Birstall MP attacked and killed

[darmstadt]

Murdoch's papers are merely following the survey results of their readers. Anyone who wants to argue otherwise is paranoid (although at the moment that's hardly surprising)..

I thought they did whatever Murdoch told them to do, much like UK politicians...

[PurpleGorilla]

I thought they did whatever Murdoch told them to do, much like UK politicians...

Or two and a half million of us protest against the war in iraq and Blair bombs the tulip out of the country anyway.

[SueEllen]

I thought they did whatever Murdoch told them to do, much like UK politicians...

Murdoch is hedging his bets - The Times supports Remain while The Sun Leave.

And British politics has been getting ugly even before this referendum campaign.

Loads of MPs have been threatened with violence due to their voting records by supporters of different groups on the right and left as well as religious ones. And that's not mentioning some election campaigns and the Scottish referendum.

[jamesbrown]

Murdoch is hedging his bets - The Times supports Remain while The Sun Leave.

I think it's more straightforward than that. I know that Trevor Kavanagh joked about this but, ultimately, it's at the discretion of the editorial team (believe it or not). Coverage in the Sun has been consistently Eurosceptic for decades, and throughout this campaign, reflecting their readership. It would've been astonishing if they'd come out for Remain. In contrast, the Times has been consistently balanced, including throughout this campaign and, while most people anticipated that they'd opt for Remain (in keeping with their readership), it was more finely balanced. Papers essentially reflect their readership and vice versa. The Torygraph will be slightly more interesting in this regard, but I'd expect the Editor (vs. the Barclay brothers) to set direction. The press is broadly Eurosceptic, but I'd suggest the country is too (chicken or egg?):

[jamesbrown]

Another fair and balanced commentary IMO:

Contempt of court and the contempt of Twitter - Reaction

[GJABS]

... Since both side have agreed a moratorium on campaigning, it seems that both sides agree that, in part, that without the referendum next week, she would probably be alive.

I'm not sure that that follows. Had no referendum been announced then we would still be in the EU, and a few violent nationalists would have felt an increased urge to harm left-wing politicians. The referendum reduces the pressure in the pressure cooker a little.

[scooterscot]

Interesting. Sadly I do have several friends who regularly spout the rhetoric of anyone they see as in any way unpatriotic or anti-British being "traitors" and calling for them to either be deported or hung from a lamppost.

Whether or not they mean it or it's just hyperbole I find it disturbing language which skews the whole way any debate with them is framed - and once that kind of language becomes the norm for them it tends to leak slowly out of the extremes into the centre ground. That's a scary thought because a. some nutter might actually do it and b. if you think calling for your opponents to be strung up is normal then any kind of sensible discussion is impossible and we're down to polarised, entrenched camps.

Agreed.

Abuse hurled my direction when my voting intention was presented in this thread:

http://forums.contractoruk.com/gener...de-remain.html



Referendums do damage. It'll be months before this is over.

[PurpleGorilla]

Birstall MP attacked and killed

Agreed.

Abuse hurled my direction when my voting intention was presented in this thread:

http://forums.contractoruk.com/gener...de-remain.html

What abuse? I see one comment from DimPrawn, and that's it.

[scooterscot]

What abuse? I see one comment from DimPrawn, and that's it.

Can't be bothered searching through the other dozen or so threads, but the point is the same. No tolerance.

[NotAllThere]

Or two and a half million of us protest against the war in iraq and Blair bombs the tulip out of the country anyway.

And rather more didn't protest.