The 'Take it Outside' thread This thread will no longer be moderated *** Showing 1,301-1,350 of 5,982

[Will]

Is he still attending the House of Lords at £ 300 a day, does anyone know?

[Geoff (G. Robbins) (merda constat variat altitudo)]

Will wrote: "Is he still attending the House of Lords at £ 300 a day, does anyone know?"

Not only is he attending the HoL, but has also been voted onto a number of committees.

[R.M.F.]

Geoff (G. Robbins) (The noisy passionfruit) wrote: "Will wrote: "Is he still attending the House of Lords at £ 300 a day, does anyone know?"

Not only is he attending the HoL, but has also been voted onto a number of committees."

His family are saying he can barely remember his own name.

[R.M.F.]

Michael Cargill wrote: "It's amazing the difference that an expensive lawyer can make.

Lord Janner was a no-show in court today. I hope the old prick 'falls down the stairs'."

I'm inclined to agree, but remember the presumption of innocence clause is there for a reason.

[R.M.F.]

Will wrote: "And on the labour party elections: as a registered voter, last night i had 3 campaign teams for the deputy leadership ring me up In each case, I asked what actual policies their candidate espoused..."

Not surprised in the least.

[R.M.F.]

Will wrote: "It will only get worse, RMF. Meanwhile, I have a client who is on Police bail after being accused of an offence, which he strenuously and credibly denies: the CPS have elected to take the case to ..."

Don't tell Michael Gove - he's too busy trying to scrap the Human rights act.

[Will]

R.M.F wrote: "Geoff (G. Robbins) (The noisy passionfruit) wrote: "Will wrote: "Is he still attending the House of Lords at £ 300 a day, does anyone know?"

Not only is he attending the HoL, but has also been vot..."

Perhaps being on HOL committees decided the judge that he was fit to plead? One would hope so.

[R.M.F.]

Will wrote: "R.M.F wrote: "Geoff (G. Robbins) (The noisy passionfruit) wrote: "Will wrote: "Is he still attending the House of Lords at £ 300 a day, does anyone know?"

Not only is he attending the HoL, but has..."

Can only imagine the court's reaction if Joe Public tried to pull a similar stunt on court attendance.

[Jim]

Joe public regularly pulls this on magistrates courts. I've been there and seen it. They get summons to appear and if they repeatedly don't show, then they're finally arrested and held in the cells.
Penalty depends on their income to be honest. If you're on benefits then a fine might be attached to your benefit at so much a week.
If you're in employment, you'll already have lost more than the fine in lost wages by the time the case is heard.
I'd suggest they turn up when invited :-)

[R.M.F.]

Jim wrote: "Joe public regularly pulls this on magistrates courts. I've been there and seen it. They get summons to appear and if they repeatedly don't show, then they're finally arrested and held in the cells..."

I know for a long time that there's one rule for the rich and one for the great unwashed, but it still sticks in the throat when you see it in action.

[Jim]

yep look at all those elderly poor men being hauled from their council nursing homes to face charges of child abuse

[Marc]

they usually leave that to the local residents if they ever get wind of rumours...

[Geoff (G. Robbins) (merda constat variat altitudo)]

Yes, but then you get problems like the one that occurred on the south coast where a pediatrician was attacked, because someone didn't know the difference.

[Marc]

er that was my satirical point

[Geoff (G. Robbins) (merda constat variat altitudo)]

Marc wrote: "er that was my satirical point"

I thought the satirical point was that they are more random with their attacks than that. After all pediatrician and pedophile both begin with p, anyone can make that mistake.

Meeting tonight under the lamp post, bring you own rope.

[Patti (baconater)]

You can afford rope???

Middle class twat.

[Jim]

It was interesting, talking to a person in their twenties who reckons pretty well everybody they talk to is a labour voter. (But very few are people she would categorise as working class)
So I asked about Corbyn and they felt he has been lucky. It's a bit like flaired trousers, wear them long enough and you'll be fashionable. This person reckoned that Corbyn is currently popular because what he's being saying all the time currently chimes in with what the young people she talks to are saying at the moment.

But interesting during the election these same people were voting labour 'to keep out the tories.'
They aren't 'labour supporters,' (they might become them) and they certainly have no idea of what you might call traditional labour values.

It's going to be interesting if Corbyn does win this vote. He might bring new people into the party. Some others might leave but probably not so many. But it could end up with being a different party, and might be even less in touch with the traditional working class.

