the electable side of the Labour party are working out a long term strategy to deal with CORBYN.
@Tykejohnno Well, for a start that they are in a permanent state of paranoia.
I also completely agree with @tyson and @TheScreamingEagles on Merkel. She's the last decent leader in Europe. The rest of Europe's leaders, really are an absolute joke.
I have the same thing about people who read the Guardian.
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
Merkel is certainly by far the brightest world leader around today
The levels of immigration she has endorsed are unsustainable.
Why?
Given that Germany has a negative population growth rate it will take a hell of a lot of migration to make it a dramatically positive population growth rate.
A million migrants a year for 10 years would mean that Germany society and culture wouldn't exist anymore in a lot of German cities. Since the reason the migrants are coming to Germany is to benefit from German society and culture, that would be a bit of a problem, hence the unsustainability.
Not if the immigrants adopt the German culture that they want to be a part of. If the migrants are coming anyway then trying to integrate rather than isolate them seems sensible.
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
Merkel is certainly by far the brightest world leader around today
She's that bright,she's part of the cause of a immigration crisis in Germany/Europe.
Come and all,then she has the cheek to tell Britain to take it's share,she's mad.
She caused ISIS?
She was the cause of mass migration to Germany with her soft stance on immigration and her speeches.
Don't put the cart before the horse, ISIS are the cause of mass migration to Germany. She's taking a realistic stance rather than putting her head in the sand hoping the problem will go away.
Rubbish,ISIS was telling them to go to Germany or Sweden ? record numbers of migrants to those two countries because of those Goverments.soft stance.
Record numbers have been going to lots of nations no matter what stance they're taking. The Hungarians haven't had a soft stance but how many are in Hungary? Kind of makes a mockery of your claims.
Merkel is being realistic. You hate her for that it seems.
Everyone knows if you start inviting people with open arms who live in poverty,your asking for trouble.
It's just common sense as HYUFD put it.
Yeah America is just awful after its period of welcoming the huddled masses.
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
Merkel is certainly by far the brightest world leader around today
The levels of immigration she has endorsed are unsustainable.
Why?
Given that Germany has a negative population growth rate it will take a hell of a lot of migration to make it a dramatically positive population growth rate.
A million migrants a year for 10 years would mean that Germany society and culture wouldn't exist anymore in a lot of German cities. Since the reason the migrants are coming to Germany is to benefit from German society and culture, that would be a bit of a problem, hence the unsustainability.
Not if the immigrants adopt the German culture that they want to be a part of. If the migrants are coming anyway then trying to integrate rather than isolate them seems sensible.
Yes but the experience in a lot of western countries is that a significant number of migrants don't adopt to the new country, and in some cases become even less westernised than when they arrived in some cases.
You have to admire the migrants' ambition. They could stay in Hungary, which must be paradise compared to Syria at the moment, but, no, they want to go to Germany or Sweden at all costs.
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
Merkel is certainly by far the brightest world leader around today
The levels of immigration she has endorsed are unsustainable.
Why?
Given that Germany has a negative population growth rate it will take a hell of a lot of migration to make it a dramatically positive population growth rate.
A million migrants a year for 10 years would mean that Germany society and culture wouldn't exist anymore in a lot of German cities. Since the reason the migrants are coming to Germany is to benefit from German society and culture, that would be a bit of a problem, hence the unsustainability.
Not if the immigrants adopt the German culture that they want to be a part of. If the migrants are coming anyway then trying to integrate rather than isolate them seems sensible.
Yes but the experience in a lot of western countries is that a significant number of migrants don't adopt to the new country, and in some cases become even less westernised than when they arrived in some respects.
We've also had policies of encouraging that too. Especially with Labour trying to make everyone part of some cultural identity rather than simply being British. It's just another form of racism. If Merkel wants to welcome and integrate new Germans then that may be a better idea - quite frankly the migrants are coming anyway and Germany not only can take the numbers but kind of needs new numbers. So better trying to welcome and integrate rather than isolate them.
