State of the parties as 2015 General Election looms.

[Beef Oven!]

On the sauce early this evening OXOBoy

Airport run - no drinkies for me today!

[Flosshilde]

Cameron? one of the worst examples as he has presided over policies that make life more difficult for people like his sadly deceased son.

Especially as he used his son as a means of saying how much he appreciated the NHS & that it was safe in his hands. Ha!

[Beef Oven!]

You're just being perversely literal, in order to have a stick to beat Richard with.

No, I'm not concerned with RB, it's neither here nor there who posted. Rather than you telling me what's in my head, I'll tell you - it's the idea that we can make negative comments about a politician's children, so long as he's a right-wing politician. That's the point. And maybe I am a bit old-fashioned, I wouldn't bring a politician's children into a debate, as much as I dislike that politician. I just think it's wrong.

[jean]

That might well be true.

It is.

However, it's probably even more true that when affectionately referring to a Chinaman as a 'chink' then there is an even larger difference when being compared to a genuine racist?

Nobody ever uses the word chink except in reference to a Chinese person. It started out as a racially-specific insult. It has never acquired a general meaning separate from its use to refer to someone's ethnicity, though someone might argue that he was 'reclaiming' it for use among friends.

For this reason, your attempt at an analogy falls. So no hypocrisy, no double standards.

(Who is Dave Whelan?)

[MrGongGong]

it's the idea that we can make negative comments about a politician's children, so long as he's a right-wing politician. That's the point.

Tony Blairs youngest son looked like Shrek when he was a baby
Oh, wait a minute
ALL babies do
and he's NOT a "left-wing" politician

[jean]

Ah yes, I remember Dave Whelan. He's the one who said “Jewish people chase money more than everybody else” , isn't he?

[Beef Oven!]

That might well be true.

However, it's probably even more true that when affectionately referring to a Chinaman as a 'chink' then there is an even larger difference when being compared to a genuine racist? Yet poor Dave Whelan has been accused of being the latter!

It's the clear hypocrisy and double-standards of the PC Brigade which is arguably the main reason for the rise of UKIP, imo ...

I think you have hit the nail on the head. The PC brigade has certainly given the oxygen to the UKIP heat and fuel.

[Beef Oven!]

Tony Blairs youngest son looked like Shrek when he was a baby
Oh, wait a minute
ALL babies do
and he's NOT a "left-wing" politician

Too late! You're making it up, after the event!

[ahinton]

No, I'm not concerned with RB, it's neither here nor there who posted. Rather than you telling me what's in my head, I'll tell you - it's the idea that we can make negative comments about a politician's children, so long as he's a right-wing politician. That's the point. And maybe I am a bit old-fashioned, I wouldn't bring a politician's children into a debate, as much as I dislike that politician. I just think it's wrong.

Whilst it doesn't especially seem as though it's about being "old-fashioned" per se, I don't think that I have read negative comments about a politician's children here in this thread, although I have read a reference to the fact that the number of them that IDS has is two more than that for which he proposes that parents should be entitled to claim certain state benefits, which is hardly the same thing; I don't see this as bringing a politician's children into a debate as such, but it seems to me to be less than unreasonable merely to point out that the politican who proposes such a cut in benefit entitlement has two more children than he believes parents should have in order to qualify to receive the benefits concerned.

[jean]

Rather than you telling me what's in my head, I'll tell you - it's the idea that we can make negative comments about a politician's children, so long as he's a right-wing politician.

Can't you get it into your head that poor bastard isn't a negative comment?

But I withdraw the perversely. Seems you really don't understand that it's fairly common for some words to depart from their literal meanings (though chink isn't one of them).

[Beef Oven!]

Ah yes, I remember Dave Whelan. He's the one who said “Jewish people chase money more than everybody else” , isn't he?

Wasn't that Mario Balotelli? No wait, I'm getting my football blokies mixed up!

[ahinton]

It is.


Nobody ever uses the word chink except in reference to a Chinese person. It started out as a racially-specific insult. It has never acquired a general meaning separate from its use to refer to someone's ethnicity, though someone might argue that he was 'reclaiming' it for use among friends.

For this reason, your attempt at an analogy falls. So no hypocrisy, no double standards.

(Who is Dave Whelan?)

Whilst I do broadly agree with what you write here, might I suggest that there is nevertheless a chink in the armour of your argument?...(!)...

[ahinton]

I think you have hit the nail on the head. The PC brigade has certainly given the oxygen to the UKIP heat and fuel.

Ah, so UKIP hot air after all, then! - which said, I rather suspect that your mixing of metaphors here doesn't quite do you full justice...

[Beef Oven!]

Can't you get it into your head that poor bastard isn't a negative comment?

Can't you see that I think it is?

But I withdraw the perversely. Seems you really don't understand that it's fairly common for some words to depart from their literal meanings (though chink isn't one of them).

Nicely put, Jean.

[ahinton]

Ah yes, I remember Dave Whelan. He's the one who said “Jewish people chase money more than everybody else” , isn't he?

Yes, but what he omitted to mention is that some Jews actually catch it far more effectively than most...