Westminstenders: Dear Santa for Christmas I'd like...

[RedToothBrush]

The ERG to be the grinch that stole the Tory Party Christmas who ultimately get what they deserve.

To remain in the EU

Donald Trump's impeachment

For politics to be boring again

A trex toy for my son

For me it's not Corbyn's policies, it's that he's inept. He can't drive the conversation.

I can fault him @DGRossetti . He knows he'd be shit on TV so he leaves Keir Starmer to Don the heavy lifting. There's keeping your powder dry and there's running scared.

frankie My dislike / distrust of Corbyn is based on observing him since he became an MP in 1983,
at a time when the press paid far less attention to him
Not on what they say about him now

I have non-tactical reasons for hoping Scotland chooses to Remain in the UK.

However, it would be most unfair and insulting - to both countries - to keep Scotland tied to us, merely because England on its own can't be trusted 🤔

If Scotland does leave, of course they'll lose their (VERY limited) vote on what the UK does,
just like the UK would lose its vote (much more influential - winning 95% of the time) in the EU, if it Brexits

Vote for what you want, rather than for a cunning plan.
Leave that for Baldrick

I must say that Corbyn's performances in the HoC and throughout this Brexit quagmire have thoroughly lived down to my worst expectations of his very limited ability.

He is very poor at managing the PLP and the Shadow Cabinet.
Reading out prepared speeches to at the Shadow Cabinet colleagues is all very Soviet-like;
it's supposed to be a forum to discuss the issues

I will carry on believing that most Leavers equate FOM with brown faces and stop there.

Of the leavers I know (rural north of England) it isn't so much the skin colour as the accent. One (scarily deluded) person was very angry the day after the referendum result was announced because he genuinely believed that having won the referendum all the "foreigners" would be kicked out of the country THAT DAY.

I didn't canonise Corbyn - just said I can't fault a decision to steer clear of the MSM unless and until it serves some purpose.

Seems a lot of what people distrust about Corbyn could also have been levelled against a former IS THIS THE MOST EVIL MAN IN BRITAIN ? winner - Ken Livingstone.

Now cuddly Ken I do know something about, as a 6th former. He accepted the Young Socialists invitation to speak (he was GLC leader at the time. The Tory invitee never responded). He had just been demonised for supporting the IRA. Which he happily discussed at the talk he gave - and managed to not only challenge, but make me revise my views. Something I have never forgotten because in essence it turned out he was 100% correct, and as soon as we started negotiating, things started happening. The takeway message being that what people say people say, and what people say, are two very different things.

It's a source of regret that I never saw Tony Benn - who also accepted an invitation to speak.

What happened to playing the ball not the man ?

Of the leavers I know (rural north of England) it isn't so much the skin colour as the accent.

One guy I used to work with often grumbled that walking up the road (into Redditch) all he could hear was Polish being spoken.

(Same guy who - aged 36 - was proud he'd never been to London.)

Of course, it will come as no surprise to anyone here that not only did he not know the Polish fought for us in WW2, but that there's a London landmark to it (near where I grew up). No traffic report used to be complete without a reference to The Polish War Memorial.

I rose to the top of his shit list when we took on some developers and I brushed up my Hindi. (I've forgotten most now but I knew some Polish as my DF had a Polish employee for a while. And a Jamaican. And several Indians ....)

Where I lived in N England, part of the community wanted the road signs to be printed in Urdu. This I would not support.
I think it partly came about as women were not learning English for 'traditional' reasons.
If I live in a country with a 'foreign' language I expect to have to learn to speak and read it.

The issue I have with Corbyn is that he's just not that great. He's good doing speeches to crowds of supporters but his performances at PMQs are not that good.

The other day TM said that a Labour government would crash the economy and destroy jobs. Instead of standing up and saying no it's this Tory government's brexit policy that will damage the economy and destroy jobs he just started reading from his script.

He is also more interested in gaining power and becoming PM than stepping up and trying to find a way for the damage of brexit to be averted. All he talks about is wanting a GE. That's when he says anything. I've never known an opposition leader to be so quiet.

I’d want those women to be encouraged to learn to speak and read English for their own safety and protection too.
They and their children are much more easily subjected to domestic abuse if they are kept isolated.

I accept that Corbyn's views may have been misquoted or misreported, but for me the probem is what he has not said. It's the sitting on the fence and the reluctance to robustly oppose TM on Brexit-related issues that will prevent me for voting Labour at the next GE.

I also don't get the "when Corbyn has a chance to appear on MSM". McDonnell is there all the time..it makes me suspect this is not anti-Labour bias, but yet another failure to engage on JC's part.

