Politics

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rockfreak
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Re: Politics

Post by rockfreak »

Of course there will always be contact networks of some sort everywhere, but they still seem to be more pervasive in this country. It's worth quoting what's shown in what's called the Gini Co-efficient Index of distribution of income, where Britain (and indeed America - that other great exemplar of Friedmanite laissez-faire capitalism) show up badly against other more social democratic models in Western Europe, particularly Scandinavia.
sejintenej
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Re: Politics

Post by sejintenej »

rockfreak wrote:Of course there will always be contact networks of some sort everywhere, but they still seem to be more pervasive in this country. It's worth quoting what's shown in what's called the Gini Co-efficient Index of distribution of income, where Britain (and indeed America - that other great exemplar of Friedmanite laissez-faire capitalism) show up badly against other more social democratic models in Western Europe, particularly Scandinavia.
The network of les Grandes Ecoles in France is all pervasive - unless you went there just forget it.
As for distribution of capital it is the visibility in the UK/US which is visibe. Here you will see grim looking semi-rundown buildind but inside is a palace. In some areas there is a market in rundown "CVs - look dirt cheap so the owner's fortune is invisible so he/she doesn't get the wealth tax. At the bottom end of the scale outsiders don't get in the house which looks nothing so the rates are kept down. I know Milan is the same so I expect that that property attitude exists in Italy
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
fra828
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Re: Politics

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rockfreak wrote:Did anyone see the boy Hilto's remarkable appearance on Newsnight this week? What a performer. The pale blue top to match the melting pale blue eyes. The "Aw shucks, I'm so hurt for the plight of the ordinary guy" demeanour. The squirming shoulders to match the bleeding heart sentiments. This is the guy who was polishing Cameron's fake one-nation Toryism credentials (greenest party ever, hug a hoodie, etc) before the election while also plotting £26 billion of social security cuts. But of course some might say this is what boarding school teaches you. Soft voice, nice manners, sophistry, evasion, and, in the end, an ability to even deceive yourself perhaps. Unfortunately, the old boy network after school means that these sort of people inexorably find their way into positions of influence. Why are people taken in? I remembered something in Brideshead and there it was when I got out my dog-eared copy. Anthony Blanche is giving chapter and verse to Charles on what he calls our weakness for English cream cake charm. I'm a dago, an outsider, he says, so I can see it. It doesn't exist outside this soggy isle.
Steve Hilton was on Andrew Marr show this morning also. These social security cuts really rile me too, my daughter who is disabled, has seen her daycentre close, and respite cut as it's been taken over by a private firm and they can seemingly do what they want, charge way over the top prices and get away with it.
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J.R.
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Re: Politics

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I'm willing to bet that their first budget wll be an absolute stinker for Mr Average Working-Man in the street is concerned.
John Rutley. Prep B & Coleridge B. 1958-1963.
rockfreak
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Re: Politics

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fra828 wrote:
rockfreak wrote:Did anyone see the boy Hilto's remarkable appearance on Newsnight this week? What a performer. The pale blue top to match the melting pale blue eyes. The "Aw shucks, I'm so hurt for the plight of the ordinary guy" demeanour. The squirming shoulders to match the bleeding heart sentiments. This is the guy who was polishing Cameron's fake one-nation Toryism credentials (greenest party ever, hug a hoodie, etc) before the election while also plotting £26 billion of social security cuts. But of course some might say this is what boarding school teaches you. Soft voice, nice manners, sophistry, evasion, and, in the end, an ability to even deceive yourself perhaps. Unfortunately, the old boy network after school means that these sort of people inexorably find their way into positions of influence. Why are people taken in? I remembered something in Brideshead and there it was when I got out my dog-eared copy. Anthony Blanche is giving chapter and verse to Charles on what he calls our weakness for English cream cake charm. I'm a dago, an outsider, he says, so I can see it. It doesn't exist outside this soggy isle.
Steve Hilton was on Andrew Marr show this morning also. These social security cuts really rile me too, my daughter who is disabled, has seen her daycentre close, and respite cut as it's been taken over by a private firm and they can seemingly do what they want, charge way over the top prices and get away with it.
UK Uncut has done several sit-down in the road in London demos in support of the Disabled People Against Cuts over the months. I talk to parents and helpers who are incandescent about what is happening and it isn't helped by a nasty and sneering popular press.
dsmg
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Re: Politics

Post by dsmg »

Big shift to the left here in Spain in the municipal and regional elections, Freaky. Corruption and cutbacks have finely caught up with the ruling right party and people are fed up. The 2 party system which has been the order of the day since Franco died looks to be over as new ´people's` parties have suddenly arrived on the scene. The general elections in November should be very interesting as the old guard try to hang on to power for dear life by discrediting the newbies.The Podemos party which was only founded in 2014 now have a large number of seats. After doing well in the European elections after only 4 months in existence they seemed to have cooked their goose especially with Greece's similar Syriza party having lots of probs but they have resurged and seemingly will now have mayors in both Barcelona and Madrid, albeit through pacts.
Power to the people :rock: :snakeman: :rolleyes: :drinkers:
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Re: Politics

Post by jhopgood »

dsmg wrote:Big shift to the left here in Spain in the municipal and regional elections, Freaky. :rock: :snakeman: :rolleyes: :drinkers:
I think you will find it as more of a protest vote than a permanent change.

