Of course it is. Deeply held Tory prejudices about Labour are facts; Labour ones about the Tories are deluded.
You mean well known Tories like Peter "we were sending out search parties" Mandelson?
Labour adviser Andrew Neather who said that that they deliberately encouraged immigration in order to change the make-up of Britain and ‘rub the Right’s nose in diversity’?
But it was all brushed under the carpet. As Blair said: ‘Because our position was sophisticated enough - a sort of “confess and avoid”, as the lawyers say - we won out.’
Sorry Geoff, you are applying your prejudices 1. to a quote selectively taken from a much longer speech; and 2. to a claim universally denied by all other Labour figures and subsequently withdrawn.
I am sure that Polly could do the same for quotes/statements made by Tories over the years.
Really interesting discussion on LBC - a blind judge with a very good reputation has called in another pair of eyes to view child porn for him. Is this fair on the defendant?
It seems Ashcroft is out to puncture Dave's balloon. Why ?
He's most likely hedging his bets. In the event of Cammie not being tory leader or PM (election loss or anything else) he wants to be in on the ground floor positioning himself as the champion of grass roots and tory members to influence any future leadership and the tory party direction of policy.
Another halluginogenic article from Polly in the Guardian.
Labour people are kind and gentle and wise and when they cup their hands together heavenly white pigeons are born.
Tories have evil, blackened hearts and kneel at the altar of money. Roughly treading on the heads of innocent newborns as they do so.
And the debt-crisis is a figment on the imagination of people who dare read a newspaper other than the Guardian.
Surely Guardian readers are bright enough to identify nuance and grey areas, and don't see the world through the prism of prejudice that Polly sees it through. She's as pointless as Dan Hodges.
Reading a Polly article for a Tory must be prett much like reading a Hodges article for a non-hater of Labour.
But let's be fair here: Tories are happy to state that Labour hates the UK and its history, and supports immigration and welfare only in order to increase its vote.
Both sides have widespread prejudices about the other which are oft-voiced in every form of media.
"But let's be fair here: Tories are happy to state that Labour hates the UK and its history, and supports immigration and welfare only in order to increase its vote."
You are making the usual stupid mistake of assuming vocal loudmouths speak for the majority of a particular group. You probably see me as a Tory (wrongly, IMHO), and there's no way I would claim that Labour hate the UK and its history, or the immigration claim.
The word 'some' should really be added before 'Tories'.
I bet none of those views are mainstream in Conservative circles either. In the same way that Owen Jones hardly speaks for everyone in the Labour party.
Positions are generally much more nuanced than the extremes that get trotted out. And the parties need to concentrate on the realities of those nuances rather than the loudmouths.
There is now a fair community of PBers and former regular contributors to PB on Twitter. We have swapped the writings of people like Tim for Owen Jones.
I just don't get Twitter, you can't really have as much fun with 140 letters.
PB's most prolific posters would read
And the good news keeps coming as boy genius Osborne once again shows how amazing an Oxford man of good breeding can master the dismal science. Bollocks run out of letters.
or
Photo fetishist family man Dave and his squid pointing corset just cant break the toxicity of his brand but let him bang on about racist kippers while Romanians and Bulg
In other words, pseudoscientific claptrap. RodCrosby, another sorry PB charlatan.
TBF the by-election swingback thing was sensible, elegant and as accurate as good a predictor as you can reasonably expect.
I thought that made a lot more sense than this, though. I don't really understand why Rod's using it the way he is.
Put your thinking cap on. It's no bloody different. Just as with swingback we await another datapoint (by-election), with L&N we await another PM approval poll...
There is a big difference.
With the by-election swings the average over the whole Parliament will be relatively close to the average after two-thirds of the Parliament, for obvious numerical reasons.
As tim has clearly demonstrated with reference to the 2010 general election, the PM approval ratings more than a year in advance will not necessarily bear a close relation to those used to predict the election.
Incidentally, the current central prediction of the by-election swingback model is for Labour and the Conservatives to be level-pegging on vote share in 2015. So this clearly points to a Tory vote share lead in 2015 being more likely than commonly accepted, and is not a unique prediction of the L&N model.
