Conrad Hackett Nov 29, 2022

US: Pew Research Center analysis finds that Democrats and Republicans in Congress are now farther apart ideologically than at any time in the past 50 years. Republicans have moved further to the right than Democrats have to the left.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/03/10/the-polarization-in-todays-congress-has-roots-that-go-back-decades/ #PewResearch

The polarization in today’s Congress has roots that go back decades

On average, Democrats and Republicans are farther apart ideologically today than at any time in the past 50 years.

Pew Research Center
Show threadMax Ganz II 🇺🇦Nov 29, 2022
@conradhackett I may be wrong, but I'm rather of the view the Rep. have gone off the rails, and become a far-right party, which is to say, have no problems subverting the democratic process, either indirectly by lies and deception, or directly, by electoral manipulation by any means, to obtain power; and once such a party is in power, you normally find you cannot then get rid of them, because elections are then manipulated to the extent necessary to ensure they remain in power (e.g. Hungary).
Show threadAna Ribeiro 💙Nov 30, 2022
@maxganz @conradhackett guess similar process going on in the U.K. :(
Show threadMax Ganz II 🇺🇦Nov 30, 2022
@anaribeiro @conradhackett I may wrong, but I've seen no sign of that, although I'm not a close watcher. What do you have in mind?
Show threadKim Spence-Jones #FBPENov 30, 2022
@maxganz @anaribeiro @conradhackett
“ The Tories are now the most rightwing governing party in the developed world”
https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2022/09/30/the-tories-are-now-the-most-rightwing-governing-party-in-the-developed-world/
The stock market is failing according to the CBI. So why don’t we just let it go?

I posted this on Twitter this morning: https://twitter.com/RichardJMurphy/status/1942861045426516103 My point is serious. The CBI is saying that the situation with regard to the UK stock exchange is getting desperate, because it is losing out to overseas markets and not attracting sufficient business. The question that needs to be asked is, why is that?...

Funding the Future
Show threadMax Ganz II 🇺🇦Nov 30, 2022
@KimSJ @anaribeiro @conradhackett Being right-wing on tax is not the same as subverting the democratic process, though. Also, I'm curious about that claim - I've seen a very sober budget come out, trying to balance the books, and quite a bit more tax is being collected. More tax is usually associated with left-wing policies, rather than right-wing?
Show threadKim Spence-Jones #FBPENov 30, 2022
@maxganz What about the corruption of the Covid VIP lane? The voter suppression through ID cards? The corrupt funding of the Brexit Leave campaign? The difficulty our PMs have in finding and keeping ethics advisors? The many ministers who have got away with breaking the ministerial code, including the PM himself, and the Home Secretary?
Show threadMax Ganz II 🇺🇦
@KimSJ I don't keep close watch on the UK. I've heard about some of this - the ethics advisors seemed to be a problem specifically with Boris Johnson. I can't see Sunak doing the same. The Leave Campaign wasn't a Tory effort - indeed, Cameron wanted and expected the UK to vote to stay in.
Nov 30, 2022 at 11:59pmWeb
Show threadKim Spence-Jones #FBPEDec 1, 2022
@maxganz Sunak has so far failed to find anyone prepared to be his ethics advisor (in the Johnson era, several who took on that role wished they hadn’t!). Of course Truss didn’t even try to appoint one.
Show threadMax Ganz II 🇺🇦Dec 1, 2022
@KimSJ Well, he's not in the role for very long yet. It might only be a matter of the time needed to find someone.