Worth noting: the Scottish universities take account of poor performing schools by giving their applicants favourable treatment in terms of the grades they will accept.
You might think that this helps bridge the attainment gap. But the dirty little secret is that the kids who actually benefit are those whose parents pay for private tuition.
I know for a fact that pretty well every single child from my local secondary who has got into one of the "ancients" to do a degree that leads to one of the professions has had coaching from private tutors. Kids from poor homes don't stand a chance in proudly devolved egalitarian Scotland.
Thanks for the tip, I'll add Scottish highers to my list of subjects...
You're right though, it is rubbish.
Even allowing for the somewhat starry eyed view of the curriculum in England, which even if it was as knowledge rich as it should be has been completely undermined by the disastrous OFSTED framework, the article highlights a pretty serious problem.
Worth noting: the Scottish universities take account of poor performing schools by giving their applicants favourable treatment in terms of the grades they will accept.
You might think that this helps bridge the attainment gap. But the dirty little secret is that the kids who actually benefit are those whose parents pay for private tuition.
I know for a fact that pretty well every single child from my local secondary who has got into one of the "ancients" to do a degree that leads to one of the professions has had coaching from private tutors. Kids from poor homes don't stand a chance in proudly devolved egalitarian Scotland.
It's lamentable. Anecdotally, my own children suffered from this. Both the girls got taught to read by phonics and were well on their way by Christmas of the first year. My son, with Curriculum for Excellence, did not have a reading age at 7. He was memorising story tapes and his teacher never noticed. We got him tutoring, old style, and by the time he was 8 his reading age was 15. It just does not work. But so long as you tick enough boxes no one will notice.
Disturbing. Surely at some point Scottish voters are going to make the SNP pay for this failure?
Scottish politics is a sterile desert of constitutional wrangling and has been for 15 years now, possibly longer. It drowns out everything else. There is no meaningful debate on education, health, the economy, the desperate state of our roads with the A1 and the A9 still not duelled, the Ferries, the bottle scheme, nothing. You are either for independence so you vote for this bunch of twats or you are not in which case you vote for a variety of different twats.
Northern Ireland has more political guidance than Scotland, even without an Assembly. Its dispiriting.
As a matter of fact I think these multiple failures may catch up with the SNP. They are, at last, being reported.
And, let's face it, the Yousaf/Robison combo is not in the same league as Sturgeon/Swinney in motivating their natural supporters. ot talking down their opponents. No-one is scared or initimidated anymore.
Yousaf does not have the same teflon plating that Nicola had but it is still remarkable how few of the current issues are actually being reported in the mainstream media.
There is the Minister who was allegedly having an affair, Hancock style, with an MP during Covid, there is the deep disquiet that nothing seems to be happening in relation to Operation Branchform after nearly 2.5 years now, there was the recent humiliation of the Scottish government taking their own Information Commissioner to court to try and stop the production of material that was the basis of his report but was so redacted that the Commissioner himself said it was highly distorted and he could not support it, there is the complete lack of contemporaneous records or minutes of meetings given to the Covid Inquiry, amongst others, so few of these stories and many more get any attention at all from our media.
The PBers who suggest that the SNP are getting a free pass from the media and despite their regular jeremiads about the Nats that the ishoos are never covered are some of my faves.
Who do you think is delaying any outcome from Branchform, the tent deployers of Police Scotland or is it some nefarious Nat plot?
I honestly don't know who or what is delaying it. So far, according to a recent FOI request, the investigation has cost over £1m. It's shocking. There is a real risk that if anyone is ever charged they are going to claim that their article 6 rights have been breached because this has been hanging over them for so long.
And I do not excuse the tent nonsense, that was truly bizarre in a financial investigation.
Presumably, as the SNP have politicised so many Scottish institutions, from the cops to the civil service to the boradcasters - flling the ranks, esp the higher echelons, with pro-indy people - this must have engendered resentment in these same institutions from quiet unionists, who now fancy some revenge. That would explain stuff like the tent?
Worth noting: the Scottish universities take account of poor performing schools by giving their applicants favourable treatment in terms of the grades they will accept.
You might think that this helps bridge the attainment gap. But the dirty little secret is that the kids who actually benefit are those whose parents pay for private tuition.
I know for a fact that pretty well every single child from my local secondary who has got into one of the "ancients" to do a degree that leads to one of the professions has had coaching from private tutors. Kids from poor homes don't stand a chance in proudly devolved egalitarian Scotland.
It's lamentable. Anecdotally, my own children suffered from this. Both the girls got taught to read by phonics and were well on their way by Christmas of the first year. My son, with Curriculum for Excellence, did not have a reading age at 7. He was memorising story tapes and his teacher never noticed. We got him tutoring, old style, and by the time he was 8 his reading age was 15. It just does not work. But so long as you tick enough boxes no one will notice.
Disturbing. Surely at some point Scottish voters are going to make the SNP pay for this failure?
Scottish politics is a sterile desert of constitutional wrangling and has been for 15 years now, possibly longer. It drowns out everything else. There is no meaningful debate on education, health, the economy, the desperate state of our roads with the A1 and the A9 still not duelled, the Ferries, the bottle scheme, nothing. You are either for independence so you vote for this bunch of twats or you are not in which case you vote for a variety of different twats.
Northern Ireland has more political guidance than Scotland, even without an Assembly. Its dispiriting.
As a matter of fact I think these multiple failures may catch up with the SNP. They are, at last, being reported.
And, let's face it, the Yousaf/Robison combo is not in the same league as Sturgeon/Swinney in motivating their natural supporters. ot talking down their opponents. No-one is scared or initimidated anymore.
Yousaf does not have the same teflon plating that Nicola had but it is still remarkable how few of the current issues are actually being reported in the mainstream media.
There is the Minister who was allegedly having an affair, Hancock style, with an MP during Covid, there is the deep disquiet that nothing seems to be happening in relation to Operation Branchform after nearly 2.5 years now, there was the recent humiliation of the Scottish government taking their own Information Commissioner to court to try and stop the production of material that was the basis of his report but was so redacted that the Commissioner himself said it was highly distorted and he could not support it, there is the complete lack of contemporaneous records or minutes of meetings given to the Covid Inquiry, amongst others, so few of these stories and many more get any attention at all from our media.
The PBers who suggest that the SNP are getting a free pass from the media and despite their regular jeremiads about the Nats that the ishoos are never covered are some of my faves.
Who do you think is delaying any outcome from Branchform, the tent deployers of Police Scotland or is it some nefarious Nat plot?
I honestly don't know who or what is delaying it. So far, according to a recent FOI request, the investigation has cost over £1m. It's shocking. There is a real risk that if anyone is ever charged they are going to claim that their article 6 rights have been breached because this has been hanging over them for so long.
And I do not excuse the tent nonsense, that was truly bizarre in a financial investigation.
Investigation up to a million quid now I read. Lots of overtime cataloguing teabags and printer ink I imagine..
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
His point was that he believed it was/is oppressive for Muslim women to (have to wear) the burka. Is your belief in cultural relativism such that you applaud the seeming (because I have no idea beyond a well educated guess) subjugation of women from a particular culture.
That was simply a mealy mouthed Johnson justification.
First blessing for a same sex couple in the Church of England took place today at St John the Baptist Church in Felixstowe, Suffolk after approval from the House of Bishops and Synod https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-67743298
From the pictures that looks like insider trading HY.
A nice story and good luck to them.
Weird that gay couples would want the blessing of an institution that so obviously despises them.
I don't think despise sufficiently captures the attitude of the CofE towards gay people.
More tea vicar?
So you are a fan of women wearing the burka.
I have no opinion of women wearing a burka if it is entirely the choice of the wearer. I understand the notion of subjugation, and I am sure in some instances that is the case. Nonetheless Johnson was dog whistling.
Likewise if you choose to dance down Oxford Street in jockstrap and waders that is entirely appropriate as far as I am concerned. Live and let live, I say
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
His point was that he believed it was/is oppressive for Muslim women to (have to wear) the burka. Is your belief in cultural relativism such that you applaud the seeming (because I have no idea beyond a well educated guess) subjugation of women from a particular culture.
That was simply a mealy mouthed Johnson justification.
First blessing for a same sex couple in the Church of England took place today at St John the Baptist Church in Felixstowe, Suffolk after approval from the House of Bishops and Synod https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-67743298
From the pictures that looks like insider trading HY.
A nice story and good luck to them.
Weird that gay couples would want the blessing of an institution that so obviously despises them.
I don't think despise sufficiently captures the attitude of the CofE towards gay people.
More tea vicar?
So you are a fan of women wearing the burka.
I have no opinion of women wearing a burka if it is entirely the choice of the wearer. I understand the notion of subjugation, and I am sure in some instances that is the case. Nonetheless Johnson was dog whistling.
Likewise if you choose to dance down Oxford Street in jockstrap and waders that is entirely appropriate as far as I am concerned. Live and let live, I say
I can't get out of my head now a vision of Johnson dancing down Oxford street in a jock strap and waders (although for some reason I have swapped the waders for flippers - I don't know why, but it is disturbing me).
Worth noting: the Scottish universities take account of poor performing schools by giving their applicants favourable treatment in terms of the grades they will accept.
You might think that this helps bridge the attainment gap. But the dirty little secret is that the kids who actually benefit are those whose parents pay for private tuition.
I know for a fact that pretty well every single child from my local secondary who has got into one of the "ancients" to do a degree that leads to one of the professions has had coaching from private tutors. Kids from poor homes don't stand a chance in proudly devolved egalitarian Scotland.
It's lamentable. Anecdotally, my own children suffered from this. Both the girls got taught to read by phonics and were well on their way by Christmas of the first year. My son, with Curriculum for Excellence, did not have a reading age at 7. He was memorising story tapes and his teacher never noticed. We got him tutoring, old style, and by the time he was 8 his reading age was 15. It just does not work. But so long as you tick enough boxes no one will notice.
Disturbing. Surely at some point Scottish voters are going to make the SNP pay for this failure?
Scottish politics is a sterile desert of constitutional wrangling and has been for 15 years now, possibly longer. It drowns out everything else. There is no meaningful debate on education, health, the economy, the desperate state of our roads with the A1 and the A9 still not duelled, the Ferries, the bottle scheme, nothing. You are either for independence so you vote for this bunch of twats or you are not in which case you vote for a variety of different twats.
Northern Ireland has more political guidance than Scotland, even without an Assembly. Its dispiriting.
As a matter of fact I think these multiple failures may catch up with the SNP. They are, at last, being reported.
And, let's face it, the Yousaf/Robison combo is not in the same league as Sturgeon/Swinney in motivating their natural supporters. ot talking down their opponents. No-one is scared or initimidated anymore.
Yousaf does not have the same teflon plating that Nicola had but it is still remarkable how few of the current issues are actually being reported in the mainstream media.
There is the Minister who was allegedly having an affair, Hancock style, with an MP during Covid, there is the deep disquiet that nothing seems to be happening in relation to Operation Branchform after nearly 2.5 years now, there was the recent humiliation of the Scottish government taking their own Information Commissioner to court to try and stop the production of material that was the basis of his report but was so redacted that the Commissioner himself said it was highly distorted and he could not support it, there is the complete lack of contemporaneous records or minutes of meetings given to the Covid Inquiry, amongst others, so few of these stories and many more get any attention at all from our media.
The PBers who suggest that the SNP are getting a free pass from the media and despite their regular jeremiads about the Nats that the ishoos are never covered are some of my faves.
Who do you think is delaying any outcome from Branchform, the tent deployers of Police Scotland or is it some nefarious Nat plot?
I honestly don't know who or what is delaying it. So far, according to a recent FOI request, the investigation has cost over £1m. It's shocking. There is a real risk that if anyone is ever charged they are going to claim that their article 6 rights have been breached because this has been hanging over them for so long.
And I do not excuse the tent nonsense, that was truly bizarre in a financial investigation.
Presumably, as the SNP have politicised so many Scottish institutions, from the cops to the civil service to the boradcasters - flling the ranks, esp the higher echelons, with pro-indy people - this must have engendered resentment in these same institutions from quiet unionists, who now fancy some revenge. That would explain stuff like the tent?
The only suggestion that I read that made the slightest sense is that there was some suggestion that financial records had been disposed of on the BBQ and they were looking for remaining fragments. But even that seems bizarre. Very few financial records of any substance exist in a single copy. Any transactions of any substance will be in some bank records somewhere in electronic form.
The issues are really not that hard. A political party has very specific obligations under the Political Parties Act which do not appear to have been complied with. That obligation rests on specific people as office holders and they have been spoken to. Failure to meet those requirements is an offence.
There is some fairly compelling evidence that the accounts of the SNP did not show the whole picture and did not include all of the money that they should have. The stuff about the campervan and now the Jaguar suggests strongly that there were slush funds on which they could draw when required. They are either accounted for or they are not.
ON topic I am watching the darts. I've noticed that darts has got way more popular in recent years, but I had no idea HOW popular
The winner of this year's World Darts Championship will get half a MILLION quid
That's incredible for a pub sport
That’s been the prize for the last few years. Barry Hearn basically has revitalised the sport. There was a very bitter split many years ago with the top 15 players ad the old BDO who were running it into the ground.
There’s a documentary about it out there on YouTube. Well worth watching.
ON topic I am watching the darts. I've noticed that darts has got way more popular in recent years, but I had no idea HOW popular
The winner of this year's World Darts Championship will get half a MILLION quid
That's incredible for a pub sport
That’s been the prize for the last few years. Barry Hearn basically has revitalised the sport. There was a very bitter split many years ago with the top 15 players ad the old BDO who were running it into the ground.
There’s a documentary about it out there on YouTube. Well worth watching.
I shall check it out. The rise of darts fascinates me (a lot of things fascinate me)
I knew it was popular in Holland I had no idea it is now big in Germany
Worth noting: the Scottish universities take account of poor performing schools by giving their applicants favourable treatment in terms of the grades they will accept.
You might think that this helps bridge the attainment gap. But the dirty little secret is that the kids who actually benefit are those whose parents pay for private tuition.
I know for a fact that pretty well every single child from my local secondary who has got into one of the "ancients" to do a degree that leads to one of the professions has had coaching from private tutors. Kids from poor homes don't stand a chance in proudly devolved egalitarian Scotland.
It's lamentable. Anecdotally, my own children suffered from this. Both the girls got taught to read by phonics and were well on their way by Christmas of the first year. My son, with Curriculum for Excellence, did not have a reading age at 7. He was memorising story tapes and his teacher never noticed. We got him tutoring, old style, and by the time he was 8 his reading age was 15. It just does not work. But so long as you tick enough boxes no one will notice.