@IanAustinMP: Hve Sussex police really advised Cuadrilla to scale back work due to protests? Wht about rule of law so people can go about lawful business?
Sets a ridiculous precedent and encourages NIMBYs and enviro warriors everywhere
Dreadful attitude by the police - IanAustin is right on this one.
Although the appears not to be NIMBYs in this specific case, but the 1,000 Day of Action of Gas (or whatever they call themselves) protestors.
@IanAustinMP: Hve Sussex police really advised Cuadrilla to scale back work due to protests? Wht about rule of law so people can go about lawful business?
Sets a ridiculous precedent and encourages NIMBYs and enviro warriors everywhere
Dreadful attitude by the police - IanAustin is right on this one.
Although the appears not to be NIMBYs in this specific case, but the 1,000 Day of Action of Gas (or whatever they call themselves) protestors.
It's quite typical if annoying police tactics to de-escalate, let whoever think they've won then change tactics, then reinforce so business carries on a few days later. A longer battle rather than a punch up with greenies all over the telly.
For a peek into a parallel universe - #Balcombe has all the tweets.
@IanAustinMP: Hve Sussex police really advised Cuadrilla to scale back work due to protests? Wht about rule of law so people can go about lawful business?
Sets a ridiculous precedent and encourages NIMBYs and enviro warriors everywhere
Dreadful attitude by the police - IanAustin is right on this one.
Although the appears not to be NIMBYs in this specific case, but the 1,000 Day of Action of Gas (or whatever they call themselves) protestors.
Suggest they have told them to shut the site for a weekend - let the tofu munching misanthropists have their weekend of wailing and then wait for the schools and polytechnics to go back - half the people there will be teachers...
@IanAustinMP: Hve Sussex police really advised Cuadrilla to scale back work due to protests? Wht about rule of law so people can go about lawful business?
Sets a ridiculous precedent and encourages NIMBYs and enviro warriors everywhere
Dreadful attitude by the police - IanAustin is right on this one.
Although the appears not to be NIMBYs in this specific case, but the 1,000 Day of Action of Gas (or whatever they call themselves) protestors.
Suggest they have told them to shut the site for a weekend - let the tofu munching misanthropists have their weekend of wailing and then wait for the schools and polytechnics to go back - half the people there will be teachers...
I suspect you are right - and it makes rational sense if this was a 'single game'. My concern is that this will be a repeated game at other sites - the protestors may believe that if they turn out in force and are there long enough they can basically halt fracking de facto if not de jure
You are making the usual stupid mistake of assuming vocal loudmouths speak for the majority of a particular group. You probably see me as a Tory (wrongly, IMHO), and there's no way I would claim that Labour hate the UK and its history, or the immigration claim.
The word 'some' should really be added before 'Tories'.
I bet none of those views are mainstream in Conservative circles either. In the same way that Owen Jones hardly speaks for everyone in the Labour party.
Positions are generally much more nuanced than the extremes that get trotted out. And the parties need to concentrate on the realities of those nuances rather than the loudmouths.
Um, you're saying you're not a Tory (fair enough) and that therefore it's unfair to say that Tories have funny ideas about Labour, since you don't. Do you see a logical problem here?
Yes, of course, any generalisation about parties with millions of supporters will fail. It's probably true, though, to say that people with strong, dubious views about other parties are overrepresented here! Certainly you aren't one of them.
@IanAustinMP: Hve Sussex police really advised Cuadrilla to scale back work due to protests? Wht about rule of law so people can go about lawful business?
Sets a ridiculous precedent and encourages NIMBYs and enviro warriors everywhere
Dreadful attitude by the police - IanAustin is right on this one.
Although the appears not to be NIMBYs in this specific case, but the 1,000 Day of Action of Gas (or whatever they call themselves) protestors.
Suggest they have told them to shut the site for a weekend - let the tofu munching misanthropists have their weekend of wailing and then wait for the schools and polytechnics to go back - half the people there will be teachers...