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
Merkel is certainly by far the brightest world leader around today
She's that bright,she's part of the cause of a immigration crisis in Germany/Europe.
Come and all,then she has the cheek to tell Britain to take it's share,she's mad.
She caused ISIS?
She was the cause of mass migration to Germany with her soft stance on immigration and her speeches.
Don't put the cart before the horse, ISIS are the cause of mass migration to Germany. She's taking a realistic stance rather than putting her head in the sand hoping the problem will go away.
Rubbish,ISIS was telling them to go to Germany or Sweden ? record numbers of migrants to those two countries because of those Goverments.soft stance.
Record numbers have been going to lots of nations no matter what stance they're taking. The Hungarians haven't had a soft stance but how many are in Hungary? Kind of makes a mockery of your claims.
Merkel is being realistic. You hate her for that it seems.
Everyone knows if you start inviting people with open arms who live in poverty,your asking for trouble.
It's just common sense as HYUFD put it.
Yeah America is just awful after its period of welcoming the huddled masses.
Your changing the direction of the Question,I meant the word will get out around the world that Germany is a soft touch.
But at least Corbyn is not psychologically deranged a la Brown, or some geeky, dweeby, ineffectual, toothy, awkward, nerd a la Miliband.
Corbyn is pretty voter unfriendly we could say, and probably not the sharpest knife in the box, as well as being quite humourless.
Much truth in what you say, but as someone on the other side of the divide, I have to say that Brown had at least a low political cunning which, clunky though it was, could be quite effective.
Also we judge Brown by his disastrously poor period as PM, a job for which he was hugely unsuited and which he finally got after years of seething. It's easy to forget that he was quite impressive earlier in his career, most particularly as Shadow Chancellor when he was one of the core team with Blair, Mandelson, Campbell and Gould. Between them they did a superb smear job on the Tories whilst methodically working to make Labour look like a responsible party of government. It was a class act by any standards.
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
Merkel is certainly by far the brightest world leader around today
The levels of immigration she has endorsed are unsustainable.
Why?
Given that Germany has a negative population growth rate it will take a hell of a lot of migration to make it a dramatically positive population growth rate.
A million migrants a year for 10 years would mean that Germany society and culture wouldn't exist anymore in a lot of German cities. Since the reason the migrants are coming to Germany is to benefit from German society and culture, that would be a bit of a problem, hence the unsustainability.
Not if the immigrants adopt the German culture that they want to be a part of. If the migrants are coming anyway then trying to integrate rather than isolate them seems sensible.
They would be wise to take your advice, however, the experience of the large Turkish community in Germany is not an ideal precedent.
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
Merkel is certainly by far the brightest world leader around today
She's that bright,she's part of the cause of a immigration crisis in Germany/Europe.
Come and all,then she has the cheek to tell Britain to take it's share,she's mad.
She caused ISIS?
She was the cause of mass migration to Germany with her soft stance on immigration and her speeches.
Don't put the cart before the horse, ISIS are the cause of mass migration to Germany. She's taking a realistic stance rather than putting her head in the sand hoping the problem will go away.
Rubbish,ISIS was telling them to go to Germany or Sweden ? record numbers of migrants to those two countries because of those Goverments.soft stance.
Record numbers have been going to lots of nations no matter what stance they're taking. The Hungarians haven't had a soft stance but how many are in Hungary? Kind of makes a mockery of your claims.
Merkel is being realistic. You hate her for that it seems.
Everyone knows if you start inviting people with open arms who live in poverty,your asking for trouble.
It's just common sense as HYUFD put it.
Yeah America is just awful after its period of welcoming the huddled masses.
Your changing the direction of the Question,I meant the word will get out around the world that Germany is a soft touch.
Which may be perfectly acceptable. Better than Germany being heartless.
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
Merkel is certainly by far the brightest world leader around today
She's that bright,she's part of the cause of a immigration crisis in Germany/Europe.
