nickie on 3/12/2019 at 18:00
I'd like to give you a sensible answer but I don't have one, I just don't like Labour much right now.
I was wrong about most parties other than the top two being in the 100s but Greens haven't a hope in hell so I won't really be voting for them. Labour did well between 2015 & '17, up 10.5% to 20.2 share but despite what SD says (which is correct) I don't think they'll get close enough to either Plaid Cymru or Lib Dems at 29.2 and 29.0 respectively. I expect I'll make my mind up next Thursday. It's going to be quite novel to vote again anyway.
Edit. It may just come down to the number of less than honest claims by each party as to how I end up voting.
caffeinatedzombeh on 3/12/2019 at 19:50
Yougov's prediction is PC32/LD22/CON21/LAB13
Electoral calculus are predicting PC24/LAB22/CON22/LD21
So pretty close.
If you're planning to vote for the least full of shit one then it's a shame MRLP aren't standing there this time
Nameless Voice on 3/12/2019 at 21:39
Well, obviously I have no real stake in the election (I don't think Ireland will be too heavily affected regardless of outcome), but I have been following it a fair bit, watching on in interest with the metaphorical bowl of popcorn as though it's some kind of soap opera.
As I've said before, I can't understand this really persistent message that every side is awful and that there's a huge amount of dishonestly on each side.
Boris Johnson is, of course, hugely dishonest, being on record as having lied repeatedly, with verifiable falsehoods. So have a few other Conservative MPs.
But the others? I haven't really seen it.
Especially from Corbyn, who seems to be really disliked by a lot of people for supposed dishonesty. The problem with Corbyn was never that he was dishonest, the problem was that he was too honest. He doesn't want to tell outright lies even if would benefit him to do so. The only really dishonest thing I've seen him do is repeatedly refuse to explain his position on Brexit because he knows whatever he says will offend some potential voters - a lie of omission rather than a direct falsehood.
A huge reason for why he's so unpopular on Brexit is because he doesn't really like the EU, and even though he says he voted to remain in the referendum, he just isn't very enthusiastic about the EU in the first place. (Something I strongly disagree with him on, as I believe in the EU, and that the future of humanity has to be through unity not through xenophobia and racism.)
It bothers me that there's so much focus on the supposed dishonesty when I never actually see proof of that dishonesty.
It just diverts attention away from what should be actual discussion - policies.
If people want to hate Labour because they disagree with their policies? That's fine.
But hating them for something that they haven't actually done, for lies and slanders spread by a press with a vehement hatred for anything slightly left-leaning? That's the wrong reason to do anything.
Now, I'm obviously extremely biased (having been accused of being "so far on the left that everyone else seems like the alt-right"), but I can kind of look to the UK with a sense of hope, because there they have an actual left-leaning party with a chance of gaining real power, when there's nothing even remotely like that here in Ireland.
We don't have anything as bad as the British Conservatives here, but instead we have the same two parties of corruption, greed, mismanagement, and corporate self-interest who have been taking turns at being in government for almost the entire duration of the Republic.
Even though we somehow have what is possibly the best electoral system in the world, there are simply no left-wing parties here with even the slightest chance of getting in. Our Labour party was completely decimated and barely has any seats, our Green Party are tiny, and the other "left" parties are basically comic relief who don't really believe in anything.
I'd like to see real choices here, choices like the people of the UK have in this election, and which they are most likely going to waste.
nickie on 4/12/2019 at 11:36
My last comment was prompted by, almost immediately after posting, reading an article about sketchy Lib Dem ads. As far as honesty/dishonesty is concerned, I agree with you. Apart from Boris, I don't think anyone is particularly deliberately dishonest. Maybe a bit sloppy occasionally. My negative feelings about various parties are not to do with that. It's much more to do with me and my depression.
I've voted once for Conservatives, once for Greens, once for Liberals, the rest for Labour starting with Wilson. Maybe I'll get a chance to go with MRLP next time. Thanks for the info, zombeh. I am going to start paying proper attention now.
Nameless Voice on 4/12/2019 at 12:32
Oh, you're right, I'd forgotten about the Lib Dems' dishonest ads, though they're nowhere near as bad as the Conservative ones have been.
My bigger worry with them, if I were a voter, is that I could see them propping up a minority Conservative Government in exchange for a promise of a second referendum, since their policies and values are much more closely aligned with the Conservatives than with any of the other parties. That would mean supporting Boris Johnson for Prime Minister, and, eww.
caffeinatedzombeh on 5/12/2019 at 13:52
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
It bothers me that there's so much focus on the supposed dishonesty when I never actually see proof of that dishonesty.
It just diverts attention away from what should be actual discussion - policies.
If people want to hate Labour because they disagree with their policies? That's fine.
But hating them for something that they haven't actually done, for lies and slanders spread by a press with a vehement hatred for anything slightly left-leaning? That's the wrong reason to do anything.
There's no place for hatred in politics (not really anywhere else either).
Calling them liars and disagreeing with their policies are much the same thing, much of what they lie about is the effect of their policies which are largely drawn up with similar level of maths to my 4 year old nephew.
This week for example
"We estimate that – just looking at some of our policies – Labour’s plan for real change could save families over £6,700 a year." - John Mcdonnell
(
https://fullfact.org/election-2019/labour-claims-about-savings-under-their-policies-are-not-credible/)
Nameless Voice on 5/12/2019 at 19:49
The single most depressing line in that entire article:
Quote:
Only 5% of people use the train three or more times a week.
This planet is doomed.
Nameless Voice on 8/12/2019 at 20:43
I was watching the "Everything But Brexit" debate this evening, and one thing that really resonated with me (because it's something I've frequently wished for myself) is when Adam Price of Plaid Cymru talked about how he'd once proposed a bill to make it a criminal offence for politicians to lie while in office. Obviously, it didn't pass.
Things like this should be the basis of democracy in this misinformation age. Surely everyone, regardless of political views, should agree that politicians should be held to a higher standard and there is never any excuse for them to lie to their own people?
But, of course, the people who would have to pass such a law are the least likely people to want such a law.
Pyrian on 8/12/2019 at 21:07
Problem is, you can't really pass such a law, anymore than you can pass a law that pi=3. All you can do is pass a law that makes it illegal to say things some government process declares aren't true. AKA China.
I dunno, man. Something needs to be done about the weaponization of bullshit, the wholesale creation and repetition of competing narratives rooted in lies. But I do worry that if you try and legislate it, it's not the true narrative that's going to be enforced.
robthom on 9/12/2019 at 03:21
I reckon it kind if depends what your economy is and what your going to do without yourself culturally.
I always wondered what England does for a living?
Theres the BBC, but its not a worldwide hollywood level media powerhouse.
I'm not familiar with any manufacturing?
And I would ask peopel that question in comment sections for years and could never get an honest answer.
And then I stumbled on this free documentary on youtube the other day,
(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np_ylvc8Zj8)
I dont know if its true or not,
I dont live in England,
but it says that England has basically become a world banking based economy.
Just greasy getting a bankers cut out of world currency and economy.
Which I think to myself,
would explain how England always seems to be culturally tied to New York liberalism and Wallstreet in America.
Maybe the biggest banking and financial capital of the world for a few decades
So from that POV,
it makes me think it depends on what are you going to do with yourself culturally.
To pay the bills.
And maybe America has some soul searching to do about that also.