General Election UK, June 8th...

[pErvinalia]

The Tories have been getting more and more right wing for quite a while now. It was always said that they support a strong health system and welfare state. Not any more. They are certainly to the right of the Dems.

[Scot Dutchy]

When did they say that? Probably Heath may have said it but it was only a rumour. The NHS has always suffered when in tory hands. Once again Labour failed to move it out of the political arena but Labour in Britain has always failed as in changing the electoral system.

[pErvinalia]

They say themselves that they don't support privatising the NHS. But that's clearly a lie given their actions over the last decade or so.

[Alan B]

Well, I've just filled in my postal vote. It was a toss-up between the Green Party and Labour. I used to vote Lib-Dem, mainly because I couldn't see the difference between the other two main parties - they both fucked things up when they were in power. But the actions of Clegg in the coalition left me feeling disenfranchised - he had the reins of power in his hands and he let them slip through his fingers.
So I opted for Labour (my constituency is presently Labour held). If the Greens do well in the GE, I might go for them next time (if I'm still around).

I know under this stupid FPTP system my vote may not count for much, but anything to help get these fucking Tories out.

[Forty Two]

The Tories have been getting more and more right wing for quite a while now. It was always said that they support a strong health system and welfare state. Not any more. They are certainly to the right of the Dems.

Now they're to the right of the Democrats, and here I thought the American political spectrum was so far to the right of the civilized world that it was like we were living in our own little bubble. Now we have the Brits being all fascist with us? Whose next? The Ozzies and the Canucks? I bet they'll be getting all fascist soon too.

[NineBerry]

I think he was referring to the "Liberal Democrats", a party in the UK, not the US Democrats.

[pErvinalia]

The Tories have been getting more and more right wing for quite a while now. It was always said that they support a strong health system and welfare state. Not any more. They are certainly to the right of the Dems.

Now they're to the right of the Democrats, and here I thought the American political spectrum was so far to the right of the civilized world that it was like we were living in our own little bubble. Now we have the Brits being all fascist with us? Whose next? The Ozzies and the Canucks? I bet they'll be getting all fascist soon too.

In all seriousness, the rightwing of most Anglo countries has been getting disturbingly extreme over the last decade or more. Putting aside the current random policy generators that are the Australian conservatives in power, our conservatives have been running to the right for a while now (the current lot are trying to be both extreme right and sensible centre at the same time, since the budget was announced a week or so ago). Same in the UK, and of course we know the nutbaggery that is the US Republicans. Same with Harper in Canada too, as far as I understand.

[pErvinalia]

I think he was referring to the "Liberal Democrats", a party in the UK, not the US Democrats.

No, I'm talking about the US Dems. They are centre right. Not sure if the Tories could have been called centre right at all in the last 10 years or so, but they probably were centre right at some point in time.

[Scot Dutchy]

Centre right? Maybe in America but here we dont have a right wing party that is anywhere near them the Dems. Even our VVD would be the liberal left in America and our Socialist Party would be far left of the American communist party. In Anglo-Saxon countries politics has been jogging to the right for years and it has not been noticed by the populous. European politics on the other hand has more or less remained where it always was. Brexit will be ideal for us to dump these right wing sentiments that Britain was trying to infect the EU with.

[Scot Dutchy]

Why are the elections not being delayed? This bomb attack in Manchester has let May and the tories off the hook. Her lead was down to 9 points now they have raised the security level to max and brought out the army. How bloody convenient for the bitch.

[Alan B]

What I find odd is that the security services 'knew' about this person but were not able track his movements to prevent his suicide attack.
Lack of personnel due to Tory 'austerity' measures?

[pErvinalia]

Yeah, it's a bit depressing.

[Brian Peacock]

The Tories have been getting more and more right wing for quite a while now. It was always said that they support a strong health system and welfare state. Not any more. They are certainly to the right of the Dems.

Now they're to the right of the Democrats, and here I thought the American political spectrum was so far to the right of the civilized world that it was like we were living in our own little bubble. Now we have the Brits being all fascist with us? Whose next? The Ozzies and the Canucks? I bet they'll be getting all fascist soon too.

The general political climate of West is shifting towards the authoritarianism which relies on economic insecurity, a sense of personal peril, and scapegoating.

[Scot Dutchy]

The Tories have been getting more and more right wing for quite a while now. It was always said that they support a strong health system and welfare state. Not any more. They are certainly to the right of the Dems.

Now they're to the right of the Democrats, and here I thought the American political spectrum was so far to the right of the civilized world that it was like we were living in our own little bubble. Now we have the Brits being all fascist with us? Whose next? The Ozzies and the Canucks? I bet they'll be getting all fascist soon too.

The general political climate of West is shifting towards the authoritarianism which relies on economic insecurity, a sense of personal peril, and scapegoating.

Please dont use big brush strokes Brian. The Anglo-Saxon countries yes. Europe is a different place which is one of the reasons the UK wants to leave.

[Svartalf]

Not so sure, following the Manchester attack, the French president wants to prolong the emergency state that's due to finish on June 30 and has been going fon for years already, and to create an 'anti terror" task force that would answer directly to him... that guy looks to me like a tyrant in the making.