I suspect you are right - and it makes rational sense if this was a 'single game'. My concern is that this will be a repeated game at other sites - the protestors may believe that if they turn out in force and are there long enough they can basically halt fracking de facto if not de jure
Get 10, 20 , 50 sites up and fracking - they can't grow dreadlocks outside them all. Better still put up this site as a lightning conductor - drive the occasional lorry in and out whilst carrying on uninterrupted elsewhere. The locals will soon tire of afro-dubstep blaring out of recyclable shelter-pods at all hours.
@IanAustinMP: Hve Sussex police really advised Cuadrilla to scale back work due to protests? Wht about rule of law so people can go about lawful business?
Sets a ridiculous precedent and encourages NIMBYs and enviro warriors everywhere
Dreadful attitude by the police - IanAustin is right on this one.
Although the appears not to be NIMBYs in this specific case, but the 1,000 Day of Action of Gas (or whatever they call themselves) protestors.
It's quite typical if annoying police tactics to de-escalate, let whoever think they've won then change tactics, then reinforce so business carries on a few days later. A longer battle rather than a punch up with greenies all over the telly.
For a peek into a parallel universe - #Balcombe has all the tweets.
Annoying for whom?
It's quite clever from the police, really. The police and gas workers can go to work on any other day of their choosing, whereas the protesters will mostly have jobs and homes to go back to, so they can wait them out, avoiding unnecessarily news-worthy clashes.
By the way, I'm still in touch with HurstLlama and he's fine (and the Beast too, I think). Got a bit bored with partisan stuff on pb IIRC. He remains disenchanted with the local Tories but not wildly impressed by anyone else. He's giving me a quiet hand with my election effort insofar as he can from a distance - cat solidarity wins! (You know you want me to win really, plato...)
There is now a fair community of PBers and former regular contributors to PB on Twitter. We have swapped the writings of people like Tim for Owen Jones.
I just don't get Twitter, you can't really have as much fun with 140 letters.
PB's most prolific posters would read
And the good news keeps coming as boy genius Osborne once again shows how amazing an Oxford man of good breeding can master the dismal science. Bollocks run out of letters.
or
Photo fetishist family man Dave and his squid pointing corset just cant break the toxicity of his brand but let him bang on about racist kippers while Romanians and Bulg
Twitter is for the time rich and those rich in opinions that can be expressed in 140 characters. Its main advantage is that one can get directed to full articles elsewhere.
Choosing who to follow is an artform in itself. Far too many twitterers, including supposed grown-ups, think that their opinions are far more interesting than they actually are. I have no interest in seeing photographs of sunrises in a twitterer's back garden.
Markit Economics @MarkitEconomics Knight Frank/Markit House Price Sentiment Index (HPSI) at 55.3 in August, down from July's record reading of 56.8 bit.ly/144eimp
There is no evidence that any BNP voters returned to Labour or went anywhere else , all the parties who stood last time had lower votes in this by election .
Another halluginogenic article from Polly in the Guardian.
Labour people are kind and gentle and wise and when they cup their hands together heavenly white pigeons are born.
Tories have evil, blackened hearts and kneel at the altar of money. Roughly treading on the heads of innocent newborns as they do so.
And the debt-crisis is a figment on the imagination of people who dare read a newspaper other than the Guardian.
Surely Guardian readers are bright enough to identify nuance and grey areas, and don't see the world through the prism of prejudice that Polly sees it through. She's as pointless as Dan Hodges.
Reading a Polly article for a Tory must be prett much like reading a Hodges article for a non-hater of Labour.
But let's be fair here: Tories are happy to state that Labour hates the UK and its history, and supports immigration and welfare only in order to increase its vote.
Both sides have widespread prejudices about the other which are oft-voiced in every form of media.
I can't work out why the Coalition are deliberately importing thousands of Romanians and Bulgarians, do they vote Tory or Lib Dem when they acquire voting rights? Can't be anything to do with free movement of labour, there must be a conspiracy
There is of course a difference between Hodgesmand Toynbee, each Hodges article gets copied and pasted at least three times on here by the PB Tories
Why are the coalition allowing the Romanians and Bulgarians in? Maybe because the previous government signed up to it and to get it overturned would require the consent of each individual EU member-state. I rather imagine the coalition (or at least the blue part of it) would rather not have another free for all.
