Best Of

Post-midnight, so now I have my photo quota back, this is one before/after shot from the actions of Israel in Gaza.

This is comparing March 25 2025 and July 4 2025. Checking the timeline *, the ceasefire was January 19, 2025, which Israel broke on Match 18 2025.

I don't know if anyone else has comparisons, but I'm thinking of cities deliberately demolished to expel their people and prevent return, after occupation has been achieved. I'm not even sure if Mariupol or Warsaw 1944 are in that category. What comparisons can we make?



There's a whole series of Geneva Convention breaches here. Netanyahu will imo have Trump's support, as he wishes to destroy the international rule of law.

BBC piece, with fuller analysis.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-33fccfbe-abcc-4af1-bdd2-632b2787cf59

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Gaza_war_ceasefire

There’s been a lot of discussion lately about rising graduate unemployment.

I dug a little closer and a striking story emerged:

Unemployment is climbing among young graduate *men*, but college-educated young women are generally doing okay.

https://x.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1946220407725384136

He has missed the wood for the trees here going down the AI rabbit hole. Girls have been outperforming boys at school, that leads to going to better unis / better courses e.g. medicine is a very hard course to get on, as is also clear from the example at the bottom, entry level at law firms is now dominated by women.

He is analysing American data; you are discussing Britain. Trends may be the same but we'd need evidence. He is also basing his analysis on very short time periods.

Law is absolutely dominated by women though.

Medicine too. And probably Masterchef after recent events.

…

This is quite something. The ex-head of the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service is interviewed by CNN about “Israel, Syria and the Druze”

He makes the crucial point that the Druze are Muslims

https://x.com/hearnimator/status/1945790676131512454?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

Only problem, the Druze are not Muslims. How come I know that - and he doesn’t? He was the head of the SIS. His job is to know basic facts like this

We are absolutely screwed. We are led by idiots. In all regards

It must have felt a bit like this, being a politically-aware person in 5th century Rome, wondering how on earth you ended up being led by people who were wilfully incompetent.

It’s a combination of a lack of curiosity and laziness. If you are ex head of SIS about to be interviewed about a subject, maybe mug up on the subject and check what you think is correct factually rather than just blagging it.

There was a minister being interviewed about something the other morning and she was asked about a major news story and she said she hadn’t read about it and didn’t know any info - it didn’t occur to Robinson or whoever was interviewing to say to her “you have come on probably the biggest daily political news programme and you claim not have knowledge of one of the biggest news stories of the day - did you not think, as a minister in the UK government it is important you should know the details?”.

Lazy, slack, messy country.

For all those on here saying 16 and 17 year olds should not be allowed to vote because they do not possess the capacity to discern lies from facts can I throw a word into the pot? Brexit.

If lacking clarity and possessing an inability to assimilate facts from lies should deny a franchise, can I remind you all of those people who voted to leave the European Union due to their inability to assimilate facts from lies?

My conclusion? If 16 and 17 year olds are not up to the cognitive requirement for voting, should "Leave" voters also be removed from the electoral roll?

I would be very reluctant to set any competency test on the right to vote, literacy and similar tests were widely abused to deny African-americans and other groups the vote in the past.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_test

This is quite something. The ex-head of the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service is interviewed by CNN about “Israel, Syria and the Druze”

He makes the crucial point that the Druze are Muslims

https://x.com/hearnimator/status/1945790676131512454?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

Only problem, the Druze are not Muslims. How come I know that - and he doesn’t? He was the head of the SIS. His job is to know basic facts like this

We are absolutely screwed. We are led by idiots. In all regards

Bit like head of BBC News not knowing the Hamas government and Hamas fighters are one and the same thing and both designated as terrorists.

I genuinely despair at the basic intellectual capabilities of those who govern us. From the prime minister and the chancellor down, the military, the civil servants, the judiciary

What if there is no vast conspiracy to ruin Britain, the simple fact is: they’re all morons?