Disturbing. Surely at some point Scottish voters are going to make the SNP pay for this failure?
Scottish politics is a sterile desert of constitutional wrangling and has been for 15 years now, possibly longer. It drowns out everything else. There is no meaningful debate on education, health, the economy, the desperate state of our roads with the A1 and the A9 still not duelled, the Ferries, the bottle scheme, nothing. You are either for independence so you vote for this bunch of twats or you are not in which case you vote for a variety of different twats.
Northern Ireland has more political guidance than Scotland, even without an Assembly. Its dispiriting.
As a matter of fact I think these multiple failures may catch up with the SNP. They are, at last, being reported.
And, let's face it, the Yousaf/Robison combo is not in the same league as Sturgeon/Swinney in motivating their natural supporters. ot talking down their opponents. No-one is scared or initimidated anymore.
Yousaf does not have the same teflon plating that Nicola had but it is still remarkable how few of the current issues are actually being reported in the mainstream media.
There is the Minister who was allegedly having an affair, Hancock style, with an MP during Covid, there is the deep disquiet that nothing seems to be happening in relation to Operation Branchform after nearly 2.5 years now, there was the recent humiliation of the Scottish government taking their own Information Commissioner to court to try and stop the production of material that was the basis of his report but was so redacted that the Commissioner himself said it was highly distorted and he could not support it, there is the complete lack of contemporaneous records or minutes of meetings given to the Covid Inquiry, amongst others, so few of these stories and many more get any attention at all from our media.
The PBers who suggest that the SNP are getting a free pass from the media and despite their regular jeremiads about the Nats that the ishoos are never covered are some of my faves.
Who do you think is delaying any outcome from Branchform, the tent deployers of Police Scotland or is it some nefarious Nat plot?
I honestly don't know who or what is delaying it. So far, according to a recent FOI request, the investigation has cost over £1m. It's shocking. There is a real risk that if anyone is ever charged they are going to claim that their article 6 rights have been breached because this has been hanging over them for so long.
And I do not excuse the tent nonsense, that was truly bizarre in a financial investigation.
Presumably, as the SNP have politicised so many Scottish institutions, from the cops to the civil service to the boradcasters - flling the ranks, esp the higher echelons, with pro-indy people - this must have engendered resentment in these same institutions from quiet unionists, who now fancy some revenge. That would explain stuff like the tent?
The only suggestion that I read that made the slightest sense is that there was some suggestion that financial records had been disposed of on the BBQ and they were looking for remaining fragments. But even that seems bizarre. Very few financial records of any substance exist in a single copy. Any transactions of any substance will be in some bank records somewhere in electronic form.
The issues are really not that hard. A political party has very specific obligations under the Political Parties Act which do not appear to have been complied with. That obligation rests on specific people as office holders and they have been spoken to. Failure to meet those requirements is an offence.
There is some fairly compelling evidence that the accounts of the SNP did not show the whole picture and did not include all of the money that they should have. The stuff about the campervan and now the Jaguar suggests strongly that there were slush funds on which they could draw when required. They are either accounted for or they are not.
The bit that I don't get is that not keeping records is so blatant. It would surely have been trivial to provide *some* books?
In the case of the camper van - why not just buy a flat? Much easier to justify for party business and would probably have appreciated as asset.
Just watched a rather horrific interview with Baroness Mone admitting she would benefit to the tune of £60 million having done a deal selling PPE to the government and lying about it on TV but saying she had done nothing unlawful.
I now have a vision of philosopher John Gray topping Noughties comedian Tom Green while wearing the red longjohns he wore in Charlie's Angels. This is not the PB outcome I was hoping for.
Worth noting: the Scottish universities take account of poor performing schools by giving their applicants favourable treatment in terms of the grades they will accept.
You might think that this helps bridge the attainment gap. But the dirty little secret is that the kids who actually benefit are those whose parents pay for private tuition.
I know for a fact that pretty well every single child from my local secondary who has got into one of the "ancients" to do a degree that leads to one of the professions has had coaching from private tutors. Kids from poor homes don't stand a chance in proudly devolved egalitarian Scotland.
It's lamentable. Anecdotally, my own children suffered from this. Both the girls got taught to read by phonics and were well on their way by Christmas of the first year. My son, with Curriculum for Excellence, did not have a reading age at 7. He was memorising story tapes and his teacher never noticed. We got him tutoring, old style, and by the time he was 8 his reading age was 15. It just does not work. But so long as you tick enough boxes no one will notice.
Disturbing. Surely at some point Scottish voters are going to make the SNP pay for this failure?
Scottish politics is a sterile desert of constitutional wrangling and has been for 15 years now, possibly longer. It drowns out everything else. There is no meaningful debate on education, health, the economy, the desperate state of our roads with the A1 and the A9 still not duelled, the Ferries, the bottle scheme, nothing. You are either for independence so you vote for this bunch of twats or you are not in which case you vote for a variety of different twats.
Northern Ireland has more political guidance than Scotland, even without an Assembly. Its dispiriting.
As a matter of fact I think these multiple failures may catch up with the SNP. They are, at last, being reported.
And, let's face it, the Yousaf/Robison combo is not in the same league as Sturgeon/Swinney in motivating their natural supporters. ot talking down their opponents. No-one is scared or initimidated anymore.
Yousaf does not have the same teflon plating that Nicola had but it is still remarkable how few of the current issues are actually being reported in the mainstream media.
There is the Minister who was allegedly having an affair, Hancock style, with an MP during Covid, there is the deep disquiet that nothing seems to be happening in relation to Operation Branchform after nearly 2.5 years now, there was the recent humiliation of the Scottish government taking their own Information Commissioner to court to try and stop the production of material that was the basis of his report but was so redacted that the Commissioner himself said it was highly distorted and he could not support it, there is the complete lack of contemporaneous records or minutes of meetings given to the Covid Inquiry, amongst others, so few of these stories and many more get any attention at all from our media.
The PBers who suggest that the SNP are getting a free pass from the media and despite their regular jeremiads about the Nats that the ishoos are never covered are some of my faves.
Who do you think is delaying any outcome from Branchform, the tent deployers of Police Scotland or is it some nefarious Nat plot?
I honestly don't know who or what is delaying it. So far, according to a recent FOI request, the investigation has cost over £1m. It's shocking. There is a real risk that if anyone is ever charged they are going to claim that their article 6 rights have been breached because this has been hanging over them for so long.
And I do not excuse the tent nonsense, that was truly bizarre in a financial investigation.
Presumably, as the SNP have politicised so many Scottish institutions, from the cops to the civil service to the boradcasters - flling the ranks, esp the higher echelons, with pro-indy people - this must have engendered resentment in these same institutions from quiet unionists, who now fancy some revenge. That would explain stuff like the tent?
The only suggestion that I read that made the slightest sense is that there was some suggestion that financial records had been disposed of on the BBQ and they were looking for remaining fragments. But even that seems bizarre. Very few financial records of any substance exist in a single copy. Any transactions of any substance will be in some bank records somewhere in electronic form.
The issues are really not that hard. A political party has very specific obligations under the Political Parties Act which do not appear to have been complied with. That obligation rests on specific people as office holders and they have been spoken to. Failure to meet those requirements is an offence.
There is some fairly compelling evidence that the accounts of the SNP did not show the whole picture and did not include all of the money that they should have. The stuff about the campervan and now the Jaguar suggests strongly that there were slush funds on which they could draw when required. They are either accounted for or they are not.
The Guardian, usually pretty even-handed when covering the SNP. pretty damning over their budget.
"Unlike the UK government, Holyrood has few options but to balance its yearly budget. Inflation produced £580m more in tax receipts than projected and the SNP gambled that this would be enough for outlays, such as £100m for NHS waiting lists and higher than expected pay awards, to bolster its flagging appeal. This was a costly bet to lose."
Just watched a rather horrific interview with Baroness Mone admitting she would benefit to the tune of £60 million having done a deal selling PPE to the government and lying about it on TV but saying she had done nothing unlawful.
Then watching her being signed in to the HoL
We live in a very sick country at the moment.
Enough to cover Rishi's helicopter jaunts and leave some small change of £20m. Or we're a 100m down. I wonder which it will be.
ON topic I am watching the darts. I've noticed that darts has got way more popular in recent years, but I had no idea HOW popular
The winner of this year's World Darts Championship will get half a MILLION quid
That's incredible for a pub sport
That’s been the prize for the last few years. Barry Hearn basically has revitalised the sport. There was a very bitter split many years ago with the top 15 players ad the old BDO who were running it into the ground.
There’s a documentary about it out there on YouTube. Well worth watching.
I shall check it out. The rise of darts fascinates me (a lot of things fascinate me)
I knew it was popular in Holland I had no idea it is now big in Germany
Oddly there's a weird situation whereby it's incredibly popular as a TV and event sport. But is dying out in pubs because so many traditional ones are closing and the ones that survive tend to switch to food. Thus removing the dartboard for more space. Being replaced by dedicated darts places though that treat it a bit like Top Golf. The days of the pub darts player may be numbered though - with the next generation of players white collar WFHs who can hone their skills on a board at home.
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
His point was that he believed it was/is oppressive for Muslim women to (have to wear) the burka. Is your belief in cultural relativism such that you applaud the seeming (because I have no idea beyond a well educated guess) subjugation of women from a particular culture.
That was simply a mealy mouthed Johnson justification.
First blessing for a same sex couple in the Church of England took place today at St John the Baptist Church in Felixstowe, Suffolk after approval from the House of Bishops and Synod https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-67743298
From the pictures that looks like insider trading HY.
A nice story and good luck to them.
Weird that gay couples would want the blessing of an institution that so obviously despises them.
I don't think despise sufficiently captures the attitude of the CofE towards gay people.
More tea vicar?
So you are a fan of women wearing the burka.
I have no opinion of women wearing a burka if it is entirely the choice of the wearer. I understand the notion of subjugation, and I am sure in some instances that is the case. Nonetheless Johnson was dog whistling.
Likewise if you choose to dance down Oxford Street in jockstrap and waders that is entirely appropriate as far as I am concerned. Live and let live, I say
You have no opinion on women wearing a burka if it is entirely the choice of the wearer.
First blessing for a same sex couple in the Church of England took place today at St John the Baptist Church in Felixstowe, Suffolk after approval from the House of Bishops and Synod https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-67743298
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
His point was that he believed it was/is oppressive for Muslim women to (have to wear) the burka. Is your belief in cultural relativism such that you applaud the seeming (because I have no idea beyond a well educated guess) subjugation of women from a particular culture.
That was simply a mealy mouthed Johnson justification.
First blessing for a same sex couple in the Church of England took place today at St John the Baptist Church in Felixstowe, Suffolk after approval from the House of Bishops and Synod https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-67743298
From the pictures that looks like insider trading HY.
A nice story and good luck to them.
Weird that gay couples would want the blessing of an institution that so obviously despises them.
I don't think despise sufficiently captures the attitude of the CofE towards gay people.
More tea vicar?
So you are a fan of women wearing the burka.
I have no opinion of women wearing a burka if it is entirely the choice of the wearer. I understand the notion of subjugation, and I am sure in some instances that is the case. Nonetheless Johnson was dog whistling.
Likewise if you choose to dance down Oxford Street in jockstrap and waders that is entirely appropriate as far as I am concerned. Live and let live, I say
You have no opinion on women wearing a burka if it is entirely the choice of the wearer.
ON topic I am watching the darts. I've noticed that darts has got way more popular in recent years, but I had no idea HOW popular
The winner of this year's World Darts Championship will get half a MILLION quid
That's incredible for a pub sport
That’s been the prize for the last few years. Barry Hearn basically has revitalised the sport. There was a very bitter split many years ago with the top 15 players ad the old BDO who were running it into the ground.
There’s a documentary about it out there on YouTube. Well worth watching.
I shall check it out. The rise of darts fascinates me (a lot of things fascinate me)
I knew it was popular in Holland I had no idea it is now big in Germany
Oddly there's a weird situation whereby it's incredibly popular as a TV and event sport. But is dying out in pubs because so many traditional ones are closing and the ones that survive tend to switch to food. Thus removing the dartboard for more space. Being replaced by dedicated darts places though that treat it a bit like Top Golf. The days of the pub darts player may be numbered though - with the next generation of players white collar WFHs who can hone their skills on a board at home.
It was very good for honing mental arithmetic skills.
ON topic I am watching the darts. I've noticed that darts has got way more popular in recent years, but I had no idea HOW popular
The winner of this year's World Darts Championship will get half a MILLION quid
That's incredible for a pub sport
That’s been the prize for the last few years. Barry Hearn basically has revitalised the sport. There was a very bitter split many years ago with the top 15 players ad the old BDO who were running it into the ground.
There’s a documentary about it out there on YouTube. Well worth watching.
I shall check it out. The rise of darts fascinates me (a lot of things fascinate me)
I knew it was popular in Holland I had no idea it is now big in Germany
Oddly there's a weird situation whereby it's incredibly popular as a TV and event sport. But is dying out in pubs because so many traditional ones are closing and the ones that survive tend to switch to food. Thus removing the dartboard for more space. Being replaced by dedicated darts places though that treat it a bit like Top Golf. The days of the pub darts player may be numbered though - with the next generation of players white collar WFHs who can hone their skills on a board at home.
It was very good for honing mental arithmetic skills.
So is snooker.
And cash, of course.
*looks round nervously in case Anabobazina is nearby*
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
His point was that he believed it was/is oppressive for Muslim women to (have to wear) the burka. Is your belief in cultural relativism such that you applaud the seeming (because I have no idea beyond a well educated guess) subjugation of women from a particular culture.
That was simply a mealy mouthed Johnson justification.
First blessing for a same sex couple in the Church of England took place today at St John the Baptist Church in Felixstowe, Suffolk after approval from the House of Bishops and Synod https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-67743298
From the pictures that looks like insider trading HY.
A nice story and good luck to them.
Weird that gay couples would want the blessing of an institution that so obviously despises them.
I don't think despise sufficiently captures the attitude of the CofE towards gay people.
More tea vicar?
So you are a fan of women wearing the burka.
I have no opinion of women wearing a burka if it is entirely the choice of the wearer. I understand the notion of subjugation, and I am sure in some instances that is the case. Nonetheless Johnson was dog whistling.