And as for Hodges and Toynbee, the difference is that Hodges blogs are at least amusing, based in reality and often play out as he wrote.
You are making the usual stupid mistake of assuming vocal loudmouths speak for the majority of a particular group. You probably see me as a Tory (wrongly, IMHO), and there's no way I would claim that Labour hate the UK and its history, or the immigration claim.
The word 'some' should really be added before 'Tories'.
I bet none of those views are mainstream in Conservative circles either. In the same way that Owen Jones hardly speaks for everyone in the Labour party.
Positions are generally much more nuanced than the extremes that get trotted out. And the parties need to concentrate on the realities of those nuances rather than the loudmouths.
Um, you're saying you're not a Tory (fair enough) and that therefore it's unfair to say that Tories have funny ideas about Labour, since you don't. Do you see a logical problem here?
Yes, of course, any generalisation about parties with millions of supporters will fail. It's probably true, though, to say that people with strong, dubious views about other parties are overrepresented here! Certainly you aren't one of them.
Do you think it was fair in your latest email missive to blame the government for being 19th out of 20th in GDP performance since the start of the crisis?
Especially given that most of the underperformance was on your watch?
There is now a fair community of PBers and former regular contributors to PB on Twitter. We have swapped the writings of people like Tim for Owen Jones.
I just don't get Twitter, you can't really have as much fun with 140 letters.
There seem to be three main categories: celebrity stalkers discussions with strangers with whom you already agree (circlejerks in American) chats with friends too lazy to install skype
Um, you're saying you're not a Tory (fair enough) and that therefore it's unfair to say that Tories have funny ideas about Labour, since you don't. Do you see a logical problem here?
Yes, of course, any generalisation about parties with millions of supporters will fail. It's probably true, though, to say that people with strong, dubious views about other parties are overrepresented here! Certainly you aren't one of them.
No. I'm saying the views he blanketed 'Tories' with are not mainstream from my experience of talking to Conservative party supporters. I've been called a Tory on here in the past, and therefore he was assigning those view to me in some people's eyes.
I may not be a Tory (I've never been a member of any political party and vote for candidates rather than parties), but I do know a fair few Tories, including a few who are members. Their views are as widely-spread as those of Labour-leaning friends I have known.(*)
It's an old and futile game: there's a group you dislike, or even possibly hate. A few members of that group say something outrageous, so you assign that view to the entire group.
It's the stupidity of the 'PB Tory' label that people use when they've lost the argument. (In fact, as some people use it at the very beginning of a thread of posts, they've lost it before they begin).
The same thing happens in many directions, and often is just simple, plain trolling.
It isn't a good way to debate. I only wish that I didn't fall into the trap sometimes as well... :-(
(*) As an aside, one Conservative member I know admits he is a Lib Dem voter, but is only a Conservative Party member for networking purposes. He also only goes to church for the same reason. I bet many parties have members for whom the social aspect is more important than the political.
Another halluginogenic article from Polly in the Guardian.
Labour people are kind and gentle and wise and when they cup their hands together heavenly white pigeons are born.
Tories have evil, blackened hearts and kneel at the altar of money. Roughly treading on the heads of innocent newborns as they do so.
And the debt-crisis is a figment on the imagination of people who dare read a newspaper other than the Guardian.
Surely Guardian readers are bright enough to identify nuance and grey areas, and don't see the world through the prism of prejudice that Polly sees it through. She's as pointless as Dan Hodges.
Reading a Polly article for a Tory must be prett much like reading a Hodges article for a non-hater of Labour.
But let's be fair here: Tories are happy to state that Labour hates the UK and its history, and supports immigration and welfare only in order to increase its vote.
Both sides have widespread prejudices about the other which are oft-voiced in every form of media.
I can't work out why the Coalition are deliberately importing thousands of Romanians and Bulgarians, do they vote Tory or Lib Dem when they acquire voting rights? Can't be anything to do with free movement of labour, there must be a conspiracy
There is of course a difference between Hodgesmand Toynbee, each Hodges article gets copied and pasted at least three times on here by the PB Tories
Why are the coalition allowing the Romanians and Bulgarians in? Maybe because the previous government signed up to it and to get it overturned would require the consent of each individual EU member-state. I rather imagine the coalition (or at least the blue part of it) would rather not have another free for all.
