European Politics

Night Prowler said:
My opinion is that abortion should be the woman's choice, no matter the circumstance. I'd feel pretty bad if it was my child in question, but I'm not the one having to go through 9 months of pregnancy.
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Pretty much what I think, it will never be my decision to make what someone else doesor doesn't do.



Still, Tony Blair can do one.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37584407
 
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England practically is a one-party state. Blair's Labour only got in because Conservative voters had another option that not entirely unlike the Conservatives.
 
British politics has gotten just as polarized as everywhere else in the world, it seems. I don't think Tony Blair is wrong. I don't think Tony Blair should be allowed anywhere near 10 Downing Street again, but I don't think he's wrong, either.
 
An MP getting murdered due to her political beliefs was the last straw in British politics, imo. At that point you have to look in the mirror and reflect, and that goes to all political parties.
 
Thing is, I don't think the British political scene has so much become polarized as moved - at least in England - more to the right. The Conservatives dominate elections, and their leadership is concentrating on appealing to the populist right, placating their own right wing, and luring back those who have defected to UKIP.

Corbyn appeals to certain old-style Labour voters, but some areas that were once Labour strongholds have seen the Conservatives make inroads - in some cases possibly because of electoral boundary changes - and also the rise of populist right wing sentiment. The Lib Dems aren't considered the 'third way' party since their coalition with the Conservatives. Blair is fuming about Corbyn becoming Labour leader, because he worked hard to eradicate socialism from the Labour Party. He doesn't like the idea of a right-left stand off, he wants Labour to offer a centre-ground alternative to the Conservatives. Which actually skews the political scene to the right too.

The Flash said:
An MP getting murdered due to her political beliefs was the last straw in British politics, imo. At that point you have to look in the mirror and reflect, and that goes to all political parties.
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Although there was ridiculously high political tension at that time, and parties/organisations using strong, emotive appeals, I'm still of the opinion that that particular suspect is a lone nutter, no matter that he's been judged fit to stand trial. He's acted like a spoilt child when questioned and when he appeared in court, it's like he enjoys the attention.
 
Brigantium said:
The Lib Dems aren't considered the 'third way' party since their coalition with the Conservatives.
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True, but at the end of the day that was probably the only solution at the time. A coalition with Labour would have been wrong.

Brigantium said:
He doesn't like the idea of a right-left stand off, he wants Labour to offer a centre-ground alternative to the Conservatives. Which actually skews the political scene to the right too.
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And by Labour taking the centre ground makes them electable. Taking Labour to the left, even if it is only perceived by the electorate as left, makes Labour unelectable. For all the rallies Corbyn speaks to and no matter how many people turn up to hear him does not make him a future PM. Foot did the same, he spoke to hoards time and time again.
 
Albie said:
And by Labour taking the centre ground makes them electable. Taking Labour to the left, even if it is only perceived by the electorate as left, makes Labour unelectable. For all the rallies Corbyn speaks to and no matter how many people turn up to hear him does not make him a future PM. Foot did the same, he spoke to hoards time and time again.
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Tbh I think the only thing that will make Labour electable would be the Conservatives causing upset to their core supporters and falling out of favour. The default position in England is generally Conservative, and Scotland is heading a different direction.
 
In respect to Scotland: the Conservative party might be phenomenally unpopular in Scotland, but plenty of people hold conservative views. The problem (for other parties) is that the SNP has a fairly wide policy portfolio which covers the centre ground very well. The SNP aren't as unappealing to old Conservative party voters as they used to be. Sure, these people weren't going to vote for independence, but they're still voting SNP. For Labour & the Conservatives it's about image & credibility. The SNP is only really a Scottish party; therefore it's hard to question what else they'd be interested in other than Scottish affairs. With Labour & the Conservatives, not so much. This doesn't look like changing any time soon.
 
I left Labour and joined the Lib Dems recently. Their fight against Brexit and mob rule, whilst perhaps sounding like sour grapes at first glance, could actually be expanding upon to combat the anti-intellectual culture in British politics right now.
 
I think the Lib Dems will see a bit of a revival over the next couple of years due to middle class Labour voters disillusioned with Corbyn's 1960s politics and Labour's turmoil.
 
There's a lot I do like about the Lib Dems. They had a very good candidate here in 2010, and nearby, Greg Mulholland has been popular in his Leeds North West constituency. Bearing in mind that that constituency is full of students (Headingley) he must have something good to offer in the wake of the student fees rows and post Coalition animosity. I believe they had fairly good support in Scotland before the Coalition, too.

However, I think the anti-intellectual (and anti-liberal) culture that RTC mentions is the sticking point. That issue really could polarise the political scene in future. At the moment, core Conservative supporters detest the Lib Dems as woolly sycophants, while anti-Conservatives who are currently right-leaning consider them too highbrow and out of touch. Their environmental stance and pro-EU stance is particularly disliked. Like Labour, they have an identity and leadership crisis, which they'd need to sort out and come up with a positive policy, quickly. They have no secure seat heartland, they tend to rely on marginal seats. The Lib Dems had some success in traditionally Conservative Harrogate (before their district council leadership pissed everyone off), however, which shows they do have the ability to attract support in Conservative areas.
 
The abortion issue is here too. Akin to Poland, right-wing christian fundamentalist types are behind it. They are starting to demolish every civilized piece of this country one by one. And, pff, of course, it's an anti-communist thing too, because the current abortion law hasn't changed since seventies, and all communist stuff need to be purged. By the way, as far as I know on the issue, the law is perfectly fine, women can abort any time up to several weeks I think, and throughout whole pregnancy if it gets too risky for the mother.

They've started picketing in front of hospitals. 'With prayers'. They find out that some women has scheduled an abortion, unrelated women to their catholic organizations, they'd usually say that women's friend or family contacted them because they feel the women is misguided, etc, but in reality we have serious breaches of confidentiality laws and someone is leaking medical data. They put pressure and exposure on these people in real distress. Gross.

If these were good old times, the picketers would be thrown to prison and women would do with their body as they please. Just saying.
 
There's a man who protests down the street from where I work every day. His billboard is full of lies, but he is harmless, because in Canada, abortion access is a right as enshrined by our courts. I fear for the places where that is not so.
 
Also, physicians can do the Objective de Conscience thing, which in our deteriorating system of values and decades of brain drain, comes down to a single doctor (female) actually performing every abortion asked of her (if it's legally permissible, of course) on the level of Clinical Hospital of the City Of Split (4000 employees, 600k patients). Go to any other physician here, and there's a chance that you'll be served some Christian philosophy bullshit instead of the medical procedure. This should be outlawed.
 
You couldn't really force other doctors to do it, but they could certainly outlaw doctors refusing to make referrals purely for non-medical/legal reasons. Who runs your healthcare, is it state or private? If they can't recruit anyone to do it, I'm sure plenty of foreign doctors would take the job.
 
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