I am surprised that so many posters here don’t seem to recognise the fact there is an important election coming up. namely, the one in the UK. This is probably the most important election in the world and yet Bush still dominates this forum… :s
BroonAmazed
Good call, BA.
Here’s a question I have: Why doesn’t Tony Blair want to debate his opponents?
Every day I hear more calls for it. Apparently party leaders who would become Prime Minister in other countries do head-to-head televised debates, so the notion that debates are inherently unsuited to the UK’s system does not provide the answer.
TB has always appeared to be a very strong debator. Don’t know about Kennedy, but Michael Howard did not look as impressive to me (as a debator) in the limited clips that I have seen of him on the news.
Anyone know why Tony is refusing to debate?
Do head-to-head debates work when there are 3 people? Personally I reckon you’re going to get much more out of 3 separate interviews by Paxman than you will with all three (not) answering the same question one after the other.
Incidentally, how many Brits are voting in this election? I personally think it is pretty disgraceful that for overseas voters:
a) You can’t vote by post (certainly from Taiwan - not enough time from when the postal vote is sent out to the election date)
b) You have to register for a proxy vote at least a month before the election is even announced.
(Granted, the election date was widely predicted in advance and the BTCO even sent out a reminder).
I’m not voting - I would have setup a proxy vote but my parents will be out of the country, and I didn’t even know if there would be a Monster Raving Loony candidate standing in my consitutuency …
Personally, if the debates were to be anything such as the debates held in the US presidential elections, I could do without them. Those are not debates.
I know that the Brits have a very healthy tradition of vital debate in P. Would the PM debates be similar to those?
[quote=“BroonAle”]"…and yet Bush still dominates this forum… :s
BroonAmazed [/quote]
Proper priorities it appears.
…and oh yes, I blame 2x elected US President George W. Bush.
Would the BBC bring in more ringers to any debates held?
Perhaps some Bamboo Union chaps?
Yeah, this is actually one explanation I’ve heard mentioned: “Well, people can already see them debate in Parliament, so that should be enough.”
I don’t know how useful a debate would be either. The one thing that I think debates have going for them is that they can sometimes spark just a little bit of interest among people to see what’s going on in politics. Just a bit of spectacle and competition. Some people feel that the spectacle detracts from a healthy political process – that all the “Who won?” articles afterwords and focus on style over substance are negatives. I can certainly see that point of view. But I still think that generating some additional interest might have some good effects as well…
[quote=“Hobbes”]Incidentally, how many Brits are voting in this election? I personally think it is pretty disgraceful that for overseas voters:
a) You can’t vote by post (certainly from Taiwan - not enough time from when the postal vote is sent out to the election date)
b) You have to register for a proxy vote at least a month before the election is even announced.
(Granted, the election date was widely predicted in advance and the BTCO even sent out a reminder).
[/quote]
I voted yesterday. Sent it off airmail. A week to reach London, I reckon it will make it.
I got the voting paper on the 25th. Sent out by airmail on 22nd April.
Airmail to and from the UK these days seems much faster than before! 
As Britain has increased in its diversity the political groups reflecting this diversity has added a lot of spice to the soup.
The famed “East End,” formerly repped by George Galloway - late of the Labour Party - is the scene of much activity.
Here is a peek!
[quote]Anti-Semitism in East End election fight
By YAAKOV LAPPIN, Apr. 29, 2005 0:22 | Updated Apr. 29, 2005 3:51
LONDON, England
The whiff of anti-Semitism, according to the governing Labour Party, has been detected most alarmingly in the East London district of Bethnal Green.
The area, once a center of the Jewish East End and now home to a large constituency of Bangladeshi Muslims, is where MP Oona King, daughter of a Jewish mother and a black American civil rights activist, is trying to defend a 10,000-strong majority against, among others, George Galloway, a staunch anti-Iraq war activist who was kicked out of Labour and has set up his own party, Respect.
