If anyone wants to know what Woke is, what it does, and why it is deeply, corrosively dangerous - point to this
The woke narrative of intersectionality and decolonialism ends with madness like this. And the potential destruction of American education
This is HARVARD. And MIT
I see your free speech absolutism lasted until you met an opinion you didn't agree with.
No, you fool, its the hypocrisy of Harvard - and the rest
They claim to be pro free speech but it’s total bullshit. They have rescinded offers to students who turn out to have made “racist memes”. They have cancelled students for “misgendering”. A Harvard professor actually had to resign for simply saying that sex is “biological and binary”
So they have no free speech defence. And does anyone seriously believe they would not intervene if students were marching around calling for the reintroduction of slavery of black people, or the slaughter of homosexuals? Would they worry about “context” then? Of course not
Eff all to do with woke, in this case. More like antisemitism.
If anyone wants to know what Woke is, what it does, and why it is deeply, corrosively dangerous - point to this
The woke narrative of intersectionality and decolonialism ends with madness like this. And the potential destruction of American education
This is HARVARD. And MIT
I see your free speech absolutism lasted until you met an opinion you didn't agree with.
No, you fool, its the hypocrisy of Harvard - and the rest
They claim to be pro free speech but it’s total bullshit. They have rescinded offers to students who turn out to have made “racist memes”. They have cancelled students for “misgendering”. A Harvard professor actually had to resign for simply saying that sex is “biological and binary”
So they have no free speech defence. And does anyone seriously believe they would not intervene if students were marching around calling for the reintroduction of slavery of black people, or the slaughter of homosexuals? Would they worry about “context” then? Of course not
Eff all to do with woke, in this case. More like antisemitism.
It was a remarkable exchange.
It shouldn’t have been difficult to give an unqualified “Yes.”
Boris Johnson has been unable to supply the Covid-19 inquiry with any of his Whatsapp messages for almost the entirety of the first lockdown.
Johnson was advised to stop using his old phone in May 2021 after it emerged that his number had been freely available online for 15 years.
He was initially unable to hand over Whatsapp messages to the inquiry because he could not remember the passcode. Earlier this year he was able to access the device with the support of experts and it had been assumed the messages were passed on.
However, Johnson has told the inquiry that even with access to the device, experts were unable to retrieve any of his messages from January 31 to June 7, which covers a critical period from the run-up to the first Covid lockdown to the easing of restrictions. “The technical team has been unable to determine the cause of this,” he has told the inquiry.
Johnson said that the content of the messages was likely to have been provided by others. A source close to Johnson denied that he had deleted the messages. Rishi Sunak has separately told the inquiry that he no longer has access to Whatsapp messages from his time as chancellor.
Anyone who believes this sort of guff is a mug, it's about as plausible as the many MPs who have claimed to have been hacked whenever they were caught posting something offensive.
can you show me all your messages on every electronic forum, along with any written diaries or memos you may have made, in professional and personal capacities, over the last four years?
Cheers.
Anything that’s written will be there. As nobody deleted them. Everybody knows Johnson’s Whatsapp will be full of inappropriate, hubristic commentary. How convenient that they’ve been disappeared.
You can lose phones, or they can go wrong (I lost access to my old WhatsApp when my old phone went beserk, and would not transfer over data).
And I *bet* that your data would contain "inappropriate, hubristic commentary"; unless you are a dry, humourless soul. Stuff that could be made to look embarrassing by any enemies.
What we are seeing with this inquiry is unprecedented, and IMO will negatively affect the way the country is run.
It’s surprisingly easy to lose WhatsApp messages. If your phone is lost or stolen you can lose months of chats - or entire archives. Or if your phone has a meltdown
I’ve suffered both and it’s really annoying
That's rubbish. As you read below, it's absolutely impossible to accidentally lose messages. Impossible ... (/sarcasm)
I'm *really* looking forward to Starmer's government having to operate under this new world. Except, of course, they'll rapidly try to make what's happened impossible to happen again. To them, at least...
(Incidentally, have Starmer's messages and correspondence had to be handed over to the inquiry? For the actions and words of the LotO also impact on a government's actions, and it may add context to what was happening. Or do Labour get a free pass?)
Depends.
If they employ their fat, lazy, stupid mates as senior figures and completely bugger up public services, they'll deserve the opprobrium.
If however they don't have a pandemic to demonstrate their intellectual feebleness, lack of moral courage and total incompetence they might get away with it.
I'm thinking of the Iraq War in particular. That went into nowhere near as much detail of the lies made by Blair, Campbell and others in government. It would have been interesting to see that decision put under this sort of (ahem) (non)-forensic examination.
Blair and Campbell used formal communications, which were examined. They were called out for their decisions and their justifications for the Iraq war. Blair's entire reputation was trashed for how he executed and justified his decision making.
Perhaps Blair should be languishing in a Hague war crimes prison, but we never got that far. On that same token, perhaps Johnson should be prosecuted for his negligence (hinted at, sorry blamed by Hancock) for his role in tens if thousands of unnecessary COVID fatalities.
Bullshit. There would have been loads of chats and other conversations, as well as the 'formal' communications. These informal conversations are now being examined; and that is what has changed.
Look at it this way (and I don't expect you to, sadly): *you* are in Johnson's situation back in March 2020. You are not an expert in epidemics, or even medical matters. You ask questions of more knowledgeable people. Some of these questions appear dumb-assed with hindsight. What we'll get is politicians afraid to ask questions because they might be used against them in future.
One result of this will be more power to the civil service. Another will be worse government. Another will be an utter lack of preparedness, and action, when another emergency strikes.
Oh come off it. The critique isn't about Johnson researching information to fill gaps in his understanding so that he could then use it for informed decision making. No one can criticise him for that. However eyebrows are raised at his apparent casual attitude to mass fatalities and hair brained, insane questions about "hairdryers".
Johnson spent his entire life focused on becoming"World King". When he became "World King" and some serious s*** had to be considered, it is fair he is called out, particularly when his absurd decision making led to (according to Hancock) tens of thousands of deaths. Much like Blair was called out for Iraq, granted not enough to your liking.
Boris Johnson has been unable to supply the Covid-19 inquiry with any of his Whatsapp messages for almost the entirety of the first lockdown.
Johnson was advised to stop using his old phone in May 2021 after it emerged that his number had been freely available online for 15 years.
He was initially unable to hand over Whatsapp messages to the inquiry because he could not remember the passcode. Earlier this year he was able to access the device with the support of experts and it had been assumed the messages were passed on.
However, Johnson has told the inquiry that even with access to the device, experts were unable to retrieve any of his messages from January 31 to June 7, which covers a critical period from the run-up to the first Covid lockdown to the easing of restrictions. “The technical team has been unable to determine the cause of this,” he has told the inquiry.
Johnson said that the content of the messages was likely to have been provided by others. A source close to Johnson denied that he had deleted the messages. Rishi Sunak has separately told the inquiry that he no longer has access to Whatsapp messages from his time as chancellor.
Anyone who believes this sort of guff is a mug, it's about as plausible as the many MPs who have claimed to have been hacked whenever they were caught posting something offensive.
can you show me all your messages on every electronic forum, along with any written diaries or memos you may have made, in professional and personal capacities, over the last four years?
Cheers.
Anything that’s written will be there. As nobody deleted them. Everybody knows Johnson’s Whatsapp will be full of inappropriate, hubristic commentary. How convenient that they’ve been disappeared.
You can lose phones, or they can go wrong (I lost access to my old WhatsApp when my old phone went beserk, and would not transfer over data).
And I *bet* that your data would contain "inappropriate, hubristic commentary"; unless you are a dry, humourless soul. Stuff that could be made to look embarrassing by any enemies.
What we are seeing with this inquiry is unprecedented, and IMO will negatively affect the way the country is run.
It’s surprisingly easy to lose WhatsApp messages. If your phone is lost or stolen you can lose months of chats - or entire archives. Or if your phone has a meltdown
I’ve suffered both and it’s really annoying
That's rubbish. As you read below, it's absolutely impossible to accidentally lose messages. Impossible ... (/sarcasm)
I'm *really* looking forward to Starmer's government having to operate under this new world. Except, of course, they'll rapidly try to make what's happened impossible to happen again. To them, at least...
(Incidentally, have Starmer's messages and correspondence had to be handed over to the inquiry? For the actions and words of the LotO also impact on a government's actions, and it may add context to what was happening. Or do Labour get a free pass?)
Depends.
If they employ their fat, lazy, stupid mates as senior figures and completely bugger up public services, they'll deserve the opprobrium.
If however they don't have a pandemic to demonstrate their intellectual feebleness, lack of moral courage and total incompetence they might get away with it.
I'm thinking of the Iraq War in particular. That went into nowhere near as much detail of the lies made by Blair, Campbell and others in government. It would have been interesting to see that decision put under this sort of (ahem) (non)-forensic examination.
In fairness I remember the actual hearings were extremely damning and the evidence that was extracted was devastating. It was the final reports which were banal and refused to reach obvious conclusions.
There is also “sofa government” - part of which was making decisions and deals without any kind of record.
Blair seemed to have an instinct about this. Remember that he had his expenses records shredded before he left No. 10
The worst bit probably remained the dodgy dossier and the shocking treatment of David Kelly. How Campbell did not go to jail for that is really beyond me.
My old boss once sat next to Tracey Emin at a dinner.
How was she, I asked.
Possibly the most unpleasant person I've ever met, he replied.
Even the Guardian has decided the Turner Prize candidates were worthy and boring and woke
“It comes as little surprise that Jesse Darling has won the 2024 Turner Prize, among a shortlist that was otherwise socially committed, worthy, obtuse and overdone – not to mention a teensy bit dull”
The policy is hard enough, the politics look nearly impossible for PM as two sides of the Tory party - 100-strong each - square off publicly over Rwanda legislation. Failure to get own side on board would be very dangerous territory indeed
Boris Johnson has been unable to supply the Covid-19 inquiry with any of his Whatsapp messages for almost the entirety of the first lockdown.
Johnson was advised to stop using his old phone in May 2021 after it emerged that his number had been freely available online for 15 years.
He was initially unable to hand over Whatsapp messages to the inquiry because he could not remember the passcode. Earlier this year he was able to access the device with the support of experts and it had been assumed the messages were passed on.
However, Johnson has told the inquiry that even with access to the device, experts were unable to retrieve any of his messages from January 31 to June 7, which covers a critical period from the run-up to the first Covid lockdown to the easing of restrictions. “The technical team has been unable to determine the cause of this,” he has told the inquiry.
Johnson said that the content of the messages was likely to have been provided by others. A source close to Johnson denied that he had deleted the messages. Rishi Sunak has separately told the inquiry that he no longer has access to Whatsapp messages from his time as chancellor.
Anyone who believes this sort of guff is a mug, it's about as plausible as the many MPs who have claimed to have been hacked whenever they were caught posting something offensive.
can you show me all your messages on every electronic forum, along with any written diaries or memos you may have made, in professional and personal capacities, over the last four years?
Cheers.
Anything that’s written will be there. As nobody deleted them. Everybody knows Johnson’s Whatsapp will be full of inappropriate, hubristic commentary. How convenient that they’ve been disappeared.
You can lose phones, or they can go wrong (I lost access to my old WhatsApp when my old phone went beserk, and would not transfer over data).
And I *bet* that your data would contain "inappropriate, hubristic commentary"; unless you are a dry, humourless soul. Stuff that could be made to look embarrassing by any enemies.
What we are seeing with this inquiry is unprecedented, and IMO will negatively affect the way the country is run.
It’s surprisingly easy to lose WhatsApp messages. If your phone is lost or stolen you can lose months of chats - or entire archives. Or if your phone has a meltdown
I’ve suffered both and it’s really annoying
That's rubbish. As you read below, it's absolutely impossible to accidentally lose messages. Impossible ... (/sarcasm)
I'm *really* looking forward to Starmer's government having to operate under this new world. Except, of course, they'll rapidly try to make what's happened impossible to happen again. To them, at least...
(Incidentally, have Starmer's messages and correspondence had to be handed over to the inquiry? For the actions and words of the LotO also impact on a government's actions, and it may add context to what was happening. Or do Labour get a free pass?)
Depends.
If they employ their fat, lazy, stupid mates as senior figures and completely bugger up public services, they'll deserve the opprobrium.
If however they don't have a pandemic to demonstrate their intellectual feebleness, lack of moral courage and total incompetence they might get away with it.
I'm thinking of the Iraq War in particular. That went into nowhere near as much detail of the lies made by Blair, Campbell and others in government. It would have been interesting to see that decision put under this sort of (ahem) (non)-forensic examination.
Blair and Campbell used formal communications, which were examined. They were called out for their decisions and their justifications for the Iraq war. Blair's entire reputation was trashed for how he executed and justified his decision making.
