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Boring but good and stable – politicalbetting.com

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  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,536
    Nigelb said:

    .

    TOPPING said:

    Nigelb said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    TimS said:

    TOPPING said:

    carnforth said:

    Netanyahu and opposition agree to form "War Government".

    Bibi playing a blinder and keeping himself out of jail.

    How did Mossad miss the impending invasion last week? The most sophisticated intelligence gathering machine in history bamboozled by "Victorian" communication techniques used by ragged-arsed peasants.
    I think this typifies the attitude of the left. 70 years ago you would have been championing the Israelis just as you now (implicitly but clearly) champion those plucky Hamas militants.

    Because the left loves an underdog.

    Right up until the moment when that underdog does as presumably the left wants it to do and becomes powerful itself. Then it becomes the enemy.

    See also: poor => rich people in the UK.
    I think you're conflating support for Israel with uncritical support for Netanyahu. There's a lot of anger about this bizarre intelligence failure among Israelis and the finger seems to be getting pointed squarely at him.
    Not really. I mean there is that as well. Netanyahu seems to be very criticisable.

    But the tone of Mexicanpete's mail is typical of the left. Championing the underdog on principle. It is the classic "punching up" that the left indulges in whether the people they are punching are the US, Israel, the UK, the rich, "big business", you name it.

    They are all seen as traitors to the cause and the Jews are a great example. Kibbutzes - ie subsistence farming - were seen as the very epitome of socialist paradise. And then the buggers only went on and developed into a military-industrial complex and hence became the enemy.
    Retract that.

    You have made a completely false assertion.

    There is no fecking suggestion of support for Hamas or their communication techniques. Neither am I denying that Hamas are irredeemably evil b@st@rds who need to be removed from the face of the earth. I am critical of not only Netanyahu 's intelligence failure but questioning how he was unaware something evil was coming down the line
    I didn't read your somewhat endearing "ragged-arsed peasants" description as actually meaning "irredeemably evil b@st@rds".
    You weren't meant to, as the point was about a failure of intelligence.
    "Endearing" is again solely your inference.

    And failure of intelligence.
    Ragged-arsed peasants lead by Dick van Dyke into battle against the megalith evil empire.
    Fool.
    Searing.
  • Options
    Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 13,085
    kyf_100 said:

    Absolutely zero chance Israel nukes Iran. Biden will veto it. If Israel were to let the nuclear genie out of the bottle then you can be damn sure Putin will be nuking Ukraine. And then we are in all likelihood in WWIII.

    We're back to the ominous music and blue tickertape headlines from Threads, aren't we?
    Biden will let the Israelis slake their bloodlust for a while and then tell them when it's sufficient. If the Palestinian body count gets close to six digits, I think that's where it begins to get politically tricky for him. They don't want to let it get too genocide-y.

    The SMO is settling into a Stan and Hilda Ogden style stalemate. Both sides are making Billy Big Bollocks claims using random number generators to come up with their claimed kills, etc. but both sides are also going nowhere fast.

    So I think the doomsday clock has gone backwards a few ticks from this time last year. The wildcard is some fucking idiot from NATO or the RF shooting something down by accident over the Black Sea as nearly happened with the Flanker-E/Rivet Joint episode.
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 63,132
    edited October 2023

    Does the BBC ever use the word terrorist? I admit I'm not in the loop.

    Yes, it does.

    This is their policy (I think this is still current):
    http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/pdfs/reporting-terrorism.pdf

    SUMMARY OF MAIN POINTS
    • There is no agreed consensus on what constitutes a terrorist or terrorist act. The use of the word will frequently involve a value judgement.
    • As such, we should not change the word “terrorist” when quoting someone else, but we should avoid using it ourselves
    • This should not mean that we avoid conveying the reality and horror of a particular act; rather we should consider how our use of language will affect our reputation for objective journalism..
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 50,024
    edited October 2023
    CatMan said:

    Does the BBC ever use the word terrorist? I admit I'm not in the loop.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-67076341

    "A BBC spokesperson noted it was a long-standing position for its reporters not to use the term themselves unless attributing it to someone else."
    So how’s about attributing it to the British Government, who have proscribed Hamas as “A Terrorist Organisation”?
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,536
    Dura_Ace said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Absolutely zero chance Israel nukes Iran. Biden will veto it. If Israel were to let the nuclear genie out of the bottle then you can be damn sure Putin will be nuking Ukraine. And then we are in all likelihood in WWIII.

    We're back to the ominous music and blue tickertape headlines from Threads, aren't we?
    Biden will let the Israelis slake their bloodlust for a while and then tell them when it's sufficient. If the Palestinian body count gets close to six digits, I think that's where it begins to get politically tricky for him. They don't want to let it get too genocide-y.

    The SMO is settling into a Stan and Hilda Ogden style stalemate. Both sides are making Billy Big Bollocks claims using random number generators to come up with their claimed kills, etc. but both sides are also going nowhere fast.

    So I think the doomsday clock has gone backwards a few ticks from this time last year. The wildcard is some fucking idiot from NATO or the RF shooting something down by accident over the Black Sea as nearly happened with the Flanker-E/Rivet Joint episode.
    wrt Biden/Gaza I linked this earlier which I think is interesting.

    https://www.thefp.com/p/gaza-hostage-crisis-is-an-american-crisis
  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,473

    Does the BBC ever use the word terrorist? I admit I'm not in the loop.

    It's this absurd BBC notion of impartial purity. This appears "woke". It is also patently wrong-headed.

    The anti-woke flip side is when 99% of the World's economists claim Brexit might not be economically optimal so the BBC wheel out Patrick Minford (and it's only ever Patrick Minford) to propose the counter-view. Pure impartiality!
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 63,132
    .
    TOPPING said:

    Nigelb said:

    .

    TOPPING said:

    Nigelb said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    TimS said:

    TOPPING said:

    carnforth said:

    Netanyahu and opposition agree to form "War Government".

    Bibi playing a blinder and keeping himself out of jail.

    How did Mossad miss the impending invasion last week? The most sophisticated intelligence gathering machine in history bamboozled by "Victorian" communication techniques used by ragged-arsed peasants.
    I think this typifies the attitude of the left. 70 years ago you would have been championing the Israelis just as you now (implicitly but clearly) champion those plucky Hamas militants.

    Because the left loves an underdog.

    Right up until the moment when that underdog does as presumably the left wants it to do and becomes powerful itself. Then it becomes the enemy.

    See also: poor => rich people in the UK.
    I think you're conflating support for Israel with uncritical support for Netanyahu. There's a lot of anger about this bizarre intelligence failure among Israelis and the finger seems to be getting pointed squarely at him.
    Not really. I mean there is that as well. Netanyahu seems to be very criticisable.

    But the tone of Mexicanpete's mail is typical of the left. Championing the underdog on principle. It is the classic "punching up" that the left indulges in whether the people they are punching are the US, Israel, the UK, the rich, "big business", you name it.

    They are all seen as traitors to the cause and the Jews are a great example. Kibbutzes - ie subsistence farming - were seen as the very epitome of socialist paradise. And then the buggers only went on and developed into a military-industrial complex and hence became the enemy.
    Retract that.