Labour sources claim that activists from Respect were behind an April 10 attack on King, in which eggs were thrown at her as she attended a memorial service for Jewish war dead. “You f***ing Jews” epithets were shouted and tires on the MP’s vehicle were slashed. The Respect party denies any involvement.
In the “poisonous atmosphere” drummed up by Respect activists, a Labour party spokesman told The Jerusalem Post this week, King has had to resort to police protection while out campaigning.b[/b]
jpost.com/servlet/Satellite? … 4654779393[/quote]
Blair or Howard? Either or would be fine with me. What’s to debate? What’s to worry about? What will change? Does anyone think that the Liberal Democrats will win? why can’t Britain colonize Germany and civilize the country once and for all.
I took an online quiz from Yahoo and, shockingly, it appears that, based on the issues, I’m a Conservative! I agreed with them on 5 issues, with the Lib Dems on 4 and with Labour on 3.
If it were not for the fact that I believe them all to be a bunch of power-hungry liars I would almost have been tempted to vote.
Also to Broon Ale and his belief that these elections are important:
England is a far away country about which I know very little and care even less… Lovely Briton Mr. Chamberlain. 
Yes! I have the Union Jack on my car for over 10 years!
Later, we will secretly murder the 22 guys and gals who are before our Hannover Prince in the British throne queue … and then …
c’mon, it is a nicer couple than Prince Charles and Camilla:
Sounds like a plan. Any room for any East Prussian descendants in this new Britannia?
[quote=“fred smith”]Also to Broon Ale and his belief that these elections are important:
England is a far away country about which I know very little and care even less… Lovely Briton Mr. Chamberlain. [/quote]
You only belittle a nation when you feel threatened by the superior intellect and infinitely greater level of civilization her citizens possess. You once again display your argumentative vacuousness, your tiny pea-pod like brain and your uncultured heritage.
Laugh as much as you want Friedrich, but if it weren’t for us you’d be posting here in (appallingly bad) German. :raspberry:
BroonAdvanced
I do have a question - why is it that the Liberal Democrats never to seem to win? Especially now more than ever, British public opinion comes closer to the LD position more than Labor, yet the polls (that I’ve seen in the newspapers) show Labor winning by a landslide.
Of course, it’s not over till it’s over.
cheers,
DB
You forget that my whole family was German and that one-third of it still is today. No problem on that score. In fact, had we (intentional) not lost East Prussia, I would probably be sitting pretty comfortably. In fact, I might be sitting much more comfortably what with all the new “acquisitions” in the Ostland. Get my drift.
And seriously, please remember that I am a big fan of Britannia. I call in subsequent postings for Britain to civilize Germany. Surely that should graf (intentional) for something?
von Insterburg zu Neuhausen
[quote=“Dog’s_Breakfast”]I do have a question - why is it that the Liberal Democrats never to seem to win? Especially now more than ever, British public opinion comes closer to the LD position more than Labor, yet the polls (that I’ve seen in the newspapers) show Labor winning by a landslide.
Of course, it’s not over till it’s over.
cheers,
DB[/quote]
Lloyd George. Maybe people can’t forget that he couldn’t keep his todger tucked away. Jeremy Thorpe couldn’t either. It is odd though as the LibDems do well at local level and are pretty good and respected administrators at a lower level. But do they have the infrastructure and resources, as a party, to govern at the national level? If greater assurances were given that they really could, and they were more transparent in revealing their true capacity to govern, then more people may consider them a viable third option and by extension, credible candidates to govern our great nation of superior beings.
BroonAshdown
[quote=“fred smith”]graf (intentional) for something?
von Insterburg zu Neuhausen[/quote]
:bravo: 
No I didn’t forget that you are of undistinguished origin and I steh (intentional) by my lingo remark.
BroonAllenstein
Allenstein? haha I thought we agreed that the EVIL Germans deserved to lose these territories to the far kinder Poles and that Olstyn would be hence used to refer to that charming city.
Yeah, but Olsztyn doesn’t begin with an ‘A’
Rozumic?
BroonOswiecim 