Perhaps Blair should be languishing in a Hague war crimes prison, but we never got that far. On that same token, perhaps Johnson should be prosecuted for his negligence (hinted at, sorry blamed by Hancock) for his role in tens if thousands of unnecessary COVID fatalities.
Bullshit. There would have been loads of chats and other conversations, as well as the 'formal' communications. These informal conversations are now being examined; and that is what has changed.
Look at it this way (and I don't expect you to, sadly): *you* are in Johnson's situation back in March 2020. You are not an expert in epidemics, or even medical matters. You ask questions of more knowledgeable people. Some of these questions appear dumb-assed with hindsight. What we'll get is politicians afraid to ask questions because they might be used against them in future.
One result of this will be more power to the civil service. Another will be worse government. Another will be an utter lack of preparedness, and action, when another emergency strikes.
Oh come off it. The critique isn't about Johnson researching information to fill gaps in his understanding so that he could then use it for informed decision making. No one can criticise him for that. However eyebrows are raised at his apparent casual attitude to mass fatalities and hair brained, insane questions about "hairdryers".
Johnson spent his entire life focused on becoming"World King". When he became "World King" and some serious s*** had to be considered, it is fair he is called out, particularly when his absurd decision making led to (according to Hancock) tens of thousands of deaths. Much like Blair was called out for Iraq, granted not enough to your liking.
It certainly seems that the widespread use of WhatsApp hasn't improved government decision making.
This is a fairly typical day's 'progress': the number of newly dead women and children exceeds the total number of newly dead
The magic carpet bombs killed 481 people on 25 October; 626 of those 481 were women and children
The Hamas numbers are nonsense. But the IDF also claimed to be dropping 1,000 bombs per day at the start of the conflict, all into an area with the same population density as London.
There are obviously horrendous civilian casualties and this nitpicking over the exact numbers is almost as bad as some of the Corbynite chaff on the original attack.
Boris Johnson has been unable to supply the Covid-19 inquiry with any of his Whatsapp messages for almost the entirety of the first lockdown.
Johnson was advised to stop using his old phone in May 2021 after it emerged that his number had been freely available online for 15 years.
He was initially unable to hand over Whatsapp messages to the inquiry because he could not remember the passcode. Earlier this year he was able to access the device with the support of experts and it had been assumed the messages were passed on.
However, Johnson has told the inquiry that even with access to the device, experts were unable to retrieve any of his messages from January 31 to June 7, which covers a critical period from the run-up to the first Covid lockdown to the easing of restrictions. “The technical team has been unable to determine the cause of this,” he has told the inquiry.
Johnson said that the content of the messages was likely to have been provided by others. A source close to Johnson denied that he had deleted the messages. Rishi Sunak has separately told the inquiry that he no longer has access to Whatsapp messages from his time as chancellor.
Anyone who believes this sort of guff is a mug, it's about as plausible as the many MPs who have claimed to have been hacked whenever they were caught posting something offensive.
can you show me all your messages on every electronic forum, along with any written diaries or memos you may have made, in professional and personal capacities, over the last four years?
Cheers.
Anything that’s written will be there. As nobody deleted them. Everybody knows Johnson’s Whatsapp will be full of inappropriate, hubristic commentary. How convenient that they’ve been disappeared.
You can lose phones, or they can go wrong (I lost access to my old WhatsApp when my old phone went beserk, and would not transfer over data).
And I *bet* that your data would contain "inappropriate, hubristic commentary"; unless you are a dry, humourless soul. Stuff that could be made to look embarrassing by any enemies.
What we are seeing with this inquiry is unprecedented, and IMO will negatively affect the way the country is run.
It’s surprisingly easy to lose WhatsApp messages. If your phone is lost or stolen you can lose months of chats - or entire archives. Or if your phone has a meltdown
I’ve suffered both and it’s really annoying
That's rubbish. As you read below, it's absolutely impossible to accidentally lose messages. Impossible ... (/sarcasm)
I'm *really* looking forward to Starmer's government having to operate under this new world. Except, of course, they'll rapidly try to make what's happened impossible to happen again. To them, at least...
(Incidentally, have Starmer's messages and correspondence had to be handed over to the inquiry? For the actions and words of the LotO also impact on a government's actions, and it may add context to what was happening. Or do Labour get a free pass?)
Depends.
If they employ their fat, lazy, stupid mates as senior figures and completely bugger up public services, they'll deserve the opprobrium.
If however they don't have a pandemic to demonstrate their intellectual feebleness, lack of moral courage and total incompetence they might get away with it.
I'm thinking of the Iraq War in particular. That went into nowhere near as much detail of the lies made by Blair, Campbell and others in government. It would have been interesting to see that decision put under this sort of (ahem) (non)-forensic examination.
In fairness I remember the actual hearings were extremely damning and the evidence that was extracted was devastating. It was the final reports which were banal and refused to reach obvious conclusions.
There is also “sofa government” - part of which was making decisions and deals without any kind of record.
Blair seemed to have an instinct about this. Remember that he had his expenses records shredded before he left No. 10
The worst bit probably remained the dodgy dossier and the shocking treatment of David Kelly. How Campbell did not go to jail for that is really beyond me.
Also how he is trotted out regularly to pontificate on standards in govt and how he had the cheek to criticise BJ just shows his sort have no shame.
Thing is people like Campbell never account for their failings. They are never held to account. They just get away with it time and time again.,
If anyone wants to know what Woke is, what it does, and why it is deeply, corrosively dangerous - point to this
The woke narrative of intersectionality and decolonialism ends with madness like this. And the potential destruction of American education
This is HARVARD. And MIT
C’est dégoûtant, mais ce n’est pas la woke.
I find that clip utterly bizarre, the Congresswoman is correct that this should be the easy question and I'm at a loss as to why they think their cringingly caveated answers are acceptable. Calling for the genocide of any group is hate speech and unacceptable.
But I don't think this is woke. Partly because woke is, and perhaps always was, a pretty meaningless term.
As to this being Harvard and MIT, my limited experience with these institutions leads me to think that the calibre of thinking in them is not necessarily high. They are successful because they are rich. This allows them to attract top talent and, most importantly, resource them. Their wealth, and reputations, give them all kinds of influence but their managerial class are of no greater value than anywhere else. As for their undergraduates, let us not forget that Donald Trump attended Harvard and, while politicians being stupid can often be over done and a lot of them tend to be pretty smart individuals, he's not the sharpest tool in the shed.
Is it a requirement of The Turner Prize that your art must be shit?
It's not a rule so much as it is a guideline honoured by tradition. The art world is where the wealthy park their useless children who can't become soldiers, lawyers or priests. They doodle rude pictures until they grow old and die. Every now and then they produce a genius, but that's more of an accidental byproduct.
If anyone wants to know what Woke is, what it does, and why it is deeply, corrosively dangerous - point to this
The woke narrative of intersectionality and decolonialism ends with madness like this. And the potential destruction of American education
This is HARVARD. And MIT
I see your free speech absolutism lasted until you met an opinion you didn't agree with.
No, you fool, its the hypocrisy of Harvard - and the rest
They claim to be pro free speech but it’s total bullshit. They have rescinded offers to students who turn out to have made “racist memes”. They have cancelled students for “misgendering”. A Harvard professor actually had to resign for simply saying that sex is “biological and binary”
So they have no free speech defence. And does anyone seriously believe they would not intervene if students were marching around calling for the reintroduction of slavery of black people, or the slaughter of homosexuals? Would they worry about “context” then? Of course not
In which case the crime they are committing is hypocrisy, yes? The inconsistent application of a principle. What are the actions you would prefer the next presidents to take?
This is a fairly typical day's 'progress': the number of newly dead women and children exceeds the total number of newly dead
The magic carpet bombs killed 481 people on 25 October; 626 of those 481 were women and children
The Hamas numbers are nonsense. But the IDF also claimed to be dropping 1,000 bombs per day at the start of the conflict, all into an area with the same population density as London.
There are obviously horrendous civilian casualties and this nitpicking over the exact numbers is almost as bad as some of the Corbynite chaff on the original attack.
If you want scary numbers, try these
Just 1.8% of Israelis think the “IDF has used too much firepower in Gaza”
Fully 57% believe the IDF has “not used enough firepower in Gaza”
That is the context in which Bibi is working. The Israeli nation has decided it wants Gaza levelled to the ground and most Gazans expelled forever. I expect that is what Israel will now do
They will make Gaza uninhabitable. I don’t believe Israel will stop even if it loses American support: Israelis view this as existential
Why is the Labour VI slipping? Or am I imagining it?
Looks like the voter has wised up to tactical voting (LD +2- which you deliberately missed off your comment).
One poll like this alone means little - if it becomes a trend with the gap narrowing further, then it starts to be interesting. My view overall is that we have an electorate utterly fed up as they cannot see any upside left or right.
This is a fairly typical day's 'progress': the number of newly dead women and children exceeds the total number of newly dead
The magic carpet bombs killed 481 people on 25 October; 626 of those 481 were women and children
The Hamas numbers are nonsense. But the IDF also claimed to be dropping 1,000 bombs per day at the start of the conflict, all into an area with the same population density as London.
There are obviously horrendous civilian casualties and this nitpicking over the exact numbers is almost as bad as some of the Corbynite chaff on the original attack.
When I see nonsense numbers, I'll "nitpick" all I fucking like
Especially when those numbers are being used to accuse Israel of genocide, and are uncritically quoted by every supposedly respectable news broadcaster every single day
Most people swallow this shit whole - it NEEDS to be shown for the made up garbage it is
If anyone wants to know what Woke is, what it does, and why it is deeply, corrosively dangerous - point to this
The woke narrative of intersectionality and decolonialism ends with madness like this. And the potential destruction of American education
This is HARVARD. And MIT
I see your free speech absolutism lasted until you met an opinion you didn't agree with.
No, you fool, its the hypocrisy of Harvard - and the rest
They claim to be pro free speech but it’s total bullshit. They have rescinded offers to students who turn out to have made “racist memes”. They have cancelled students for “misgendering”. A Harvard professor actually had to resign for simply saying that sex is “biological and binary”
So they have no free speech defence. And does anyone seriously believe they would not intervene if students were marching around calling for the reintroduction of slavery of black people, or the slaughter of homosexuals? Would they worry about “context” then? Of course not
In which case the crime they are committing is hypocrisy, yes? The inconsistent application of a principle. What are the actions you would prefer the next presidents to take?
The complete demolition of the entire woke/diversity “industry”, particularly in academe, but everywhere else as well
Is it a requirement of The Turner Prize that your art must be shit?
It's not a rule so much as it is a guideline honoured by tradition. The art world is where the wealthy park their useless children who can't become soldiers, lawyers or priests. They doodle rude pictures until they grow old and die. Every now and then they produce a genius, but that's more of an accidental byproduct.
Maybe 'the art world', but I don't think that's particularly descriptive of artists. I know quite a lot of them, and very few are from wealthy backgrounds. The artistic impulse seems unconnected to money (or indeed, in many cases, talent).
If anyone wants to know what Woke is, what it does, and why it is deeply, corrosively dangerous - point to this
The woke narrative of intersectionality and decolonialism ends with madness like this. And the potential destruction of American education
This is HARVARD. And MIT
Why is that 'woke' ?
What is your definition of 'woke' ?
Anything he disagrees with. That is *everyone's* definition of woke. Which is why it is such a pitiful attack.
Why are we only picking at a few US universities? The same is happening here on our streets. But if you are Harvard etc think of the impossible tightrope you have to walk. Right wing nutjobs outraged at you not allowing their oppression of women to go unchecked on campus.
Whatever they say or do will be wrong to *someone* in a world where it has become absurdly polarised and absolutist.
Why is the Labour VI slipping? Or am I imagining it?
4 days ago Techne had 21 pt Labour lead and Yougov a 23 point Labour lead, so I don't think there is much evidence for the Labour VI slipping.
More In Common do a second question to try to force a decision from the don't knows, though fairly unsuccessfully as 45% still say don't know! I mentioned this in my piece on the weekend.
Interestingly in the data tables for this poll the DK broke fairly similarly when pressed 25% to Con and 19% to Labour. It only made a 1% difference to the voting intention. Unusually this poll found men more inclined to Labour than women, generally pollsters found the opposite.
Weighting on certainty to vote seems to be a big issue between pollsters. If I have time I may have a closer look at those entrails.
This is a fairly typical day's 'progress': the number of newly dead women and children exceeds the total number of newly dead
The magic carpet bombs killed 481 people on 25 October; 626 of those 481 were women and children
The Hamas numbers are nonsense. But the IDF also claimed to be dropping 1,000 bombs per day at the start of the conflict, all into an area with the same population density as London.
There are obviously horrendous civilian casualties and this nitpicking over the exact numbers is almost as bad as some of the Corbynite chaff on the original attack.
