To think that my DH and I are growing apart due to political differences?

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DH and I met 15 years ago. We were both fairly liberal and centre in terms of politics and subsequent discussions were amicable. Fast forward all those years and he’s turned more to the right, whereas I’ve gone more to the left.

We differ now about almost everything: Brexit, refugees, unions and strikes. I feel that he’s become a real Tory bore to be honest. Has this happened to anyone else? Obviously we do try and be respectful of each other and have good debates about politics but fundamentally I feel that we aren’t as close as we once were. He’s a lot older than me too and he has become cynical, grumpy and argumentative whereas I’ve got a lot more energy and vitality to me. Sometimes I really crave a decent left wing professor to spend my evenings with. (Partly joking about that, but you get the gist)

And it's basically just the same poison the likes of the Daily Mail, Daily Express and the Murdoch papers have been putting out for decades only in TV/radio talk format.

Yeah, imagine actually having to live with someone who actually watches that shit. My blood pressure would be through the roof!!

For some of us, it is important that we are able to feel respect for our life partners. It would be very difficult to retain any respect at all for someone who actively chooses to get their information about the world from the likes of GB News and the Daily Fail.

I think traditionally the Tories manage the economy well enough but in doing so public services get underfunded and then it takes a lot of spending (usually by Labour) to try and catch up. It's like when a football club stops investing in players and falls down the league and then has to buy a new team to compete. Maintenance of the country falls down as well as they know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

However, their management of the economy has been poor since 2010. Austerity was a bad policy, particularly the targets of the cuts while the rich got tax breaks. It was a decade of decimating public services and pay freezes and growth got badly stunted (and it did start with the 2008 crash pre-Tory government).

Then the national self-harm of Brexit which just compounded all the above.

It would be very difficult to retain any respect at all for someone who actively chooses to get their information about the world from the likes of GB News and the Daily Fail.

Exactement. It's not even 'news' - it just 'how best can we own the whinging lefty libs today something something Rivers of Blood'. They literally haven't got anything else except an obsession with how best to shoe horn 'woke' into any kind of 'analysis'. Christ, GB News was even too much for flaming Andrew Neil to stomach, and that's saying something.

All the right have got left is culture wars because their policies have failed spectacularly since 2010.

GB News will just go after the left and 'woke' this and 'woke' that because they've got no policies left to defend. They were all over the Truss budget at the time as the best thing ever.

I think this thread is a good illustration of how difficult it would be for two people with opposing political views to live harmoniously without it making both of them very upset 😬

Yeah, that didn't last long!

As a leftie I like Andrew Neill. He likes facts, and is a great journalist. I used to enjoy watching him on the BBC and will, very occasionally read him in the Daily Mail for his insight.

The point is that right and left used to co exist okay. You just agreed not to talk about it. Now it's like "approve my views or you are a delusional piece of...".

This seems to be on both sides.

The point is that right and left used to co exist okay.
Anyone old enough to remember Alf Garnett?

Get rid. Old Brexit bore.

Alf Garnett was a satirical racist. I'm not saying people didn't disagree- only that they managed to put it aside, mostly.

Now you have GB News which is the Alf Garnett Channel

The left and right have always been polarised. Industrial strife in the 70s or the rise of the National Front. Thatcher in the 80s and the miner's strike. 90s and 2000's less so because New Labour were very much centre ground anyway, so there wasn't really a left and the Tories were out to pasture. There was barely a difference between Blair and Major.

Starmer if he wins will pretty much run from a centre ground and the Tories again out to pasture for a bit which might keep the left and right quiet. The right will stay in their Murdoch/Mail/GB News echo chambers and the left the same, although the left do not have the same mainstream news outlets for that.

What on earth would Alf Garnett make of Rishi 😂leader of his beloved Conservative party!

No wonder he ran unopposed in the last leadership election. Truss the previous go round was always beating him with the members, despite being a first class clown.

I guess I'm moderate as I don't really identify with all the Tory boys but also don't seem to agree with the stances most of my Labour supporting friends hold, which tend to be leaning more towards socialism than capitalism.