What is going to be funny is watching other Labour MPs working with him. Given that he's voted against his party whips about 500 times (between a fifth and a quarter of all votes) he's going to struggle to convince them to put party loyalty ahead of personal belief :-)

[Patti (baconater)]

Was listening to BBC world news this afternoon and it was said that there's (sorry can't recall the exact numbers) something like 600 thousand new signed labour members and the inference was so they could vote for Jeremy and destroy the Labour Party.
The argument was that you shouldn't be able to vote for a leader unless you've been a member of the party for at least 12 months.

Really interesting parallels to the book I'm reading about ancient Roman politics.

[Patti (baconater)]

Moot point though, I believe.
Hadn't the vote now happened and the results be out in three weeks?

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Geoff (G. Robbins) (merda constat variat altitudo)]

Consider yourself corrected, Patti.

[Geoff (G. Robbins) (merda constat variat altitudo)]

Oh you mean the Roman one. Yeah, that one's passed now.

[B J]

Ballot papers have been sent out. The voting continues until 10th September with the result announced on the 12th.

[Jim]

Patti (baconater) wrote: "Really interesting parallels to the book I'm reading about ancient Roman politics. ..."


And more importantly, which book?

[Patti (baconater)]

Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome

I'm really enjoying it.

His book Pompeii is excellent too.

[Patti (baconater)]

B J wrote: "Ballot papers have been sent out. The voting continues until 10th September with the result announced on the 12th."

Well, then. I wasn't really paying attention, was I?

[Jim]

Patti (baconater) wrote: "Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome

I'm really enjoying it.

His book Pompeii is excellent too."

It's one of those periods where even historians start writing like novelists :-)

[B J]

Patti (baconater) wrote: "B J wrote: "Ballot papers have been sent out. The voting continues until 10th September with the result announced on the 12th."

Well, then. I wasn't really paying attention, was I?"

I think I'm going to be sorry when the process is over. It's fun watching one candidate progressing serenely, saying what he's been saying for 30 years and finding it easy because, right or wrong, he actually believes it. Meanwhile, the other three modern, image-conscious, smoothly professional politicians, experienced at never giving a straight answer to a question, are squirming in increasing desperation as all their much-practised techniques prove totally ineffective.

[Patti (baconater)]

I like how he doesn't attack anyone.

I don't think the daily mail likes him much, though. :(

[Geoff (G. Robbins) (merda constat variat altitudo)]

Most of the right of centre newspapers think he is the spawn of Satan, or Lenin, or both.

[Jim]

Geoff (G. Robbins) (The noisy passionfruit) wrote: "Most of the right of centre newspapers think he is the spawn of Satan, or Lenin, or both."

Most Labour MPs join them in this :-)

It is going to be great fun if he wins, just watching what happens

[Will]

I've been sent a video message by Yvette Cooper, to promote her candidacy!

I'm leaving watching it until I'm ready to fall asleep as I suspect it may be as soporific as the one Kendall sent me..

I'm convinced that the rabid and completely OTT attacks on Corbyn are helping him. Some are right out of Yes Minister. He speculates that it might be worth being self sufficient in coal rather than importing loads, and he's being attacked for demanding the reopening of every deep coal mine in the UK...

[Will]

Patti, on the people registering to vote: quite a few people I chat to online are like myself: Ex party members who left over the decision to got war n Iraq (Corbyn was the only one of the four who voted against the illegal war) and have registered to vote for a candidate who represents our views... I'm not sure about the 600K figure though - the last numbers I saw said 260K.

[Jim]

Will wrote: "I'm convinced that the rabid and completely OTT attacks on Corbyn are helping him. Some are right out of Yes Minister.
..."

According to my daughter the Guardian's attacks on him are even more vitriolic than more 'right wing' papers.
But I think you're right. At some point the sense of 'fair play' kicks in and people who might otherwise not support him will end up voting for him.
(Which is largely how he got the MP votes to stand in the first place)

I can see a lot of young people voting for him, because firstly he happens to be saying things which gel with their problems. Also they don't remember the 1970s or 1980s.
But the problem for him is that they don't, as a group, vote in elections.
Whether he can energise the young members of the electorate to go out there are vote in five years time is the question

[Geoff (G. Robbins) (merda constat variat altitudo)]

Bearing in mind that he has voted over 500 times against the whip whilst an MP, if he was to become leader why would he expect Labour MPs to vote with the leadership?

I can see troubled times ahead, whoever becomes the leader. There are a number of questions that will be asked:

If Corbyn wins

Whip and voting issues
Increasingly hard left policies
Alienation of the centre
Vote rigging

If Corbyn loses

Vote rigging
Alienation of the left
Unexciting and weak policies

Either way, Labour is in a mess of its own creation in a time when a strong opposition is needed.

