To separate News from Politics

Decent Tories have the decency to now distance themselves from Boris's lies and say so openly, and in disgust. If people continue to excuse him- they become part of his amorality and lies.

The only time I use the thread title is when I'm creating a post. I don't see the point of seperating news and politics. If there was a thread about Boris's baby for example under "news" and someone said they thought the baby was being used to distract from his inadequacies would that be bringiing politics onto a news thread? If a thread is about something in the news there may well be a political aspect to it. Perhaps if people want to post about death or births we should have a "Hatches and Dispatches" category.

Someone said today that decent people find a stink in their nostrils which are the Tories.

Whitewavemark2

Someone said today that decent people find a stink in their nostrils which are the Tories.

Who said this and what on earth do they mean?

The last speaker. Talking about the corruption in the Tory party and Johnson’s appalling leadership, lack of integrity and lies.

lemongrove

Dickens I think the two subjects could be separated, there are so many news items that are nothing to do with politics at all, it shouldn’t be difficult.
If a poster then posted something on the news thread that is
Political there’s no need for any reporting, that would be ridiculous, but it could, reasonably be ignored.
There are plenty ( or would be) purely political threads to comment on.
The news threads would be very popular....is this what some posters don’t like?
Anyway, entirely up to HQ to decide.

Yes, I'm aware there are news items that it would be hard to politicise... "dog bites man", or Kim Kardashian has another baby, a celebrity 'wows' in a fantastic dress at an Oscar ceremony as she wins an award - entertainment news, and of course sport.

But how would you deal with the 'breaking news' that Starmer or Johnson had resigned, for example, without political comment?

There's two aspects to this though isn't there - objective political reporting versus subjective political comment, ie, Starmer (or Johnson) resigned due to lack of confidence by the party - that's purely objective reporting, and then someone might comment along the lines "good riddance, he was useless anyway (or whatever)" - which is of course subjective.

So, if I understand correctly, what you are saying is you don't mind the objective political reporting, you just don't want people giving a subjective political opinion because that's when all the hoo-ha starts?

Sounds a bit bland, if that's the case - but if it's what people want, and they appear to, then I can't see a reason not to have a separate thread... but I still think subjective political opinion will creep into it!

varian It is very interesting to see a Johnson supporter bracket him together with Trump and Farage. That tells us a great deal. What do these three have in common?
Firstly, I am not a Johnson supporter. But I like to throw a different viewpoint into the arena as bait for the lions, otherwise we hear nothing but the same old.
Secondly, what those three have in common is that a mere mention of their names makes certain hackles rise and sets the aggressive posters off (as you have proved).

The thing is that no news can be unbiased - it's not possible. Even if two people witnessed the same thing, there is a good chance that they would report it differently. Neither would be lying - they would just each see things that the other missed, and their own life experiences would make them feel differently about what had happened.

On a board like this, if we are talking about a news report, we are already getting the information second hand via a journalist, who will inevitably have put a political spin on it. The OP will comment on the report with her own take on the story, and every subsequent post will add a different one.

Unless the OP is just 'Have you seen this story?' with a link to the site, and the replies are all 'yes', 'no', or 'I'm off to see', there will be political comment, whether the post is about a politician or an event.

I think that a “politics” thread will be good.

All those who get huffy because we have the temerity to bring politics into everything will be gone, and those posting onto the thread will be there because it is political.

Win, win.

Quite frankly if the example of what the news threads will look like that we have already is what is ahead, I for sure won’t be posting on it. To the relief of many, no doubt.

Win win??

Whitewavemark2

The last speaker. Talking about the corruption in the Tory party and Johnson’s appalling leadership, lack of integrity and lies.

Mr Bercow I presume?

Whitewavemark2

I think that a “politics” thread will be good.

All those who get huffy because we have the temerity to bring politics into everything will be gone, and those posting onto the thread will be there because it is political.

Win, win.

Quite frankly if the example of what the news threads will look like that we have already is what is ahead, I for sure won’t be posting on it. To the relief of many, no doubt.