Likewise if you choose to dance down Oxford Street in jockstrap and waders that is entirely appropriate as far as I am concerned. Live and let live, I say
You have no opinion on women wearing a burka if it is entirely the choice of the wearer.
LOL.
And you are a leftie?
Please explain.
And I am a proud centrist.
Isn't a centrist just someone who allows their political stance to be defined by others? The centrist position in the 90's and 2000's was that gay civil partnerships were a positive development but that they should not have the status of marriages. That stance has now evaporated like a puddle in the Sahara. Are you happy for all your dearly held beliefs of today to do the same, because they're not actually wise, or just, or based on any immutable truth or good sense, they're just the result of a meaningless triangulation between two opposing sides?
Has anyone else encountered unexpected anti-Semitism?
That poll cited by @williamglenn suggests that I am observing something real
Yes, I have heard colleagues disgusted and repulsed by what is happening in Gaza. Nothing, in their view, justifies that, not even October 7th. They are not focused in their criticism, it is Jews as a people that are being held responsible.
Interesting
But let me make sure I am getting you right -
It is perfectly arguable that October 7 does niot justify what Israel has done since in Gaza - I'm not sure I agree, but I could easily be persuaded of this, it is morally complex
However you are saying - if I understand you correctly - that people you know are going from that opinion (justifiable) to holding every Jewish person accountable for the behaviour of Israel in Gaza (unjustifiable)?
Yes, and that is where I differ from them. Criticism of Netanyahu's government and its policies I have no problem with. They bear a huge part of the responsibility for the current mess.
Holding Jews in this country responsible for this, just because they are Jewish, is wrong. Very wrong. Yesterday there were Palestinians and their supporters campaigning in Princes Street in Edinburgh. They had no doubt who their enemy was. it was Jews. All Jews. They wanted them dead.
I witnessed the same on the big Palestinian march in London. Naked and overt Jew-hatred. Horrendous
I don't know how we are going to root it out, but we need to root it out. It really doesn't help that educated clever people like my Lib Dem friend are happily parroting the same hateful nonsense albeit in more eloquent tones, it provides cover for even more extreme views
Let's hope no one is suggesting all UK Jews should be rounded up and interned.
Wasn’t there a poster on PB arguing that all of certain group should be detained without trial? Name escapes me….
Tories? You could probably justify that under the Mental Health Act
ON topic I am watching the darts. I've noticed that darts has got way more popular in recent years, but I had no idea HOW popular
The winner of this year's World Darts Championship will get half a MILLION quid
That's incredible for a pub sport
That’s been the prize for the last few years. Barry Hearn basically has revitalised the sport. There was a very bitter split many years ago with the top 15 players ad the old BDO who were running it into the ground.
There’s a documentary about it out there on YouTube. Well worth watching.
I shall check it out. The rise of darts fascinates me (a lot of things fascinate me)
I knew it was popular in Holland I had no idea it is now big in Germany
The PDC run a European Tour playing in several major cities. It’s always popular. The game is gaining popularity on mainland Europe.
Here, from the good old days, you can cut the fag smoke with a knife.
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
His point was that he believed it was/is oppressive for Muslim women to (have to wear) the burka. Is your belief in cultural relativism such that you applaud the seeming (because I have no idea beyond a well educated guess) subjugation of women from a particular culture.
That was simply a mealy mouthed Johnson justification.
First blessing for a same sex couple in the Church of England took place today at St John the Baptist Church in Felixstowe, Suffolk after approval from the House of Bishops and Synod https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-67743298
From the pictures that looks like insider trading HY.
A nice story and good luck to them.
Weird that gay couples would want the blessing of an institution that so obviously despises them.
I don't think despise sufficiently captures the attitude of the CofE towards gay people.
More tea vicar?
So you are a fan of women wearing the burka.
I have no opinion of women wearing a burka if it is entirely the choice of the wearer. I understand the notion of subjugation, and I am sure in some instances that is the case. Nonetheless Johnson was dog whistling.
Likewise if you choose to dance down Oxford Street in jockstrap and waders that is entirely appropriate as far as I am concerned. Live and let live, I say
You have no opinion on women wearing a burka if it is entirely the choice of the wearer.
LOL.
And you are a leftie?
Please explain.
And I am a proud centrist.
Isn't a centrist just someone who allows their political stance to be defined by others? The centrist position in the 90's and 2000's was that gay civil partnerships were a positive development but that they should not have the status of marriages. That stance has now evaporated like a puddle in the Sahara. Are you happy for all your dearly held beliefs of today to do the same, because they're not actually wise, or just, or based on any immutable truth or good sense, they're just the result of a meaningless triangulation between two opposing sides?
I am not sure that is an accurate assessment. But I'll buy into your narrative for the time being at least.
Has anyone else encountered unexpected anti-Semitism?
That poll cited by @williamglenn suggests that I am observing something real
Yes, I have heard colleagues disgusted and repulsed by what is happening in Gaza. Nothing, in their view, justifies that, not even October 7th. They are not focused in their criticism, it is Jews as a people that are being held responsible.
Interesting
But let me make sure I am getting you right -
It is perfectly arguable that October 7 does niot justify what Israel has done since in Gaza - I'm not sure I agree, but I could easily be persuaded of this, it is morally complex
However you are saying - if I understand you correctly - that people you know are going from that opinion (justifiable) to holding every Jewish person accountable for the behaviour of Israel in Gaza (unjustifiable)?
Yes, and that is where I differ from them. Criticism of Netanyahu's government and its policies I have no problem with. They bear a huge part of the responsibility for the current mess.
Holding Jews in this country responsible for this, just because they are Jewish, is wrong. Very wrong. Yesterday there were Palestinians and their supporters campaigning in Princes Street in Edinburgh. They had no doubt who their enemy was. it was Jews. All Jews. They wanted them dead.
I witnessed the same on the big Palestinian march in London. Naked and overt Jew-hatred. Horrendous
I don't know how we are going to root it out, but we need to root it out. It really doesn't help that educated clever people like my Lib Dem friend are happily parroting the same hateful nonsense albeit in more eloquent tones, it provides cover for even more extreme views
Let's hope no one is suggesting all UK Jews should be rounded up and interned.
Wasn’t there a poster on PB arguing that all of certain group should be detained without trial? Name escapes me….
Tories? You could probably justify that under the Mental Health Act
Pretty sure it was someone who writes for the Spectator. Rum cove - always stalking another poster.
Has anyone else encountered unexpected anti-Semitism?
That poll cited by @williamglenn suggests that I am observing something real
Yes, I have heard colleagues disgusted and repulsed by what is happening in Gaza. Nothing, in their view, justifies that, not even October 7th. They are not focused in their criticism, it is Jews as a people that are being held responsible.
Interesting
But let me make sure I am getting you right -
It is perfectly arguable that October 7 does niot justify what Israel has done since in Gaza - I'm not sure I agree, but I could easily be persuaded of this, it is morally complex
However you are saying - if I understand you correctly - that people you know are going from that opinion (justifiable) to holding every Jewish person accountable for the behaviour of Israel in Gaza (unjustifiable)?
Yes, and that is where I differ from them. Criticism of Netanyahu's government and its policies I have no problem with. They bear a huge part of the responsibility for the current mess.
Holding Jews in this country responsible for this, just because they are Jewish, is wrong. Very wrong. Yesterday there were Palestinians and their supporters campaigning in Princes Street in Edinburgh. They had no doubt who their enemy was. it was Jews. All Jews. They wanted them dead.
I witnessed the same on the big Palestinian march in London. Naked and overt Jew-hatred. Horrendous
I don't know how we are going to root it out, but we need to root it out. It really doesn't help that educated clever people like my Lib Dem friend are happily parroting the same hateful nonsense albeit in more eloquent tones, it provides cover for even more extreme views
Let's hope no one is suggesting all UK Jews should be rounded up and interned.
Wasn’t there a poster on PB arguing that all of certain group should be detained without trial? Name escapes me….
Tories? You could probably justify that under the Mental Health Act
Pretty sure it was someone who writes for the Spectator. Rum cove - always stalking another poster.
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
He was arguing for the rights of Muslim women not to wear the burqa
And he said that the international NGO canal tended to view locals like colonialists viewed the “natives” in their day
If you could look past the colourful language to comprehend the argument we might make progress
ON topic I am watching the darts. I've noticed that darts has got way more popular in recent years, but I had no idea HOW popular
The winner of this year's World Darts Championship will get half a MILLION quid
That's incredible for a pub sport
That’s been the prize for the last few years. Barry Hearn basically has revitalised the sport. There was a very bitter split many years ago with the top 15 players ad the old BDO who were running it into the ground.
There’s a documentary about it out there on YouTube. Well worth watching.
I shall check it out. The rise of darts fascinates me (a lot of things fascinate me)
I knew it was popular in Holland I had no idea it is now big in Germany
The PDC run a European Tour playing in several major cities. It’s always popular. The game is gaining popularity on mainland Europe.
Here, from the good old days, you can cut the fag smoke with a knife.
I remember as a kid, we used to watch "Bullseye" almost religiously every Sunday afternoon, but whenever it comes up on the Challenge Channel (Freeview 48), Mum keeps saying "Did we really use to watch this shit?" and changes the channel
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
He was arguing for the rights of Muslim women not to wear the burqa
And he said that the international NGO canal tended to view locals like colonialists viewed the “natives” in their day
If you could look past the colourful language to comprehend the argument we might make progress
The use of the "colourful language" is deliberate. It is the language of a dog whistle. It says something specific to a particular audience under the cover of a faux academic thesis.
First blessing for a same sex couple in the Church of England took place today at St John the Baptist Church in Felixstowe, Suffolk after approval from the House of Bishops and Synod https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-67743298
Not bad, only took 2000 years.
Another two millennia before the poor chaps are actually allowed to marry. Despite law of the land and all that, especially for a State Church.
ON topic I am watching the darts. I've noticed that darts has got way more popular in recent years, but I had no idea HOW popular
The winner of this year's World Darts Championship will get half a MILLION quid
That's incredible for a pub sport
That’s been the prize for the last few years. Barry Hearn basically has revitalised the sport. There was a very bitter split many years ago with the top 15 players ad the old BDO who were running it into the ground.
There’s a documentary about it out there on YouTube. Well worth watching.
I shall check it out. The rise of darts fascinates me (a lot of things fascinate me)
I knew it was popular in Holland I had no idea it is now big in Germany
Oddly there's a weird situation whereby it's incredibly popular as a TV and event sport. But is dying out in pubs because so many traditional ones are closing and the ones that survive tend to switch to food. Thus removing the dartboard for more space. Being replaced by dedicated darts places though that treat it a bit like Top Golf. The days of the pub darts player may be numbered though - with the next generation of players white collar WFHs who can hone their skills on a board at home.
It was very good for honing mental arithmetic skills.
So is snooker.
And cash, of course.
*looks round nervously in case Anabobazina is nearby*
ON topic I am watching the darts. I've noticed that darts has got way more popular in recent years, but I had no idea HOW popular
The winner of this year's World Darts Championship will get half a MILLION quid
That's incredible for a pub sport
That’s been the prize for the last few years. Barry Hearn basically has revitalised the sport. There was a very bitter split many years ago with the top 15 players ad the old BDO who were running it into the ground.
There’s a documentary about it out there on YouTube. Well worth watching.
I shall check it out. The rise of darts fascinates me (a lot of things fascinate me)
I knew it was popular in Holland I had no idea it is now big in Germany
The PDC run a European Tour playing in several major cities. It’s always popular. The game is gaining popularity on mainland Europe.
Here, from the good old days, you can cut the fag smoke with a knife.
Has anyone else encountered unexpected anti-Semitism?
That poll cited by @williamglenn suggests that I am observing something real
Yes, I have heard colleagues disgusted and repulsed by what is happening in Gaza. Nothing, in their view, justifies that, not even October 7th. They are not focused in their criticism, it is Jews as a people that are being held responsible.
Interesting
But let me make sure I am getting you right -
It is perfectly arguable that October 7 does niot justify what Israel has done since in Gaza - I'm not sure I agree, but I could easily be persuaded of this, it is morally complex
However you are saying - if I understand you correctly - that people you know are going from that opinion (justifiable) to holding every Jewish person accountable for the behaviour of Israel in Gaza (unjustifiable)?
Yes, and that is where I differ from them. Criticism of Netanyahu's government and its policies I have no problem with. They bear a huge part of the responsibility for the current mess.
Holding Jews in this country responsible for this, just because they are Jewish, is wrong. Very wrong. Yesterday there were Palestinians and their supporters campaigning in Princes Street in Edinburgh. They had no doubt who their enemy was. it was Jews. All Jews. They wanted them dead.
I witnessed the same on the big Palestinian march in London. Naked and overt Jew-hatred. Horrendous
I don't know how we are going to root it out, but we need to root it out. It really doesn't help that educated clever people like my Lib Dem friend are happily parroting the same hateful nonsense albeit in more eloquent tones, it provides cover for even more extreme views
Let's hope no one is suggesting all UK Jews should be rounded up and interned.
Wasn’t there a poster on PB arguing that all of certain group should be detained without trial? Name escapes me….
Tories? You could probably justify that under the Mental Health Act
Pretty sure it was someone who writes for the Spectator. Rum cove - always stalking another poster.
I thought it was about 6 of them.
Looking on the bright side, as I'm always inclined to do, antisemitism does at least bring Christians and Moslems together in a spirit of interfaith amity that is rarely seen these days.
Has anyone else encountered unexpected anti-Semitism?
That poll cited by @williamglenn suggests that I am observing something real
Yes, I have heard colleagues disgusted and repulsed by what is happening in Gaza. Nothing, in their view, justifies that, not even October 7th. They are not focused in their criticism, it is Jews as a people that are being held responsible.
Interesting
But let me make sure I am getting you right -
It is perfectly arguable that October 7 does niot justify what Israel has done since in Gaza - I'm not sure I agree, but I could easily be persuaded of this, it is morally complex
However you are saying - if I understand you correctly - that people you know are going from that opinion (justifiable) to holding every Jewish person accountable for the behaviour of Israel in Gaza (unjustifiable)?
Yes, and that is where I differ from them. Criticism of Netanyahu's government and its policies I have no problem with. They bear a huge part of the responsibility for the current mess.
Holding Jews in this country responsible for this, just because they are Jewish, is wrong. Very wrong. Yesterday there were Palestinians and their supporters campaigning in Princes Street in Edinburgh. They had no doubt who their enemy was. it was Jews. All Jews. They wanted them dead.
