I quite like voting in local elections. It's nice and quiet and the officials look

[Burney]

quite grateful to see you.

[Pokster]

quite grateful to see you.

Well they are getting paid a nice big fat amount to basically be bored all day... so any company would be welcome

[Burney]

Well they are getting paid a nice big fat amount to basically be bored all day... so any company would be welcome

Are they? I've no idea, to be honest. I'd always assumed they were volunteers if I'm honest.

[Peter]

quite grateful to see you.

Yes. Because it is pointless. I seem to have received something asking me to vote for some sort of glorified copper. Thin end of the wedge.

[Luis Anaconda]

Yes. Because it is pointless. I seem to have received something asking me to vote for some sort of glorified copper. Thin end of the wedge.

Was that the follow up to Thin Blue Line?

[Peter]

Was that the follow up to Thin Blue Line?

A slippery slope, LA. The road to hell. A Bennite solution.

I will not elect a Director of Policing.

[Pokster]

Are they? I've no idea, to be honest. I'd always assumed they were volunteers if I'm honest.

They get a decent amount considering they really just do nothing all day, that is why most are retired and do it for extra spending money

[Burney]

A slippery slope, LA. The road to hell. A Bennite solution.

I will not elect a Director of Policing.

Depends. Is he a tory? In which case I'll vote for him. Otherwise, no.

[Sir C]

quite grateful to see you.

I'm going postal for the GE. It gives me the horrors having to walk into a school hall; I start panicking that I'm late for double physics and haven't done my homework.

[SWv2]

quite grateful to see you.

Is a local election not the same as a General Election where one is voting for one’s local MP, or TD in my case?

As you will see from the above I am not big on the whole politics thing.

I have only ever voted twice in my life, the first time I simply ticked all the catholic boxes and the last most recent time I got very confused as the people I was being asked to vote for I did not recognise from any of the posters on the lamp posts so just ticked 3-4 at random.

[Peter]

Depends. Is he a tory? In which case I'll vote for him. Otherwise, no.

I don't really see why policing needs to be politicised. Get out on the beat and enforce the law, nick people as appropriate and leave the rest of us alone.

I assume police forces have sufficient management structures. Why would I want to pay some berk to interfere in it?

In instances like these I start to believe in small government.

[Peter]

Is a local election not the same as a General Election where one is voting for one’s local MP, or TD in my case?

As you will see from the above I am not big on the whole politics thing.

I have only ever voted twice in my life, the first time I simply ticked all the catholic boxes and the last most recent time I got very confused as the people I was being asked to vote for I did not recognise from any of the posters on the lamp posts so just ticked 3-4 at random.

Local elections elect Local Councils. Speed humps, street lighting and binmen. Not exactly the work of great statesmen.

[SWv2]

Local elections elect Local Councils. Speed humps, street lighting and binmen. Not exactly the work of great statesmen.

Councillors?

Do good know nothing ****s to a man.

[Sir C]

Councillors?

Do good know nothing ****s to a man.

You're thinking of 'counsellors', I think.

[Peter]

You're thinking of 'counsellors', I think.

Yeah, they never do anybody any good, apart from the weak and feeble minded who are simply in need of a stiff upper lip.


Am I getting warm?

[Sir C]

Yeah, they never do anybody any good, apart from the weak and feeble minded who are simply in need of a stiff upper lip.


Am I getting warm?

:shrug: It's like food banks, isn't it? Human beings are, by nature, weak and lazy. Put an easy option on the table and they'll flock to it.

"Boo hoo I'm all miserable and I want lots of sympathy and attention, I'll go to a counsellor!"

What a waste of fúcking time, energy and money.

[Burney]

:shrug: It's like food banks, isn't it? Human beings are, by nature, weak and lazy. Put an easy option on the table and they'll flock to it.

"Boo hoo I'm all miserable and I want lots of sympathy and attention, I'll go to a counsellor!"

What a waste of fúcking time, energy and money.

