Why is Sadiq Khan still mayor

[12gauge82]

9 hours ago, B725 said:

The bit I find strange is the right wing get called nazis but wasn't the nazis a socialist party?

Their roots may have come from a socialist party, but I don't think you could call them left wing at the end. In my opinion they became an extreme right wing organisation, taking  nationalisum to the extreme and set about trying to exterminate a race they felt didn't fit that profile.

[amateur]

2 hours ago, 12gauge82 said:

Their roots may have come from a socialist party, but I don't think you could call them left wing at the end. In my opinion they became an extreme right wing organisation, taking  nationalisum to the extreme and set about trying to exterminate a race they felt didn't fit that profile.

So not much different to the Free Palestine lot, also seeking to destroy the Israelis

[12gauge82]

32 minutes ago, amateur said:

So not much different to the Free Palestine lot, also seeking to destroy the Israelis

I'd say that's a very different set of circumstances personally.

[London Best]

14 hours ago, B725 said:

What defines a person as right wing ? If their view is even slightly different from the left does that make them right wing or maybe someone with a different opinion automatically is branded right wing.

During a discussion someone asked me to define where I stood politically. 
I said I would put myself slightly to the right of centre. 
He said he saw me as slightly to the right of Attila the Hun!

[Genghis]

14 hours ago, oowee said:

? You lost me there. 

Fascism is both anti-communist and anti-capitalist in its routes. Hence where the term ‘Third position’ comes from. “Government by corporate interest” is an objectively false description.

 

It’s common these days for ‘Fascist’ to be thrown around as a casual insult, but there has only been one Fascist regime in history - Mussolini’s Italy. National Socialism was influenced by Fascism, but Hitler viewed Fascism as ineffective - mostly due to the absence of racial purity laws.

 

The above diagram was clearly created by someone left-leaning.

Edited November 11, 2023 by Genghis

[Gordon R]

The diagram was created by a simpleton.

[London Best]

5 minutes ago, Gordon R said:

The diagram was created by a simpleton.

I think that’s what Genghis probably meant!

[Rewulf]

29 minutes ago, London Best said:

35 minutes ago, Gordon R said:

The diagram was created by a simpleton.

I think that’s what Genghis probably meant!

Most historians and political scholars have great difficulty defining what the nazi party stood for, or whether they leaned left or right to any degree. 

They were definitely anti communist, but socialism was a key part of their doctrine, while the upper classes and aristocracy were not given the kind of treatment usually reserved by communism, equality was important, Hitler was of fairly humble birth. 

The regime started off reasonably well, many good things were achieved, but as is the case where egotistical leaders become too successful, absolute power becomes absolute evil. 

The nationalistic idea of Germans being the 'master race' was not intrinsic, Germany as a whole nation was relatively young, the idea of it was more likely created by early visualisations of the nazis. 

My impression is not that they were far left or far right, but leaned left in the beginning, and drifted over to the right in later years, it's the totalitarian concepts that makes us think they were the epitome of far right, yet history has taught us that the far left is capable of just as much murder and totalitarianism. 

[Vince Green]

Why do we need a mayor ?

We got on perfectly alright before we had one.

It's another legacy of Blair. He created the role 

Edited November 11, 2023 by Vince Green

[Gordon R]

The position of mayor is like the Welsh and Scottish parliaments - unnecessary. Just another layer of bureaucracy which we pay for and achieves nothing but discord.

[Rewulf]

1 hour ago, Gordon R said:

The position of mayor is like the Welsh and Scottish parliaments - unnecessary. Just another layer of bureaucracy which we pay for and achieves nothing but discord.

Exactly 

[old man]

3 hours ago, Gordon R said:

The position of mayor is like the Welsh and Scottish parliaments - unnecessary. Just another layer of bureaucracy which we pay for and achieves nothing but discord.

Possibly, but lots seem to want more of the mayoral drivel because they keep voting them in?

[Gordon R]

They might be voted in, but why is the position there to vote for? There should be a choice on the ballot papers - all the candidates, plus "abolish the post" option.

[Yellow Bear]

1 minute ago, old man said:

Possibly, but lots seem to want more of the mayoral drivel because they keep voting them in?

Possibly but unlikely - there will be an election anyway, and theoretically  if  only one person votes for one candidate they get in.

I personally would back Gordons idea to see where the votes go.

[old man]

1 minute ago, Yellow Bear said:

Possibly but unlikely - there will be an election anyway, and theoretically  if  only one person votes for one candidate they get in.

I personally would back Gordons idea to see where the votes go.