Come and all,then she has the cheek to tell Britain to take it's share,she's mad.
She caused ISIS?
She was the cause of mass migration to Germany with her soft stance on immigration and her speeches.
Don't put the cart before the horse, ISIS are the cause of mass migration to Germany. She's taking a realistic stance rather than putting her head in the sand hoping the problem will go away.
Rubbish,ISIS was telling them to go to Germany or Sweden ? record numbers of migrants to those two countries because of those Goverments.soft stance.
Record numbers have been going to lots of nations no matter what stance they're taking. The Hungarians haven't had a soft stance but how many are in Hungary? Kind of makes a mockery of your claims.
Merkel is being realistic. You hate her for that it seems.
Everyone knows if you start inviting people with open arms who live in poverty,your asking for trouble.
It's just common sense as HYUFD put it.
Yeah America is just awful after its period of welcoming the huddled masses.
Your changing the direction of the Question,I meant the word will get out around the world that Germany is a soft touch.
Which may be perfectly acceptable. Better than Germany being heartless.
Or no common sense to see the bigger picture,like a immigration crisis.
I love Merkel- maybe we could start some kind of pbCOM appreciation society for the mighty Merkel. Her childlike exuberance for football, her compassion for asylum seekers, her insight.... she is genuinely a titan amongst pygmies.
She has seen off the SDP, not because they are useless (unlike our Lab party here), but because she is just so damned brilliant.
Cameron isn't fit to lick the underside of her soiled boot.
Plus she's a scientist too. Just like the greatest of them all, Margaret Thatcher.
Merkel is certainly by far the brightest world leader around today
She's that bright,she's part of the cause of a immigration crisis in Germany/Europe.
Come and all,then she has the cheek to tell Britain to take it's share,she's mad.
She caused ISIS?
She was the cause of mass migration to Germany with her soft stance on immigration and her speeches.
Don't put the cart before the horse, ISIS are the cause of mass migration to Germany. She's taking a realistic stance rather than putting her head in the sand hoping the problem will go away.
Rubbish,ISIS was telling them to go to Germany or Sweden ? record numbers of migrants to those two countries because of those Goverments.soft stance.
Record numbers have been going to lots of nations no matter what stance they're taking. The Hungarians haven't had a soft stance but how many are in Hungary? Kind of makes a mockery of your claims.
Merkel is being realistic. You hate her for that it seems.
Everyone knows if you start inviting people with open arms who live in poverty,your asking for trouble.
It's just common sense as HYUFD put it.
Yeah America is just awful after its period of welcoming the huddled masses.
If you were a native American, you might feel a little wistful for the old days before the Europeans arrived.
Sometimes it's interesting to observe what isn't being said. With the migrant crisis, almost no-one is saying that it looks like the way post-colonial nations have been governed since independence has, in many cases, been a total disaster despite the fact that millions of pounds worth of aid has been given to them over the last 30-40 years. The elite has benefited but ordinary people are often worse off now than they were under colonialism. The very fact that people are willing to risk their lives to get to the West is proof of this. But it's politically incorrect to say so.
If this is what the migrants are like can we have some more of them please. We can swop them with all the whinging, griping, NHS sapping, Daily Mail reading, bloated, UKIP supporting notrights who complain about living in the country.
If this is what the migrants are like can we have some more of them please. We can swop them with all the whinging, griping, NHS sapping, Daily Mail reading, bloated, UKIP supporting notrights who complain about living in the country.
HaHa,you don't even live here and you complain about this country.
If this is what the migrants are like can we have some more of them please. We can swop them with all the whinging, griping, NHS sapping, Daily Mail reading, bloated, UKIP supporting notrights who complain about living in the country.
A true lefty, hating your own country and its people.
I had a one day, mid summer, flirtation fling with the old crooner Jezza Corbyn, kind of like by chance listening to an old Status Quo song, that kindles something, and then within a flash you know it's shyte and you're quite happy not to listen to it again for another few decades, or ever again.
