BS: From someone who rarely starts threads

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: The Sandman
Date: 09 May 15 - 12:51 PM

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Musket - PM
Date: 09 May 15 - 06:28 AM

Low tax, cash culture.

I enjoyed it myself for a while for the same reasons...
for feck sake, more cobblers, low tax in ireland?

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 09 May 15 - 10:55 AM

"Now read that part of it that I have highlighted in bold and then go back and re-read what I said."
Why - you've said sweet sod all worth reading so far - what obscure point are you making now - that the nation should move to London to acquire work - maybe we should buy caravans and become itinerants - then your Tory Councils could move us on whenever they feel the need to.
You've ducked and dived every single set of figures you've been given to date.
You've refused to either justify Thatcher's fascism in relation to her support for murderous South American dictators
You have ignored the realities of having to follow the work
You've shuffled around the problems of moving to where the work is - horrendous rents, keeping two homes...
You quote a Dubai journalist whose stated aims are to suck up to the rich and successful, as evidence for what's happening in Ireland, siding with him when he blames the people for their predicament (now - there's a surprise!!)
You tell us tradesmen have never had trouble obtaining work.
You tell us the gap between rich and poor isn't getting bigger
You echo political thugs like Tebbit and tell us to get on our bikes
Don't think following your particular ball of string is really worth the effort
You seem far more in character when you're brown-nosing the establishment
Do you realise how ridiculous you appear when you try to talk down to people from the hole you've dug for yourself?
Jim Carroll (or maybe I should sign off im Carroll, and give you a typo to grasp)

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Teribus
Date: 09 May 15 - 10:31 AM

"I finally moved to the soft under-belly of Britain, the South East - struggled to find work, but with help, got it, but lived hand-to-mouth because of the cost of accommodation.
Finally became self-employed and got regular work

That was what you said on the Thatcher Squabble Thread wasn't it Jim.

Now read that part of it that I have highlighted in bold and then go back and re-read what I said.

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 09 May 15 - 10:24 AM

Just to make it perfectly clear to Motörhead fans - not Lemmy either...!!!😜

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 09 May 15 - 10:21 AM

Lammy Akeaton, David Lammy

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: akenaton
Date: 09 May 15 - 09:37 AM

I take it you didn't hear Mrs Sturgeons speech from the shadow of the Forth Railway Bridge today?

All about getting our young people back to work and other IMPORTANT issues. The media have served their purpose, or rather they have been outflanked....."softly softly catchee monkee" :0)

Don't be a sore loser, it looks like you may be getting David Lambie as leader.....I'm sure he'll be "liberal" enough for even you three :0)   LOL!

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Musket
Date: 09 May 15 - 09:06 AM

Err.. The people of Scotland voted for SNP to carry out its manifesto, which made it perfectly clear that independence was not a factor of the election and not to be seen as part of any mandate given to SNP.

They also stood on a manifesto of what has been called on these threads 'liberalism.'

Prosperity through equality, as the election slogan of SNP states quite clearly.

Not a good day at the office eh Alex?

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 09 May 15 - 09:02 AM

"By the way how does having a wife and family prevent anybody from working elsewhere? "
What a stupid question
Apart from not being there to see your children grow up - an incidental to some people I suppose - there's the question of paying two lots of rent on a working man's wage
By "hit upon the solution you eventually found a damn sight sooner" you mean what exactly - that I would have dragged a young family all over the place in search of work and somewhere to live - as I had to.
You really are sold aon Tebbit's bike - or maybe t that should be a tandem!
Eejit
The only place in Britain then and now was within reach of London - horrendously expensive then - out of the question now.
I lived fora fair amount of time in Wandsworth, in S W London.
A report on London accommodation in yesterday's Irish Times (headed "London exodus as tenants (are) paid to leave city), gives the average for a flat in Wandsworth today as £549 per week
A cramped one-bedroom gores just shy of £300 pw, a two bedroom for £465 and a three bedroom for £800
Who kows, maybe there's plenty of work on the Planet Zog, where you apparently seem to reside.
"therefore yo preaching at those who live here now amounts basically to just so much "magpie chatter"."
Again a statement based on total ignorance of the subject
Whan I left England I settled in Ireland - not on the Moon.
I have family all over England - two of my sisters are still in Liverpool, now retired and struggling on a pension following a life of being in and out of jobs, one disabled and in poor health, living on the estate I grew up in - it's always the same with you tossers - don't tell us how to run our lives - yet more than ready to send me packing all over England in search of work.
Your selected opinions on Ireland are similarly ignorant
Frank Kane was once Business editor of the Observer, writing on the interests of the wealthy. since 2007 he has been leading a team of seventy, editing a newspaper 'The Emirites Today', based in Dubai "The target audience is English-reading, affluent, aspirational people involved in business here".
Just the feller to tell Ireland where it went wrong.
It is probably one of the crassest summings up of what has happened and is still happening in Ireland I've ever come across - I can remember how it was greeted when it appeared in the press here - have ouu ever been to Donegal - I suggest you go and see how they live there
Ireland's problems were not unsimilar than those in Britain - ta massive build-build-build policy. banks advising customers that money grew on trees - then CRASH
Come into the real world and see how it really is, not howw its painted by them at the top.
Are you for real?
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Teribus
Date: 09 May 15 - 07:41 AM

