Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

Which do you prefer and why?

It is an alternate spelling and also Leebia.

We, using the 'royal we', as a country seem to spend £millions on foreign aid and £millions trying to 'save' other countries. Why? As a taxpayer I give contributions to various charities in this country that I think are worthwhile, as I'm sure most of the posters on this bulletin board do, but I really object to the fact that our politicians take it upon themselves to pump vast amounts of taxpayer's money into trying to sort out other countries problems - for whatever reason. A few more scud missiles here and there and another few more £millions down the pan in Syria and what will that achieve?

Doods,

The essence is when you say 'our politicians take it upon themselves'.

Politicians are democratically elected to represent the wishes of the electorate in both local and national issues. I wouldn't mind too much about Syrian military intervention if the majority of the electorate wanted it, but every survey I've seen suggests that 75% of the people in this country don't want military intervention. So why is the government so hell bent on intervention? They shouldn't be taking matters like this upon themselves when the public clearly aren't interested in what happens in Syria.

Compare that, on the other hand, to the issue of an EU membership referendum which the majority of the great British public do want, but which won't happen before 2017 (if at all), and it's no wonder people are pissed off with the fat slimeball who is PM. He's getting it right on the economy imo, but he really is screwing up unnecessarily on so many other things.

If or when you ever find a person to lead the country who does actually respect the wishes of the majority of the people, then he'll stay in office for a very long time.

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i hope some of you watched john simpson on the box at about 19:00 ..... here was someone intelligent and non-partisan who had something sensible to say

================

separately .....
should a politician only reflect the majority view of those who bothered to vote?

is the average member of the public remotely capable of thinking beyond what's on television tonight and should he have a pizza or macdonalds for dinner (sorry - tea)?

The general public are mostly wrong about a whole range of issues and can be ignored for the most part. The alternative is that we would have capital punishment. In fact we would probably have public executions being shown on TV (after the watershed).

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In fact we would probably have public executions being shown on TV (after the watershed).

What a brilliant idea! Can I nominate Old Bollock Chops to be the first (before or after the watershed). I'm sure CC will second my proposal...

I will third your proposal after CC seconds it.

Cynic,

"here was someone intelligent and non-partisan who had something sensible to say"

Because you agree with him, or he agrees with you.

Hays,

Are you still a member of the public, or do you float above it.

Fred - LOL ! I'm a member of the public, so I'm obviously stupid.

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neither one nor the other actually fred as i am not entrenched in a view as to the "correct" course of action

mnamreh - 29 Aug 2013 20:22 - 28347 of 28347
dc

"Llock Cho"?

Second generation Welsh-Chinese?

Nah, just missing the 'bops'.

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cynic, so you don't have an opinion about a course of action, does that give you a right to disagree with anyone who has a definite view regarding a course of action? One of the great things about sitting on a fence and not having an opinion is that you can never be wrong.:-)

Syria crisis: Latest updates

Norman Smith Chief political correspondent, BBC News Channel tweets: Conservative Edward Leigh says he does not believe PM will ever hold crucial second vote on #Syria because he knows cannot win it: "We were lied to over Iraq... we will not go down that road again."

on balance, i think there needs to be some highly visible, short and sharp action though i am unsure as to its format .... i don't think it will dramatically alter anything per se but it should certainly be a strong warning shot

i think that is the right and arguably moral action for a responsible pm and country to promote both as an individual country and as a key member of UN etc.

i do NOT think that all the insular claptrap that has been coming across is any better than that - i.e. claptrap

There is another fruitcake on the loose, Kim Jong, who is having his subjects murdered on a daily basis. Are the USA and Britain going to step in and do something about that situation as well?