In Britain we have rules about honesty in advertising. You are not allowed to claim that your particular brand of beer is good for you, neither are you allowed to imply that buying a particular brand of Scotch or a car or whatever will make you sexually attractive. You can’t advertise prescription only medicines, you can’t make bogus claims about your product and in general advertising has to be legal, decent, honest and truthful as the slogan for the Advertising Standards Agency (now Advertising Standards Authority) used to be.
Britain has very strict rules about Trade Descriptions and Consumer Protection along with rules regarding advertising that look draconian when compared to those in the USA for example. This begs the question: If Trades Descriptions regulations and advertising rules are so strict, why are the Liberal Democrats allowed to use the words ‘Liberal’ and ‘Democrat’ in their name? After all this is a a party that over recent years has shown itself to be neither respecting of democracy because of their campaign to overturn a democratic Brexit vote and has recently been anything but Liberal.
A good example of how the Liberal Democrats seem to have thrown classical liberalism out of the window with all the enthusiasm of a medieval Londoner throwing the contents of his chamberpot out of the window, comes from a recently deleted Tweet of theirs where they pooh pooh the idea of freedom of speech. According to the Guido Fawkes site not only did the Lib Dems put out a Tweet that said that free speech in universities should ‘absolutely not’ be a priority but the Lib Dem MP and Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Layla Moran said the same on the BBC’s Question Time programme. She claimed that the Government’s plans to force universities to stop no platforming speakers that ‘offend’ the Left was a ‘diversion’ from the Education Secretary Gavin Williamson’s record regarding students.
Now, there are probably a great deal of issues that Mr Williamson could and should be criticised for but Ms Moran should have concentrated on these not coming out and openly decrying and denouncing this government’s plans for improving free speech in universities. The fact that she felt that this sort of comment was acceptable, especially at a time when more and more people are starting to become concerned about freedom of speech in Britain as a whole and in universities in particular is telling. It certainly shows us that the Lib Dems are no friends of the concept of freedom of speech and that maybe they should change their name to the Illiberal Undemocrats just in case someone brings a case under the Trades Descriptions Act against them.
The Liberal Democrats have by Ms Moran’s comments revealed themselves to be what many of us already saw them as, which is not as a party that wants enhanced democracy and greater free speech, but less democracy and even more speech controls. What a complete load of scum the Lib Dems have become and what a great shame it is to see what was once a great and storied party, the Liberals, morph into such an almighty shower of shite.
People will always have their prejudices. There will be nothing but trouble if people cannot think and speak freely. As was said before, those that are restricted will go underground as as to avoid the radar. If anything, government parties that attempt to forcibly quiet people or only support a selected few do far more damage and end up dividing people more than ever. The parties that always try to see all sides for all people are the ones who should be in power. It’s about uniting people not dividing them.
Agree about everyone having some form of prejudices. Well said there about the trouble that comes from speech repression. I like the fact that in some places on line lunatics like Holocaust Deniers and Flat Earthers are visible, because that means that I and others can argue with them. By arguing with them you may not change the minds of the loon who originated the bad idea but you can quite possibly divert others from following them. If these types were in unassailable or hard to find echo chambers then they will end up radicalising themselves and others. Shining some sunlight on them has the effect of making them a mockery. A really good example of this is the Gab user Johann Cater the author of the book Titanic Britain (review here: https://www.fahrenheit211.net/2020/11/10/book-review-titanic-britain-50-years-of-the-left-wing-liberal-iceberg-by-joe-cater/ ) and how he drags Flat Earthers out into the open and spanks them with science. I dread to think of what the FE’s would become if they were not visible for challenge.
Illiberal Undemocrats is what I labelled them way back in 2019
With the exception of DUP, every party or country with Democrat / Democratic in it’s name is the exact opposite
Attributed to Churchill “Never trust a country with black or green on their flag”
iirc ASA have no jurisdiction over political parties, nor does Trading Standards. Electoral Commission is who to demand action from
The TDA comment was a joke. If it wasn’t then maybe politics would be more honest LOL. I think the Lib Dems picked up the word ‘democratic’ from their merger with the SDP. That quote sounds very ‘Churchillian’.
Yes I agree that the name Liberal Democrats is the precise opposite of the truth. But then they are on the left after all, opposite world is where they live.
Have you ever asked a flat earther to explain how a geo stationary satellite works? We know that they exist because I have a satnav in my car and in my watch. These satellites were designed and put in position based on the, apparently false, belief that the Earth is roughly spherical and rotates so that centrifugal forces will keep them in orbit. If the Earth really is flat, how come the satellites work despite their design being based on entirely false premises?
On the Left, or at least on the modern post 1968 Left, up is down and freedom is slavery.
The Flat Earthers get around that bit of real science by claiming that there are no satellites and what we think are satellites are really large balloons with GPS equipment on them floating high up near the dome that covers the earth. If you push the Flat Earthers on this as both myself and Mr Cater have done, the response is normally that we’ve been brainwashed by the Jews who are hiding the fact that Earth is flat in order to control the world and/or make money out of NASA. The world of flat earthery and the accompanying biblical literalism is absolutely mental. I recall once sending a flat earther into a paroxysm of screaming by quoting a Christian bible teacher who said: ‘You can take the Bible seriously or literally, you can’t do both’.
To Add: If you want a big laugh here is one of the Gab groups dedicated to trying to prove the Earth is not an oblate spheroid. It’s an absolute hoot. https://gab.com/groups/168 A lot of them seem to believe that there’s no such thing as gravity and that Antarctica doesn’t exist, it’s merely an ice wall around the edge of the world.
Ludicrous Demagogues
Free speech = university students actually thinking about issues = fewer votes for the LDs.
I’ve met some flat-earthers. Some seem almost normal when they’re not stoned.
You may have a point about the university students thinking for themselves and then rejecting the Lib Dems.
The problem with the Flat Earthers is that they are not stoned. If they were out of their brains on weed or mushrooms then that would be understandable, but they believe this stuff whilst sober.
As I said a loooong time ago: “The Liberal Democrats”, two lies for the price of one.
Their attitude to Brexit and their treatment of their oh-so-forgettable former leader (I really did have to look him up) “Nice but dim” Tim Farron did it for me.
@Stoneyground:
I know I’m being pedantic but it is centriPETAL force (due to gravitation), not centrifugal (which isn’t a true force anyway) that keeps a satellite in order when “balanced” by the correct orbital speed.
I thought that Tim Farron was treated disgracefully by the Lib Dem party and all because he would not go along with the demands of the wilder shores of their LGBT section because of his faith. Charlie Kennedy was probably the last half decent leader they had and even then he was hampered by the lunatics in his own party.