" if I had been married with a family, as many unemployed tradesmen I knew where in that little world outside the S.E. of England, we would never have survived"

Ehmm NO Jim you would have hit upon the solution you eventually found a damn sight sooner.

By the way how does having a wife and family prevent anybody from working elsewhere? Myself and thousands of others did it quite successfully for the best part of 40 years - if you work at sea it is the "norm".

You left the UK some time ago, therefore yo preaching at those who live here now amounts basically to just so much "magpie chatter".

Yes the Irish Republic did well out of the EU - only problem Jim, was it was all "borrowed money" - the EU, the biggest and best "Gombeen Men" on the planet.

This from Frank Kane written in November 2010 around the time of the last Irish Bail out:

"it is the euro that has reduced Ireland to its current dire straits - the euro, and the gombeen men, Irish, American or European, who will now hammer in the coffin nails.

The Irish themselves must bear a lot of the blame. How could a poor, underpopulated, agriculture-based society on the extreme limits of Europe suddenly become home to a thriving property market rivaling London, New York and Paris? It should have made somebody sit up and think when apartments in Ballsbridge, Dublin, were changing hands for more than the equivalent in Manhattan or Mayfair.

The statistic that brought it home to me was this: in 2005, the part of the world that had the highest per capita ownership of private swimming pools was not Malibu, California, or Boca Raton, Florida, nor even Dubai, UAE, but County Donegal, Ireland.

These were not owned by farmers who suddenly decided they might have need of a refreshing dip after they finished cutting the hay, traditionally the principal economic activity in the beautiful but impoverished region.

They were owned by investment bankers, stockbrokers and property investors from the great megalopolis of Dublin who, having made their millions there, wanted to get back to their Irish roots in the rural homelands. A swimming pool was just part of the package, even if totally inappropriate for the climate of north-west Ireland.

So indigenous greed was part of it; the gombeen man was usually Irish. But it was the euro and Ireland's enthusiastic membership of the EU that created the conditions for greed to grow.

Ireland had stoked its own property boom by a combination of generous tax incentives for businesses and entrepreneurs, especially the "creatives", which sucked in investment in the 1990s. The launch of the euro in Ireland in 2002, replacing the Irish pound, or punt, and the low interest rate regime Germany insisted on, really set the Irish property market alight.

Freed up from foreign exchange constraints and seeking the highest return, euros flooded into Ireland to inflate the property market. By the time the Irish realised what was happening, at the very beginning of the financial crisis, it was already too late.

Without the power to adjust interest rates or introduce currency controls, they were helpless to prevent the collapse. The one big, radical measure they took - when the government guaranteed all bank deposits - has exploded in their faces now that all Irish banks are more or less toxic institutions.

The fate of other small economies on the periphery of Europe, such as Greece and Portugal, simply reinforces the message: a one-for-all currency regime in a region with more than 300 million people all at different stages of economic development is simply not practical. The architects of the euro zone were peddling a fantasy when they suggested it was a desirable arrangement.

The Greek, Irish and (looming) Portuguese crises might prove to be the coffin-nail for the euro zone but somehow I doubt it. The gombeen men of the EU and IMF have got their power web in place and I doubt they'll want to relax their grip now."