When I see nonsense numbers, I'll "nitpick" all I fucking like
Especially when those numbers are being used to accuse Israel of genocide, and are uncritically quoted by every supposedly respectable news broadcaster every single day
Most people swallow this shit whole - it NEEDS to be shown for the made up garbage it is
What is clear is that both sides are behaving as though they were back in the 12th century (Christian era). Don’t know what the way forward is, but I cannot see that what the Israelis are doing is going to help in the long run. Unless destroying Gaza and its population does, in fact, make Israel safe! And even then the residual hatred among the Palestinians will keep the fire smouldering for generations.
If anyone wants to know what Woke is, what it does, and why it is deeply, corrosively dangerous - point to this
The woke narrative of intersectionality and decolonialism ends with madness like this. And the potential destruction of American education
This is HARVARD. And MIT
Why is that 'woke' ?
What is your definition of 'woke' ?
Anything he disagrees with. That is *everyone's* definition of woke. Which is why it is such a pitiful attack.
Why are we only picking at a few US universities? The same is happening here on our streets. But if you are Harvard etc think of the impossible tightrope you have to walk. Right wing nutjobs outraged at you not allowing their oppression of women to go unchecked on campus.
Whatever they say or do will be wrong to *someone* in a world where it has become absurdly polarised and absolutist.
This is a fairly typical day's 'progress': the number of newly dead women and children exceeds the total number of newly dead
The magic carpet bombs killed 481 people on 25 October; 626 of those 481 were women and children
The Hamas numbers are nonsense. But the IDF also claimed to be dropping 1,000 bombs per day at the start of the conflict, all into an area with the same population density as London.
There are obviously horrendous civilian casualties and this nitpicking over the exact numbers is almost as bad as some of the Corbynite chaff on the original attack.
If you want scary numbers, try these
Just 1.8% of Israelis think the “IDF has used too much firepower in Gaza”
Fully 57% believe the IDF has “not used enough firepower in Gaza”
That is the context in which Bibi is working. The Israeli nation has decided it wants Gaza levelled to the ground and most Gazans expelled forever. I expect that is what Israel will now do
They will make Gaza uninhabitable. I don’t believe Israel will stop even if it loses American support: Israelis view this as existential
Yep. And if you're on the receiving end of that, the chances of you turning to Hamas must be near 100%?
Bravo Iran. Normal relations seem a world away now. Possibly the most effective terrorist attack in history?
This is a fairly typical day's 'progress': the number of newly dead women and children exceeds the total number of newly dead
The magic carpet bombs killed 481 people on 25 October; 626 of those 481 were women and children
Bodycount is a very difficult metric to do accurately. Most people focus on the putative mendacity of one or both parties, but even with the best will in the world it is difficult to compile in near-real time: at a gross level you have to find and identify the bits. There's a reason why we have concepts like "missing in action" and "the unknown soldier".
Boris Johnson has been unable to supply the Covid-19 inquiry with any of his Whatsapp messages for almost the entirety of the first lockdown.
Johnson was advised to stop using his old phone in May 2021 after it emerged that his number had been freely available online for 15 years.
He was initially unable to hand over Whatsapp messages to the inquiry because he could not remember the passcode. Earlier this year he was able to access the device with the support of experts and it had been assumed the messages were passed on.
However, Johnson has told the inquiry that even with access to the device, experts were unable to retrieve any of his messages from January 31 to June 7, which covers a critical period from the run-up to the first Covid lockdown to the easing of restrictions. “The technical team has been unable to determine the cause of this,” he has told the inquiry.
Johnson said that the content of the messages was likely to have been provided by others. A source close to Johnson denied that he had deleted the messages. Rishi Sunak has separately told the inquiry that he no longer has access to Whatsapp messages from his time as chancellor.
Anyone who believes this sort of guff is a mug, it's about as plausible as the many MPs who have claimed to have been hacked whenever they were caught posting something offensive.
can you show me all your messages on every electronic forum, along with any written diaries or memos you may have made, in professional and personal capacities, over the last four years?
Cheers.
Anything that’s written will be there. As nobody deleted them. Everybody knows Johnson’s Whatsapp will be full of inappropriate, hubristic commentary. How convenient that they’ve been disappeared.
You can lose phones, or they can go wrong (I lost access to my old WhatsApp when my old phone went beserk, and would not transfer over data).
And I *bet* that your data would contain "inappropriate, hubristic commentary"; unless you are a dry, humourless soul. Stuff that could be made to look embarrassing by any enemies.
What we are seeing with this inquiry is unprecedented, and IMO will negatively affect the way the country is run.
It’s surprisingly easy to lose WhatsApp messages. If your phone is lost or stolen you can lose months of chats - or entire archives. Or if your phone has a meltdown
I’ve suffered both and it’s really annoying
That's rubbish. As you read below, it's absolutely impossible to accidentally lose messages. Impossible ... (/sarcasm)
I'm *really* looking forward to Starmer's government having to operate under this new world. Except, of course, they'll rapidly try to make what's happened impossible to happen again. To them, at least...
(Incidentally, have Starmer's messages and correspondence had to be handed over to the inquiry? For the actions and words of the LotO also impact on a government's actions, and it may add context to what was happening. Or do Labour get a free pass?)
Depends.
If they employ their fat, lazy, stupid mates as senior figures and completely bugger up public services, they'll deserve the opprobrium.
If however they don't have a pandemic to demonstrate their intellectual feebleness, lack of moral courage and total incompetence they might get away with it.
I'm thinking of the Iraq War in particular. That went into nowhere near as much detail of the lies made by Blair, Campbell and others in government. It would have been interesting to see that decision put under this sort of (ahem) (non)-forensic examination.
Blair and Campbell used formal communications, which were examined. They were called out for their decisions and their justifications for the Iraq war. Blair's entire reputation was trashed for how he executed and justified his decision making.
Perhaps Blair should be languishing in a Hague war crimes prison, but we never got that far. On that same token, perhaps Johnson should be prosecuted for his negligence (hinted at, sorry blamed by Hancock) for his role in tens if thousands of unnecessary COVID fatalities.
Bullshit. There would have been loads of chats and other conversations, as well as the 'formal' communications. These informal conversations are now being examined; and that is what has changed.
Look at it this way (and I don't expect you to, sadly): *you* are in Johnson's situation back in March 2020. You are not an expert in epidemics, or even medical matters. You ask questions of more knowledgeable people. Some of these questions appear dumb-assed with hindsight. What we'll get is politicians afraid to ask questions because they might be used against them in future.
One result of this will be more power to the civil service. Another will be worse government. Another will be an utter lack of preparedness, and action, when another emergency strikes.
Oh come off it. The critique isn't about Johnson researching information to fill gaps in his understanding so that he could then use it for informed decision making. No one can criticise him for that. However eyebrows are raised at his apparent casual attitude to mass fatalities and hair brained, insane questions about "hairdryers".
(Snip)
You are the one being ridiculous. I know you *hate* johnson and the Conservatives, but ffs, try to at least be *reasonable* in your criticism. 'apparent casual attitude' is what comes across in all too many informal communications. Including yours, I reckon.
Can we agree on at least one thing: no-one in government, including Johnson, wanted anyone to die?
Why is the Labour VI slipping? Or am I imagining it?
The Dave comeback.
How about Starmer appearing to praise Maggie Thatcher?
And good morning one and all. Looks a bit brighter here this morning.
Most of the fieldwork was before those comments.
That’s even worse then spoken to quite a few Labour supporting friends who were appalled at his comments . It was a huge error of judgement and Starmer needs to get a grip . The SNP in Scotland will be making hay out of this come the election . Personally I’m sick of Starmer trying to appease voters who would never vote Labour. I would happily see him replaced by Rayner .
This is a fairly typical day's 'progress': the number of newly dead women and children exceeds the total number of newly dead
The magic carpet bombs killed 481 people on 25 October; 626 of those 481 were women and children
The Hamas numbers are nonsense. But the IDF also claimed to be dropping 1,000 bombs per day at the start of the conflict, all into an area with the same population density as London.
There are obviously horrendous civilian casualties and this nitpicking over the exact numbers is almost as bad as some of the Corbynite chaff on the original attack.
If you want scary numbers, try these
Just 1.8% of Israelis think the “IDF has used too much firepower in Gaza”
Fully 57% believe the IDF has “not used enough firepower in Gaza”
That is the context in which Bibi is working. The Israeli nation has decided it wants Gaza levelled to the ground and most Gazans expelled forever. I expect that is what Israel will now do
They will make Gaza uninhabitable. I don’t believe Israel will stop even if it loses American support: Israelis view this as existential
Yep. And if you're on the receiving end of that, the chances of you turning to Hamas must be near 100%?
Bravo Iran. Normal relations seem a world away now. Possibly the most effective terrorist attack in history?
Hard to say how this will redound, ultimately
If Israel literally destroys Gaza as an entity then the gazan cause is lost, no? And how does that benefit Iran or Hamas?
The Muslim world - as I noted yesterday - is doing nothing to aid the Gazans apart from whine and cry on Al Jazeera, and vaguely hope that America steps in
One can only conclude that they actually don’t give a toss about the Gazans, and if the problem disappears forever, and with it Iran’s leverage in the area, many will quietly cheer
Its horrible. Its realpolitik. It’s satanic. But that’s what it looks like to me
The inaction from Israel’s neighbours is startling. Even Hezbollah are inert
@ShoaibMKhan So the £38,700 income threshold *will* apply to spouses of British citizens who are already in the UK.
They need to satisfy new, higher threshold when applying for extension of their visas.
This is unbelievably low and appalling, even for the Tories.
Why not simply round up anyone who is forrin, or looks forrin, or has a forrin name, and deport them back where they came from. Its what 17.4m people voted for.
Cue the Reverend HY telling us its what Jesus wants.
If anyone wants to know what Woke is, what it does, and why it is deeply, corrosively dangerous - point to this
The woke narrative of intersectionality and decolonialism ends with madness like this. And the potential destruction of American education
This is HARVARD. And MIT
I see your free speech absolutism lasted until you met an opinion you didn't agree with.
No, you fool, its the hypocrisy of Harvard - and the rest
They claim to be pro free speech but it’s total bullshit. They have rescinded offers to students who turn out to have made “racist memes”. They have cancelled students for “misgendering”. A Harvard professor actually had to resign for simply saying that sex is “biological and binary”
So they have no free speech defence. And does anyone seriously believe they would not intervene if students were marching around calling for the reintroduction of slavery of black people, or the slaughter of homosexuals? Would they worry about “context” then? Of course not
In which case the crime they are committing is hypocrisy, yes? The inconsistent application of a principle. What are the actions you would prefer the next presidents to take?
The complete demolition of the entire woke/diversity “industry”, particularly in academe, but everywhere else as well
I understand that, but that just farms the problem on to the next presidents. The putative non-woke presidents, cleansed of DEI and inclusion and the land we stand on, will still have to take decisions over what can be said and what cannot. The reason why I created the #pbfreespeech hashtag was to try to monitor what PB deems sayable and what not.
If anyone wants to know what Woke is, what it does, and why it is deeply, corrosively dangerous - point to this
The woke narrative of intersectionality and decolonialism ends with madness like this. And the potential destruction of American education
This is HARVARD. And MIT
Why is that 'woke' ?
What is your definition of 'woke' ?
Anything he disagrees with. That is *everyone's* definition of woke. Which is why it is such a pitiful attack.
Why are we only picking at a few US universities? The same is happening here on our streets. But if you are Harvard etc think of the impossible tightrope you have to walk. Right wing nutjobs outraged at you not allowing their oppression of women to go unchecked on campus.
Whatever they say or do will be wrong to *someone* in a world where it has become absurdly polarised and absolutist.
What a bizarre pile of incoherent gibberish
Because you disagree with it! And that is your reaction every time. The perfect writer for The Spectator.
What is really funny is you probably think I agree with the "woke" university professors. No - their responses were ludicrous! But I can identify *why* they are ludicrous, rather than just saying "woke".
How is your beloved Rwanda plan going btw? I did enjoy the juxtaposition between Moronly signing the new deal and the Rwandan minister he signed it with saying it isn't a new deal and everything he is saying the new deal has was already in the old deal.
It is performance cruelty for morons. You aren't a moron. But suck it up like a moron.
Why is that? Because its what you want to hear. And doing things because its political appeasement of an angry mob is - by your own definition - "woke".
The Tory proposal on spouses is just cruel and inhumane. Those family visas are a fraction of overall immigration . And to effect those already in the UK is just disgusting .
This is a fairly typical day's 'progress': the number of newly dead women and children exceeds the total number of newly dead
The magic carpet bombs killed 481 people on 25 October; 626 of those 481 were women and children
The Hamas numbers are nonsense. But the IDF also claimed to be dropping 1,000 bombs per day at the start of the conflict, all into an area with the same population density as London.
There are obviously horrendous civilian casualties and this nitpicking over the exact numbers is almost as bad as some of the Corbynite chaff on the original attack.
