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Yea, though I walk through the Tees Valley of the shadow of Reform – politicalbetting.com

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Comments

  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,355

    J K Rowling tweeting that Dr Hilary Cass feels she can no longer safely travel on public transport. Jeez.

    Just incredible how this irrational trans ideology has taken hold. A deadly mixture of woke and identity politics.

    Had a long discussion last night with my 21yo youngest daughter. She is at Edinburgh Uni and told me that a lot of her friends think emotions and feelings are more important than facts when making decisions - lived experience is more valid than measurable outcomes or the law. What on earth have we done in educating that generation? Social media has done so much damage.
    The new CEO of NPR in the US has explicitly said that seeking the truth is a problem:

    https://twitter.com/CatchUpFeed/status/1780492395790086460

    “Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction getting in the way of finding common ground & getting things done.”
    I can top that. The then US President got much of the country to believe he hadn’t lost an election that, in truth, he had lost.
    Hillary Clinton got much of the country to believe that she was legitimate winner in 2016 too.
    She and Liz Truss would get on.
    To be fair she got almost 3m more votes than the Orange One. She just didn’t win enough States.
    Shoulda woulda coulda.

    She lost. And she's learnt nothing from it, even today.
    She lost because of the system. As Attlee did in 1951. And as he did, accepted it.
    Doesn’t mean it’s a fair system, or a good one.
    She lost because she was a shit candidate.

    There's no dressing that up.
    Can I suggest a compromise?

    She lost because it was an unfair system *and* she was a shit candidate?
  • another_richardanother_richard Posts: 26,585

    nico679 said:

    ydoethur said:

    I wonder if Majorie Taylor Greene's opponent has the ads all ready to go calling her a 'Commie stooge?'

    Her district is full of in bred trailer trash so they’ll still vote for the Putin arse licker .
    Not wanting to defend Moscow Marjorie but those are the type of comments which make people vote for her (and Trump).
    I think this is true.

    You can only begin to understand the vitriolic hostiity of Trump supporters towards the Libtards when you learn to appreciate their resentment at that kind of sneering.
    There are certainly people who are, to coin a phrase, deplorable but most voters are generally decent, even if perhaps misguided, whoever they vote for.

    The divisive hostility usually originates from those at the top for the purposes of those at the top and the rest of us should be careful not to encourage it.
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 11,044
    ydoethur said:

    J K Rowling tweeting that Dr Hilary Cass feels she can no longer safely travel on public transport. Jeez.

    Just incredible how this irrational trans ideology has taken hold. A deadly mixture of woke and identity politics.

    Had a long discussion last night with my 21yo youngest daughter. She is at Edinburgh Uni and told me that a lot of her friends think emotions and feelings are more important than facts when making decisions - lived experience is more valid than measurable outcomes or the law. What on earth have we done in educating that generation? Social media has done so much damage.
    The new CEO of NPR in the US has explicitly said that seeking the truth is a problem:

    https://twitter.com/CatchUpFeed/status/1780492395790086460

    “Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction getting in the way of finding common ground & getting things done.”
    I can top that. The then US President got much of the country to believe he hadn’t lost an election that, in truth, he had lost.
    Hillary Clinton got much of the country to believe that she was legitimate winner in 2016 too.
    She and Liz Truss would get on.
    To be fair she got almost 3m more votes than the Orange One. She just didn’t win enough States.
    Shoulda woulda coulda.

    She lost. And she's learnt nothing from it, even today.
    She lost because of the system. As Attlee did in 1951. And as he did, accepted it.
    Doesn’t mean it’s a fair system, or a good one.
    She lost because she was a shit candidate.

    There's no dressing that up.
    Can I suggest a compromise?

    She lost because it was an unfair system *and* she was a shit candidate?
    She got more votes than Trump. That suggests to me she wasn’t that shit a candidate.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,417

    J K Rowling tweeting that Dr Hilary Cass feels she can no longer safely travel on public transport. Jeez.

    Just incredible how this irrational trans ideology has taken hold. A deadly mixture of woke and identity politics.

    Had a long discussion last night with my 21yo youngest daughter. She is at Edinburgh Uni and told me that a lot of her friends think emotions and feelings are more important than facts when making decisions - lived experience is more valid than measurable outcomes or the law. What on earth have we done in educating that generation? Social media has done so much damage.
    The new CEO of NPR in the US has explicitly said that seeking the truth is a problem:

    https://twitter.com/CatchUpFeed/status/1780492395790086460

    “Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction getting in the way of finding common ground & getting things done.”
    I can top that. The then US President got much of the country to believe he hadn’t lost an election that, in truth, he had lost.
    Hillary Clinton got much of the country to believe that she was legitimate winner in 2016 too.
    She and Liz Truss would get on.
    To be fair she got almost 3m more votes than the Orange One. She just didn’t win enough States.
    Shoulda woulda coulda.

    She lost. And she's learnt nothing from it, even today.
    She lost because of the system. As Attlee did in 1951. And as he did, accepted it.
    Doesn’t mean it’s a fair system, or a good one.
    She lost because she was a shit candidate.

