Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
News
Original poster

I just agreed with Eric Pickles. What do I do now?

12 replies

ThingOne · 17/04/2009 20:43

I'm a lifelong liberal and EP was one of my favourite hate figures in the Eighties. I've just agreed with him on Any Questions over D Green. What should I do? Shoot myself now? Or feel glad that EP has shown, briefly, some common sense?

OP posts:
lalalonglegs · 17/04/2009 21:11

Oh God, that would be like me snogging Norman Tebbit. I think shooting yourself is the best course. You'll find yourself getting misty-eyed about Keith Joseph before you know it.

hester · 17/04/2009 21:24

Oh ThingOne, I'm so sorry you're going through this. Do you have anyone to support you through this difficult time?

JuliaBM · 17/04/2009 21:37

I don't know what EP got up to in the 80's [how much have you changed since then?!] but I consider myself a liberal [not libertarian] and as a mum I have felt in recent years that the Tory Party is the only one that realises that we should be bringing up our children, not the State. So put the gun away and be glad - I hope we will see / hear more common sense in the months to come!

Original poster
ThingOne · 17/04/2009 21:54

My DH just laughed. He can't remember Eric Pickles from the Eighties as he's not as much of an anorak as me. I put away the shot gun and took out the wine. I found it a useful support.

OP posts:
noonki · 17/04/2009 22:10

is 'judge pickles'

if so step slowly away from the tv otherwise before you know it you will start thinking that maybe thatcher had a point....

GivePeasAChance · 17/04/2009 22:19

You have got to that middle aged political cross road and you may very well follow many middle aged-ers and begin down the route signposted 'tory'. Its all down hill from here on in. You know very well what newspaper you will be reading soon

Original poster
ThingOne · 17/04/2009 22:46

Well you know, Margaret Thatcher would never have ...

... accepted me as a member of the Tory party.

OP posts:
Original poster
ThingOne · 17/04/2009 22:50

Eric Pickles was the leader of Bradford Council when the Tories were in charge. It was their only inner city council at the time (apart from London). I think it had a zero poll tax, like Westminster and Wandsworth.

He's not Judge Pickles who is now long retired.

OP posts:
edam · 17/04/2009 23:02

What did Pickles say?

I'd suggest a combination of feeling glad while worrying about any incipient signs of age-related drift to the right.

Obviously it's easy for the Tories to sound sensible about D Green - whole thing was ludicrous - but some of them are pretty decent in terms of civil liberties. My MP was a Thatcherite minister who was pretty nasty about single parents and other groups not beloved of the Tories in the 80s, yet has an impeccable voting record on ID cards and all the other Labour attacks on our rights and freedoms. Took up the case of the poor baby denied formula in an immigration detention centre when I asked him, even though it wasn't in his constituency. Surprised me how helpful he was given his past.

dweezle · 18/04/2009 08:07

Remember the old adage 'If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain.'

lalalonglegs · 18/04/2009 09:45

Brainless and proud of it

extremelychocolateymilkroll · 19/04/2009 00:06

Remind yourself of the horlicks he made of trying to defend having a second home on Question Time a few weeks ago.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page