Baffled at the notion reading Lord of the Rings is indicative of an extreme right wing political ideology.
Or Shakespeare.
I think that stereotypes from the time it was written are present, but I wouldn't go further than that.
I think the films themselves feed into stereotypes from when they were made.
But is that process not just inevitable, since we all have our cultural spectacles through which we look at the world, and that is just a process of which we need to be aware / self-critical?
I find demands that any single viewpoint is canonical and above reproach concerning.
I suspect the SNP is simply too far gone, too much of a Sturgeon personality cult to use her departure as a chance to ask where things went wrong. Forbes could offer a change of tone and direction, but the party members may still be more interested in looking for bigots and traitors than converts. Far easier to choose a Sturgeon “continuity” candidate to keep marching angrily down the road of fantasy and factionalism, disaggregation and defeat. As a unionist, I can but hope.
That's quite an interesting piece, drawing a comparison between recent ideological movements, where belief is required as much as reason, and religion.
Watching Yes Minister, Zulu, the Thick of It, the Dambusters and Portillo's railway journeys and reading Shakespeare and Lord of the Rings a sign of far right sympathies according to Prevent
This arises from a desperation to find 'far right terrorists' so the programme cannot be accused of racism. In the absence of finding sufficient numbers of them, the definition of 'far right' starts to widen. It is just bureaucratic self interest with absurd outcomes. But the irony of this all taking place under Suella Braverman's watch is something to behold.
To be fair, in the US there have been a fair few far right terrorists in recent years.
Also on the left though... antifa etc. But obviously the left never feature in these schemes.
Baffled at the notion reading Lord of the Rings is indicative of an extreme right wing political ideology.
Or Shakespeare.
JRRT was a fervent Catholic, tory, General Franco fan boi and monarchist. Put all those together and it's a very short and convient commute to fascism.
LotR is very important to Third Position Italian fascism with the books being seen as an explicit rejection of Marxist cultural values that would appeal to young people. Of course, we now all know that Marxist cultural values are infinitiely superior to all others. The magazine of the women's section of MSI, the progenitor party to Fratelli d'Italia now helmed by fascist mega-Karen Giorgia Melonia, was called 'Eowyn'.
Watching Yes Minister, Zulu, the Thick of It, the Dambusters and Portillo's railway journeys and reading Shakespeare and Lord of the Rings a sign of far right sympathies according to Prevent
This arises from a desperation to find 'far right terrorists' so the programme cannot be accused of racism. In the absence of finding sufficient numbers of them, the definition of 'far right' starts to widen. It is just bureaucratic self interest with absurd outcomes. But the irony of this all taking place under Suella Braverman's watch is something to behold.
To be fair, in the US there have been a fair few far right terrorists in recent years.
Also on the left though... antifa etc. But obviously the left never feature in these schemes.
The Animal Liberation Front isn’t far right, but it’s proscribed as a terrorist organisation.
Much to its disgust, as they claim to be nice people who never ever hurt anybody, oh no, all those funny accidents that happen when they’re around are just coincidences.
The bookies' favourite to be Scotland's next First Minister, Angus Robertson, oversaw Scotland's disastrous census last year. Then there's this from this month..…
Paper trail shows Scot Gov's Angus Robertson used dodgy wind power stat in charm offensive with French ministers (& in newspaper columns & at SNP conference) AFTER his officials were repeatedly told by fellow civil servants the figure couldn't be evidenced…
Angus Robertson was also dragged into the Salmond affair.
My point being that Angus has some baggage, which will come under much scrutiny if he does stand to be SNP leader/First Minister.
Other, 'new generation' candidates may capitalise on this
Baffled at the notion reading Lord of the Rings is indicative of an extreme right wing political ideology.
Or Shakespeare.
JRRT was a fervent Catholic, tory, General Franco fan boi and monarchist. Put all those together and it's a very short and convient commute to fascism.
LotR is very important to Third Position Italian fascism with the books being seen as an explicit rejection of Marxist cultural values that would appeal to young people. Of course, we now all know that Marxist cultural values are infinitiely superior to all others. The magazine of the women's section of MSI, the progenitor party to Fratelli d'Italia now helmed by fascist mega-Karen Giorgia Melonia, was called 'Eowyn'.
There is truth in this. Giorgia Meloni is an avowed fan of JRR Tolkien (also Roger Scruton)
Having done my Prevent training as part of Trust Mandatory Training, it is pretty risible stuff.
Most radicalisation, whether Islamic or the far right stuff that killed Jo Cox seems to be online. We certainly do have a problem with far right radicalisation still, but mostly based on the loony stuff of the American far right and Putins troll farms, not the tedium of LOTR.
As a matter of interest what was the last terrorist act (not political demonstration/protest) in the UK by a far left group?
Is Boris Johnson Sauron with his wraith Rees-Mosg pursuing Sunaks Frodo? Liz Truss is definitely Gollum.
It’s theoretically a racist tract with the hobbits as the sturdy Anglo Saxons, the elves the Celts, the orcs as the Germans: the dwarves might be the Welsh or the Belgians. The riders of Rohan are fuck knows. The French?
Tolkien had a pretty grim time in the Great War and was understandably scarred and embittered
Mr. Jonathan, Sauron wants total control for an orderly world.
That is not very Boris Johnson.
Mr. Doethur, that reminds me of a criticism in the comments of the Epic Rap Battle of History featuring Caesar (versus Shaka Zulu) that it was racist to threaten to make his opponent grow wheat in his fields, when slavery was very much equal opportunities in the Roman world. They'd enslave pretty much anyone.
Is Boris Johnson Sauron with his wraith Rees-Mosg pursuing Sunaks Frodo? Liz Truss is definitely Gollum.
It’s theoretically a racist tract with the hobbits as the sturdy Anglo Saxons, the elves the Celts, the orcs as the Germans: the dwarves might be the Welsh or the Belgians. The riders of Rohan are fuck knows. The French?
Tolkien had a pretty grim time in the Great War and was understandably scarred and embittered
Did a walking tour of Oxford. Colleges interspersed with pubs, all of which had the claim to fame that Tolkien slept, ate and got pissed here.
Is Boris Johnson Sauron with his wraith Rees-Mosg pursuing Sunaks Frodo? Liz Truss is definitely Gollum.
It’s theoretically a racist tract with the hobbits as the sturdy Anglo Saxons, the elves the Celts, the orcs as the Germans: the dwarves might be the Welsh or the Belgians. The riders of Rohan are fuck knows. The French?
Tolkien had a pretty grim time in the Great War and was understandably scarred and embittered
The riders of Rohan are the Saxons. He even uses Saxon words as the Rohirrim language.
Mr. Leon/Mr. Doethur, linguistically, Tolkien uses many sources (I believe Gandalf and some dwarf names are lifted straight from Norse mythology).
My understanding is the works were made to fill a gap in an English mythology (unlike the Celts, Norse, etc) and Tolkien disliked direct allegory. So, Sauron is emblematic of evil but not a specific individual, people, or nation.
Mr. Leon/Mr. Doethur, linguistically, Tolkien uses many sources (I believe Gandalf and some dwarf names are lifted straight from Norse mythology).
My understanding is the works were made to fill a gap in an English mythology (unlike the Celts, Norse, etc) and Tolkien disliked direct allegory. So, Sauron is emblematic of evil but not a specific individual, people, or nation.
Sauron is based on Sour Ron, who used to run a local Oxford chip shop. Tolkien couldn’t stand the bloke. The LotR is based on a decade long feud over a picked egg.
Baffled at the notion reading Lord of the Rings is indicative of an extreme right wing political ideology.
Or Shakespeare.
JRRT was a fervent Catholic, tory, General Franco fan boi and monarchist. Put all those together and it's a very short and convient commute to fascism.
LotR is very important to Third Position Italian fascism with the books being seen as an explicit rejection of Marxist cultural values that would appeal to young people. Of course, we now all know that Marxist cultural values are infinitiely superior to all others. The magazine of the women's section of MSI, the progenitor party to Fratelli d'Italia now helmed by fascist mega-Karen Giorgia Melonia, was called 'Eowyn'.
There is truth in this. Giorgia Meloni is an avowed fan of JRR Tolkien (also Roger Scruton)
Tolkein's work also got taken up in a big way by the 60s hippy counterculture in America and, to a much lesser extent, here.