    You have made a completely false assertion.

    There is no fecking suggestion of support for Hamas or their communication techniques. Neither am I denying that Hamas are irredeemably evil b@st@rds who need to be removed from the face of the earth. I am critical of not only Netanyahu 's intelligence failure but questioning how he was unaware something evil was coming down the line
    I didn't read your somewhat endearing "ragged-arsed peasants" description as actually meaning "irredeemably evil b@st@rds".
    You weren't meant to, as the point was about a failure of intelligence.
    "Endearing" is again solely your inference.

    And failure of intelligence.
    Ragged-arsed peasants lead by Dick van Dyke into battle against the megalith evil empire.
    Fool.
    Searing.
    I was being polite.
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,536
    Nigelb said:

    Does the BBC ever use the word terrorist? I admit I'm not in the loop.

    Yes, it does.

    This is their policy (I think this is still current):
    http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/pdfs/reporting-terrorism.pdf

    SUMMARY OF MAIN POINTS
    • There is no agreed consensus on what constitutes a terrorist or terrorist act. The use of the word will frequently involve a value judgement.
    • As such, we should not change the word “terrorist” when quoting someone else, but we should avoid using it ourselves
    • This should not mean that we avoid conveying the reality and horror of a particular act; rather we should consider how our use of language will affect our reputation for objective journalism..
    So no it doesn't. It only quotes someone using it.

    Fool.
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,536
    Nigelb said:

    .

    TOPPING said:

    Nigelb said:

    .

    TOPPING said:

    Nigelb said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    TimS said:

    TOPPING said:

    carnforth said:

    Netanyahu and opposition agree to form "War Government".

    Bibi playing a blinder and keeping himself out of jail.

    How did Mossad miss the impending invasion last week? The most sophisticated intelligence gathering machine in history bamboozled by "Victorian" communication techniques used by ragged-arsed peasants.
    I think this typifies the attitude of the left. 70 years ago you would have been championing the Israelis just as you now (implicitly but clearly) champion those plucky Hamas militants.

    Because the left loves an underdog.

    Right up until the moment when that underdog does as presumably the left wants it to do and becomes powerful itself. Then it becomes the enemy.

    See also: poor => rich people in the UK.
    I think you're conflating support for Israel with uncritical support for Netanyahu. There's a lot of anger about this bizarre intelligence failure among Israelis and the finger seems to be getting pointed squarely at him.
    Not really. I mean there is that as well. Netanyahu seems to be very criticisable.

    But the tone of Mexicanpete's mail is typical of the left. Championing the underdog on principle. It is the classic "punching up" that the left indulges in whether the people they are punching are the US, Israel, the UK, the rich, "big business", you name it.

    They are all seen as traitors to the cause and the Jews are a great example. Kibbutzes - ie subsistence farming - were seen as the very epitome of socialist paradise. And then the buggers only went on and developed into a military-industrial complex and hence became the enemy.
    Retract that.

    You have made a completely false assertion.

    There is no fecking suggestion of support for Hamas or their communication techniques. Neither am I denying that Hamas are irredeemably evil b@st@rds who need to be removed from the face of the earth. I am critical of not only Netanyahu 's intelligence failure but questioning how he was unaware something evil was coming down the line
    I didn't read your somewhat endearing "ragged-arsed peasants" description as actually meaning "irredeemably evil b@st@rds".
    You weren't meant to, as the point was about a failure of intelligence.
    "Endearing" is again solely your inference.

    And failure of intelligence.
    Ragged-arsed peasants lead by Dick van Dyke into battle against the megalith evil empire.
    Fool.
    Searing.
    I was being polite.
    So was I.
  • Options
    numbertwelvenumbertwelve Posts: 5,542
    Only the BBC could be so conceited as to make this into a story about themselves.
  • Options
    Sandpit said:

    James Cleverly was lucky - the BA flight to Tel Aviv this afternoon turned around and went back to Heathrow.

    Seems he had to run for cover in Israel

    https://news.sky.com/story/israel-gaza-war-latest-hamas-palestine-sky-news-live-blog-12978800
  • Options
    novanova Posts: 525
    Dura_Ace said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Absolutely zero chance Israel nukes Iran. Biden will veto it. If Israel were to let the nuclear genie out of the bottle then you can be damn sure Putin will be nuking Ukraine. And then we are in all likelihood in WWIII.

    We're back to the ominous music and blue tickertape headlines from Threads, aren't we?
    Biden will let the Israelis slake their bloodlust for a while and then tell them when it's sufficient. If the Palestinian body count gets close to six digits, I think that's where it begins to get politically tricky for him. They don't want to let it get too genocide-y.

    The SMO is settling into a Stan and Hilda Ogden style stalemate. Both sides are making Billy Big Bollocks claims using random number generators to come up with their claimed kills, etc. but both sides are also going nowhere fast.

    So I think the doomsday clock has gone backwards a few ticks from this time last year. The wildcard is some fucking idiot from NATO or the RF shooting something down by accident over the Black Sea as nearly happened with the Flanker-E/Rivet Joint episode.
    Six figures?

    That would be be twice the death rate of people from the UK in the whole of WWII.
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,536

    Only the BBC could be so conceited as to make this into a story about themselves.

    Well it brings into focus the age old paradigm. Does no harm for people to examine their own attitudes and opinions. "Terrorist" is subjective depending on which side you are on.
  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,473
    edited October 2023
    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    TimS said:

    TOPPING said:

    carnforth said:

    Netanyahu and opposition agree to form "War Government".

    Bibi playing a blinder and keeping himself out of jail.

    How did Mossad miss the impending invasion last week? The most sophisticated intelligence gathering machine in history bamboozled by "Victorian" communication techniques used by ragged-arsed peasants.
    I think this typifies the attitude of the left. 70 years ago you would have been championing the Israelis just as you now (implicitly but clearly) champion those plucky Hamas militants.

    Because the left loves an underdog.

    Right up until the moment when that underdog does as presumably the left wants it to do and becomes powerful itself. Then it becomes the enemy.

    See also: poor => rich people in the UK.
    I think you're conflating support for Israel with uncritical support for Netanyahu. There's a lot of anger about this bizarre intelligence failure among Israelis and the finger seems to be getting pointed squarely at him.
    Not really. I mean there is that as well. Netanyahu seems to be very criticisable.

    But the tone of Mexicanpete's mail is typical of the left. Championing the underdog on principle. It is the classic "punching up" that the left indulges in whether the people they are punching are the US, Israel, the UK, the rich, "big business", you name it.

    They are all seen as traitors to the cause and the Jews are a great example. Kibbutzes - ie subsistence farming - were seen as the very epitome of socialist paradise. And then the buggers only went on and developed into a military-industrial complex and hence became the enemy.
    Retract that.

    You have made a completely false assertion.