No argument  from me, personally on all ballot papers I would like a tick box for "non of these"

[amateur]

Margaret Thatcher rightly dissolved the London-wide GLC to scupper Ken Livingstone, so Blair created the mayoralty, letting Livingstone back into power.

An unnecessary level of bureaucracy IMHO.

[Vince Green]

2 minutes ago, Gordon R said:

They might be voted in, but why is the position there to vote for? There should be a choice on the ballot papers - all the candidates, plus "abolish the post" option.

The first mayor was Ken Livingstone. As soon as he got in he appointed dozens of his loonie left wing cronies to jobs that didn't even exist the week before he got elected

These party faithful stooges were put in charge of every aspect of London life despite many of them having no previous experience or qualifications for the job. I was told that the woman he put in charge of running the taxi trade had previously been a cleaner.

They were appointed with mega salaries and contracts so secure that when Boris got elected he couldn't get rid of them . So all the time he was mayor Boris was having to fight being undermined by these idiots.

[oowee]

3 hours ago, Gordon R said:

The position of mayor is like the Welsh and Scottish parliaments - unnecessary. Just another layer of bureaucracy which we pay for and achieves nothing but discord.

The devolution of power, be it mayor's or govts is a reflection of the lack of democracy in our system. Centralised power simply does not work locally. We need more not less. Role on the day we have English devolution or better still regional devolvement. 

We need central service for finance, foreign policy and the like but otherwise more regional/ federal system. The half hearted unequal system in place is hopefully just the first steps of distribution of power. 

5 hours ago, Genghis said:

Fascism is both anti-communist and anti-capitalist in its routes. Hence where the term ‘Third position’ comes from. “Government by corporate interest” is an objectively false description.

 

It’s common these days for ‘Fascist’ to be thrown around as a casual insult, but there has only been one Fascist regime in history - Mussolini’s Italy. National Socialism was influenced by Fascism, but Hitler viewed Fascism as ineffective - mostly due to the absence of racial purity laws.

 

The above diagram was clearly created by someone left-leaning.

The diagram is one of many. We may pick holes in all of them but there is a general consensus that politicaly far left political meets the far right. Whatever the words we choose to use to describe them. 

[Rewulf]

10 minutes ago, oowee said:

The devolution of power, be it mayor's or govts is a reflection of the lack of democracy in our system. Centralised power simply does not work locally. We need more not less. Role on the day we have English devolution or better still regional devolvement. 

I thought thats what we had MPs and councils for ?
You are talking about reginal/county governments, we already have them.

[Yellow Bear]

1 minute ago, Rewulf said:

I thought thats what we had MPs and councils for ?
You are talking about reginal/county governments, we already have them.

He just wants more jobs for civil servants (jobs for the boys)  - ALL government bodies (local and national) are massively inefficient and overmanned and the managers would never survive in the real world where targets have to be met and spend accounted for.

[oowee]

10 minutes ago, Rewulf said:

I thought thats what we had MPs and councils for ?
You are talking about reginal/county governments, we already have them.

Is that how you see Holywood? 

It's that wider power structure and devolution we need. It's way beyond councils. 

 

[Gordon R]

oowee - just why do we need more government? Looking at Scotland and Wales should be enough to worry even the most die hard de-centralisation fanatic.

[Newbie to this]

3 hours ago, Gordon R said:

They might be voted in, but why is the position there to vote for? There should be a choice on the ballot papers - all the candidates, plus "abolish the post" option.

This^^^

2 hours ago, old man said:

No argument  from me, personally on all ballot papers I would like a tick box for "non of these"

And this ^^^

But it will never happen, becauae none of the current crock of **** would NOT get elected.

2 hours ago, Yellow Bear said:

ALL government bodies (local and national) are massively inefficient and overmanned and the managers would never survive in the real world where targets have to be met and spend accounted for.

Ain't that the truth.

Edited November 11, 2023 by Newbie to this

[Rewulf]

1 hour ago, oowee said:

Is that how you see Holywood?

No , it's a place where Scottish MPs elected by Scottish people , sit and plan how to scupper the plans of the UK government, and decide how much money they need from Westminster to achieve this.

Oh and achieve an independence they can't afford.

1 hour ago, oowee said:

It's that wider power structure and devolution we need

How does your love of the EU fit into this ?

[B725]

7 hours ago, London Best said:

During a discussion someone asked me to define where I stood politically. 
I said I would put myself slightly to the right of centre. 
He said he saw me as slightly to the right of Attila the Hun!

That's more or less what I think to be honest,but not likeing the present mayor of London certainly doesn't make me right wing just a different opinion from others.