Pinning political labels on works of art that aren't explicitly political can lead people in surprising directions.
a poll that suggests Forbes has taken an early lead in the race to replace Nicola Sturgeon. An Ipsos poll of 1,513 adults, conducted on February 16, found that 31 per cent thought she would do a good job as first minister.
Swinney recorded a similar score but has ruled himself out, while the same proportion also believed Anas Sarwar, the Labour leader, would do well.
Angus Robertson received 24 per cent, with Humza Yousaf on 20 per cent. Ten per cent thought Keith Brown would make a good first minister, just seven points ahead of “Stuart Lewis”, a fictional politician Ipsos invented to test respondents’ engagement with the survey.
Before we get too excited, it's not Prevent who have come up with that reading list, it's the far right themselves. Tucked away in the fourth paragraph;
A report by Prevent’s Research Information and Communications Unit (RICU) described how far-Right extremists promoted ‘reading lists’ on online bulletin boards. And it reproduced an image being shared on far-Right corners of the internet that listed ‘important texts’, under pictures of Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, and Oswald Mosley, who led the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s.
Put like that, it's a bit less shocking.
But the Daily Mail spinning something they don't like to make it look bad? Surely that's never happened before.
Before we get too excited, it's not Prevent who have come up with that reading list, it's the far right themselves. Tucked away in the fourth paragraph;
A report by Prevent’s Research Information and Communications Unit (RICU) described how far-Right extremists promoted ‘reading lists’ on online bulletin boards. And it reproduced an image being shared on far-Right corners of the internet that listed ‘important texts’, under pictures of Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, and Oswald Mosley, who led the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s.
Put like that, it's a bit less shocking.
But the Daily Mail spinning something they don't like to make it look bad? Surely that's never happened before.
People getting excited about Mail story without checking their reporting ? Also surely unprecedented.
a poll that suggests Forbes has taken an early lead in the race to replace Nicola Sturgeon. An Ipsos poll of 1,513 adults, conducted on February 16, found that 31 per cent thought she would do a good job as first minister.
Swinney recorded a similar score but has ruled himself out, while the same proportion also believed Anas Sarwar, the Labour leader, would do well.
Angus Robertson received 24 per cent, with Humza Yousaf on 20 per cent. Ten per cent thought Keith Brown would make a good first minister, just seven points ahead of “Stuart Lewis”, a fictional politician Ipsos invented to test respondents’ engagement with the survey.
Baffled at the notion reading Lord of the Rings is indicative of an extreme right wing political ideology.
Or Shakespeare.
JRRT was a fervent Catholic, tory, General Franco fan boi and monarchist. Put all those together and it's a very short and convient commute to fascism.
LotR is very important to Third Position Italian fascism with the books being seen as an explicit rejection of Marxist cultural values that would appeal to young people. Of course, we now all know that Marxist cultural values are infinitiely superior to all others. The magazine of the women's section of MSI, the progenitor party to Fratelli d'Italia now helmed by fascist mega-Karen Giorgia Melonia, was called 'Eowyn'.
There is truth in this. Giorgia Meloni is an avowed fan of JRR Tolkien (also Roger Scruton)
Tolkein's work also got taken up in a big way by the 60s hippy counterculture in America and, to a much lesser extent, here.
Pinning political labels on works of art that aren't explicitly political can lead people in surprising directions.
I always thought LotR was a scathing polemic against the evils of fascism. Shows how little I know, eh?
Having the Sindy string to their bow has to be of help I assume. In rUK they only have environmentalism (which all the big parties are getting into) and far leftism.
My deeply cynical suspicion of them is that they're not really all bothered about independence, but pay some lipservice to the concept because they found there was a bit of an open goal niche for them to occupy with it, especially with the Holyrood list vote component.
I also find them irritating in the way they are a sort of SNP-lite wannabe, like that civ in the Culture who really really want to be the Culture but also think they're slightly better than the Culture (is it the GFCF or suchlike?).
In party political analogies it's probably not one that gets made very often to be fair, but I am cynical about everything.
I used to think that too: that their pro-independence stance was a little superficial. I’ve slowly come to the conclusion that they really mean it.
A significant minority of Scottish Greens would prefer Devo Max, but my guesstimate is that they are only about 10% of the members. Absolute max 20%.
They took the positive, concrete, step of separating from the Green Party in England. I'm not sure why you'd bother to do that if you didn't really believe in Independence.
Just taking a wild stab in the dark - because those holding the purse-strings required it?
Which people holding which purse strings you crazy conspiracist loon?
The SNP have provided Scotland's Government for many years now. During that time, opinions and positions on independence in Scotland's civil service, quangos, and all other grant-funded bodies, plus the media, have shifted, going with the flow of patronage. The green party and the organisations that it overlaps in interests and personnel is no different. You don't have to be a 'conspiracist loon' to recognise the influence of self-interest in politics, just not be a slack-jawed dribbling moron.
The Scottish Green Party were founded in 1990. Not much money or self-interest in it then.
Baffled at the notion reading Lord of the Rings is indicative of an extreme right wing political ideology.
Or Shakespeare.
JRRT was a fervent Catholic, tory, General Franco fan boi and monarchist. Put all those together and it's a very short and convient commute to fascism.
LotR is very important to Third Position Italian fascism with the books being seen as an explicit rejection of Marxist cultural values that would appeal to young people. Of course, we now all know that Marxist cultural values are infinitiely superior to all others. The magazine of the women's section of MSI, the progenitor party to Fratelli d'Italia now helmed by fascist mega-Karen Giorgia Melonia, was called 'Eowyn'.
There is truth in this. Giorgia Meloni is an avowed fan of JRR Tolkien (also Roger Scruton)
Tolkein's work also got taken up in a big way by the 60s hippy counterculture in America and, to a much lesser extent, here.
Pinning political labels on works of art that aren't explicitly political can lead people in surprising directions.
The fact that Michael Moorcock detests Tolkien must say something in his favour.
Tolkien was a devout Catholic, and a supporter of the Spanish nationalists. He also hated European imperialism and anti-semitism. He doesn’t fit easily anywhere on the political spectrum.
Before we get too excited, it's not Prevent who have come up with that reading list, it's the far right themselves. Tucked away in the fourth paragraph;
A report by Prevent’s Research Information and Communications Unit (RICU) described how far-Right extremists promoted ‘reading lists’ on online bulletin boards. And it reproduced an image being shared on far-Right corners of the internet that listed ‘important texts’, under pictures of Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, and Oswald Mosley, who led the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s.
Put like that, it's a bit less shocking.
But the Daily Mail spinning something they don't like to make it look bad? Surely that's never happened before.
People getting excited about Mail story without checking their reporting ? Also surely unprecedented.
Hard to check the Mail's reporting without seeing the actual report from RICU, which I can't find. So my working assumption is the Mail is lying, with the added possibility that Prevent are morons.
Having the Sindy string to their bow has to be of help I assume. In rUK they only have environmentalism (which all the big parties are getting into) and far leftism.
My deeply cynical suspicion of them is that they're not really all bothered about independence, but pay some lipservice to the concept because they found there was a bit of an open goal niche for them to occupy with it, especially with the Holyrood list vote component.
I also find them irritating in the way they are a sort of SNP-lite wannabe, like that civ in the Culture who really really want to be the Culture but also think they're slightly better than the Culture (is it the GFCF or suchlike?).
In party political analogies it's probably not one that gets made very often to be fair, but I am cynical about everything.
I used to think that too: that their pro-independence stance was a little superficial. I’ve slowly come to the conclusion that they really mean it.
A significant minority of Scottish Greens would prefer Devo Max, but my guesstimate is that they are only about 10% of the members. Absolute max 20%.
They took the positive, concrete, step of separating from the Green Party in England. I'm not sure why you'd bother to do that if you didn't really believe in Independence.
Just taking a wild stab in the dark - because those holding the purse-strings required it?
Which people holding which purse strings you crazy conspiracist loon?
The SNP have provided Scotland's Government for many years now. During that time, opinions and positions on independence in Scotland's civil service, quangos, and all other grant-funded bodies, plus the media, have shifted, going with the flow of patronage. The green party and the organisations that it overlaps in interests and personnel is no different. You don't have to be a 'conspiracist loon' to recognise the influence of self-interest in politics, just not be a slack-jawed dribbling moron.