When I see nonsense numbers, I'll "nitpick" all I fucking like
Especially when those numbers are being used to accuse Israel of genocide, and are uncritically quoted by every supposedly respectable news broadcaster every single day
Most people swallow this shit whole - it NEEDS to be shown for the made up garbage it is
So, every news broadcaster (and indeed many governments, NGOs etc.) think these numbers are fairly accurate, but you think they’re “made up”… and we’re supposed to believe you? Are you in Gaza? Do you have some special knowledge of the region? Or expertise in assessing casualty numbers, or understanding urban warfare?
If anyone wants to know what Woke is, what it does, and why it is deeply, corrosively dangerous - point to this
The woke narrative of intersectionality and decolonialism ends with madness like this. And the potential destruction of American education
This is HARVARD. And MIT
I see your free speech absolutism lasted until you met an opinion you didn't agree with.
No, you fool, its the hypocrisy of Harvard - and the rest
They claim to be pro free speech but it’s total bullshit. They have rescinded offers to students who turn out to have made “racist memes”. They have cancelled students for “misgendering”. A Harvard professor actually had to resign for simply saying that sex is “biological and binary”
So they have no free speech defence. And does anyone seriously believe they would not intervene if students were marching around calling for the reintroduction of slavery of black people, or the slaughter of homosexuals? Would they worry about “context” then? Of course not
In which case the crime they are committing is hypocrisy, yes? The inconsistent application of a principle. What are the actions you would prefer the next presidents to take?
The complete demolition of the entire woke/diversity “industry”, particularly in academe, but everywhere else as well
I understand that, but that just farms the problem on to the next presidents. The putative non-woke preasidents, cleansed of DEI and inclusion and the land we stand on, will still have to take decisions over what can be said and what cannot. The reason why I created the #pbfreespeech hashtag was to try to monitor what PB seems sayable and what not.
I believe everything should be sayable apart from clear incitements to violence. So even under my fairly absolutist free speech beliefs you couldn’t go around demanding the genocide of Jews as that is - pretty bloody obviously - a massive incitement of violence
The fact these Ivy League diversity hires can’t come out and say this simple fact is extraordinary. Especially when they are sacking people for using the wrong pronouns
This is all over American media. It is huge. I wonder if Harvard and others will have to sack these women
Boris Johnson has been unable to supply the Covid-19 inquiry with any of his Whatsapp messages for almost the entirety of the first lockdown.
Johnson was advised to stop using his old phone in May 2021 after it emerged that his number had been freely available online for 15 years.
He was initially unable to hand over Whatsapp messages to the inquiry because he could not remember the passcode. Earlier this year he was able to access the device with the support of experts and it had been assumed the messages were passed on.
However, Johnson has told the inquiry that even with access to the device, experts were unable to retrieve any of his messages from January 31 to June 7, which covers a critical period from the run-up to the first Covid lockdown to the easing of restrictions. “The technical team has been unable to determine the cause of this,” he has told the inquiry.
Johnson said that the content of the messages was likely to have been provided by others. A source close to Johnson denied that he had deleted the messages. Rishi Sunak has separately told the inquiry that he no longer has access to Whatsapp messages from his time as chancellor.
Anyone who believes this sort of guff is a mug, it's about as plausible as the many MPs who have claimed to have been hacked whenever they were caught posting something offensive.
can you show me all your messages on every electronic forum, along with any written diaries or memos you may have made, in professional and personal capacities, over the last four years?
Cheers.
Anything that’s written will be there. As nobody deleted them. Everybody knows Johnson’s Whatsapp will be full of inappropriate, hubristic commentary. How convenient that they’ve been disappeared.
You can lose phones, or they can go wrong (I lost access to my old WhatsApp when my old phone went beserk, and would not transfer over data).
And I *bet* that your data would contain "inappropriate, hubristic commentary"; unless you are a dry, humourless soul. Stuff that could be made to look embarrassing by any enemies.
What we are seeing with this inquiry is unprecedented, and IMO will negatively affect the way the country is run.
It’s surprisingly easy to lose WhatsApp messages. If your phone is lost or stolen you can lose months of chats - or entire archives. Or if your phone has a meltdown
I’ve suffered both and it’s really annoying
That's rubbish. As you read below, it's absolutely impossible to accidentally lose messages. Impossible ... (/sarcasm)
I'm *really* looking forward to Starmer's government having to operate under this new world. Except, of course, they'll rapidly try to make what's happened impossible to happen again. To them, at least...
(Incidentally, have Starmer's messages and correspondence had to be handed over to the inquiry? For the actions and words of the LotO also impact on a government's actions, and it may add context to what was happening. Or do Labour get a free pass?)
Depends.
If they employ their fat, lazy, stupid mates as senior figures and completely bugger up public services, they'll deserve the opprobrium.
If however they don't have a pandemic to demonstrate their intellectual feebleness, lack of moral courage and total incompetence they might get away with it.
I'm thinking of the Iraq War in particular. That went into nowhere near as much detail of the lies made by Blair, Campbell and others in government. It would have been interesting to see that decision put under this sort of (ahem) (non)-forensic examination.
In fairness I remember the actual hearings were extremely damning and the evidence that was extracted was devastating. It was the final reports which were banal and refused to reach obvious conclusions.
There is also “sofa government” - part of which was making decisions and deals without any kind of record.
Blair seemed to have an instinct about this. Remember that he had his expenses records shredded before he left No. 10
The worst bit probably remained the dodgy dossier and the shocking treatment of David Kelly. How Campbell did not go to jail for that is really beyond me.
Also how he is trotted out regularly to pontificate on standards in govt and how he had the cheek to criticise BJ just shows his sort have no shame.
Thing is people like Campbell never account for their failings. They are never held to account. They just get away with it time and time again.,
It’s the pattern
1) Fuck up massively 2) Get a better job with more money 3) Give interviews about how you are the victim
That said, he may calculate that the effect of standing aside for tories is negligible. Maybe there's a chance Reform could replace the Tories as the opposition or even win in some constituencies.
There's a chance I could get a date with Margot Robbie. She's heterosexual, after all.
@ShoaibMKhan So the £38,700 income threshold *will* apply to spouses of British citizens who are already in the UK.
They need to satisfy new, higher threshold when applying for extension of their visas.
This is unbelievably low and appalling, even for the Tories.
Why not simply round up anyone who is forrin, or looks forrin, or has a forrin name, and deport them back where they came from. Its what 17.4m people voted for.
Cue the Reverend HY telling us its what Jesus wants.
Really doesn't help that a rich bloke with a foreign wife is pushing this through.
If I were advising the opposition, I think I'd tell them not to raise the issue- it has potential to backfire...
If anyone wants to know what Woke is, what it does, and why it is deeply, corrosively dangerous - point to this
The woke narrative of intersectionality and decolonialism ends with madness like this. And the potential destruction of American education
This is HARVARD. And MIT
Clearly all three Presidents should be forced to resign.
They must know what genocide means - the aim to kill all a certain people, such as Jews, regardless of location.
Calling for the genocide of Jews is calling for the death of Jewish students. How that cannot be in violation of any organisation's code of conduct is unfathomable.
I'm not sure the relevance of 'woke', but it shows that antisemitism of major parts of US academia is much worse than it ever was in Corbyn-led Labour.
The Tory proposal on spouses is just cruel and inhumane. Those family visas are a fraction of overall immigration . And to effect those already in the UK is just disgusting .
many 00s of British soldiers (from Nepal, Fiji and commonwealth) are now unable to bring their wives with them as the income threshold has risen so much (it also highlights how poorly paid some of our best soldiers are remunerated, often in the most difficult and dangerous roles.
She was alive," the witness says. "She was bleeding from her back."
She goes on to detail how the men cut off parts of the victim's body during the assault.
"They sliced her breast and threw it on the street," she says. "They were playing with it."
The victim was passed to another man in uniform, she continues.
"He penetrated her, and shot her in the head before he finished. He didn't even pick up his pants; he shoots and ejaculates."
AND, from the same report:
Another, Nachman Dyksztejna, provided written testimony of seeing the bodies of two women in kibbutz Be'eri with their hands and legs tied to a bed.
"One was sexually terrorised with a knife stuck in her vagina and all her internal organs removed," his statement says.
-----------------
This is what Israelis are reading about. This is what they are learning was the fate of their young people. People they knew, and could well have been related to.
It's really impossible to see how there can be any meaningful ceasefire or cessation until the IDF has levelled Gaza. Israeli public opinion simply won't allow it.
What possesses people to commit such acts? I find it utterly beyond comprehension.
Are they drugged up? Are they orders of magnitude more evil than any person I have ever met (even the genuinely nasty people I've met)?
It's often said that anyone is capable of murder, and I believe that in the right (or rather wrong) circumstances, that is true. But this is a level of depravity that I cannot comprehend.
(On reflection, it's not totally unprecedented - similar examples exist from WW2 and before, and no doubt more recent conflicts too. Baffling to me though.)
You must read Ian Toll's Pacific War trilogy. He describes in some detail the behavior of Japanese troops who had been left to die, and their indiscriminate raping and murdering of local civilians. It is genuinely shocking.
Human beings are capable of terrible evil.
Read Christina Lamb's "Our Bodies,Their Battlefields" - grim, very grim.
Or this from Janice Turner's article in the Times this weekend -
She was alive," the witness says. "She was bleeding from her back."
She goes on to detail how the men cut off parts of the victim's body during the assault.
"They sliced her breast and threw it on the street," she says. "They were playing with it."
The victim was passed to another man in uniform, she continues.
"He penetrated her, and shot her in the head before he finished. He didn't even pick up his pants; he shoots and ejaculates."
AND, from the same report:
Another, Nachman Dyksztejna, provided written testimony of seeing the bodies of two women in kibbutz Be'eri with their hands and legs tied to a bed.
"One was sexually terrorised with a knife stuck in her vagina and all her internal organs removed," his statement says.
-----------------
This is what Israelis are reading about. This is what they are learning was the fate of their young people. People they knew, and could well have been related to.
It's really impossible to see how there can be any meaningful ceasefire or cessation until the IDF has levelled Gaza. Israeli public opinion simply won't allow it.
What possesses people to commit such acts? I find it utterly beyond comprehension.
Are they drugged up? Are they orders of magnitude more evil than any person I have ever met (even the genuinely nasty people I've met)?
It's often said that anyone is capable of murder, and I believe that in the right (or rather wrong) circumstances, that is true. But this is a level of depravity that I cannot comprehend.
(On reflection, it's not totally unprecedented - similar examples exist from WW2 and before, and no doubt more recent conflicts too. Baffling to me though.)
You must read Ian Toll's Pacific War trilogy. He describes in some detail the behavior of Japanese troops who had been left to die, and their indiscriminate raping and murdering of local civilians. It is genuinely shocking.
Human beings are capable of terrible evil.
Read Christina Lamb's "Our Bodies,Their Battlefields" - grim, very grim.
Or this from Janice Turner's article in the Times this weekend -
"In a new preface to her wide-ranging and grave book Our Bodies: Their Battlefield, Christina Lamb notes: “In the last eight years I have seen more sexual violence inflicted upon women by soldiers and militias than any other time in my 35-year career.”
She also reports that invading Russians filmed themselves raping Ukrainian women then posted it on porn sites. Maybe the two are connected. Was the choreographed depravity of Hamas in part men gleefully enacting a violent sexual template they’d absorbed online? Hamas footage is the ultimate revenge porn.
Rape, as Lamb notes drily, is not just an ancient weapon but a cheap one, which draws female non-combatants into an orbit of terror. Bullets are quotidian horrors compared to being gang-raped daily like the Nigerian girls stolen by Boko Haram or the Japanese imperial army’s “comfort women”. One captured Hamas gunman said commanders ordered fighters to “sully” Israeli girls. God knows what female Israeli soldiers held hostage face deep below Gaza.
Yet for all the terror, damage and shame that war rape brings, it is seldom prosecuted. It is seen as trivial relative to other atrocities, more an unfortunate consequence of war than a human rights abuse."
The silence of so many human rights activists and feminist groups, the denial sends out a message to rapists that they will almost certainly get away with it.
And it's not just in war time. When I was doing my forensic science course as part of my barrister's training we had to see pictures of what being raped with a broken glass bottle does to a woman. That was in peacetime in this country.
What makes men do such things?
It completely baffles me.
I'd prefer you to say 'some men', indeed an extremely small proportion of men (one man is too many of course).
But I wonder if you believe all men, any man, is capable of these heinous act? I hope you don't.
On what basis do you say "an extremely small proportion of men". Aren't you just saying - or hoping I will say - what you would very much like to be true? Look at what @dixiedean has said or @maxh. I have been sexually assaulted on at least 9 different occasions. 9 different men. Take that ratio - and apply it to all the women who have been assaulted, most of who will not have reported those assaults to the authorities - and think about what that proportion of the male population is.
