Question Time

[EC1]

Yes.

And she was shockingly bad. Another bizarre David Cameron appointment to rival that of Chloe Smith (the former Deloitte Touche employee who Cameron thought was a qualified accountant, so made her number 3 in the Treasury. When she told him she worked in the corporate strategy department and had no background in economics or accountancy, he responded by saying "I'm sure you'll pick it up). The highlight of her career was the Paxman interview where Jezza was reduced to screaming incredulously "are you having a laugh". It should serve as a masterpiece for aspiring politicians of the future as a shinning example of her not to do an interview

one of the most ineffective guests i've ever seen on QT...out of 5...-5

 

[Frankel]

you talk as if he has invented something though Ice,its such old hat he's spouting

i don't need him to tell me the when the tories get in..they'll look after the rich..and we will be worse off below at certain level..ffs thats set in stone

to me..he just states the bleedin obvious like no one else has spotted it..deary me..he's p1ss weak and brings nothing to the table..he's false..he isn't brave..he isn't genuine..he's just a plonker trying to turn himself into some che guevara type..and people are so ill informed they think he is doing something no one else can think of

his attacks on Farage last night were just sad...if thats the best the twatter crowd can come up with they need to look again within their sad ranks and find someone else

Bang on EC

 

[icebreaker]

At least he's saying it. EC. Saying and questioning the whole pointlessness of our so-called democracy in which the sole raison d'etre for the role of an elected representative seems in practice to protect and preserve the interests of the rich in contraposition to having concern for the welfare of the poor and the working-class. Not many others in public life are saying it.

 

[clivex]

Saying it and doing something about it are two different things. We wont touc on how much he directly aids the needy or shall we?

As for moaning about democracy lets have an alternative.

Exactly....

 

[Warbler]

Russell Brand's little more than a teenager who's just discovered inequality and injustice for the first time and using an interpretation of socialism as a vehicle for personal protest. Mind you John (Clover butter and I'm a celebrity get me out of here) Lydon is even more confused if he thinks we should vote for change, even if we're presented with rubbish choices. The problem with that is those politicians whom he's saying we should grudgingly endorse will interpret our vote as approval and therefore won't feel any need to reform. In that regard Russell Brand is right. I'd prefer to see the option on a ballot paper for 'non of the above' or to make it meaningful, we can cast a negative vote so that a vote could be chalked off a party of nominated choice.

I struggle to vote for Labour for instance and haven't done now for well over decade. If presented with the option to vote against the Tories though, I'd have my position represented. I don't see why the system only allows me to register a vote against someone by forcing me into endorsing someone I don't want to support either, as the only way of doing so

It wouldn't be a difficult system organise, or understand, but one suspects our political classes would be terrified by the prospect of elections being won by parties with minus figures (even if it would be the most accurate reflection on the mood of the electorate)

 

[icebreaker]

Russell Brand's little more than a teenager who's just discovered inequality and injustice for the first time and using an interpretation of socialism as a vehicle for personal protest.

No, he is not. And neither is his philosophy a translation of Socialism. His viewpoint is much closer to classical Anarchist thought.

 

[marbler]

Many people must realise how superficial their public lives have been, and decide to change perceptions through talking about politics.

We've always had banks, but listening to Russel Brand makes you think there's some magic way of doing away with them.

There was a lot of utopia grand visions of a perfect world last night, but little about the cold reality that obviously bites.

The problem is not just the failure of the banks a few years ago, but the fact successive governments have cut off the means and ways in which poor people can succeed, whether that's Grammar schools or access to higher education.

This is such a vital instrument of what the country should have, social equality that is... and this something I've underestimated, only seeing the true value once its gone.

 

[icebreaker]

Saying it and doing something about it are two different things. We wont touc on how much he directly aids the needy or shall we?

Clive, funnily enough, during the course of last night's debate I googled Brand + charity, because the same thought crossed my mind.
And I was truly surprised at what I read. He does devote an extraordinary amount of time to charitable good works and does also contribute hefty sums to charitable causes. Fair is fair, it deserves to be mentioned.

