sadoldgit

You are welcome, but I was just chipping in my five penneth, for what it’s worth. I like to give the Chuckle Brothers something to laugh at apart from the growing civilian death toll in Gaza. 😉

Yet another “precise” strike. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crggq0jygq6o.amp The point was made on LBC yesterday that, if the IRA were hiding people in hospitals and schools, there is no way that the British armed forces would shell them and that the public would support the actions if they did. This has happened so often now that it has become the norm. When will the UN finally take action to stop these blatant attacks on innocent, defenceless civilians?

The trouble is the rebuilding programme is going to cost money and that money has to come from somewhere. It is one thing not to increase tax but as we know, by not increasing the tax thresholds it drags more lower income houses into the various tax brackets. If you subscribe to taxing the people at a higher rate who can afford it more then the brackets should be changed but Labour don’t want to step into the trap of raising taxes and the Tories don’t like taxing anyone apart from the poorer section of society so those on relatively high salaries will continue to be okay (apart from having to stump up more for sending their children to private schools). The problem we have is that more of the middle classes are being dragged into the area where they are no ok financially. Labour are between a rock and a hard place. I’m sure they would like to be much more proactive with their rebuilding programme but haven’t got the financial backing to do as much as they would like. The austerity programme and Brexit have stuffed the UK good and proper. Current Tory policies have left Starmer a poison chalice and you can bet your life he will get a kicking from day 1 and everything will be Labour’s fault. Sunak is already distancing himself and his party from the last 14 years. It is all about the future. Of course it is Rishi, because you have nothing to crow about from the past.

Socialism is dangerous? Do you still believe that? I have said many times on here that I don’t think extremist views on either side, right or left, are helpful. The issue we have in the UK (and many other countries in the West) is that we are far more affected by those with a far right agenda.

Of course they are different people. They hold the same xenophobic/racist views though. Would you argue that a Communist from the 30’s held fundamentally different views from a Communist today. One of the defining features of the far right is its hatred of Jews/Muslims/Selective Foreigners. The people you have previously criticised me for attacking here make their views about these people very clear.

Funny when the poorer element of society are told to feed themselves on 30p, give up Netflix, mobile phones and going to the nail bar when money is tight, the higher end of society want sympathy when private school fees go up. Here’s a thought, do what the plebs are told to do, suck it up, tighten your belts and send your kids to public school instead. After all, we are all in this together aren’t we?

Did you hear Sunak say anything last night about the mythical £2000 tax increase being over the period of the next Parliament (5 years)? What happened to bringing back integrity Rishi? Another Tory liar.

If a number of different people have the same xenophobic/racist views against a different set of people, does it make them any less xenophobic/racist? What are you trying to say? That Britain’s far right are okay with Jewish people now because they have decided to hate on Muslims instead? Can you find any examples since before 7th October where our far right groups were cozying up to Jewish people? I don’t think you will find many Jewish people happy to see our far right marching with them.

Continue to play the antisemitic card for anyone expressing any pro Palestinian sentiments if it makes you happy. I have just listened to a statement from a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust saying that what is happening in Gaza is genocide. I guess that makes him an antisemite too? More and more people are calling on Israel to stop the carnage and for both sides to work towards peace.If that makes us all antisemitic so be it.

From what I am hearing this morning there is no bubble to burst. It was BS. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd11m307jjvo.amp I think that everybody understands that Starmer and Labour have a tough job turning this country around after 14 disastrous years. If he was standing there telling us how wonderful things were going to be from day 1 I would be a lot more worried. The worst opposition as you put it can’t be any worse than what we have been experiencing.

If someone votes for, supports or defends someone/policies from the far right on social media, they are no better. You don’t have to be a full on Mosley to be an enabler for that kind of mindset.

As we have seen so often with Trump, Farage and Johnson, if you have got nothing, then just tell a lie loudly and repeatedly. This stuff works on people with a low attention span. Starmer needs to learn about sound bites and how to combat them. This is not a courtroom or even the Commons at PMQs. It is gladiatorial and cut throat. We know all about the 14 years of Tory mismanagement. What is going to stick in many people’s minds is £2000.

Watching Starmer here and on PMQs, especially when he was up against Johnson, he sometimes looks as if he has just found himself in a parallel universe where the rules he grew up with no longer apply. In court you have to abide by certain rules of conduct and they are very strict and regulated. When he finds himself faced with someone throwing out all kinds of crap and doesn’t give a stuff about any semblance of playing by the rules, especially someone who is currently the PM, in front of millions on the tv, he looked baffled at times. He got into his stride in PMQs and I’m sure that his PR team will sharpen him up for the next time. He doesn’t need to spend any more time reminding us of his working class credentials, he just has to reassure the country that he will do what he can to repair the damage done to this country and not repeat the mistakes of the last 14 years. In court you have all the time you want to make your point. In these kind events you have less than a minute. He was better when he was talking about his mission take make things better for ordinary people and that is where he leaves Sunak standing. Sunak clearly doesn’t have a clue about what life is like for normal people and any attempt at empathy comes across as scripted and hollow. No surprise to see the front pages of the right wing press coming out for Sunak.

Call me old fashioned, but I really hope that people don’t vote based purely on either Starmer or Sunak’s performance on something like that. How can you possibly give an in depth and cogent answer to a complex question in 45 seconds?