I witnessed the same on the big Palestinian march in London. Naked and overt Jew-hatred. Horrendous
I don't know how we are going to root it out, but we need to root it out. It really doesn't help that educated clever people like my Lib Dem friend are happily parroting the same hateful nonsense albeit in more eloquent tones, it provides cover for even more extreme views
Let's hope no one is suggesting all UK Jews should be rounded up and interned.
Wasn’t there a poster on PB arguing that all of certain group should be detained without trial? Name escapes me….
Tories? You could probably justify that under the Mental Health Act
Pretty sure it was someone who writes for the Spectator. Rum cove - always stalking another poster.
I thought it was about 6 of them.
Looking on the bright side, as I'm always inclined to do, antisemitism does at least bring Christians and Moslems together in a spirit of interfaith amity that is rarely seen these days.
I thought Corbyn was an atheist? Stalin certainly was.
I suppose Hitler's deism adds a further religious tradition in.
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
No, an absolute equivalence, despite you correctly citing at the very least an acquiescence to anti-Semitism in the Corbyn column.
Johnson was amoral, weak and self-interested. Not talents you look for in a leader
Someone who - at the best possible interpretation- tolerates genocidal hatred for another race is evil
Has anyone else encountered unexpected anti-Semitism?
That poll cited by @williamglenn suggests that I am observing something real
Yes, I have heard colleagues disgusted and repulsed by what is happening in Gaza. Nothing, in their view, justifies that, not even October 7th. They are not focused in their criticism, it is Jews as a people that are being held responsible.
Interesting
But let me make sure I am getting you right -
It is perfectly arguable that October 7 does niot justify what Israel has done since in Gaza - I'm not sure I agree, but I could easily be persuaded of this, it is morally complex
However you are saying - if I understand you correctly - that people you know are going from that opinion (justifiable) to holding every Jewish person accountable for the behaviour of Israel in Gaza (unjustifiable)?
Yes, and that is where I differ from them. Criticism of Netanyahu's government and its policies I have no problem with. They bear a huge part of the responsibility for the current mess.
Holding Jews in this country responsible for this, just because they are Jewish, is wrong. Very wrong. Yesterday there were Palestinians and their supporters campaigning in Princes Street in Edinburgh. They had no doubt who their enemy was. it was Jews. All Jews. They wanted them dead.
I witnessed the same on the big Palestinian march in London. Naked and overt Jew-hatred. Horrendous
I don't know how we are going to root it out, but we need to root it out. It really doesn't help that educated clever people like my Lib Dem friend are happily parroting the same hateful nonsense albeit in more eloquent tones, it provides cover for even more extreme views
Let's hope no one is suggesting all UK Jews should be rounded up and interned.
Wasn’t there a poster on PB arguing that all of certain group should be detained without trial? Name escapes me….
Tories? You could probably justify that under the Mental Health Act
Pretty sure it was someone who writes for the Spectator. Rum cove - always stalking another poster.
Has anyone else encountered unexpected anti-Semitism?
That poll cited by @williamglenn suggests that I am observing something real
It’s fairly common to encounter racism. Many people have no idea that you don’t have to shave your head, get badly spelt tattoos, drink 15 cans of cheap beer and join the EDL to be a racist.
If I had a pound for those occasions when the wine and cocaine was in at a posh event. And someone went “don’t get me wrong, but…”
When I asked my Ghanaian ex why she preferred talking to some unreconstructed South Africans at a do we went to - she kinda sighed and said “they are honest about their racism - half the other people in the room are like that, but just lie about it”
This is interesting, but again it is whataboutery
Of course racism is always with us, like poverty, hopefully one day we can abolish both
However I am specifically talking about anti-Semitism, and its sudden and overt re-appearance in society, often unabashed, and often from educated people - this to me is new and deeply perturbing
I don’t think it has just reappeared, suddenly, overly or otherwise.
It was there throughout Trump’s presidency.
It has been a problem for the Labour Party for some time.
It appears more salient to you right now because of your political views, particularly your Islamophobia as many but not all of those currently expressing antisemitic views are Muslims. It is also a bit more salient in reality simply because the situation in Gaza is so prominent in the news.
That’s not to diminish the problem, which is significant. But it’s naive of you to claim it has suddenly reappeared.
I shall pass over your tawdry ad hominens, out of politeness, and address the major point
You're simply wrong in this case. As I have now said several times, this friend of mine has NEVER displayed a hint of anti-Semitism before, yet suddenly there it was, last night, out of nowhere. So in this insance yes it "suddenly appeared"
And the polling of young people lends credence to the idea that it is resurgent
Gah, just catching up, hadn’t meant to go ad hominem, apologies. I can be a bit punchy on here.
Would you not describe yourself as an Islamophobe, though? I get it’s perjorative, but it’s healthy to lean into one’s failings.
I’m a flaming hypocrite, for example, and have some mildly fascist views about the expendability of babies.
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
No, an absolute equivalence, despite you correctly citing at the very least an acquiescence to anti-Semitism in the Corbyn column.
Johnson was amoral, weak and self-interested. Not talents you look for in a leader
Someone who - at the best possible interpretation- tolerates genocidal hatred for another race is evil
Those are not equivalent faults
I wrote a few days ago that there are two very different types of bigotry. The bigotry of superiority: dismissive, casual, mocking, whose violence is chronic; and the bigotry of resentment: hateful, angry, usually bubbling under the surface but whose violence can be acute and explosive.
Most genocides are born of the second type. But not exclusively: the genocides of the Australian aborigines and those practised by the conquistadors were of the former sort.
Has anyone else encountered unexpected anti-Semitism?
That poll cited by @williamglenn suggests that I am observing something real
It’s fairly common to encounter racism. Many people have no idea that you don’t have to shave your head, get badly spelt tattoos, drink 15 cans of cheap beer and join the EDL to be a racist.
If I had a pound for those occasions when the wine and cocaine was in at a posh event. And someone went “don’t get me wrong, but…”
When I asked my Ghanaian ex why she preferred talking to some unreconstructed South Africans at a do we went to - she kinda sighed and said “they are honest about their racism - half the other people in the room are like that, but just lie about it”
This is interesting, but again it is whataboutery
Of course racism is always with us, like poverty, hopefully one day we can abolish both
However I am specifically talking about anti-Semitism, and its sudden and overt re-appearance in society, often unabashed, and often from educated people - this to me is new and deeply perturbing
I don’t think it has just reappeared, suddenly, overly or otherwise.
It was there throughout Trump’s presidency.
It has been a problem for the Labour Party for some time.
It appears more salient to you right now because of your political views, particularly your Islamophobia as many but not all of those currently expressing antisemitic views are Muslims. It is also a bit more salient in reality simply because the situation in Gaza is so prominent in the news.
That’s not to diminish the problem, which is significant. But it’s naive of you to claim it has suddenly reappeared.
I shall pass over your tawdry ad hominens, out of politeness, and address the major point
You're simply wrong in this case. As I have now said several times, this friend of mine has NEVER displayed a hint of anti-Semitism before, yet suddenly there it was, last night, out of nowhere. So in this insance yes it "suddenly appeared"
And the polling of young people lends credence to the idea that it is resurgent
Gah, just catching up, hadn’t meant to go ad hominem, apologies. I can be a bit punchy on here.
Would you not describe yourself as an Islamophobe, though? I get it’s perjorative, but it’s healthy to lean into one’s failings.
I’m a flaming hypocrite, for example, and have some mildly fascist views about the expendability of babies.
An episode of Would I Lie to You. It’s David Mitchell’s turn. He picks up the card: “I have some mildly fascist views about the expendability of babies”.
Has anyone else encountered unexpected anti-Semitism?
That poll cited by @williamglenn suggests that I am observing something real
It’s fairly common to encounter racism. Many people have no idea that you don’t have to shave your head, get badly spelt tattoos, drink 15 cans of cheap beer and join the EDL to be a racist.
If I had a pound for those occasions when the wine and cocaine was in at a posh event. And someone went “don’t get me wrong, but…”
When I asked my Ghanaian ex why she preferred talking to some unreconstructed South Africans at a do we went to - she kinda sighed and said “they are honest about their racism - half the other people in the room are like that, but just lie about it”
This is interesting, but again it is whataboutery
Of course racism is always with us, like poverty, hopefully one day we can abolish both
However I am specifically talking about anti-Semitism, and its sudden and overt re-appearance in society, often unabashed, and often from educated people - this to me is new and deeply perturbing
I don’t think it has just reappeared, suddenly, overly or otherwise.
It was there throughout Trump’s presidency.
It has been a problem for the Labour Party for some time.
It appears more salient to you right now because of your political views, particularly your Islamophobia as many but not all of those currently expressing antisemitic views are Muslims. It is also a bit more salient in reality simply because the situation in Gaza is so prominent in the news.
That’s not to diminish the problem, which is significant. But it’s naive of you to claim it has suddenly reappeared.
I shall pass over your tawdry ad hominens, out of politeness, and address the major point
You're simply wrong in this case. As I have now said several times, this friend of mine has NEVER displayed a hint of anti-Semitism before, yet suddenly there it was, last night, out of nowhere. So in this insance yes it "suddenly appeared"
And the polling of young people lends credence to the idea that it is resurgent
Gah, just catching up, hadn’t meant to go ad hominem, apologies. I can be a bit punchy on here.
Would you not describe yourself as an Islamophobe, though? I get it’s perjorative, but it’s healthy to lean into one’s failings.
I’m a flaming hypocrite, for example, and have some mildly fascist views about the expendability of babies.
Well for a start there is the salient point that phobia technically means an "extreme and irrational fear" and fears of more conservative forms of Islam are, unfortunately, completely rational:
But in common parlance Islamophobia = "racist dislike of Muslims" and I am absolutely not admitting to that. Some of my greatest travel highs have been in Islamic countries, and I have made good friends throiughout the Islamic world, especially in Egypt and Malaysia. At its best Islam can be a marvellous religion, egalitarian in nature and elegant in its art and liturgy
Sadly much modern Islam is not like this, So I'd classify mysef as "Islamo-wary". As Islam works its way through this present unpleasant lurch into fundamentalism - from the Taliban to Wahhabism, from ISIS to the Muslim Brotherhood to Hamas - I think the west is right to be wary of importing more Islam. From Sweden to France we see where it ends. In Denmark they have just brought in Blasphemy Laws- why? Violent menace from the Islamic world, which will not tolerate ridicule
We are reversing the Enlightenment - a crucial part of which is the freedom to mock religion - because we are scared of medieval religionists - ie Islam. It is deeply depressing. And yes it makes me Islamo-wary
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
He was arguing for the rights of Muslim women not to wear the burqa
And he said that the international NGO canal tended to view locals like colonialists viewed the “natives” in their day
If you could look past the colourful language to comprehend the argument we might make progress
The use of the "colourful language" is deliberate. It is the language of a dog whistle. It says something specific to a particular audience under the cover of a faux academic thesis.
Colourful language is irrelevant. He was railing against the wearing of burkas by women.
Something the lefties (and centrists) on here seem to be championing.
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
No, an absolute equivalence, despite you correctly citing at the very least an acquiescence to anti-Semitism in the Corbyn column.
Johnson was amoral, weak and self-interested. Not talents you look for in a leader
Someone who - at the best possible interpretation- tolerates genocidal hatred for another race is evil
Those are not equivalent faults
I wrote a few days ago that there are two very different types of bigotry. The bigotry of superiority: dismissive, casual, mocking, whose violence is chronic; and the bigotry of resentment: hateful, angry, usually bubbling under the surface but whose violence can be acute and explosive.
Most genocides are born of the second type. But not exclusively: the genocides of the Australian aborigines and those practised by the conquistadors were of the former sort.
May I recommend to you and others "The Australian Wars" on iPlayer, about the genocides of Aboriginal Australians? Arresting viewing.
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
He was arguing for the rights of Muslim women not to wear the burqa
And he said that the international NGO canal tended to view locals like colonialists viewed the “natives” in their day
If you could look past the colourful language to comprehend the argument we might make progress
The use of the "colourful language" is deliberate. It is the language of a dog whistle. It says something specific to a particular audience under the cover of a faux academic thesis.
Colourful language is irrelevant. He was railing against the wearing of burkas by women.
Something the lefties (and centrists) on here seem to be championing.
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
No, an absolute equivalence, despite you correctly citing at the very least an acquiescence to anti-Semitism in the Corbyn column.
Johnson was amoral, weak and self-interested. Not talents you look for in a leader
Someone who - at the best possible interpretation- tolerates genocidal hatred for another race is evil
Those are not equivalent faults
I wrote a few days ago that there are two very different types of bigotry. The bigotry of superiority: dismissive, casual, mocking, whose violence is chronic; and the bigotry of resentment: hateful, angry, usually bubbling under the surface but whose violence can be acute and explosive.
Most genocides are born of the second type. But not exclusively: the genocides of the Australian aborigines and those practised by the conquistadors were of the former sort.
There was no "genocide of the Australian aborigines"
Genocide means "the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group"
That never happened in Australia. The British Empire had no desire to annihilate a population which represented no threat whatsoever. What happened was that aboriginal culture and society was absolutely shattered by contact with the "vastly superior" technology and entirely alien mores of white European invaders - aboriginal cultural self confidence went into freefall and has never really recovered. In sheer numbers, the population decline of Australian aborigines was down to disease - eg smallpox. It's worth noting that there are now more aboriginal Australians than ever
The one exception to this is the horror of Tasmania, but even then I'm not sure it strictly qualifies as a "genocide"
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
He was arguing for the rights of Muslim women not to wear the burqa
And he said that the international NGO canal tended to view locals like colonialists viewed the “natives” in their day
If you could look past the colourful language to comprehend the argument we might make progress
The use of the "colourful language" is deliberate. It is the language of a dog whistle. It says something specific to a particular audience under the cover of a faux academic thesis.
Colourful language is irrelevant. He was railing against the wearing of burkas by women.
Something the lefties (and centrists) on here seem to be championing.
Christmas wine shopping tip from my weekend trip up t’north to Wetherby, where they have this chain of authentic Yorkshire grocers called “Morrisons”.
Quite remarkably, Morrisons is still selling (cunningly disguised as own label English Sparkling Wine) the surplus stock overhang of 2010 Nyetimber, which it started flogging off 3 years ago. Nyetimber passes this stuff into circulation through its nom de plume “Rolling Green Hills Ltd”. But it’s Nyetimber. They even passed a bit of it off via Lidl last year. They must have had a proper glut in 2010.