    There is no fecking suggestion of support for Hamas or their communication techniques. Neither am I denying that Hamas are irredeemably evil b@st@rds who need to be removed from the face of the earth. I am critical of not only Netanyahu 's intelligence failure but questioning how he was unaware something evil was coming down the line
    I didn't read your somewhat endearing "ragged-arsed peasants" description as actually meaning "irredeemably evil b@st@rds".
    It was not intended as "endearing" (you've made that correlation). I was contrasting the.most sophisticated, well funded, intelligence operation anywhere on the planet with uneducated terrorists, who on an individual basis haven't got a pot to piss in and questioning "how the feck could that happen?"

    "Endearing" isn't really an appropriate descriptor for a pack of barbarian ****s.

    Please retract your erroneous accusation.
    I'm not going to retract anything.

    I said the tone of your comment was "typical of the left". I maintain that it is as a brief look at publications of "the left" will attest.

    You say that "ragged-arsed peasants" was meant to be coruscatingly critical. I didn't read it like that which is my prerogative.

    Here are some more ragged-arsed peasants.


    You can read it however you want to but you have read it wrong. Typical of the right. Unable to back down when they have extrapolated incorrectly and dropped a b*ll*ck.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 50,024
    Well that was the easiest win of the World Cup so far.
  • Options
    OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 32,129

    viewcode said:

    Wasn’t there a jock / nerd theory of PMs.
    Truss (a jock, I think?) kind of screwed up the pattern. Before her, it was

    Johnson - jock
    May - nerd
    Cameron - jock
    Brown - nerd
    Blair - jock
    Major - nerd
    Thatcher - jock
    Callaghan - nerd
    Wilson - jock
    Heath - nerd
    Wilson - jock (again)
    Home - nerd
    MacMillan - jock

    But Eden was also a jock, so it breaks down here.

    That's Harold Wilson, yes? Privileged Oxford Don and President of the Royal Statistical Society? A jock? Okkayyyyy.... :smiley:
    Former Grammar school boy who got into Oxford on a scholarship.

    Privileged??
    From Yorkshire. Isn't that the greatest possible privilege?

    viewcode said:

    Wasn’t there a jock / nerd theory of PMs.
    Truss (a jock, I think?) kind of screwed up the pattern. Before her, it was

    Johnson - jock
    May - nerd
    Cameron - jock
    Brown - nerd
    Blair - jock
    Major - nerd
    Thatcher - jock
    Callaghan - nerd
    Wilson - jock
    Heath - nerd
    Wilson - jock (again)
    Home - nerd
    MacMillan - jock

    But Eden was also a jock, so it breaks down here.

    That's Harold Wilson, yes? Privileged Oxford Don and President of the Royal Statistical Society? A jock? Okkayyyyy.... :smiley:
    Former Grammar school boy who got into Oxford on a scholarship.

    Privileged??
    From Yorkshire. Isn't that the greatest possible privilege?
    My wife’s family are Lancastrian. So no.
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,536

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    TimS said:

    TOPPING said:

    carnforth said:

    Netanyahu and opposition agree to form "War Government".

    Bibi playing a blinder and keeping himself out of jail.

    How did Mossad miss the impending invasion last week? The most sophisticated intelligence gathering machine in history bamboozled by "Victorian" communication techniques used by ragged-arsed peasants.
    I think this typifies the attitude of the left. 70 years ago you would have been championing the Israelis just as you now (implicitly but clearly) champion those plucky Hamas militants.

    Because the left loves an underdog.

    Right up until the moment when that underdog does as presumably the left wants it to do and becomes powerful itself. Then it becomes the enemy.

    See also: poor => rich people in the UK.
    I think you're conflating support for Israel with uncritical support for Netanyahu. There's a lot of anger about this bizarre intelligence failure among Israelis and the finger seems to be getting pointed squarely at him.
    Not really. I mean there is that as well. Netanyahu seems to be very criticisable.

    But the tone of Mexicanpete's mail is typical of the left. Championing the underdog on principle. It is the classic "punching up" that the left indulges in whether the people they are punching are the US, Israel, the UK, the rich, "big business", you name it.

    They are all seen as traitors to the cause and the Jews are a great example. Kibbutzes - ie subsistence farming - were seen as the very epitome of socialist paradise. And then the buggers only went on and developed into a military-industrial complex and hence became the enemy.
    Retract that.

    You have made a completely false assertion.

    There is no fecking suggestion of support for Hamas or their communication techniques. Neither am I denying that Hamas are irredeemably evil b@st@rds who need to be removed from the face of the earth. I am critical of not only Netanyahu 's intelligence failure but questioning how he was unaware something evil was coming down the line
    I didn't read your somewhat endearing "ragged-arsed peasants" description as actually meaning "irredeemably evil b@st@rds".
    It was not intended as "endearing" (you've made that correlation). I was contrasting the.most sophisticated, well funded, intelligence operation anywhere on the planet with uneducated terrorists, who on an individual basis haven't got a pot to piss in and questioning "how the feck could that happen?"

    "Endearing" isn't really an appropriate descriptor for a pack of barbarian ****s.

    Please retract your erroneous accusation.
    I'm not going to retract anything.

    I said the tone of your comment was "typical of the left". I maintain that it is as a brief look at publications of "the left" will attest.

    You say that "ragged-arsed peasants" was meant to be coruscatingly critical. I didn't read it like that which is my prerogative.

    Here are some more ragged-arsed peasants.


    You can read it however you want to but you have read it wrong. Typical of the right. Unable to back down when they have extrapolated incorrectly and dropped a. b*ll*ck.
    Yes I can read it however I want and I did just that. Ain't PB wonderful.
  • Options
    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,492
    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    TimS said:

    TOPPING said:

    carnforth said:

    Netanyahu and opposition agree to form "War Government".

    Bibi playing a blinder and keeping himself out of jail.

    How did Mossad miss the impending invasion last week? The most sophisticated intelligence gathering machine in history bamboozled by "Victorian" communication techniques used by ragged-arsed peasants.
    I think this typifies the attitude of the left. 70 years ago you would have been championing the Israelis just as you now (implicitly but clearly) champion those plucky Hamas militants.

    Because the left loves an underdog.

    Right up until the moment when that underdog does as presumably the left wants it to do and becomes powerful itself. Then it becomes the enemy.

    See also: poor => rich people in the UK.
    I think you're conflating support for Israel with uncritical support for Netanyahu. There's a lot of anger about this bizarre intelligence failure among Israelis and the finger seems to be getting pointed squarely at him.
    Not really. I mean there is that as well. Netanyahu seems to be very criticisable.

    But the tone of Mexicanpete's mail is typical of the left. Championing the underdog on principle. It is the classic "punching up" that the left indulges in whether the people they are punching are the US, Israel, the UK, the rich, "big business", you name it.

    They are all seen as traitors to the cause and the Jews are a great example. Kibbutzes - ie subsistence farming - were seen as the very epitome of socialist paradise. And then the buggers only went on and developed into a military-industrial complex and hence became the enemy.
    Retract that.

    You have made a completely false assertion.

    There is no fecking suggestion of support for Hamas or their communication techniques. Neither am I denying that Hamas are irredeemably evil b@st@rds who need to be removed from the face of the earth. I am critical of not only Netanyahu 's intelligence failure but questioning how he was unaware something evil was coming down the line
    I didn't read your somewhat endearing "ragged-arsed peasants" description as actually meaning "irredeemably evil b@st@rds".
    Again, struck by your starkly contrasting attitude to how Israel Hamas is debated on here as compared to Russia Ukraine.

