Reluctant to join the discussion.

To the posters who feel intimidated.
Do you feel you might post now, now that you know you have support from most of us?

I wrote that after your post Anniebach , a good 18 minutes

Anniebach I agree Google no substitute for real life experience.

With respect, if it had all been said I would not have added a post

But it has all been said now.
Ah well, I shall know better than to add my tuppenceworth.

I would like to say to morethan2 , your opinions and your views are of equal importance as those who seem to be knowledgable . I don't google , I have campaigned at every general election for just over fifty years, I canvas by door knocking and telephone, every reply is important - well not the ones who tell me to shove off - do post , there are a few who may try squashing you but there are more who will not . If anyone gives you a lecture just have a yawn . I have been reduced to tears a few times but bounce back , no cuts or bruises you have the right to vote so your opinions matter

I absolutely echo what Petra says on this, and yes it is, ( reading most posts)
on here being said in a fair and reasonable way.Will it give food for thought? Who knows, but is definitely worth the discussion.
There is a reason why only a handful of the hundreds of Gransnet members post on political threads after all.

MawBroon I have to disagree. Some posters, and probably many more ( who haven't posted on this thread) need to know that the majority of posters here understand why they feel as they do. And if certain posters feel that they are guilty of dismissing people's legitimate views, maybe they might like to think on this.

I am not agreeing or disagreeing with individual posts especially not OP but is this getting us anywhere other than making the idea of contributing to threads even more intimidating? So far certain members have been named and " dissed" which is just the sort of thing identified in initial objections was it not?
I may be taking my life in my hands but would ask not snidely or in any critical way. How about just getting on with it?

I would say that Anniebach is the most experienced politicle activist on this forum. There's not much she doesn't know about the Labour Party and what people were telling her on the doorstep. And yet her valued information was continually sneered at by posters who gather most of their information online.
But did she ever come back with a snide remark, not that I saw.

Sorry rosesarered

Well said - in a nutshell!

GGMKII
I am a bit puzzled, though, why anyone should post an unverifiable political viewpoint on a thread other than a 'news and politics' thread.
It would be pointless posting it on eg a gardening thread or craft thread for example.

If it is a continuance of a political discussion better to post it there and then another poster can politely point out that it is not a verifiable fact and why.

There is a great deal that can be learnt from those threads if people are not frightened away.

No, morethan2 you are not delicate or wimpish - you are right and I think another poster has been attempting to suggest more politeness would be a good way forward.

We aren't politIcians, we don't need to descend to the jeering and rudeness which we see coming from the H of C.

Much as I would like to take the credit for those words, it was rosesarered who said them.

Ankers has put it in a nutshell!

GGMK2 you surely can't seriously believe that anyone on here thinks they are 'so important' their view (whether informed or not) has to be agreed with or not challenged.

Has anyone said that?

As Ankers said

It's about feeling that you are free to comment without being jumped on rudely and from the great intellectual heights

challenged

Is it better to challenge by politely pointing out that you think someone may be wrong in their view because of certain facts which are verifiable
Or to say 'Don't be silly/stupid'
'You are being ridiculous'- in other words get off the thread and leave this to those who know best?

Should all voters fill in a questioner before marking their X , because they are the people who choose our MP's, our government , no one should vote if they are voting on their opinions not on facts and statistics ?

It is all about informed views. No one is 'entitled' to be ignorant or at least not to assume that ignorance should be held in higher esteem than fact and information; it has never been easier to access these. It is simply patronising for anyone to think they are so important that their view alone with no awareness or understanding of the facts has to be agreed with or not challenged.

Politics is for everyone. Everyone gets a vote, and thereby a say. And are fully entitled to their opinion. And need one to be able to vote.
There are many who say in rl that they are not educated enough about politics.

Well educate them!

But who learns well in the wrong circumstances?

It's about feeling that you are free to comment without being jumped on rudely and from the great intellectual heights

This.

It doesn't make you or daphnedil right either GGM2 In the end, it's all about your point of view on the matter, not rights or wrongs.

Ah, but the problem is not with repeating unverifiable gossip ( there isn't much of that)
It's about feeling that you are free to comment without being jumped on rudely and from the great intellectual heights.There are ways of putting the other side of the coin, in any discussion.The very fact that a poster started this thread and the many comments on it, show that if posters were a bit ( shall we say kinder) then a lot would join in.We may all learn a bit more that way as it happens...example.....
'Look, two and two make four idiot!'
'If you add two and two, it actually makes four'

Oh sugar. It not I

I was a point I wanted to make Ana. I do understand why but that doesn't make the people with their 'backs up' right.

Whether you agree with the post or not isn't the point. It has put a lot of people's backs up and I'm sorry if you can't understand why.

Ana Sat 04-Feb-17 10:14:12

I had missed it Anna but I would agree with the thoughts expressed. As I said anyone can become knowledgeable and analytical. You (me for instance) may not be as knowledgeable or able to analyse as coherently as some but, what Maw describes as repeating unverifiable "gossip", doesn't throw any real light on the subject and there are other threads members can do that on.