And as for Hodges and Toynbee, the difference is that Hodges blogs are at least amusing, based in reality and often play out as he wrote.
The previous government which signed up to free movement in the EU was not the previous government.
Toynbee: we're right -- they are evil Hodges: X has happened -- it's a disaster for Ed Miliband
A rare day - CCHQ retweets Mark Steel of all people.
"Poor Ed Miliband, he couldn’t even come out decisively against an egg being chucked at his head. He looked as if his mind had become so addled from his strategy of refusing to say he’ll reverse what his opponents are doing that he’d say that now the egg was in his hair there’s no point in washing it out. Then he’d issue a statement saying that “the real issue is that up and down the country what hard-working chickens are asking is why our economy continues to fail our shells”.
The Conservatives have noticed this attitude from Labour, which may be one reason they’ve grown more confident lately. At the moment they can announce whatever cuts they like, then dare Ed Miliband to say he’d reverse them, which he never does. George Osborne could lean across to him all day long, tasering the Shadow Cabinet, and Ed Balls would appear on Channel 4 News to say: “We will make clear proposals concerning these measures, as soon as we have fully costed them, but until then we’ll continue to wriggle on the floor screaming and will not be pressured into hasty announcements.” http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/mark-steel-is-ed-milibands-labour-party-prepared-to-do-or-say-anything-at-all-8763544.html
Really enjoyed yesterday's thread on Monty Carlo methods. There are some very bright and well informed posters on here.
I think they should treat the less informed posters-like myself- as they do women golfers at the better courses and give us a small slot say Tuesdays from 10pm till Midnight.
So obvious in retrospect and not the usual stupid hypocrisy at all.
*tears of laughter etc.*
;^ )
Thanks for proving my point.
Only fair since you proved mine first.
When did I use 'leftie' ?
About the same time you had a rant about people using it like so many tories on PB do. Or rather conspicuously don't while losing their minds about tories on PB being called PB tories. (I know, it's horrendous, isn't it?) Sorry if that was too complex and went over your head but it should have been obvious.
When I see left wing posters on PB throwing their toys out of the pram and ranting endlessly for being called lefties on almost every thread I'll take PB tory posts on the matter seriously. The funny thing is they tend not to play the victim card while the tories do. Odd that, isn't it?
So obvious in retrospect and not the usual stupid hypocrisy at all.
*tears of laughter etc.*
;^ )
Thanks for proving my point.
Only fair since you proved mine first.
When did I use 'leftie' ?
About the same time you had a rant about people using it like so many tories on PB do. Or rather conspicuously don't while losing their minds about tories on PB being called PB tories. (I know, it's horrendous, isn't it?) Sorry if that was too complex and went over your head but it should have been obvious.
When I see left wing posters on PB throwing their toys out of the pram and ranting endlessly for being called lefties on almost every thread I'll take PB tory posts on the matter seriously. The funny thing is they tend not to play the victim card while the tories do. Odd that, isn't it?
And I'll take your posts seriously when you start debating and not trolling.
I'm pretty sure I don't use 'leftie' much, so I'd be interested to see examples.
So obvious in retrospect and not the usual stupid hypocrisy at all.
*tears of laughter etc.*
;^ )
Thanks for proving my point.
Only fair since you proved mine first.
When did I use 'leftie' ?
About the same time you had a rant about people using it like so many tories on PB do. Or rather conspicuously don't while losing their minds about tories on PB being called PB tories. (I know, it's horrendous, isn't it?) Sorry if that was too complex and went over your head but it should have been obvious.
When I see left wing posters on PB throwing their toys out of the pram and ranting endlessly for being called lefties on almost every thread I'll take PB tory posts on the matter seriously. The funny thing is they tend not to play the victim card while the tories do. Odd that, isn't it?
And I'll take your posts seriously when you start debating and not trolling.