The BBC have just run a fact check showing Starmer got more right than Sunak who was throwing around a £2k tax rise under Labour which looks unfounded. I don’t know how anyone is suppose to get their heads around this type of questioning, including the two people in the spotlight.

What a mess. Neither being given enough time to answer. Talking over each other. Starmer is spending too much time being empathic and not enough answering questions. Trying to cram too much in. Perhaps they should have covered fewer subjects in more depth.

He could have been a Buddhist Monk, it doesn’t alter what he became.

I didn’t say it was ok, I put it into some context. Do I think it is ok to throw things at MPs? No. Did I think this was funny? Absolutely. Do I think it could be a publicity stunt! Possibly. What on earth are you talking about?

It was just a milkshake for Christ sake. Far worse happened to Jo Cox. Farage will lap up the attention like the attention seeking narcissist he is and will put the dry cleaning bill in as expenses. Cheap publicity.

If Alanis Morrissette needs a decent example of irony, she needs to be pointed in this direction. For those of you who don’t know their history, in October 1936 Oswald Mosley led a small army of some 3000 fascists (right wing thugs) into the East End where there was a large population of Jewish people. They were “supported” by some 6000 police from the Met, most mounted. I say supported because they seem to direct their aggression and arrests at the defenders rather than Mosley’s Blackshirts. They were confronted by approx. 10,000 people made up of Socialists (Lefties and Pinkos), Trade Unionists, Communists and British Jews. Mosley and his thugs were turned back in what became known as The Battle of Cable Street. https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Battle-Of-Cable-Street/ We now have a large group of right wing thugs supporting Israel and using the current situation in Gaza to whip up hatred against Muslims. Are we to believe that they are now accepting of Israel/Jewish people, or are they just using the situation in Gaza to pour fuel on Islamophobia? Isn’t it ironic that a group of people with such a deep, inbred hatred of Jewish people are now putting that to one side and directing their hatred towards Irsrael’s enemies instead? Footnote: The Daily Mail supported Mosley. Nothing changes.

No I don’t but thanks for proving my point (yet again). When will the penny finally drop? It is not mutually exclusive to call a regime out for their actions and not hate the population of that regime or their religious beliefs, although I wonder if you manage that with the Palestinians. I know that you struggle to express yourself without swearing, but live in hope that you will understand one day that you can play the antisemitic card all day long but it just means that you are using deflection because you have no other argument and no discernible shred of humanity. Tell me, if the ICJ rule that Netanyahu is guilty of genocide and war crimes, will you accuse them of antisemitism? Are the UN antisemetic because they rule against the land grabs by Israelis on the West Bank? You are myopic and no better than the likes of Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir, but keep playing that antisemitic card because that is all they and you have in defence of the indefensible.

Millions of people wanted him to stand and he felt he was letting them down! I expect Duckie is looking at the property pages in Clacton this very minute. With luck this will split the right vote enough to let the LibDems in as the second biggest party. Hopefully he will now spend more time canvassing in Clacton and less time polluting our tv screens fear mongering about immigrant invasions.

So he wants to take over the Tory Party and “reshape the centre right.” We know what that means. https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/farage-tory-takeover/ I mention Starmer, Sunak and Farage more but you don’t accuse me of projection there. If you are going to have a dig you are going to have to do better chaps. It just sounds a bit desparate.

Anyone spot any of the Usual Suspects in this picture? https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/tommy-robinsonparliament-protest-b2554975.html Meanwhile… https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/02/tory-candidate-robert-largan-social-media-ads-labour-reform-uk Also Farage is to make an “emergency announcement” at 4pm this afternoon. Has he decided to stand?

Some questions - If a poster supports a people who are systematically being killed, maimed, starved and displaced, oppressed and intimidated by one of the mightiest nations on the planet who are being investigated for genocide, why the assumption that there might be an ulterior motive and what exactly would that motive be. Why is it an issue to post opinions on a thread about the Israeli/Palestinian situation on a thread about the Israeli/Palestinian situation? Sure, there is plenty of crap going on in the world but the only other thread about international troubles is the Ukraine one so it seems like no one in this forum wants to raise other issues. That does mean that no one cares or is interested in them though does it? This has been headline news in our media since last October and given our role in why we are where we are it would be more of an issue if nobody wanted to talk about it wouldn’t it? It is not mutually exclusive to care about an issue and post on a forum about another. Given the amount of fuss made over protesters singing “From The River To The Sea” there hasn’t been a peep from the same people about Tommy Robinson and his thugs marching through London yesterday chanting “Allah is a c*nt.” Ulterior motives maybe? The large banner they carried saying This Is London Not Londonistan was dismissed as just a bit of bantz no doubt. This desperation to discredit genuine concern for a people and their homes which are being obliterated by inferring some kind of hatred for a certain religion is very poor. If I was a cynic I might say that it is being driven by an ulterior motive. Footnote - I don’t know if this has been mention before but the name Semite was originally given to a group of people who spoke the same language. This group included both Arabs and Jews. This means that Arabs are also Semites and when you label someone as an anti Semite you are inferring that they hate Arabs too. Perhaps it would be more helpful if you used a more appropriate label, anti Jewish? You won’t though because you know that weakens your argument. So much easier to label someone as antisemitic than someone who has issues against a religious sect eh? Especially as Judaism, Islam and Christianity all flow from the same beginnings.