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Thread: We're not a bad lot really, are we?

  1. #1

    We're not a bad lot really, are we?

    We have, effectively, a power vacuum at the top of governement, there is no functioning opposition party, 50% of the population are angry with the other 50%, and we're facing the biggest political, constitutional and economic changes in 70 years.

    In most other countries there would be tanks on the streets now. There would be barricades and petrol bombs.

    We put the kettle on and have a whinge on social media.

    wd Brits.

  2. #2
    I thought you were talking about Awimb

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Sir C View Post
    We have, effectively, a power vacuum at the top of governement, there is no functioning opposition party, 50% of the population are angry with the other 50%, and we're facing the biggest political, constitutional and economic changes in 70 years.

    In most other countries there would be tanks on the streets now. There would be barricades and petrol bombs.

    We put the kettle on and have a whinge on social media.

    wd Brits.
    Well it's only politics at the end of the day, isn't it? All good fun, really. Nothing serious.

    My favourite thing is the odd bedfellows it's created, with southern, middle-class Tory Brexiteers speaking of their damp-eyed solidarity with white, working class northerners who've never voted Tory in their lives and Guardianista lefties suddenly letting the mask slip to reveal their rampant snobbery, ageism and anti-democratic instincts to side with the likes of Goldman Sachs against the uppity oiks. It's hilarious, really.
    Last edited by Burney; 06-30-2016 at 11:17 AM.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Burney View Post
    My favourite thing is the odd bedfellows it's created, with southern, middle-class Tory Brexiteers speaking of their damp-eyed solidarity with white, working class northerners who've never voted Tory in their lives and Guardianista lefties suddenly letting the mask slip to reveal their rampant snobbery, ageism and anti-democratic instincts to side with the likes of Goldman Sachs against the uppity oiks. It's hilarious, really.
    I have been saying for nearly 20 years that the old notions of left and right are not applicable as they were, and that the current establishment is not the establishment of old. When what considers itself the Left lines up behind the IMF, World Bank, CBI, plus every capitalist and financial institution going, and siding with the leaderships of the three main parties, 80% of MPs, almost all the newspapers and the entire 'luvvie' celebrity class, and against what they consider to be "the mob", you know we are living in Interesting Times.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Ash View Post
    I have been saying for nearly 20 years that the old notions of left and right are not applicable as they were, and that the current establishment is not the establishment of old. When what considers itself the Left lines up behind the IMF, World Bank, CBI, plus every capitalist and financial institution going, and siding with the leaderships of the three main parties, 80% of MPs, almost all the newspapers and the entire 'luvvie' celebrity class, and against what they consider to be "the mob", you know we are living in Interesting Times.
    Yes. I was musing yesterday that we may be moving into a post-democratic era where people view convenience, wealth and comfort as being vastly more important than something as abstract as democracy. During the referendum, I lost count of the number of people to whom I outlined my objections to the undemocratic nature of the EU only for them to largely agree, but say 'Yes, but it doesn't really matter, does it?' (or words to that effect). They care more about cheap flights and weekend city breaks than they do about fundamental principles of government and the EU it seems to me, is largely predicated on the idea that if you keep the middle classes happy, they'll stop caring about democracy*. They seem largely to be right.

    *Until such time as something happens they don't like and they wake up to the fact that there's **** all they can do about it, of course.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Burney View Post
    Yes. I was musing yesterday that we may be moving into a post-democratic era where people view convenience, wealth and comfort as being vastly more important than something as abstract as democracy. During the referendum, I lost count of the number of people to whom I outlined my objections to the undemocratic nature of the EU only for them to largely agree, but say 'Yes, but it doesn't really matter, does it?' (or words to that effect). They care more about cheap flights and weekend city breaks than they do about fundamental principles of government and the EU it seems to me, is largely predicated on the idea that if you keep the middle classes happy, they'll stop caring about democracy*. They seem largely to be right.

    *Until such time as something happens they don't like and they wake up to the fact that there's **** all they can do about it, of course.
    Do these people remember the Berlin Wall? Perhaps those of us who do value democracy more. I have been keeping my head down at work but soon the next person who ways they want this overturned might hear a little word or two about Chartists and Suffragettes.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Ash View Post
    Do these people remember the Berlin Wall? Perhaps those of us who do value democracy more. I have been keeping my head down at work but soon the next person who ways they want this overturned might hear a little word or two about Chartists and Suffragettes.
    Ironically, although many of those who voted to Remain are among the first to moan about globalisation and neoliberal capitalism, they are in many cases its beneficiaries and - by voting Remain - were voting to support it.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Ash View Post
    Do these people remember the Berlin Wall? Perhaps those of us who do value democracy more. I have been keeping my head down at work but soon the next person who ways they want this overturned might hear a little word or two about Chartists and Suffragettes.
    Yeah, but the Germans (from either side really, but especially the west) would never have voted in favour of re-unification. Ossies are thick, lazy, spoilt *******s, according to them. Hardly German at all, and so they've had to foot the bill for the whole fiasco.
    "Plenty of strikers can score goals," he said, gesturing to the famous old stands casting shadows around us.

    "But a lot have found it difficult wearing the number 9 shirt for The Arsenal."

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by redgunamo View Post
    Yeah, but the Germans (from either side really, but especially the west) would never have voted in favour of re-unification. Ossies are thick, lazy, spoilt *******s, according to them. Hardly German at all, and so they've had to foot the bill for the whole fiasco.
    When talking to Eastern Europeans of my acquaintance about my reasons for voting Leave, they struggle to grasp why I find the EU insufficiently democratic. But then, as I've pointed out, many of them were born under communism, so their expectations of what constitutes democracy are pretty ****ing low.

  10. #10
    I would have thought you were highly in favor of Brexit. No? Change of heart?

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