The stuff is £18 a bottle. And it’s incredibly good. 2010 was a very good harvest, and several years sur latte followed by almost a decade now on cork post disgorging means it’s venerable, a bit golden, and delicious.
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
No, an absolute equivalence, despite you correctly citing at the very least an acquiescence to anti-Semitism in the Corbyn column.
Johnson was amoral, weak and self-interested. Not talents you look for in a leader
Someone who - at the best possible interpretation- tolerates genocidal hatred for another race is evil
Those are not equivalent faults
I wrote a few days ago that there are two very different types of bigotry. The bigotry of superiority: dismissive, casual, mocking, whose violence is chronic; and the bigotry of resentment: hateful, angry, usually bubbling under the surface but whose violence can be acute and explosive.
Most genocides are born of the second type. But not exclusively: the genocides of the Australian aborigines and those practised by the conquistadors were of the former sort.
There was no "genocide of the Australian aborigines"
Genocide means "the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group"
That never happened in Australia. The British Empire had no desire to annihilate a population which represented no threat whatsoever. What happened was that aboriginal culture and society was absolutely shattered by contact with the "vastly superior" technology and entirely alien mores of white European invaders - aboriginal cultural self confidence went into freefall and has never really recovered. In sheer numbers, the population decline of Australian aborigines was down to disease - eg smallpox. It's worth noting that there are now more aboriginal Australians than ever
The one exception to this is the horror of Tasmania, but even then I'm not sure it strictly qualifies as a "genocide"
I shall watch “The Australian Wars” on iplayer as recommended above and let you know.
Has anyone else encountered unexpected anti-Semitism?
That poll cited by @williamglenn suggests that I am observing something real
It’s fairly common to encounter racism. Many people have no idea that you don’t have to shave your head, get badly spelt tattoos, drink 15 cans of cheap beer and join the EDL to be a racist.
If I had a pound for those occasions when the wine and cocaine was in at a posh event. And someone went “don’t get me wrong, but…”
When I asked my Ghanaian ex why she preferred talking to some unreconstructed South Africans at a do we went to - she kinda sighed and said “they are honest about their racism - half the other people in the room are like that, but just lie about it”
This is interesting, but again it is whataboutery
Of course racism is always with us, like poverty, hopefully one day we can abolish both
However I am specifically talking about anti-Semitism, and its sudden and overt re-appearance in society, often unabashed, and often from educated people - this to me is new and deeply perturbing
I don’t think it has just reappeared, suddenly, overly or otherwise.
It was there throughout Trump’s presidency.
It has been a problem for the Labour Party for some time.
It appears more salient to you right now because of your political views, particularly your Islamophobia as many but not all of those currently expressing antisemitic views are Muslims. It is also a bit more salient in reality simply because the situation in Gaza is so prominent in the news.
That’s not to diminish the problem, which is significant. But it’s naive of you to claim it has suddenly reappeared.
I shall pass over your tawdry ad hominens, out of politeness, and address the major point
You're simply wrong in this case. As I have now said several times, this friend of mine has NEVER displayed a hint of anti-Semitism before, yet suddenly there it was, last night, out of nowhere. So in this insance yes it "suddenly appeared"
And the polling of young people lends credence to the idea that it is resurgent
Gah, just catching up, hadn’t meant to go ad hominem, apologies. I can be a bit punchy on here.
Would you not describe yourself as an Islamophobe, though? I get it’s perjorative, but it’s healthy to lean into one’s failings.
I’m a flaming hypocrite, for example, and have some mildly fascist views about the expendability of babies.
Well for a start there is the salient point that phobia technically means an "extreme and irrational fear" and fears of more conservative forms of Islam are, unfortunately, completely rational:
But in common parlance Islamophobia = "racist dislike of Muslims" and I am absolutely not admitting to that. Some of my greatest travel highs have been in Islamic countries, and I have made good friends throiughout the Islamic world, especially in Egypt and Malaysia. At its best Islam can be a marvellous religion, egalitarian in nature and elegant in its art and liturgy
Sadly much modern Islam is not like this, So I'd classify mysef as "Islamo-wary". As Islam works its way through this present unpleasant lurch into fundamentalism - from the Taliban to Wahhabism, from ISIS to the Muslim Brotherhood to Hamas - I think the west is right to be wary of importing more Islam. From Sweden to France we see where it ends. In Denmark they have just brought in Blasphemy Laws- why? Violent menace from the Islamic world, which will not tolerate ridicule
We are reversing the Enlightenment - a crucial part of which is the freedom to mock religion - because we are scared of medieval religionists - ie Islam. It is deeply depressing. And yes it makes me Islamo-wary
Fair enough. I think I’d agree with your description of the problem, but not sure the solution of avoiding importing Islam gets us anywhere towards preserving the Enlightenment.
It feels like the same sentiment that holds UK Jews responsible for Netanyahu’s horrors that so (rightly) exercises you on here.
How would you react if someone described themselves as Jew-wary? Doesn’t sound great, does it?
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
He was arguing for the rights of Muslim women not to wear the burqa
And he said that the international NGO canal tended to view locals like colonialists viewed the “natives” in their day
If you could look past the colourful language to comprehend the argument we might make progress
The use of the "colourful language" is deliberate. It is the language of a dog whistle. It says something specific to a particular audience under the cover of a faux academic thesis.
Colourful language is irrelevant. He was railing against the wearing of burkas by women.
Something the lefties (and centrists) on here seem to be championing.
Christmas wine shopping tip from my weekend trip up t’north to Wetherby, where they have this chain of authentic Yorkshire grocers called “Morrisons”.
Quite remarkably, Morrisons is still selling (cunningly disguised as own label English Sparkling Wine) the surplus stock overhang of 2010 Nyetimber, which it started flogging off 3 years ago. Nyetimber passes this stuff into circulation through its nom de plume “Rolling Green Hills Ltd”. But it’s Nyetimber. They even passed a bit of it off via Lidl last year. They must have had a proper glut in 2010.
The stuff is £18 a bottle. And it’s incredibly good. 2010 was a very good harvest, and several years sur latte followed by almost a decade now on cork post disgorging means it’s venerable, a bit golden, and delicious.
Great tip. I had a case a while ago then forgot about it. I'm happily drinking Aldi's Monsigny that said
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
He was arguing for the rights of Muslim women not to wear the burqa
And he said that the international NGO canal tended to view locals like colonialists viewed the “natives” in their day
If you could look past the colourful language to comprehend the argument we might make progress
The use of the "colourful language" is deliberate. It is the language of a dog whistle. It says something specific to a particular audience under the cover of a faux academic thesis.
Colourful language is irrelevant. He was railing against the wearing of burkas by women.
Something the lefties (and centrists) on here seem to be championing.
Are you in favour of women wearing burkas?
Women and indeed men should be allowed to wear whatever they want.
My idiot cat (one of my idiot cats) has just fallen off the roof. Excited by the prospect of an unexpolored egress, she leapt for the unusually open velux window, and soon found a slate roof offers claws little purchase. After a long and panicked descent, the evenual fall from the edge of the roof to the ground was only about 9 feet. Eminently manageable for even the clumsiest cat. So she is fine and has come back in the front door pretending all is fine. But inasmuch as a cat can look embarassed, she is looking rather embarassed by the whole escapade.
My idiot cat (one of my idiot cats) has just fallen off the roof. Excited by the prospect of an unexpolored egress, she leapt for the unusually open velux window, and soon found a slate roof offers claws little purchase. After a long and panicked descent, the evenual fall from the edge of the roof to the ground was only about 9 feet. Eminently manageable for even the clumsiest cat. So she is fine and has come back in the front door pretending all is fine. But inasmuch as a cat can look embarassed, she is looking rather embarassed by the whole escapade.
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
He was arguing for the rights of Muslim women not to wear the burqa
And he said that the international NGO canal tended to view locals like colonialists viewed the “natives” in their day
If you could look past the colourful language to comprehend the argument we might make progress
The use of the "colourful language" is deliberate. It is the language of a dog whistle. It says something specific to a particular audience under the cover of a faux academic thesis.
Colourful language is irrelevant. He was railing against the wearing of burkas by women.
Something the lefties (and centrists) on here seem to be championing.
Are you in favour of women wearing burkas?
Women and indeed men should be allowed to wear whatever they want.
You absolute arse. Do you think those women want to wear a burka.
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
He was arguing for the rights of Muslim women not to wear the burqa
And he said that the international NGO canal tended to view locals like colonialists viewed the “natives” in their day
If you could look past the colourful language to comprehend the argument we might make progress
The use of the "colourful language" is deliberate. It is the language of a dog whistle. It says something specific to a particular audience under the cover of a faux academic thesis.
Colourful language is irrelevant. He was railing against the wearing of burkas by women.
Something the lefties (and centrists) on here seem to be championing.
Are you in favour of women wearing burkas?
Are you in favour of this?
No.
For some reason I am reminded of a conversation I had with someone. A militant atheist. We were talking about Northern Ireland.
I was told that my refusal to forgive The Men of Violence “wasn’t very Christian”
I stated that I wasn’t a Christian.
Apparently this isn’t allowed or something - it was the rejection of the Christian moral world view that was verboten.
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
He was arguing for the rights of Muslim women not to wear the burqa
And he said that the international NGO canal tended to view locals like colonialists viewed the “natives” in their day
If you could look past the colourful language to comprehend the argument we might make progress
The use of the "colourful language" is deliberate. It is the language of a dog whistle. It says something specific to a particular audience under the cover of a faux academic thesis.
Colourful language is irrelevant. He was railing against the wearing of burkas by women.
Something the lefties (and centrists) on here seem to be championing.
Are you in favour of women wearing burkas?
Are you in favour of this?
No.
How about this? Which do you prefer?
You are obviously a dickhead but please go for your life with the picture posts.
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
No, an absolute equivalence, despite you correctly citing at the very least an acquiescence to anti-Semitism in the Corbyn column.
Johnson was amoral, weak and self-interested. Not talents you look for in a leader
Someone who - at the best possible interpretation- tolerates genocidal hatred for another race is evil
Those are not equivalent faults
I wrote a few days ago that there are two very different types of bigotry. The bigotry of superiority: dismissive, casual, mocking, whose violence is chronic; and the bigotry of resentment: hateful, angry, usually bubbling under the surface but whose violence can be acute and explosive.
Most genocides are born of the second type. But not exclusively: the genocides of the Australian aborigines and those practised by the conquistadors were of the former sort.
There was no "genocide of the Australian aborigines"
Genocide means "the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group"
That never happened in Australia. The British Empire had no desire to annihilate a population which represented no threat whatsoever. What happened was that aboriginal culture and society was absolutely shattered by contact with the "vastly superior" technology and entirely alien mores of white European invaders - aboriginal cultural self confidence went into freefall and has never really recovered. In sheer numbers, the population decline of Australian aborigines was down to disease - eg smallpox. It's worth noting that there are now more aboriginal Australians than ever
The o exception to this is the horror of Tasmania, but even then I'm not sure it strictly qualifies as a "genocide"
I shall watch “The Australian Wars” on iplayer as recommended above and let you know.
My younger daughter is Australian and her grandfather is an expert in aboriginal history: he's produced/directed several excellent TV documentaries on the subject
He's taught me a lot. There was no genodice. The Australian aborigines did, nonetheless, suffer appallingly and were the victims of vile racism
The main problem was the total collapse of their social systems, so ancient and complex - they were simply obliterated by the unthinking whitefella who wanted to farm the land and mine the coal and didn't care or even realise that the landscape was laced with sacred networks which unpderpinned aboriginal worldviews. So the aborigines gave up and moved away
You can visit parts of Victoria and New South Wales where we know there were large aboriginal populations which have now completely disappeared. Because they were pre-literate we have no idea what they thought, what language they spoke, what they did and said and felt, it's deeply poignant
There are photos of aborigines encountering white men for the first time in really remote inland Australia ias late as the 1920s, even 1940s. The expressions of total bewilderment and profound terror on the faces of the native Australians are unforgettable
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
No, an absolute equivalence, despite you correctly citing at the very least an acquiescence to anti-Semitism in the Corbyn column.
Johnson was amoral, weak and self-interested. Not talents you look for in a leader
Someone who - at the best possible interpretation- tolerates genocidal hatred for another race is evil
Those are not equivalent faults
I wrote a few days ago that there are two very different types of bigotry. The bigotry of superiority: dismissive, casual, mocking, whose violence is chronic; and the bigotry of resentment: hateful, angry, usually bubbling under the surface but whose violence can be acute and explosive.
Most genocides are born of the second type. But not exclusively: the genocides of the Australian aborigines and those practised by the conquistadors were of the former sort.
There was no "genocide of the Australian aborigines"
Genocide means "the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group"
That never happened in Australia. The British Empire had no desire to annihilate a population which represented no threat whatsoever. What happened was that aboriginal culture and society was absolutely shattered by contact with the "vastly superior" technology and entirely alien mores of white European invaders - aboriginal cultural self confidence went into freefall and has never really recovered. In sheer numbers, the population decline of Australian aborigines was down to disease - eg smallpox. It's worth noting that there are now more aboriginal Australians than ever
The one exception to this is the horror of Tasmania, but even then I'm not sure it strictly qualifies as a "genocide"
I shall watch “The Australian Wars” on iplayer as recommended above and let you know.
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
He was arguing for the rights of Muslim women not to wear the burqa
And he said that the international NGO canal tended to view locals like colonialists viewed the “natives” in their day
If you could look past the colourful language to comprehend the argument we might make progress
No he was just being a racist prick. It's quite incredible to me that Johnson gets given a free pass on stuff like this. I guess it's some kind of hierarchy of racism shit.
Has anyone else encountered unexpected anti-Semitism?
That poll cited by @williamglenn suggests that I am observing something real
It’s fairly common to encounter racism. Many people have no idea that you don’t have to shave your head, get badly spelt tattoos, drink 15 cans of cheap beer and join the EDL to be a racist.
If I had a pound for those occasions when the wine and cocaine was in at a posh event. And someone went “don’t get me wrong, but…”
When I asked my Ghanaian ex why she preferred talking to some unreconstructed South Africans at a do we went to - she kinda sighed and said “they are honest about their racism - half the other people in the room are like that, but just lie about it”
This is interesting, but again it is whataboutery
Of course racism is always with us, like poverty, hopefully one day we can abolish both
However I am specifically talking about anti-Semitism, and its sudden and overt re-appearance in society, often unabashed, and often from educated people - this to me is new and deeply perturbing
I don’t think it has just reappeared, suddenly, overly or otherwise.