:nod: Virtually every teenager these days will tell you they have mental health problems. Why? Because they've been brainwashed into believing that that is not only an option, but a desirable thing by idiotic teachers.

[Peter]

:nod: Virtually every teenager these days will tell you they have mental health problems. Why? Because they've been brainwashed into believing that that is not only an option, but a desirable thing by idiotic teachers.

I blame the Big Society an all that. In my day people just got on with it....

[Burney]

I blame the Big Society an all that. In my day people just got on with it....

Sorry, no. The infantilisation of society was a phenomenon of which your chum Anthony Charles Lynton was the harbinger. Dressed up as a caring antidote to hard-hearted Thatcherism, his governments in fact encouraged people to abdicate responsibility for themselves and let the state take over. This state-knows-best attitude was then used open the door to increased state interference in private and public behaviour and discourse, culminating in the draconian state policing of language and behaviour we have today.

[Peter]

Sorry, no. The infantilisation of society was a phenomenon of which your chum Anthony Charles Lynton was the harbinger. Dressed up as a caring antidote to hard-hearted Thatcherism, his governments in fact encouraged people to abdicate responsibility for themselves and let the state take over. This state-knows-best attitude was then used open the door to increased state interference in private and public behaviour and discourse, culminating in the draconian state policing of language and behaviour we have today.

Woolly, unsubstantiated *******s.

[Burney]

Woolly, unsubstantiated *******s.

You're surely not denying that Blair's governments oversaw some of the most sinister restrictions of free speech, individual rights and expansion of state powers witnessed in peacetime since Lord Liverpool?

[redgunamo]

In my view, the pill was the real game-changer. Anyway, its wide availability.


Sorry, no. The infantilisation of society was a phenomenon of which your chum Anthony Charles Lynton was the harbinger. Dressed up as a caring antidote to hard-hearted Thatcherism, his governments in fact encouraged people to abdicate responsibility for themselves and let the state take over. This state-knows-best attitude was then used open the door to increased state interference in private and public behaviour and discourse, culminating in the draconian state policing of language and behaviour we have today.

[Peter]

You're surely not denying that Blair's governments oversaw some of the most sinister restrictions of free speech, individual rights and expansion of state powers witnessed in peacetime since Lord Liverpool?

Of course I am, its utter *******s. Since Thatcher, perhaps

[Ash]

You're surely not denying that Blair's governments oversaw some of the most sinister restrictions of free speech, individual rights and expansion of state powers witnessed in peacetime since Lord Liverpool?

And these expansions of state powers have all been rolled back, presumably, over the last seven years.

Oh.

Now I dislike Toniblair a lot more than the next man, and agree that the the trends you describe have developed over recent years and decades, but I don't think you can pin it exclusively on him or his party.

[Ash]

I'm going postal for the GE. It gives me the horrors having to walk into a school hall; I start panicking that I'm late for double physics and haven't done my homework.

I have nightmares about this sort of thing all the time. Last night I retook all of my O-Levels attempting to get better grades. :-(

[Ash]

Local elections elect Local Councils. Speed humps, street lighting and binmen. Not exactly the work of great statesmen.

Yet getting the rubbish taken away is one of the most important things in our day-to-day lives, and something we are all happier paying our local taxes for than for, say, buildings full of diversity officers.

[Sir C]

And these expansions of state powers have all been rolled back, presumably, over the last seven years.

Oh.

Now I dislike Toniblair a lot more than the next man, and agree that the the trends you describe have developed over recent years and decades, but I don't think you can pin it exclusively on him or his party.

It's a result of creeping cultural Marxism which started at universities in the 60s with socilaist professors proselytising the propaganda fed to them by the KGB in order to undermine and weaken our society, accelerated courtesy of the brainwashing of the 'alternative' 80s and then reached a fever pitch under Blair and his acolytes. The problem of course, is that the holy scriptures of this leftist manifesto have become so prevalent and mainstream that it would take a government with some serious balls to challenge them and begin rowing back the greatest absurdities, so even when we got a Conservative government under Cameron and Osborne, not only did they ignore the nonsense, they even added such gems as 'marriage' for Adam and Steve.