I just cannot believe what a fucking joke Corbyn is.. a caricature of a caricature. What can you say- apart from the fact that I don't think I've ever spelt out the f word on this site before.
Even if Corbyn repudiated all his comments, you know what still lies in his head.
With Osborne, and his Bullingdon Club and Young Tories and Hang Mandela- when he talks about compassion today he is sort of (very sort of ish...) believable. You kind of give him the benefit of the doubt, even though you probably still think that he is pretty evil inside still.
Corbyn you know is, always was, and always will be an unreconstructed throwback to a Trotskyite 70's lefty. ffs he's 66- he's someone whose never grown up. That is why all the youngies love him.
There have been some tweets tonight about former Corbyn supporters who have switched to Burnham at the last minute, Corbyn must still be strong favourite but Burnham may be worth a punt to scrape home on preferences
Tyson, I seem to remember a few weeks ago you were quite enthusiastic about Corbyn, if your about turn is followed by others beyond the Corbyn diehards his election may not be assured
Comments
If we had given the Germans a better settlement at Versailles, the world would be a different place. The Germans are superior- I don't know why that is, but they just are.
One of the threads I've written references Sion Simon's piece.
I think it is an interesting piece, that'll you enjoy.
As for South Yorkshire Police, all I will say is that, I'm hard pressed to think of another public service organisation that has failed so spectacularly, so many times in the last 30 years.
I gather it’s a bit more demanding than a PPE.
I had hoped that from my offspring would have being English/Pakistani but it would never had worked out,not if I wanted knee-capping. ;-)
Of course, as prime minister, she was probably one of about five people who could get away with not bringing her passport.
1: "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely"
2: Even the most enlightened despot will run out of good ideas eventually and be less open to newer ideas.
Democracy works because our rulers end up with an expiration date. Good rulers can be renewed but get removed before/not that long after they become bad rulers. Bad rulers can be removed relatively swiftly.
The British FPTP system is probably the closest you can get to "enlightened despotism". A PM with a landslide majority is effectively a temporary despot.
It may be tedious but this person could end up being in charge of our security. So, tedious or not, I think his statements need to have a bright light shone on them.
Still he says these things "straight" and "politely". So according to NickPalmer it's all good, even if you don't agree with the sentiment!
Come and all,then she has the cheek to tell Britain to take it's share,she's mad.
Likewise Labour's strong urban performance was associated with it and that I suspect is where Corbynmania is also strongest.
There's clearly some feedback loop operating there but while its positive feedback for Labour lefties and Labour urbanites its a negative feedback for Labour everywhere else.
And its everywhere else where Labour needs to make gains.
We live in interesting times.
(Retires quickly to nuclear bunker while donning kevlar body armour)
The British Numero Uno are the main European culprits for the migrant crisis, followed by France.
If Britain was prepared to actively help to destroy the governance in Iraq, Syria and Libya then it should be prepared to take the consequences. Why should the Germans?
"Any Player who ... [assumes] a new nationality and who has not played international football [in a match ... in an official competition of any category or any type of football for one Association] shall be eligible to play for the new representative team only if he fulfills one of the following conditions:
(a) He was born on the territory of the relevant Association;
(b) His biological mother or biological father was born on the territory of the relevant Association;
(c) His grandmother or grandfather was born on the territory of the relevant Association;
(d) He has lived continuously for at least five years after reaching the age of 18 on the territory of the relevant Association."
I could only play for England.
And what is wrong with demanding women?
However, I'm entitled to an Irish passport if I want one.
She's all over the place on immigration,she even made a refugee girl cry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qaxoX9MF0M
And to express it as some sort of gut feeling like that ..... bad!
No nation or race is superior. Customs, habits, methods ....well, that's another matter.
Pathetic response - lol
As I remember you weren't impressed by EdM either.