We will get nowhere on this if we tell ourselves comforting lies about how many men think it acceptable to behave appallingly to women, how many men can be conditioned and taught to hate and abuse and exploit and, apropos the previous thread, how much of a part in all this the porn of today - which is not merely about titillating boys with the sight of naked women - plays in all this.
Sorry. Decent men need to face up to this not hope that this is just down to a few psychopaths.
If anyone wants to know what Woke is, what it does, and why it is deeply, corrosively dangerous - point to this
The woke narrative of intersectionality and decolonialism ends with madness like this. And the potential destruction of American education
This is HARVARD. And MIT
Clearly all three Presidents should be forced to resign.
They must know what genocide means - the aim to kill all a certain people, such as Jews, regardless of location.
Calling for the genocide of Jews is calling for the death of Jewish students. How that cannot be in violation of any organisation's code of conduct is unfathomable.
I'm not sure the relevance of 'woke', but it shows that antisemitism of major parts of US academia is much worse than it ever was in Corbyn-led Labour.
The whole session was surreal
“In what world is a call for violence against Jews protected speech, but a belief that sex is biological and binary isn’t?”
Remarkable exchange: @RepKiley: If you were talking to a prospective Jewish student's family right now, could you look them in the eye and tell them that their son or daughter would be safe & feel safe & welcome on your campus? Harvard pres. Gay won't give a yes-or-no answer.
She was alive," the witness says. "She was bleeding from her back."
She goes on to detail how the men cut off parts of the victim's body during the assault.
"They sliced her breast and threw it on the street," she says. "They were playing with it."
The victim was passed to another man in uniform, she continues.
"He penetrated her, and shot her in the head before he finished. He didn't even pick up his pants; he shoots and ejaculates."
AND, from the same report:
Another, Nachman Dyksztejna, provided written testimony of seeing the bodies of two women in kibbutz Be'eri with their hands and legs tied to a bed.
"One was sexually terrorised with a knife stuck in her vagina and all her internal organs removed," his statement says.
-----------------
This is what Israelis are reading about. This is what they are learning was the fate of their young people. People they knew, and could well have been related to.
It's really impossible to see how there can be any meaningful ceasefire or cessation until the IDF has levelled Gaza. Israeli public opinion simply won't allow it.
What possesses people to commit such acts? I find it utterly beyond comprehension.
Are they drugged up? Are they orders of magnitude more evil than any person I have ever met (even the genuinely nasty people I've met)?
It's often said that anyone is capable of murder, and I believe that in the right (or rather wrong) circumstances, that is true. But this is a level of depravity that I cannot comprehend.
(On reflection, it's not totally unprecedented - similar examples exist from WW2 and before, and no doubt more recent conflicts too. Baffling to me though.)
You must read Ian Toll's Pacific War trilogy. He describes in some detail the behavior of Japanese troops who had been left to die, and their indiscriminate raping and murdering of local civilians. It is genuinely shocking.
Human beings are capable of terrible evil.
Read Christina Lamb's "Our Bodies,Their Battlefields" - grim, very grim.
Or this from Janice Turner's article in the Times this weekend -
She was alive," the witness says. "She was bleeding from her back."
She goes on to detail how the men cut off parts of the victim's body during the assault.
"They sliced her breast and threw it on the street," she says. "They were playing with it."
The victim was passed to another man in uniform, she continues.
"He penetrated her, and shot her in the head before he finished. He didn't even pick up his pants; he shoots and ejaculates."
AND, from the same report:
Another, Nachman Dyksztejna, provided written testimony of seeing the bodies of two women in kibbutz Be'eri with their hands and legs tied to a bed.
"One was sexually terrorised with a knife stuck in her vagina and all her internal organs removed," his statement says.
-----------------
This is what Israelis are reading about. This is what they are learning was the fate of their young people. People they knew, and could well have been related to.
It's really impossible to see how there can be any meaningful ceasefire or cessation until the IDF has levelled Gaza. Israeli public opinion simply won't allow it.
What possesses people to commit such acts? I find it utterly beyond comprehension.
Are they drugged up? Are they orders of magnitude more evil than any person I have ever met (even the genuinely nasty people I've met)?
It's often said that anyone is capable of murder, and I believe that in the right (or rather wrong) circumstances, that is true. But this is a level of depravity that I cannot comprehend.
(On reflection, it's not totally unprecedented - similar examples exist from WW2 and before, and no doubt more recent conflicts too. Baffling to me though.)
You must read Ian Toll's Pacific War trilogy. He describes in some detail the behavior of Japanese troops who had been left to die, and their indiscriminate raping and murdering of local civilians. It is genuinely shocking.
Human beings are capable of terrible evil.
Read Christina Lamb's "Our Bodies,Their Battlefields" - grim, very grim.
Or this from Janice Turner's article in the Times this weekend -
"In a new preface to her wide-ranging and grave book Our Bodies: Their Battlefield, Christina Lamb notes: “In the last eight years I have seen more sexual violence inflicted upon women by soldiers and militias than any other time in my 35-year career.”
She also reports that invading Russians filmed themselves raping Ukrainian women then posted it on porn sites. Maybe the two are connected. Was the choreographed depravity of Hamas in part men gleefully enacting a violent sexual template they’d absorbed online? Hamas footage is the ultimate revenge porn.
Rape, as Lamb notes drily, is not just an ancient weapon but a cheap one, which draws female non-combatants into an orbit of terror. Bullets are quotidian horrors compared to being gang-raped daily like the Nigerian girls stolen by Boko Haram or the Japanese imperial army’s “comfort women”. One captured Hamas gunman said commanders ordered fighters to “sully” Israeli girls. God knows what female Israeli soldiers held hostage face deep below Gaza.
Yet for all the terror, damage and shame that war rape brings, it is seldom prosecuted. It is seen as trivial relative to other atrocities, more an unfortunate consequence of war than a human rights abuse."
The silence of so many human rights activists and feminist groups, the denial sends out a message to rapists that they will almost certainly get away with it.
And it's not just in war time. When I was doing my forensic science course as part of my barrister's training we had to see pictures of what being raped with a broken glass bottle does to a woman. That was in peacetime in this country.
What makes men do such things?
It completely baffles me.
I'd prefer you to say 'some men', indeed an extremely small proportion of men (one man is too many of course).
But I wonder if you believe all men, any man, is capable of these heinous act? I hope you don't.
On what basis do you say "an extremely small proportion of men". Aren't you just saying - or hoping I will say - what you would very much like to be true? Look at what @dixiedean has said or @maxh. I have been sexually assaulted on at least 9 different occasions. 9 different men. Take that ratio - and apply it to all the women who have been assaulted, most of who will not have reported those assaults to the authorities - and think about what that proportion of the male population is.
We will get nowhere on this if we tell ourselves comforting lies about how many men think it acceptable to behave appallingly to women, how many men can be conditioned and taught to hate and abuse and exploit and, apropos the previous thread, how much of a part in all this the porn of today - which is not merely about titillating boys with the sight of naked women - plays in all this.
Sorry. Decent men need to face up to this not hope that this is just down to a few psychopaths.
Why do men rape women? Because they can. Why do women beat infants and children to death? Because they can.
This is a fairly typical day's 'progress': the number of newly dead women and children exceeds the total number of newly dead
The magic carpet bombs killed 481 people on 25 October; 626 of those 481 were women and children
The Hamas numbers are nonsense. But the IDF also claimed to be dropping 1,000 bombs per day at the start of the conflict, all into an area with the same population density as London.
There are obviously horrendous civilian casualties and this nitpicking over the exact numbers is almost as bad as some of the Corbynite chaff on the original attack.
When I see nonsense numbers, I'll "nitpick" all I fucking like
Especially when those numbers are being used to accuse Israel of genocide, and are uncritically quoted by every supposedly respectable news broadcaster every single day
Most people swallow this shit whole - it NEEDS to be shown for the made up garbage it is
So, every news broadcaster (and indeed many governments, NGOs etc.) think these numbers are fairly accurate, but you think they’re “made up”… and we’re supposed to believe you? Are you in Gaza? Do you have some special knowledge of the region? Or expertise in assessing casualty numbers, or understanding urban warfare?
A fairly accurate 130% of the casualties were women and children
If anyone wants to know what Woke is, what it does, and why it is deeply, corrosively dangerous - point to this
The woke narrative of intersectionality and decolonialism ends with madness like this. And the potential destruction of American education
This is HARVARD. And MIT
I see your free speech absolutism lasted until you met an opinion you didn't agree with.
No, you fool, its the hypocrisy of Harvard - and the rest
They claim to be pro free speech but it’s total bullshit. They have rescinded offers to students who turn out to have made “racist memes”. They have cancelled students for “misgendering”. A Harvard professor actually had to resign for simply saying that sex is “biological and binary”
So they have no free speech defence. And does anyone seriously believe they would not intervene if students were marching around calling for the reintroduction of slavery of black people, or the slaughter of homosexuals? Would they worry about “context” then? Of course not
In which case the crime they are committing is hypocrisy, yes? The inconsistent application of a principle. What are the actions you would prefer the next presidents to take?
The complete demolition of the entire woke/diversity “industry”, particularly in academe, but everywhere else as well
I understand that, but that just farms the problem on to the next presidents. The putative non-woke preasidents, cleansed of DEI and inclusion and the land we stand on, will still have to take decisions over what can be said and what cannot. The reason why I created the #pbfreespeech hashtag was to try to monitor what PB seems sayable and what not.
I believe everything should be sayable apart from clear incitements to violence. So even under my fairly absolutist free speech beliefs you couldn’t go around demanding the genocide of Jews as that is - pretty bloody obviously - a massive incitement of violence
The fact these Ivy League diversity hires can’t come out and say this simple fact is extraordinary. Especially when they are sacking people for using the wrong pronouns
This is all over American media. It is huge. I wonder if Harvard and others will have to sack these women
Does it feel like we are approaching a mad dystopia or are we already in it?
Why is the Labour VI slipping? Or am I imagining it?
The Lab figure is within MOE of the other most recent polls where there is a little trend down; Tory figure would be interesting if repeated but only 1 point up from the recent high.
Of course it is possible that the hype, lies, exaggerations and illegalities of the Rwanda 'policy' are firming up the populist wing of the Tory vote.
The thought of a 'Populist people v wet liberals and lawyers' election is not one for the faint hearted. NOM remains value.
Boris Johnson has been unable to supply the Covid-19 inquiry with any of his Whatsapp messages for almost the entirety of the first lockdown.
Johnson was advised to stop using his old phone in May 2021 after it emerged that his number had been freely available online for 15 years.
He was initially unable to hand over Whatsapp messages to the inquiry because he could not remember the passcode. Earlier this year he was able to access the device with the support of experts and it had been assumed the messages were passed on.
However, Johnson has told the inquiry that even with access to the device, experts were unable to retrieve any of his messages from January 31 to June 7, which covers a critical period from the run-up to the first Covid lockdown to the easing of restrictions. “The technical team has been unable to determine the cause of this,” he has told the inquiry.
Johnson said that the content of the messages was likely to have been provided by others. A source close to Johnson denied that he had deleted the messages. Rishi Sunak has separately told the inquiry that he no longer has access to Whatsapp messages from his time as chancellor.
Anyone who believes this sort of guff is a mug, it's about as plausible as the many MPs who have claimed to have been hacked whenever they were caught posting something offensive.
can you show me all your messages on every electronic forum, along with any written diaries or memos you may have made, in professional and personal capacities, over the last four years?
Cheers.
Anything that’s written will be there. As nobody deleted them. Everybody knows Johnson’s Whatsapp will be full of inappropriate, hubristic commentary. How convenient that they’ve been disappeared.
You can lose phones, or they can go wrong (I lost access to my old WhatsApp when my old phone went beserk, and would not transfer over data).
And I *bet* that your data would contain "inappropriate, hubristic commentary"; unless you are a dry, humourless soul. Stuff that could be made to look embarrassing by any enemies.
What we are seeing with this inquiry is unprecedented, and IMO will negatively affect the way the country is run.
It’s surprisingly easy to lose WhatsApp messages. If your phone is lost or stolen you can lose months of chats - or entire archives. Or if your phone has a meltdown
I’ve suffered both and it’s really annoying
That's rubbish. As you read below, it's absolutely impossible to accidentally lose messages. Impossible ... (/sarcasm)
I'm *really* looking forward to Starmer's government having to operate under this new world. Except, of course, they'll rapidly try to make what's happened impossible to happen again. To them, at least...
(Incidentally, have Starmer's messages and correspondence had to be handed over to the inquiry? For the actions and words of the LotO also impact on a government's actions, and it may add context to what was happening. Or do Labour get a free pass?)
Depends.
If they employ their fat, lazy, stupid mates as senior figures and completely bugger up public services, they'll deserve the opprobrium.