We need a strong, stable dictatorship, compulsory military service, and probably a big, big war to get back to some form of reality.

[Luis Anaconda]

I have nightmares about this sort of thing all the time. Last night I retook all of my O-Levels attempting to get better grades. :-(

I have a recurring one in which I am due to sit an exam for a course when I didn't attend any lectures/tutorials all year. The weird thing is I am often more worried about my nominal tutor invigilating the exam and not allowing me to take it than not being able to answer any questions. I prefer that one to the other when I am due in to bat and I can't put my pads on - that's terrifying

[Luis Anaconda]

It's a result of creeping cultural Marxism which started at universities in the 60s with socilaist professors proselytising the propaganda fed to them by the KGB in order to undermine and weaken our society, accelerated courtesy of the brainwashing of the 'alternative' 80s and then reached a fever pitch under Blair and his acolytes. The problem of course, is that the holy scriptures of this leftist manifesto have become so prevalent and mainstream that it would take a government with some serious balls to challenge them and begin rowing back the greatest absurdities, so even when we got a Conservative government under Cameron and Osborne, not only did they ignore the nonsense, they even added such gems as 'marriage' for Adam and Steve.

We need a strong, stable dictatorship, compulsory military service, and probably a big, big war to get back to some form of reality.

Theresa - is that you?

[Burney]

And these expansions of state powers have all been rolled back, presumably, over the last seven years.

Oh.

Now I dislike Toniblair a lot more than the next man, and agree that the the trends you describe have developed over recent years and decades, but I don't think you can pin it exclusively on him or his party.

Oh, no. I wasn't suggesting they had been rolled back. Once you give governments these kind of powers, they don't tend to give them back without a fight. However, my point is that Blair's governments were singularly fond of this sort of thing and he used his big majorities to get them through.

[Sir C]

Theresa - is that you?

I challenge you to find one single phrase or contention in that post which is arguable.

[redgunamo]

Oh, no. I wasn't suggesting they had been rolled back. Once you give governments these kind of powers, they don't tend to give them back without a fight. However, my point is that Blair's governments were singularly fond of this sort of thing and he used his big majorities to get them through.

You can't really blame him for that though, as it's what people actually wanted. And those that didn't want it didn't know or care why and what to do about it.

It's not his fault nobody had thought it through.

[Peter]

I challenge you to find one single phrase or contention in that post which is arguable.

Perhaps the bit where you present Tony Blair as the very zenith of creeping Marxism ;)

Laughable more than contentious...

[Sir C]

Perhaps the bit where you present Tony Blair as the very zenith of creeping Marxism ;)

Laughable more than contentious...

The man whoi imported 3 million immigrants to 'rub the Right's noses in diversity'? No leftist ideology at work there?

[Peter]

I have a recurring one in which I am due to sit an exam for a course when I didn't attend any lectures/tutorials all year. The weird thing is I am often more worried about my nominal tutor invigilating the exam and not allowing me to take it than not being able to answer any questions. I prefer that one to the other when I am due in to bat and I can't put my pads on - that's terrifying

Both of those have happened to me in real life ;)

[Peter]

The man whoi imported 3 million immigrants to 'rub the Right's noses in diversity'? No leftist ideology at work there?

What on earth are you talking about?

[Monty92]

The man whoi imported 3 million immigrants to 'rub the Right's noses in diversity'? No leftist ideology at work there?

Wasn't that more about importing 3 million Labour voters?

[Sir C]

What on earth are you talking about?

Tony Blair being a leftist ideologue, like all the other communists who have sapped our once-great nation's precious bodily fluids and left us weak and feeble-minded, like monty.

[Sir C]

Wasn't that more about importing 3 million Labour voters?

It doesn't change the fact that we're left without the freedom to use our own language, does it?

