Post by ROBBIEBigoted? That a library should be sold to a foreign country?
It's just a property sale. Is it equally outrageous that Britons are
buying up large chunks of Spain? That Australians own our media? The
unidirectional focus of your view is what makes you sound bigoted.
Post by ROBBIEThat Law and Order are obviously in decline?
But it isn't. The fear of crime is up; actual crime is down. Look
here: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/hosb703.pdf particularly
at pages 140/141.
Post by ROBBIEThat terrorism influenced an election?
The articles insinuation was that the act *decided* it and
'dishonoured' the victims. The reality is it just tipped an already
delicate balance.
Post by ROBBIEI'm afraid that words like racist and bigot roll off your tongue too easily.
It's because you keep acting like one.
Post by ROBBIEI am completely
against bigotry of all kinds. I think the BNP are dangerous and stupid.
How very laudable of you.
Post by ROBBIEYet
I happen to believe that the Left in this country are equally so and are in
fact causing the appetite for Far Right politics that is happening in
various sharp-end corners of the country.
It is inevitable that in any society there will be extremist right
wing elements; and in a left wing society their voices will be louder
and angrier. They will also shock more effectively in a left wing
society. So you are right that the left is a catalyst; and indeed
there are probably the blindly left wing as well that aggravate
matters. However the SWP are regarded with similar contempt to the
BNP, so I hardly think the balance of our society is at risk,
regardless of the screeches of the tabloids.
Fundamentally there is a balance of left and right, tugged in each
direction by it's extremes - just as Labour is reeled in by the Tories
and vice versa. It's called strinking a balance.
Post by ROBBIEYou have behaved in a way that is
frankly stupid and marks out everything that is wrong with the Left wing
cultural revolution that has happened in this country to wit I say
multiculturalism is a bad thing, you say: bigot.
I don't call you a bigot for objecting to MC, it's because the
rhetoric you use to oppose MC is not that of someone who has
reasonable objections to a social policy, but the kind of shit you
read in the Mail.
Post by ROBBIEby promoting difference and encouraging parallell cultures and ghetto-izing,
you will not create harmony, further, you run the risk of destroying the
culture that made England such an attractive proposition for immigrants in
the first place. Your answer to this was precisely nothing but a screeching
for graphs and pie charts; I would have thought 30 years of wholesale
manipulation of statistics in British politics would have given you a
healthy contempt for them. Stats are for Spin
You tell me what you think. You don't provide any evidence. Stats are
for spin, but as someone who produces stats, I can spot bias and strip
out rubbish. Besides, hard stats are of limited use in social
research, and qualitative approaches are more indicative. One mans
opinions, with teh appearance of having been canted straight from a
tabloid, do not make proof. I wanted some evidence or research that
indicated MC had a problem as a policy, and YOU CANNOT PROVIDE IT. Any
more than I can provide proof that it is functioning brilliantly -
it's very hard to find, but as a Journo I would have thought you would
have better resources than I.
Post by ROBBIE, which is probably why a Blair
believer like you is so enamoured of them.
Since i've never voted Blair (or even Labour) ever, i'm not sure why
you put me in his fan club. Feel free to continue to ignore me saying
this, however, it seems to suit your 'rigorous' debating style. I have
faith in the Chancellor; a very different matter.
Post by ROBBIEOne example: the British
inflation rate is calculated WITHOUT taking into account house price rises.
Now just you think about that for a moment.
*moment*
Houseprices are volatile compared to matters such as the cost of
produce, mortgages (more important than prices) et al. Plus inflation
is more affected by wage inflation, exchange rates, commercial capital
- House prices are a big deal for your average Joe, but compared to
other forms of capital within the UK it's not that big a number. You
may as well complain that Industrial plant hire isn't included in the
RPI.
Post by ROBBIE- though punishment of crime, or the Left's
belief that you shouldn't really punish it plays a part
Punishment is meaningless without rehabilitation. Some people are
wastes of time, and the left is paralysed over how to handle such
people. However the Tory 'string 'em up' approach is equally worthless
in actually solving the problems. The problem with rehab is it doesn't
satisfy the baying for blood - however in terms of hard financial cost
to society, rehab is cheaper and far more effective than prison ever
will be.
Post by ROBBIE--it is to do with
the future and the identity of the country and it is to do with making
certain value judgements. Multiculturalism is just one part of a bigger
picture I'm considering; it is part of a left wing cultural revolution that
has taken over education, government and broadcasting.
I wonder how much of the left wing nature of the country now is an
ongoing reaction to the right wing years of Thatcher? Witnessing the
social injustice, poverty, poor education and biased media of right
wing America, i'd rather our left wing institutions.
Post by ROBBIEYour attempt to
minimize me as someone obsessed with MC isn't fair.
Aw, bless, are your feathers ruffled? Considering what an arrogant
arse you've been i'm surprised you have the gall to complain at being
misrepresented.
Post by ROBBIECertainly I've taken the
piss out of you as a Guardian reader because you behave so typically; your
views are so typical; your tastes equally so.
I'm left wing, and unashamedly so. This means I read a left wing
paper, just as a working class tory would have once read The Sun.
However i'm not naive enough to believe everything I see in print, and
dismiss a lot of it as loony leftism. One can be a lefty and not a
wooly jumpered idiot. I take a pragmatic approach to most matters,
hence my call for research to prove your MC points. I would expect
nothing less in a debate on economic matters, so why not social
policy?
Post by ROBBIEYou believe in Blair because
otherwise 'thatcherism will come back'.
Still not voted Blair. However Howard is an old school tory and a
threat to England - Ken Clarke, a different matter, but the Tory party
is still embedded in the 80's and is unable to progress hence its
choice of Dracula as leader. So yes, I fear being ruled by the past.
Like you, I was there and it wasn't very nice.
Post by ROBBIEYou brand me a tory but I've always hated the tories and any redeeming
features they may have had died years ago.
Why did you say you intended to vote Tory at the next election then?
Post by ROBBIEYour main concern is that your
government has put you in danger. From such a groovy lefty that kind of
selfishness is breathtaking.
I'm not particularly 'groovy'. I never said it was my main concern,
merely I held it as more important than the alleged perils of MC. It's
the knife at my throat vs. the one in the kitchen draw. Try not to
distort things.
Post by ROBBIEI realise the left have NOTHING to say to the
victims of fascism in all the little tin pot tyrannies around the globe but
that takes the cake. You wanted to leave Saddam's regeime intact didn't you?
Actually no. I was reservedly pro-war, but utterly against the way it
was justified and conducted, which was why I was on the march. It's
lack of international legitimacy and support has led to the kind of
problems we are seeing now, and pretty much as I expected. There
probably were the usual idiots on the march who just protest against
opening crisp packets, but me & my compatriots weren't among them.
Besides, the conversations the right have with them tend to be 'Buy
some more arms mate? We won't say anything about your dictatorship,
nothing to do with honest business.'.
Post by ROBBIEYou? All your worried about is if you're in danger when
you go clubbing: the selfish apathy that underpins the metropolitan lefty
when the going gets tough.
Clubbing? I wish, getting too old for that. I hardly think having some
concern for personal safety is a matter fit for scorn. If the war on
Iraq was genuinely prosecuted to make the world a safer place and to
benefit the Iraqi people, that would be nice. However it takes minimal
knowledge of the situation and US history of foreign interventions to
know it was done purely for America's financial benefit. The Iraqi
people are on the bottom of the list of reasons for the war,
regardless of public propaganda.
MD