"Many years" = 13 years. Of which only 5 were a majority government.
ON topic, I wonder if - counter-intuitively - we might see the SNP stabilize in the polls, or even benefit from a slightly uptick
The reason? Patriotic Scots will clamour to the defense of THE patriotic Scotch party as everyone else - especially the Hunnish yoons - scoffs at Sturgeon’s departure and her failure on Indy. For the same reason we might see an uptick in Yes
it’s the same paradoxical psychology which saw a surge to the Nats after Scotland voted NO
However, unlike that earlier paradoxical uplift, I don’t expect this one to last. Sturgeon’s departure IS a blow, and she was a unifying figure in what is a deeply divided party, I can’t see any of the aspiring candidates matching her ability in this way - Forbes is too right wing and Wee Free, Robertson is too boring and tainted, etc
There will surely be tartan blood on the carpet. So the Nats will eventually suffer for this, and the YES vote might enter a gentle but less spectacular decline
Having the Sindy string to their bow has to be of help I assume. In rUK they only have environmentalism (which all the big parties are getting into) and far leftism.
My deeply cynical suspicion of them is that they're not really all bothered about independence, but pay some lipservice to the concept because they found there was a bit of an open goal niche for them to occupy with it, especially with the Holyrood list vote component.
I also find them irritating in the way they are a sort of SNP-lite wannabe, like that civ in the Culture who really really want to be the Culture but also think they're slightly better than the Culture (is it the GFCF or suchlike?).
In party political analogies it's probably not one that gets made very often to be fair, but I am cynical about everything.
I used to think that too: that their pro-independence stance was a little superficial. I’ve slowly come to the conclusion that they really mean it.
A significant minority of Scottish Greens would prefer Devo Max, but my guesstimate is that they are only about 10% of the members. Absolute max 20%.
They took the positive, concrete, step of separating from the Green Party in England. I'm not sure why you'd bother to do that if you didn't really believe in Independence.
Just taking a wild stab in the dark - because those holding the purse-strings required it?
Which people holding which purse strings you crazy conspiracist loon?
The SNP have provided Scotland's Government for many years now. During that time, opinions and positions on independence in Scotland's civil service, quangos, and all other grant-funded bodies, plus the media, have shifted, going with the flow of patronage. The green party and the organisations that it overlaps in interests and personnel is no different. You don't have to be a 'conspiracist loon' to recognise the influence of self-interest in politics, just not be a slack-jawed dribbling moron.
"Many years" = 13 years. Of which only 5 were a majority government.
You can say exactly the same thing about the Tories, weirdly enough.
Baffled at the notion reading Lord of the Rings is indicative of an extreme right wing political ideology.
Or Shakespeare.
JRRT was a fervent Catholic, tory, General Franco fan boi and monarchist. Put all those together and it's a very short and convient commute to fascism.
LotR is very important to Third Position Italian fascism with the books being seen as an explicit rejection of Marxist cultural values that would appeal to young people. Of course, we now all know that Marxist cultural values are infinitiely superior to all others. The magazine of the women's section of MSI, the progenitor party to Fratelli d'Italia now helmed by fascist mega-Karen Giorgia Melonia, was called 'Eowyn'.
There is truth in this. Giorgia Meloni is an avowed fan of JRR Tolkien (also Roger Scruton)
Tolkein's work also got taken up in a big way by the 60s hippy counterculture in America and, to a much lesser extent, here.
Pinning political labels on works of art that aren't explicitly political can lead people in surprising directions.
The fact that Michael Moorcock detests Tolkien must say something in his favour.
Tolkien was a devout Catholic, and a supporter of the Spanish nationalists. He also hated European imperialism and anti-semitism. He doesn’t fit easily anywhere on the political spectrum.
Such nuance washes thin today, though.
He'll still be labelled, whether it's fair or not.
Before we get too excited, it's not Prevent who have come up with that reading list, it's the far right themselves. Tucked away in the fourth paragraph;
A report by Prevent’s Research Information and Communications Unit (RICU) described how far-Right extremists promoted ‘reading lists’ on online bulletin boards. And it reproduced an image being shared on far-Right corners of the internet that listed ‘important texts’, under pictures of Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, and Oswald Mosley, who led the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s.
Put like that, it's a bit less shocking.
But the Daily Mail spinning something they don't like to make it look bad? Surely that's never happened before.
People getting excited about Mail story without checking their reporting ? Also surely unprecedented.
Hard to check the Mail's reporting without seeing the actual report from RICU, which I can't find. So my working assumption is the Mail is lying, with the added possibility that Prevent are morons.
Not quite lying- I'm sure every sentence in that story is literally true. It's just that the selection and arrangement of those sentences gives an overall misleading impression. After all, who the hell reads the fourth paragraph?
Classic example- hack finds a rentagob MP and tells them the latest terrible (but unsubstantiated) rumour. MP vows to put a stop to it. There's your story and nobody has lied at any point. Maybe not told the whole truth...
Before we get too excited, it's not Prevent who have come up with that reading list, it's the far right themselves. Tucked away in the fourth paragraph;
A report by Prevent’s Research Information and Communications Unit (RICU) described how far-Right extremists promoted ‘reading lists’ on online bulletin boards. And it reproduced an image being shared on far-Right corners of the internet that listed ‘important texts’, under pictures of Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, and Oswald Mosley, who led the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s.
Put like that, it's a bit less shocking.
But the Daily Mail spinning something they don't like to make it look bad? Surely that's never happened before.
Lol, good fisking. I think there are reports out there describing the exponential decrease in people reading a newspaper article getting past headline, 1st para, 2nd para etc, and I’m sure the fckrs printing them are entirely aware of that. Just one of the ways they get people riled up.
Baffled at the notion reading Lord of the Rings is indicative of an extreme right wing political ideology.
Or Shakespeare.
JRRT was a fervent Catholic, tory, General Franco fan boi and monarchist. Put all those together and it's a very short and convient commute to fascism.
LotR is very important to Third Position Italian fascism with the books being seen as an explicit rejection of Marxist cultural values that would appeal to young people. Of course, we now all know that Marxist cultural values are infinitiely superior to all others. The magazine of the women's section of MSI, the progenitor party to Fratelli d'Italia now helmed by fascist mega-Karen Giorgia Melonia, was called 'Eowyn'.
Do you have evidence that Meloni is a fascist? I've not seen anything to suggest as much but you might be able to persuade me. You're clearly a smart guy and then you use terms like 'mega-Karen.' Ah well.
I know it’s late but someone may be tempted to say that the SNP don’t have an ideological monopoly on the liberal left in Scotland.
But I think Scottish Labour have - until very recently, it seems - been restricted to a frankly backward looking and middle aged or elderly demographic, and the Greens have effectively been adopted as a kind of SNP puppet.
Just wondering a littlr where you have been. NZ? New York? (Sorry, only joking.)
Depends what you mean by liberal, anjd it sure depnds who you ask in Labour (the supposedly separate Scottish bit, or the actual HQ in London, compare their responses on all sorts of things such as Brexit and nuke boats in the Clyde). But on the authoritarianism/liberalism Argand diagram you have the SGs and the Scottish Socialists on the left.
Once again I am struck by how difficult the DM online is to read - there's a pop-up ad in the bottom right corner, flashing ads columns left and right, scrolling down through the article you get more links and ads than article.
ON topic, I wonder if - counter-intuitively - we might see the SNP stabilize in the polls, or even benefit from a slightly uptick
One for the Leondamus files...
A couple of interesting snippets from the comments section of The Times
Scott Skinner Forbes has got no chance. There are too many Celtic supporters as SNP members. If she does get the gig, the SNP could well lose the 'green' vote.
Jane Bredin We are doomed Capt Mainwairing. Please not Humza , as we saw with Truss , we ( Scotland ) can fall a long way in 47 days.
Before we get too excited, it's not Prevent who have come up with that reading list, it's the far right themselves. Tucked away in the fourth paragraph;
A report by Prevent’s Research Information and Communications Unit (RICU) described how far-Right extremists promoted ‘reading lists’ on online bulletin boards. And it reproduced an image being shared on far-Right corners of the internet that listed ‘important texts’, under pictures of Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, and Oswald Mosley, who led the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s.
Put like that, it's a bit less shocking.
But the Daily Mail spinning something they don't like to make it look bad? Surely that's never happened before.