[SWv2]

I have a recurring one in which I am due to sit an exam for a course when I didn't attend any lectures/tutorials all year. The weird thing is I am often more worried about my nominal tutor invigilating the exam and not allowing me to take it than not being able to answer any questions. I prefer that one to the other when I am due in to bat and I can't put my pads on - that's terrifying

Ah, my first - and to some surprise - only year at third level education. That went well.

[Monty92]

It doesn't change the fact that we're left without the freedom to use our own language, does it?

Yeah we are. You're a c*nt.

See?

[Sir C]

Yes we are. You're a c*nt.

See?

Must you be rude? You simply betray your lack of wit.

Anyway, you prove my point, since it is permissble to call me foul names because I am a rich old white man, but if I were to call your mum a spastic that would be unacceptable, what with her being a spastic and all.

[Peter]

Tony Blair being a leftist ideologue, like all the other communists who have sapped our once-great nation's precious bodily fluids and left us weak and feeble-minded, like monty.

Thank you for your contribution, Senator McCarthy.

[Sir C]

Thank you for your contribution, Senator McCarthy.

:shrug: It is a matter of record that McCarthy was right. His methods were, perhaps, not to our taste, but the US was fighting a war against communism and was infested with it within. We took less notice of the threat and ended up with paid KGB operatives Benn and Wilson in government.

[Burney]

Thank you for your contribution, Senator McCarthy.

Of course, as I pointed out the other week on here, McCarthy was absolutely right. The State Department and Hollywood were absolutely crawling with communists. He did a good job imo.

Just because the left has successfully turned him into a bogeyman doesn't mean he wasn't abso-fücking-lootly spot on.

[Burney]

:shrug: It is a matter of record that McCarthy was right. His methods were, perhaps, not to our taste, but the US was fighting a war against communism and was infested with it within. We took less notice of the threat and ended up with paid KGB operatives Benn and Wilson in government.

:nod: Indeed, had we had a chap with McCarthy's drive, the Labour Party might now be electable. Or not exist. Either way, a good result.

[Peter]

Of course, as I pointed out the other week on here, McCarthy was absolutely right. The State Department and Hollywood were absolutely crawling with communists. He did a good job imo.

Just because the left has successfully turned him into a bogeyman doesn't mean he wasn't abso-fücking-lootly spot on.

Even his most ardent supporters don't claim he was absolutely right and I think the strike against him was as much about method as accuracy.

Your defence of him sits rather uncomfortably alongside your criticism of Blair's attack on the rights and freedom of individuals

[redgunamo]

Of course, as I pointed out the other week on here, McCarthy was absolutely right. The State Department and Hollywood were absolutely crawling with communists. He did a good job imo.

Just because the left has successfully turned him into a bogeyman doesn't mean he wasn't abso-fücking-lootly spot on.

Of course, well done, JRM. Still, nobody really likes it up 'em though, do they.

[Luis Anaconda]

Ah, my first - and to some surprise - only year at third level education. That went well.

Actually happened to me in my second year - tutorials at 6pm on a Monday and Thursday in US involvement in the Pacific 1936-51. **** that - there were films on that and everything. I had already decided a history degree wasn't exactly going to get me far in life. Still passed the exam

[Ash]

We need a strong, stable dictatorship, compulsory military service, and probably a big, big war to get back to some form of reality.

Bashar Al-Assad has experience of all this sort of thing, and could be freed up for a new managerial role in a year or two. He could be yer man. :thumbup:

[Sir C]

Bashar Al-Assad has experience of all this sort of thing, and could be freed up for a new managerial role in a year or two. He could be yer man. :thumbup:

He's too matey with Russkis, a. We're trying to get away from communists, not get governed by them.

[Burney]

Bashar Al-Assad has experience of all this sort of thing, and could be freed up for a new managerial role in a year or two. He could be yer man. :thumbup:

He's a rubbish dictator. Doesn't even have a decent uniform.

[Ash]

I have a recurring one in which I am due to sit an exam for a course when I didn't attend any lectures/tutorials all year.

Sounds a bit like my actual A-levels. :-( Which is my usual recurring exam-nightmare.