The General Political Thread

[HaroldW]

Spoiler

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[StevenChilton]

Anyone in France able to give a view about what the 'gilets jaunes' protests are all about? Also how come it's spreading to Belgium and the Netherlands?

[Piercee]

track down your local politician btw

[Duuring]

Anyone in France able to give a view about what the 'gilets jaunes' protests are all about? Also how come it's spreading to Belgium and the Netherlands?

It's 'spreading' to the Netherlands because the same small group of right-wingers think thís time, and not the previous five failed attempts at uprisings and new political parties, their glorious revolution will happen. There were, what, 400 in the entire country spread over like 10 cities this saturday? As far as they made demands, they bottle down to 'Down with the current prime minister, leave EU, raise pensions, lower taxes and re-instate the death penalty'. Oh, and elected mayors of course.

[William]

*thinking*
https://twitter.com/PrisonPlanet/status/1071476648120328192

[Duuring]

They're not European, they're not army, they're not crushing and yellow vests are not dissidents. Grow up.

[StevenChilton]

They're not European, they're not army, they're not crushing and yellow vests are not dissidents. Grow up.

Well, I agree they're not European but they are technically EU ('European Gendarmerie Force' has been a thing for years, hence the yellow stars on the vehicles). Also Macron ordered the French army onto the streets, so actually an EU military will quite likely be used for these kinds of purposes. It's PJW, so it's presented in a sensationalist way, but the gist of what he's saying is true.

[William]

They're not European, they're not army, they're not crushing and yellow vests are not dissidents. Grow up.

Well, I agree they're not European but they are technically EU ('European Gendarmerie Force' has been a thing for years, hence the yellow stars on the vehicles). Also Macron ordered the French army onto the streets, so actually an EU military will quite likely be used for these kinds of purposes. It's PJW, so it's presented in a sensationalist way, but the gist of what he's saying is true.

[Duuring]

Yeah, when you spin everything your way, gloss over most of the facts and make predictions based on thin air, it does sound like you're right. Who knew.

[Sgt.Winters]

I'm sure at the very least that they are European.

[Olafson]

France has a 200 year long history of fighting itself, they are in their 5th Republic. Statistically, it is about time for them to form a 6th.

[Duuring]

Never forget the 5th republic was created through an actual militairy coup.

[William]

But guys, Macron was the hero that France needed to save them from the evil right-wingers 😩😩😩

[Conway]

Odds on a Corbyn premiership?

[StevenChilton]

Odds on a Corbyn premiership?

Fairly unlikely, barring a black swan event, since he's *still* behind in the polls despite the current mess that the Tories have got themselves into. He regularly gets beaten by the 'Don't Know' option when it comes to polling on preferred PM, him or Theresa May. The Tories have descended into infighting, they've been in power for eight years, Theresa May is a pretty unpopular PM and they're pursuing a divisive policy goal (Brexit) yet he still can't beat them.

For him to become PM he'd probably have to form a coalition government, and I'm not sure who would want to partner with him in a hard-left government with a whiff of antisemitism about it. Probably only the Scottish nationalists, but their popularity has been in decline and will probably win even fewer seats than they did in 2017. He'd also go up against a far more popular Tory leader in any future election.