Lol, good fisking. I think there are reports out there describing the exponential decrease in people reading a newspaper article getting past headline, 1st para, 2nd para etc, and I’m sure the fckrs printing them are entirely aware of that. Just one of the ways they get people riled up.
If you look at the comments on that DM article, it's worked.
Having the Sindy string to their bow has to be of help I assume. In rUK they only have environmentalism (which all the big parties are getting into) and far leftism.
My deeply cynical suspicion of them is that they're not really all bothered about independence, but pay some lipservice to the concept because they found there was a bit of an open goal niche for them to occupy with it, especially with the Holyrood list vote component.
I also find them irritating in the way they are a sort of SNP-lite wannabe, like that civ in the Culture who really really want to be the Culture but also think they're slightly better than the Culture (is it the GFCF or suchlike?).
In party political analogies it's probably not one that gets made very often to be fair, but I am cynical about everything.
I used to think that too: that their pro-independence stance was a little superficial. I’ve slowly come to the conclusion that they really mean it.
A significant minority of Scottish Greens would prefer Devo Max, but my guesstimate is that they are only about 10% of the members. Absolute max 20%.
They took the positive, concrete, step of separating from the Green Party in England. I'm not sure why you'd bother to do that if you didn't really believe in Independence.
Just taking a wild stab in the dark - because those holding the purse-strings required it?
Which people holding which purse strings you crazy conspiracist loon?
The SNP have provided Scotland's Government for many years now. During that time, opinions and positions on independence in Scotland's civil service, quangos, and all other grant-funded bodies, plus the media, have shifted, going with the flow of patronage. The green party and the organisations that it overlaps in interests and personnel is no different. You don't have to be a 'conspiracist loon' to recognise the influence of self-interest in politics, just not be a slack-jawed dribbling moron.
"Many years" = 13 years. Of which only 5 were a majority government.
You can say exactly the same thing about the Tories, weirdly enough.
So you can! But the Tories had been in power not long before, and it takes time for appointments and the like to filter throough the system in both directions.
But I think it's a subjective view about Scotland which is common partly because so many people (and this is not to imply anything about Luckyguy) unfamiliar with Scotland don't realise that a lot of the Scottish Civil Service and its agencies stem from the administrative devolution of the late C19 and early C20. They seem to be absolutely convinced that (for instance) Alex Salmond insisted on setting up the National Library of Scotland de novo in 2010.
I always saw Tolkien as a Prince Charles kind of figure - deeply small c conservative in many areas but also surprisingly progressive in some others, organic, rural, traditional, anti-industrial, sceptical of big ideas. Basically, very typical of a certain strand of deep-rooted, tweedy, pipe tobacco Englishness. Certainly not far right in any way, shape or form. Though you can see why he could be appealing to far right fantasists, my guess is he would have detested them.
Before we get too excited, it's not Prevent who have come up with that reading list, it's the far right themselves. Tucked away in the fourth paragraph;
A report by Prevent’s Research Information and Communications Unit (RICU) described how far-Right extremists promoted ‘reading lists’ on online bulletin boards. And it reproduced an image being shared on far-Right corners of the internet that listed ‘important texts’, under pictures of Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, and Oswald Mosley, who led the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s.
Put like that, it's a bit less shocking.
But the Daily Mail spinning something they don't like to make it look bad? Surely that's never happened before.
People getting excited about Mail story without checking their reporting ? Also surely unprecedented.
Hard to check the Mail's reporting without seeing the actual report from RICU, which I can't find. So my working assumption is the Mail is lying, with the added possibility that Prevent are morons.
In this case, it just meant reading beyond the headline. ...A report by Prevent’s Research Information and Communications Unit (RICU) described how far-Right extremists promoted ‘reading lists’ on online bulletin boards. And it reproduced an image being shared on far-Right corners of the internet that listed ‘important texts’, under pictures of Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, and Oswald Mosley, who led the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s...
That's hardly them saying that Tolkien is a dangerous text, any more than the Dambusters story.
What significance Prevent attaches to the reading lists themselves is largely unexplored by the Mail, but it's reasonably clear where it was drawn from.
Once again I am struck by how difficult the DM online is to read - there's a pop-up ad in the bottom right corner, flashing ads columns left and right, scrolling down through the article you get more links and ads than article.
Baffled at the notion reading Lord of the Rings is indicative of an extreme right wing political ideology.
Or Shakespeare.
JRRT was a fervent Catholic, tory, General Franco fan boi and monarchist. Put all those together and it's a very short and convient commute to fascism.
LotR is very important to Third Position Italian fascism with the books being seen as an explicit rejection of Marxist cultural values that would appeal to young people. Of course, we now all know that Marxist cultural values are infinitiely superior to all others. The magazine of the women's section of MSI, the progenitor party to Fratelli d'Italia now helmed by fascist mega-Karen Giorgia Melonia, was called 'Eowyn'.
There is truth in this. Giorgia Meloni is an avowed fan of JRR Tolkien (also Roger Scruton)
Tolkein's work also got taken up in a big way by the 60s hippy counterculture in America and, to a much lesser extent, here.
Pinning political labels on works of art that aren't explicitly political can lead people in surprising directions.
The fact that Michael Moorcock detests Tolkien must say something in his favour.
Tolkien was a devout Catholic, and a supporter of the Spanish nationalists. He also hated European imperialism and anti-semitism. He doesn’t fit easily anywhere on the political spectrum.
Such nuance washes thin today, though.
He'll still be labelled, whether it's fair or not.
There's a strong anti-imperialist theme in LOTR, most obviously with the Downfall of Numenor. But, also, it's clear that Saruman and Sauron can stir up the peoples of Dunland and Harad respectively, precisely because both peoples have genuine grievances against Rohan and Gondor.
I always saw Tolkien as a Prince Charles kind of figure - deeply small c conservative in many areas but also surprisingly progressive in some others, organic, rural, traditional, anti-industrial, sceptical of big ideas. Basically, very typical of a certain strand of deep-rooted, tweedy, pipe tobacco Englishness. Certainly not far right in any way, shape or form. Though you can see why he could be appealing to far right fantasists, my guess is he would have detested them.
There's a hilarious letter he wrote to in response to a German publisher asking him to confirm whether or not he was "Aryan". First, he pretends to misunderstand the question, saying, that to the best of his knowledge he has no Iranian or Hindustani ancestors. He continues that if they are in reality, asking him if he has any Jewish antecedents he comments that "I regret that I have no ancestors among that gifted people."
Before we get too excited, it's not Prevent who have come up with that reading list, it's the far right themselves. Tucked away in the fourth paragraph;
A report by Prevent’s Research Information and Communications Unit (RICU) described how far-Right extremists promoted ‘reading lists’ on online bulletin boards. And it reproduced an image being shared on far-Right corners of the internet that listed ‘important texts’, under pictures of Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, and Oswald Mosley, who led the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s.
Put like that, it's a bit less shocking.
But the Daily Mail spinning something they don't like to make it look bad? Surely that's never happened before.
Lol, good fisking. I think there are reports out there describing the exponential decrease in people reading a newspaper article getting past headline, 1st para, 2nd para etc, and I’m sure the fckrs printing them are entirely aware of that. Just one of the ways they get people riled up.
If you look at the comments on that DM article, it's worked.
To be fair to them, The Mail are bloody good at this sort of thing, and have been for decades. But for the easily triggered, here's an analogy....
Roderick Spode dressed the Saviours of Britain in black shorts. That doesn't make the shorts fascist, or mean that everyone who wears black shorts is fascist. It does make it sensible to keep an eye on people who start wearing black shorts, especially if some of their other behaviours are a bit odd.
Once again I am struck by how difficult the DM online is to read - there's a pop-up ad in the bottom right corner, flashing ads columns left and right, scrolling down through the article you get more links and ads than article.
How is it so popular?
It's The Sidebar of Shame that makes it popular.
They'll juxtapose an article denouncing gay marriage with a picture of a lesbian supermodel and her girlfriend, scantily clad.
Once again I am struck by how difficult the DM online is to read - there's a pop-up ad in the bottom right corner, flashing ads columns left and right, scrolling down through the article you get more links and ads than article.
How is it so popular?
More tits than my bird feeder?
Please, that would be undignified.
In The Mail, they're called "curves" and they are "flaunted".
Mr. F, I know Harad is adjacent to Morder (south, I think). Where's Dunland?
