site banner
PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   1862 thread views

Transnational Thursday for May 23, 2024

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

3
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

If Canada is any guide they will probably regroup and hang in there -- it's not like the people who were Conservatives are going anywhere, they are just pissed at the current leadership.

(and if the English Left turns out to be even 10% as unserious as what we've got going on in the colonies, everyone will be twice as pissed at them before the year is out)

The institutional Progressive Conservative Party of never recovered from the 1993 electoral disaster when they were reduced to 2 seats. The rump PCs eventually joined the Canadian Alliance - technically it was a merger of equals and the new party was called "Conservative Party of Canada" but what actually happened was more like a takeover of a failing company with a valuable brand.

But yes, British Conservatism isn't going anywhere. There is a possibility of of 10+ years of left-wing dominance if the right is split between a dead institutional Conservative party that refuses to go away and a successor conservative party.

The consensus among British politics-watchers is that if the Conservatives win enough seats to staff a full opposition operation in Parliament (this requires about 60 MPs who are able and willing to do moderately demanding unpaid opposition frontbench jobs on top of their work as a constituency MP, so probably 100-odd MPs in total) then the institutional Conservative and Unionist Party should be able to recover. Per polls and spread betting markets, this is significantly more likely than not. Dominic Cummings, of course, thinks otherwise.

The institutional Progressive Conservative Party of never recovered from the 1993 electoral disaster when they were reduced to 2 seats. The rump PCs eventually joined the Canadian Alliance - technically it was a merger of equals and the new party was called "Conservative Party of Canada" but what actually happened was more like a takeover of a failing company with a valuable brand.

That is what the Liberals say when they are trying to scare people into voting for them on the basis of abortion rights, yes -- it's not really true though. I was there, man -- and the members of the PC party did not disappear, they just found themselves homeless for a bit. I imagine it's even more like this in the UK.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats