Off Topic The "Discuss Anything Else" Thread

The new England Test Cricket captain Ben Stokes is going to use a therapist to handle the strains of the job...

Former Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton spends most of his time whinging about the mental pressures of being a millionaire who drives fast cars for a living now that he is not finishing in the first two in every race...

Just how WOKE are Generation Z?

Botham and Hunt never grumbled about any of this nonsense. If you cannot stand the heat get out of the kitchen.

Harry may end up having to go back to being a Royal if Netflix keep cancelling projects that his missus had lined up to profit from their titles.

 

Just for information , QM , take note , was re elected on thursday , the ward has doubled in size , but myself and my comrade smashed the opposition at the poll .
The nationalists didn’t even bother to oppose , nor labour , just a limp dem and a paper tory .
Hard work starts monday though , the ward now had a population of about 6000 people , a high street with 40 empty shops that needs regenerating , a cathedral and some of the poorest people in wales .

 

Fair play to you Rudey well done. Bangor High Street a tough nut to crack. I’ve heard it’s one of if not the longest High Streets in the country. We have a shop there. Some recent refurb activity in the empty units around us which gives me some cause for optimism. Good luck with your next term. Way easier to snipe from the sidelines than try and do something about it.

 

Congratulations to you on getting re-elected. What was your policy on the cathedral?

Seriously, the fact that you (and others) are prepared to stand as independent candidates and campaign on local issues is what local democracy should be all about.

I would ban all political parties from local elections and make all candidates stand as independents – no need for anything on the ballot paper but the candidate’s name. I would also ban anyone from standing for election in a ward that they did not live in. Where I live, two of the three Labour councillors live in big houses in a more affluent part of the city but always get the vote from the council estate that dominates the ward. On Thursday the turnout to re-elect the one councillor that lives on the estate was just 19 per cent. Political power actually changed hands as Labour lost overall control to the Lib Dems because, like the national party, they are out of touch with the people.

If local councils were made up of people actually representing locals and campaigning on local issues then the turnout would surely be better than 25 per cent, with 75 per cent abstaining because they perceived their vote to be meaningless because of the politics. It would also mean that the council members would have to deliver on things that mattered locally (not follow Westminster ideological dogma) or they would be voted out.

 

***Agree, 100%

 

Congratulations Rudey, i wish you all the best for the uphill battle that lies ahead.

 

The lad dosnt draw breath...!!

 

Rambo the Limousin bull sells for £189,000 by Conwy farmer

What a load of ole bull... Mightily impressive though...

 

Hope he does not suffer from the same problem as the Aberdeen Angus bull sold for 60,000 guineas at Perth iin the 1960s

 

My parents lived in the constituency (Hull East) that John Prescott was MP. I know that's Westminster and not local. Prescott lives in a big house with turrets. It wouldnt have been all that expensive in Hull - maybe £500k. His wife lived there all the time while he lived in London when Parliament was sitting. If parties want to have candidates in local elections it should be up to them.

 

I'd scrap political parties altogether, and the current two layers of Government. The local Council could nominate an elected member to represent the local needs in Parliament saving all the money spent on MP's.

 

I think it'd only need doing the once if it was done properly.

 

Police forces are not “the thought police” and should focus on dealing with actual offences and keeping the public safe, the new HM chief inspector of constabulary has said.

Andy Cooke, who took over last month, said chief constables should avoid “politics with a small ‘p'” and remember there is a clear distinction between what is and is not a crime.

“We’re not the thought police, we follow legislation and we follow the law, simple as that,” he told The Times.

Those thoughts, unless they become actions, aren’t an offence. The law is quite clear in relation to what is an offence and what isn’t an offence





https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/ukne...pc=U531&cvid=1ba1bf49c2b84459821f380e54af2e7c

 

I was trying to reply but nothing was showing and then when I posted it three copies of your showed!

 

I just cant see how "banning" political parties would work in practice. People are always going to talk to each other. Not having political parties would just lead to inefficient "organisations".

 

It certainly wouldn't be straight forward to do, but I don't think the current system is all that efficient. It implies that there are only a couple of choices for any given issue, and to get the one you prefer currently means compromising on other issues.

I suspect that there are a lot of people that are socially left leaning, but economically right leaning, which makes for some big compromises on key issues currently.

 

That's why I think the transferable vote is the way to go. You can choose your preferences in order. There's no chance of your vote letting in the candidate you dont want. It would reduce the power of parties without the introduction of any law to proscribe them.