If however they don't have a pandemic to demonstrate their intellectual feebleness, lack of moral courage and total incompetence they might get away with it.
I'm thinking of the Iraq War in particular. That went into nowhere near as much detail of the lies made by Blair, Campbell and others in government. It would have been interesting to see that decision put under this sort of (ahem) (non)-forensic examination.
Blair and Campbell used formal communications, which were examined. They were called out for their decisions and their justifications for the Iraq war. Blair's entire reputation was trashed for how he executed and justified his decision making.
Perhaps Blair should be languishing in a Hague war crimes prison, but we never got that far. On that same token, perhaps Johnson should be prosecuted for his negligence (hinted at, sorry blamed by Hancock) for his role in tens if thousands of unnecessary COVID fatalities.
Bullshit. There would have been loads of chats and other conversations, as well as the 'formal' communications. These informal conversations are now being examined; and that is what has changed.
Look at it this way (and I don't expect you to, sadly): *you* are in Johnson's situation back in March 2020. You are not an expert in epidemics, or even medical matters. You ask questions of more knowledgeable people. Some of these questions appear dumb-assed with hindsight. What we'll get is politicians afraid to ask questions because they might be used against them in future.
One result of this will be more power to the civil service. Another will be worse government. Another will be an utter lack of preparedness, and action, when another emergency strikes.
Oh come off it. The critique isn't about Johnson researching information to fill gaps in his understanding so that he could then use it for informed decision making. No one can criticise him for that. However eyebrows are raised at his apparent casual attitude to mass fatalities and hair brained, insane questions about "hairdryers".
(Snip)
You are the one being ridiculous. I know you *hate* johnson and the Conservatives, but ffs, try to at least be *reasonable* in your criticism. 'apparent casual attitude' is what comes across in all too many informal communications. Including yours, I reckon.
Can we agree on at least one thing: no-one in government, including Johnson, wanted anyone to die?
I don't "hate" Johnson although I consider him a venal, dangerous, incompetent fool. But I wouldn't wish any harm on him. So did he want anyone to die? I am sure he didn't, but I doubt he has had one night of missed sleep crying over whether any of the 150,000 people who died could have been saved if he had been more alert, or better still not the Prime Minister tasked with managing a pandemic.
This is a fairly typical day's 'progress': the number of newly dead women and children exceeds the total number of newly dead
The magic carpet bombs killed 481 people on 25 October; 626 of those 481 were women and children
The Hamas numbers are nonsense. But the IDF also claimed to be dropping 1,000 bombs per day at the start of the conflict, all into an area with the same population density as London.
There are obviously horrendous civilian casualties and this nitpicking over the exact numbers is almost as bad as some of the Corbynite chaff on the original attack.
When I see nonsense numbers, I'll "nitpick" all I fucking like
Especially when those numbers are being used to accuse Israel of genocide, and are uncritically quoted by every supposedly respectable news broadcaster every single day
Most people swallow this shit whole - it NEEDS to be shown for the made up garbage it is
So, every news broadcaster (and indeed many governments, NGOs etc.) think these numbers are fairly accurate, but you think they’re “made up”… and we’re supposed to believe you? Are you in Gaza? Do you have some special knowledge of the region? Or expertise in assessing casualty numbers, or understanding urban warfare?
A fairly accurate 130% of the casualties were women and children
Fog of war; numbers are difficult to collate in real time and will be constantly revised as more bodies are excavated from rubble, or the family thought to have been killed at home turns out to have been eating at a local cafe. It is not just in Gaza. Israel's own death toll for 7th October was similarly revised.
@ShoaibMKhan So the £38,700 income threshold *will* apply to spouses of British citizens who are already in the UK.
They need to satisfy new, higher threshold when applying for extension of their visas.
This is unbelievably low and appalling, even for the Tories.
Why not simply round up anyone who is forrin, or looks forrin, or has a forrin name, and deport them back where they came from. Its what 17.4m people voted for.
Cue the Reverend HY telling us its what Jesus wants.
Really doesn't help that a rich bloke with a foreign wife is pushing this through.
If I were advising the opposition, I think I'd tell them not to raise the issue- it has potential to backfire...
... But it hardly needs saying, does it?
The comedy is that the Tories are producing more and more outrageous policies to appeal to the dwindling few million bigots who either vote for them or have gone ReFUK. None of these policies will go through before an election - even a late one.
So they are purely performative. "Don't let Labour in to stop our plan to deport your care worker". Why would Labour need to object? Its so pitiful that simply looking at it repels normal voters.
If anyone wants to know what Woke is, what it does, and why it is deeply, corrosively dangerous - point to this
The woke narrative of intersectionality and decolonialism ends with madness like this. And the potential destruction of American education
This is HARVARD. And MIT
I see your free speech absolutism lasted until you met an opinion you didn't agree with.
No, you fool, its the hypocrisy of Harvard - and the rest
They claim to be pro free speech but it’s total bullshit. They have rescinded offers to students who turn out to have made “racist memes”. They have cancelled students for “misgendering”. A Harvard professor actually had to resign for simply saying that sex is “biological and binary”
So they have no free speech defence. And does anyone seriously believe they would not intervene if students were marching around calling for the reintroduction of slavery of black people, or the slaughter of homosexuals? Would they worry about “context” then? Of course not
In which case the crime they are committing is hypocrisy, yes? The inconsistent application of a principle. What are the actions you would prefer the next presidents to take?
The complete demolition of the entire woke/diversity “industry”, particularly in academe, but everywhere else as well
I understand that, but that just farms the problem on to the next presidents. The putative non-woke preasidents, cleansed of DEI and inclusion and the land we stand on, will still have to take decisions over what can be said and what cannot. The reason why I created the #pbfreespeech hashtag was to try to monitor what PB seems sayable and what not.
I believe everything should be sayable apart from clear incitements to violence. So even under my fairly absolutist free speech beliefs you couldn’t go around demanding the genocide of Jews as that is - pretty bloody obviously - a massive incitement of violence
The fact these Ivy League diversity hires can’t come out and say this simple fact is extraordinary. Especially when they are sacking people for using the wrong pronouns
This is all over American media. It is huge. I wonder if Harvard and others will have to sack these women
Does it feel like we are approaching a mad dystopia or are we already in it?
In it. Very definitely in it
I like Musk’s take on all this (yes yes I’m a fanboy etc)
He says that about five years ago he couldn’t sleep because of the various dangers approaching - especially AI. But then he realised he couldn’t do anything about it - and, at the very least, the huge changes heading our way guaranteed that life would be interesting
So he relaxed into it. That’s what I’m trying to do. We live in interesting times - might as well stock up on popcorn
@ShoaibMKhan So the £38,700 income threshold *will* apply to spouses of British citizens who are already in the UK.
They need to satisfy new, higher threshold when applying for extension of their visas.
This is unbelievably low and appalling, even for the Tories.
Why not simply round up anyone who is forrin, or looks forrin, or has a forrin name, and deport them back where they came from. Its what 17.4m people voted for.
Cue the Reverend HY telling us its what Jesus wants.
Why is the Labour VI slipping? Or am I imagining it?
The Dave comeback.
How about Starmer appearing to praise Maggie Thatcher?
And good morning one and all. Looks a bit brighter here this morning.
Most of the fieldwork was before those comments.
That’s even worse then spoken to quite a few Labour supporting friends who were appalled at his comments . It was a huge error of judgement and Starmer needs to get a grip . The SNP in Scotland will be making hay out of this come the election . Personally I’m sick of Starmer trying to appease voters who would never vote Labour. I would happily see him replaced by Rayner .
In Scotland Starmer needs Tory tactical votes to beat the SNP
Why is the Labour VI slipping? Or am I imagining it?
The Dave comeback.
How about Starmer appearing to praise Maggie Thatcher?
And good morning one and all. Looks a bit brighter here this morning.
Most of the fieldwork was before those comments.
That’s even worse then spoken to quite a few Labour supporting friends who were appalled at his comments . It was a huge error of judgement and Starmer needs to get a grip . The SNP in Scotland will be making hay out of this come the election . Personally I’m sick of Starmer trying to appease voters who would never vote Labour. I would happily see him replaced by Rayner .
In Scotland Starmer needs Tory tactical votes to beat the SNP. In England he just needs 2019 Tory votes
Why is the Labour VI slipping? Or am I imagining it?
The Dave comeback.
How about Starmer appearing to praise Maggie Thatcher?
And good morning one and all. Looks a bit brighter here this morning.
Most of the fieldwork was before those comments.
That’s even worse then spoken to quite a few Labour supporting friends who were appalled at his comments . It was a huge error of judgement and Starmer needs to get a grip . The SNP in Scotland will be making hay out of this come the election . Personally I’m sick of Starmer trying to appease voters who would never vote Labour. I would happily see him replaced by Rayner .
In Scotland Starmer needs Tory tactical votes to beat the SNP
Why is the Labour VI slipping? Or am I imagining it?
The Dave comeback.
How about Starmer appearing to praise Maggie Thatcher?
And good morning one and all. Looks a bit brighter here this morning.
Most of the fieldwork was before those comments.
That’s even worse then spoken to quite a few Labour supporting friends who were appalled at his comments . It was a huge error of judgement and Starmer needs to get a grip . The SNP in Scotland will be making hay out of this come the election . Personally I’m sick of Starmer trying to appease voters who would never vote Labour. I would happily see him replaced by Rayner .
In Scotland Starmer needs Tory tactical votes to beat the SNP. In England he just needs 2019 Tory votes
So married couples already here who don’t meet the income requirement will either have to split up or leave the country .
The policy seems to have been designed to be as cruel as possible.
That is utterly vile stuff. From the party of family values.
Even more appalling it’s been done retrospectively. So those already here making a life for themselves are now being told they either split up or leave the country. I can’t imagine just how dreadful this must be for those effected , this will also lead to children being separated from either parent . Even by the low standards set by this government this is a new low .
She was alive," the witness says. "She was bleeding from her back."
She goes on to detail how the men cut off parts of the victim's body during the assault.
"They sliced her breast and threw it on the street," she says. "They were playing with it."
The victim was passed to another man in uniform, she continues.
"He penetrated her, and shot her in the head before he finished. He didn't even pick up his pants; he shoots and ejaculates."
AND, from the same report:
Another, Nachman Dyksztejna, provided written testimony of seeing the bodies of two women in kibbutz Be'eri with their hands and legs tied to a bed.
"One was sexually terrorised with a knife stuck in her vagina and all her internal organs removed," his statement says.
-----------------
This is what Israelis are reading about. This is what they are learning was the fate of their young people. People they knew, and could well have been related to.
It's really impossible to see how there can be any meaningful ceasefire or cessation until the IDF has levelled Gaza. Israeli public opinion simply won't allow it.
What possesses people to commit such acts? I find it utterly beyond comprehension.
Are they drugged up? Are they orders of magnitude more evil than any person I have ever met (even the genuinely nasty people I've met)?
It's often said that anyone is capable of murder, and I believe that in the right (or rather wrong) circumstances, that is true. But this is a level of depravity that I cannot comprehend.
(On reflection, it's not totally unprecedented - similar examples exist from WW2 and before, and no doubt more recent conflicts too. Baffling to me though.)
You must read Ian Toll's Pacific War trilogy. He describes in some detail the behavior of Japanese troops who had been left to die, and their indiscriminate raping and murdering of local civilians. It is genuinely shocking.
Human beings are capable of terrible evil.
Read Christina Lamb's "Our Bodies,Their Battlefields" - grim, very grim.
Or this from Janice Turner's article in the Times this weekend -
She was alive," the witness says. "She was bleeding from her back."
She goes on to detail how the men cut off parts of the victim's body during the assault.
"They sliced her breast and threw it on the street," she says. "They were playing with it."
The victim was passed to another man in uniform, she continues.
"He penetrated her, and shot her in the head before he finished. He didn't even pick up his pants; he shoots and ejaculates."
AND, from the same report:
Another, Nachman Dyksztejna, provided written testimony of seeing the bodies of two women in kibbutz Be'eri with their hands and legs tied to a bed.
"One was sexually terrorised with a knife stuck in her vagina and all her internal organs removed," his statement says.
-----------------
This is what Israelis are reading about. This is what they are learning was the fate of their young people. People they knew, and could well have been related to.
It's really impossible to see how there can be any meaningful ceasefire or cessation until the IDF has levelled Gaza. Israeli public opinion simply won't allow it.
What possesses people to commit such acts? I find it utterly beyond comprehension.
Are they drugged up? Are they orders of magnitude more evil than any person I have ever met (even the genuinely nasty people I've met)?
It's often said that anyone is capable of murder, and I believe that in the right (or rather wrong) circumstances, that is true. But this is a level of depravity that I cannot comprehend.
(On reflection, it's not totally unprecedented - similar examples exist from WW2 and before, and no doubt more recent conflicts too. Baffling to me though.)
