To wonder where the normal people are?

I don’t think so but of course opinions might vary!

I'm sure you're not a nasty spiteful woman!!

You wouldn’t be the first to call me the latter! I’d actually be more upset at being called a nasty spiteful woman because that’s the complete opposite of what I am - or at least I think so. 😉

I would call that “robust language “ of the sort you get in Parliamentary debates. Do you remember when…was it Alan Clark ..was accused of being “economical with the truth” because you’re not allowed to accuse someone of lying in the Houses of Parliament?

if I said you were a nasty spiteful woman (which I’m very much NOT saying!😄 ) that wouldn’t be nice but calling you an effing cow or a bitch would be totally out of order. I think it’s that kind of difference, but as you say, we may have to agree to disagree.

I think there is a vast difference between politicians sniping at each other and normal people sniping at them. Politicians know each other and it’s more similar to bitching at school or the world’s most unregulated workplace.

Ordinary people actually have more need to be represented in policy than to whinge about personality but that isn’t how human beings operate, of course.

Thinking we know politicians personally and looking for faults of character or lapses in their agreement with ourselves individually so we can be offended is nuts - the faults alare irrelevant if they can unite and govern a country. There seems to be some weird belief that a politician must agree with everybody in all ways and it is not possible. Nobody should be killing politicians, or harassing women’s meetings, or firebombing their houses, because they disagree with their ideas.

Should we be allowed to complain endlessly about politicians? Yes. Should we think that complaint is grounds for trying to hurt or harass either politicians or others we don’t agree with on individual policies? Obviously not.

I think I've always been left-leaning normal. Been nudged over towards the right in recent times, but certainly not to extremes. Sadly my DH, never previously interested in politics at all, must have read a random article about Kier Starmer a year ago and then another and another, until all of his algorithms fed him more and more. Now all he watches is GB News and YouTube right-wing "journalists" and grifters, slags off the government and refers to boat people. He's not in far-right territory, but he's not far off. He gets so irate about it all I do is nod and smile.

I have attempted to assert a central opinion or argument but get shouted down, so I don't bother anymore. I hope he tires of it soon.

I blame social media.

See, I disagree. I think “pathological confidence trickster” is bloody appalling so we’re going to have to agree to differ.

I can’t bear R-M but I think that’s true. In fact - I think he’s quoting another source. It does seem true that the right merely think the left are wrong, while the left actually hate the right with a vengeance.

Trope, not trip.

Autocrrect is definitely scum!

No - the terms scum and vermin are extremely scurrilous, insulting and extreme. You often hear that trip about someone having something up their arse, implying stuffiness or pomposity- it’s fairly mild really. And accusing someone of being pompous is hardly like calling them scum.

Plus - it’s one thing for a politician to have a go at another politician- see M Thatcher and the savaged by a dead sheep remark - but labelling part of the electorate or in fact anyone from an opposing party as vermin or scum is of a different order.

Can’t believe I’m about to quote Jacob Rees Mog but when you’re right you’re righ. Saw an instagram clip of him saying people on the right think people on the left are wrong but people on the left hate people on the right and the left have a real intolerance problem so I can’t say I’m surprised.

Completely agree.

I don’t think calling someone an incoherent windbag is much better and a pathological confidence trickster certainly isn’t. Not much wit involved either. Surely the principle is whether insult is acceptable or not?

I think this as well.

I think it's social media, their dire educational systems, lack of media control and everything having been made poltical. As you say in person lovely people.

On-line they think the default is US culture and it's assumed it applied here as we have the same language and for some reason many of todays poltican in uk seem to go along with this.

I was horrified at number on left in US who were fine with the Charlie Kirk shooting - that bad for both sides and anyone who puts forward a public opinion someone could take offense to.

I'm center left - and increasingly feel there's no-one to vote for.

I also think Anglea Raynor is a poor example of a politician - you should be able to disagree and be civil not resort to insults.

Yes - that’s the sure sign of a wrong’un - the sort of person who would have signed up to be a concentration camp guard or a medieval torturer. They walk among us.

@BIossomtoes

😄. Thanks - but I’d say those are very mild compared to vermin and scum!

Almost witty and much more articulate.

Hiding from the political lunacy. In real life. At the library or work. Avoiding the angry and hoping for the best.

The extremists from both sides are the loudest and least tolerant. My politics are left of center but I find it easier to discuss politics with moderate right wingers because so many on the left seem to have lost their minds.

The left believes I'm a hateful bigot/fascist because I don't believe humans can change sex. I don't even know any out and proud Restore/Reform supporters but I do understand how they are made.

Unfortunately the noisy ones are reshaping politics to polarise us even more. Normies need to unite to restore some sanity.

From the other direction

Pompous, trite, high-sounding, cautiously guarded… he might as well have a corn cob up his arse. (

Neil Kinnock is a windbag whose incoherent speeches spring from an incoherent mind.

A pathological confidence-trickster.

You’ll find many examples of the ancient art of political insult here. The quality of wit has declined though. https://stephenliddell.co.uk/2020/06/10/british-political-insults/

I’m trying to be fair-handed here but it does seem hard not to conclude that these OTT insults do tend to come from the Left.

Is that fair? Does anyone have examples of Tories using this kind of language towards Labour supporters? I mean - in public discourse, not in the pub in a private conversation.

It was always thus. Nye Bevan referred to the Tories as vermin 80 years ago. You’re referencing people right at the outer edges of politics @wherearemypeople. They’re the left wing equivalent of Tommy Robinson.

To be fair, the rise of the extreme left cannot be attributed to this.

What do you find 'tiring'?

It’s a fundamental mistake to call these people by political labels.
They are mentally unstable people, who are latching into politics.

Sane left wingers need to detach from the unstable voices swamping them.

look what has happened to the Pride movement: the mentally unstable latched onto a sane group, and have in effect destroyed its credibility.

we have highly vocal mentally unstable people destabilising our country in many ways.

giving a voice to anyone and everyone means the lunatics take over the asylum.