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.

Both figures are wrong. It was 200,000 plus and is now around 120,000.

Labour has around 180,000 but many are signed up through their union membership.

You might be right, no one seems to know.


http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tory-party-membership-collapsed-under-2142345

Not as big a fall as the Labour party that had over 400,000 when Blair became leader in 1997.

Hays,

Citing the failures of another, does not mean that your supreme leader isn't a disaster.

Many thought that Blair was a torrid mole.


Sorry tory mole.

Membership of political parties is falling in almost every country. It has nothing to do with the specific leader.

You think not?

You ought to get out more!

Cameroon is a disaster, I don't know anyone who is prepared to vote for him.

Cameron is fine. I will be voting for him. The Conservatives are only 3 or 4 points behind Labour and Cameron's approval rating is far higher than Miliband's.

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2013/05/06/decline-in-party-membership-europe-ingrid-van-biezen/

Latest UNS Projection.......... today 30/08/2013

Uniform Swing Projection

236 363 25 8 18


Labour Majority 76

Latest polls, and what might the impact of Syria be.........


Perhaps of more interest will be the effect on perceptions of the party leaders (which, in turn, may have their own knock on effects on voting intention) – will it make people see David Cameron as a less effective leader, or Ed Miliband as a more effective one? I would be surprised if there wasn’t at least some negative impact on Cameron’s ratings, but whether that is long term or quickly forgotten is an open question…

That's based on averages as at 22 August. Out of date.

http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/

Hays,

The blue blood of the party is beginning to flow.

Hear Aschroft has called in Cameron for a talk.

On the serious side, I think, if the clown had prepared his case and timed it properly the decision in parliament would have been passed.

And Britain would have been involved in any action in Syria.

What that action should be should have be is to remove Assad and "try" to form an inclusive replacement government.

How????

But I think, many of the public dislikes the dishonesty and hypocrisy of doing this wrapped around the "speak" of Chemical Weapons and broken international "rules".

Yes tend to agree Fred but lets not lose sight of the facts here.

Its Camorons own bank benchers who dislike him that brought him down on Thursday night.

If they had voted for Millies ammendment we would probably be having a vote tomorrow and voting for military action.

Too many now in the Conservative party dont trust him, know he lies and know he distorts facts to his own advantage.

They also beleive he had a seperate agenda that of wanting to become a world wide statesman, Im afraid that opportunity has now gone forever.

Good article by Max Hastings in the Daily Mail today about the whole fiasco.

GF,

I agree, but not accepting Miliband's amendment was probably down to Camoron's conceit and peevishness and shooting from the hip.


He is unfit for his function.

--------

Ed Miliband has been challenged to spend a week on holiday in Syria by a British doctor who has been treating bomb attack victims.

The Labour leader has been key in blocking UK military intervention in the war-torn country, which culminated in a humiliating Commons defeat for David Cameron on Thursday night.

The medic, who wants to be known only as Dr Rola, witnessed the aftermath of an apparent napalm attack on a school playground in Aleppo and said the "world has failed Syria".

The female Doctor was on Newsnight friday night.

What one should ask her is does she think its right for hundreds of British servicemen to be blown up, every day in Iraq and Afghanistan???? by cowardly devices hidden in the earth.

Would she be happy if her son or sons were in The British Army on the frontline in these areas and open to attack.

Is she happy to carry on spending money after money on lost causes, is she happy to have extremists in this country seeking revenge because we have invaded muslim lands.

I think Miliband is well aware of the conditions in Syria and visiting such would probably be define as gratuitous by the present tory machine.

Secondly if Comoron has accepted the Miliband / Labour and other dissenters to await the facts and UN pathway, then the "possible" actions would have been seen in a different light.

Cameron said NO, because he wishes to prance around the World Political Stage posturing and making political utterances, in a hope of validating himself. (Doing a “Maggie Thatcher” comes to mind. How many lives did she cost the British public and how much "cash" did her "vanity" cost and what is the cost of maintaining the result of her stupidity?

I respect Dr. Rola and the validity of her observations on the medical conditions of casualties.

I even think that she is right that the "World" has/is failing Syria, as it has failed other areas less in the media attentions or considered news worthy. It doesn’t mean that many are attempting resolve those problems.

Initially, I wasn't sure that there should have been interference in the Syrian civil war, but as said before I tended to lean that way.

I still think that there should be intervention, but the "process" of the UN should be "attempted" first. The abuses by "Assad" forces and the "rebels" has been carried out for over 2 years, taking time to think about possible actions of interference in Syria even if during the delay may allow more "abuses", thought may prevent a great deal more in total.

Don't know.

If there is block due to vetoes by China and Russia, I have sympathy of ignoring the UN as long as there is obvious support of other nations for the USA acting independently of the UN "authority".
Also, while I think it may be preferable to have approval of the General Assembly, if China and Russia do use their vetoes.
However, if it prolongs actions more than a week this course could be ignored.

-----------

I wouldn't want Obama's responsibility, but admire his deliberation rather the being Gung Ho like some others.