You must read Ian Toll's Pacific War trilogy. He describes in some detail the behavior of Japanese troops who had been left to die, and their indiscriminate raping and murdering of local civilians. It is genuinely shocking.
Human beings are capable of terrible evil.
Read Christina Lamb's "Our Bodies,Their Battlefields" - grim, very grim.
Or this from Janice Turner's article in the Times this weekend -
"In a new preface to her wide-ranging and grave book Our Bodies: Their Battlefield, Christina Lamb notes: “In the last eight years I have seen more sexual violence inflicted upon women by soldiers and militias than any other time in my 35-year career.”
She also reports that invading Russians filmed themselves raping Ukrainian women then posted it on porn sites. Maybe the two are connected. Was the choreographed depravity of Hamas in part men gleefully enacting a violent sexual template they’d absorbed online? Hamas footage is the ultimate revenge porn.
Rape, as Lamb notes drily, is not just an ancient weapon but a cheap one, which draws female non-combatants into an orbit of terror. Bullets are quotidian horrors compared to being gang-raped daily like the Nigerian girls stolen by Boko Haram or the Japanese imperial army’s “comfort women”. One captured Hamas gunman said commanders ordered fighters to “sully” Israeli girls. God knows what female Israeli soldiers held hostage face deep below Gaza.
Yet for all the terror, damage and shame that war rape brings, it is seldom prosecuted. It is seen as trivial relative to other atrocities, more an unfortunate consequence of war than a human rights abuse."
The silence of so many human rights activists and feminist groups, the denial sends out a message to rapists that they will almost certainly get away with it.
And it's not just in war time. When I was doing my forensic science course as part of my barrister's training we had to see pictures of what being raped with a broken glass bottle does to a woman. That was in peacetime in this country.
What makes men do such things?
It completely baffles me.
I'd prefer you to say 'some men', indeed an extremely small proportion of men (one man is too many of course).
But I wonder if you believe all men, any man, is capable of these heinous act? I hope you don't.
On what basis do you say "an extremely small proportion of men". Aren't you just saying - or hoping I will say - what you would very much like to be true? Look at what @dixiedean has said or @maxh. I have been sexually assaulted on at least 9 different occasions. 9 different men. Take that ratio - and apply it to all the women who have been assaulted, most of who will not have reported those assaults to the authorities - and think about what that proportion of the male population is.
We will get nowhere on this if we tell ourselves comforting lies about how many men think it acceptable to behave appallingly to women, how many men can be conditioned and taught to hate and abuse and exploit and, apropos the previous thread, how much of a part in all this the porn of today - which is not merely about titillating boys with the sight of naked women - plays in all this.
Sorry. Decent men need to face up to this not hope that this is just down to a few psychopaths.
Point taken. I'm not really aiming to argue with you; I'm trying to understand.
Why is the Labour VI slipping? Or am I imagining it?
It’s basically where things were two weeks ago with this pollster. There was a Labour spike last week. It looks mainly like movements within the Labour, LibDem, Green bloc rather than any move to the Tories. But time will tell.
This is a fairly typical day's 'progress': the number of newly dead women and children exceeds the total number of newly dead
The magic carpet bombs killed 481 people on 25 October; 626 of those 481 were women and children
The Hamas numbers are nonsense. But the IDF also claimed to be dropping 1,000 bombs per day at the start of the conflict, all into an area with the same population density as London.
There are obviously horrendous civilian casualties and this nitpicking over the exact numbers is almost as bad as some of the Corbynite chaff on the original attack.
When I see nonsense numbers, I'll "nitpick" all I fucking like
Especially when those numbers are being used to accuse Israel of genocide, and are uncritically quoted by every supposedly respectable news broadcaster every single day
Most people swallow this shit whole - it NEEDS to be shown for the made up garbage it is
So, every news broadcaster (and indeed many governments, NGOs etc.) think these numbers are fairly accurate, but you think they’re “made up”… and we’re supposed to believe you? Are you in Gaza? Do you have some special knowledge of the region? Or expertise in assessing casualty numbers, or understanding urban warfare?
A fairly accurate 130% of the casualties were women and children
Fog of war; numbers are difficult to collate in real time and will be constantly revised as more bodies are excavated from rubble, or the family thought to have been killed at home turns out to have been eating at a local cafe. It is not just in Gaza. Israel's own death toll for 7th October was similarly revised.
So you actually believe that Hamas are really and truly trying their very best to provide accurate numbers?
Do you also believe them when they say they committed no sexual violence during their satanic sortie?
Why is the Labour VI slipping? Or am I imagining it?
The Dave comeback.
How about Starmer appearing to praise Maggie Thatcher?
And good morning one and all. Looks a bit brighter here this morning.
Most of the fieldwork was before those comments.
That’s even worse then spoken to quite a few Labour supporting friends who were appalled at his comments . It was a huge error of judgement and Starmer needs to get a grip . The SNP in Scotland will be making hay out of this come the election . Personally I’m sick of Starmer trying to appease voters who would never vote Labour. I would happily see him replaced by Rayner .
In Scotland Starmer needs Tory tactical votes to beat the SNP
He needs more previous Labour voters who have voted SNP . Starmer has made a serious error , for no apparent gain . I’d rather Rayner was Leader , I’m sick of Starmer .
So married couples already here who don’t meet the income requirement will either have to split up or leave the country .
The policy seems to have been designed to be as cruel as possible.
That is utterly vile stuff. From the party of family values.
Even more appalling it’s been done retrospectively. So those already here making a life for themselves are now being told they either split up or leave the country. I can’t imagine just how dreadful this must be for those effected , this will also lead to children being separated from either parent . Even by the low standards set by this government this is a new low .
Are they really doing it retrospectively?!
I find that hard to believe, and we need details
If you’re settled and married then applying this retrospectively is utterly wrong. But maybe they mean couples who are thinking of getting married? That’s more of a grey area
Any retrospective legislation would also surely fail in the courts
So married couples already here who don’t meet the income requirement will either have to split up or leave the country .
The policy seems to have been designed to be as cruel as possible.
That is utterly vile stuff. From the party of family values.
Even more appalling it’s been done retrospectively. So those already here making a life for themselves are now being told they either split up or leave the country. I can’t imagine just how dreadful this must be for those effected , this will also lead to children being separated from either parent . Even by the low standards set by this government this is a new low .
Yes. When people call the Tories scum it is stuff like this they have in mind - the casual cruelty meted out to anyone they consider expendible or beneath them.
This is a fairly typical day's 'progress': the number of newly dead women and children exceeds the total number of newly dead
The magic carpet bombs killed 481 people on 25 October; 626 of those 481 were women and children
Bodycount is a very difficult metric to do accurately. Most people focus on the putative mendacity of one or both parties, but even with the best will in the world it is difficult to compile in near-real time: at a gross level you have to find and identify the bits. There's a reason why we have concepts like "missing in action" and "the unknown soldier".
I note that very, very few of those critiquing the casualty estimates provide any estimates of their own.
If anyone wants to know what Woke is, what it does, and why it is deeply, corrosively dangerous - point to this
The woke narrative of intersectionality and decolonialism ends with madness like this. And the potential destruction of American education
This is HARVARD. And MIT
C’est dégoûtant, mais ce n’est pas la woke.
I find that clip utterly bizarre, the Congresswoman is correct that this should be the easy question and I'm at a loss as to why they think their cringingly caveated answers are acceptable. Calling for the genocide of any group is hate speech and unacceptable.
But I don't think this is woke. Partly because woke is, and perhaps always was, a pretty meaningless term.
As to this being Harvard and MIT, my limited experience with these institutions leads me to think that the calibre of thinking in them is not necessarily high. They are successful because they are rich. This allows them to attract top talent and, most importantly, resource them. Their wealth, and reputations, give them all kinds of influence but their managerial class are of no greater value than anywhere else. As for their undergraduates, let us not forget that Donald Trump attended Harvard and, while politicians being stupid can often be over done and a lot of them tend to be pretty smart individuals, he's not the sharpest tool in the shed.
Trump went to Fordham and the University of Pennsylvania not Harvard.
This is a fairly typical day's 'progress': the number of newly dead women and children exceeds the total number of newly dead
The magic carpet bombs killed 481 people on 25 October; 626 of those 481 were women and children
The Hamas numbers are nonsense. But the IDF also claimed to be dropping 1,000 bombs per day at the start of the conflict, all into an area with the same population density as London.
There are obviously horrendous civilian casualties and this nitpicking over the exact numbers is almost as bad as some of the Corbynite chaff on the original attack.
When I see nonsense numbers, I'll "nitpick" all I fucking like
Especially when those numbers are being used to accuse Israel of genocide, and are uncritically quoted by every supposedly respectable news broadcaster every single day
Most people swallow this shit whole - it NEEDS to be shown for the made up garbage it is
So, every news broadcaster (and indeed many governments, NGOs etc.) think these numbers are fairly accurate, but you think they’re “made up”… and we’re supposed to believe you? Are you in Gaza? Do you have some special knowledge of the region? Or expertise in assessing casualty numbers, or understanding urban warfare?
A fairly accurate 130% of the casualties were women and children
Fog of war; numbers are difficult to collate in real time and will be constantly revised as more bodies are excavated from rubble, or the family thought to have been killed at home turns out to have been eating at a local cafe. It is not just in Gaza. Israel's own death toll for 7th October was similarly revised.
So you actually believe that Hamas are really and truly trying their very best to provide accurate numbers?
Do you also believe them when they say they committed no sexual violence during their satanic sortie?
I do not believe "Hamas" are the ones counting the bodies, nor would I describe every British health worker or civil servant as "Conservatives" but none of this affects the underlying truth that death tolls are always fluid, in Gaza as in Israel and even as in Britain.
Art: Of course the Turner Prize winner is art. Because the artist said it was.
Woke: Leon is right. woke = awoken = was applied initially to civil rights and the oppression, and rising up, of in particular black Americans. It has since come to mean supporting any perceived oppressed community, the latest version of which is the transgender community. It also perceives Israel and the Jews not to be an oppressed community, moreover they believe Israel/the Jews are doing a lot of oppresssing right now and throughout history and hence the same rules as those which protect the eg transgender community in the same breath condemn Israel and the Jews as an oppressing community.
Interesting from Biden, "I'm not sure I'd be running if he wasn't" - confirming (if he's being honest) what many have suspected. He's the Trump Slayer and still sees himself as that.
Why is the Labour VI slipping? Or am I imagining it?
The Dave comeback.
How about Starmer appearing to praise Maggie Thatcher?
And good morning one and all. Looks a bit brighter here this morning.
Most of the fieldwork was before those comments.
That’s even worse then spoken to quite a few Labour supporting friends who were appalled at his comments . It was a huge error of judgement and Starmer needs to get a grip . The SNP in Scotland will be making hay out of this come the election . Personally I’m sick of Starmer trying to appease voters who would never vote Labour. I would happily see him replaced by Rayner .
In Scotland Starmer needs Tory tactical votes to beat the SNP
He needs more previous Labour voters who have voted SNP . Starmer has made a serious error , for no apparent gain . I’d rather Rayner was Leader , I’m sick of Starmer .
The most leftwing Scottish voters will vote SNP or Green regardless.
He needs centrist SNP voters and tactical votes from Scottish Conservatives as he did in the Rutherglen by election Labour gained from the SNP.
Rayner would not win over as many 2019 Tories as Starmer has
We might be in trouble if the Met Office are correct. The horizontal line behind the trees is a 4 foot fence. You can't normally see the river beyond it!
So married couples already here who don’t meet the income requirement will either have to split up or leave the country .
The policy seems to have been designed to be as cruel as possible.
That is utterly vile stuff. From the party of family values.
Even more appalling it’s been done retrospectively. So those already here making a life for themselves are now being told they either split up or leave the country. I can’t imagine just how dreadful this must be for those effected , this will also lead to children being separated from either parent . Even by the low standards set by this government this is a new low .
Are they really doing it retrospectively?!
I find that hard to believe, and we need details
If you’re settled and married then applying this retrospectively is utterly wrong. But maybe they mean couples who are thinking of getting married? That’s more of a grey area
Any retrospective legislation would also surely fail in the courts
I think it may be if you're currently here on a spouse's visa. IIRC you need to be here for 5 years before you can apply for British citizenship and that requires at least one spouse visa extension.
So the implication is you can have a valid spouse's visa (which lasts for 2 years 9 months max) but when you go to renew you no longer meet the new threshold.
Art: Of course the Turner Prize winner is art. Because the artist said it was.
Woke: Leon is right. woke = awoken = was applied initially to civil rights and the oppression, and rising up, of in particular black Americans. It has since come to mean any perceived oppressed community, the latest version of which is the transgender community. It also perceives Israel and the Jews not to be an oppressed community, moreover they believe Israel/the Jews are doing a lot of oppresssing right now and throughout history and hence the same rules as those which protect the eg transgender community in the same breath condemn Israel and the Jews as an oppressing community.