    The latter, you regularly complain about how (iyo) if anyone deviates from the 'approved PB line' of 'Putin evil, mustn't be allowed to win' they are getting called 'Putin apologists' and similar unfair and offensive epithets.

    Yet on Israel Hamas here you are parsing and policing language like nobody's business and finding 'support for Hamas' in the most absurd of places. Even uber centrist (gran)dad Mexican Pete!

    Consistency is overrated - and too much of it is downright suspicious - but still, this one is just so blatant and odd.
  • Options
    tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,222
    TOPPING said:

    Only the BBC could be so conceited as to make this into a story about themselves.

    Well it brings into focus the age old paradigm. Does no harm for people to examine their own attitudes and opinions. "Terrorist" is subjective depending on which side you are on.
    What I've found odd is that they call them militants as though they are some rebel group. Really, they're Palestinian forces.
  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,473
    ...
    TOPPING said:

    Only the BBC could be so conceited as to make this into a story about themselves.

    Well it brings into focus the age old paradigm. Does no harm for people to examine their own attitudes and opinions. "Terrorist" is subjective depending on which side you are on.
    No it's not.

    The incursion and barbaric rape, murder, kidnap and mutilation of innocents, I would have thought, is pretty much a dictionary definition. Or is that too left wing a notion for you to accept?
  • Options
    OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 32,129
    Sandpit said:

    Well that was the easiest win of the World Cup so far.

    Afghanistan don’t seem to be living up to their early promise. Are they all recruited from the Pakistani refugee camps?
  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,473
    kinabalu said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    TimS said:

    TOPPING said:

    carnforth said:

    Netanyahu and opposition agree to form "War Government".

    Bibi playing a blinder and keeping himself out of jail.

    How did Mossad miss the impending invasion last week? The most sophisticated intelligence gathering machine in history bamboozled by "Victorian" communication techniques used by ragged-arsed peasants.
    I think this typifies the attitude of the left. 70 years ago you would have been championing the Israelis just as you now (implicitly but clearly) champion those plucky Hamas militants.

    Because the left loves an underdog.

    Right up until the moment when that underdog does as presumably the left wants it to do and becomes powerful itself. Then it becomes the enemy.

    See also: poor => rich people in the UK.
    I think you're conflating support for Israel with uncritical support for Netanyahu. There's a lot of anger about this bizarre intelligence failure among Israelis and the finger seems to be getting pointed squarely at him.
    Not really. I mean there is that as well. Netanyahu seems to be very criticisable.

    But the tone of Mexicanpete's mail is typical of the left. Championing the underdog on principle. It is the classic "punching up" that the left indulges in whether the people they are punching are the US, Israel, the UK, the rich, "big business", you name it.

    They are all seen as traitors to the cause and the Jews are a great example. Kibbutzes - ie subsistence farming - were seen as the very epitome of socialist paradise. And then the buggers only went on and developed into a military-industrial complex and hence became the enemy.
    Retract that.

    You have made a completely false assertion.

    There is no fecking suggestion of support for Hamas or their communication techniques. Neither am I denying that Hamas are irredeemably evil b@st@rds who need to be removed from the face of the earth. I am critical of not only Netanyahu 's intelligence failure but questioning how he was unaware something evil was coming down the line
    I didn't read your somewhat endearing "ragged-arsed peasants" description as actually meaning "irredeemably evil b@st@rds".
    Again, struck by your starkly contrasting attitude to how Israel Hamas is debated on here as compared to Russia Ukraine.

    The latter, you regularly complain about how (iyo) if anyone deviates from the 'approved PB line' of 'Putin evil, mustn't be allowed to win' they are getting called 'Putin apologists' and similar unfair and offensive epithets.

    Yet on Israel Hamas here you are parsing and policing language like nobody's business and finding 'support for Hamas' in the most absurd of places. Even uber centrist (gran)dad Mexican Pete!

    Consistency is overrated - and too much of it is downright suspicious - but still, this one is just so blatant and odd.
    A grandad in age only. Although I look around 50 rather than sixty, so Centrist dad works.
  • Options
    numbertwelvenumbertwelve Posts: 5,542
    edited October 2023
    TOPPING said:

    Only the BBC could be so conceited as to make this into a story about themselves.

    Well it brings into focus the age old paradigm. Does no harm for people to examine their own attitudes and opinions. "Terrorist" is subjective depending on which side you are on.
    I’m not sure. The word has negative connotations, I will grant you, but can we really, honestly not term the events that transpired this weekend “terrorist” in nature? Really?

    I will repeat the usual mantra I always do with this particular issue - there are a lot of innocent people on both sides caught up in acts of appalling violence perpetrated by the other. But does it not say something about our society if the fear of calling a spade a spade appears partial?


  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,473
    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    TimS said:

    TOPPING said:

    carnforth said:

    Netanyahu and opposition agree to form "War Government".

    Bibi playing a blinder and keeping himself out of jail.

    How did Mossad miss the impending invasion last week? The most sophisticated intelligence gathering machine in history bamboozled by "Victorian" communication techniques used by ragged-arsed peasants.
    I think this typifies the attitude of the left. 70 years ago you would have been championing the Israelis just as you now (implicitly but clearly) champion those plucky Hamas militants.

    Because the left loves an underdog.

    Right up until the moment when that underdog does as presumably the left wants it to do and becomes powerful itself. Then it becomes the enemy.

    See also: poor => rich people in the UK.
    I think you're conflating support for Israel with uncritical support for Netanyahu. There's a lot of anger about this bizarre intelligence failure among Israelis and the finger seems to be getting pointed squarely at him.
    Not really. I mean there is that as well. Netanyahu seems to be very criticisable.

    But the tone of Mexicanpete's mail is typical of the left. Championing the underdog on principle. It is the classic "punching up" that the left indulges in whether the people they are punching are the US, Israel, the UK, the rich, "big business", you name it.

    They are all seen as traitors to the cause and the Jews are a great example. Kibbutzes - ie subsistence farming - were seen as the very epitome of socialist paradise. And then the buggers only went on and developed into a military-industrial complex and hence became the enemy.
    Retract that.

    You have made a completely false assertion.

    There is no fecking suggestion of support for Hamas or their communication techniques. Neither am I denying that Hamas are irredeemably evil b@st@rds who need to be removed from the face of the earth. I am critical of not only Netanyahu 's intelligence failure but questioning how he was unaware something evil was coming down the line
    I didn't read your somewhat endearing "ragged-arsed peasants" description as actually meaning "irredeemably evil b@st@rds".
    It was not intended as "endearing" (you've made that correlation). I was contrasting the.most sophisticated, well funded, intelligence operation anywhere on the planet with uneducated terrorists, who on an individual basis haven't got a pot to piss in and questioning "how the feck could that happen?"

    "Endearing" isn't really an appropriate descriptor for a pack of barbarian ****s.

    Please retract your erroneous accusation.
    I'm not going to retract anything.

    I said the tone of your comment was "typical of the left". I maintain that it is as a brief look at publications of "the left" will attest.

