Quote:
Originally Posted by yorkie_chris
Usual $hite:
Left, fine. Right, criminal.
We're heading for a communist state. Nominally democratic, but instead of only having one choice to vote for, there are 3 that are all the same.
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On the face of it, yes I'd agree. However, we're in the age of populist politics. Yes we have no choice because they're all the same, but they're all the same because they all, broadly speaking, have their fingers on the pulse and understand what people want to hear in order to get their vote. So in some regards, politics
is now more democratic than it's ever been.
The fact that we're sleepwalking into a nightmarish totalitarian state isn't due to a lack of democracy, it's cos the electorate don't seem bothered. Yet.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MiniMatt
Iif you want to go down a line of "our political masters through the ages, regardless of whether they wear blue ribbons or red ribbons, seek to enslave the masses" - well, then that's a train I'd probably be tempted to jump on.
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Yeah, for once I wasn't having a pop at Labour. The above tends to sum up my general views on politicians. However, I think trusting politicians not to swipe our liberty is as naive as leaving a wolf in the same room as some chickens and expecting to find them uneaten. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, as Jefferson said. Maintaining liberty is the responsibility of the general public. Not only is the public failing in its duty, it's being willfully coerced.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MiniMatt
On this issue though, personally, I have no problem with the concept of requiring some posts to be politically neutral. I agree with the concept that people can divorce their personal beliefs from the actions I really can, although human nature means we're all weaker in this regard than we like to admit. As such, for positions of significant importance, like policing the nation, I don't have a problem with saying "this job is simply too important for us to risk you being unable to divorce your belief that we should "reverse the tide of non-white immigration" from the job's role of enforcing the law to a multicultural populace".
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How do you ensure that those in such posts are neurtal though? Hope that those holding such posts who secretly support the BNP do the decent thing and sign up, so that they can get fired?
There seems to be this concept that it's possible for individuals to be neutral. It's simply not possible, everyone will ALWAYS have their prejudices. The only way you can judge peoples ability to do a job is whether they act professionally at work, not by querying their political views.