Are political threads allowed?

  • Sorry just one more quote, one that I think sums up the state of UK politics, as represented by the 2019 election choice of Johnson and Corbyn, commented on by Cummings -


    "Any system which gives a choice between 2 people like that to lead is obviously a system that's gone extremely badly wrong. There are so many thousands of wonderful people in this county who could provide better leadership."




    Abandon all reason

  • There needs to be a special prison built to hold Boris Johnson, Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Ted Cruz, and all the scum who have shown that they are willing to be treasonous in order to push their personal agendas at the peril of the citizens of both the United States and Great Britain. The lies they have spewed regarding the coronavirus over the last 15 months have been directly responsible for the deaths of thousands, if not millions of lives, and there are still those people who admire and trust these idiots who had no plan to protect the most vulnerable among us, and ultimately don't care about anyone but themselves. I spit in their face. What bothers me even more is it appears nothing is being done to make sure they pay for their crimes. I did hear this morning though that the Manhattan attorney general is convening a grand jury to perform a criminal investigation into Donald Trump and his family.

  • I'll be passing on spectacle of the the fickle left wing media fawning over Doms tittle-tattle after they spent month after month losing their hinges over a car journey to a castle. Why people waste their life watching and commenting on this infantile nonsense is beyond me. Political commentator must be one of the most useless occupations ever invented, essentially carving a living out of agitating the public with pointless gossip. They'll drag it out like Plebgate of course, 24 hour news must be fed.

    You have a point. I can’t understand the weird national obsession with Dominic Cummings, a successful campaigner & unsuccessful political adviser whose enemies seem to think he’s Voldemort. In a real own goal, Channel 4 (one of the many media outlets who get so riled by him) even made a TV drama in which he was played by Benedict Cumberbatch, giving him the sort of cachet associated with genuises like Sherlock Holmes & Alan Turing. Why don’t people just ignore him rather than let themselves get so wound up? It's almost as if it gives them a perverse pleasure..... It's baffling to anyone who doesn't really care about him!

  • There needs to be a special prison built to hold Boris Johnson, Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Ted Cruz, and all the scum who have shown that they are willing to be treasonous in order to push their personal agendas at the peril of the citizens of both the United States and Great Britain. The lies they have spewed regarding the coronavirus over the last 15 months have been directly responsible for the deaths of thousands, if not millions of lives, and there are still those people who admire and trust these idiots who had no plan to protect the most vulnerable among us, and ultimately don't care about anyone but themselves. I spit in their face. What bothers me even more is it appears nothing is being done to make sure they pay for their crimes. I did hear this morning though that the Manhattan attorney general is convening a grand jury to perform a criminal investigation into Donald Trump and his family.

    Branding Boris as the same as the other 3, and in particular Trump, is a little over-the-top, IMO. Don't like him, but Trump is a whole several layers below him.

    Ian


    Putting the old-fashioned Staffordshire plate in the dishwasher!

  • I was gonna wade in, but I think you've covered most of it, near enough anyway.

    Ian


    Putting the old-fashioned Staffordshire plate in the dishwasher!

  • You have a point. I can’t understand the weird national obsession with Dominic Cummings, a successful campaigner & unsuccessful political adviser whose enemies seem to think he’s Voldemort. In a real own goal, Channel 4 (one of the many media outlets who get so riled by him) even made a TV drama in which he was played by Benedict Cumberbatch, giving him the sort of cachet associated with genuises like Sherlock Holmes & Alan Turing. Why don’t people just ignore him rather than let themselves get so wound up? It's almost as if it gives them a perverse pleasure..... It's baffling to anyone who doesn't really care about him!

    It amuses me that anyone is taking any notice of him. A few months back, he was public enemy no 1, now, people are hanging on the every word of this "fact-established" liar. If you stood near him, I suspect there'd be a faint smell of sour grapes.


    Cummings or Hancock? It's not even a contest.

    Ian


    Putting the old-fashioned Staffordshire plate in the dishwasher!

  • I've seen a few of these comments along the lines of "first they hate him, now they love him, aha, gotcha", which as a position is a gross oversimplification.


    Clearly, this is someone with a self-serving agenda and by all accounts he has some sort of god complex. He has a reputation of thinking himself superior to all the human dross around him, which is possibly why he made a couple of attempts to downplay that characteristic in his statements to the committee. I didn't like him when I became aware of him and I still don't.