    You say that "ragged-arsed peasants" was meant to be coruscatingly critical. I didn't read it like that which is my prerogative.

    Here are some more ragged-arsed peasants.


    You can read it however you want to but you have read it wrong. Typical of the right. Unable to back down when they have extrapolated incorrectly and dropped a. b*ll*ck.
    Yes I can read it however I want and I did just that. Ain't PB wonderful.
    You were still wrong, but no matter.
  • Options
    TimSTimS Posts: 9,943

    TimS said:

    The other point I’d add is that I’m a moderate optimist on the British economy.

    I genuinely believe that a Labour victory next year will change the narrative, in part because it will look like a very obvious closing of the chapter on disastrous government since 2016, and in part because of some of the commitments Labour are making in terms of infrastructure and housing investment.

    It’s widely understood that investor sentiment has become absurdly pessimistic on British stocks etc but it needs an “event” to shift it.

    Why 2016? Did you miss the financial crisis of 2008 and the subsequent bungled approach to dealing with it of Cameron, Osborne and Clegg?
    One thing the financial crisis didn't do was have a disproportionate impact on the UK's global brand. For several years the countries feeling the full brunt of investor flight were Italy, Greece, Ireland and Portugal (and the likes of Cyprus and Iceland). The UK was seen, rightly or wrongly, as having been successful in stabilising its financial own system. The British valuation discount is a much more recent thing.
    Countries that don't have their own currencies. Iceland being the exception having an enormous (for them) banking system. The decline in trend per capita GDP and productivity growth started in 2008. 2016 was merely a blip.
    I reread your original post and saw you were commenting on economic decline more generally rather than investor investor perception, on which point you're right that started at the financial crisis which was essentially a punch in the guts of our most productive national industry.

    My comment was about international perception. The UK was seen as stable, investable and attractive as an economy throughout both the Blair/Brown and Cameron/Clegg/Osborne periods. It only lost its international reputation for stability from Brexit onwards.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 50,024
    edited October 2023

    Only the BBC could be so conceited as to make this into a story about themselves.

    It would be peak BBC, to lead the six o’clock news with a row about their own journalist being harassed by a Twitter mob, on the subject of calling terrorists terrorists.

    W1A was a documentary.
  • Options
    Convicted rapists and burglars will be spared jail from next week after judges were told that the country’s prisons are full.

    Crown court judges have been ordered to delay sentencing hearings, The Times has learnt, as the prison population has reached bursting point.

    Lord Edis, the senior presiding judge for England and Wales, has ordered that sentencing of convicted criminals who are currently on bail should be delayed from Monday,

    The Times also understands, from crown court judges who have been issued with the guidance, that as soon as next week some prisoners will also be released early under proposals from justice ministers.

    In a meeting held remotely between Edis — a Court of Appeal judge who was promoted to the senior administrative position over the crown courts a year ago — and senior judges it emerged that cells in magistrates’ courts are to be used to hold suspects accused of the most serious crimes who are remanded in custody.

    One senior crown court judge said that from Monday, judges have been “ordered/strongly encouraged” not to send to prison a defendant who appears before them on bail so as not to add to the prison population.

    The judge said: “We have been told that this is a ‘short-term measure’, but nobody knows what that means.”

    The judge added that the “biggest concern” was defendants charged with historic rape or rape of a child under 13 and other sexual assault, as even if convicted they are now likely to remain on bail.

    “What am I going to do if a jury finds someone guilty [of rape],” asked the judge, adding: “Do I release that person who is now convicted back into the community, where the victim might see them? What will the victim think?”

    Figures from the Ministry of Justice showed that as of last Friday, the prison population in England and Wales was 88,016, just a few hundred below what officials have said is the estate’s capacity of about 88,670.

    Ministry officials published a report earlier this year that predicted that the prison population was set to rise to 94,400 by spring 2025 and more than 106,000 by 2027.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/judges-told-not-to-jail-rapists-as-prisons-are-full-2tfgb2czs
  • Options
    geoffwgeoffw Posts: 8,187
     "Terrorist/terrorism" is not used by the BBC to describe actors/actions because it would undermine its impartiality.
    Why the hell is the BBC impartial about what has happened in Israel/Gaza?
  • Options
    bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 21,915
    SKS says Israel has the right to withhold power, water from Gaza and he claims to be a human rights lawyer
    https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1712047387902898301
  • Options
    CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 40,090

    Convicted rapists and burglars will be spared jail from next week after judges were told that the country’s prisons are full.

    Crown court judges have been ordered to delay sentencing hearings, The Times has learnt, as the prison population has reached bursting point.

    Lord Edis, the senior presiding judge for England and Wales, has ordered that sentencing of convicted criminals who are currently on bail should be delayed from Monday,

    The Times also understands, from crown court judges who have been issued with the guidance, that as soon as next week some prisoners will also be released early under proposals from justice ministers.

    In a meeting held remotely between Edis — a Court of Appeal judge who was promoted to the senior administrative position over the crown courts a year ago — and senior judges it emerged that cells in magistrates’ courts are to be used to hold suspects accused of the most serious crimes who are remanded in custody.

    One senior crown court judge said that from Monday, judges have been “ordered/strongly encouraged” not to send to prison a defendant who appears before them on bail so as not to add to the prison population.

    The judge said: “We have been told that this is a ‘short-term measure’, but nobody knows what that means.”

    The judge added that the “biggest concern” was defendants charged with historic rape or rape of a child under 13 and other sexual assault, as even if convicted they are now likely to remain on bail.

    “What am I going to do if a jury finds someone guilty [of rape],” asked the judge, adding: “Do I release that person who is now convicted back into the community, where the victim might see them? What will the victim think?”

    Figures from the Ministry of Justice showed that as of last Friday, the prison population in England and Wales was 88,016, just a few hundred below what officials have said is the estate’s capacity of about 88,670.

    Ministry officials published a report earlier this year that predicted that the prison population was set to rise to 94,400 by spring 2025 and more than 106,000 by 2027.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/judges-told-not-to-jail-rapists-as-prisons-are-full-2tfgb2czs

    Hmm. So the Tories knew about this well before promising to bang up certain categories forever? But admittedly the promised and still hypothetical new rule wouldn't make an actual difference for some time.
  • Options
    Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 27,142
    edited October 2023
    Tamworth by-election: the second most followed religion in the constituency is Sikhism. Interesting for a medium-sized town.

    https://www.ons.gov.uk/visualisations/areas/E14000986/
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,536
    edited October 2023
    kinabalu said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    TimS said:

    TOPPING said:

    carnforth said:

    Netanyahu and opposition agree to form "War Government".

    Bibi playing a blinder and keeping himself out of jail.

    How did Mossad miss the impending invasion last week? The most sophisticated intelligence gathering machine in history bamboozled by "Victorian" communication techniques used by ragged-arsed peasants.
    I think this typifies the attitude of the left. 70 years ago you would have been championing the Israelis just as you now (implicitly but clearly) champion those plucky Hamas militants.

    Because the left loves an underdog.

    Right up until the moment when that underdog does as presumably the left wants it to do and becomes powerful itself. Then it becomes the enemy.