And hence Harvard, MIT, Penn.
Exactly right. It’s the fundamental Woke doctrine of intersectionality and decolonialism applied to Jews, who are now seen as belonging to the colonialist and oppressor class
Just as it is fine to discriminate against intrinsically evil racist privileged cishet white males (note the gender of all three presidents) so it is now ok to discriminate against evil racist privileged Jews
This Woke doctrine overrides any other consideration, including common sense
So married couples already here who don’t meet the income requirement will either have to split up or leave the country .
The policy seems to have been designed to be as cruel as possible.
That is utterly vile stuff. From the party of family values.
Even more appalling it’s been done retrospectively. So those already here making a life for themselves are now being told they either split up or leave the country. I can’t imagine just how dreadful this must be for those effected , this will also lead to children being separated from either parent . Even by the low standards set by this government this is a new low .
Are they really doing it retrospectively?!
I find that hard to believe, and we need details
If you’re settled and married then applying this retrospectively is utterly wrong. But maybe they mean couples who are thinking of getting married? That’s more of a grey area
Any retrospective legislation would also surely fail in the courts
The FT says that no 10 said it would apply retrospectively . The Home Office originally briefed it wouldn’t then said instead transitional measures would be put in place . It’s a shambles so par for the course whenever the government rush out a policy .
Art: Of course the Turner Prize winner is art. Because the artist said it was.
Woke: Leon is right. woke = awoken = was applied initially to civil rights and the oppression, and rising up, of in particular black Americans. It has since come to mean any perceived oppressed community, the latest version of which is the transgender community. It also perceives Israel and the Jews not to be an oppressed community, moreover they believe Israel/the Jews are doing a lot of oppresssing right now and throughout history and hence the same rules as those which protect the eg transgender community in the same breath condemn Israel and the Jews as an oppressing community.
And hence Harvard, MIT, Penn.
Exactly right. It’s the fundamental Woke doctrine of intersectionality and decolonialism applied to Jews, who are now seen as belonging to the colonialist and oppressor class
Just as it is fine to discriminate against intrinsically evil racist privileged cishet white males (note the gender of all three presidents) so it is now ok to discriminate against evil racist privileged Jews
This Woke doctrine overrides any other consideration, including common sense
Comments
This is a fairly typical day's 'progress': the number of newly dead women and children exceeds the total number of newly dead
The magic carpet bombs killed 481 people on 25 October; 626 of those 481 were women and children
Put this on the side of a bus
And many more people understand why some of us have been agitated about it, for years
Finally worked out how to fund a Mt Kili and Serengeti trip.
More like antisemitism.
(C'mon. It goes to the Lords, it gets voted down, there isn't time to use the Parliament Act. Doesn't it?
The only question is whether this is performative rubbish, or the government is at the "Steiner will save us" stage of Berlin Bunkerdom.)
The shark really was fantastic. I remember seeing at the Saatchi Collection - it was a punch in the gut in a good way
And the split calf. And the dead fly machine. Genius
Now he does rather lacklustre paintings
It shouldn’t have been difficult to give an unqualified “Yes.”
Johnson spent his entire life focused on becoming"World King". When he became "World King" and some serious s*** had to be considered, it is fair he is called out, particularly when his absurd decision making led to (according to Hancock) tens of thousands of deaths. Much like Blair was called out for Iraq, granted not enough to your liking.
@BethRigby
ANALYSIS in news
@10
The policy is hard enough, the politics look nearly impossible for PM as two sides of the Tory party - 100-strong each - square off publicly over Rwanda legislation. Failure to get own side on board would be very dangerous territory indeed
Labour 41 (-3)
Tories 29 (+1)
LDs 12
https://x.com/johnrentoul/status/1732302046018019773?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
Why is the Labour VI slipping? Or am I imagining it?
There are obviously horrendous civilian casualties and this nitpicking over the exact numbers is almost as bad as some of the Corbynite chaff on the original attack.
The White House has issued a warning that the US will run out of funds to aid Ukraine by the end of the year
https://twitter.com/FT/status/1731618923479470386
Thing is people like Campbell never account for their failings. They are never held to account. They just get away with it time and time again.,
It's ok, your hypocrisy has been exposed.
I find that clip utterly bizarre, the Congresswoman is correct that this should be the easy question and I'm at a loss as to why they think their cringingly caveated answers are acceptable. Calling for the genocide of any group is hate speech and unacceptable.
But I don't think this is woke. Partly because woke is, and perhaps always was, a pretty meaningless term.
As to this being Harvard and MIT, my limited experience with these institutions leads me to think that the calibre of thinking in them is not necessarily high. They are successful because they are rich. This allows them to attract top talent and, most importantly, resource them. Their wealth, and reputations, give them all kinds of influence but their managerial class are of no greater value than anywhere else. As for their undergraduates, let us not forget that Donald Trump attended Harvard and, while politicians being stupid can often be over done and a lot of them tend to be pretty smart individuals, he's not the sharpest tool in the shed.
The two extremes might be mirror images of each other.
And good morning one and all. Looks a bit brighter here this morning.
Just 1.8% of Israelis think the “IDF has used too much firepower in Gaza”
Fully 57% believe the IDF has “not used enough firepower in Gaza”
https://x.com/keithwoodsyt/status/1732232831982538755?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
That is the context in which Bibi is working. The Israeli nation has decided it wants Gaza levelled to the ground and most Gazans expelled forever. I expect that is what Israel will now do
They will make Gaza uninhabitable. I don’t believe Israel will stop even if it loses American support: Israelis view this as existential
Especially when those numbers are being used to accuse Israel of genocide, and are uncritically quoted by every supposedly respectable news broadcaster every single day
Most people swallow this shit whole - it NEEDS to be shown for the made up garbage it is
The artistic impulse seems unconnected to money (or indeed, in many cases, talent).
So the £38,700 income threshold *will* apply to spouses of British citizens who are already in the UK.
They need to satisfy new, higher threshold when applying for extension of their visas.
This is unbelievably low and appalling, even for the Tories.
Why are we only picking at a few US universities? The same is happening here on our streets. But if you are Harvard etc think of the impossible tightrope you have to walk. Right wing nutjobs outraged at you not allowing their oppression of women to go unchecked on campus.
Whatever they say or do will be wrong to *someone* in a world where it has become absurdly polarised and absolutist.
More In Common do a second question to try to force a decision from the don't knows, though fairly unsuccessfully as 45% still say don't know! I mentioned this in my piece on the weekend.
Interestingly in the data tables for this poll the DK broke fairly similarly when pressed 25% to Con and 19% to Labour. It only made a 1% difference to the voting intention. Unusually this poll found men more inclined to Labour than women, generally pollsters found the opposite.
Weighting on certainty to vote seems to be a big issue between pollsters. If I have time I may have a closer look at those entrails.
Don’t know what the way forward is, but I cannot see that what the Israelis are doing is going to help in the long run. Unless destroying Gaza and its population does, in fact, make Israel safe! And even then the residual hatred among the Palestinians will keep the fire smouldering for generations.
Bravo Iran. Normal relations seem a world away now. Possibly the most effective terrorist attack in history?
Can we agree on at least one thing: no-one in government, including Johnson, wanted anyone to die?
If Israel literally destroys Gaza as an entity then the gazan cause is lost, no? And how does that benefit Iran or Hamas?
The Muslim world - as I noted yesterday - is doing nothing to aid the Gazans apart from whine and cry on Al Jazeera, and vaguely hope that America steps in
One can only conclude that they actually don’t give a toss about the Gazans, and if the problem disappears forever, and with it Iran’s leverage in the area, many will quietly cheer
Its horrible. Its realpolitik. It’s satanic. But that’s what it looks like to me
The inaction from Israel’s neighbours is startling. Even Hezbollah are inert
Cue the Reverend HY telling us its what Jesus wants.
[Edit: spelling mistakes corrected]
What is really funny is you probably think I agree with the "woke" university professors. No - their responses were ludicrous! But I can identify *why* they are ludicrous, rather than just saying "woke".
How is your beloved Rwanda plan going btw? I did enjoy the juxtaposition between Moronly signing the new deal and the Rwandan minister he signed it with saying it isn't a new deal and everything he is saying the new deal has was already in the old deal.
It is performance cruelty for morons. You aren't a moron. But suck it up like a moron.
Why is that? Because its what you want to hear. And doing things because its political appeasement of an angry mob is - by your own definition - "woke".
The fact these Ivy League diversity hires can’t come out and say this simple fact is extraordinary. Especially when they are sacking people for using the wrong pronouns
This is all over American media. It is huge. I wonder if Harvard and others will have to sack these women
1) Fuck up massively
2) Get a better job with more money
3) Give interviews about how you are the victim
#NU10K
If I were advising the opposition, I think I'd tell them not to raise the issue- it has potential to backfire...
... But it hardly needs saying, does it?
They must know what genocide means - the aim to kill all a certain people, such as Jews, regardless of location.
Calling for the genocide of Jews is calling for the death of Jewish students. How that cannot be in violation of any organisation's code of conduct is unfathomable.
I'm not sure the relevance of 'woke', but it shows that antisemitism of major parts of US academia is much worse than it ever was in Corbyn-led Labour.
Or this from Janice Turner's article in the Times this weekend - On what basis do you say "an extremely small proportion of men". Aren't you just saying - or hoping I will say - what you would very much like to be true? Look at what @dixiedean has said or @maxh. I have been sexually assaulted on at least 9 different occasions. 9 different men. Take that ratio - and apply it to all the women who have been assaulted, most of who will not have reported those assaults to the authorities - and think about what that proportion of the male population is.
We will get nowhere on this if we tell ourselves comforting lies about how many men think it acceptable to behave appallingly to women, how many men can be conditioned and taught to hate and abuse and exploit and, apropos the previous thread, how much of a part in all this the porn of today - which is not merely about titillating boys with the sight of naked women - plays in all this.
Sorry. Decent men need to face up to this not hope that this is just down to a few psychopaths.
“In what world is a call for violence against Jews protected speech, but a belief that sex is biological and binary isn’t?”
Citing @BillAckman, @RepWalberg asks @Harvard President Claudine Gay about @hoovlet and Tyler Vanderweele, but she has nothing to say about them:
https://x.com/sfmcguire79/status/1732095835759063178?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
Remarkable exchange:
@RepKiley: If you were talking to a prospective Jewish student's family right now, could you look them in the eye and tell them that their son or daughter would be safe & feel safe & welcome on your campus?
Harvard pres. Gay won't give a yes-or-no answer.
https://x.com/kcjohnson9/status/1732169986494366174?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
Of course it is possible that the hype, lies, exaggerations and illegalities of the Rwanda 'policy' are firming up the populist wing of the Tory vote.
The thought of a 'Populist people v wet liberals and lawyers' election is not one for the faint hearted. NOM remains value.
The policy seems to have been designed to be as cruel as possible.
So they are purely performative. "Don't let Labour in to stop our plan to deport your care worker". Why would Labour need to object? Its so pitiful that simply looking at it repels normal voters.
I like Musk’s take on all this (yes yes I’m a fanboy etc)
He says that about five years ago he couldn’t sleep because of the various dangers approaching - especially AI. But then he realised he couldn’t do anything about it - and, at the very least, the huge changes heading our way guaranteed that life would be interesting
So he relaxed into it. That’s what I’m trying to do. We live in interesting times - might as well stock up on popcorn
Do you also believe them when they say they committed no sexual violence during their satanic sortie?
I find that hard to believe, and we need details
If you’re settled and married then applying this retrospectively is utterly wrong. But maybe they mean couples who are thinking of getting married? That’s more of a grey area
Any retrospective legislation would also surely fail in the courts
The last Harvard educated US President was Obama
Woke: Leon is right. woke = awoken = was applied initially to civil rights and the oppression, and rising up, of in particular black Americans. It has since come to mean supporting any perceived oppressed community, the latest version of which is the transgender community. It also perceives Israel and the Jews not to be an oppressed community, moreover they believe Israel/the Jews are doing a lot of oppresssing right now and throughout history and hence the same rules as those which protect the eg transgender community in the same breath condemn Israel and the Jews as an oppressing community.
And hence Harvard, MIT, Penn.
He needs centrist SNP voters and tactical votes from Scottish Conservatives as he did in the Rutherglen by election Labour gained from the SNP.
Rayner would not win over as many 2019 Tories as Starmer has
So the implication is you can have a valid spouse's visa (which lasts for 2 years 9 months max) but when you go to renew you no longer meet the new threshold.
Just as it is fine to discriminate against intrinsically evil racist privileged cishet white males (note the gender of all three presidents) so it is now ok to discriminate against evil racist privileged Jews
This Woke doctrine overrides any other consideration, including common sense