I have tried to contact HQ regarding this fora. Cant access

Maizie If it stayed at that, no-one would be asking to separate news and politics, but politics have become purely party politics - there is never a discussion of any aspect of looking after our physical world and managing the people in it that doesn't morph into labelling saints and sinners, sheep and goats and not admitting any good in the sinners and goats or any fauts in the saints and sheep.

Surely politics includes party politics but is not exclusively party politics. It would be a strange political forum which excluded party politics.

No-one is asking for party politics to be excluded. They would like Politics and In the News to be two sections, as they were to start with. That would not be a hard and fast division, that is impossible in any section. However, it does open the door to the chance that a given thread would perhaps escape the notice of the keen debaters, who might not be casting their sharp eyes over a section not under the heading of "Politics", and others could discuss it non-debatingly (sorry to invent that word, but can't for the moment think of a better one)

Who wants a thread on thousands without power after winter weather unless there’s a political issue about the failure to maintain the infrastructure which would have its roots in issues around privatisation of basic utilities. On the other hand those affected could go on chat and share their experiences for coping. Sad deaths can go in news and politics - why not? Or chat? Beauty queen hits back at racist critics - pure politics. Wolf story - issues around keeping wolves in captivity,how was it able to escape,accountability and responsibility,funding issues - what if someone had been injured by said wolf, hours waiting in A&E,access to legal aid to sue???

How is politics not related to party politics?

I don't think it would work because sooner or later one of the 'debaters' would contribute a contrary post to an 'everyone agreeing with each other' topic and the thread police would jump on them and then there'd be a bit of a row...

Short of banning people from the 'In the News' forum (which, of course, wouldn't be possible) I don't see how it could be avoided.

I don't know why people don't just use Chat if they want to avoid possible heated debate...

What’s really going on here is an attempt by the right to stifle free speech - I don’t criticise the existence of the Games threads - I just don’t go on them. If you don’t like political debate then ignore news and politics threads and take your chance on Chat. IMO it’s sour grapes because the right on here are nowhere near as erudite as the left and therefore because they don’t want to play and lose,they want to stop others from playing. What on Earth is politics if it’s not a debate about alternative ways of achieving specific objectives?

News and politics are not good bedfellows?

Most news on the television is political. Politics is about people.
I agree that if you want to put some good gentle news, photos of kittens, etc., rescued in the snow, go on chat. That's what chat is for.
If someone put something about the NHS in news, does that mean it's not political, so only those who agree with what the Tories are doing to the NHS should go on the NHS in the news thread?

I suppose politics could be brought into anything but sometimes news is just news.
eg
The death of a famous person
Swimmers rescued by a drone
Mount Mayon volcan is spewing out lava
And apparently Prince William cutting his hair extremely short (well shaved) is news

I should doff my cap here, and say it looks better short.
He is very bald!

Yes, I think more people would join in if there was a 'News' forum which was separate from a Politics one, although very often the two merge.

Mind you, we'd have to be careful about the phenomenon of our times, FAKE news. It's easily manufactured and spread.

[gasp] do you think it's a faked picture of William?

Actually, it does look better, nothing worse than a comb-over

I reckon Kate got the clippers out. He probably asked for a number 3 at the sides and a 4 on top, and she just shaved the lot.

Yes, MissAdventure, I agree. William looks MUCH younger with his very short hair. It's quite a trendy look. I thought he might go in for that awful comb-over, often sported by bald men because his thick side hair seemed to be getting longer.

Was thinking - Gordon Ramsay and Wayne Rooney had hair transplants. I wondered if Will had considered one because he has lost his hair at a very young age. It just wouldn't be a royal thing to do, I imagine.

Yes, Wills looks much better now.

Also yes, news is not always political at all,far from it, and should have a separate thread.Will HQ do it, who knows?

1) Winter weather = power cuts, Tory management of privatised energy industry.

2) escaped wolf = animal rights,

3)El Nino = Global warming, government iniatives not enough, Donald Trump

4) Beauty Queen = Racism, institution racism. It all the ...... parties fault

5) Cocaine in pineapples = Drugs, government response, pinapples grown by enslaved workers on minimal wages

6) Peter Wynegard dies =

Precisely, MOnica!

Wills haircut = style and beauty

Stifle free speech?? A small coterie of posters already stifle inhibit posting on anything vaguely political, not by banning it but by making assumptions. Ones like "The right on here are nowhere near as erudite as the left"^ which denies the existence of any middle ground. It assumes that anyone who doesn't advocate exactly the same details as them is automatically bright blue in the face and advocating the death penalty for any starving pauper caught stealing a loaf - and that anyone with any other ideas to theirs is ignorant too.

Then there's the "Unless your tennis is of Rafe Nadal's standard, you have no right to go anywhere near the Centre Court." dismissal. There are many, many people in the crowds at Wimbledon who play a little tennis, or a modest amount, but they know the basic moves, they can tell good play from bad, they discuss the performances of their favourites and predict the outcome of matches, but they do not have the skill, the power, the experience, the chutzpah, to challenge any of the top seeds.

That is not a reason to despise them for daring to join a conversation about tennis. But posters are despised for joining a political conversation unless they have a stock of quotes from obscure commentators, are quick to ridicule the quotes of the "other side" as coming from biased and unsafe sources, and are armoured to cut and thrust and fight without heeding the wounds.

Frankly, it is not worth expressing any opinions unless you are prepared and able to use black belt judo or vehement invective against the replies. The overkill doesn't persuade or convert anyone any better than a milder response. It just sends them away from the discussion with a flea in their ear, to vote as they were going to anyway.

Of course HQ won’t do it -and anyway, it won’t make the slightest difference - it’s what the thread is about and how it develops - are the right on here looking for ‘political’ posts on a news thread to be deleted?

This is not about "the right" MaryEliza It is about the majority of posters not venturing onto a thread which is proclamed to be "Politics". That may or may not be a reflection of a general view of politicising in this country or by this generation, but it is a fact.

I don't believe that GN will change anything either, but it can't be a bad thing for them to know what a proportion of posters think on the subject.

It should be a simple change to make. Not everyone feels up to having a big political debate about everything.

The ‘right’ on here are not looking for anything, much less the stifling of any political discussion.....what a weird idea.
Various people of various political persuasions are making a case for having two threads, one for non political comments and one for all political comments.This is because a few posters will always bring any subject at all back to narrow party political point scoring.

I don’t think that opinions are changed on here - they are expressed and like minded posters appreciate being able to discuss their thought with others. You’re using very emotive language yourself Elegran like ‘stifle, despise’ and the rest. Your post sounds as though you( and some others) want a totally different sort of debate on GN than that which one of us enjoy. If you think posts break the guidelines, then report. It all sounds very much like censorship and wanting to deny robust debate to me and the arguments for that are not coming from the left are they? What is very tiring is the idea that grown women(and men) need protecting from robust debate. There are threads which are safe,protected spaces for those who for whatever reasons want a quiet life; there are threads where posters who are having a very difficult, unbearably sad, challenging time are supported and helped and given loving and caring advice such as relationships,bereavement etc. Anyway, even if HQ were daft enough to separate the threads, that wouldn’t change the nature and content of the posts would it. Just by putting something in News wouldn’t protect that topic from being politicised would it?

lemon how do you differentiate between political and non political comments?