    See also: poor => rich people in the UK.
    I think you're conflating support for Israel with uncritical support for Netanyahu. There's a lot of anger about this bizarre intelligence failure among Israelis and the finger seems to be getting pointed squarely at him.
    Not really. I mean there is that as well. Netanyahu seems to be very criticisable.

    But the tone of Mexicanpete's mail is typical of the left. Championing the underdog on principle. It is the classic "punching up" that the left indulges in whether the people they are punching are the US, Israel, the UK, the rich, "big business", you name it.

    They are all seen as traitors to the cause and the Jews are a great example. Kibbutzes - ie subsistence farming - were seen as the very epitome of socialist paradise. And then the buggers only went on and developed into a military-industrial complex and hence became the enemy.
    Retract that.

    You have made a completely false assertion.

    There is no fecking suggestion of support for Hamas or their communication techniques. Neither am I denying that Hamas are irredeemably evil b@st@rds who need to be removed from the face of the earth. I am critical of not only Netanyahu 's intelligence failure but questioning how he was unaware something evil was coming down the line
    I didn't read your somewhat endearing "ragged-arsed peasants" description as actually meaning "irredeemably evil b@st@rds".
    Again, struck by your starkly contrasting attitude to how Israel Hamas is debated on here as compared to Russia Ukraine.

    The latter, you regularly complain about how (iyo) if anyone deviates from the 'approved PB line' of 'Putin evil, mustn't be allowed to win' they are getting called 'Putin apologists' and similar unfair and offensive epithets.

    Yet on Israel Hamas here you are parsing and policing language like nobody's business and finding 'support for Hamas' in the most absurd of places. Even uber centrist (gran)dad Mexican Pete!

    Consistency is overrated - and too much of it is downright suspicious - but still, this one is just so blatant and odd.
    You are wrong. As usual. You think you have a gotcha but you don't.

    My comments on Russia are to see historical precedent of the US and its behaviour for example with Iraq in 2003. I also pondered what might have happened had Russia's request to join NATO in 1991 been accepted. Their actions were to invade a sovereign nation which is despicable and I have many times said the only time that Ukraine should enter ceasefire talks is when they want to enter ceasefire talks.

    With the Palestinians they actually were offered concessions. Many of them. And I wondered what would have happened if they had accepted peace in 1948 or the Clinton Parameters or when they were given Gaza. As they decided to eschew all of these offers I had nowhere else to go but to put it down as anti-semitism. Which while I appreciate would be almost unique amongst the Arab middle east I'm afraid is the only root cause I can think of.
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,536
    geoffw said:

     "Terrorist/terrorism" is not used by the BBC to describe actors/actions because it would undermine its impartiality.
    Why the hell is the BBC impartial about what has happened in Israel/Gaza?

    Because Hamas are freedom fighters. If you ask the Middle East (and parts of Islington I have no doubt).
  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,473

    SKS says Israel has the right to withhold power, water from Gaza and he claims to be a human rights lawyer
    https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1712047387902898301

    I think you are barking up the wrong tree.

    Yes we all despise Starmer, but I don't believe you get a win over him this week for his accepting Israel is entitled to exorcise Hamas in any way they decide after what went on in Israel last weekend.

    I wouldn't mention that you are a chum of Jeremy Corbyn for a while either.
  • Options
    Carnyx said:

    Convicted rapists and burglars will be spared jail from next week after judges were told that the country’s prisons are full.

    Crown court judges have been ordered to delay sentencing hearings, The Times has learnt, as the prison population has reached bursting point.

    Lord Edis, the senior presiding judge for England and Wales, has ordered that sentencing of convicted criminals who are currently on bail should be delayed from Monday,

    The Times also understands, from crown court judges who have been issued with the guidance, that as soon as next week some prisoners will also be released early under proposals from justice ministers.

    In a meeting held remotely between Edis — a Court of Appeal judge who was promoted to the senior administrative position over the crown courts a year ago — and senior judges it emerged that cells in magistrates’ courts are to be used to hold suspects accused of the most serious crimes who are remanded in custody.

    One senior crown court judge said that from Monday, judges have been “ordered/strongly encouraged” not to send to prison a defendant who appears before them on bail so as not to add to the prison population.

    The judge said: “We have been told that this is a ‘short-term measure’, but nobody knows what that means.”

    The judge added that the “biggest concern” was defendants charged with historic rape or rape of a child under 13 and other sexual assault, as even if convicted they are now likely to remain on bail.

    “What am I going to do if a jury finds someone guilty [of rape],” asked the judge, adding: “Do I release that person who is now convicted back into the community, where the victim might see them? What will the victim think?”

    Figures from the Ministry of Justice showed that as of last Friday, the prison population in England and Wales was 88,016, just a few hundred below what officials have said is the estate’s capacity of about 88,670.

    Ministry officials published a report earlier this year that predicted that the prison population was set to rise to 94,400 by spring 2025 and more than 106,000 by 2027.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/judges-told-not-to-jail-rapists-as-prisons-are-full-2tfgb2czs

    Hmm. So the Tories knew about this well before promising to bang up certain categories forever? But admittedly the promised and still hypothetical new rule wouldn't make an actual difference for some time.
    This poster was true.


  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,536

    ...

    TOPPING said:

    Only the BBC could be so conceited as to make this into a story about themselves.

    Well it brings into focus the age old paradigm. Does no harm for people to examine their own attitudes and opinions. "Terrorist" is subjective depending on which side you are on.
    No it's not.

    The incursion and barbaric rape, murder, kidnap and mutilation of innocents, I would have thought, is pretty much a dictionary definition. Or is that too left wing a notion for you to accept?
    They are freedom fighters. Look on p.94 of Socialist Worker.
  • Options
    Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 27,142

    Convicted rapists and burglars will be spared jail from next week after judges were told that the country’s prisons are full.

    Crown court judges have been ordered to delay sentencing hearings, The Times has learnt, as the prison population has reached bursting point.

    Lord Edis, the senior presiding judge for England and Wales, has ordered that sentencing of convicted criminals who are currently on bail should be delayed from Monday,

    The Times also understands, from crown court judges who have been issued with the guidance, that as soon as next week some prisoners will also be released early under proposals from justice ministers.

    In a meeting held remotely between Edis — a Court of Appeal judge who was promoted to the senior administrative position over the crown courts a year ago — and senior judges it emerged that cells in magistrates’ courts are to be used to hold suspects accused of the most serious crimes who are remanded in custody.

    One senior crown court judge said that from Monday, judges have been “ordered/strongly encouraged” not to send to prison a defendant who appears before them on bail so as not to add to the prison population.

    The judge said: “We have been told that this is a ‘short-term measure’, but nobody knows what that means.”

    The judge added that the “biggest concern” was defendants charged with historic rape or rape of a child under 13 and other sexual assault, as even if convicted they are now likely to remain on bail.

    “What am I going to do if a jury finds someone guilty [of rape],” asked the judge, adding: “Do I release that person who is now convicted back into the community, where the victim might see them? What will the victim think?”