I think the imperialism angle on Numenor's fall is an interesting take. Directly, it's a fall of grace from fear of death, self-regard, arrogance, and falling into cult of sacrifice and worshipping false gods.
I know it’s late but someone may be tempted to say that the SNP don’t have an ideological monopoly on the liberal left in Scotland.
But I think Scottish Labour have - until very recently, it seems - been restricted to a frankly backward looking and middle aged or elderly demographic, and the Greens have effectively been adopted as a kind of SNP puppet.
Just wondering a littlr where you have been. NZ? New York? (Sorry, only joking.)
Depends what you mean by liberal, anjd it sure depnds who you ask in Labour (the supposedly separate Scottish bit, or the actual HQ in London, compare their responses on all sorts of things such as Brexit and nuke boats in the Clyde). But on the authoritarianism/liberalism Argand diagram you have the SGs and the Scottish Socialists on the left.
Mr. F, I know Harad is adjacent to Morder (south, I think). Where's Dunland?
I think the imperialism angle on Numenor's fall is an interesting take. Directly, it's a fall of grace from fear of death, self-regard, arrogance, and falling into cult of sacrifice and worshipping false gods.
Dunland is to the West of Rohan. Originally, its people were quite widely settled in Western Rohan, but they got driven out. During the battle for Helms Deep, one of the Rohirric commanders explains that they've never forgiven them for this, and that Saruman has inflamed that hatred.
Mr. F, cheers. Been a while since I've read the book. Was considering doing it but decided to re-read Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn first (almost done with the third of four volumes).
Before we get too excited, it's not Prevent who have come up with that reading list, it's the far right themselves. Tucked away in the fourth paragraph;
A report by Prevent’s Research Information and Communications Unit (RICU) described how far-Right extremists promoted ‘reading lists’ on online bulletin boards. And it reproduced an image being shared on far-Right corners of the internet that listed ‘important texts’, under pictures of Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, and Oswald Mosley, who led the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s.
Put like that, it's a bit less shocking.
But the Daily Mail spinning something they don't like to make it look bad? Surely that's never happened before.
Lol, good fisking. I think there are reports out there describing the exponential decrease in people reading a newspaper article getting past headline, 1st para, 2nd para etc, and I’m sure the fckrs printing them are entirely aware of that. Just one of the ways they get people riled up.
That's just how articles are written. The headline should explain it all, the first para is the headline again in more detail, etc. You should be able to dip in and still get everything you need. That's why PB headers are sometimes hard to read, despite being written by clever people, because they tell a story and save the conclusion until the end.
Having the Sindy string to their bow has to be of help I assume. In rUK they only have environmentalism (which all the big parties are getting into) and far leftism.
My deeply cynical suspicion of them is that they're not really all bothered about independence, but pay some lipservice to the concept because they found there was a bit of an open goal niche for them to occupy with it, especially with the Holyrood list vote component.
I also find them irritating in the way they are a sort of SNP-lite wannabe, like that civ in the Culture who really really want to be the Culture but also think they're slightly better than the Culture (is it the GFCF or suchlike?).
In party political analogies it's probably not one that gets made very often to be fair, but I am cynical about everything.
I used to think that too: that their pro-independence stance was a little superficial. I’ve slowly come to the conclusion that they really mean it.
A significant minority of Scottish Greens would prefer Devo Max, but my guesstimate is that they are only about 10% of the members. Absolute max 20%.
They took the positive, concrete, step of separating from the Green Party in England. I'm not sure why you'd bother to do that if you didn't really believe in Independence.
Just taking a wild stab in the dark - because those holding the purse-strings required it?
Which people holding which purse strings you crazy conspiracist loon?
The SNP have provided Scotland's Government for many years now. During that time, opinions and positions on independence in Scotland's civil service, quangos, and all other grant-funded bodies, plus the media, have shifted, going with the flow of patronage. The green party and the organisations that it overlaps in interests and personnel is no different. You don't have to be a 'conspiracist loon' to recognise the influence of self-interest in politics, just not be a slack-jawed dribbling moron.
The Scottish Green Party were founded in 1990. Not much money or self-interest in it then.
Er, that doesn't work. The Greens were always there, but split into E&W, NI and S parties at that time to better match the respective parliaments then newly present. They do believe in devolution!
Mr. F, cheers. Been a while since I've read the book. Was considering doing it but decided to re-read Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn first (almost done with the third of four volumes).
If you can make it past the first two hundred pages of the first book, that is a very good series.
ON topic, I wonder if - counter-intuitively - we might see the SNP stabilize in the polls, or even benefit from a slightly uptick
The reason? Patriotic Scots will clamour to the defense of THE patriotic Scotch party as everyone else - especially the Hunnish yoons - scoffs at Sturgeon’s departure and her failure on Indy. For the same reason we might see an uptick in Yes
it’s the same paradoxical psychology which saw a surge to the Nats after Scotland voted NO
However, unlike that earlier paradoxical uplift, I don’t expect this one to last. Sturgeon’s departure IS a blow, and she was a unifying figure in what is a deeply divided party, I can’t see any of the aspiring candidates matching her ability in this way - Forbes is too right wing and Wee Free, Robertson is too boring and tainted, etc
There will surely be tartan blood on the carpet. So the Nats will eventually suffer for this, and the YES vote might enter a gentle but less spectacular decline
I think that support for the SNP will either go down or go up, with a chance that it stays exactly the same. You heard it here first.
Once again I am struck by how difficult the DM online is to read - there's a pop-up ad in the bottom right corner, flashing ads columns left and right, scrolling down through the article you get more links and ads than article.
How is it so popular?
It's The Sidebar of Shame that makes it popular.
They'll juxtapose an article denouncing gay marriage with a picture of a lesbian supermodel and her girlfriend, scantily clad.
They clearly have worked out that what they do works as it’s a ridiculously popular website. They have strange traits where they will always put the word “very” in capitals in a headline about some famous lady in a “VERY revealing dress”. They also cannot seem to write an article about a person without mentioning their guessed wealth or the value of a house.
Everyone is a “star” including fourth division footballers and reality contestants you haven’t heard of.
Then there is the litany of stories about something which only seem to make the paper because the person, or rather young lady, involved is good looking and has attractive or scantily clad social media posts to go alongside the story.
The they do the pay articles where you get two weeks of Emma Forbes or some other vaguely remembered celeb on the beach in Barbados every day.
I guess the readership love looking at these people and being jealous or judgemental so click to read about someone they want to hate.
I have wondered if the Mail hadn’t gone big on Nicola Bulley would she just be another missing woman in a local headline - and my cynical side says they went big because of how she looked - my sister looked up how many people went missing around the same time and there were lots but they weren’t photogenic middle aged suburban white women.
ON topic, I wonder if - counter-intuitively - we might see the SNP stabilize in the polls, or even benefit from a slightly uptick
The reason? Patriotic Scots will clamour to the defense of THE patriotic Scotch party as everyone else - especially the Hunnish yoons - scoffs at Sturgeon’s departure and her failure on Indy. For the same reason we might see an uptick in Yes
it’s the same paradoxical psychology which saw a surge to the Nats after Scotland voted NO
However, unlike that earlier paradoxical uplift, I don’t expect this one to last. Sturgeon’s departure IS a blow, and she was a unifying figure in what is a deeply divided party, I can’t see any of the aspiring candidates matching her ability in this way - Forbes is too right wing and Wee Free, Robertson is too boring and tainted, etc
There will surely be tartan blood on the carpet. So the Nats will eventually suffer for this, and the YES vote might enter a gentle but less spectacular decline
I think that support for the SNP will either go down or go up, with a chance that it stays exactly the same. You heard it here first.
I thoroughly agree with that statement. A betting cert.
Before we get too excited, it's not Prevent who have come up with that reading list, it's the far right themselves. Tucked away in the fourth paragraph;
A report by Prevent’s Research Information and Communications Unit (RICU) described how far-Right extremists promoted ‘reading lists’ on online bulletin boards. And it reproduced an image being shared on far-Right corners of the internet that listed ‘important texts’, under pictures of Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, and Oswald Mosley, who led the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s.
Put like that, it's a bit less shocking.
But the Daily Mail spinning something they don't like to make it look bad? Surely that's never happened before.