I'm pretty sure I don't use 'leftie' much, so I'd be interested to see examples.
Oh noes! I've been called a troll by one of the marginalised victims cruelly being called a tory on PB as they dominate almost every thread on PB.
So obvious in retrospect and not the usual stupid hypocrisy at all.
*tears of laughter etc.*
;^ )
Thanks for proving my point.
Only fair since you proved mine first.
When did I use 'leftie' ?
About the same time you had a rant about people using it like so many tories on PB do. Or rather conspicuously don't while losing their minds about tories on PB being called PB tories. (I know, it's horrendous, isn't it?) Sorry if that was too complex and went over your head but it should have been obvious.
When I see left wing posters on PB throwing their toys out of the pram and ranting endlessly for being called lefties on almost every thread I'll take PB tory posts on the matter seriously. The funny thing is they tend not to play the victim card while the tories do. Odd that, isn't it?
And I'll take your posts seriously when you start debating and not trolling.
I'm pretty sure I don't use 'leftie' much, so I'd be interested to see examples.
Oh noes! I've been called a troll by one of the marginalised victims cruelly being called a tory on PB as they dominate almost every thread on PB.
LOL
Again proving my point. As for 'dominating every thread':
So obvious in retrospect and not the usual stupid hypocrisy at all.
*tears of laughter etc.*
;^ )
Thanks for proving my point.
Only fair since you proved mine first.
When did I use 'leftie' ?
About the same time you had a rant about people using it like so many tories on PB do. Or rather conspicuously don't while losing their minds about tories on PB being called PB tories. (I know, it's horrendous, isn't it?) Sorry if that was too complex and went over your head but it should have been obvious.
When I see left wing posters on PB throwing their toys out of the pram and ranting endlessly for being called lefties on almost every thread I'll take PB tory posts on the matter seriously. The funny thing is they tend not to play the victim card while the tories do. Odd that, isn't it?
And I'll take your posts seriously when you start debating and not trolling.
I'm pretty sure I don't use 'leftie' much, so I'd be interested to see examples.
Oh noes! I've been called a troll by one of the marginalised victims cruelly being called a tory on PB as they dominate almost every thread on PB.
LOL
Again proving my point. As for 'dominating every thread':
Mick_Pork: 2,396 posts JosiasJessop: 1,235 posts
As you say, LOL.
Try looking up "they" before throwing another hissy fit over nothing.
So obvious in retrospect and not the usual stupid hypocrisy at all.
*tears of laughter etc.*
;^ )
Thanks for proving my point.
Only fair since you proved mine first.
When did I use 'leftie' ?
About the same time you had a rant about people using it like so many tories on PB do. Or rather conspicuously don't while losing their minds about tories on PB being called PB tories. (I know, it's horrendous, isn't it?) Sorry if that was too complex and went over your head but it should have been obvious.
When I see left wing posters on PB throwing their toys out of the pram and ranting endlessly for being called lefties on almost every thread I'll take PB tory posts on the matter seriously. The funny thing is they tend not to play the victim card while the tories do. Odd that, isn't it?
And I'll take your posts seriously when you start debating and not trolling.
I'm pretty sure I don't use 'leftie' much, so I'd be interested to see examples.
Oh noes! I've been called a troll by one of the marginalised victims cruelly being called a tory on PB as they dominate almost every thread on PB.
LOL
Again proving my point. As for 'dominating every thread':
Mick_Pork: 2,396 posts JosiasJessop: 1,235 posts
As you say, LOL.
Try looking up "they" before throwing another hissy fit over nothing.
This isn't a hissy fit, and it's not over nothing.
It's a shame you have to act in this way, as you often make incisive points. It's a shame the signal gets lost in the noise.
So obvious in retrospect and not the usual stupid hypocrisy at all.
*tears of laughter etc.*
;^ )
Thanks for proving my point.
Only fair since you proved mine first.
When did I use 'leftie' ?
About the same time you had a rant about people using it like so many tories on PB do. Or rather conspicuously don't while losing their minds about tories on PB being called PB tories. (I know, it's horrendous, isn't it?) Sorry if that was too complex and went over your head but it should have been obvious.
