Best Of

"It is clear enemies of the United Kingdom are using social media to foment division in this country."

Did anyone ever doubt this? They have been doing it for a decade.

The real question is, why aren't we doing it back to them twice as hard? That's the only way to deter dictatorships from attacking you.

If you shitpost worse about them, they will think twice. If they can drop a bomb on you, you need to be able to drop five bombs on them.

It's a terrible way to live, but it's how we need to think when dealing with the Russias, Chinas, Irans and North Koreas of this world.

Well, if Russia sews discord here, we might petition the government or vote in an election or referendum. If we sew discord in Russia or China, the most that can happen is an internal opponent falls out of a poorly-secured window.

Yes, we are very vulnerable because we are a relatively free and open society. Our enemies are not free and open.

To counter this, we should not trample on freedom and openness. Oddly enough, that is exactly what the hard right want to do. It's almost as though they're working hand-in-glove with out enemies...

This illustrates the stupidity of successive governments cutting the BBC World Service.

And cuts to the British Council.

(Mrs J loves the British Council. After the had returned from a couple of years in London (then Iran...), she knew a passable amount of English. As a teenager she started going to the British Council library in Ankara, and thinks she read every book in it, including rather non age-appropriate ones. She then did her degree at METU in Ankara, which teaches in English. But much of her knowledge of English culture comes from the British Council during those years. It is an amazing force for promoting out country, the same as the world service.)

"It is clear enemies of the United Kingdom are using social media to foment division in this country."

Did anyone ever doubt this? They have been doing it for a decade.

The real question is, why aren't we doing it back to them twice as hard? That's the only way to deter dictatorships from attacking you.

If you shitpost worse about them, they will think twice. If they can drop a bomb on you, you need to be able to drop five bombs on them.

It's a terrible way to live, but it's how we need to think when dealing with the Russias, Chinas, Irans and North Koreas of this world.

Well, if Russia sews discord here, we might petition the government or vote in an election or referendum. If we sew discord in Russia or China, the most that can happen is an internal opponent falls out of a poorly-secured window.

Yes, we are very vulnerable because we are a relatively free and open society. Our enemies are not free and open.

To counter this, we should not trample on freedom and openness. Oddly enough, that is exactly what the hard right want to do. It's almost as though they're working hand-in-glove with out enemies...

Is cousin marriage a disputed topic here?

I presume we all agree that it shouldn't be allowed..

It is contra-indicated for genetic health reasons, but I don't have the same visceral reaction to it as I do with sibling incest.

And if it was a same-sex marriage, or one of the two had been sterilised, there'd be nothing to worry about in health terms either.

Having a pregnancy at 40 is also contra-indicated. The risk is probably higher. We don't ban that.

It's easier to ban cousin marriage than pregnancy at age 40, though.

Not really. You can ban civil marriage but that doesn't stop people from having a marriage ceremony and subsequently having sex.
Prohibition is rarely effective, and it strikes me as ludicrous to be advocating for another unenforceable law when the police lack the resources to enforce most of the laws already on the statute books. It's like the absurd "ban the burka" debate (let's set women free by telling them what they can wear) and comes from the same unpleasant motivation, IMHO.

Prohibition Is very often effective.

There are a small handful of examples where it has been noticeable ineffective, but a much larger set of situations where it has been so effective that it doesn't register.

Cousin marriage strikes me as something that shouldn't really be too controversial. There are reasonable arguments in favour of a ban and reasonable principles in favour of not creating a ban. Reasonable democracies have instituted a ban and other reasonable democracies do not.

If it were banned, I assume we're talking of banning first cousin marriages, and that still leaves second and third cousins. One of the things that's really surprised me about moving to rural Ireland is just how extensive people's knowledge about their extended families are here. I'd be surprised if that wasn't also the case for the communities where cousin marriage is more common in Britain, so it wouldn't necessarily be all that disruptive.

So it seems to be a low stakes change in the law. You'd make a modest contribution to reducing the risk of genetic defects, at the cost of a modest extension of the limitations that already exist on permitted marriages. Not much reason to get het up by anyone. Oh for a day when that would be the most contentious issue in our politics.

You can do like Iran: discourage cousin marriage and provide genetic testing for key conditions (like thalassaemia) for couples looking to marry/conceive. That will reduce the risk of genetic defects without having to control people's lives more.

People should be well informed about risks, able to control their fertility and have access to abortion. The state shouldn't be dictating who people can marry or have kids with. Eugenics was a bad thing.

Do you think it should be legal to marry your sister?

The problem with marrying your sister is that she's from a bad family, and her brother's a git.

Dozens of pro-Indy accounts go dark after Israeli strikes

On 12 June 2025, dozens of anonymous X (formerly Twitter) accounts advocating Scottish independence abruptly went silent.

Many had posted hundreds of times per week, often using pro-independence slogans, anti-UK messaging, and identity cues like “NHS nurse” or “Glaswegian socialist.”

Their sudden disappearance coincided with a major Israeli airstrike campaign against Iranian military and cyber infrastructure. Within days, Iran had suffered severe power outages, fuel shortages, and an internet blackout affecting 95 percent of national connectivity.

What appeared at first glance to be a curious coincidence has since emerged as the most visible rupture to date in a long-running foreign influence operation.
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/dozens-of-pro-indy-accounts-go-dark-after-israeli-strikes/

Weird thing to do when there's sufficient support for Sindy to have home grown prolific tweeters I'd have thought.

Any bureaucracy will find a way to justify its existence, even Iranian social media ops.

Iran Bru?