SeanF

I'm sure that Merkel would be far happier to have the Greens than the CSU in her Coalition. But, that would create a huge right wing bloc in opposition to her.

We're actually the lucky few, in terms of our leaders, in Western democracies.

Nornish society still seems sufficiently strange (and appalling) to interest me in both the Heart of What Was Lost, and the Witchwood Crown. I like the Nornish chapters the best, overall. That said, the sympathy I felt for the Norns, in THOWWL, has largely dissipated in the next book, due to their blind arrogance, the endless backstabbing among their leaders, and their cruelty to other races. Their problems are so obviously their own damned fault. Overall, I enjoyed the first book, and am enjoying the second (currently on page 494).

That would skew US politics very leftwards. That's the last thing Trump would want.

5 Labour MPs, plus Kelvin Hopkins voted with the government on that amendment, so the government have probably concluded they can withstand a rebellion among their own MPs.

Attitudes towards EU membership cut across the usual left/right divide on economic issues. That was only partially resolved at the last election, with some Labour Leavers switching to the Conservatives, being offset by a similar number of Conservative Remainers switching to Labour. Add to that, Corbyn has always favoured leaving the EU in any case, and some left wingers view EEA membership as being a barrier to the kinds of economic policies they wish to carry out.

I do wonder if we're just nit-picking over such things, because it's clear most viewers enjoyed the Battle of Helms Deep (I enjoyed it too). But, I wish that film-makers would actually take advice from soldiers, or military historians, or someone like Bernard Cornwell, if they are going to have battle scenes. And in this case, Tolkien had plenty of military experience, and his descriptions of battle tactics make sense. So, according to Tolkien, the Rohirrim shoot the uruk hai as soon as they come within range, rather than chivalrously allowing them to assemble before the walls of Helms Deep; they take the armies of Mordor in the rear at Minas Tirith, rather than have them form up with pikes to receive the charge; Denethor unleashes his cavalry against infantry who are almost at the gates of Minas Tirith and taken unawares, rather than having them charge against soldiers defending a ruined city; they shoot down the elephants from a distance, rather than charging them head on.

How did the Liberals lose, then? Granted they were in office for a long time, but the Conservatives managed a forty year run up till 1985.

Perhaps the voters admire him for it.

Whatever its faults, I'm sure we can all agree that Peter Jackson's LOTR was way better than Ralph Bakshi's. I remember all the piss takes like "How to spot an elf. It has eyes like Bambi, a stupid grin on its face, and sappy woodland music is played in the background," or "Sam the Aborigine."

The High Septon declares:- "In the sight of gods and men, I now declare Jon of House Targaryen, and Cersei of House Lannister, husband and wife."

Dany doesn't seem to be interested in torturing her enemies to death in imaginative ways, nor is she as emotional as Cersei. She's a different type of tyrant. Cold, ruthless, entitled, seeing people as objects who are useful to her, or who stand in her way and have to be destroyed.

Jon leading an army of ewoks to Winterfell to defeat the Night's King. Bran warging into a giant eagle to rescue Sansa from being raped by the White Walkers. Jaime being mortally wounded in battle, and revealing to Jon that he is his father, prior to dying. Dany dying in childbirth.

They looked to me like hyenas.

I remember the noble goat from Best Served Cold, but I don't remember an evil chicken in the series.

I rather enjoyed the warg attack. I was bothered that they made Treebeard out to be as thick as two short planks. One can point to various flaws, but overall, I enjoyed FOTR and TTT, and the first half of ROTK. I detested the portrayal of Denethor, the Soap Bubbles of Death making the Ride of the Rohirrim pointless by wiping out the armies of Mordor at Minas Tirith, the Hollywood Military Tactics at the Battle before the Gate, and the cut 'n paste job of Sam and Frodo in Mordor. The confrontation between Eowyn and the Witch King should have used the dialogue in the book.

The right wing press won't be concerned about a Conservative Muslim.

The Conservative Party has sometimes been quite willing to think outside the box, when it comes to choosing leaders.

Tyrion in the series is a completely different character to the one we read. To a large extent, so is Daenerys, who comes over increasingly as a sociopathic tyrant, rather than as someone who constantly agonises over the morality of her actions. As it happens, I don't think that the LOTR films handled the theme of power vs responsibility very well either, largely due (IMHO) to the horrible portrayal of Denethor. Rather than exploring the idea of him being Middle Earth's Richard Nixon ( a really great comparison from Roose Bolton's Pet Leech) - that is someone with great political skills, but also huge flaws - he's just a mean, selfish, rotten, coward.

I think Tommy Robinson's sympathisers extend beyond the bounds of neo-Nazis.

It is what he wanted, but it's right he be jailed, as he was trying to jeapordise the trial, and had already been warned that he would go to jail if he tried it again. Cold weather is God's way of telling us to burn them.

The history of the SDP would make anyone very wary of trying that again.

The Three Counties of Ulster in the Republic split 50/50 in favour of repealing the 8th Amendment. I expect the results would be similar in rural districts and market towns North of the Border, although more people would be in favour in the Greater Belfast area.

I doubt if Stannis would have killed the children, without being given express orders to do so by Robert. But, there would be plenty of other people who were willing to do the deed, knowing that Robert would approve. I imagine they would have been taken to Kings Landing, and then quietly murdered on the instructions of someone like Tywin Lannister or Hoster Tully.

I do think altruism exists. People make donations to charities that work in the Third World; they're willing to see the government help out when disasters strike in foreign countries, and so on. But, I think generally people feel greater degrees of empathy for families, friends, neighbours, and fellow nationals than they do towards people who fall outside of those categories. People will support substantial transfer payments from richer regions to poorer regions in their own countries, but would baulk at similar payments being made to poorer countries. For example, West Germans were prepared to take on the cost of rebuilding the East German economy, but are very hostile towards the idea of giving the Greeks debt relief.