I'm not particularly materialistic, but I just hate the handout mentality so many people seem to have. I grew up in a smallish town and smoked a lot of weed throughout my teens and twenties, mainly because it helped with my ADHD and looking back my depression which I thought I'd overcome was actually worse than I realised. However, I was always a hard worker and had quite a few mates who weren't stoners.

Fast forward a decade and lots of my former stoner friends haven't really progressed in life. I sort of moved on but still see them in the pub when I go home and hear about them from mutual friends. Many seem to have a bit of disdain for the people we know who became successful, but honestly most of the latter were decent people who worked hard, unlike many of my stoner mates who won't work about x hours for fear of losing their benefits.

As I get older I don't really want to fund lazy fuckers like them tbh. I've no issues with people who genuinely need help, but it's hard for outsiders to really tell, so you can't remove support without fucking over the genuinely needy.

Like my mate's brother. Almost 40 and living back home and smoking weed all day whilst claiming benefits for mental health issues, despite not being prepared to stop smoking. His mum told him he had to move out a few years back and he got a job, progressing to supervisor in a year. However, he then got the sack for repeatedly not showing up after getting pissed the night before. Now he's back home and claiming he can't work.

My lefty mates tend to think I'm callous but I much prefer a system based on individual merit than everyone thinking they deserve to be equal without equal work.

'work more than x hours' that is.

I don't know if it's still the same but for years many didn't want to go above a certain threshold.

The left absolutely have main stream outlets. The Guardian and the BBC/C4 are decidedly left leaning - at least in the cultural sense. And they're far more influential than their more rightist counterparts - in fact they don't really have counterparts. Perhaps the Times, in terms of prestige?

One good thing that GBNews is doing is platforming the GC side of the trans issue. Its a wide and deep matter with all sorts of implications and deserves a proper airing of 'both sides' views and concerns. Mainstream outlets have picked a side already.

I am a passionate advocate of politics being boring, and I hope we can return there someday, so I'm definitely with you in hoping the next government is centrist and we can all be apthetic again (Remember the 90's generation being accused of being apathetic and unengaged? Happy days!)

He’d probably fit in well on MN then 😂

The Guardian are pretty disingenuous at times too. Can't remember if it was on here or elsewhere but I remember a story in the past few weeks where they were talking about how much one of the royals made, but conveniently not mentioning that they don't get to keep the money.

Can't remember the specific details but that was the gist. They were basically shit stirring to get a kneejerk reaction.

I agree - they all do it. Which is fine, in non taxpayer funded media, who have a duty to strive for impartiality.

People are quick to spot fudging & nudging language and omissions in the likes of the Daily Mail but less quick to accuse Guardian for eg of same.

The problem is we all have different outlooks on life, different experiences which make us prize certain values higher than others. We all have to live together, so we might as well come at it with good faith and honest conversation. Because the alternative is what?

We don't discuss it much, I only listen to current affairs in the car. We don't listen/watch it at home we very rarely argue over politics.

I don't really like greedy corporate fatcats but the venom reserved for successful white males is a bit offputting to me in many cases and seems quite common from the left.

I work with a lot of successful small business owners and most are decent hardworking people. I feel like reducing people to stereotypes rarely ends well and there's a lot of it in these ideological isms.

I'm not a fan of identity politics for that sort of reason.
You think you know a person from their age/sex/race/accent - it gives you some information but definitely not all, so you shouldn't stereotype. Accommodations should definitely be made to those who need them, but not blanketed because whatever distinction you make, there's more diversity within than between.
That makes me right wing these days, though I still believe limiting big corporations, good working conditions, and providing quality public services. Same as I did 20 years ago!

Sounds pretty much the same as my perspective.

I think often the Guardian and BBC fudge their coverage and create the narrative they want by not mentioning certain facts of subjects, so it's harder to spot. They are good at creating plausible deniability.

The fact is that even papers like the DM have some good writers and have received journalism awards - they've done some great coverage on women's issues, frankly far better than BBC or the Guardian.