MAB Posted November 13, 2016 Share Posted November 13, 2016 How come Farage has been the first British politician to have a meeting with Trump? Because he's been appearing as the warm-up act at Trump's rallies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted November 13, 2016 Share Posted November 13, 2016 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/john-lewis-christmas-ad-gets-a-us-presidential-election-makeover-a7413691.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangorballetboy Posted November 13, 2016 Share Posted November 13, 2016 This is what happens in Northern Ireland. All elections are held on a Thursday, whether GE or Local Govt. But for security reasons the ballot boxes are secured over the weekend. Counting doesn't start until Monday morning. The UK (of which NI is a part) is not really a good example as (i) general elections are run on a full country wide basis, not state-by-state as in the U.S. and (ii) it's all in one time zone. I don't know know why you think the count doesn't start until Monday; general election counts are usually overnight (I know from experience, having attended one) and local and assembly counts start on the Friday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted November 13, 2016 Share Posted November 13, 2016 Oh Melody had no idea it was like that in the US that's terrible. .....never thought about the nitty gritty of time zones. Couldn't there be some agreement not to count votes until all were in .....in all states? You'd think it would be fairer that way, wouldn't you? It would prevent people from potentially deciding not to bother voting because they realised it was a lost cause. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa O`Brien Posted November 14, 2016 Author Share Posted November 14, 2016 (edited) The UK (of which NI is a part) is not really a good example as (i) general elections are run on a full country wide basis, not state-by-state as in the U.S. and (ii) it's all in one time zone. I don't know know why you think the count doesn't start until Monday; general election counts are usually overnight (I know from experience, having attended one) and local and assembly counts start on the Friday. God that's strange. I always thought the count started on Monday. Oh, and yes I know NI is a part of the UK. No need for a history lesson. Edited November 14, 2016 by Lisa O`Brien Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quintus Posted November 14, 2016 Share Posted November 14, 2016 Hillary Clinton seems to have been turned into some wronged angelic figure after the election result, which is as far from the truth as Trump being recast as a harmless jolly rogue. In my view the poor Americans were pretty much given the choice between crucifixion and disembowelment. Not surprising many chose not to vote - had I been one, I'd likely not have voted rather than contaminate myself with either of these two vile candidates. As for the electoral college, which is much the same as out first past the post system, we should be careful what we wish for - remember that in the last couple of elections in the UK, had we not had FPTP we would likely now have a sea of UKIP MPs... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacqueline Posted November 14, 2016 Share Posted November 14, 2016 (edited) I watched Hillary give her loser speech and while I can only imagine her devastation, I found it impossible to feel sorry for her. Her overpowering sense of entitlement and determination to make history by being the first female president overrode everything, whether she was the best candidate, whose interests she was serving and anything else you can think of. The campaign kept banging on about her years of service and experience, but what did she actually achieve? There have been some interesting articles written about why she lost, given that technically she got more votes than the Donald. It took a long time for her to appear after the result so one can guess what was going on behind the scenes. As far as I was concerned watching her give that speech, which must as she said, have been tough but during which she displayed a total lack of comprehension at what had happened, if she wanted to know why she lost all she had to do was take a long, hard look in the mirror and at the ghost of Clinton past standing behind her. His expression could be read any number of ways, including pity and a little bit of fear! At least we can be spared any more of that peculiar pointing and waving at people, real or imaginary. It is so false, even if the people she points at are actually there. Makes you speculate as to who they could be. There was a very funny photo in the Sunday Times yesterday given the world leaders vying for an audience with the president elect. The photo shows our Mrs May apparently a long way back in this queue, speaking on the phone and asking whoever is on the other end - When he has a moment, can he confirm our special relationship? Edited November 14, 2016 by Jacqueline 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melody Posted November 14, 2016 Share Posted November 14, 2016 As Bernie Sanders said, in a situation where you have two people who are personally not popular, the best thing to do is to try and ignore the personalities and look at the policy positions. Not that the media gave people much of a chance to do that, they were so busy dissecting all the scandals. I think if anything, when people look back at this election and try to figure out what happened, the media are going to end up shouldering a lot of the blame. At least I hope they are. They focused on Trump exhaustively right from the start, to the point where one time they ignored a live speech by Bernie Sanders to spend that half hour with their cameras on an empty podium in another city where Trump was going to speak a bit later. During the primaries, Trump turned the debates into such circuses that the media ratings were through the roof compared with debates in previous elections, and several media moguls were openly gloating about the money they were getting. The head of CBS actually said, about Trump's candidacy "It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS," and "Man, who would have expected the ride we're all having right now? ... The money's rolling in and this is fun. I've never seen anything like this, and this going to be a very good year for us. Sorry. It's a terrible thing to say. But, bring it on, Donald. Keep going.” We heard practically nothing about policy positions on either side (maybe not all that relevant since a lot of Trump's campaign promises have gone the way of the Brexit promises the day after they won), but it was emails, emails, emails, p***y grabbing, emails, emails, Benghazi the whole time. Not a word in any of the three presidential debates about climate change, one of the most serious issues facing the next president and one where they had massive differences, just basically opportunities for them to stick to their talking points and attack each other's personal failings. I suppose the prospect of a Trump presidency is also going to be more profitable for the media than a Clinton presidency. But the media failed us badly during the campaign. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colman Posted November 14, 2016 Share Posted November 14, 2016 A lot of people seem to have done an awful lot of soul searching and analysis inside a couple of days: I'd take any story of why Trump won with a little tiny pinch of salt maybe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melody Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 (edited) It's obviously not something we'll ever know definitively. But if people don't try and analyse what happened, there won't be any lessons to be learned. For those of us who live in the USA, this is going to be a lot more personal than for others. As a person in one of the vulnerable groups (noncitizen immigrant) with a memory that goes back to what some of these same people tried in 1994, I'm more than a little concerned. For the first time since moving here nearly 40 years ago, we're seriously discussing moving back to the UK at the moment. Edited November 15, 2016 by Melody 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colman Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 The analysis needs to be done, it's the speed with which the media seem to move from confidently wrong to confidently "right" that gives me pause. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melody Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 Well, the media has behaved shockingly throughout this whole business, so nothing much would surprise me there at this point. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colman Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 Another parallel with Brexit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aileen Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 Melody, I don't recommend moving back to the UK unless you can afford to take out very good private health insurance and can afford private care if you need it. The health and social care services are virtually at the point of collapse and the country is deeply divided. 'Foreigners' are feeling very unwelcome here at the moment. There are many reports of open hostility to people from abroad; even professionals such as doctors and research scientists are not immune from this. When certain newspapers attack judges for a decision that they don't like, with the faces of those judges prominently displayed on their front pages, we are not far away from Nazi Germany or other repressive regimes in which lawyers and judges are killed or persecuted for doing their jobs and applying the Rule of Law. These are very dangerous and worrying times. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAB Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 You very clearly live in a very different UK to me Aileen. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BalletcoForum Moderators Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 This thread has taken an potentially unwelcome turn. I'm locking it whilst the mods consider matters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mallinson Posted November 19, 2016 Share Posted November 19, 2016 Further mention here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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