Election 2019 (with Prediction Poll)

Johnson mentioned i think it was letterbox when referring to member of an audience wearing a full face veil. taking away the comedy element, i thought Johnsons questioning was bang on. Guess that makes me an islamaphobe.

 

So where was the comedy element?

 

I think Emily Thornberry was part of the duo when she said she wouldn't want her kids being taught by someone in a burka or her mum being looked after by someone wearing one.

And if I am being honest neither would I. A teacher/student relationship should not take place behind a veil.

 

Wearing a face veil makes you look a little bit like a letterbox. Which it does.

 

Life shouldn't take place behind a veil. Honestly, its the 21st century but you wouldn't think it sometimes.

 

Funniest thing I've read in ages. Made me laugh out loud.

 

Abbott having a brain rest after doing the sums for Labours manifesto,

Lady Nugee (Emily Thornberry) probably bound and gagged in Labour HQ

 

If you mean the female Reece Mogg i'll gladly give her somewhere to hide...

 

I didn't read it at the time and unlike some on the left try not to be unnecessarily tinfoil hat about this kind of thing but the stuff buried on page 48 of the Tory manifesto is quite disconcerting.
https://www.indy100.com/article/page-48-tory-manifesto-general-election-judiciary-courts-constitution-9234351
More likely Cummings' doing than Johnson's, basically grants them more power than any government should be allowed to have.

 

Within this specific context, the subtle difference between racism and islamophobia is irrelevant (and also a pretty massive red flag when people try to point this out).

I’m not trawling the internet and showering you with links to various articles, we’ve all got better things to do. The literal leader of the party literally last week apologised for the presence of islamophobia, let’s not deny the obvious: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50576508

 

I still think it’s more likely than not that we see a Conservative majority - but there are still a lot of undecided voters out there that are tending to break in Labour’s direction because they tend to be Remain voters that are working out whether to hold their nose and vote Labour or vote Lib Dem. The Lib Dem vote is, for various reasons, plummeting.

They might run out of road, but we’re currently within a normal margin of error through the polls as they stand of a Corbyn led government or a huge majority.

 

No, it really isn't.

I'm 63 and have been around Labour Party members and supporters all my life. I can honestly say that I have not met one Labour Party member who is anti-Semitic.

Of course I'm not saying that there are no anti-Semites in the Labour Party. But the suggestion that Labour has a bigger issue with anti-Semitism than any other party or section of society is nonsense.
There are, unfortunately, a small number of far lefties who've joined the LP in recent years who believe all that claptrap about global Jewish capitalist conspiracies to take over the world. They are completely unrepresentative of the wider membership and are despised by the vast majority of ordinary decent LP members.

The media has focused relentlessly on the issue, whilst paying very little attention to the much bigger issue of racism in the Tory Party. The media has steadfastly refused to debate the distinction between antisemitism and opposition to the current Israeli government - seemingly happy to see the two things conflated to make the anti-Semitism issue appear much bigger than it really is. Corbyn has compounded the problem by his feeble handling of the matter and reluctance to identify and expel the tiny but vocal anti-Semitic minority. This has played into the hands of the very conservative Jewish establishment figures, such as the Chief Rabbi, who are not politically neutral, who view any justified criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic and who are keen to keep fanning the 'Labour is institutionally anti-Semitic' flames for political ends.

Labour party members are, by definition, left-leaning and are therefore, unsurprisingly, inclined to be critical of nasty, oppressive, right wing governments around the world. This includes countries like Burma, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey and numerous others. Unfortunately, the government of Israel under Benjamin Netanyahu is a nasty, oppressive right wing regime, so it's hardly surprising that many Labour Party members are critical of it. This does not make them anti-Semitic, nor opposed to the existence of the state of Israel. It simply makes them critical of current and recent Israeli political actions.

I don't know much about LP Friends of Israel but I understand it is their apparent reluctance to criticise oppressive/illegal Israeli actions that causes many LP members to view them with suspicion. So being unsupportive of Labour Friends of Israel does not, in itself, make anyone anti-Semitic and there are many Jewish LP members who don't support them.

When LP members criticise Zionism they are criticising extreme suppression in Gaza, discrimination against Palestinians in Jerusalem and, most of all, the continued illegal annexation and colonisation of Palestinian territory on the West Bank. Being critical of these things is not anti-Semitic. Nor is it denial of Israel's right to exist. I have several Jewish friends who are vehemently opposed to, and critical of, these actions and the right wing orthodox thinking that fuels them. Are they anti-Semitic too?

 

You mean until Johnson abolishes the Courts' constitutional role in challenging illegal government activity, thus paving the way for his elected dictatorship, I presume.

 

Pots. Kettles.

 

So who's gonna win then? What do the prediction polls say?

 

Think this election particularly it feels very difficult to say. I think two things feel pretty certain:

1. The Tories will get more votes nationally than Labour

2. Pretty much anything below an outright majority is effectively a defeat for the Tories

The big unknowns are:

1. How are the votes distributed geographically? If we see support for one party concentrated more than normal in an area of the country they’re already strong enough to win in anyway, then that spells trouble for them. We could end up with the same vote shares as last election but a wildly different outcome. Our daft electoral system puts an incredibly tiny margin between stunning victory and catastrophic defeat. This is the biggest unknown of the lot.

2. How many more Lib Dems are going to vote Labour and bring Labour closer.

3. We haven’t had a winter election in recent times. How will this play out?

It feels like Labour need to squeeze a bit more out of the gap between now and next Thursday if they’re going to force a hung parliament, but it’s in the balance. I’d say probably 75:25 at this stage in favour of a Tory majority.