dbphoenix
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Fanning the flames of divisiveness appears to be the default position. Keep people afraid and the world is your oyster.
Fanning the flames of divisiveness appears to be the default position. Keep people afraid and the world is your oyster.
Pat494
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Trump says he likes chaos. Personally I prefer harmony but he is the Potus
Pat494
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I really can't see what's better about keeping the public off balance except to trick them.
sminicooper
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We know that with reference to trading the "it's different this time" mantra turns out to be false but with politics I'm starting to think that it actually is different this time. Why? Largely due to the digital revolution: the old days of the voting public being fed on just a few left/right newspapers and a few (supposedly) legally-bound-to-be-unbiased TV channels have long gone. Also, the great unwashed masses are now allowed to go to university and encouraged to think for themselves. The digital age allows much greater interaction and collusion between parties on a worldwide basis (wouldn't have known about you otherwise dbPhoenix!
). A bit of a different tale from one hundred years ago when they were told to go and join up for war because that's what those who knew best said was the right thing to do.It's no wonder that politics no longer conveniently split along conventional left/right lines. We still have of course the old problem of youth's inexperience and enthusiasm but even that's different now because they are learning how to wield their inexperience and enthusiasm effectively. This could have far reaching results once inexperience gets its hand on the tiller; one effective antidote might be a restriction on democracy (e.g. raise, not lower the voting age) but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have a satisfactory or happy outcome and anyway it isn't gonna happen.
As far as I'm concerned we are living in interesting (when were they not interesting?) but very uncertain times. Basic human tribal instincts will now come to the fore with effect and in the UK at least, there is some prospect of the thousand years of Democratic capital we have built up being eroded.
I think it may well be different this time.
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Pat494
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Incompetence is bad enough but this strutting one's country's latest weapons competition could be disastrous.
I would hope that they would use their power and influence to clean up the planet for instance.
dbphoenix
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That's the point. "Trickle-down economics" is an excellent example.
Mr. Charts
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Aha ! So who put the trick in trickle
?The wicked capitalists?
The self righteousness and "intellectual" arrogance of the left who always know better than the masses they purport to represent continues to beggar belief.
Mr. Charts
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Self-appointed political elites of whichever extreme always put self interest and power first.
counter_violent
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Aha ! So who put the trick in trickle
The wicked capitalists?
The self righteousness and "intellectual" arrogance of the left who always know better than the masses they purport to represent continues to beggar belief.
They are not all lefties either. This bloke should be sacked.
In practical terms, the youth vote only comes out when they see someone who might change something. They don't vote in number for the status quo: they've got nothing (as they see it) so what have they got to lose?
dbphoenix
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Aha ! So who put the trick in trickle
The wicked capitalists?
The self righteousness and "intellectual" arrogance of the left who always know better than the masses they purport to represent continues to beggar belief.
Given the wage stagnation over the past several decades, the trick would appear to be self-evident.
The self-righteousness and "intellectual" arrogance of the right who always know better than the masses they purport to represent also continues to beggar belief.
So equally applicable to the left its become a cliche that the left repeat and repeat. At least as far as the British socialist movement is concerned. As you'll appreciate, this is inherently a deal further left than the US left and has a strong class element.
Mr. Charts
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Like most people my own politics are a mixture of left and right attitudes.
People who adhere scrupulously to one political concept are extreme and partially blinded and usually intolerant of others as a result. Therein lies the danger, left or right. The majority of people are not extreme, fortunately, at least not in this country
Sometimes there are very good arguments on both sides in politics, but give me the middle ground most of the time.
Let's hope a middle ground in found in Catalonia very soon before positions harden even more.
People who adhere scrupulously to one political concept are extreme and partially blinded and usually intolerant of others as a result. Therein lies the danger, left or right. The majority of people are not extreme, fortunately, at least not in this country
Sometimes there are very good arguments on both sides in politics, but give me the middle ground most of the time.
Let's hope a middle ground in found in Catalonia very soon before positions harden even more.
dbphoenix
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Not surprising, given how the working class has been treated over the past two hundred years or so.
Not that any of this has anything to do with the "best PM" in modern times.
Mr. Charts
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Having come from a very poor "working class" background myself, I assure you the so called working class in the UK is not a lumpen proletariat exploited by evil capitalist bosses egged on by monstrous and rapacious Tories.
Obviously some corporations screw people wherever possible, but in my personal experience not to the same extent as in the U.S.
Since Labour has been in power for long stretches in the 20th and 21st centuries the interests of the "working classes" have not been greatly neglected anyway.
dbphoenix
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However, you're talking about less than one lifetime and personal experience. I'm looking at a considerably greater context.
Ingrained notions of white supremacy and class supremacy do not simply "flip"; they linger on, year after year, decade after decade, century after century. Whether a party labeled "Labour" has been in power or not is not necessarily pertinent.
Ingrained notions of white supremacy and class supremacy do not simply "flip"; they linger on, year after year, decade after decade, century after century. Whether a party labeled "Labour" has been in power or not is not necessarily pertinent.
David Knight
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I'll confess that I'm not anywhere near the required level of knowledge on this subject to answer the question on a deeply intellectual level, so everything I say is mostly off the top of my head and for entertainment purposes only.