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: GUEST,Dave the Gnome
Date: 09 May 15 - 07:39 AM

Home rule for the Geordies and the Scousers!! :0)

Hey! Don't forget Lancashire and Yorkshire. If it wasn't for the Pennines we would have ruled the world :-)

I'm all for re-introducing the Watford Gap as well...

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: akenaton
Date: 09 May 15 - 07:01 AM

Well, as the recent election has shown, people are starting to pay attention.

The whole of England to a larger or lesser extent voted for conservative answers to the economic problems.
Scotland voted for a radical agenda of pressure on Westminster and the vision of a free Scotland to carry it forward.

The stance of the soft left has been found to be based on empty rhetoric.....it cannot be made to work in today's economic climate and given the way in which society has been emasculated.

Reality is slowly taking a grip, you want to live in a robber baron society?   then the barons rule.
As I have said many times, if you want the "fringe benefits" of "liberalism" someone has to pay the piper, and it wont be the ruling class.

Wish us luck you sassenachs...... Home rule for the Geordies and the Scousers!! :0)

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Musket
Date: 09 May 15 - 06:28 AM

Low tax, cash culture.

I enjoyed it myself for a while for the same reasons...

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: The Sandman
Date: 09 May 15 - 05:26 AM

I live in Ireland, for all its faults I prefer it to England.

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 09 May 15 - 03:50 AM

And by the way - of all the places in Britain, up to the point when the bankers and politicians fecked up the country, Ireland did extremely well out of Europe, socially and culturally - the Celtic Tiger may have been a slogan, but the improvements to the way of life here were very much a reality (I say that as someone who was never fully sold on the E.U. for political reasons).
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 09 May 15 - 03:43 AM

Yep we know your views on Ireland - t'ick Paddies playing Country and Western and singing moany songs - been there, done that with you.
No skilled tradesmen out of work - what planet have you been living on for the last half century?
I spent a great deal of my life moving from city to city dodging unemployment - if I had been married with a family, as many unemployed tradesmen I knew where in that little world outside the S.E. of England, we would never have survived - Norman the Dalek's (and your) advice of "get on your bikes" would never have been an option for us.
I was luck enough to get an apprenticeship - very few of my generation in the North of England got the same chance.
I'm afraid The Iron Lady's lies have addled your brain - do you actually believe the garbage you spout?
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Teribus
Date: 09 May 15 - 03:14 AM

"Don't forget - Ireland stayed where she was at the behest of 7 - 8 centuries of British colonisation (the aftermath of which still retains 6 of the wealthiest counties - a fact that is still stunting development)"

Complete and utter bullshit. Ireland stayed where she was because of a marked failure to learn from others, mainland Britain on the other-hand learned and advanced from every single one of her invaders and absorbed and assimilated them into her "native" population - odd isn't it that the six counties you mention were James Ist & VIth's "Plantation Colonies" where along with the people he "planted" there he also inadvertently introduced one of what Naill Ferguson referred to as the six "killer apps" that ensured the global success of "western civilisation" - The Protestant Work Ethic" - the other five were:

- Competition
- Science
- The property owning democracy
- Modern medicine
- The consumer society

As to skilled tradesmen being thrown on the dole? Really? I do not somehow think that those forming queues at Job Centres up and down the country are packed out with "out-of-work electricians, plasterers, plumbers, nurses", etc, etc.

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 08 May 15 - 02:10 PM

Missed a bit
Don't forget - Ireland stayed where she was at the behest of 7 - 8 centuries of British colonisation (the aftermath of which still retains 6 of the wealthiest counties - a fact that is still stunting development)
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 08 May 15 - 02:07 PM

"Looks like you're saying Irish civil society is doing a great job at bringing about reforms that only a mediaeval theocracy needs."
Yes I am sort of - I am no fan of what has happened in Ireland and I and my family has suffered from its backwardness (don't believe for one minute that the church holds no power in Britain - it's still there to send us to war if necessary and it still an unelected integral part of a political system capable of kicking changes of law into touch).
The point I was making was that P.R. has played a part in bringing about important changes in life here and it has provided us with a greater spectrum of choice - never had that back home in Britain - but I thought I did when I first voted for 'Harold the Bootblack (MacColl song).
I'll vote here, whereas, could never bring myself round to doing so ocer the last 20-odd years in Britain
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Jack Campin
Date: 08 May 15 - 01:40 PM

PR has struck a balance her so we don't have a Government that is totally unanswerable to the people - even if we don't always like those answers.

