Lefties 7: Simples

If I were advising DC I would tell him to flirt with a ConLab coalition...get NC jealous

youngvisiter - that is exactly it!!

Do you know, our little community messageboard, which usually communicates about lost cats, and fridges for sale, has suddenly erupted with little outbursts of barely repressed political sniping.

Weird.

Apple you are really funny.

Quite agree that none of us planned this. Am not seriously proposing that we stop. Just maybe be a bit careful about not slagging off Tories en masse maybe?

Anyway, who died and put me in charge, eh?

I'd rather not talk about the obituary of GB. Always thought he was picking up a poison chalice from TB. I think he has the character and determination to re-invent himself into a statesman much like Jimmy Carter did.

Well what's the alternative Pol - we all stand in the middle and shout at each other until we go hoarse?

Isn't there some space for threads dissecting the issues in a partisan way?

I'm sorry if the lefty threads are moving faster than the righty ones - but actually many of the threads on politics are tremendously right wing so I don't think you can say that the forum as a whole is unbalanced.

frigging hope that he has balls of steel.

i love how democratic the libdems are...he will have a rough time getting party onside unless he gets substantial movement on electoral reform.

gawd what's wrong with a lefty thread? Its not like we vote on who is allowed to join

how are optimism levels here?

high? i do hope so...all to play for innit.

Against that, Policywonk ...

There is a lot of "interaction" going on, that is, actually quite horrid, and fragmented. and there is a lot of it, and this thread seems to be a bit of a minority place, actually, to escape some actual bile.

I don't know, sometimes one just doesn't feel like someone being utterly, utterly forthright at you. And one knows one mustn't engage with forthrightness, or it will go pear-shaped. so this is a little place of happiness, and mutual comfort.

Political but clearly demarcated as not a bun-fight space. which it otherwise would be, atm.

Or it would be single-issue spread, and not free-ranging, engaging with ongoing events.

Or it would be a-political in content ie "Chat" not "Politics".

NC: does he have balls of absolute steel, do you think? Or is he crapping himself?

I think people are actively disagreeing on these lefty threads just without rancour or flouncing or undue bite.

We sort of started out with a huddled masses response to external stimulae, we occasionally spurt into individual actions (voting, joining, throwing money at problem, posting on other threads (JOKE), over feeding fish)that demonstrate our comittment to the group (well I may be alone on the fish thing), we discussed backgrounds searching for shared values/thingummies, bad things happened to people, good things happened to other people and the external stimulae keeps throwing us curve balls and so we huddle back round the fire to try figure it out.

But imho we are disagreeing alot.

pwonk, yes, I see. Have we really been slagging them off though? And quite a considerable number of us here talked fairly extensively as wankers anyway.

I don't feel triumphant, nor that the talking itself is. It's just exciting and we feel the need to share/make sense/be part etc.. There was no intentionality in the threads, just a 'place' to be I think...

policywonk Mon 10-May-10 22:35:43

very reflective post IMO.

Ah, Westminster Hall on Newsnight. I love that place.

What course are you doing, Ewe? Sorry if you mentioned it before and I have forgotten.

I looked into OU courses but they are ££££ when you are abroad. Might think about them next year if DH gets his bonus.

Do you think the country in this present conundrum so that mumsnetters can keep talking about politics?

Nah, didn't think so myself either.

I think that the GB-haters are getting really wound up that he is leaving office with purpose and dignity and purpose. Those who have hounded him can't bear it....

animula - it's a howling political wilderness out there, with many lost souls searching for something to hold onto in the storm.

At least here in the lefty tent we have our charcoal brazier and each others' warmth for comfort.

And Pol's communal fridge of course.

I feel a bit sorry for all the journos and politicos: they just all look KNACKERED. Gove on the Newsnight trail had that 'if I blink I'll fall asleep' look. And Michael Crick looks like he needs a holiday.

Bless.

Well OK the lefty thing

a) MN is an unrepresentatively lefty place I think. Which of course is one of the reasons I like it so much. But there is an element of, um, triumphalism about having many many fast-moving lefty threads.
b) Like it or not, MN is Watched by other media outlets, and having so many lefty threads makes it even harder for MNHQ to argue that it is organisationally neutral (no reason why most of you should care about this but they pay me money )
c) One of the great things about MN is that it forces you to interact with people whose opinions are diametrically opposed to yours. I think that's an intrinsic part of MN and a really important one. Having hived-off areas that are effectively off-limits to non-lefties isn't in the spirit.
d) When we start slagging off Tories on here, lost of posters (who are lurking but not posting) experience it as a personal attack, but feel that they can't respond.

Prolesworth - oh yes. It's pretty mellow in here. there are a couple of good-natured threads out there, but at least one other that is v. v. something.

Oh boy. It's the obituary for Gordon's political life on R4 atm. Which is a bit sad.

DaveHameron - he is losing it, isn't he....

Twitter is reporting Boulton having had a go at Ben Bradshaw also this evening...

AppleTreeWick Mon 10-May-10 22:25:17