Lol, good fisking. I think there are reports out there describing the exponential decrease in people reading a newspaper article getting past headline, 1st para, 2nd para etc, and I’m sure the fckrs printing them are entirely aware of that. Just one of the ways they get people riled up.
That's just how articles are written. The headline should explain it all, the first para is the headline again in more detail, etc. You should be able to dip in and still get everything you need. That's why PB headers are sometimes hard to read, despite being written by clever people, because they tell a story and save the conclusion until the end.
Sure, the piece in question wanted the explanation to be loony woke lefties Prevent say LOTR readers are Fascists rather than Prevent has highlighted far right & Fascist groups list LOTR etc as important texts. I get it.
Watching Yes Minister, Zulu, the Thick of It, the Dambusters and Portillo's railway journeys and reading Shakespeare and Lord of the Rings a sign of far right sympathies according to Prevent
This arises from a desperation to find 'far right terrorists' so the programme cannot be accused of racism. In the absence of finding sufficient numbers of them, the definition of 'far right' starts to widen. It is just bureaucratic self interest with absurd outcomes. But the irony of this all taking place under Suella Braverman's watch is something to behold.
Extremely similar to how they wanted to mix in the investigation into street grooming with other forms of child grooming, so it didn't find any uncomfortable conclusions.
Excessive interest in railways is apparently a sign.
Baffled at the notion reading Lord of the Rings is indicative of an extreme right wing political ideology.
Or Shakespeare.
JRRT was a fervent Catholic, tory, General Franco fan boi and monarchist. Put all those together and it's a very short and convient commute to fascism.
LotR is very important to Third Position Italian fascism with the books being seen as an explicit rejection of Marxist cultural values that would appeal to young people. Of course, we now all know that Marxist cultural values are infinitiely superior to all others. The magazine of the women's section of MSI, the progenitor party to Fratelli d'Italia now helmed by fascist mega-Karen Giorgia Melonia, was called 'Eowyn'.
Ignorant fools latch on to many things.
Correlation vs causation.
Or should we say that certain religions are a reliable indication of terrorism?
Oh, and anyone parroting “Marxist cultural values” is a genocidal lunatic. After all, there is an extremely high correlation…
Before we get too excited, it's not Prevent who have come up with that reading list, it's the far right themselves. Tucked away in the fourth paragraph;
A report by Prevent’s Research Information and Communications Unit (RICU) described how far-Right extremists promoted ‘reading lists’ on online bulletin boards. And it reproduced an image being shared on far-Right corners of the internet that listed ‘important texts’, under pictures of Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, and Oswald Mosley, who led the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s.
Put like that, it's a bit less shocking.
But the Daily Mail spinning something they don't like to make it look bad? Surely that's never happened before.
Lol, good fisking. I think there are reports out there describing the exponential decrease in people reading a newspaper article getting past headline, 1st para, 2nd para etc, and I’m sure the fckrs printing them are entirely aware of that. Just one of the ways they get people riled up.
It will no doubt shock you to the core of your being to learn that all newspapers do this. It’s an accepted if reprehensible technique
eg the guardian or the New York Times will publish a dramatic liberal-rousing race-baiting headline like “black people are 998% more likely to die of head explosion in bus shelters compared to whites” and buried in paragraph 13 you will find out the facts: this has only happened to one unfortunate black woman who had an allergy to bus shelters and a bad case of exploding head syndrome, and it happened 5 years ago, and it has also happened to three Japanese people and seven Inuit people since then
Before we get too excited, it's not Prevent who have come up with that reading list, it's the far right themselves. Tucked away in the fourth paragraph;
A report by Prevent’s Research Information and Communications Unit (RICU) described how far-Right extremists promoted ‘reading lists’ on online bulletin boards. And it reproduced an image being shared on far-Right corners of the internet that listed ‘important texts’, under pictures of Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, and Oswald Mosley, who led the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s.
Put like that, it's a bit less shocking.
But the Daily Mail spinning something they don't like to make it look bad? Surely that's never happened before.
Lol, good fisking. I think there are reports out there describing the exponential decrease in people reading a newspaper article getting past headline, 1st para, 2nd para etc, and I’m sure the fckrs printing them are entirely aware of that. Just one of the ways they get people riled up.
That's just how articles are written. The headline should explain it all, the first para is the headline again in more detail, etc. You should be able to dip in and still get everything you need. That's why PB headers are sometimes hard to read, despite being written by clever people, because they tell a story and save the conclusion until the end.
That may be what should happen, and maybe the world would be a better place if it did. But it really isn't how most of the press works. Much more common is
HEADLINE AND FIRST PARA: Something to rile up the reader. ("Britain stands alone..." as Boris used to write, but the Grauniad follows the same template.)
SECOND PARA: Someone being riled up by the first para.
THIRD PARA: Government saying they can't do anything.
FOURTH PARA: The perfectly innocent explanation of why nobody needs to be riled up. But nobody reads the fourth paragraph.
There weren’t any details in the article, but expropriation is a dangerous path to tread
Not clear how it works at all. Also a 500% increase in council tax for empty homes. Disproprortionately affects the poor rather than the rich. And a real issue for people in hospital. Logically also applies to holiday homes as well (otherwise someone goes and stays in it 1 night a year). Interesting.
It sounds a bit PR Stunt / Populist.
1 - £1 selling off is more Thatcherite than Thatcher's 50% or 60% discount on Council houses. 2 - It will be marginal as we have already spent 20 years cracking down on empty homes. 3 - How do they stop investors striking formal or informal back to back deals? SNP had problems with that, with council houses being sold off to English investors. 4 - Would they generally not be better pulling them into the social sector as rentals for the people on the waiting list? 5 - What about the significant % of empty homes that are owned by Councils / HAs?
It will, however, galvanise the owners of those homes into action.
1 - These are not in the main council houses AIUI. Edit: I see what you mean. Maybe GeoffW can get his Thatcherite wish by voting SLab ;-) 2 - 27,000 empty houses is the number quoted. 3 - Clauses in the contract? 4 - Yes 5 - Really? Are there any? Here in Dorset HA homes are like hen's teeth - massive waiting list, no empty homes AFAIK.
That 27K is almost exactly 1% of all dwellings in Scotland, and about a third of all empty homes.
I wonder if they got that 27K by rounding down from the stat on page 13
But this refers to the covid era with delays in processing legalities and so on. On the next page they say "(The spike in the percentage of long-term empty properties in 2020 may reflect the impact of Covid lockdown restrictions, for example with fewer people moving house in that period.)"
Better data - thank-you.
Looking at it, Total Empties in Scotland for 2021 is ~88,000 or 3.3%. Exemptions on top of that (eg not yet finished or awaiting demolition) are ~44,500 or 1.7%.
In England the Total Empties figure for 2022 is 676,500 which for 25 million dwellings would be around 2.5%. These are "defined as empty properties as classified for council tax purposes and include all empty properties liable for council tax and properties that are empty but receive a council tax exemption. "
The definitions look fairly comparable ie based around Council Tax.
Scottish Gov breaks down the numbers by short term / long term, but not by ownership.
The total Long Term empties in Scotland are stated as 43,766, with a definition of 6 months empty. I'm guessing the 27k number is either >12 months empties or private rented sector empties, with Lab ignoring social sector - which would be consistent with their usual policy practice around non-habitable and LLs evicting and so on, where they quiet about how much HAs use Section 21 for example.
Total empties in Scotland are quoted as 88, 735, which is 3.3%.
Make of all that what you will.
Digging into this is a rabbit hole.
FPT
But the figures are not huigely different given the uncertainties, and note the markedly better Scottish output of council houses. It'll be interesting to see why Labour don't advocate the same policy in England, or for that matter Wales. They're a UK party without divisions (vide Elec. Comm.).
Nice trolling on the lying cheating scumbag Labour party.
Baffled at the notion reading Lord of the Rings is indicative of an extreme right wing political ideology.
Or Shakespeare.
JRRT was a fervent Catholic, tory, General Franco fan boi and monarchist. Put all those together and it's a very short and convient commute to fascism.
LotR is very important to Third Position Italian fascism with the books being seen as an explicit rejection of Marxist cultural values that would appeal to young people. Of course, we now all know that Marxist cultural values are infinitiely superior to all others. The magazine of the women's section of MSI, the progenitor party to Fratelli d'Italia now helmed by fascist mega-Karen Giorgia Melonia, was called 'Eowyn'.
