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#101473 04/25/03 09:43 AM
Joined: Mar 2002
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dxb Offline
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Thinking back to my (more) judgemental, opinionated and intolerant youth I recall my mental picture of members of what was then the Liberal Party in British politics; the two major parties, in terms of numbers, being the Conservative and Labour Parties. To me, at that age, a typical Liberal, if male¹, smoked a pipe (particularly when driving his pre-war Morris), had a beard, wore sandals over his socks and a tweed sports jacket with leather patches on the elbows, was probably a teacher² and drank rosé wine or cider.

For my own protection I must stress that I no longer hold that opinion. The Liberal Party no longer exists of course, it has become the Lib Dems, and the ‘type’ I have described has vanished.

1 - I suspect they nearly all *were male. We have a secret ballot after all; what you said to please your husband or father and what you did could be different.

2 – A few teachers at that time could not bring themselves to vote for a socialist party but could not naturally support a party of capitalists. The Liberal Party was the answer for them; radical without being too far left.



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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Then there was the brief news item the other day about the woman who had gone to Iraq to be a human shield. I didn't catch whether they said this was her choice or if she had been assigned to it, but she ended up shielding an oil refinery. Talk about your Lexus Liberal.


#101475 04/29/03 02:25 PM
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old hand
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I'm back after a while away, and noticed this quote used in the Liberal discussion:

While it is generally known that Limosine Liberal Paul Martin owns Canada Steamship Lines, a great shroud of secrecy surrounds the details of his company.

The thing is, Paul Martin is a member of the Liberal Party [of Canada]. So in this quote, the person was seeking to make a pun on the phrase "limousine liberal". Just wanted to clarify. I mean, the guy literally is a Liberal. Card-carrying and everything!


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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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So, what so you call somebody who dislikes, say, WalMart for political reasons but shops there anyway for economic reasons?

Besides poor, that is.


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