Difference?

[andybaird68]

What is the difference between politics and government? I really should pay more attention to that Paxman guy

[China Doll]

Well I'm glad you asked Andy, just wondering the same thing myself!

Perhaps goverment is for commenting on goverment ministers and parties and politics is for actually discussing their policies?! Not sure that we needed two sub-categories here...

And they didn't put in a 'mindless ranting muppets' category which I thought might be quite useful for some of the questions we get in News.

[brachiopod]

If there was no Government, wouldn't there be chaos?
Everybody running round, setting petrol bombs off?
And if there was no police force, tell me what you'd do
If thirty thousand rioters came running after you?
And who would clean the sewers? Who'd mend my television?
Wouldn't people lay about without some supervision?
Who'd drive the fire engines? Who'd fix my video?
If there were no prisons, well, where would robbers go?

[China Doll]

Ok, I get it . Goverment is a way of running things and keeping order. Politics is what comes when there is a difference in the way that order is kept then?

But I still think that the two are so interlinked that there's no need for both categories.

On a different note (sorry Andy), Would there actually be chaos if there was no goverment or would it be a type of utopia like in The Time Machine? (minus the nasty monster things). If people are laying around without supervision then chances are they're also being quite peaceful and not causing any trouble? (Hmmmm I see another question in this sub-cat coming on!)

[cascarelli]

Blimey China, two posts in the News category - youre getting very brave!!

[China Doll]

Not just a pretty face Cas ;0)

[cascarelli]

So I believe




(actually i'm making that up!)

[smudge]

Mmm, I was wondering the same - p'raps Politics alone would have beeen suffice Ed?

[bazwillrun]

you could ague the semantics all day long , but one thing you cant deny is that they both require a level of lies and deceit that is pathological

[jno]

you could say that government is partly about the civil service, and partly about the cabinet and associated non-cabinet ministers; so at present you'd discuss the Tories under Politics but not under Government. I don't feel motivated to demand an Opposition subsection, though, let alone a Ukip one.