David Cat wrote:I don't think Sent was saying he liked Blair, rather that Blair was the best of a bad pair...



It certainly isn't a person's 'duty' to vote, and it shouldn't be made mandatory. Ever.

Indeed. Blair was a media-manipulating showman with questionable policies. Brown can't even do the media manipulation right.


I don't know; arguably, it is your duty to take some interest in the political process, and that includes voting, but I can't really blame people for getting apathetic about the whole thing. Certainly making it mandatory is ridiculous and is only going to encourage ill-informed voting at best.

I don't think it should be mandatory, but I think that people should at least make an effort to pay attention and try to make an informed decision. And N&B makes a point: The ones who don't vote are usually the first to complain.

Ah, arguably.
One of my more favorite words to use.
I'd have to go with Churchill, since Blair and Brown are the only ones I remember (Plus a smidgen of Major, I believe, I was born in '93), and I know a lot of Churchill.
Can't offer an opinion of Gladstone, honestly.
From what I know, seemed like a good guy.

Dansariki wrote:Can't offer an opinion of Gladstone, honestly.
From what I know, seemed like a good guy.

Tell that to Prague. =P

Hah.

Anybody followed the War in Sri Lanka? The Tigers were the guys that codified the Terrorsist Book of Tactics, wonder what Osama thinks of this.

I followed it like crazy. I really never thought the Sri Lankan army was capable of defeating the LTTE. But Rajapakshe took a strong stand there. But I don't like him-I don't believe he cares for the Tamil civilians. He could have given them rights on par to the Sinhalese & then attacked the LTTE. The latter would have lost sympathy(esp from the Tamil Nadu politicians-how I hate them!), but it wouldn't even have had a level of credence.

They are protesting so much here, trying to get the Canadian government involved.

Canada and half the western world. Japan too, desperation.

Raja has no cred. Rolling artillery barrages, minefields, carpet bombing, these sort of tactics haven't been used since the 1980s. Hell, many countries no longer have the equipment to do so.

Luciene wrote:They are protesting so much here, trying to get the Canadian government involved.

It's ok for you. Here, you have a group of people who blatantly support the LTTE (politicians who call Prabhakaran their good friend & close down shops, schools, colleges, courts-you name it- when someone speaks against the LTTE ) & another group which opposes it because the LTTE killed our former PM (that's Rahul Gandhi's father & it's his party which is in power now).

Indian politics is incoherent at the best of times. Send troops to invade Sri Lanka? There's a reason Jayalalita lost so badly.

Karunanadhi isn't any better. He wants to carve a separate Eleam out of Sri Lanka for the Tamilians. I don't remember who got this idea first-Jayalalitha or Karunanadhi. But both were flagrantly supporting the idea & claiming credit for it. Seriously, are they brainless? Don't they know you can't go and attack another country & divide it? Don't they ever learn from past mistakes? I think, for the people in Tamil Nadu, the Sri Lankan issue hardly mattered. But Congress lost badly there...

They would never have gotten the support to table the motion and they knew it, they were just grubbing for votes. And congress hardly contesting in Tamil Nadu...

Yeah, it's obvious no one would have agreed to their views & they themselves knew it. But it's shameful they had to resort to such tactics for votes. And it's awfully funny too-I used burst into laughter whenever I heard their press conferences. They think people are dumb. And last time around the Congress-DMK alliance swept Tamil Nadu. They won ever seat they contested. This time Congress heavy weights like Mani Shankar Aiyar lost & Chidambaram just managed to scrape through. Anyway, you got to give it to the Lankans-they didn't go for the kill until after the Tamil Nadu elections. God knows what other discomfiting things AIADMK & DMK might have said.
What are your views on the mandate?

Heh, its always been a jungle. And whatever stupidity the DMK indulged in, it still won. Its not that bad really, compared to the likes of the SP.

You got a point. Amar Singh & Sanjay Dutt got to be the world's biggest fools.

Fools are one thing. Then you've guys like Pappu Yadav, was it? The guy with TWO murder cases pending against him as well multiple cases of Assault and Racketeering and still managed to sit all five years in Parliament.

Impressive.
I've stayed out of this one, since I'm clueless on Indian politics, but that's amazing.

"For Criminals, With Criminals, By Criminals"

And people still vote for the party.

Dansariki wrote:Impressive.
I've stayed out of this one, since I'm clueless on Indian politics, but that's amazing.

There are people worst than Pappu Yadav. Ever heard of Narendra Modi? He is a mass murderer, carried out a genocide & yet he has been the chief minister of a state for over 7 years. Under a 'development' plank. Welcome to the world of Indian politics.
But it would be absolutely unfair to term every politician corrupt. Some are really nice. About 20% of the MP's have criminal charges-the rest are okay.

wrote:And people still vote for the party.

Every party has criminals. It's not like you have an option.