Lefties 7: Simples

[Ewe]

Hope this is ok, I was getting withdrawal symptoms!

I have an urge to read political biographies/autobiographies - not just super-recent ones, but within my own lifetime.

Pol - OU is fab, but I am sore atm, having chucked away £140 through fucking up a deadline. let me be a lesson to you. Bah.

pmsl@ sophable and gove error.... one I too had made in the past.

I take it no-ones a wanker anymore then?

DH buys lots of good books like Applebaum, and Stasiland, etc, but reads so much more slowly (and carefully) than me that they're always lying around.

Michael Gove actually 75, but luckily met Leslie Ash's surgeon and can now hand w the 'Clash generation' Tories.

I think it's important that this doesn't become another basic left-right debate thread. For progressives of all kidneys there is SO much to discuss, ponder, imagine - all that will be squashed if this becomes an argy bargy thread.

Today, for example, I've imagined at least 3 outcomes that haven't occurred to me before, and if I'd been argy-bargying with Tories I wouldn't have had the energy/time to do so.

HANG WITH

This thread is wonderful, as were the six leading up to it. You've all informed, entertained and kept me connected. I get up every morning (in smoky Sydney) and the first thing I do is check what the lefties have posted.

Bravo and thank you, from a lurker.

Iagreewithgordon nymphadora1978 on Twitter. Not posted yet but living Reading others

Morning all

Haven't caught up yet.

Feeling v nervous today. Hopefully we'll get a decision one way or the other..

Am feeling a bit worried as

If they go to labour they have not got a workable majority without (everyone?) else and although as len says 2/3 of the people voted not tory, they did get the most votes/seats and I think there will be a terrible mood in the country if labour stay. Honestly I think it will be shouting and fighting and upset and dreadful.

But if it's the tories... well that's obviously no good.

maybe will feel better after ctaching up and breakfast

Morning all.

Welcome to jenny60 - I saw and nearly posted on your progressives thread which I thought was a great idea for a discussion but I'm not managing to really keep up with more than one politics thread. A progressives discussion would be great once things have settled down.

Policywonk - I do see what you mean with the lefty/exclusive thing but remember we set the thread up because we really thought the Tories were going to win and wanted somewhere to hide. Not our fault that things have kept going, I do think we would descend into a bunfight if we don't give some indication that most of the posters here are sympathetic to the left. Hope the spottiness is better today.

Hello to LoremIpsum. You're right there are some fantastically informed people here but not all of us are - I'm not, I'm just a bit opinionated about Gordon Brown!

I think the public reaction will be manipulated by muchio reference to the meerkats/stability/Eurozone instability/war in Afghanistan, etc.

We will be told that we need to put party politics aside and concentrate on the bigger picture.

If a Lab/Lib agreement does happen then if they are clever they will play the "in these difficult times we know that of course the Cons will support us in this decision which has been made for the national interest because we know that that is their priority too". The Tories have said 'strong government' 'national interest' about a million times during the talks so they can hardly then do a turnabout and start stamping their feet and saying 'but we won' when they most patently didn't.

If they do the above too much they will look petty and power hungry. Of course the press will have no qualms about stupid pronouncements about 'unelected PMs' 'losing parties coalition' etc. All it comes down to though is 'we was robbed'.

Anyway getting ahead of myself - maybe we will have semi smug Tories by the end of today.

Also if the Lab/libs work together Gordon Brown will make an excellent historic speech that people might actually listen to because they know he is going and is acting in a care-taking capacity only.

You have cheered me up beachcomber!

I was also wondering

Lenin do you ever sleep???

Also

I can't see anything wrong with a lefties thread, it does what it says on the tin! And we're not being horrible just chatting. I haven't dared venture onto any other threads about politics, and am at home with the kids, so am in a wonderful cushioned lefty bubble with no pesky "other people's opinions" to have to deal with I think there are enough right wing people on MN to balance. After all, every thread ever about scrougers counts and there are trillions of those threads, with people queueing up to join in.

I just want to say how much I´ve enjoyed these threads. Unfortunately by the time I´ve caught up, I´ve no time to post.

I just wondered what people thought about David Miliband not being in the Labour negotiating team. At the moment he is looking like the favourite to take over (although wouldn´t be my choice), so I would have thought the Libs would want to hear what he has to say.

Morning lefties, I've been searching in vain for a thread mentioning meerkats....(and have continental drain syndrome going on which is making house smell like several thousand meerkats have been slaughtered and disposed of down the bidet.)

I think this thread is great, I've had a sneaky peak at some of the Conservative threads and they seem to descend into gratuitous offence far more easily than we have. (if we have at all really, apart from saying David has a shiny ham face, which is not so much offensive as er, factually observant)

Straits, I also have urge to read political diaries and what have you and am thinking of ordering both AC and Tony Benn (to sort of even each other up a bit) Am currently dipping in and out of John O'F's extracts and the Men's Room (nth time) (nothing to do with politics but feisty enough for the zeitgheist)

Must go and pour bleach down drains.

I'm the same as hupa- I don't think of myself as lurking, more as being short of time to post, but that's probably what I am doing

pleeeeeease don't go changin'. I love these threads, they're like an oasis for me from RL- and a lot of the other politics threads. I don't really want them to be more "open"- I'm sick of seeing people being told they "need their heads examined" etc etc on other threads.

That's the problem with lefties- too damn nice for their own good. Can you imagine tories wondering if their threads were inclusive enough?

Prolesworth I'm old fashioned like you. Of course politics is about power but there are plenty of politicians who want power not for power's sake but because they are convinced they are right.

I really think that if GB is trying to pave the way for a Lab/Lib agreement it is because he is afraid of what the Tories will do to the economy and to the disadvantaged that Brown has worked so hard to help. He thinks his plan is better for the country and that is what he is fighting for.

Also with regards to the voices of doom a la Reid; yes there are risks but in the long run this could benefit the smaller parties so they are mad if they don't give it a go.

Reid is old school, doesn't want things to change type person, people like him are not the future of politics.

A complicated coalition will only work if people get into the mind set of PR are not FPTP - there is much educating to be done.