So let's compare with what the authoritarian British system gave us:

Thousands of people here took to the streets to protest water charges - changes were made (not enough) in Government policy and now, with the threat of continuing protests and non-payment of water bills, those who refuse to pay will not be jailed, as threatened.

Didn't happen in Britain because even the Tories didn't threaten to jail people for not paying water bills.


A public enquiry is taking place here at present into the financial shenanigans of the Irish banks.

We've had those too. I doubt if yours are going to lead to any more effective a result.


Public pressure, following clerical abuse, is slowly loosening the grip of the Church on Ireland.

No church has such a grip in Britain.


The laws have been changed on pregnancy termination following the death of a young woman who was refused appropriate treatment

She would have been allowed the abortion fifty years ago in Britain.


We are about to hold a referendum on same-sex marriage.

Already allowed under English and Scottish law, we don't need no steenkin referendums.


Irish politics is far from perfect, but it's streets ahead of the unassailable position British Governments have, once in office.

Looks like you're saying Irish civil society is doing a great job at bringing about reforms that only a mediaeval theocracy needs. Give us a call when you reach the Enlightenment.

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 May 15 - 01:25 PM

Scotland will come back to bite Cameron on the arse. He's not going to get away with all that vilifying and scaremongering, an extremely effective campaign tactic that probably lost it for Labour, without the SNP ramping up the threat of partition, unless they get what they want, far more than would have happened with Labour. And if we choose to leave the EU via his extremely ill-conceived referendum, Christ knows how Scotland will react to that. 56 out of 59 MPs mean that Scotland can't be ignored any more.

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 08 May 15 - 01:01 PM

"Sending immigrants up them, perhaps?"
What will they do with the indigenous out-of-work electricians, plasterers, plumbers, nurses..... and al the other tradesmen thrown on the dole in order to give bankers a bonus - don't be silly
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Greg F.
Date: 08 May 15 - 12:46 PM

Sending immigrants up them, perhaps?

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 08 May 15 - 12:19 PM

A majority Tory government! Disaster!!!

It's a good job that we haven't got chimneys any more because the evil bastards would be sending poor children up them! But I guess they'll find an alternative ... ?

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 May 15 - 11:57 AM

There is the point that people will not have used their votes in the same way under PR as they have done in this election. It isn't really valid to extrapolate this result into a PR scenario. Around 20% of voters did not vote for their first choice candidate, voting tactically instead. Under PR that would have happened very differently as people made their hierarchies of choices. Then you have the other 80% giving candidates they wouldn't have voted for this time a look-in. Apples and pears.

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 08 May 15 - 10:52 AM

"Farage is very bad news."
Absolutely aware of this Al - but he would be bad news anyway.
Level out the playing field a little and there may be a chance of discussing the real issues of what makes our lives miserable and not be blaming the immigrants and other foreigners.
Leave things as they are at present and they win - use Farage as an excuse for not improving the system and he has won.
Before Farage, we had other scum, like Powell (remember the Dockers' march in support of "our Enoch" and his 'Rivers of Blood' speech?)
I'm sure there are bunches of wannabe Fuehrers lining up to take his place.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Musket
Date: 08 May 15 - 10:13 AM

Ex bad news.

Although he said he might stand in the leadership election.

Look on the bright side, they could elect someone credible sounding and then we are stuffed, judging by how many people put self interest before community.

Jim. It is the case. Share of vote.

Anyway, you have had a few "interesting" governments over there, with Taisochs running guns to ones that made sub prime look a safe deal. There was a reason Cowan was called BIFFO.

I managed to sell my house in Blackrock just before it lost 60% of its value over the course of a month. Poor bugger who bought it must be suicidal. Don't rattle on about good government over there. Just be grateful Osborn found the cash to bail Eire out when he can't find it for his own people.

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 08 May 15 - 09:34 AM

no Jim - Farage is very bad news.

