Best Of

We are now offering Mauritius TWICE their GDP - to take sovereign British territory

This whole story seems so ludicrous that there *must* be something else going on. But even if there is, the messaging of it has been uniquely terrible.

So we're left with two choices. It's either a ludicrous policy that'll cost us billions for f-all reason, or it's a good policy that's been sold in such a way as to make it seem hideous.

How can it be a good policy? I genuinely can't see how it could be.

Neither can I. Which is why, if it is, I'd expect the Labour party and their supporters to be shouting from the rooftops about why it's a good policy, and what we're missing.

I don't see it as a good policy; it's Sir Keir putting too much weight on the UK being perceived to be a "good international citizen", at a time when we need a greater weight on realpolitik.

On the merits, I think it would be better to keep the Chagos in order to avoid provoking the lunatic Chump unnecessarily in the short term, but also because I don't think that part of the world has yet got to the stage where they will protect the important marine reserve - so we need to keep that for perhaps another century.

Polls on any given issue only really mean much if the said issue is particularly salient. The electoral system clearly isn't, and indeed it wasn't much when there was a referendum on the issue in 2011.

Socialists often point out polls showing overwhelming public support for nationalising various industries. Ultra tough-on-crime types often point out polls showing strong support for capital punishment. Again, these issues aren't particularly salient and do not necessarily indicate the levels of support if they did become salient and/or referendums were held on them.

Farage should offer a referendum on capital punishment

“Let the people decide”

Who could argue with that?

Be careful, if you have too many referendums you might end up with votes on 90% tax for multi millionaires like globe trotting high earning travel and thriller writers 'to fund our nurses'

Bad news: can’t see any Russian oil refineries on fire today.

Good news: have a massive gas processing plant on fire instead!
https://x.com/sumlenny/status/1886345671256461500

Other bad news: Senator Susan Collins is going to support Tusli Gabbard’s nomination.

I blame Covid. In the first Trump administration the lunatics hadn't completely taken over the asylum like they have now. We all know people who went down rabbit holes during lockdown, and never came back. Happened to plenty of us ourselves to a certain extent.

I'm coming round to the idea that *none* of the lockdowns were worth it. Yes, more people would have died, health systems would have been overwhelmed, and elected officials would have been punished for that, governments may have fallen. But suspending people's freedoms to such an degree has radicalised large numbers of people in a way that is not healthy for democracy. Why are so many young people willing to say democracy isn't all that, and maybe they'd prefer a dictatorship? They've already been kept under house arrest in a democracy.