I find people who.don't like hearing languages that are not English odd. Do they never go to Wales? Their head would explode if they lived in a country like South Africa which has multiple official languages.

When I lived in Germany I was quite capable of conversing in german but if I was with an english friend them we would naturally talk in english. It would be rather odd not to.

I wonder how many Brits living in Spain speak spanish with each other (or at all).

Where I lived in N England, part of the community wanted the road signs to be printed in Urdu.

Considering English is the most widely spoken language in the world, one thing that gives me an irrational rage is the amount of money wasted on grandstanding language services in the UK. I'm sure the money saved from scrapping such fripperies could go into providing EASL courses across the country.

If nothing else, it might reduce the scope for some abusers to dominate their victims.

(I write this knowing that since 1962, my DF has never once been offered an interpreter, or translated official document having left school aged 14 (in Italy) where there was still a struggle to teach kids Italian, let alone English.)

Corbyn is great TV because he is a car crash. I don't think he's struggling to get on air any more than i think he's keeping his powder dry.
He has nothing to offer that is of any use which is why the Labour minions keep him off TV

I find people who.don't like hearing languages that are not English odd. Do they never go to Wales?

Probably not. (I love popping across the border ...)

I wonder how many Brits living in Spain speak spanish with each other (or at all).

On honeymoon, I met a guy who had lived there for 10 years, and who genuinely couldn't speak Spanish - it was cringeworth as his English wife (who had learned) had to speak for him. Meanwhile I was having a right old laugh with a bar owner who could speak Spanish, French, English, and curiously German. Hearing a Spaniard speak German to a German is an experience and a half.

I’d want those women to be encouraged to learn to speak and read English for their own safety and protection too.

Whilst they should be encouraged to learn English, the sad fact is that trapped in their in laws house - as many of them are - they are simply not allowed out or given the opportunity to do so. The men want to keep them unable to speak English and the women have no power and no access to help to learn themselves. Having a few signs that they could read may actually help them to integrate and pull away from the way they are trapped at home. It would help them navigate the place better and so be more independent - allowing them opportunities to find people who can help them. Their families wouldn't like it but it would make things much better and safer for the women (and their children).

In an area with a high population of Urdu speakers it could go a long way to helping women who find themselves in a strange country living with virtual strangers who may or may not be kind.
Of course - if the women in question were mirpuri speakers (as many of the families I used to work with were) it would be no use - it is a language that has no written form.

The issue I have with Corbyn is that he's just not that great. He's good doing speeches to crowds of supporters but his performances at PMQs are not that good.

I don't think a good PMQs performance is what makes someone a good PM.

Being good at PMQs matters. You get your team behind you and they take your message to tbe country.

Whilst they should be encouraged to learn English, the sad fact is that trapped in their in laws house - as many of them are - they are simply not allowed out or given the opportunity to do so.

Which is a criminal offence. When the police have stopped people calling each other names on Twitter, this might be the next place to put some resources ?

The men want to keep them unable to speak English and the women have no power and no access to help to learn themselves.

They should have the power and the majesty of the law.

I am sure I am 100% wrong - I usually am. But it's possible that one reason why Farage and his fandom were able to get as far as they did is the fact it was possible to interpret the way things are in a manner that supported their assertions. In this case the pandering or kowtowing to other cultures above and beyond whatever the indigenous culture of the UK is.

one reason why Farage and his fandom were able to get as far as they did is the fact it was possible to interpret the way things are in a manner that supported their assertions

I agree with you here. I also remain convinced that another part is that those wanting to discuss impacts of immigration (such as whether or not immigration from eastern Europe was helping to suppress wages and increase house prices) were shouted down as racist. No doubt some were indeed racist. But I'm not sure they all were.

I also remain convinced that another part is that those wanting to discuss impacts of immigration (such as whether or not immigration from eastern Europe was helping to suppress wages and increase house prices) were shouted down as racist.

Which is SOP for the lefty left lefties, from my experience. So ironically, they're partly to blame. Especially trying to police language.

corbyn is not an extremist - we really shouldnt fall for that slur.

i'm not disagreeing with other criticisms but will observe again that the implied job description is that we want blair #2

(i also lived in london in the days of red ken - was very happy with what the glc did for london)

on this government's watch the pride, esteem and goodwill of 2012 has been transformed into bigoted laughing stock and our claim of 5th largest economy is now 7th and falling. They're getting away with it and its not corbyn's fault.

Corbyn is happy to cosy up to extremists . Tbe "cool" "edgy" ones. So he looks "good" for tbe "kids" .
Poor judgement in that means poor judgement in everything.
It's not about building a dialogue of you only talk to one extreme.

i also lived in london in the days of red ken - was very happy with what the glc did for london

Fairs Fare !!!