Pondering, and while slightly more optimistic than we once were, still really quite unhappy Lefty thread

[Hassled]

Where had we got to? We'd agreed that we all love Cameron, right?

I wish there were a service where I could get an email if somehting happened.

Maybe we should set up an Lefties Email Chain. With a duty roster.

LOL MmeLindt. I will volunteer to make the tea.

I wish there was as well - some kind of breaking news thingy.

Mind you I only want good news. Think that may be too much to ask for.

I really like this thread, some of the stuff in active convos is really to be avoided at the mo.

Just had the same agreement on govts/markets with a tory on another thread! - well, last night, anyway. Oddly enough, by the end I think our definitions of what we'd want from a government were very similar.

It was actually really interesting, and reminds me how much I think reasoned and polite debate with someone of the opposite stance to you; makes you think through and validate your own position more carefully. Swedes then came on and said how much she liked the whole coalition/PR/non-tribal politics thing, and I thought, Amen to that.

So what's happening? Am I really a Tory? Are some Tories really lefty? Is this actually, as it turns out, what most of us wanted anyway?

Anyone want the bully thread, let me know. I saved it. Was not really that interesting, aside from the "Lenin Reveals True Gender" shocker.

I am increasingly starting to feel if the world were run along playground behavioural lines we'd all be a lot better off.

Gordon, Dave - if you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.

Dave, when we want to know what "the markets" think, we'll ask them, ok? Until then, tell us what DAVE thinks.

Mandy, saying one thing to someone's face and then another behind their back isn't kind now is it?

All journalists everywhere - SHHHH. Quiet time now. The grownups are talking.

pshaw - NO HamShine!

Its the oldest selling trick in the book - make them think it was what you wanted all along

HamShine: I think that one of the results of FPTP is that it forces parties to insist on their differences at the expense of their similarities. There is too much at stake in looking the same. Now just look at how the Tories and Lib Dems are trying so hard to convince people that there are areas of overlap.

Thing is, there are aspects of life in the UK which make areas of shared interest inevitable. Eg. every party supports the NHS. Arguably, there is no intellectual reason why a right-wing party, e.g. the Tories, should ideologically support what is, in reality, a very socialist institution. But because it is so much part of the British mindset, they have to. Likewise, property ownership - another British obsession. Not very left-wing, iyswim, but the Labour Party would be doomed if they seriously undermined the market. Etc.

Well, I don't think it was what any of the politicians wanted, taffeta! Am with Armando on that. Also, I'm in Scotland, and I like the PR system and how it works here - though I've realised I don't know enough about it. Problem is I really can't switch from R4 to Radio Scotland - I just can't - so I'm not as up on scottish politics as I should be, esp now that I'm not working.

Prole - claig did seem to be coming out with some quite leftist things she wanted for govt too, though, so I don't think it was just us! I hope atlantis comes back - she's provocative, sure, but she's interesting and funny and will debate properly.

Sweedes, also, obviously.

It would be slightly banal without the right-wing debaters.

Though I do wonder if we need to update our political terminology a bit. Left and right wing is blunt, and falls apart wrt globalisation ... .

Oh, swedes definitely, though as I said, she also was for picking and choosing at the end of that thread. And for all Xenia's comedy stylings, I'm glad of her devil's advocate (I hope) extreme stances on some things, as it does make me think.

LOL Lenin.

The Guardian were just now updating that HE HAD LEFT DOWNING STREET BY SECRET BACK DOOR...

Downing St. assure us "it's nothing".

Poor thing. He can't even pop out for a pint of milk without the press assuming he's about to resign...

Sorry, Gordon Brown, I mean, of course. I was assuming telepathically that you would all know what I meant...

I had to control my self on the mumsnet bully thread.

"No, I haven't been bullied on mumsnet, but my wife has. What was worse was that the reaction of the teachers to this schoolyard bullying was to side with the bullies and blame the victim. Thanks again Mumsnet HQ for supplying the tar and feathers."

I didn't think that thread needed more emotion ...

BTW: does anyone know if William Hill have paid out or not? Alouiseg (I think) pointed out somewhere that they'd "predicted" a Tory win, and had never got it wrong . Would anyone who bet on that have collected, or not?

What do you all think of Fermanagh/South Tyrone result, 4 votes in it - dh and I were discussing this, I think when the results are that close it should be a job share.

Well, quite, MrJustAbout.

I'd almost forgotten that, MrJ. That was bullying. Surely just this side of legal, too? Deeply awful. But maybe I shouldn't post this ... . Didn't like that at all.