I'm not sure I'd describe the leap from british conservative catholic fantasy writing to Italian fascism as a 'convenient' commute, but its certainly bizarre if so. Unless we are finding large numbers of global fantasy readers turning to Italian fascism the link does not seem massively direct considering 100 million people have read it.
Having the Sindy string to their bow has to be of help I assume. In rUK they only have environmentalism (which all the big parties are getting into) and far leftism.
My deeply cynical suspicion of them is that they're not really all bothered about independence, but pay some lipservice to the concept because they found there was a bit of an open goal niche for them to occupy with it, especially with the Holyrood list vote component.
I also find them irritating in the way they are a sort of SNP-lite wannabe, like that civ in the Culture who really really want to be the Culture but also think they're slightly better than the Culture (is it the GFCF or suchlike?).
In party political analogies it's probably not one that gets made very often to be fair, but I am cynical about everything.
They are a bunch of nasty weirdos looking to get their nasty policies in the back door and only managed due to Imelda needing some useful idiots due to her making an arse of the last election.
There weren’t any details in the article, but expropriation is a dangerous path to tread
Not clear how it works at all. Also a 500% increase in council tax for empty homes. Disproprortionately affects the poor rather than the rich. And a real issue for people in hospital. Logically also applies to holiday homes as well (otherwise someone goes and stays in it 1 night a year). Interesting.
It sounds a bit PR Stunt / Populist.
1 - £1 selling off is more Thatcherite than Thatcher's 50% or 60% discount on Council houses. 2 - It will be marginal as we have already spent 20 years cracking down on empty homes. 3 - How do they stop investors striking formal or informal back to back deals? SNP had problems with that, with council houses being sold off to English investors. 4 - Would they generally not be better pulling them into the social sector as rentals for the people on the waiting list? 5 - What about the significant % of empty homes that are owned by Councils / HAs?
It will, however, galvanise the owners of those homes into action.
1 - These are not in the main council houses AIUI. Edit: I see what you mean. Maybe GeoffW can get his Thatcherite wish by voting SLab ;-) 2 - 27,000 empty houses is the number quoted. 3 - Clauses in the contract? 4 - Yes 5 - Really? Are there any? Here in Dorset HA homes are like hen's teeth - massive waiting list, no empty homes AFAIK.
That 27K is almost exactly 1% of all dwellings in Scotland, and about a third of all empty homes.
I wonder if they got that 27K by rounding down from the stat on page 13
But this refers to the covid era with delays in processing legalities and so on. On the next page they say "(The spike in the percentage of long-term empty properties in 2020 may reflect the impact of Covid lockdown restrictions, for example with fewer people moving house in that period.)"
Better data - thank-you.
Looking at it, Total Empties in Scotland for 2021 is ~88,000 or 3.3%. Exemptions on top of that (eg not yet finished or awaiting demolition) are ~44,500 or 1.7%.
In England the Total Empties figure for 2022 is 676,500 which for 25 million dwellings would be around 2.5%. These are "defined as empty properties as classified for council tax purposes and include all empty properties liable for council tax and properties that are empty but receive a council tax exemption. "
The definitions look fairly comparable ie based around Council Tax.
Scottish Gov breaks down the numbers by short term / long term, but not by ownership.
The total Long Term empties in Scotland are stated as 43,766, with a definition of 6 months empty. I'm guessing the 27k number is either >12 months empties or private rented sector empties, with Lab ignoring social sector - which would be consistent with their usual policy practice around non-habitable and LLs evicting and so on, where they quiet about how much HAs use Section 21 for example.
Total empties in Scotland are quoted as 88, 735, which is 3.3%.
Make of all that what you will.
Digging into this is a rabbit hole.
FPT
But the figures are not huigely different given the uncertainties, and note the markedly better Scottish output of council houses. It'll be interesting to see why Labour don't advocate the same policy in England, or for that matter Wales. They're a UK party without divisions (vide Elec. Comm.).
Nice trolling on the lying cheating scumbag Labour party.
Morning, Malky. Pishing it down here.
The figures seem very odd as discussed a bit later on. Can't imagine Labour wanting to do a super-Thatcher and give away cooncil hooses for £1 a time. But that's what the number quoted implies.
The president of the SNP has denied that money has gone “missing” from party accounts as police continue to investigate what happened to more than £600,000 of donations.
As also noted upthread, Prevent is a bit rubbish, but that’s a different problem.
Anyone who thinks the far right doesn't pose a serious security threat is delusional.
A feature of the British far right is that its members are stupid and inept.
A typical specimen is “Mr Waffen SS UK”, who tried to use social media to create a terrorist movement. He was a morbidly obese incel, who spent most of his life in his bedroom eating junk food.
The US, Italian, or French far right, OTOH, are serious players.
Before we get too excited, it's not Prevent who have come up with that reading list, it's the far right themselves. Tucked away in the fourth paragraph;
A report by Prevent’s Research Information and Communications Unit (RICU) described how far-Right extremists promoted ‘reading lists’ on online bulletin boards. And it reproduced an image being shared on far-Right corners of the internet that listed ‘important texts’, under pictures of Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, and Oswald Mosley, who led the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s.
Put like that, it's a bit less shocking.
But the Daily Mail spinning something they don't like to make it look bad? Surely that's never happened before.
Lol, good fisking. I think there are reports out there describing the exponential decrease in people reading a newspaper article getting past headline, 1st para, 2nd para etc, and I’m sure the fckrs printing them are entirely aware of that. Just one of the ways they get people riled up.
It will no doubt shock you to the core of your being to learn that all newspapers do this. It’s an accepted if reprehensible technique
eg the guardian or the New York Times will publish a dramatic liberal-rousing race-baiting headline like “black people are 998% more likely to die of head explosion in bus shelters compared to whites” and buried in paragraph 13 you will find out the facts: this has only happened to one unfortunate black woman who had an allergy to bus shelters and a bad case of exploding head syndrome, and it happened 5 years ago, and it has also happened to three Japanese people and seven Inuit people since then
Comments
I think the films themselves feed into stereotypes from when they were made.
But is that process not just inevitable, since we all have our cultural spectacles through which we look at the world, and that is just a process of which we need to be aware / self-critical?
I find demands that any single viewpoint is canonical and above reproach concerning.
https://www.tomforth.co.uk/circlepopulations/
In my location just shy of a quarter of a million and, 837 bus stops, 0 tram stops, and 12 metro and train stops.
Other than Spielman, Gibb and Acland-Hood, obviously.
LotR is very important to Third Position Italian fascism with the books being seen as an explicit rejection of Marxist cultural values that would appeal to young people. Of course, we now all know that Marxist cultural values are infinitiely superior to all others. The magazine of the women's section of MSI, the progenitor party to Fratelli d'Italia now helmed by fascist mega-Karen Giorgia Melonia, was called 'Eowyn'.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/feb/17/asylum-seekers-living-in-fear-far-right-uk-anti-migrant-protests-planned
Much to its disgust, as they claim to be nice people who never ever hurt anybody, oh no, all those funny accidents that happen when they’re around are just coincidences.
And they’ve actually been helped by a dropped catch!
Paper trail shows Scot Gov's Angus Robertson used dodgy wind power stat in charm offensive with French ministers (& in newspaper columns & at SNP conference) AFTER his officials were repeatedly told by fellow civil servants the figure couldn't be evidenced…
Angus Robertson was also dragged into the Salmond affair.
My point being that Angus has some baggage, which will come under much scrutiny if he does stand to be SNP leader/First Minister.
Other, 'new generation' candidates may capitalise on this
https://twitter.com/ChrisMusson/status/1626580355129171971?s=20
Actually, that’s a bit unfair. They’re not uneducated. Just ignorant and stupid.
Current house: 1,767 people
Previous house: 184,139 people
Which rather neatly explains why I moved!
Most radicalisation, whether Islamic or the far right stuff that killed Jo Cox seems to be online. We certainly do have a problem with far right radicalisation still, but mostly based on the loony stuff of the American far right and Putins troll farms, not the tedium of LOTR.
As a matter of interest what was the last terrorist act (not political demonstration/protest) in the UK by a far left group?
Is Boris Johnson Sauron with his wraith Rees-Mosg pursuing Sunaks Frodo? Liz Truss is definitely Gollum.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64683923
*Yes, I know, but the Home Office probably thinks of Greeks and Romans as white.