 

[EC1]

talk is cheap though..why is it a big thing to state the obvious Ice?

i don't get it,,he hasn't said anything original..most of the public have thought it for years and probably told the MP's when they come a knocking..i know when they knock at my door come election time they get told same thing

its pish easy to say what he is saying...no plaudits required imo.

did you see his face when that bloke suggested he stood for election to try and actually do something..he shat himself and then responded with the weakest most pathetic retort i've heard..well i daren't in case i end up like them...what a complete muppet..after that..he just basically sat there..completely shown up..or maybe i watched a different version of the show

we are in one hell of f00kin mess if people think he is some kind of standard bearer..f00k me,,i really despair if that is the case

its time social media were took down..its a breeding ground for the sub normal imo

 

[EC1]

Clive, funnily enough, during the course of last night's debate I googled Brand + charity, because the same thought crossed my mind.
And I was truly surprised at what I read. He does devote an extraordinary amount of time to charitable good works and does also contribute hefty sums to charitable causes. Fair is fair, it deserves to be mentioned.

i just googled it too

omg...if i listed the charities our bloss supported through her life it would knock his list into a cocked hat

Jimmy Saville were a good bloke for charities....with other people's money

come on..this is unreal...we will have to knight him next

 

[icebreaker]

Lol.

 

[Warbler]

No, he is not. And neither is his philosophy a translation of Socialism. His viewpoint is much closer to classical Anarchist thought.

Don't see it myself.

Anarchism (Woodcock, Bakunin, Proudhon or Kropotkin) is very much a democratic structure without becoming partisan so that it's the issues that remain the focus and thus the needs of the people rather than the needs of the party. Brand openly says there is no place of democracy and we shouldn't endorse it.

Brand is closer to an old English tradition of the levellers and the diggers, which might be an early form of collectivism (albeit some anarchists groups - notably syndalicists) claim them

 

[EC1]

alternatively he is just a comfy celeb spouting what he believes the public want to here..so they will take him to their heart

thanks to social media..he's brainwashed a fair few

 

[Warbler]

Actually I'm warming to Brand - so what if he's a rich celebrity who has adopted some left wing causes, which will never make him popular. Emma Watson takes her personal campaigns to the UN and William Hague is more than happy to feed off the oxygen the celebrity status that Angelina Jolie can lend him about rape in war zones, whilst neatly overlooking the fact that he creates some of those very same war zones in the first place (Hague can't even control rape within his own party - Mark Pritchard becoming the latest to get arrested) what chance as he got of controlling rape in war zones?

Cameron said he was going to put an end to celebrities in politics, before asking that well known educationalist, and qualified teacher who holds a third class degree in Engineering and has no experience of managing policy committees (Carol Vorderman) to undertake a review of maths teaching in schools based on the fact that for twenty years she appeared on Countdown. At least Mary Portas worked in retail, but there would have been thousands of retail consultants capable of conducting the job he gave to another sympathetic supporter (and it was a pretty crap report too)

I used to reckon that William Hague was the best negative predictor in politics. Anything he said was a good idea, was almost certainly a bad one, and policy could be accurately framed accordingly. If he was a tipster, you could lay his selections to a healthy profit. I tend to think the same about Clive. If he thinks Brand is all bad, then perhaps he really is a very good person, and perhaps he should be applauded for daring to speak up for the needy and use his profile to adopt some slightly unpopular causes. It says much that only this week Prince William spent sometime with the most powerful politician on the planet to seek his support about the burning issue of our age, the illegal trade of wildlife.

Me thinkz Brand has a better compass

Ironic that Big Brother should be bequeath us.

All power to Brand

 

[clivex]

alternatively he is just a comfy celeb spouting what he believes the public want to here..so they will take him to their heart

thanks to social media..he's brainwashed a fair few

Makes me laugh all these labels stuck on him as if to give a twelve year old some gravitas

there is no half way house. You either have authority with responsibility or you dont. Without it you end up with totalitarinism

Just about anyone can stand for election and as ukip and the greens have demostrated there us no barrier to success. Essentially hes a moaner with a small brain. Offers absolutely nothing. His life is worthless and he should be reminded of that until he does the right thing.

Are there railings outside his flat?