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 08 May 15 - 09:20 AM

"If we had PR here Jim, UKIP would have more seats than SNP"
Not sure if that's the case, but quite honestly, it's a risk worth taking.
PR has struck a balance her so we don't have a Government that is totally unanswerable to the people - even if we don't always like those answers.
It is only one aspect of the differences.
Thousands of people here took to the streets to protest water charges - changes were made (not enough) in Government policy and now, with the threat of continuing protests and non-payment of water bills, those who refuse to pay will not be jailed, as threatened.
Remind me what happened when at least a million people took to the streets in protest of the W.M.D. invasion which led to the loss of British lives and a long term military commitment in the area - more lives and a growing threat to Britain's security   
A public enquiry is taking place here at present into the financial shenanigans of the Irish banks.
Public pressure, following clerical abuse, is slowly loosening the grip of the Church on Ireland.
The laws have been changed on pregnancy termination following the death of a young woman who was refused appropriate treatment
We are about to hold a referendum on same-sex marriage.
None of this has been given out of the good of the Establishment's heart.
Irish politics is far from perfect, but it's streets ahead of the unassailable position British Governments have, once in office.
s I say - five years in office - lorra-lorra promised - re-election on policies that don't differ oe from the other to any great extent, then back on the roundabout.
At least here, you can use your vote tactically, once you've got your head around the system.
Not the only shake-up needed by any means - just a necessary reform, IMO
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 08 May 15 - 09:05 AM

"As far as I can see, the fight lies elsewhere."

elsewhere ?????

..personally I'm getting a bit too old and fat for storming parliament with sickles and molotovs..
and my irritable bowels and swollen feet might be a bit of a problem
what with any running street battles with the well trained heavily armed defenders of the capitalist monarchist state..

..do you mind if I just sit this one out at home, watching all the action and posting comments on the internet...😜

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Musket
Date: 08 May 15 - 08:47 AM

If we had PR here Jim, UKIP would have more seats than SNP, Lib Dem and all the Northern Ireland MPs put together... Instead of one, and one that disagrees with Farage on all fronts anyway. (Make that ex leader Farage.)

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 08 May 15 - 05:52 AM

"take the place of the nearest thing to democracy we are likely to get"
If you believe that what we have got at present in any way resembles democracy, there seems little point in going into the question.
Working people fought hard to win the right to vote, to win the right to be represented in their work place, to improve their existence and their health.
All these moved were resisted fiercely by the right and when they became a reality, were accepted reluctantly and eventually incorporated into the system in a limited fashion as a con - the old Lampedusa philosophy that "Things must change if they are going to remain the same".
I was proud when I put my first cross on a ballot paper but I stopped voting with the advent of Blair and never did again in the UK.
Over here, I wouldn't vote for Burton and her Quislings in a thousand years, but at least we have an alternative and a degree of say with P.R., referendum and the willingness to put bankers on public trail - not much, but something.
Looks like the Tories have taken the election in Britain and are claiming to have done so with a working majority - another five years ago then "we started all over again" as the song says.
Would it have made that much difference to the working man and woman (the wealth providers) if Labour had won, or if it wins next time, or the next or the next...?
The ballot box hs become a meaningless exercise in changing things for the better - who trusts a politician nowadays?
As far as I can see, the fight lies elsewhere.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Musket
Date: 08 May 15 - 05:50 AM

He needs a link about non sequiteaurs for that matter. His logic is often difficult to fathom, let alone his barking at trees he has never come across before.

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: GUEST
Date: 08 May 15 - 03:07 AM

Dick needs a link about democracy, or politics even.

There are always factional interests.

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: The Sandman
Date: 07 May 15 - 06:18 PM

ha ha , the good friday agreement, has not altered factionalism in northern ireland, you ignorant fool.it has not been sorted out internally. I agree that the situation is better now that the bombing campaign has ended, but you are kidding yourself if you think factionalism has been sorted out internally in northern ireland.

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: BrendanB
Date: 07 May 15 - 06:11 PM

Jim you have railed against voting vociferously, what you have not done is explain what you believe should take the place of the nearest thing to democracy we are likely to get. Do you want a dictatorship which embodies all your beliefs and principles and denies a voice to those who do not see the world as you do? That sounds dangerously like fascism to me. Perhaps you want anarchy, but would that not be a recipe for disaster? I know what you don't want but I just can't get a handle on what you do want. The other thought that occurs to me is that you no longer live in the UK, do you think you should be pontificating on how or even whether those of us who do live here should vote? I have close ties to Ireland but for me to attempt to tell anyone in Ireland how they should regard the democratic process in their country would, I believe, be presumptuous in the extreme.

