I think blaming everything on Tory party infighting is to miss the point. Yes that fighting has been endemic since Major's time and grown steadily, bu...
What Trump and other populists give people is what they feel they want. ie feel, from their uneducated fear-propelled guts. His means is to exploit ba...
We wouldn't. It's the Scots and N Irish who may force the situation.. As for an independent East Anglia. That includes me too! but it's one of the mos...
Actually I was considering the idea of England being separate to the other countries in the UK completely regardless of Brexit. Yes the leaver-envisag...
Why would the end of the Union be bad for England. Both Scotland and N Ireland (and I'm sure Wales) are subsidised by the English tax payer. By leavin...
Do you mean 'the end of the union'? And that that's a good thing? I think a Tory majority and leaving the EU would certainly add to pressure for a 2nd...
The latest polls show the Tories cracking 40%, Labour cracking 30% and the Brexit Party down at 5%. It looks more like the old 2-horse race now. Farag...
Just to be clear: the populism I'm talking about is that espoused by Trump, the Brexit Party and others who promote nationalism at the cost of demonis...
I don't think the mean income has any meaning in a distribution where the high figures are so huge compared to the lower ones. What are the actual fig...
I think that's too black and white. It ignores the huge bulk of the middle class, who are not 'suffering' and who have aspirations to be richer and mo...
I think the governing principle is not whether there is a deficit, but how large it is, and whether it is less than the rate of inflation. So if infla...
Given the withdrawal deal will be signed, sealed and delivered by then, what exactly is the cliff edge at the end of 2020? Is it just no trade deal - ...
That sounds a bit unfair. As the junior partners in the coalition govt the Lib Dems could not hope to get all their manifesto pledges into the joint p...
In the UK, after the 2008 crash we had an election in 2010, and the new coalition govt was open about the need to restore the public finances. This le...
Perhaps 'preaches fear' is the wrong term. What it does is demonise foreigners and whip up alarm that 'they' are out to take 'us' over, subject us to ...
Not sure what Overtone Window means! I guess the Third Way worked well under Tony Blair - until the 2008 crash. Since then ordinary people have strugg...
Yes, but it doesn't 'strive to appeal' in my view. It latches onto base fears, exploits and manipulates them with half-truths and lies; and its aim is...
Are there any left-wing populists ? I'm a Brit, so my knowledge of Trump is limited, but isn't he a free-marketeer? He's not a Democrat.. Here the rig...
I think Michel Barnier has Boris's measure. He said that when the Brexit deal talks re-started he did not think Boris was serious about wanting a deal...
I think that is the view of a significant minority of remainers - me included. We are bowing to the need for compromise and a resolution to the proble...
Surely Labour's 2010 defeat was down to the crash and their spending almost bankrupting the country - also to the fact that no-one thought Brown was a...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-50043549 This includes BBC polling (albeit from mid-October) on whether leavers/remainers have changed thieir m...
I think your first point is probably true - of the leaver Conservatives anyway; and as they've overrun the Remainers they hold sway now. I've never be...
So what is your definiton of 'populism'? I see it as the politics of an - invariably figure-head lead - party whose one aim is power, and whose tactic...
I would answer your outcry simply: Welcome to populism! It's taking over the politics of the West, largely stoked by globalisation and the fears of im...
If a referendum has 3 options, none will get a majority. Where do you go then? I think you misunderstand what leavers are all about. The idea that now...
I'm afraid I see polls like this as pointless. Remainers want another vote, leavers don't, so why even ask the question? Basically, it's close to 50-5...
I think many voters naturally mistrust Labour spending pledges - ie how will they be paid for? I don't trust his Brexit solution will work, and I thin...
You mean you're surprised? Sorry, but you're in for another 5 weeks of that from all sides. Well, maybe the Greens will talk a bit more about reality....
I'm no economist, but in a trade deficit situation, money is flowing out of the country and goods coming in. The money doesn't depreciate - infact it ...
I think the House of Commons is the law-making body and any referendum is only advisory. Of course the House can promise beforehand to enact the decis...
Sorry, but I don't understand what you say: Do you mean a meaningful (parliamentary) vote on Corbyn's new deal or the existing one? If which referendu...
By 'balance out' I meant that the nett of gains/losses will be the same for each side - not that neither side will gain overall. However if you think ...
I think they mean: taking back control of immigration, law-making, saving the money we pay the EU etc. Trade deals are surely a huge red herring in th...
He wont get a pact, the Tories have made that clear. I doubt he'll stand down his candidates either. So they'll be demonised over and over as risking ...
As I said in an earlier post. No. Corbyn's renogiated withdrawal deal will include the customs union, single market etc, and for leavers be akin to no...
Nice as it would be I fail to see how Labour's Brexit policy (or anyone else's) can bring about a national healing process. Brexit is so divisive prec...
Some leavers justify their stance as 'to get our country back'. It's hard to fight against such meaningless generalisations, which are based on 'feeli...
I don't think Farage any longer represents the majority of Eurosceptics. I read a poll saying 2/3 of Brexit Party members prefer the Tory govt deal to...
The analysis of a pollster on Newsnight last night was that any Brexit Party success is more likely to hurt Labour than the Tories, so Farage's 'threa...
Farage is already getting desperate and having to put up candidates for every seat. No sign of the Tories wanting a pact. They will push hard with 'a ...
I cant see voters wanting another 6 month delay for ref2. Even if they swallowed that, the result will almost certainly be close and the arguing will ...
Isn't that what David Cameron tried before the referendum, and came back effectively empty-handed? The UK has no power to influence the EU to change, ...
I think that working out a structure for AI in principle is meaningless. You need to consider practice based tests like the Turing test. The advanced ...
No God; just genetic inheritance and evolutionary principles.. My ability to conceive a perfect circle although none can ever exist is a function of a...
I think that the qualia sense of experience is crucial. Without it there can be no consciousness nor free will. You need some externally derived drive...
Assuming Sinn Fein win back their current 7 seats, and they don't take them, and allowing for the Speakers & deputies who don't vote, the total is 640...
Well it's gone through now. Dec 12th it will be. I must admit that after hearing the result of the 2017 election I did not believe a Brexit deal could...
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