Tolkien had a pretty grim time in the Great War and was understandably scarred and embittered
That is not very Boris Johnson.
Mr. Doethur, that reminds me of a criticism in the comments of the Epic Rap Battle of History featuring Caesar (versus Shaka Zulu) that it was racist to threaten to make his opponent grow wheat in his fields, when slavery was very much equal opportunities in the Roman world. They'd enslave pretty much anyone.
My understanding is the works were made to fill a gap in an English mythology (unlike the Celts, Norse, etc) and Tolkien disliked direct allegory. So, Sauron is emblematic of evil but not a specific individual, people, or nation.
Pinning political labels on works of art that aren't explicitly political can lead people in surprising directions.
Swinney recorded a similar score but has ruled himself out, while the same proportion also believed Anas Sarwar, the Labour leader, would do well.
Angus Robertson received 24 per cent, with Humza Yousaf on 20 per cent. Ten per cent thought Keith Brown would make a good first minister, just seven points ahead of “Stuart Lewis”, a fictional politician Ipsos invented to test respondents’ engagement with the survey.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/snp-leadership-race-kate-forbes-trans-32h83l5s3
A report by Prevent’s Research Information and Communications Unit (RICU) described how far-Right extremists promoted ‘reading lists’ on online bulletin boards. And it reproduced an image being shared on far-Right corners of the internet that listed ‘important texts’, under pictures of Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, and Oswald Mosley, who led the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s.
Put like that, it's a bit less shocking.
But the Daily Mail spinning something they don't like to make it look bad? Surely that's never happened before.
Also surely unprecedented.
Very similar sort of cricketer.
So they expanded the definitions in attempt to “smooth the curve” - so they don’t get accused of institutional racism.
Tolkien was a devout Catholic, and a supporter of the Spanish nationalists. He also hated European imperialism and anti-semitism. He doesn’t fit easily anywhere on the political spectrum.
The shift in focus to include right wing extremism seems to be as a result of guidance from government.
See, for example, the report of the Intelligence and Security Committee from last year:
https://isc.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/E02710035-HCP-Extreme-Right-Wing-Terrorism_Accessible.pdf
As also noted upthread, Prevent is a bit rubbish, but that’s a different problem.
'The circle also contains, 2 bus stops, 0 tram stops, and 0 metro and train stops.' If only there were some busses too.
The reason? Patriotic Scots will clamour to the defense of THE patriotic Scotch party as everyone else - especially the Hunnish yoons - scoffs at Sturgeon’s departure and her failure on Indy. For the same reason we might see an uptick in Yes
it’s the same paradoxical psychology which saw a surge to the Nats after Scotland voted NO
However, unlike that earlier paradoxical uplift, I don’t expect this one to last. Sturgeon’s departure IS a blow, and she was a unifying figure in what is a deeply divided party, I can’t see any of the aspiring candidates matching her ability in this way - Forbes is too right wing and Wee Free, Robertson is too boring and tainted, etc
There will surely be tartan blood on the carpet. So the Nats will eventually suffer for this, and the YES vote might enter a gentle but less spectacular decline
SNP members, or the electorate?
Given there’s been a policy of “no debate” the membership may not be as enthusiastic as the former leadership
He'll still be labelled, whether it's fair or not.
Classic example- hack finds a rentagob MP and tells them the latest terrible (but unsubstantiated) rumour. MP vows to put a stop to it. There's your story and nobody has lied at any point. Maybe not told the whole truth...
I think there are reports out there describing the exponential decrease in people reading a newspaper article getting past headline, 1st para, 2nd para etc, and I’m sure the fckrs printing them are entirely aware of that. Just one of the ways they get people riled up.
Depends what you mean by liberal, anjd it sure depnds who you ask in Labour (the supposedly separate Scottish bit, or the actual HQ in London, compare their responses on all sorts of things such as Brexit and nuke boats in the Clyde). But on the authoritarianism/liberalism Argand diagram you have the SGs and the Scottish Socialists on the left.
This is about right -
https://www.politicalcompass.org/scotland2021
Once again I am struck by how difficult the DM online is to read - there's a pop-up ad in the bottom right corner, flashing ads columns left and right, scrolling down through the article you get more links and ads than article.
How is it so popular?
A couple of interesting snippets from the comments section of The Times
Scott Skinner
Forbes has got no chance. There are too many Celtic supporters as SNP members. If she does get the gig, the SNP could well lose the 'green' vote.
Jane Bredin
We are doomed Capt Mainwairing. Please not Humza , as we saw with Truss , we ( Scotland ) can fall a long way in 47 days.
But I think it's a subjective view about Scotland which is common partly because so many people (and this is not to imply anything about Luckyguy) unfamiliar with Scotland don't realise that a lot of the Scottish Civil Service and its agencies stem from the administrative devolution of the late C19 and early C20. They seem to be absolutely convinced that (for instance) Alex Salmond insisted on setting up the National Library of Scotland de novo in 2010.
...A report by Prevent’s Research Information and Communications Unit (RICU) described how far-Right extremists promoted ‘reading lists’ on online bulletin boards. And it reproduced an image being shared on far-Right corners of the internet that listed ‘important texts’, under pictures of Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, and Oswald Mosley, who led the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s...
That's hardly them saying that Tolkien is a dangerous text, any more than the
Dambusters story.
What significance Prevent attaches to the reading lists themselves is largely unexplored by the Mail, but it's reasonably clear where it was drawn from.
for decades. But for the easily triggered, here's an analogy....
Roderick Spode dressed the Saviours of Britain in black shorts. That doesn't make the shorts fascist, or mean that everyone who wears black shorts is fascist. It does make it sensible to keep an eye on people who start wearing black shorts, especially if some of their other behaviours are a bit odd.
They'll juxtapose an article denouncing gay marriage with a picture of a lesbian supermodel and her girlfriend, scantily clad.
In The Mail, they're called "curves" and they are "flaunted".
I think the imperialism angle on Numenor's fall is an interesting take. Directly, it's a fall of grace from fear of death, self-regard, arrogance, and falling into cult of sacrifice and worshipping false gods.
Only If you agree with them…..
Everyone is a “star” including fourth division footballers and reality contestants you haven’t heard of.
Then there is the litany of stories about something which only seem to make the paper because the person, or rather young lady, involved is good looking and has attractive or scantily clad social media posts to go alongside the story.
The they do the pay articles where you get two weeks of Emma Forbes or some other vaguely remembered celeb on the beach in Barbados every day.
I guess the readership love looking at these people and being jealous or judgemental so click to read about someone they want to hate.
I have wondered if the Mail hadn’t gone big on Nicola Bulley would she just be another missing woman in a local headline - and my cynical side says they went big because of how she looked - my sister looked up how many people went missing around the same time and there were lots but they weren’t photogenic middle aged suburban white women.
Correlation vs causation.
Or should we say that certain religions are a reliable indication of terrorism?
Oh, and anyone parroting “Marxist cultural values” is a genocidal lunatic. After all, there is an extremely high correlation…
eg the guardian or the New York Times will publish a dramatic liberal-rousing race-baiting headline like “black people are 998% more likely to die of head explosion in bus shelters compared to whites” and buried in paragraph 13 you will find out the facts: this has only happened to one unfortunate black woman who had an allergy to bus shelters and a bad case of exploding head syndrome, and it happened 5 years ago, and it has also happened to three Japanese people and seven Inuit people since then
HEADLINE AND FIRST PARA: Something to rile up the reader. ("Britain stands alone..." as Boris used to write, but the Grauniad follows the same template.)
SECOND PARA: Someone being riled up by the first para.
THIRD PARA: Government saying they can't do anything.
FOURTH PARA: The perfectly innocent explanation of why nobody needs to be riled up. But nobody reads the fourth paragraph.
commute, but its certainly bizarre if so. Unless we are finding large numbers of global fantasy readers turning to Italian fascism the link does not seem massively direct considering 100 million people have read it.
The figures seem very odd as discussed a bit later on. Can't imagine Labour wanting to do a super-Thatcher and give away cooncil hooses for £1 a time. But that's what the number quoted implies.
A typical specimen is “Mr Waffen SS UK”, who tried to use social media to create a terrorist movement. He was a morbidly obese incel, who spent most of his life in his bedroom eating junk food.
The US, Italian, or French far right, OTOH, are serious players.