    I have no doubt that yes, he is spurred on by resentment that he was dispensed with. But it's more than disingenuous to simply dismiss what he is saying in its entirety or reduce it to mere 'tittle-tattle.' However poor his judgement was in doing so, Johnson chose to put DC at the heart of government, where he was still in place during a national crisis. Dislike DC as I do, I find it hard to simply wave away all 7 hours of testimony and documentation as pure 100% fabrication, coming as it does from a person who was central to government during the critical period.


    I've made no secret on this forum how much I detest the current UK government, so of course I myself stand to be dismissed with "Ah, you just love that he gave them a kicking". If what he said is even just partly true, it gives me no pleasure to learn what a shit-fest we have at our helm. I live here, for fuck's sake. And "all governments are full of incompetence, just accept it" doesn't cut it, especially under the current circumstances, and is the worst, most lazy-thinking kind of shoulder-shrugging.


    Government isn't easy at the best of times, let alone in a health crisis, I get that and I accept mistakes will be made. But if there's any truth in what Cummings said, it goes beyond struggling through as best they could. The UK had a widely admired pandemic protocol in place. There are countries on the opposite side of the world who adopted it and had relatively few deaths, pound for pound, and are astonished that the originator of the plan they used didn't bother with it. Why didn't we?


    Despite DC's reputation, as someone who was in the midst of government during covid the volume and detail of what he said should not be dismissed. To do so is at best delusional, at worst to disregard that thousands of deaths might have been avoidable but for government action. If Cummings is right, Johnson is accountable for his actions. If everything he presented is a total fabrication, Johnson is accountable for his woeful judgement in recruiting someone who'd do that and placing them at the top and centre of government.


    But of course, probably nothing will happen. We are long past the time when senior politicians resigned for lesser misdemeanours than Johnson would be accountable for if even 10% of what Cummings said was true.

    Abandon all reason

  • We all have our opinion, and here in So Cal Johnson is known as the British Trump. He has let it be known that he has a fascination with Trump. Just as Tony Blair was George W. Bush's puppy dog, Johnson plays into Trump's antics in quite the same way. Johnson's in the same mold as Trump, IMO.

  • We all have our opinion, and here in So Cal Johnson is known as the British Trump. He has let it be known that he has a fascination with Trump. Just as Tony Blair was George W. Bush's puppy dog, Johnson plays into Trump's antics in quite the same way. Johnson's in the same mold as Trump, IMO.

    Well, of course, I have to allow for the fact that you are fed by US media outlets. ;)

    Ian


    Putting the old-fashioned Staffordshire plate in the dishwasher!

  • I've seen a few of these comments along the lines of "first they hate him, now they love him, aha, gotcha", which as a position is a gross oversimplification.


    Clearly, this is someone with a self-serving agenda and by all accounts he has some sort of god complex.

    Maybe he has, but then if the entire media was obsessed with endlessly reporting my every word, deed & thought I reckon I’d be entirely justified in having a god complex! Just ignoring him, or at least keeping things in proportion, would be the most effective way of ensuring it withers away, so surely it’s worth a try?

  • Well, now that the Republican senators have blocked the investigation into the January 6 insurrection, IMO they have committed treason. If a foreign country had invaded our Capitol building they would have definitely voted to investigate. What a bunch of chicken shit cowards. Not one of them deserves to be a representative of the U.S. government. It's obvious to me that they are all self serving pieces of crap.

  • Well, now that the Republican senators have blocked the investigation into the January 6 insurrection, IMO they have committed treason. If a foreign country had invaded our Capitol building they would have definitely voted to investigate. What a bunch of chicken shit cowards. Not one of them deserves to be a representative of the U.S. government. It's obvious to me that they are all self serving pieces of crap.

    Not just a foreign country. If Antifa or BLM had done it... ironic, given that some of them seem to think the rioters WERE Antifa & BLM & not their own precious supporters.

  • Maybe he has, but then if the entire media was obsessed with endlessly reporting my every word, deed & thought I reckon I’d be entirely justified in having a god complex! Just ignoring him, or at least keeping things in proportion, would be the most effective way of ensuring it withers away, so surely it’s worth a try?

