BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / Martin appears in Labour campaign ad

**Posted by tonnaree** March 31, 2015 3:34 pm

SolarSystem wrote:
I'll turn 40 this October, so take this as a warning. Conservatism, here I come!
(This means of course that Sherlock and John will have to get married as soon as possible, or I won't be able to support Johnlock any longer.)

I'll miss you Solar!

**Posted by SolarSystem** March 31, 2015 4:13 pm

That's all I wanted to hear, tonnaree. So I'll just stay the way I am.

**Posted by A lovely light** March 31, 2015 4:50 pm

SolarSystem wrote:
I'll turn 40 this October, so take this as a warning. Conservatism, here I come!
(This means of course that Sherlock and John will have to get married as soon as possible, or I won't be able to support Johnlock any longer.)

We have to make a party together , i am only a month younger then .

**Posted by tonnaree** March 31, 2015 4:53 pm

SolarSystem wrote:
That's all I wanted to hear, tonnaree. So I'll just stay the way I am.

*happy dance*

**Posted by nakahara** March 31, 2015 5:37 pm

A lovely light wrote:
I lived as a child in a country with only one party, where people had to fight and die that we have the right to make a choice, where saying the word "democracy" was forbidden. I am sad when i see how many people doesn't understand how lucky they are to live in a democracy and that the first pillar of democracy is the right to choose, to have an opinion, a political opinion, to have your own believes.

I suspect that most people are subconsciously very totalitarian in their outlooks, regardless of they being born in a democratic regime or not. It is sufficient to hear how affronted and mocking they are if anything out of the ordinary appears around them: not just political things but even things like an outrageous hairstyle, vegetarianism, abstinence from alcohol or an unusual hobby. That´s why a progress towards democracy is a constant battle, not a given, comfortable status-quo.

Still, I don´t blame normal people for this, I blame politicians. Their political campaigns do not resemble any contest of ideas, but are formed as if they were organised religions instead: good vs. bad, angels vs. demons, if you don´t vote for me you are a heretic and an apocalypse will burst out because of you... no surprise that general public buys into that after being brainwashed in this manner for a longer while.

A lovely light wrote:
I absolutly don't get the hate Martin gets now on twitter and in papers for his support of a party.

If anybody can deal with that in style, it´s Martin. I hope he gives the haters a big bird!

**Posted by SusiGo** March 31, 2015 6:39 pm

I think it is quite difficult for someone who earns a lot of money to be taken seriously if he/she supports a left-wing party. This does not mean that I share this view, I just state it as a fact. And I think that Amanda's (by now deleted) f*** the tories tweet was not exactly helpful.

**Posted by nakahara** March 31, 2015 6:45 pm

For the life of me, I can´t understand why she tweets such things.

But I don´t see why rich people shouldn´t support left-wing party. Left-wing must not necessarily mean "we take all the money from the rich and waste it on lazy lowlifes".... that´s a crude oversimplification, I guess.

**Posted by Vhanja** March 31, 2015 6:50 pm

nakahara wrote:
Left-wing must not necessarily mean "we take all the money from the rich and waste it on lazy lowlifes".... that´s a crude oversimplification, I guess.

People's views on politics are often filled with oversimplification. Just as right-wing are labelled selfish rich people who only want less tax for themselves.

It was even in the Martin ad. Stating that his value is "compassion" implies that the right-wing do not have compassion as their value. I'm not criticizing Martin for saying it necessarily, that is how politics work. It's filled with rethorics and thinly-veiled insults and suppression techniques.

**Posted by nakahara** March 31, 2015 6:57 pm

Vhanja wrote:
I'm not criticizing Martin for saying it necessarily, that is how politics work. It's filled with rethorics and thinly-veiled insults and suppression techniques.

Yes, that´s what I was criticising in one of my posts above.

**Posted by Harriet** March 31, 2015 6:57 pm

Right wings don't have compassion? That's quite true, isn't it? And I think this can't be said often enough.

**Posted by SolarSystem** March 31, 2015 8:17 pm

A lovely light wrote:
SolarSystem wrote:
I'll turn 40 this October, so take this as a warning. Conservatism, here I come!
(This means of course that Sherlock and John will have to get married as soon as possible, or I won't be able to support Johnlock any longer.)
We have to make a party together , i am only a month younger then .

That's what I call a lovely coincidence.