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 07 May 15 - 03:11 PM

Jim - if it's a choice between 10 hefty kicks up the arse.
or 8 slightly less vicious kicks...

I know which I'd vote for...😜

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 07 May 15 - 03:06 PM

"You have no business arguing here about all of this if you don't also go cast a vote."
So not only do we have only Tweedledum and Tweedledee as alternatives, but we don't even get a chance to discuss it.
Voting is not an end in itself, but the maens to an end (or supposed to be) - if either "end" is going to screw you - why bother?
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 07 May 15 - 03:06 PM

just done it -

Labour for the general election, Labour for town centre, Liberals for the commuter belt and farmlands...


Lab and lib both posted us graphs showing they were ahead for winning the town centre...

one of 'em must nave been a bit dodgy with statistics, if not exactly telling fibs...???😕

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Musket
Date: 07 May 15 - 02:53 PM

Well done Bridge. That's one more of us and one less of them. 😎

Someone send Dick a link to The Good Friday Agreement, will they?

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 07 May 15 - 01:36 PM

My (formerly) local pub is still covered in UKRAP stickers - and the landlord is standing as a UKRAP candidate for Medway Council. What a shitfest.

Yes, I have valiantly held my nose and voted a straight Labour ticket (general election, Medway council, and Stoke Parish Council). In the latter I could have cast 7 votes amongst 10 candidates - but voted only for the 3 councillors who were Labour/Old Labour. Two I knew as Labour candidates in the other current elections, but there was no third such and I had to ring up the main Labour candidate to find out who else he approved of. I could eliminate 4 of the candidates straight off as I knew them to be con-servative or worse, or could see from their candidature papers that they shared proposers, seconders, or addresses with known con-servatives, but pretty well none of the candidates other than the two main Labour ones had made any open declaration of affiliation or intent, so if any were TUSC, Left Unity, Communist or similar, or Green, they missed out on my vote.

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: GUEST,#
Date: 07 May 15 - 01:24 PM

Does UKIP really stand for You Know It's Piss?

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Musket
Date: 07 May 15 - 01:14 PM

Yeah, UKIP attract BNP, NF, skinheads, bigots, homophobes and those who disguise their hatred by hijacking serious concerns over how we work immigration.

But Farage said they had vetted them better this time...

It looks like it!

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: The Sandman
Date: 07 May 15 - 01:05 PM

Er, one of the reasons for agreeing to be united is that factional interests can be sorted out internally."
ignorant comment?, how has it sorted out factional interest in northern ireland, it has not, has it?.

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Bill D
Date: 07 May 15 - 12:57 PM

mercy!

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/robert-blay-ukip-suspends-parliamentary-5641537

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Musket
Date: 07 May 15 - 10:52 AM

Voted by post last week. The thought of running the gauntlet of activists, pollsters and candidates down at the village hall isn't my idea of fun.

An old man, wearing his medals, a few years ago was arrested for whacking the BNP candidate over the head with his walking stick whilst walking out of the polling station last time round. I keep saying I am not political but my mate and I paid his fine and costs for him. The chairman of the bench who fined him, despite everybody expected it to be bound over to keep the peace was my neighbour.

Strange old world. My neighbour has a UKIP sticker in his car window. Needless to say, the local newspaper has been tipped off about a magistrate supporting UKIP. His freedom to support who he likes goes well with the newspaper's view that it might be in the public interest to mention it.

Yeah, enjoying this election.

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 May 15 - 10:26 AM

All of you go vote. You have no business arguing here about all of this if you don't also go cast a vote.

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Musket
Date: 07 May 15 - 08:36 AM

Back of the net, guest.

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: GUEST
Date: 07 May 15 - 08:24 AM

Er, one of the reasons for agreeing to be united is that factional interests can be sorted out internally.

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: The Sandman
Date: 07 May 15 - 08:20 AM

hardly, united politically, judging from this thread and from anticipated results.

Subject: RE: BS: From someone who rarely starts threads
From: Musket
Date: 07 May 15 - 02:58 AM

Just for the benefit of a singer too successful to live in The UK and presently in tax exile;

We are a United Kingdom. Constitutions do not rely on ignorant opinion nor are they swept away by a single word. "Hardly" is a difficult word to quantify or qualify.