    Figures from the Ministry of Justice showed that as of last Friday, the prison population in England and Wales was 88,016, just a few hundred below what officials have said is the estate’s capacity of about 88,670.

    Ministry officials published a report earlier this year that predicted that the prison population was set to rise to 94,400 by spring 2025 and more than 106,000 by 2027.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/judges-told-not-to-jail-rapists-as-prisons-are-full-2tfgb2czs

    If a Tory government can't organise the basics like this they deserve to lose office. What do Con diehards like HYUFD have to say about it?
  • Options
    bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 21,915

    SKS says Israel has the right to withhold power, water from Gaza and he claims to be a human rights lawyer
    https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1712047387902898301

    I think you are barking up the wrong tree.

    Yes we all despise Starmer, but I don't believe you get a win over him this week for his accepting Israel is entitled to exorcise Hamas in any way they decide after what went on in Israel last weekend.

    I wouldn't mention that you are a chum of Jeremy Corbyn for a while either.
    SKS is giving Israel a blank cheque to kill as many non Hamas civilians as they like.

    Corbyn on the other hand just wants an end to the killing on both sides (what a bastard)
  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,473
    TOPPING said:

    ...

    TOPPING said:

    Only the BBC could be so conceited as to make this into a story about themselves.

    Well it brings into focus the age old paradigm. Does no harm for people to examine their own attitudes and opinions. "Terrorist" is subjective depending on which side you are on.
    No it's not.

    The incursion and barbaric rape, murder, kidnap and mutilation of innocents, I would have thought, is pretty much a dictionary definition. Or is that too left wing a notion for you to accept?
    They are freedom fighters. Look on p.94 of Socialist Worker.
    Do we have any SWPers on PB?
  • Options
    Andy_JS said:

    Tamworth by-election: the second most followed religion in the constituency is Sikhism. Interesting for a medium-sized town.

    https://www.ons.gov.uk/visualisations/areas/E14000986/

    Second on 0.8% though.
  • Options
    carnforthcarnforth Posts: 3,262

    SKS says Israel has the right to withhold power, water from Gaza and he claims to be a human rights lawyer
    https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1712047387902898301

    I think you are barking up the wrong tree.

    Yes we all despise Starmer, but I don't believe you get a win over him this week for his accepting Israel is entitled to exorcise Hamas in any way they decide after what went on in Israel last weekend.

    I wouldn't mention that you are a chum of Jeremy Corbyn for a while either.
    SKS is giving Israel a blank cheque to kill as many non Hamas civilians as they like.

    Corbyn on the other hand just wants an end to the killing on both sides (what a bastard)
    And I want the moon on a stick. Standard peacenik detachment from reality on Corbyn's part.
  • Options
    boulayboulay Posts: 4,074
    geoffw said:

     "Terrorist/terrorism" is not used by the BBC to describe actors/actions because it would undermine its impartiality.
    Why the hell is the BBC impartial about what has happened in Israel/Gaza?

    What annoys me, well one thing that does, about this attempt at being impartial is that it gives ammo to the absolute shitbags,who were celebrating and chanting outside the Israeli embassy and elsewhere in favour of the Hamas pigs, who can turn to anyone who questions them about why they are supporting terrorism and say “see, even the BBC doesn’t call them terrorists”.

    The BBC chaps can go and sleep soundly in their beds under the warm glow of being “impartial” whilst Jewish British people worry about their kids’ safety at school the next day.

    It should be called out for what it is, terrorism, and not this mealy mouthed overthinking bullshit.

    The only way the BBC will call someone terrorists is if they attack Glastonbury and ruin their weekend.
  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 92,087
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:




    Is there somewhere else PBers can post links/descriptions of murdered women and children? Call me a lily-livered shill if you will , but I find I can be aware of what’s happening without hearing of the detail.

    TIA.

    We don't agree often but on this I certainly do

    I listened to ITV report of the massacre at the Kfar Aza kibbutz and literally wept

    I could not relate it to my wife, and whilst we need responsible reporting the tendency to upset is a concern not least for the number of children who may be watching
    How many children are “watching PB”?!
    I wasn't talking about PB but Sky and BBC
    @Anabobazina was talking about PB. He wants us to stop talking about Gaza/israel because it upsets him. Or if we do talk about it we can only do it in very general ways or he gets tearful

    It’s fairly ridiculous. Every news and social media is discussing it in depth. Yes it is hard and distressing. But it is the news
    I don't see this issue as really worthy of discussion - all discussing it seems to do is bring a little of the misery and conflict and intractability of the situation into PB. They've been at it for decades; leave them to it. Perhaps when they realise they're not getting any attention, they will stop.

    I picture them now in Hamas HQ, southern Gaza

    Jihadi 1: Sir, I have terrible news

    Hamas commander: Allah preserve us, the Occupiers have finally invaded?

    Jihadi 1: No, sir, even worse

    Hamas commander: you don’t mean…

    Jihadi 1: Aiwa. Yes. They’ve stopped talking about us on Mike Smithson’s politicalbetting.com after complaints from @anabobazina

    Hamas commander: and the Welsh guy? Large G? What did he say??

    Jihadi 1: Big G sir. He agreed with @Anabobazina and now many of our best militants are in despair

    Hamas commander falls silent. The guns outside fade into quiet. Slowly he crumples the map on his desk. End
    The take I am hearing from security people is that there will probably be some concern within the Hamas leadership that the operation was so "successful". It is unlikely that they had expected to find the area so poorly defended and have more hostages than they wanted, while triggering a bigger Israeli response than they intended. I have yet to hear any speculation on their likely views on PB.com coverage although no doubt like David Cameron they are avid readers of the site, with a special interest in the EV debate, HS2, luxury vacations and English planning law.
    I wonder if they are already posting here?

    If I had to label one commenter as a likely top level Hamas commander it would be kle4

    Always so reasonable and even handed. No one can be that reasonable. Dead giveaway. He's in deep cover and he's reporting back to base in Gaza City, and I suspect that even now he's planning an overnight break out online and, unprovoked, is going to attack CarlottaVance
    I'm rumbled!
  • Options

    NEW THREAD

  • Options
    Rory Stewart Attempts to Explain the History of Israel-Palestine in 10 Minutes
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAs5EOBUDcs

    The Rest is Politics.
  • Options
    bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 21,915
    carnforth said:

    SKS says Israel has the right to withhold power, water from Gaza and he claims to be a human rights lawyer
    https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1712047387902898301

    I think you are barking up the wrong tree.

    Yes we all despise Starmer, but I don't believe you get a win over him this week for his accepting Israel is entitled to exorcise Hamas in any way they decide after what went on in Israel last weekend.

    I wouldn't mention that you are a chum of Jeremy Corbyn for a while either.
    SKS is giving Israel a blank cheque to kill as many non Hamas civilians as they like.

    Corbyn on the other hand just wants an end to the killing on both sides (what a bastard)
    And I want the moon on a stick. Standard peacenik detachment from reality on Corbyn's part.
    "On 10 October I tweeted that Jeremy Corbyn had equivocated and deflected over condemning the Hamas attack of 7 October. It has since come to my attention that earlier that day Jeremy Corbyn tweeted that" "The horrific attacks on civilians in Israel were deplorable".
  • Options

    SKS says Israel has the right to withhold power, water from Gaza and he claims to be a human rights lawyer
    https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1712047387902898301

    I think you are barking up the wrong tree.