Win win??

Really some posters come out with the most comical comments!

WWM2 The example on the News thread yesterday was a bit of tongue in cheek joke! Did you not see it was posted (with expressed intent) a couple of minutes after Lily GNHQ's comment about there being the possibility of such a thread? I hardly think it was important as the Christmas Tsunami, Dunblane, The Chilean Miners, The sinking of the Titanic (all pretty non political).
Anyway it gave folk a breather from all the protesting on here.

If you think there was no political aspect to the Dunblane shootings, you're way off. The law was changed as a result.

Politics doesn't mean party politics

I do know that Alegrias and that could be applied to terrorist attacks, too.
I am not way off in thinking that many breaking news items in items garner an initial immediate response to them. How people react comes first, analysis and discussion comes after.

So we'll have a forum for immediate, emotional response to an event, and another for discussion of the reasons, implications and ideas for dealing with its aftermath.

Don't see the point.

Just use what we've got. We don't need a special forum for "sentimental initial responses only, please"

No Dickens you haven’t understood correctly ( what I am saying) and I can’t think why, as I have been clear enough.
No politics on any news threads is what I and others are advocating.
If Johnson or Starmer resigned then it’s clearly politics.Other news that isn’t political ( there’s plenty of it!) on a news thread.
It doesn’t have to be ‘bland’ it simply isn’t a political wrangle.
Those who enjoy a politics thread don’t have to post any less than they do now.

Good post Dickens and while on this, brains are all wired differently which is why to pick the Dunblane example, I gave no thought to gun laws on the day itself. Same with Aberfan and the coal mining board. Above all, I am just left with that initial feeling of overwhelming grief that I felt on that day when the News rolled in.

The only posters that are protesting about a thread heading are the ones who do enjoy political wrangles and seem to be cross that a non political news story cannot then be politicised as they would like.
Am sure that many more GN members would comment on a purely news thread knowing that politics isn’t part of it.

Alegrias1

If you think there was no political aspect to the Dunblane shootings, you're way off. The law was changed as a result.

Politics doesn't mean party politics

Politics doesn't mean party politics

... and that, really, is what this is all about isn't it? I won't elaborate, it's fairly obvious.

But I'm still in favour of GNHQ allowing a 'news-but-no-politics' section. In principle, why not?

But it's not the day itself is it, the point is a discussion now about dunblane would be about politics without a doubt. Someone up thread mentioned Kim Kardashian, I have seen numerous feminist threads on KK on Mumsnet for example, they were very political. I think people are meaning stopping party political rather than political.

I think lemongrove if there is a Heading called News it will at least steer the discussion in the right direction.

And yes, Alegrias immediate emotional responses to News are not to be dismissed, even in the political domain. If Boris cancels Christmas on 22nd December then the response will initially be totally emotional, and not immediately analytical.

And why not emotion?

I agree Josianne another reason that posters would want to give their opinions on a purely emotional level to breaking news without quoting facts and figures and stats and political point scoring.Particularly tragedies.

Dickens

Alegrias1

If you think there was no political aspect to the Dunblane shootings, you're way off. The law was changed as a result.

Politics doesn't mean party politics

Politics doesn't mean party politics

... and that, really, is what this is all about isn't it? I won't elaborate, it's fairly obvious.

But I'm still in favour of GNHQ allowing a 'news-but-no-politics' section. In principle, why not?

Yes, Dickens I think one poster (I can't remember who) rightly said this pages ago.

I have no idea if I am one of the political posters or not. But that's not where I am coming from. I have seen this done before, it's certainly not an original tactic and its about speech for me not politics.

lemongrove

I agree Josianne another reason that posters would want to give their opinions on a purely emotional level to breaking news without quoting facts and figures and stats and political point scoring.Particularly tragedies.

Yes, like Lockerbie, Herald of Free Enterprise etc. It's horrible that News of tragedies remain in our minds forever and ever.

People couldnt more clear about why they want this. They dont like the speech of others. I view it in the same way as I view those whose constantly press the report button.