That got me thinking: Do we really believe that any typical politician wouldn’t embrace a position counter to the one he/she earlier embraced in an effort to stay in office so that he/she can once again have a chance to embrace the earlier position?
Didn’t seem invisible to the Sun, Mail, Telegraph, etc on the morning of the election. But probably they would define him as a different sort of outsider.
Fixed that for you.
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Yes, fair comment. I did not express myself well. I was trying to say that the structures of the Left are not perceived as part of the fabric of society by the right wing media.
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Exactly. A wholly different sort of outsider. Or is it insider?
Either way, I think we agree.
From the Conservative Party Monster Manual
Labour Party Leader
Type: Outsider (Chaotic, Evil, Marxist)
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There’s more. I am seeing a massively repeated rumour on Facebook that students were allowed to vote at their home address and their college address. Some even quote a figure of million and a quarter extra votes for the Labour party. There is no reported basis for this that I can find. I have personally heard of one case of two sets of voting papers for the same person arriving in the post at different addresses: the second set was not used, and would probably have not have been allowed if they tried.
I know some of the people who are re-posting this because they send me copies. Sad.
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Is it? This is what their Dear Leader looked like: http://www.irishnews.com/picturesarchive/irishnews/irishnews/2015/11/20/163108336-f21788f9-fb26-4f31-8bbf-33795c8e03f3.jpg
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Their political space was eaten by Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn. Unlike David Cameron, who thought he could get rid of them by dismissing their core platform as crazy, May’s Tories embraced that platform wholeheartedly, all the way to racist dog-whistling. On the other side, Corbyn did the same by appearing more brexiter than brexiters, looking for external support against his internal opposition (made almost entirely of corporatist pro-EU types) and pushing his “unilateral socialism” that is isolationist almost by definition.
That was almost inevitable after the referendum, but it was executed pretty well by both leaders. In a system where incentives against smaller parties are already huge, it gave most UKIP voters a chance to make their votes actually count without renouncing their most important beliefs.
Lol. “Voter fraud”, that old crutch of right-wing parties the world over, ready to be whipped out when elections don’t go their way. “Constituency A is dead set against us, let’s disenfranchise them with some bullshit “fraud” excuse!”
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Yes, it is. It’s one thing to have at times associated with a terrorist group, it’s another to have formal ties to them. The only paramilitary group they ever had formal ties with were Ulster Resistance, a small group who had negligible impact (they were once involved in an arms smuggling operation, that was the extent of it really, they don’t really count as terrorists tbh), and it was a short lived association of only a year or so (they severed ties once their activities came to light). The DUP did not have any formal ties to the UDA or the UVF, and they publicly denounce any support given from them, they also regularly condemned their actions (though not vocally enough perhaps). They have in the past had several members who shared platforms with certain groups, went on marches with them, etc, but none of that is the same as being an “actual terrorist”, which would require direct participation in, or at least material support of, terrorist activities. Prior to the foundation of the DUP Ian Paisley had a far more active role in Loyalist paramilitarism, having been involved in founding two groups, and was involved with the UVF as well, but that doesn’t have anything to do with the DUP, and Paisley is dead now anyway (also, the guy in your picture resigned from the DUP over a year ago now).
I have to question your familiarity with recent events. http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/election-diary-peter-robinson-back-in-the-political-game-1-7991416
It is rumoured the DUP is looking for a peerage for him as part of coalition talks. To me he looks like the equivalent of Alex Salmond or Nigel Farage, the ideological engine for his party even when out of office. He certainly was the main architect behind the current DUP position. And he clearly liked his paramilitary links.
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Did you read the article? I said he resigned, it says he resigned. He’s still a member of the party presumably, I never said otherwise.
Anyway, regardless of his involvement, he’s not an “actual terrorist” either, he might be an aresehole, but he’s not a terrorist.
Like the article said, he resigned but he’s still very much back in the game, and he was the main architect behind the DUP for 15 years. There is no one more DUP than him, so to speak; and going by the picture, he clearly valued his paramilitary links at the very least.
Good for him, he’s still not a terrorist.
Nor is most of Sinn Fein, then. I think it’s still par for the course to question their links to terrorists.
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Sinn Fein are the political wing of the Provisional IRA, it’s previous leader was a senior figure in the IRA, Gerry Adams probably is as well (though that’s never been established for certain, and he denies it). You cannot compare the two.
Today they occupy opposite but specular political spaces, which in context involves certain dealings with the most unsavoury elements of such spaces. I absolutely can compare the two, down to the youthful pictures of Gerry Adams with paramilitary beret and “the previous leader” being a senior figure in paramilitary organizations.
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@doctorow
Did you mean “Its principal proponents…”
No nit-picking intended, really enjoyed the post. But I know you usually like the details to be correct 
You can attempt to compare the two all you like, but your comparisons aren’t valid. Martin McGuinnes was an operational leader of terrorist activities, and likely a member of the IRA Army Council (along with Adams) - they are people who have organised bombings and murders, there is nobody in the DUP who was involved in loyalist terrorist groups in an even remotely similar manner (the sum total of their involvement I’ve discussed already, it’s practically non-existent).
