Best Of

I've got no idea if what the Home Secretary has proposed will work, but that sure as hell is a change of direction, and at least to my ears it sounded like some thought had gone into the proposals. It will be interesting to see how the public receives these plans.

It's going to need opposition votes to pass IMO but it will get through. The Tories can't be seen to oppose this and neutralising Reform on immigration helps them as much as it does Labour.

Realistically for this to work I think some kind of HRA reform will need to be enacted to dissapply the ECHR on matters of immigration and asylum and dare the judges to overrule Parliament.

It's interesting that Labour are willing to risk tearing themselves apart like this. Is it because they think it is the right thing to do or because they are terrified of Farage and his brownshirts? Maybe both.

Most of the MPs in the north and midlands must be aware that they are likely to be booted out at the next GE, the public mood has shifted heavily on this issue in the last 12-18 months.

Even the leafy suburbs now have a smattering of recent arrivals hanging about, so it should make for some interesting local election results.

By the way the “brownshirts” characterisation is a strong contender for most hyperbolic bollocks of the year.

Indeed. It is important to not over blow things with bollocks historical references that don't stand up. It doesn't help. We are some way away from 1920/30s Germany.

1920s Germany was some way from 1930s Germany.
I’d say the one bright spot is Trump is a narcissistic old fool stumbling towards senility who has no ideology except Trumpism. No evil genius he.

6th of January 2021 was the Beer Hall Putsch.

2027 we may well see the Keir Hall Putsch.

Why 2027?

I was generously assuming he'll last mire than a full year.

Blowing up the rail track on the Warsaw-Lublin route is an unprecedented act of sabotage targeting directly the security of the Polish state and its civilians. This route is also crucially important for delivering aid to Ukraine. We will catch the perpetrators, whoever they are.
https://x.com/donaldtusk/status/1990351051992768568

No question this is an act of war.
The only question is how Europe responds.

Does responding require us to inconvenience ourselves?

The thing to remember about isolationism, the reason that Trump and MAGA like the idea so much, is that it's fundamentally selfish and short-termist.

And whilst I'd like to think that we are better than MAGA, I'm not sure we're that much better.

One of the most often repeated refrains in Ireland, when justifying a neutral stance on the Russia-Ukraine war, is an opposition to sending young Irish men to fight for Eastern Europe. It does make me wonder, how many men of fighting age would be willing to fight to defend their countries, freedom and democracy, in European countries? Would the population accept the mobilisation that was necessary in World War II?

This is the sort of calculation that Russia will also be making. If they believe that Europe's people are not willing to fight to defend themselves then that will have consequences on how belligerent and aggressive they believe they can get away with being.

I struggle to understand why we devote so much PB time to the trans issue. I'd guess that 99% of the UK public don't give it much thought at all.

Immigration; the economy; spending/taxation/deficit; the threat to European order from Russia; our dependence on China; the perils facing US democracy; climate change; the mental health crisis...

All these are far more significant than 'trans' imo.

This impacted it though see it as important. A good friend of mine almost lost her job for retweeting a post by j k Rowling, went through a safeguarding investigation and told not to come to work. The complaint was manufactured by an lgbt youth activist charity.

Sure, it's important to those impacted by it. I've known two people who have transitioned, and had to overcome tremendous stigma and prejudice in so doing. It's important to them, of course.

But should we devote numerous threads to something that is very important only to a small proportion of the population? We might as well discuss the challenges of being a paraplegic*, but that again would be a very minority interest.

(*Substitute with your preferred "topic very important to those impacted but of f*ck-all interest to the vast majority".)

The only reason trans comes up again and again imo is because some want to manufacture a 'culture war'.

Are trans activists prosecuting a culture war?

Are trans activists continually raising 'trans' on PB?

I like trains.

I find PB train posts (relatively) much more interesting than PB trans posts.

It amused* me that as the Huntingdon train stabbing news broke PBers were discussing what train/route it was on and led to a discussion about the East Coast Mainline and the fact LNER aren't as good as they used to be.

*Might not be the right adjective.

I've got no idea if what the Home Secretary has proposed will work, but that sure as hell is a change of direction, and at least to my ears it sounded like some thought had gone into the proposals. It will be interesting to see how the public receives these plans.

It's going to need opposition votes to pass IMO but it will get through. The Tories can't be seen to oppose this and neutralising Reform on immigration helps them as much as it does Labour.

Realistically for this to work I think some kind of HRA reform will need to be enacted to dissapply the ECHR on matters of immigration and asylum and dare the judges to overrule Parliament.

It's interesting that Labour are willing to risk tearing themselves apart like this. Is it because they think it is the right thing to do or because they are terrified of Farage and his brownshirts? Maybe both.

Most of the MPs in the north and midlands must be aware that they are likely to be booted out at the next GE, the public mood has shifted heavily on this issue in the last 12-18 months.

Even the leafy suburbs now have a smattering of recent arrivals hanging about, so it should make for some interesting local election results.

By the way the “brownshirts” characterisation is a strong contender for most hyperbolic bollocks of the year.

Indeed. It is important to not over blow things with bollocks historical references that don't stand up. It doesn't help. We are some way away from 1920/30s Germany.

1920s Germany was some way from 1930s Germany.
I’d say the one bright spot is Trump is a narcissistic old fool stumbling towards senility who has no ideology except Trumpism. No evil genius he.

6th of January 2021 was the Beer Hall Putsch.

2027 we may well see the Keir Hall Putsch.

Why 2027?