It was there throughout Trump’s presidency.
It has been a problem for the Labour Party for some time.
It appears more salient to you right now because of your political views, particularly your Islamophobia as many but not all of those currently expressing antisemitic views are Muslims. It is also a bit more salient in reality simply because the situation in Gaza is so prominent in the news.
That’s not to diminish the problem, which is significant. But it’s naive of you to claim it has suddenly reappeared.
I shall pass over your tawdry ad hominens, out of politeness, and address the major point
You're simply wrong in this case. As I have now said several times, this friend of mine has NEVER displayed a hint of anti-Semitism before, yet suddenly there it was, last night, out of nowhere. So in this insance yes it "suddenly appeared"
And the polling of young people lends credence to the idea that it is resurgent
Gah, just catching up, hadn’t meant to go ad hominem, apologies. I can be a bit punchy on here.
Would you not describe yourself as an Islamophobe, though? I get it’s perjorative, but it’s healthy to lean into one’s failings.
I’m a flaming hypocrite, for example, and have some mildly fascist views about the expendability of babies.
Well for a start there is the salient point that phobia technically means an "extreme and irrational fear" and fears of more conservative forms of Islam are, unfortunately, completely rational:
But in common parlance Islamophobia = "racist dislike of Muslims" and I am absolutely not admitting to that. Some of my greatest travel highs have been in Islamic countries, and I have made good friends throiughout the Islamic world, especially in Egypt and Malaysia. At its best Islam can be a marvellous religion, egalitarian in nature and elegant in its art and liturgy
Sadly much modern Islam is not like this, So I'd classify mysef as "Islamo-wary". As Islam works its way through this present unpleasant lurch into fundamentalism - from the Taliban to Wahhabism, from ISIS to the Muslim Brotherhood to Hamas - I think the west is right to be wary of importing more Islam. From Sweden to France we see where it ends. In Denmark they have just brought in Blasphemy Laws- why? Violent menace from the Islamic world, which will not tolerate ridicule
We are reversing the Enlightenment - a crucial part of which is the freedom to mock religion - because we are scared of medieval religionists - ie Islam. It is deeply depressing. And yes it makes me Islamo-wary
Fair enough. I think I’d agree with your description of the problem, but not sure the solution of avoiding importing Islam gets us anywhere towards preserving the Enlightenment.
It feels like the same sentiment that holds UK Jews responsible for Netanyahu’s horrors that so (rightly) exercises you on here.
How would you react if someone described themselves as Jew-wary? Doesn’t sound great, does it?
It doesn't sound great but then it's not the exact equivalent is it? You are referring to people I am referring to a religion
So the equivalent is "Judaism-wary" or "Zionism-wary", which both sound perfectly permissible to me
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
He was arguing for the rights of Muslim women not to wear the burqa
And he said that the international NGO canal tended to view locals like colonialists viewed the “natives” in their day
If you could look past the colourful language to comprehend the argument we might make progress
No he was just being a racist prick. It's quite incredible to me that Johnson gets given a free pass on stuff like this. I guess it's some kind of hierarchy of racism shit.
So you think that women want to wear the burka. You see what complete idiocy your thinking leads you to.
In the name of something or other, let's call it woke for shorthand, you applaud the subjugation of women.
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
He was arguing for the rights of Muslim women not to wear the burqa
And he said that the international NGO canal tended to view locals like colonialists viewed the “natives” in their day
If you could look past the colourful language to comprehend the argument we might make progress
The use of the "colourful language" is deliberate. It is the language of a dog whistle. It says something specific to a particular audience under the cover of a faux academic thesis.
Colourful language is irrelevant. He was railing against the wearing of burkas by women.
Something the lefties (and centrists) on here seem to be championing.
Are you in favour of women wearing burkas?
Are you in favour of this?
No.
For some reason I am reminded of a conversation I had with someone. A militant atheist. We were talking about Northern Ireland.
I was told that my refusal to forgive The Men of Violence “wasn’t very Christian”
I stated that I wasn’t a Christian.
Apparently this isn’t allowed or something - it was the rejection of the Christian moral world view that was verboten.
"Are you a Catholic atheist or a Protestant atheist?"
Has anyone else encountered unexpected anti-Semitism?
That poll cited by @williamglenn suggests that I am observing something real
It’s fairly common to encounter racism. Many people have no idea that you don’t have to shave your head, get badly spelt tattoos, drink 15 cans of cheap beer and join the EDL to be a racist.
If I had a pound for those occasions when the wine and cocaine was in at a posh event. And someone went “don’t get me wrong, but…”
When I asked my Ghanaian ex why she preferred talking to some unreconstructed South Africans at a do we went to - she kinda sighed and said “they are honest about their racism - half the other people in the room are like that, but just lie about it”
This is interesting, but again it is whataboutery
Of course racism is always with us, like poverty, hopefully one day we can abolish both
However I am specifically talking about anti-Semitism, and its sudden and overt re-appearance in society, often unabashed, and often from educated people - this to me is new and deeply perturbing
I don’t think it has just reappeared, suddenly, overly or otherwise.
It was there throughout Trump’s presidency.
It has been a problem for the Labour Party for some time.
It appears more salient to you right now because of your political views, particularly your Islamophobia as many but not all of those currently expressing antisemitic views are Muslims. It is also a bit more salient in reality simply because the situation in Gaza is so prominent in the news.
That’s not to diminish the problem, which is significant. But it’s naive of you to claim it has suddenly reappeared.
I shall pass over your tawdry ad hominens, out of politeness, and address the major point
You're simply wrong in this case. As I have now said several times, this friend of mine has NEVER displayed a hint of anti-Semitism before, yet suddenly there it was, last night, out of nowhere. So in this insance yes it "suddenly appeared"
And the polling of young people lends credence to the idea that it is resurgent
Gah, just catching up, hadn’t meant to go ad hominem, apologies. I can be a bit punchy on here.
Would you not describe yourself as an Islamophobe, though? I get it’s perjorative, but it’s healthy to lean into one’s failings.
I’m a flaming hypocrite, for example, and have some mildly fascist views about the expendability of babies.
Well for a start there is the salient point that phobia technically means an "extreme and irrational fear" and fears of more conservative forms of Islam are, unfortunately, completely rational:
But in common parlance Islamophobia = "racist dislike of Muslims" and I am absolutely not admitting to that. Some of my greatest travel highs have been in Islamic countries, and I have made good friends throiughout the Islamic world, especially in Egypt and Malaysia. At its best Islam can be a marvellous religion, egalitarian in nature and elegant in its art and liturgy
Sadly much modern Islam is not like this, So I'd classify mysef as "Islamo-wary". As Islam works its way through this present unpleasant lurch into fundamentalism - from the Taliban to Wahhabism, from ISIS to the Muslim Brotherhood to Hamas - I think the west is right to be wary of importing more Islam. From Sweden to France we see where it ends. In Denmark they have just brought in Blasphemy Laws- why? Violent menace from the Islamic world, which will not tolerate ridicule
We are reversing the Enlightenment - a crucial part of which is the freedom to mock religion - because we are scared of medieval religionists - ie Islam. It is deeply depressing. And yes it makes me Islamo-wary
Fair enough. I think I’d agree with your description of the problem, but not sure the solution of avoiding importing Islam gets us anywhere towards preserving the Enlightenment.
It feels like the same sentiment that holds UK Jews responsible for Netanyahu’s horrors that so (rightly) exercises you on here.
How would you react if someone described themselves as Jew-wary? Doesn’t sound great, does it?
It doesn't sound great but then it's not the exact equivalent is it? You are referring to people I am referring to a religion
So the equivalent is "Judaism-wary" or "Zionism-wary", which both sound perfectly permissible to me
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
He was arguing for the rights of Muslim women not to wear the burqa
And he said that the international NGO canal tended to view locals like colonialists viewed the “natives” in their day
If you could look past the colourful language to comprehend the argument we might make progress
The use of the "colourful language" is deliberate. It is the language of a dog whistle. It says something specific to a particular audience under the cover of a faux academic thesis.
Colourful language is irrelevant. He was railing against the wearing of burkas by women.
Something the lefties (and centrists) on here seem to be championing.
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
He was arguing for the rights of Muslim women not to wear the burqa
And he said that the international NGO canal tended to view locals like colonialists viewed the “natives” in their day
If you could look past the colourful language to comprehend the argument we might make progress
The use of the "colourful language" is deliberate. It is the language of a dog whistle. It says something specific to a particular audience under the cover of a faux academic thesis.
Colourful language is irrelevant. He was railing against the wearing of burkas by women.
Something the lefties (and centrists) on here seem to be championing.
Are you in favour of women wearing burkas?
Are you in favour of this?
No.
How about this? Which do you prefer?
You are obviously a dickhead but please go for your life with the picture posts.
I was just testing the nature of your objection to different kinds of headgear.
Is it because it's ugly? Is it because it's threatening?
I now see that your objection is because you think it is forced. No doubt it is in some cases, but I'd like to see the evidence of how many women are forced to wear the burqa and how many find it reassuring. I just don't know. Do you? You obviously feel strongly about it. I don't care one way or the other.
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
He was arguing for the rights of Muslim women not to wear the burqa
And he said that the international NGO canal tended to view locals like colonialists viewed the “natives” in their day
If you could look past the colourful language to comprehend the argument we might make progress
No he was just being a racist prick. It's quite incredible to me that Johnson gets given a free pass on stuff like this. I guess it's some kind of hierarchy of racism shit.
So you think that women want to wear the burka. You see what complete idiocy your thinking leads you to.
In the name of something or other, let's call it woke for shorthand, you applaud the subjugation of women.
Really you ought to take a look at yourself.
A lot of Muslim women are religiously very conservative and, yes, do want to wear the traditional garb. Now you can say that's result of religious indoctrination but they'd regard it very much as their preferred option.
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
He was arguing for the rights of Muslim women not to wear the burqa
And he said that the international NGO canal tended to view locals like colonialists viewed the “natives” in their day
If you could look past the colourful language to comprehend the argument we might make progress
No he was just being a racist prick. It's quite incredible to me that Johnson gets given a free pass on stuff like this. I guess it's some kind of hierarchy of racism shit.
So you think that women want to wear the burka. You see what complete idiocy your thinking leads you to.
In the name of something or other, let's call it woke for shorthand, you applaud the subjugation of women.
Really you ought to take a look at yourself.
I have utter contempt for any man who tries to control what women wear. You appear to be one of those men.
So now we have the situation on PB where all the right on lefties are passionately arguing for women to wear burkas.
You'd have to laugh if it wasn't so tragic
I’ll come over all centrist dad on this but it’s more complicated than that, isn’t it?
These forms of covering are very clearly patriarchal. Of course they are. And sometimes - see Iran for starters - they are deeply resented and cast off as soon as the morality police aren’t looking. But in other cases women are every bit as keen on their being worn as men are. Both the wearer - I’ve had surprising conversations myself with women from liberal families who adopted the hijab (though admittedly not niqab/burka) in adulthood as a choice - and then often the women around them, particularly mothers.
Is that internalising the patriarchy? Yes, probably. But that’s not uniquely a Muslim thing. My mother in law for a start. Straight out of the Republic of Gilead.
Christmas wine shopping tip from my weekend trip up t’north to Wetherby, where they have this chain of authentic Yorkshire grocers called “Morrisons”.
Quite remarkably, Morrisons is still selling (cunningly disguised as own label English Sparkling Wine) the surplus stock overhang of 2010 Nyetimber, which it started flogging off 3 years ago. Nyetimber passes this stuff into circulation through its nom de plume “Rolling Green Hills Ltd”. But it’s Nyetimber. They even passed a bit of it off via Lidl last year. They must have had a proper glut in 2010.
The stuff is £18 a bottle. And it’s incredibly good. 2010 was a very good harvest, and several years sur latte followed by almost a decade now on cork post disgorging means it’s venerable, a bit golden, and delicious.
Great tip. I had a case a while ago then forgot about it. I'm happily drinking Aldi's Monsigny that said
Aldi's also have Castellore Amarone 2020 for sale a £11.99. I bought a few bottles yesterday but confess I have yet to try it. Be surprised if it's not good value though.
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
He was arguing for the rights of Muslim women not to wear the burqa
And he said that the international NGO canal tended to view locals like colonialists viewed the “natives” in their day
If you could look past the colourful language to comprehend the argument we might make progress
No he was just being a racist prick. It's quite incredible to me that Johnson gets given a free pass on stuff like this. I guess it's some kind of hierarchy of racism shit.
So you think that women want to wear the burka. You see what complete idiocy your thinking leads you to.
In the name of something or other, let's call it woke for shorthand, you applaud the subjugation of women.
Really you ought to take a look at yourself.
I have utter contempt for any man who tries to control what women wear. You appear to be one of those men.
You prick. I have no idea how many women want to wear the burka vs how many are told to but one is too much and I'm betting that the number forced to is more than one.
But by all means go into battle for the right of women to be forced to wear the burka.
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
He was arguing for the rights of Muslim women not to wear the burqa
And he said that the international NGO canal tended to view locals like colonialists viewed the “natives” in their day
If you could look past the colourful language to comprehend the argument we might make progress
The use of the "colourful language" is deliberate. It is the language of a dog whistle. It says something specific to a particular audience under the cover of a faux academic thesis.
Colourful language is irrelevant. He was railing against the wearing of burkas by women.
Something the lefties (and centrists) on here seem to be championing.
Are you in favour of women wearing burkas?
Are you in favour of this?
No.
How about this? Which do you prefer?
You are obviously a dickhead but please go for your life with the picture posts.
I was just testing the nature of your objection to different kinds of headgear.
Is it because it's ugly? Is it because it's threatening?
I now see that your objection is because you think it is forced. No doubt it is in some cases, but I'd like to see the evidence of how many women are forced to wear the burqa and how many find it reassuring. I just don't know. Do you? You obviously feel strongly about it. I don't care one way or the other.
In Iran women are beaten, brutalised, jailed, tortured and sometimes killed because they refuse to wear "correct" Islamic clothing
You don't care one way or the other?
How about this teenage girl, who was beaten into a coma and died because of her "incorrect hijab"? Do you care one way ot the other about her?
"May I be sacrificed for your laughter... Ava Geravand has released a new video of #Armita_Geravand. Armita Geravand, a sixteen-year-old student, October 1st this year, fell into a coma after being beaten by the morality police of the Islamic Republic"
PB doesn't care "one way or the other" about this girl
"Armita Geravand was attacked by hijab patrol in a Tehran metro station on Sunday, October 1, 2023. The attack was so severe that she sustained head trauma and slipped into a coma.