When I see left wing posters on PB throwing their toys out of the pram and ranting endlessly for being called lefties on almost every thread I'll take PB tory posts on the matter seriously. The funny thing is they tend not to play the victim card while the tories do. Odd that, isn't it?
And I'll take your posts seriously when you start debating and not trolling.
I'm pretty sure I don't use 'leftie' much, so I'd be interested to see examples.
Oh noes! I've been called a troll by one of the marginalised victims cruelly being called a tory on PB as they dominate almost every thread on PB.
LOL
Again proving my point. As for 'dominating every thread':
Mick_Pork: 2,396 posts JosiasJessop: 1,235 posts
As you say, LOL.
Try looking up "they" before throwing another hissy fit over nothing.
This isn't a hissy fit, and it's not over nothing.
It's a shame you have to act in this way, as you often make incisive points. It's a shame the signal gets lost in the noise.
Assert away if it makes you feel any better.
It's a pity you were so quick to jump on the tory 'victim' bandwagon as it is the last refuge of the least acute and most pointless posters on here, yet you seem sadly very keen to join them.
Comments
I am sure that Polly could do the same for quotes/statements made by Tories over the years.
The question people should be asking is, why now?
You are making the usual stupid mistake of assuming vocal loudmouths speak for the majority of a particular group. You probably see me as a Tory (wrongly, IMHO), and there's no way I would claim that Labour hate the UK and its history, or the immigration claim.
The word 'some' should really be added before 'Tories'.
I bet none of those views are mainstream in Conservative circles either. In the same way that Owen Jones hardly speaks for everyone in the Labour party.
Positions are generally much more nuanced than the extremes that get trotted out. And the parties need to concentrate on the realities of those nuances rather than the loudmouths.
Con 37.6% N/C
Lab 26.6% -1.7%
UKIP 25.7% +11.8%
LDEM 2.7% -8.2%
OTH 7.4% +1.9%"
https://twitter.com/UKELECTIONS2015/status/368271117334495232
PB's most prolific posters would read
And the good news keeps coming as boy genius Osborne once again shows how amazing an Oxford man of good breeding can master the dismal science. Bollocks run out of letters.
or
Photo fetishist family man Dave and his squid pointing corset just cant break the toxicity of his brand but let him bang on about racist kippers while Romanians and Bulg
With the by-election swings the average over the whole Parliament will be relatively close to the average after two-thirds of the Parliament, for obvious numerical reasons.
As tim has clearly demonstrated with reference to the 2010 general election, the PM approval ratings more than a year in advance will not necessarily bear a close relation to those used to predict the election.
Incidentally, the current central prediction of the by-election swingback model is for Labour and the Conservatives to be level-pegging on vote share in 2015. So this clearly points to a Tory vote share lead in 2015 being more likely than commonly accepted, and is not a unique prediction of the L&N model.
Although the appears not to be NIMBYs in this specific case, but the 1,000 Day of Action of Gas (or whatever they call themselves) protestors.
For a peek into a parallel universe - #Balcombe has all the tweets.
Lab 639 UKIP 226 Putting Hartlepool First 194 Con 74
Meanwhile, in Bongo Bongo Land pic.twitter.com/uOtX4QVIM4
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BQrz1RWCQAAosnZ.jpg:large
Balcombe.
Yes, of course, any generalisation about parties with millions of supporters will fail. It's probably true, though, to say that people with strong, dubious views about other parties are overrepresented here! Certainly you aren't one of them.
Get 10, 20 , 50 sites up and fracking - they can't grow dreadlocks outside them all. Better still put up this site as a lightning conductor - drive the occasional lorry in and out whilst carrying on uninterrupted elsewhere. The locals will soon tire of afro-dubstep blaring out of recyclable shelter-pods at all hours.
It's quite clever from the police, really. The police and gas workers can go to work on any other day of their choosing, whereas the protesters will mostly have jobs and homes to go back to, so they can wait them out, avoiding unnecessarily news-worthy clashes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYniYtJEeeI&feature=youtube_gdata_player
What's Labour's position on fracking? I assume the Lib Dems are generally for it, given they are in government?