**Posted by Ivy** March 31, 2015 8:19 pm

Vhanja wrote:
I don't know too much about what the parties stand for to really have an opinion on the matter, but I do find it interesting that Martin supports Labour.

What usually happens, especially in Norway but I would believe it goes for other countries as well, is that you support the left side while being young, rebellious and broke. As you get older, you get a good job, a good income and succeed career-wise, your views turn more and more towards the right. ("If I can do it, so can you, so get off your lazy bum and start working").

Seeing as Martin is now one of thepriviliged, rich and successful ones, due to his own hard work, it's actually quite awesome that he stills support Labour. That makes me respect him even more, to be honest.

Yeah but just because they are called "labour" doesn't mean they are far left, there are several "shades of left" I think it's like the German SPD, it's more like centre-left/moderate left.

I don't think that priviliged, rich and successful wouldn't make me conservative, because that aren't my values I grew up with. Maybe you don't see things that radical anymore with age and success/money.

It really would shock me if he would compaign for the Tories after everything he said. And that's Martin we know, speaking his mind no matter what.

tonnaree wrote:
Personally I lean so far left I can touch the ground.

haha me,too

Reading this thread reminds me a bit of that brilliant Bob Dylan song "My back pages" that I love so much (I prefer "The Byrds" version, because Bob is the songwriter par excellence but his singing voice)

Last edited by Ivy (March 31, 2015 8:20 pm)

**Posted by A lovely light** March 31, 2015 8:42 pm

Nakahara, thank you for your imput. Living my childhood under a dictatorship had me let very aware of the dangers of politics. I presume for a lot of people is difficult to see the traps of intolerance and totalitarism as they haven't feel on their own skin how it is to don't have the freedom of speech, of movement, of choosing where to work and live.

--------------------

As for Amanda and twitter - i thought that we are or should after all the femist movement above of judging the shirt creases of the man as the wife failure or monetary problems of a women to be her partner and not her to solve or the opinion of a woman as a direct reflexion of the opinion of her partner (last two direct reference to Amanda and Martin, first one a common opinion i met ;) ). I don't like when a man is judged through his partner / wife and a woman is judged through her man (i hate when it happens to me and my husband as well).

**Posted by Vhanja** March 31, 2015 8:58 pm

A lovely light wrote:
Nakahara, thank you for your imput. Living my childhood under a dictatorship had me let very aware of the dangers of politics. I presume for a lot of people is difficult to see the traps of intolerance and totalitarism as they haven't feel on their own skin how it is to don't have the freedom of speech, of movement, of choosing where to work and live.

I think what you write here is important. It's so easy for us to take these things for granted, when we haven't experienced them ourselves.

I will admit that I am one of those who have strayed more towards the middle/right as I got older. But the political landscape in Norway is different from UK and US. We don't have just two parties that matter, we have several. So it's not "either you are on the Left or the Right", there is a lot of middle ground. And where I am now, I can easily understand and relate to the left, middle and the right.

**Posted by Liberty** April 1, 2015 7:12 am

The Labour party isn't a very left-wing party here in the UK. It used to be, but not any more.

**Posted by tonnaree** April 1, 2015 1:05 pm

All this just reminds me of how enjoyable I imagine the upcoming presidential campagin season to be.

NOT

The last two were almost unbarable. The utter shite that was thrown about. The hate I had to put up with on the internet. I think the 2016 campaign will be even more horrible.

**Posted by lil** April 1, 2015 2:06 pm

Thats rather hilarious...considering ah someone.....declared herself bankrupt in what was an obvious tax dodge scheme....

Last edited by lil (April 1, 2015 2:08 pm)

**Posted by tonnaree** April 1, 2015 3:29 pm

Should we be discussing AA's private business? Just doesn't feel right.

**Posted by SusiGo** April 1, 2015 3:49 pm

I agree. We do not know exactly what happened and the matter has obviously been solved.

**Posted by Liberty** April 3, 2015 7:41 am

For anyone voting here, or anybody else who's interested Vote for Policies allows you to choose which policies you support on particular issues, then telling you how that aligns with the different parties. (There are some other sites which do something similar, like Who Shall I Vote For). Of course, it's sometimes easy to guess which party is which from their policies - but I do think it's interesting to see how close the main parties are on some issues.

Last edited by Liberty (April 3, 2015 7:56 am)