She had suffered a brain hemorrhage due to a blow to her head, and her chances of survival were low. Concerned over the outbreak of protests, security forces took everything under control from the outset and restricted access to Armita, her family, friends and relatives.
The regime disseminated conflicting reports on Armita's condition, testing social reactions, and finally announced her death on October 28.
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
He was arguing for the rights of Muslim women not to wear the burqa
And he said that the international NGO canal tended to view locals like colonialists viewed the “natives” in their day
If you could look past the colourful language to comprehend the argument we might make progress
The use of the "colourful language" is deliberate. It is the language of a dog whistle. It says something specific to a particular audience under the cover of a faux academic thesis.
Colourful language is irrelevant. He was railing against the wearing of burkas by women.
Something the lefties (and centrists) on here seem to be championing.
Are you in favour of women wearing burkas?
Are you in favour of this?
No.
How about this? Which do you prefer?
You are obviously a dickhead but please go for your life with the picture posts.
I was just testing the nature of your objection to different kinds of headgear.
Is it because it's ugly? Is it because it's threatening?
I now see that your objection is because you think it is forced. No doubt it is in some cases, but I'd like to see the evidence of how many women are forced to wear the burqa and how many find it reassuring. I just don't know. Do you? You obviously feel strongly about it. I don't care one way or the other.
In Iran women are beaten, brutalised, jailed, tortured and sometimes killed because they refuse to wear "correct" Islamic clothing
You don't care one way or the other?
How about this teenage girl, who was beaten into a coma and died because of her "incorrect hijab"? Do you care one way ot the other about her?
"May I be sacrificed for your laughter... Ava Geravand has released a new video of #Armita_Geravand. Armita Geravand, a sixteen-year-old student, October 1st this year, fell into a coma after being beaten by the morality police of the Islamic Republic"
I do care deeply about that. I am horrified by the Iranian morality police and fully support the women.
Maybe we are at cross purposes.
I don't approve of the forced wearing of the burqa or anything else for that matter, particularly if it is forced by violence. Obviously.
But I don't automatically assume that the women I see here with covered heads are being forced to do it. I see it as their choice. But perhaps I'm wrong. I'd like to see some data on it if it exists.
EDIT. I must admit it jars a bit when I see a nun in a habit or a woman in a burqa but I put that down to my own biases and what I'm used to.
Christopher Hitchens warned about the term Islamophobia being used as a weapon against liberal society: "Resist it while you still can and before the right to complain is taken away from you."
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
He was arguing for the rights of Muslim women not to wear the burqa
And he said that the international NGO canal tended to view locals like colonialists viewed the “natives” in their day
If you could look past the colourful language to comprehend the argument we might make progress
No he was just being a racist prick. It's quite incredible to me that Johnson gets given a free pass on stuff like this. I guess it's some kind of hierarchy of racism shit.
So you think that women want to wear the burka. You see what complete idiocy your thinking leads you to.
In the name of something or other, let's call it woke for shorthand, you applaud the subjugation of women.
Really you ought to take a look at yourself.
I have utter contempt for any man who tries to control what women wear. You appear to be one of those men.
You prick. I have no idea how many women want to wear the burka vs how many are told to but one is too much and I'm betting that the number forced to is more than one.
But by all means go into battle for the right of women to be forced to wear the burka.
This is where leftism gets you.
I wouldn't say my view on this is a "leftist" one, it's just classical liberalism. People should be allowed to do what they want as long as they don't harm other people. So if a woman wants to walk down the street in a burqa or a bikini, or for that matter stark naked, I don't consider it my business. In the name of stopping women being told what to wear by men, you have literally become a man telling women what to wear. If you can't see the idiocy of that position then you're even more drunk than I thought you were.
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
He was arguing for the rights of Muslim women not to wear the burqa
And he said that the international NGO canal tended to view locals like colonialists viewed the “natives” in their day
If you could look past the colourful language to comprehend the argument we might make progress
The use of the "colourful language" is deliberate. It is the language of a dog whistle. It says something specific to a particular audience under the cover of a faux academic thesis.
Colourful language is irrelevant. He was railing against the wearing of burkas by women.
Something the lefties (and centrists) on here seem to be championing.
Are you in favour of women wearing burkas?
Are you in favour of this?
No.
How about this? Which do you prefer?
You are obviously a dickhead but please go for your life with the picture posts.
I was just testing the nature of your objection to different kinds of headgear.
Is it because it's ugly? Is it because it's threatening?
I now see that your objection is because you think it is forced. No doubt it is in some cases, but I'd like to see the evidence of how many women are forced to wear the burqa and how many find it reassuring. I just don't know. Do you? You obviously feel strongly about it. I don't care one way or the other.
In Iran women are beaten, brutalised, jailed, tortured and sometimes killed because they refuse to wear "correct" Islamic clothing
You don't care one way or the other?
How about this teenage girl, who was beaten into a coma and died because of her "incorrect hijab"? Do you care one way ot the other about her?
"May I be sacrificed for your laughter... Ava Geravand has released a new video of #Armita_Geravand. Armita Geravand, a sixteen-year-old student, October 1st this year, fell into a coma after being beaten by the morality police of the Islamic Republic"
I do care deeply about that. I am horrified by the Iranian morality police and fully support the women.
Maybe we are at cross purposes.
I don't approve of the forced wearing of the burqa or anything else for that matter, particularly if it is forced by violence. Obviously.
But I don't automatically assume that the women I see here with covered heads are being forced to do it. I see it as their choice. But perhaps I'm wrong. I'd like to see some data on it if it exists.
We cannot look into a billion souls and find this truth, so we'll never have the data you request
What we DO know is that women in Iran will risk beatings, torture and even death in their protest against forced Islamic clothing - like the hijab, burka, niqab - so we therefore know that some women really do detest these garments. We also have the plentiful evidence from Afghanistan from women who fled the Taliban regime precisely because of the way they treat women, including the burqa
That should be enough to faintly concern you, if only for a moment, when you see a woman in these clothes
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
He was arguing for the rights of Muslim women not to wear the burqa
And he said that the international NGO canal tended to view locals like colonialists viewed the “natives” in their day
If you could look past the colourful language to comprehend the argument we might make progress
The use of the "colourful language" is deliberate. It is the language of a dog whistle. It says something specific to a particular audience under the cover of a faux academic thesis.
Colourful language is irrelevant. He was railing against the wearing of burkas by women.
Something the lefties (and centrists) on here seem to be championing.
Are you in favour of women wearing burkas?
Are you in favour of this?
No.
How about this? Which do you prefer?
You are obviously a dickhead but please go for your life with the picture posts.
On the burka, yes, there are complications, but I think probably more arguments that burkas are bad than not. I buy that some women choose to wear the burka because they believe that's what God wants, but probably many would rather not. And those women who think that's what God (or society) wants have been sold a crap God (or society).
But I will also say that subjectively I do not like the burka, for exactly the same reasons that I do not like face masks or that fella in the picture above. Face coverings are hostile. They dehumanise. They cut out most of how we communicate. And I also do not like them for cultural reasons. They represent a failure to integrate. They are a small fuck-you to the host culture; they embody the failure of the melting pot. They signify a society which does not operate by the same norms. And while it is unfashionable to admit it, yes, I find that threatening. Not least because this not-integrating culture is demonstrably one which doesn't like us very much, holds us in contempt and periodically tries to blow us up.
And finally, as far as my understanding goes, which is weak in the extreme, there is nothing in Islamic theology which forces womenfolk into burkas.
ON topic I am watching the darts. I've noticed that darts has got way more popular in recent years, but I had no idea HOW popular
The winner of this year's World Darts Championship will get half a MILLION quid
That's incredible for a pub sport
That’s been the prize for the last few years. Barry Hearn basically has revitalised the sport. There was a very bitter split many years ago with the top 15 players ad the old BDO who were running it into the ground.
There’s a documentary about it out there on YouTube. Well worth watching.
I shall check it out. The rise of darts fascinates me (a lot of things fascinate me)
I knew it was popular in Holland I had no idea it is now big in Germany
Oddly there's a weird situation whereby it's incredibly popular as a TV and event sport. But is dying out in pubs because so many traditional ones are closing and the ones that survive tend to switch to food. Thus removing the dartboard for more space. Being replaced by dedicated darts places though that treat it a bit like Top Golf. The days of the pub darts player may be numbered though - with the next generation of players white collar WFHs who can hone their skills on a board at home.
It was very good for honing mental arithmetic skills.
So is snooker.
And cash, of course.
*looks round nervously in case Anabobazina is nearby*
PBers who mention cash “in cash Anabobazina is around” > me actually bringing up cash.
It’s a sterile debate. Cash is very obviously outdated and obsolete. Many people haven’t used it for years, as it is entirely pointless.
The fact that a few leather-motoring-gloved PB nostalgics who can’t use a debit card like it doesn’t change that.
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
He was arguing for the rights of Muslim women not to wear the burqa
And he said that the international NGO canal tended to view locals like colonialists viewed the “natives” in their day
If you could look past the colourful language to comprehend the argument we might make progress
The use of the "colourful language" is deliberate. It is the language of a dog whistle. It says something specific to a particular audience under the cover of a faux academic thesis.
Colourful language is irrelevant. He was railing against the wearing of burkas by women.
Something the lefties (and centrists) on here seem to be championing.
Are you in favour of women wearing burkas?
Are you in favour of this?
No.
How about this? Which do you prefer?
You are obviously a dickhead but please go for your life with the picture posts.
I was just testing the nature of your objection to different kinds of headgear.
Is it because it's ugly? Is it because it's threatening?
I now see that your objection is because you think it is forced. No doubt it is in some cases, but I'd like to see the evidence of how many women are forced to wear the burqa and how many find it reassuring. I just don't know. Do you? You obviously feel strongly about it. I don't care one way or the other.
In Iran women are beaten, brutalised, jailed, tortured and sometimes killed because they refuse to wear "correct" Islamic clothing
You don't care one way or the other?
How about this teenage girl, who was beaten into a coma and died because of her "incorrect hijab"? Do you care one way ot the other about her?
"May I be sacrificed for your laughter... Ava Geravand has released a new video of #Armita_Geravand. Armita Geravand, a sixteen-year-old student, October 1st this year, fell into a coma after being beaten by the morality police of the Islamic Republic"
I do care deeply about that. I am horrified by the Iranian morality police and fully support the women.
Maybe we are at cross purposes.
I don't approve of the forced wearing of the burqa or anything else for that matter, particularly if it is forced by violence. Obviously.
But I don't automatically assume that the women I see here with covered heads are being forced to do it. I see it as their choice. But perhaps I'm wrong. I'd like to see some data on it if it exists.
EDIT. I must admit it jars a bit when I see a nun in a habit or a woman in a burqa but I put that down to my own biases and what I'm used to.
Personally I draw a huge distinction between garments that merely cover the hair, like the hijab, and garments that cover the face - burqa and niqab
Covering the entire face is inhuman, and feels fundamentally wrong: human faces are built to be incredibly expressive, with eyes, mouth, skin muscles - it's a vital part of proper, rich human communication, especially the giving of warmth and kindness via a smile or a laugh
Taking that away is basically evil. It is also harmful to children learning to speak and to deaf people trying to lip read
I'm afraid my automatic reaction when I see a niqab or a burqa is: No, that is not right
Back from a weekend in the Derbyshire Dales and, as might have been expected given the 55th anniversary of the release of Carry on up the Khyber was at the end of last month, instead of serious political discussion, it's an afternoon for innuendo and ludicrous knob gags.
Twas ever thus on PB, some might say.
We are into the denouement of this version of Conservative Government - it's not quite the cones hotline but it's reminscent of Stephen Dorrell coming out to bat for Major and the Government in early 1997. The universe he inhabited, where the Government was doing wonderful things, everyone was happy and no one had the wobbles, was so far removed from everyone else's the only conclusion was he had fallen through a portal from an alternative Britain.
We had Opinium which was about as game changing as bi-regeneration in Who and it seems even the mighty Jordan Peterson is warning we will be Venezuela if Starmer wins. Well, we already have oil so I suppose there's a parallel of sorts but we had all this back in the dim and distant when apparently Blair was going to take us halfway down the road to Communism. Remind me how that worked out.
The death throes of the centre right are certainly illuminating - the strange thing is a conservative message of fiscal probity, targeted public spending and protecting communities and environment would probably play well among voters but that's not where thirteen and a half years od Conservative-led Government has got us.
The only reason being advanced by anyone for voting Conservative seems to me "Starmer would be worse" - how would he be "worse"? I can no more conceive of Starmer being worse than the corrupt bunch of incompetents than I can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond passing on an afternoon's Tiffin.
This was a man who was content to serve in a shadow cabinet led by Jeremy Corbyn. The space for 'worse' is pretty big.
Are you forgetting Sunak served as CoE in a Johnson Government? You seem to ignore that Johnson was as equally unsuitable for high office as was Corbyn. In all fairness to Corbyn, by dint of being a serial loser he has done less damage to our nation than has Johnson, and thus Sunak.
They are not equivalent
Johnson was a bad PM who was unsuited for the role
Corbyn, by virtue of his antisemitism, would have shamed Britain if he had been elected
Boris Johnson said Muslim women looked like letterboxes and referred to piccaninies but obviously that's totally fine.
He was arguing for the rights of Muslim women not to wear the burqa
And he said that the international NGO canal tended to view locals like colonialists viewed the “natives” in their day
If you could look past the colourful language to comprehend the argument we might make progress
The use of the "colourful language" is deliberate. It is the language of a dog whistle. It says something specific to a particular audience under the cover of a faux academic thesis.
Colourful language is irrelevant. He was railing against the wearing of burkas by women.
Something the lefties (and centrists) on here seem to be championing.
Are you in favour of women wearing burkas?
Are you in favour of this?
No.
How about this? Which do you prefer?
You are obviously a dickhead but please go for your life with the picture posts.
I was just testing the nature of your objection to different kinds of headgear.
Is it because it's ugly? Is it because it's threatening?
I now see that your objection is because you think it is forced. No doubt it is in some cases, but I'd like to see the evidence of how many women are forced to wear the burqa and how many find it reassuring. I just don't know. Do you? You obviously feel strongly about it. I don't care one way or the other.
In Iran women are beaten, brutalised, jailed, tortured and sometimes killed because they refuse to wear "correct" Islamic clothing
You don't care one way or the other?
