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Party Campaigning

(65 Posts)
gangy5 Wed 06-Nov-19 20:43:32

What a pity that people feel the need to start political campaigning on Gransnet. Nothing wrong with political discussion but this sort of posting is a step too far on this site.

GracesGranMK3 Fri 08-Nov-19 16:26:46

Just looked back and notice autotext has taken over in my last post. "talkers" should have read "flamers".

MaizieD Fri 08-Nov-19 16:33:45

@growstuff Is it in the Spectator article linked to in this piece?

www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/vote-leave-director-admits-won-lied-public/08/02/

varian Fri 08-Nov-19 19:18:36

Buried in a 19,800 word Spectator essay written by former online editor and Vote Leave director Dominic Cummings is an admission: The Brexit referendum was won by lying to the public.

The whole brexit tragedy is based on lies which were sold to decent trusting people.

If you were won of these who was deceived please wake up.

Reject the deceit. I know it is much easier to fool people than it is to get them to admit that they were fooled but the evidence is overwhelming.

growstuff Fri 08-Nov-19 19:31:06

Thanks for that Maizie. I think those were probably the same words. I actually saw a video of him making the claim. He was boasting about how he'd fooled the public and he was deliriously happy that he'd "won" by tricks and lies. He knew very well that the £350,000 figure was a lie. I can remember the expression on his face - it was really quite frightening - he seemed like a mad man.

It was only the second time I'd come across him. Before that, he'd been a SPAD for Michael Gove and was apparently behind some of Gove's more outlandish ideas. Cummings apparently came up with the term "blob" to describe anybody against his reforms and it was during this time that Cameron called him a "career psychopath".

GracesGranMK3 Fri 08-Nov-19 20:19:12

@varian. Not the only lies it seems.

lemongrove Fri 08-Nov-19 21:01:43

Dirty tricks will and are being played by all parties leading up to the GE.
Conservatives editing Starmer interview, Lib Dems putting out misleading figures to the public that make it look as if they are doing much better than they are in polls, and Labour
( Diane Abbott again!) putting out a misleading tweet about
Ian Austin and Ken Clarke.
And so it will go on.....no political party is as pure as the driven snow.

growstuff Fri 08-Nov-19 23:44:41

Two wrongs don't make a right!

The lies of the referendum campaign by VoteLeave were on a different scale entirely. They were a co-ordinated effort to ignore facts and appeal to prejudices.

Cummings couldn't give a flying fig about any of the issues people were concerned about. It was all a game to him and the objective was to win by whatever unscrupulous means. He's still Johnson's advisor. We know that Johnson has a history of "story telling" before he employed Cummings, so the two are a lethal combination.

growstuff Fri 08-Nov-19 23:47:56

The referendum campaign did more than "ignore" facts - it set out to undermine anybody who knew what they were talking about by smearing "experts" as part of some kind of "global elite".

Eloethan Fri 08-Nov-19 23:53:48

gangy 5 Well, you have sort of added to it really haven't you. To start a thread like that at the beginning of an election campaign is really asking for more of the same isn't it.

Eloethan Sat 09-Nov-19 08:20:39

anniebach You say when you first joined Gransnet the political forum used to be "OK", with "posters who supported different parties" but "not now".

Really? Why then are there so many long threads with people debating (and often in quite a bit of depth) topical political issues?

I'm sure most people can identify which posters lean to the left or right, because they have made it quite clear which parties they support and which they definitely do not. And there are several posters who have stated their varying political allegiances.

gangy5 Sat 09-Nov-19 10:51:14

Yes Eloethan, I completely agree, that by starting this thread, my intention was to be provocative. As expected, certain posters have thought me arrogant to do so.
GracesGranMK3 On other sites flamers are dealt with, sadly not on this site A strange quote coming from you!
growstuff I appreciate well reasoned debate and I've found GN disappointing in that respect This is totally what I'm getting at.

GracesGranMK3 Sat 09-Nov-19 11:21:54

So what did you actually want to achieve by starting a thread? This was not making a comment, you felt it your view of how others were posting deserved a whole thread.

What a pity that people feel the need to start political campaigning on Gransnet. Nothing wrong with political discussion but this sort of posting is a step too far on this site.

You do not explain what you mean by political campaigning and you accuse other posters of this sort of posting, again undefined other than it being something you don't like and therefore should not have to tolerate. Anyone could see what you were intending by this post and it appears from the replies that most people have.

varian Sat 09-Nov-19 14:07:36

I wonder if what the OP means by "party campaignjng" is saying positive things about the party you support and criticising the other parties. If so, it is difficult to distinguish that from "poltical discussion".

GracesGranMK3 Sat 09-Nov-19 14:18:37

In the past, Varian, when we have had such rude and self-serving OPs it has turn out that there is a section of the population who believe just disagreeing with their views was "a step too far". This may not be what the OP means in this instance but unless we are told it just sounds rather like very ill-mannered sour grapes.