Choosing who to follow is an artform in itself. Far too many twitterers, including supposed grown-ups, think that their opinions are far more interesting than they actually are. I have no interest in seeing photographs of sunrises in a twitterer's back garden.
Markit Economics @MarkitEconomics
Knight Frank/Markit House Price Sentiment Index (HPSI) at 55.3 in August, down from July's record reading of 56.8 bit.ly/144eimp
And as for Hodges and Toynbee, the difference is that Hodges blogs are at least amusing, based in reality and often play out as he wrote.
Especially given that most of the underperformance was on your watch?
I wasn't sure about his piece on the drive by shooting - but within a day or two it had started. He's no numpty.
celebrity stalkers
discussions with strangers with whom you already agree (circlejerks in American)
chats with friends too lazy to install skype
I may not be a Tory (I've never been a member of any political party and vote for candidates rather than parties), but I do know a fair few Tories, including a few who are members. Their views are as widely-spread as those of Labour-leaning friends I have known.(*)
It's an old and futile game: there's a group you dislike, or even possibly hate. A few members of that group say something outrageous, so you assign that view to the entire group.
It's the stupidity of the 'PB Tory' label that people use when they've lost the argument. (In fact, as some people use it at the very beginning of a thread of posts, they've lost it before they begin).
The same thing happens in many directions, and often is just simple, plain trolling.
It isn't a good way to debate. I only wish that I didn't fall into the trap sometimes as well... :-(
(*) As an aside, one Conservative member I know admits he is a Lib Dem voter, but is only a Conservative Party member for networking purposes. He also only goes to church for the same reason. I bet many parties have members for whom the social aspect is more important than the political.
Toynbee: we're right -- they are evil
Hodges: X has happened -- it's a disaster for Ed Miliband
"Poor Ed Miliband, he couldn’t even come out decisively against an egg being chucked at his head. He looked as if his mind had become so addled from his strategy of refusing to say he’ll reverse what his opponents are doing that he’d say that now the egg was in his hair there’s no point in washing it out. Then he’d issue a statement saying that “the real issue is that up and down the country what hard-working chickens are asking is why our economy continues to fail our shells”.
The Conservatives have noticed this attitude from Labour, which may be one reason they’ve grown more confident lately. At the moment they can announce whatever cuts they like, then dare Ed Miliband to say he’d reverse them, which he never does. George Osborne could lean across to him all day long, tasering the Shadow Cabinet, and Ed Balls would appear on Channel 4 News to say: “We will make clear proposals concerning these measures, as soon as we have fully costed them, but until then we’ll continue to wriggle on the floor screaming and will not be pressured into hasty announcements.” http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/mark-steel-is-ed-milibands-labour-party-prepared-to-do-or-say-anything-at-all-8763544.html
So obvious in retrospect and not the usual stupid hypocrisy at all.
*tears of laughter etc.*
;^ )
I think they should treat the less informed posters-like myself- as they do women golfers at the better courses and give us a small slot say Tuesdays from 10pm till Midnight.
This is the only sociology student I know. (and well done to your son!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVPAP62TvRY
About the same time you had a rant about people using it like so many tories on PB do. Or rather conspicuously don't while losing their minds about tories on PB being called PB tories. (I know, it's horrendous, isn't it?) Sorry if that was too complex and went over your head but it should have been obvious.
When I see left wing posters on PB throwing their toys out of the pram and ranting endlessly for being called lefties on almost every thread I'll take PB tory posts on the matter seriously. The funny thing is they tend not to play the victim card while the tories do. Odd that, isn't it?
I'm pretty sure I don't use 'leftie' much, so I'd be interested to see examples.
LOL
Mick_Pork: 2,396 posts
JosiasJessop: 1,235 posts
As you say, LOL.
It's a shame you have to act in this way, as you often make incisive points. It's a shame the signal gets lost in the noise.
Assert away if it makes you feel any better.
It's a pity you were so quick to jump on the tory 'victim' bandwagon as it is the last refuge of the least acute and most pointless posters on here, yet you seem sadly very keen to join them.