I struggle to understand why we devote so much PB time to the trans issue. I'd guess that 99% of the UK public don't give it much thought at all.

Immigration; the economy; spending/taxation/deficit; the threat to European order from Russia; our dependence on China; the perils facing US democracy; climate change; the mental health crisis...

All these are far more significant than 'trans' imo.

This impacted it though see it as important. A good friend of mine almost lost her job for retweeting a post by j k Rowling, went through a safeguarding investigation and told not to come to work. The complaint was manufactured by an lgbt youth activist charity.

Sure, it's important to those impacted by it. I've known two people who have transitioned, and had to overcome tremendous stigma and prejudice in so doing. It's important to them, of course.

But should we devote numerous threads to something that is very important only to a small proportion of the population? We might as well discuss the challenges of being a paraplegic*, but that again would be a very minority interest.

(*Substitute with your preferred "topic very important to those impacted but of f*ck-all interest to the vast majority".)

The only reason trans comes up again and again imo is because some want to manufacture a 'culture war'.

Are trans activists prosecuting a culture war?

Are trans activists continually raising 'trans' on PB?

I like trains.

I find PB train posts (relatively) much more interesting than PB trans posts.

It amused* me that as the Huntingdon train stabbing news broke PBers were discussing what train/route it was on and led to a discussion about the East Coast Mainline and the fact LNER aren't as good as they used to be.

*Might not be the right adjective.

I've got no idea if what the Home Secretary has proposed will work, but that sure as hell is a change of direction, and at least to my ears it sounded like some thought had gone into the proposals. It will be interesting to see how the public receives these plans.

It's going to need opposition votes to pass IMO but it will get through. The Tories can't be seen to oppose this and neutralising Reform on immigration helps them as much as it does Labour.

Realistically for this to work I think some kind of HRA reform will need to be enacted to dissapply the ECHR on matters of immigration and asylum and dare the judges to overrule Parliament.

It's interesting that Labour are willing to risk tearing themselves apart like this. Is it because they think it is the right thing to do or because they are terrified of Farage and his brownshirts? Maybe both.

Most of the MPs in the north and midlands must be aware that they are likely to be booted out at the next GE, the public mood has shifted heavily on this issue in the last 12-18 months.

Even the leafy suburbs now have a smattering of recent arrivals hanging about, so it should make for some interesting local election results.

By the way the “brownshirts” characterisation is a strong contender for most hyperbolic bollocks of the year.

Indeed. It is important to not over blow things with bollocks historical references that don't stand up. It doesn't help. We are some way away from 1920/30s Germany.

1920s Germany was some way from 1930s Germany.
I’d say the one bright spot is Trump is a narcissistic old fool stumbling towards senility who has no ideology except Trumpism. No evil genius he.

6th of January 2021 was the Beer Hall Putsch.

I struggle to understand why we devote so much PB time to the trans issue. I'd guess that 99% of the UK public don't give it much thought at all.

Immigration; the economy; spending/taxation/deficit; the threat to European order from Russia; our dependence on China; the perils facing US democracy; climate change; the mental health crisis...

All these are far more significant than 'trans' imo.

This impacted it though see it as important. A good friend of mine almost lost her job for retweeting a post by j k Rowling, went through a safeguarding investigation and told not to come to work. The complaint was manufactured by an lgbt youth activist charity.

Sure, it's important to those impacted by it. I've known two people who have transitioned, and had to overcome tremendous stigma and prejudice in so doing. It's important to them, of course.

But should we devote numerous threads to something that is very important only to a small proportion of the population? We might as well discuss the challenges of being a paraplegic*, but that again would be a very minority interest.

(*Substitute with your preferred "topic very important to those impacted but of f*ck-all interest to the vast majority".)

The only reason trans comes up again and again imo is because some want to manufacture a 'culture war'.

Are trans activists prosecuting a culture war?

Are trans activists continually raising 'trans' on PB?

I like trains.

I find PB train posts (relatively) much more interesting than PB trans posts.

It amused* me that as the Huntingdon train stabbing news broke PBers were discussing what train/route it was on and led to a discussion about the East Coast Mainline and the fact LNER aren't as good as they used to be.

*Might not be the right adjective.

It's a verb.

I struggle to understand why we devote so much PB time to the trans issue. I'd guess that 99% of the UK public don't give it much thought at all.

Immigration; the economy; spending/taxation/deficit; the threat to European order from Russia; our dependence on China; the perils facing US democracy; climate change; the mental health crisis...

All these are far more significant than 'trans' imo.

This impacted it though see it as important. A good friend of mine almost lost her job for retweeting a post by j k Rowling, went through a safeguarding investigation and told not to come to work. The complaint was manufactured by an lgbt youth activist charity.

Sure, it's important to those impacted by it. I've known two people who have transitioned, and had to overcome tremendous stigma and prejudice in so doing. It's important to them, of course.

But should we devote numerous threads to something that is very important only to a small proportion of the population? We might as well discuss the challenges of being a paraplegic*, but that again would be a very minority interest.

(*Substitute with your preferred "topic very important to those impacted but of f*ck-all interest to the vast majority".)

The only reason trans comes up again and again imo is because some want to manufacture a 'culture war'.

Are trans activists prosecuting a culture war?

Are trans activists continually raising 'trans' on PB?

I like trains.

I find PB train posts (relatively) much more interesting than PB trans posts.

It amused* me that as the Huntingdon train stabbing news broke PBers were discussing what train/route it was on and led to a discussion about the East Coast Mainline and the fact LNER aren't as good as they used to be.

*Might not be the right adjective.