Are the EdM fans now pro-Corbyn ?
I'll have a guess that Southam is anti-Corbyn as well.
Rubbish,ISIS was telling them to go to Germany or Sweden ? record numbers of migrants to those two countries because of those Goverments.soft stance.
Given that Germany has a negative population growth rate it will take a hell of a lot of migration to make it a dramatically positive population growth rate.
I also completely agree with @tyson and @TheScreamingEagles on Merkel. She's the last decent leader in Europe. The rest of Europe's leaders, really are an absolute joke.
Merkel is being realistic. You hate her for that it seems.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/Jeremy_Corbyn/11837965/Jeremy-Corbyn-Why-its-time-to-talk-about-our-ageing-society.html
Now we have Corbyn supporters talking to Corbyn supporters in urban areas and telling each other how well things are going.
The comfort zone and the echo chamber are perhaps the most dangerous places in politics.
"The question of war and peace has entered a critical phase for us. Its solution depends entirely on the position which will be taken by the Soviet Union. We are absolutely convinced that if we conclude a mutual assistance pact with France and Great Britain, Germany will back off from Poland and seek a modus vivendi with the Western Powers. War would be avoided, but further events could prove dangerous for the USSR.
On the other hand, if we accept Germany's proposal, that you know, and conclude a non-aggression pact with her, she will certainly invade Poland, and the intervention of France and England is then unavoidable. Western Europe would be subjected to serious upheavals and disorder. In this case we will have a great opportunity to stay out of the conflict, and we could plan the opportune time for us to enter the war...
It is not difficult to envisage the importance which we would obtain in this way of proceeding. It is obvious, for us, that Poland will be destroyed even before England and France are able to come to her assistance. In this case Germany will cede to us a part of Poland… Our immediate advantage will be to take Poland all the way to the gates of Warsaw, as well as Ukrainian Galicia...
Comrades, I have presented my considerations to you. I repeat that it is in the interest of the USSR, the workers' homeland, that a war breaks out between the Reich and the capitalist Anglo-French bloc. It is essential for us/Everything should be done so that it drags out as long as possible with the goal of weakening both sides. For this reason, it is imperative that we agree to conclude the pact proposed by Germany, and then work in such a way that this war, once it is declared, will be prolonged maximally. We must strengthen our economic/propaganda work in the belligerent countries, in order to be prepared when the war ends." excerpt of Stalin's speech to the Politburo, 19th August 1939, as reported in both Moscow and Geneva.
To me now its like they have locked themselves in the lavatory and the door handle or latch has come away in their hand. Its hard to see how they get out. I'm not sure they will be missed.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/sep/01/labour-jeremy-corbyn-chuka-umunna
It's just common sense as HYUFD put it.
I think out of the three Brown is the worst. He was singularly unfit to be a leader of anything- flawed psychologically more than everything else. Ed was just pathetic... watching him was quite excruciating.
Jezza out of the three is by probably the best....how sad is that...
Brown was useless.
Ed Milband was even more useless.
Jeremy Corbyn is not so much useless as utterly off the scale of voter repellence and, more importantly, unfitness for office.
Clearly, those who are on the electable side of the Labour party are working out a long term strategy to deal with CORBYN.
Corbyn is pretty voter unfriendly we could say, and probably not the sharpest knife in the box, as well as being quite humourless.
New thread
Also we judge Brown by his disastrously poor period as PM, a job for which he was hugely unsuited and which he finally got after years of seething. It's easy to forget that he was quite impressive earlier in his career, most particularly as Shadow Chancellor when he was one of the core team with Blair, Mandelson, Campbell and Gould. Between them they did a superb smear job on the Tories whilst methodically working to make Labour look like a responsible party of government. It was a class act by any standards.
New Thread
If this is what the migrants are like can we have some more of them please. We can swop them with all the whinging, griping, NHS sapping, Daily Mail reading, bloated, UKIP supporting notrights who complain about living in the country.