How about this teenage girl, who was beaten into a coma and died because of her "incorrect hijab"? Do you care one way ot the other about her?
"May I be sacrificed for your laughter... Ava Geravand has released a new video of #Armita_Geravand. Armita Geravand, a sixteen-year-old student, October 1st this year, fell into a coma after being beaten by the morality police of the Islamic Republic"
I do care deeply about that. I am horrified by the Iranian morality police and fully support the women.
Maybe we are at cross purposes.
I don't approve of the forced wearing of the burqa or anything else for that matter, particularly if it is forced by violence. Obviously.
But I don't automatically assume that the women I see here with covered heads are being forced to do it. I see it as their choice. But perhaps I'm wrong. I'd like to see some data on it if it exists.
We cannot look into a billion souls and find this truth, so we'll never have the data you request
What we DO know is that women in Iran will risk beatings, torture and even death in their protest against forced Islamic clothing - like the hijab, burka, niqab - so we therefore know that some women really do detest these garments. We also have the plentiful evidence from Afghanistan from women who fled the Taliban regime precisely because of the way they treat women, including the burqa
That should be enough to faintly concern you, if only for a moment, when you see a woman in these clothes
You don't need to ask a billion. A Yougov sample of say 1,000 would be sufficient.
Now this has arisen as a topic I'm tempted to ask a small sample.
Thinking more about it, I suspect in this country, without morality police, there may be peer pressure from other women among their friends and family. I've been told by several women that women mainly dress to impress other women. But what do I know!
ON topic I am watching the darts. I've noticed that darts has got way more popular in recent years, but I had no idea HOW popular
The winner of this year's World Darts Championship will get half a MILLION quid
That's incredible for a pub sport
That’s been the prize for the last few years. Barry Hearn basically has revitalised the sport. There was a very bitter split many years ago with the top 15 players ad the old BDO who were running it into the ground.
There’s a documentary about it out there on YouTube. Well worth watching.
I shall check it out. The rise of darts fascinates me (a lot of things fascinate me)
I knew it was popular in Holland I had no idea it is now big in Germany
Oddly there's a weird situation whereby it's incredibly popular as a TV and event sport. But is dying out in pubs because so many traditional ones are closing and the ones that survive tend to switch to food. Thus removing the dartboard for more space. Being replaced by dedicated darts places though that treat it a bit like Top Golf. The days of the pub darts player may be numbered though - with the next generation of players white collar WFHs who can hone their skills on a board at home.
It was very good for honing mental arithmetic skills.
So is snooker.
And cash, of course.
*looks round nervously in case Anabobazina is nearby*
PBers who mention cash “in cash Anabobazina is around” > me actually bringing up cash.
It’s a sterile debate. Cash is very obviously outdated and obsolete. Many people haven’t used it for years, as it is entirely pointless.
The fact that a few leather-motoring-gloved PB nostalgics who can’t use a debit card like it doesn’t change that.
I do worry for the poor lambs.
Do you? Personally, I don't give tuppence for them.
Comments
You're right though, it is rubbish.
Even allowing for the somewhat starry eyed view of the curriculum in England, which even if it was as knowledge rich as it should be has been completely undermined by the disastrous OFSTED framework, the article highlights a pretty serious problem.
Likewise if you choose to dance down Oxford Street in jockstrap and waders that is entirely appropriate as far as I am concerned. Live and let live, I say
The winner of this year's World Darts Championship will get half a MILLION quid
That's incredible for a pub sport
The issues are really not that hard. A political party has very specific obligations under the Political Parties Act which do not appear to have been complied with. That obligation rests on specific people as office holders and they have been spoken to. Failure to meet those requirements is an offence.
There is some fairly compelling evidence that the accounts of the SNP did not show the whole picture and did not include all of the money that they should have. The stuff about the campervan and now the Jaguar suggests strongly that there were slush funds on which they could draw when required. They are either accounted for or they are not.
There’s a documentary about it out there on YouTube. Well worth watching.
I knew it was popular in Holland I had no idea it is now big in Germany
In the case of the camper van - why not just buy a flat? Much easier to justify for party business and would probably have appreciated as asset.
In the case of the infamous Kohl/Mitternad stuff - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/jan/24/germany.paulwebster - they didn't just have no party accounts. And that was literal suit cases of cash.....
Then watching her being signed in to the HoL
We live in a very sick country at the moment.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/17/the-guardian-view-on-the-snp-budget-forced-into-paying-a-bill-for-its-outlays
"Unlike the UK government, Holyrood has few options but to balance its yearly budget. Inflation produced £580m more in tax receipts than projected and the SNP gambled that this would be enough for outlays, such as £100m for NHS waiting lists and higher than expected pay awards, to bolster its flagging appeal. This was a costly bet to lose."
LOL.
And you are a leftie?
And I am a proud centrist.
And cash, of course.
*looks round nervously in case Anabobazina is nearby*
Here, from the good old days, you can cut the fag smoke with a knife.
https://youtu.be/eWbzPnk1DQo?si=5BZdTEkAAV354rUC
And he said that the international NGO canal tended to view locals like colonialists viewed the “natives” in their day
If you could look past the colourful language to comprehend the argument we might make progress
I suppose Hitler's deism adds a further religious tradition in.
Someone who - at the best possible interpretation- tolerates genocidal hatred for another race is evil
Those are not equivalent faults
Would you not describe yourself as an Islamophobe, though? I get it’s perjorative, but it’s healthy to lean into one’s failings.
I’m a flaming hypocrite, for example, and have some mildly fascist views about the expendability of babies.
Most genocides are born of the second type. But not exclusively: the genocides of the Australian aborigines and those practised by the conquistadors were of the former sort.
But in common parlance Islamophobia = "racist dislike of Muslims" and I am absolutely not admitting to that. Some of my greatest travel highs have been in Islamic countries, and I have made good friends throiughout the Islamic world, especially in Egypt and Malaysia. At its best Islam can be a marvellous religion, egalitarian in nature and elegant in its art and liturgy
Sadly much modern Islam is not like this, So I'd classify mysef as "Islamo-wary". As Islam works its way through this present unpleasant lurch into fundamentalism - from the Taliban to Wahhabism, from ISIS to the Muslim Brotherhood to Hamas - I think the west is right to be wary of importing more Islam. From Sweden to France we see where it ends. In Denmark they have just brought in Blasphemy Laws- why? Violent menace from the Islamic world, which will not tolerate ridicule
We are reversing the Enlightenment - a crucial part of which is the freedom to mock religion - because we are scared of medieval religionists - ie Islam. It is deeply depressing. And yes it makes me Islamo-wary
Something the lefties (and centrists) on here seem to be championing.
Are you in favour of women wearing burkas?
Genocide means "the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group"
That never happened in Australia. The British Empire had no desire to annihilate a population which represented no threat whatsoever. What happened was that aboriginal culture and society was absolutely shattered by contact with the "vastly superior" technology and entirely alien mores of white European invaders - aboriginal cultural self confidence went into freefall and has never really recovered. In sheer numbers, the population decline of Australian aborigines was down to disease - eg smallpox. It's worth noting that there are now more aboriginal Australians than ever
The one exception to this is the horror of Tasmania, but even then I'm not sure it strictly qualifies as a "genocide"
Is it (Unst) able?
Quite remarkably, Morrisons is still selling (cunningly disguised as own label English Sparkling Wine) the surplus stock overhang of 2010 Nyetimber, which it started flogging off 3 years ago. Nyetimber passes this stuff into circulation through its nom de plume “Rolling Green Hills Ltd”. But it’s Nyetimber. They even passed a bit of it off via Lidl last year. They must have had a proper glut in 2010.
The stuff is £18 a bottle. And it’s incredibly good. 2010 was a very good harvest, and several years sur latte followed by almost a decade now on cork post disgorging means it’s venerable, a bit golden, and delicious.
It feels like the same sentiment that holds UK Jews responsible for Netanyahu’s horrors that so (rightly) exercises you on here.
How would you react if someone described themselves as Jew-wary? Doesn’t sound great, does it?
Excited by the prospect of an unexpolored egress, she leapt for the unusually open velux window, and soon found a slate roof offers claws little purchase.
After a long and panicked descent, the evenual fall from the edge of the roof to the ground was only about 9 feet. Eminently manageable for even the clumsiest cat.
So she is fine and has come back in the front door pretending all is fine. But inasmuch as a cat can look embarassed, she is looking rather embarassed by the whole escapade.
I was told that my refusal to forgive The Men of Violence “wasn’t very Christian”
I stated that I wasn’t a Christian.
Apparently this isn’t allowed or something - it was the rejection of the Christian moral world view that was verboten.
He's taught me a lot. There was no genodice. The Australian aborigines did, nonetheless, suffer appallingly and were the victims of vile racism
The main problem was the total collapse of their social systems, so ancient and complex - they were simply obliterated by the unthinking whitefella who wanted to farm the land and mine the coal and didn't care or even realise that the landscape was laced with sacred networks which unpderpinned aboriginal worldviews. So the aborigines gave up and moved away
You can visit parts of Victoria and New South Wales where we know there were large aboriginal populations which have now completely disappeared. Because they were pre-literate we have no idea what they thought, what language they spoke, what they did and said and felt, it's deeply poignant
There are photos of aborigines encountering white men for the first time in really remote inland Australia ias late as the 1920s, even 1940s. The expressions of total bewilderment and profound terror on the faces of the native Australians are unforgettable
So the equivalent is "Judaism-wary" or "Zionism-wary", which both sound perfectly permissible to me
In the name of something or other, let's call it woke for shorthand, you applaud the subjugation of women.
Really you ought to take a look at yourself.
You'd have to laugh if it wasn't so tragic
Is it because it's ugly? Is it because it's threatening?
I now see that your objection is because you think it is forced.
No doubt it is in some cases, but I'd like to see the evidence of how many women are forced to wear the burqa and how many find it reassuring. I just don't know. Do you? You obviously feel strongly about it. I don't care one way or the other.
I dislike the Niqab and Burkha, but blame the patriarchy rather than the victim of that patriarchy.
Here's one
https://twitter.com/YasMohammedxx
They are absolutely vitriolic in their contempt for western lefties and feminists who indulge the more misogynistic and patriarchal aspects of Islam
Worth a foillow. Eye opening
These forms of covering are very clearly patriarchal. Of course they are. And sometimes - see Iran for starters - they are deeply resented and cast off as soon as the morality police aren’t looking. But in other cases women are every bit as keen on their being worn as men are. Both the wearer - I’ve had surprising conversations myself with women from liberal families who adopted the hijab (though admittedly not niqab/burka) in adulthood as a choice - and then often the women around them, particularly mothers.
Is that internalising the patriarchy? Yes, probably. But that’s not uniquely a Muslim thing. My mother in law for a start. Straight out of the Republic of Gilead.
But by all means go into battle for the right of women to be forced to wear the burka.
This is where leftism gets you.
You don't care one way or the other?
How about this teenage girl, who was beaten into a coma and died because of her "incorrect hijab"? Do you care one way ot the other about her?
"May I be sacrificed for your laughter...
Ava Geravand has released a new video of #Armita_Geravand.
Armita Geravand, a sixteen-year-old student, October 1st this year, fell into a coma after being beaten by the morality police of the Islamic Republic"
https://x.com/ZananFirouzehie/status/1734872927818981431?s=20
"Armita Geravand was attacked by hijab patrol in a Tehran metro station on Sunday, October 1, 2023. The attack was so severe that she sustained head trauma and slipped into a coma.
She had suffered a brain hemorrhage due to a blow to her head, and her chances of survival were low. Concerned over the outbreak of protests, security forces took everything under control from the outset and restricted access to Armita, her family, friends and relatives.
The regime disseminated conflicting reports on Armita's condition, testing social reactions, and finally announced her death on October 28.
Rest in peace Armita Geravand🕊️"
https://x.com/OrgIAC/status/1734577455946477758?s=20
Maybe we are at cross purposes.
I don't approve of the forced wearing of the burqa or anything else for that matter, particularly if it is forced by violence. Obviously.
But I don't automatically assume that the women I see here with covered heads are being forced to do it. I see it as their choice. But perhaps I'm wrong. I'd like to see some data on it if it exists.
EDIT. I must admit it jars a bit when I see a nun in a habit or a woman in a burqa but I put that down to my own biases and what I'm used to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32KRwzJsy1o
In the name of stopping women being told what to wear by men, you have literally become a man telling women what to wear. If you can't see the idiocy of that position then you're even more drunk than I thought you were.
What we DO know is that women in Iran will risk beatings, torture and even death in their protest against forced Islamic clothing - like the hijab, burka, niqab - so we therefore know that some women really do detest these garments. We also have the plentiful evidence from Afghanistan from women who fled the Taliban regime precisely because of the way they treat women, including the burqa
That should be enough to faintly concern you, if only for a moment, when you see a woman in these clothes
But I will also say that subjectively I do not like the burka, for exactly the same reasons that I do not like face masks or that fella in the picture above. Face coverings are hostile. They dehumanise. They cut out most of how we communicate.
And I also do not like them for cultural reasons. They represent a failure to integrate. They are a small fuck-you to the host culture; they embody the failure of the melting pot. They signify a society which does not operate by the same norms. And while it is unfashionable to admit it, yes, I find that threatening. Not least because this not-integrating culture is demonstrably one which doesn't like us very much, holds us in contempt and periodically tries to blow us up.
And finally, as far as my understanding goes, which is weak in the extreme, there is nothing in Islamic theology which forces womenfolk into burkas.
It’s a sterile debate. Cash is very obviously outdated and obsolete. Many people haven’t used it for years, as it is entirely
pointless.
The fact that a few leather-motoring-gloved PB nostalgics who can’t use a debit card like it doesn’t change that.
I do worry for the poor lambs.
Covering the entire face is inhuman, and feels fundamentally wrong: human faces are built to be incredibly expressive, with eyes, mouth, skin muscles - it's a vital part of proper, rich human communication, especially the giving of warmth and kindness via a smile or a laugh
Taking that away is basically evil. It is also harmful to children learning to speak and to deaf people trying to lip read
I'm afraid my automatic reaction when I see a niqab or a burqa is: No, that is not right
I preferred the wine discussion tbh.
Now this has arisen as a topic I'm tempted to ask a small sample.
Thinking more about it, I suspect in this country, without morality police, there may be peer pressure from other women among their friends and family. I've been told by several women that women mainly dress to impress other women. But what do I know!