    My point was that whatever his shortcomings are, and clearly they are many, as someone who was brought into government at a senior level and was there during a crisis his testimony can't simply be ignored, certainly not by the parliamentary machinery if not by the media.


    From what I understand, his inflated view of himself precedes his involvement in brexit and Johnson's government.


    Even if what he has said, and the evidence he's presented, is partially flawed why would you want the issues he's referred to, to wither away?

    Abandon all reason

  • My point was that whatever his shortcomings are, and clearly they are many, as someone who was brought into government at a senior level and was there during a crisis his testimony can't simply be ignored, certainly not by the parliamentary machinery if not by the media.


    From what I understand, his inflated view of himself precedes his involvement in brexit and Johnson's government.


    Even if what he has said, and the evidence he's presented, is partially flawed why would you want the issues he's referred to, to wither away?

    Because all the attention just inflates his feelings of self-importance/messiah complex, the Covid enquiry when it comes needs to examine the issues he’s raised but in a more measured & less hysterical atmosphere than currently prevails, and finally because I’m not obsessed with, & am therefore sick to death of hearing about, the wall-to-wall coverage of Dominic Cummings!

  • Well, it seems I’m likely the only conservative on this board so I’ll keep my political opinions to myself. On music boards I’ve visited, my experience is “You’re welcome to share your opinion and perspective unless you profess Christianity or are a registered Republican.”


    It’s sad how politics spoil everything, even fans of the same bands. I’ve watched some ugly exchanges online on music forums.

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    Well, it seems I’m likely the only conservative on this board so I’ll keep my political opinions to myself. On music boards I’ve visited, my experience is “You’re welcome to share your opinion and perspective unless you profess Christianity or are a registered Republican.”


    It’s sad how politics spoil everything, even fans of the same bands. I’ve watched some ugly exchanges online on music forums.

    Well like you Art, I’m relatively new to this forum, and it seems like as long as you keep the content within the appropriate thread and things stay respectful, they don’t get on your back about what is discussed. I kind of like that because if you censor a thread about politics, then someone will squawk about the thread about colors or favorite meal, etc. I know Christian will redirect if a thread goes sideways (I’ve been redirected once or twice already). I’ve been purposely avoiding posting to this particular thread not because I don’t have any views, but just that I look at this forum as an escape to all the political BS that surrounds us. To each their own, but I joined the forum to talk about the band we all love and music in general. This particular thread feels tense to me as soon as I click on it and start reading posts, so I’d just as well like to stay neutral. I’d rather have a spirited discussion about Genesis rather than haggle over what politician is the biggest tool of the day today.

  • Well like you Art, I’m relatively new to this forum, and it seems like as long as you keep the content within the appropriate thread and things stay respectful, they don’t get on your back about what is discussed. I kind of like that because if you censor a thread about politics, then someone will squawk about the thread about colors or favorite meal, etc. I know Christian will redirect if a thread goes sideways (I’ve been redirected once or twice already). I’ve been purposely avoiding posting to this particular thread not because I don’t have any views, but just that I look at this forum as an escape to all the political BS that surrounds us. To each their own, but I joined the forum to talk about the band we all love and music in general. This particular thread feels tense to me as soon as I click on it and start reading posts, so I’d just as well like to stay neutral. I’d rather have a spirited discussion about Genesis rather than haggle over what politician is the biggest tool of the day today.

    I hear ya, brother. Even a tiresome Phil vs. Peter debate isn’t half as bad as politics! My buddy at work, my very best friend in this life, is a Bernie Sanders guy and left of center. I’m a conservative to the core, but we have really civil discussions about how BOTH sides are nuts now and I think when we try to avoid preaching, we get somewhere. But on the Internet there is that anonymity that makes people’s civility melt like magma!

    • Official Post

    I hear ya, brother. Even a tiresome Phil vs. Peter debate isn’t half as bad as politics! My buddy at work, my very best friend in this life, is a Bernie Sanders guy and left of center. I’m a conservative to the core, but we have really civil discussions about how BOTH sides are nuts now and I think when we try to avoid preaching, we get somewhere. But on the Internet there is that anonymity that makes people’s civility melt like magma!

    Indeed! Liquid hot magma, as Dr. Evil would say!