[Will]

I've just been on The Guardian's online service, as I do every day.

The politics landing page contains links to: 2 articles saying Corby has support in Scotland and in one Union. Five anti corbyn articles and one saying that Cooper will approach Cameron (if she's elected leader) to offer cross party support for getting the Chilcott Enquiry published. That's as close to a policy initiative as she has come so far in the election.

There is a piece reporting Corbyn's pledge to offer financial support to small businesses and invest heavily in workforce training, and offer rent and rate caps to small shops to try and keep some diversity alive on the high street- but you really have to look for it...

[Will]

I've just read a report that Peter Mandelson has asked Harriet Harman to stop the contest if he can get the three right of centre candidates to all withdraw.

The leak says she refused.

Meanwhile, to pick up on Geoff's vote rigging: there are online discussions about how to ensure that your ballot paper is actually received and counted and not 'lost' if it happens to vote for Corbyn...

[Jim]

The problem is that we need a strong Labour party to form a viable opposition.
It doesn't matter if it splits on matters of principle. That is why we have free votes. So I have respect for a party which allows MPs a free vote on such things as peace and war, or EU membership, or changes to abortion law or definition of marriage.

But the party has to be able to put together a policy that will enthuse electors and it also has to give the impression of competence.

At the moment we have both main parties seeming to draw their main support from those who'll vote for 'anybody but the other lot.'
It isn't healthy.

I can see Corbyn becoming the first Labour leader to be ignored by his MPs.
I wonder if he's shone so brightly in the campaigning because he's untainted by government and his opponents have held office and know the inevitable compromises that have to be made

[Will]

Here is a link to Cooper's closing 'Vote for me' pitch.

http://www.yvetteforlabour.co.uk/clos...

Now look at the attitudes of the other 3: Kendall is looking vacantly off to one side for the whole of the clip. Burnham is uncomfortable: but Corbyn is engaged and listening to her.

[R.M.F.]

This morning, I just witnessed the remarkable sight of some jobsworth from the council going around checking the contents of people's bins!!!

WTF?

God almighty, is this what modern Britain's turning into? Paying 3 people to walk around for that?

[Marc]

I thought they were fitting bins with spy cameras to inform on us all?

[Geoff (G. Robbins) (merda constat variat altitudo)]

R.M.F wrote: "God almighty, is this what modern Britain's turning into? Paying 3 people to walk around for that?"

It's a return to the 1970's and 80's. In Liverpool during that time the council had three teams of street cleaners: one for the roads, one for the footpaths and one for the verges.

They spent all their day sweeping the rubbish from their area to one of the others. None of them picked up any rubbish.

[Will]

As the song says Geoff... 'It all makes work for the working man to do...'

[R.M.F.]

Marc wrote: "I thought they were fitting bins with spy cameras to inform on us all?"

They do that as well.

[R.M.F.]

Geoff (G. Robbins) (The noisy passionfruit) wrote: "R.M.F wrote: "God almighty, is this what modern Britain's turning into? Paying 3 people to walk around for that?"

It's a return to the 1970's and 80's. In Liverpool during that time the council h..."

I thought everybody was on strike in the 1970s?

[R.M.F.]

Will wrote: "As the song says Geoff... 'It all makes work for the working man to do...'"

Wouldn't mind a job like that myself. Money for old rope.

[Geoff (G. Robbins) (merda constat variat altitudo)]

R.M.F wrote: "Will wrote: "As the song says Geoff... 'It all makes work for the working man to do...'"

Wouldn't mind a job like that myself. Money for old rope."

Bet you it would drive you mad. That's why they were so militant, they had nothing else to think about.

[Geoff (G. Robbins) (merda constat variat altitudo)]

R.M.F wrote: "Geoff (G. Robbins) (The noisy passionfruit) wrote: "R.M.F wrote: "God almighty, is this what modern Britain's turning into? Paying 3 people to walk around for that?"

I thought everybody was on strike in the 1970s? "

For a large part of it, they were. I remember queuing for bread, working in the dark by candlelight and torches. It really was a crazy decade.

[Patti (baconater)]

Couldn't happen now. No one could survive without their wifi.

[Will]

Not to mention the constant power cuts and failure of electricity supply

[Patti (baconater)]

Will wrote: "Not to mention the constant power cuts and failure of electricity supply"

One gets used to that.

Haven't had a power cut since we've been back. Touch wood.