Talk:Loony left

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This article was nominated for deletion on 9 October 2009 (UTC). The result of the discussion was keep.

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NPOV[edit]

The title of this article certainly isn't NPOV. It's a pejorative term, but on the other hand, it's factually and indisputably true that people use the words "loony left". Richard W.M. Jones 10:55, 30 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your input Richard. I originally put up the tag because the title wasn't NPOV and I wanted the community to check it out, but now that I've seen the pejorative article, I've come to the opinion that it's ok to have a pejorative term as an article title, as long as the article itself merely explains the term and it's written in NPOV. It appears that this article meets that criteria. I'll check some of the Wikipedia policy articles to make sure this is ok and then I'll remove the tag. Solarusdude 15:05, 30 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Hey, no problem :-) Richard W.M. Jones 22:33, 30 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I still think that there are problems with the article, as opposed to the title. The only substance of the article are examples of "loony left" councils, and the only link is to a very biased page against the "loony left". There is no discussion in the article about the way the phrase and the select examples were/are used as as political tools, whether in Britain or the United States. Without this, this article reads as both biased and not very informative. I would definitely nominate it for clean-up, with some note that it needs work for NPOV. - Jb? 08:57, 3 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The source looks very biased. I'm sure we can do better than this. Secretlondon 17:33, 22 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It probably does look biased- but it's up to you to show that the examples quoted are false/exagerrated. It was also once held that a council discussed changing the colour of black bin bags incase blacks got offended!--80.229.27.251 18:17, July 24, 2007.

Well Peter Jenkins was a left-wing journalist, but I think he is a reliable source.--Johnbull (talk) 03:07, 21 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

All of these points and more besides (including debunking the false assertion made by 80.229.27.251 above) can be, and have been, fixed by the normal editing process of using more and better sources. See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Loony left for more on this. Uncle G (talk) 02:10, 10 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This is about UK politics, and thus the heading should reflect--otherwise it would seem a universal category of leftism, which it is NOT. I suggest the heading should be "Looney Left (UK politics)". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.208.60.225 (talk) 19:44, 8 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Instil (Instill?) and inflame?[edit]

No opinion about the article as a whole, but surely this: "Its purpose was to instil and inflame fear in voters' minds, of political extremism, trade unions, and the hard left." could be reconsidered? Do I need to say why? Maybe so. It seems to be automatically casting the term as "something bad" invented for reasons described with very emotive terms (instil and inflame fear) "promote or exploit anxiety, among the voting public," instead might improve it for me, but not much.Bacrito (talk) 22:12, 16 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Good remark! My question is what exactly was critizised by the term? Ideologically overloaded or absurd speeches performed by leftist polititians? Politically or spiritually surrendering to foreign extremists such as islamists, nationalists etc. in Britan, or supporting red dictators somewhere around the globe? Insane political acts? What exactly could justify or explain the term, regarding real-world political action? 139.139.67.69 (talk) 10:34, 18 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Dates[edit]

Should someone go through and changed the dates from US format to UK format, since this is an article about the UK, and my reckoning would be that the vast majority of visitors to this page would be from the UK? That date format is incredibly confusing when you don't use it. I attempted to do it myself but ended up in a minefield almost immediately! 81.157.75.34 (talk) 13:22, 11 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Loony left is not just a British term[edit]

Republicans in the U.S. have used the term "loony left" to refer to very left-wing cities in the U.S. such as San Francisco, California. Here are sink links to examples of the terms used in American politics: http://www.theloonyleft.com/ http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/370rzvqg.asp http://www.manufacturing.net/News/Feeds/2011/05/mnet-mnet-industry-focus-facilities-and-operations-the-economist-president-should-condemn-the-loony/ http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0510/Paul_blames_loony_left_for_civil_rights_focus.html http://www.harpers.org/archive/2009/10/hbc-90005953 http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2007/11/25/defining-loony-left-thanksgiving-hatred

--Cab88 (talk) 06:19, 24 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

So what? This isn't wiktionary! It's a pejorative term and doesn't refer to any particular political phenomenon. At least in the American context. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.208.60.225 (talk) 19:46, 8 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Just in London?[edit]

I was born in 1985 in Britain. From reading this article, I get the impression that the loony left was just in London. However, weren't there very left-wing councils in Liverpool and Sheffield as well. The Peace Gardens in Sheffield were opened by somebody who survived the bombing of Hiroshima and there's a plaque there to those who died in the Spanish Civil War on the Republican side. Was this a different sort of local left-wing politics from the loony left? 94.0.180.250 (talk) 19:07, 16 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

As we rely on what reliable sources have to say about a subject, we can't use our own opinions as to what loony left means. Dougweller (talk) 21:27, 16 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Verbiage to trim[edit]

I wanted to learn about concrete examples of the alleged "looniness". Instead, I had to read thru the spurious "black sheep" non-issue. Such sections should be trimmed down and more encyclopedic meat provided instead. Zezen (talk) 16:12, 31 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Remove misleading phrase[edit]

"introduced courses on homosexuality into its nursery and primary schools" is now outdated in my opinion, and more often are referred to as LGBT-inclusivity lessons. The phrase used sounds like state intervention / brainwashing which is misleading. -Internet is Freedom (talk) 20:30, 11 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]