Farage crushes Cameron

[MikeH]

Catholic church in the UK is only growing because of immigration from Poland.

[kentonio]

Oh and this..

LAB 34
UKIP 25
LIBDEM 20
CON 10.

..is one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

[Ben Kenobi]

You missed the joke there.

You missed mine.

[MikeH]

Is it every post you've made in this thread?

[Hauldren Collider]

Can somebody summarize this brit politics thread/the event that everyone is talking about in a manner that doesn't make me read through ben posts?

[Ben Kenobi]

Catholic church in the UK is only growing because of immigration from Poland.

TBH, the Catholic church has been about 10 percent forever. The Anglican Church went from 40 percent in 1983 to just 20 percent today. Was at 30 percent in 2004, they've lost 50 percent of their parishioners in just 5 years. It's possible that the largest Christian denomination in England is now the Anglican church. 4 years at a 2 percent absolute drop every year would put them at about 12 percent in the UK.

Have the put out the latest census?

[Ben Kenobi]

Is it every post you've made in this thread?

Is there a safe Tory seat anymore?

[Ben Kenobi]

Can somebody summarize this brit politics thread/the event that everyone is talking about in a manner that doesn't make me read through ben posts?

Republican party finished third behind the constitution party in a special senate election in Pennsylvania.

[Ben Kenobi]

The thing is even Cameron and Osborne are smart enough enough to know that we can't take the economic hit of leaving the EU without making sure we negotiate extremely good trade agreements. Which is sort of where they are heading. I don't think it's the way forward, but if we do leave the EU that has to be the way if we are to maintain the status of The City.

Why would you fear EU shunning? What power do they have anymore? It's like a client who's already bankrupt. You're not going to see payment, but you're still making the deliveries. Or rather a client that you know is bankrupt, and is taking on more debt rather than trying to bail out the ship.

A prudent response, if I were Cameron, would be to try to purge EU denominated debt. See if you can't find another sheep to peddle off toxic debt.

[MikeH]

Can somebody summarize this brit politics thread/the event that everyone is talking about in a manner that doesn't make me read through ben posts?

Sure.

We're having a bunch of local elections, across parts of the UK. Not everywhere, broadly it's everywhere except the cities.

These are to elect local councillors and local councils. There was also one by-election to replace David Miliband, the labour leader's brother who has left UK politics.

They typically have low turnouts and fringe parties get out their vote better and do better than normal.

UKIP - A new one issue party formed to get the UK out of the EU have captured about 23% of the vote in a low turnout. It's a significant showing for a very new party, they are the beneficiaries of the traditional mid-term kicking our electorate gives the Government and a general disappointment with all the traditional parties.

Lib Dems have been battered even harder than the Conservatives.

Biggest gains made by Labour but this not seen as a big story as the UKIP thing, you'd expect them to gain seats.

Going to cause the Parliamentary Conservatives problems because their right wing will want to move further to the right on immigration, and be more anti-EU but they are constrained because their coalition partners won't let them.

Best Guess for next General Election - another hung parliament. But a lot can change in 2 years.

[MikeH]

TBH, the Catholic church has been about 10 percent forever. The Anglican Church went from 40 percent in 1983 to just 20 percent today. Was at 30 percent in 2004, they've lost 50 percent of their parishioners in just 5 years. It's possible that the largest Christian denomination in England is now the Anglican church. 4 years at a 2 percent absolute drop every year would put them at about 12 percent in the UK.

Have the put out the latest census?

Er... good? We're moving in the right direction.

[Ben Kenobi]

At the rate you're going, in the next life you'll be coming back as a blind and deaf midget - without a penis!

But I won't have to live in Wales.

[kentonio]

Right. Which is why the fact that the Catholic church is growing while the CoE falls apart. Nobody cares.

I'll stop you right here and now. People do care. Some very important ones too. This is an important issue. Arguing that 'nobody cares' because you believe your own position has consensus is bull****. You care very much about social liberalism. At least be honest here. Social issues are very important to you.

Damn right they're very important to me. You're trying to argue against proven stats though. 65% of people support gay marriage here. Not just support peoples right to be gay, not just the right to a civil partnership, 65% of British people support gay marriage.

The idea that every one of the other 35% consider it to be their primary voting consideration is utterly laughable. I come from an ex-mining village where homophobia was the norm, and while quite a few of those people would have said no to gay marriage, on their list of priorities it would come somewhere below the frequently of bin collections.

Right, like Catholics apparently. You folks are already trying to get the Catholic church to do them, which is going to be good for a laugh. England, always the good friend of the Church. What's next a de-emancipation act again?

Unfortunately you're lying again. We are not trying to get Catholic churches to marry people. As normal you're a liar.

Well, I'm used to the pound being slightly more than near-parity with the Euro. Says it all really!

So basically you're an idiot who managed to make a significantly stupid error and is now trying to backtrack.

Is there any evidence that spending has actually gone down? Austerity is pretty much a fictional buzzword that means, exactly what, I'm not quite sure.

Yes, that's why I posted the figures above.

[Ben Kenobi]

We're moving in the right direction.

I'd say the increase in the number of athiests and decrease in the membership of the Anglican church is a move towards, not away from Christ.

[MikeH]

TBH, the Catholic church has been about 10 percent forever. The Anglican Church went from 40 percent in 1983 to just 20 percent today. Was at 30 percent in 2004, they've lost 50 percent of their parishioners in just 5 years. It's possible that the largest Christian denomination in England is now the Anglican church. 4 years at a 2 percent absolute drop every year would put them at about 12 percent in the UK.

Have the put out the latest census?

No Religion 50.1%, CofE 19.9%, RC 8.6%

It might be that RC hasn't grown due to Polish immigration but has just not lost share as rapidly.