Gorton and Denton, what have you done?

[Imdunfer]

You have elected as an MP to stand in the UK&NI parliament a person who said in a panel interview with Annabel Tiffin from BBC Northwest Tonight that the Manchester Arena bombing was caused by people sewing division by questioning immigration.

That statement is so outrageous I don't even know where to start.

Starmer should be ashamed of himself. Put himself and his needs above the needs of the people of Gorton and Denton. Andy Burnham would have made an excellent MP again.

I think this sums up where a lot of us currently are politically.

Labour aren’t likely to get another term (and probably rightly so), the Conservatives were dreadful in their last terms in office.

I’m not sure I can wholeheartedly support any political party at the moment. But if I had to pick, it would have to be the Green Party.

I’d like to vote Liberal Democrat but they’ve become so quiet locally you’d be forgiven for thinking they were extinct.

Polanski is a snake oil salesman and very much not to be trusted

the Greens rely on the section of the liberal left who don’t question the tribalism of Israel bad/Palestine good, whilst knowing nothing much about it, nor having any views on the many other genocides and other atrocities in the world. It’s all TWAW and other tropes beloved of people who live in ivory towers

I don't think @thisist is coming back - too cowardly or simply unable to articulate?

I would gladly stop most immigration overnight but:

There was a lot of low-level anti-Muslim sentiment in schools in the 00s. Jokes about all Muslims being terrorists etc., spurred on by "edgy" sectors of the media. I'm hardly surprised that some Muslims growing up in that environment turned to extremism.

If we are to have immigrants we should be integrating them. Whereas a lot of what happened after 9/11, the rhetoric around the wars in the Middle- East, policies around domestic terrorism, was very successful in making Muslims feel marginalised.

My feeling about the greens policies are that most of them are good, as in they come from a place of ethics and morality, a focus on the environment and the people, a focus on moving closer to Europe, offer a welcome change. I don’t agree with everything- I don’t want self identification of men saying they are women, but this is one issue and as we know policies do get u turned or adapted in a way to best suit the feeling of the country.

I haven’t read anything about ‘open borders’ but do agree with them that we need a better way to handle migration than what is happening now- I have no problem at all with skilled ‘outsiders’ living in this country and working here and contributing to our economy, and the systems in place to support that properly.

I also like how they would stop the first past the post voting system we have and make sure the NHS and education improves.

I don’t see how greens are crazy for actually being decent human beings and wanting to put people’s needs and the environment first???

Wow! I personally think the Greens taking this seat is fantastic news. I do not agree with all of their views but it’s refreshing to see them at least be able to answer yes or no to a question where slippery Keir couldn’t! Watching Hannah Spencer talk she is so right about so many things and totally gets how disenfranchised working class people feel about cost of living these days.

This should be a massive wake up call for Labour, but they’ll stick their heads further in the stand. Keir will go after May local elections. I’ve previously voted for Labour councillors but will not vote for anything with their name on it.

What have they done? Voted in the best candidate out of many less savoury opfions?

I watched the actual thing and I saw it in a TikTok snippet in my news feed again this morning. I don't have a TikTok login but you might be able to find it in A BBC Northwest Tonight feed.

Marr Goodwin asks Hannah Spencer what she think caused the Manchester Arena Bombing and she replies, as verbatim as I can remember "because people like you are dividing people".

I'm glad she explained, because I was pretty sure that Tony Blair helping the US bomb the shit out of Iraq after fabricating evidence of WMD had a fair bit more impact.

The arena bombing also predates all the divisive rhetoric other than the Brexit campaign.

Who wants an MP in Parliament who thinks blowing up people at a pop concert can be blamed on anyone but the people who made and placed the bombs?

here's the clip about the Manchester bombings: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GJE8ZS52-U

I think you have to go some way to understand her as saying what the OP is suggesting. I think it's completely fair to suggest division is a cause of conflict.

It's also worth remembering that the Muslim community of Manchester completely rejected the MEN Bomber. The local mosques refused to allow him an islamic funeral.

So you don't think divisive politics plays any role? Who ought to have won?

When was it great (other than in the geographical way)? And for whom?

Wasn't great for my family growing up poor.
Wasn't great for my parents in the 70s (especially my mum)
Wasn't great in the 50s.
Wasn't great for my grandparents who were born in the 20s (rural poverty one side; city poverty the other).
Also wasn't great for the Welsh side of my family, who were punished for speaking Welsh in school and made to associate being Welsh with being stupid.

Maybe my family shouldn't have been working class. Maybe then we'd have seen the greatness of our glorious land.

Hahaha it was never great. Jingoistic racist nonsense.

I very much agree with this. Neither extreme is good, but if I were forced to choose, I'd have to take my chance with the Greens.
Not a great place for the country to be in.

How many people, I wonder, know that Zack Polanski used to make his living as David Paulden selling hypnotherapy to women as a way to increase their breast size?

Also don't believe what you see on TikTok. Or quote it in a political debate, if you want to retain any vestige of credibility.

Did you read that in the Daily Mail?

With the massive swing to the Greens it's far from certain Burnham could have won..

If he'd been allowed to stand, the Greens could have squeezed him out and we'd now be looking after the horror of a Reform Mayor elected to undo all the great things Burnham's done for Manchester.

Here's a link to the entire debate in case it is of interest to anyone.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98q4e59rj9o

You don't see the issue with comparing a black woman to Enoch Powell?

Division is a cause of conflict. Correct.

Does that make it OK in a Democracy to blow someone up if they're saying things and causing effects that you don't like?

That comparison is in the eye of the beholder.

Its really not

Saved an entire constituency from Reform. Well done. Excellent tactical voting.

yes, that was a stupid thing to say about the Arena bombing. But - people in Manchester have chosen to back the Greens, and to say no to the division and hate of Reform. There will have been many Labour voters voting tactically to keep Reform out - I would have do e so. One by election doesn’t mean Britain is “doomed”. Its just hyperbolic nonsense.