    Yes we all despise Starmer, but I don't believe you get a win over him this week for his accepting Israel is entitled to exorcise Hamas in any way they decide after what went on in Israel last weekend.

    I wouldn't mention that you are a chum of Jeremy Corbyn for a while either.
    SKS is giving Israel a blank cheque to kill as many non Hamas civilians as they like.

    Corbyn on the other hand just wants an end to the killing on both sides (what a bastard)
    Jeremy Corbyn is an apologist for terrorists, and the mealy mouthed "on both sides" does not get the c*** off the hook. He sees no difference to people who are killed as a part of a military response and those who are deliberately killed with knives and bullets by murderous terrorists up front and personal. He, in his twisted small brained head, thinks that the former justifies the latter. As he seems to think Jews are a different species ("they" don't understand irony) he no doubt deep down thinks that they all deserve it.

    Let's get real. Hamas are murdering terrorist bastards who think the terror of deliberately murdering a child with a knife is a justified act. Corbyn clearly agrees with them

    Corbyn is scum and beneath contempt.
  • Options

    SKS says Israel has the right to withhold power, water from Gaza and he claims to be a human rights lawyer
    https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1712047387902898301

    Stricly speaking from a legalistic point of view think he is right. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court only makes refernce to food (starvation), not to water or power. I am not saying I agree with withholding water but it is not defined as a crime. Certainly withholding power is not a crime.
  • Options
    RazedabodeRazedabode Posts: 2,978
    Carnyx said:

    Convicted rapists and burglars will be spared jail from next week after judges were told that the country’s prisons are full.

    Crown court judges have been ordered to delay sentencing hearings, The Times has learnt, as the prison population has reached bursting point.

    Lord Edis, the senior presiding judge for England and Wales, has ordered that sentencing of convicted criminals who are currently on bail should be delayed from Monday,

    The Times also understands, from crown court judges who have been issued with the guidance, that as soon as next week some prisoners will also be released early under proposals from justice ministers.

    In a meeting held remotely between Edis — a Court of Appeal judge who was promoted to the senior administrative position over the crown courts a year ago — and senior judges it emerged that cells in magistrates’ courts are to be used to hold suspects accused of the most serious crimes who are remanded in custody.

    One senior crown court judge said that from Monday, judges have been “ordered/strongly encouraged” not to send to prison a defendant who appears before them on bail so as not to add to the prison population.

    The judge said: “We have been told that this is a ‘short-term measure’, but nobody knows what that means.”

    The judge added that the “biggest concern” was defendants charged with historic rape or rape of a child under 13 and other sexual assault, as even if convicted they are now likely to remain on bail.

    “What am I going to do if a jury finds someone guilty [of rape],” asked the judge, adding: “Do I release that person who is now convicted back into the community, where the victim might see them? What will the victim think?”

    Figures from the Ministry of Justice showed that as of last Friday, the prison population in England and Wales was 88,016, just a few hundred below what officials have said is the estate’s capacity of about 88,670.

    Ministry officials published a report earlier this year that predicted that the prison population was set to rise to 94,400 by spring 2025 and more than 106,000 by 2027.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/judges-told-not-to-jail-rapists-as-prisons-are-full-2tfgb2czs

    Hmm. So the Tories knew about this well before promising to bang up certain categories forever? But admittedly the promised and still hypothetical new rule wouldn't make an actual difference for some time.
    There’s a bit of a theme with hiding news like this until after the party conference - like the DfE funding formula error. The Tories are royally buggered
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    nova said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Absolutely zero chance Israel nukes Iran. Biden will veto it. If Israel were to let the nuclear genie out of the bottle then you can be damn sure Putin will be nuking Ukraine. And then we are in all likelihood in WWIII.

    We're back to the ominous music and blue tickertape headlines from Threads, aren't we?
    Biden will let the Israelis slake their bloodlust for a while and then tell them when it's sufficient. If the Palestinian body count gets close to six digits, I think that's where it begins to get politically tricky for him. They don't want to let it get too genocide-y.

    The SMO is settling into a Stan and Hilda Ogden style stalemate. Both sides are making Billy Big Bollocks claims using random number generators to come up with their claimed kills, etc. but both sides are also going nowhere fast.

    So I think the doomsday clock has gone backwards a few ticks from this time last year. The wildcard is some fucking idiot from NATO or the RF shooting something down by accident over the Black Sea as nearly happened with the Flanker-E/Rivet Joint episode.
    Six figures?

    That would be be twice the death rate of people from the UK in the whole of WWII.
    Six figures is 100,000 and above not (as I suspect you think) 1 million and above.
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    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,473

    SKS says Israel has the right to withhold power, water from Gaza and he claims to be a human rights lawyer
    https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1712047387902898301

    I think you are barking up the wrong tree.

    Yes we all despise Starmer, but I don't believe you get a win over him this week for his accepting Israel is entitled to exorcise Hamas in any way they decide after what went on in Israel last weekend.

    I wouldn't mention that you are a chum of Jeremy Corbyn for a while either.
    SKS is giving Israel a blank cheque to kill as many non Hamas civilians as they like.

    Corbyn on the other hand just wants an end to the killing on both sides (what a bastard)
    Corbyn hasn't unoquivocally condemned Hamas, so your last paragraph means nothing, other than the "what a b@5tard" statement which is correct.
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    JohnLilburneJohnLilburne Posts: 6,018

    SKS says Israel has the right to withhold power, water from Gaza and he claims to be a human rights lawyer
    https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1712047387902898301

    Stricly speaking from a legalistic point of view think he is right. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court only makes refernce to food (starvation), not to water or power. I am not saying I agree with withholding water but it is not defined as a crime. Certainly withholding power is not a crime.
    I read that the laws of war allow them to impose a blockade, and they have actually declared they are in a state of war with Hamas. (It is also possibly a reason we haven't further sought to blockade Russia, as it would be regarded as an appropriate act only if you are at war)
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    carnforth said:

    SKS says Israel has the right to withhold power, water from Gaza and he claims to be a human rights lawyer
    https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1712047387902898301

    I think you are barking up the wrong tree.

    Yes we all despise Starmer, but I don't believe you get a win over him this week for his accepting Israel is entitled to exorcise Hamas in any way they decide after what went on in Israel last weekend.

    I wouldn't mention that you are a chum of Jeremy Corbyn for a while either.
    SKS is giving Israel a blank cheque to kill as many non Hamas civilians as they like.

    Corbyn on the other hand just wants an end to the killing on both sides (what a bastard)
    And I want the moon on a stick. Standard peacenik detachment from reality on Corbyn's part.
    "On 10 October I tweeted that Jeremy Corbyn had equivocated and deflected over condemning the Hamas attack of 7 October. It has since come to my attention that earlier that day Jeremy Corbyn tweeted that" "The horrific attacks on civilians in Israel were deplorable".
    BJO is the only person in the known universe who gives a flying feck about what Jeremy Corbyn has to say
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