In my village of about 300, PP have been in power since Franco. This year, a group of young villagers put together a party and the former council, both PP and opposition, put forward no candidates from the village. All the PP on the list were non villagers.

The young party got 92% of the vote with only 14 villagers voting against them.

Yet in the regional elections, PP got their normal 50 - 60%.

The towns and villages are electing people rather than parties, but at regional and national level, I doubt whether much will change.

I saw the opposition and likely next mayor of Madrid on TV last night, and she claimed to be apolitical.
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J.R.
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Re: Politics

Post by J.R. »

Once again Freaky. It's nice to be able to totally agree with you on this subjec of this goverments treatment of the disabled. Our youngest daughter in her mid 30's is registered as disabled with a crumbling spine after what I term to be a bodged operation. She receives maximum D.L.A., but has TWICE had it stopped in the past. I handled her appeals on both occasions, winning both, with the Judge at the second appeal hearing advising the DWP exactly what she thought of them.

I bet if it had been 'Call-Me- Dave's' daughter, it never would have happened !!
John Rutley. Prep B & Coleridge B. 1958-1963.
rockfreak
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Re: Politics

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J.R. wrote:Once again Freaky. It's nice to be able to totally agree with you on this subjec of this goverments treatment of the disabled. Our youngest daughter in her mid 30's is registered as disabled with a crumbling spine after what I term to be a bodged operation. She receives maximum D.L.A., but has TWICE had it stopped in the past. I handled her appeals on both occasions, winning both, with the Judge at the second appeal hearing advising the DWP exactly what she thought of them.

I bet if it had been 'Call-Me- Dave's' daughter, it never would have happened !!
It's disgraceful, isn't it. Trouble is that there seems to be a kind of media black-out on this issue unless you read the Guardian or catch the occasional TV documentary when someone blew the whistle on Atos, the French firm who had been appointed to decide whether disabled people were fit for work and were operating a thoroughly unreliable tick-box system which saw large numbers of the decisions then overturned on appeal.
rockfreak
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Re: Politics

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Freaky gets another of his letters into the Guardian today, 28 May - under the heading "Tory yarns on economy carry grave risks for UK". I'm challenging the Tory claims that they're historically better on the economy than Labour. On another tack, I wondered what would happen to the School lampoon in Private Eye now that the Lib Dems are out of the picture. I visualised either a Govian free school or a nutcase creationist institution. Well the new edition shows that it's The Cameron Free School (formerly Coalition Academy) and who should get a good old slagging off under "A Message from the Headmaster" but Steve Hilton. "Mr Hilton, you may remember," says the Beak, "was a close friend of mine and an advisor to the headmaster's policy unit, where he sat looking out the window at the blue sky, trying to think up ideas. Like so many of my close friends he turned out to be rather an unreliable sort."
rockfreak
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Re: Politics

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Coming back to the subject of disability, the political and economics correspondent Aditya Chakraborty has a hard-hitting feature in yesterday's Guardian (9June) titled "Disabled people have become human collateral in an ideological war".
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Re: Politics

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Freaky gets another of his missives into the Guardian Letters page today (Sat 5 Sept) under the heading "Will Atlas shrug in the face of Corbynomics?". In it I suggest that while QE for the people might be considered, it may be a better idea to tax the rich (especially Banker Brown).
rockfreak
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Re: Politics

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Posh public schoolboys, the Bullingdon, Piers Gaveston, pigs heads, loads of champagne, insulting the poor........it's like going back eighty years to the time of Brideshead, isn't it? Does anything change in this country?
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J.R.
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Re: Politics

Post by J.R. »

rockfreak wrote:Posh public schoolboys, the Bullingdon, Piers Gaveston, pigs heads, loads of champagne, insulting the poor........it's like going back eighty years to the time of Brideshead, isn't it? Does anything change in this country ?

Nowadays, CH pupils may enter Horrsham in civvies, whereas, in ours, smart housey uniform was the order of the day, and you might just hear some of the local town waqgs saying something along the lines of.... 'The penquins are in town !!'
John Rutley. Prep B & Coleridge B. 1958-1963.
rockfreak
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Re: Politics

Post by rockfreak »

Sisters Uncut disrupt the opening of "Suffragette" in the West End tonight. Great stuff girls. The fight goes on. But there seemed to be a lot more coverage on social media than the national news channels. I maintain that the BBC lost its bottle after the Andrew Gilligan affair and never recovered it - constantly looking over its shoulder at the right-wing press.
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