 

[EC1]

i don't see what he is risking speaking up..any daft sod can speak up..its hardly likely to damage his public image is it?

its not that long ago he had a very different public image...and it weren't anything to be proud about

i get this image of him after the Ross affair going to the library and getting a book called "appealing to the masses"..then following it chapter by chapter..then he got "how to make it look like you down with the crowd"..and finished off with "Anarchy for the very challenged"

its all so obviously fake,,its just laughable anyone buys it..but also very worrying

 

[clivex]

Hague cant control rape in his own party?

What on earth is that supposed to mean?

How can anyone with any intelligence "warm" to someone who undermimes hus supposed causes by being completely unable to offer anything close to a workable solution? By not bring able to do so he reinforces the view that their isnt one

 

[icebreaker]

Anarchism is very much a democratic structure without becoming partisan so that it's the issues that remain the focus and thus the needs of the people rather than the needs of the party.

Indeed, it (Anarchism) is organisationally democratic, and of course the interests and well-being of the people is the prime mandate. A "party" is anathema to anarchist political philosophy as is State-ism which is where Brand's own political perspective converges with Anarchism. If pressed, I would label Brand as old-school anarcho-syndicalist. (Give him time, and he'll probably progress to a flirtation with Bonnot Gang-style Illegalism).

 

[clivex]

Hague cant control rape in his own party?

What on earth is that supposed to mean?

How can anyone with any intelligence "warm" to someone who undermimes hus supposed causes by being completely unable to offer anything close to a workable solution? By not bring able to do so he reinforces the view that their isnt one

 

[icebreaker]

All power to Brand

Brand for P.M. !

 

[EC1]

now i know you on the wind up

 

[Warbler]

Brand for P.M. !

Seconded

In truth Brand is using his questionable celebrity status to bring into some kind of focus, some very prickly issues that people (and certainly most popularity seeking celebrities) would rather avoid. Things like homelessness, poverty, and sticking up for some of societies more vilified groups isn't designed to win him support. Most people don't associate with these groups and would rather they not exist, but that if they have to, then they'd rather they not speak.

Causes like low pay are really things that should be the preserve of labour party and it's a telling sign of their failure and perhaps nervousness to engage with it, or perhaps even their lack of personal experience of such things, that means people like Russell Brand are having to fill this vacuum as society's conscience and draw down the ire from the likes of Clive.

I'm still slightly haunted by a recent interview Hazel Blears did when challenged about affordable housing and the last Labour governments failure to address it. I'll give her 10 out of 10 for honesty, but little else. She explained that when they were in power no one was really interested in it. The sub plot is that it hadn't affected their lives, didn't affect them now, and they'd rather do middle class campaign issues instead like fox hunting

Brand for PM

 

[Warbler]

Hague cant control rape in his own party?

What on earth is that supposed to mean?

Did you follow the Nigel Evans case, OK he was found not guilty (just) but for crying out loud!!!! Look at some of the testimony and common practise it uncovered. I'm inclined to think that he got lucky, as some of the disclosures were borderline and higly embarrassing. Last week Mark Pritchard (Tory MP for the Wrekin and deputy chair of the 1922) was arrested on suspicion of rape.

As you know, I have absolutely zero faith in the current on going enquiries to uncover anything, but it's no great secret that about 75% of the names in the frame are conservative party MP's, prominent supporters, or party apparatchiks - we'll see if the police ever prosecute a single individual who is alive, or deemed to be non expendable (I doubt it)

 

[clivex]

Poor and needy? His idea of that was the firemen. That was who he nominated . Now this article might come from the daily mail but unlike thickos rankings it is full of facts.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/a...blackmail-union-hides-theyre-underworked.html

And that's why he undermines everything he he supposed to stand for. He can't even identify who is "poor and needy".

and we know where firemen spend most of their time working

 

[Maruco]

I don't see why the system only allows me to register a vote against someone by forcing me into endorsing someone I don't want to support either, as the only way of doing so

Well said. This combined with the legal obligation to vote would expose British politics for what it is and British politicians for what they are.

What happened to conviction politicians of previous eras compared to the plastic bunch we've had since Blair took his media and spin lessons from Clinton?

I don't know about you guys but I've just had about had enough of the bullshit emanating from the major parties. I'm not a child, I'm not stupid, and I'm sick and tired of living in a country governed by future potential I'm A Celebrity contestants.