New Labour was not a Labour gov..
Also , they were all 'competant' because all the ideas and work to carry them out was/ is done by others. Eg Thatcherim wasn't Thatcher's idea.
1 Clement Attlee 1945–1951 Labour
Probably no1 for NHS
2 Margaret Thatcher 1979–1990 Conservative
Good if you enjoy being forced into becoming a conservative by having your industry destroyed, your unions smashed, and your council house sold off to the private sector while being loudly hectored by a man in drag.
3 Tony Blair 1997–2007 Labour
Started out like a pre runner to Obama (real change) The machine quickly turned him into a lying war criminal who refuses to murder himself and give us all a break.
Stiched up Gordon Brown and thought he could make up for it by buying him an ice cream with someone else's money.
What is not to like about a man who wants you to carry an ID card? Who amongst us would not want to be thrown in a police cell and held for 3 weeks without charge for being a member of Green Peace.?
Who wouldn't enjoy snooping in people's rubbish bins and reporting them to the local council for not correctly recycling their refuse?
Who wouldn't want to be frog marched to a cash point to pay a litter fine?
What's not to like about a man who allows UK citizens to be flown out of the country in the dead of night to be tortured by the Americans and then claims to know nothing about it?
A real charmer.
4 Harold Macmillan 1957–1963 Conservative
'You've never had it so good. Coming from a Conservative that sounds like an indictment rather than a recommendation. I guess if you're prepared to exchange an outside toilet for modern day slavery you should be pretty content.
5 Harold Wilson 1964–1970, 1974–1976 Labour
'What crisis'? The man who killed off the pipe smoking industry forever.
Just demonstrates that public service is often found in the most unusual places.
Apart from that, my instinct is that he was a chiselling little crook who was probably wearing stockings and suspenders underneath the Saville Row suit
6 John Major 1990–1997 Conservative
Spitting image- 'These peas are nice dear' sums him up nicely.
The fact that he resorted to calling opponents in his own party 'B******s' shows you how weak he was.(They should have been calling him a B****** if he was a strong leader)
He really should have been a civil servant... or a gas meter inspector.
7 Sir Winston Churchill (1940–1945), 1951–1955 Conservative
Just a movie star really. And only because there was a war. Otherwise just another Tory. Great presence,voice and speech writing.
The kind of person you feel guilty about admiring, bearing in mind the acts of pure evil it was 'necessary' for him to carry out.
8 James Callaghan 1976–1979 Labour
A complete pedestrian masquerading as a school crossing supervisor.
9 Edward Heath 1970–1974 Conservative
'Something of the night' (To quote Ann W. talking about Michael Howard) about this guy. Or- a murdering satanic pedophile. Take your pick.
Did he sell this country to the EU knowing what it would become? During the referendum debates Leon Britton said The Eu was designed to be what it is right from the start.
I absolutely don't believe Leon was a pedophile who lied about the dossier that the home office lost and conveniently murdered himself.
I feel sure he is, even as I type this, sitting in heaven having tea with Lord Janner. Another guy who was not a pedophile and did not get dementia just when he needed it and did not also murder himself right on cue.
These allegations tre false and merely prove that politics is NOT riddled with pedophiles and covered up by others. These ideas are for conspiracy theorists.
People with integrity fall off cliffs all the time. People with integrity committ suicide in circumstances that are the opposite to the claimed facts all the time.
People who predict their deaths and are then found dead in those exact same circumstances are liars.
Just because the official story concerning these and many other stories just like them are riddled with inconsistencies, blatant lies and demonstrable misdirection does not expose the establishment as a corrupt self serving criminal organisation.
Heath was also a fantastic sailor and a great musician.
10 Gordon Brown 2007–2010 Labour
'British jobs for British workers' Where? When? 'An end to Tory boom and bust' ...
How did that work out?
Just like Tony Blair before him. the unelected Gordon Brown put his faith in spin doctors, believing a bunch of words were better than actually creating policies.
He then formed part of the bully boy black mail team to keep Scotland shackled to the UK.
A disgrace to the scottish accent
11 David Cameron 2010–2016 Conservative
Non entity. Would fit nicely in......a filing cabinet.
12 Sir Alec Douglas-Home 1963–1964 Conservative
Fantastic man of the people sounding name. Gave it a year , then probably went back to doing whatever Old Eatonian /oxbridge self entitled ***** do with their time.
13 Sir Anthony Eden 1955–1957 Conservative
Didn't he just spend most of his time in black and white, giving speeches on TV?
I think he just delegated everything and spent most of his time drinking in the club.
Probably the sane club as Lord Lucan
In fact, I have just decided right now.
I'm going to start a you tube channel based on the conspiracy theory that Eden was the guy that actually murdered the nanny and that she was the intended victim all along.
Who wants to read that story? Who wants to take a bet on how many subscribers I get?
Farage is the only politician I have voted for in my life, and it actually worked!!
I really shouldn't be so cynical... on the other hand....
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Fantastic summary David. I just hadn't got round to it but think it wouldn't have been much different. Maybe not so much fun to read.
I would have given some plus marks for Thatcher and Churchill but can't think of any outstanding achievements by the others.
I would have given some plus marks for Thatcher and Churchill but can't think of any outstanding achievements by the others.