    There's no dressing that up.
    Both candidates were. There’s no dressing that up, either. If she’s learned nothing from it, more fool her. To be fair, her opponent has learned nothing either.
    The fact remains that she won the popular vote.
  • geoffwgeoffw Posts: 8,708

    J K Rowling tweeting that Dr Hilary Cass feels she can no longer safely travel on public transport. Jeez.

    Just incredible how this irrational trans ideology has taken hold. A deadly mixture of woke and identity politics.

    Had a long discussion last night with my 21yo youngest daughter. She is at Edinburgh Uni and told me that a lot of her friends think emotions and feelings are more important than facts when making decisions - lived experience is more valid than measurable outcomes or the law. What on earth have we done in educating that generation? Social media has done so much damage.
    The new CEO of NPR in the US has explicitly said that seeking the truth is a problem:

    https://twitter.com/CatchUpFeed/status/1780492395790086460

    “Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction getting in the way of finding common ground & getting things done.”
    I can top that. The then US President got much of the country to believe he hadn’t lost an election that, in truth, he had lost.
    Hillary Clinton got much of the country to believe that she was legitimate winner in 2016 too.
    She and Liz Truss would get on.
    To be fair she got almost 3m more votes than the Orange One. She just didn’t win enough States.
    Shoulda woulda coulda.

    She lost. And she's learnt nothing from it, even today.
    She lost because of the system. As Attlee did in 1951. And as he did, accepted it.
    Doesn’t mean it’s a fair system, or a good one.
    She lost because she was a shit candidate.

    There's no dressing that up.
    Both candidates were. There’s no dressing that up, either. If she’s learned nothing from it, more fool her. To be fair, her opponent has learned nothing either.
    The fact remains that she won the popular vote.
    In the wrong places

  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,355

    ydoethur said:

    J K Rowling tweeting that Dr Hilary Cass feels she can no longer safely travel on public transport. Jeez.

    Just incredible how this irrational trans ideology has taken hold. A deadly mixture of woke and identity politics.

    Had a long discussion last night with my 21yo youngest daughter. She is at Edinburgh Uni and told me that a lot of her friends think emotions and feelings are more important than facts when making decisions - lived experience is more valid than measurable outcomes or the law. What on earth have we done in educating that generation? Social media has done so much damage.
    The new CEO of NPR in the US has explicitly said that seeking the truth is a problem:

    https://twitter.com/CatchUpFeed/status/1780492395790086460

    “Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction getting in the way of finding common ground & getting things done.”
    I can top that. The then US President got much of the country to believe he hadn’t lost an election that, in truth, he had lost.
    Hillary Clinton got much of the country to believe that she was legitimate winner in 2016 too.
    She and Liz Truss would get on.
    To be fair she got almost 3m more votes than the Orange One. She just didn’t win enough States.
    Shoulda woulda coulda.

    She lost. And she's learnt nothing from it, even today.
    She lost because of the system. As Attlee did in 1951. And as he did, accepted it.
    Doesn’t mean it’s a fair system, or a good one.
    She lost because she was a shit candidate.

    There's no dressing that up.
    Can I suggest a compromise?

    She lost because it was an unfair system *and* she was a shit candidate?
    She got more votes than Trump. That suggests to me she wasn’t that shit a candidate.
    Getting slightly more votes than Donald Trump is hardly evidence of that.

    It's like suggesting the man who put on running shoes when trying to escape the bear was actually a good runner.
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    Nigelb said:

    Rep. Victoria Spartz, originally from Chernihiv region of Ukraine, voted against the US aid package for her home country…
    https://twitter.com/olgatokariuk/status/1781763746689409055

    Full list of shame at the link.

    Check out Rep. Spartz (R-UKR Uturn) wiki bio on her position(s) re: Russian invasion.

    Trying to work both sides of the street . . . like at least one PBer . . .
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,061

    ydoethur said:

    J K Rowling tweeting that Dr Hilary Cass feels she can no longer safely travel on public transport. Jeez.

    Just incredible how this irrational trans ideology has taken hold. A deadly mixture of woke and identity politics.

    Had a long discussion last night with my 21yo youngest daughter. She is at Edinburgh Uni and told me that a lot of her friends think emotions and feelings are more important than facts when making decisions - lived experience is more valid than measurable outcomes or the law. What on earth have we done in educating that generation? Social media has done so much damage.
    The new CEO of NPR in the US has explicitly said that seeking the truth is a problem:

    https://twitter.com/CatchUpFeed/status/1780492395790086460

    “Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction getting in the way of finding common ground & getting things done.”
    I can top that. The then US President got much of the country to believe he hadn’t lost an election that, in truth, he had lost.
    Hillary Clinton got much of the country to believe that she was legitimate winner in 2016 too.
    She and Liz Truss would get on.
    To be fair she got almost 3m more votes than the Orange One. She just didn’t win enough States.
    Shoulda woulda coulda.

    She lost. And she's learnt nothing from it, even today.
    She lost because of the system. As Attlee did in 1951. And as he did, accepted it.
    Doesn’t mean it’s a fair system, or a good one.
    She lost because she was a shit candidate.

    There's no dressing that up.
    Can I suggest a compromise?

    She lost because it was an unfair system *and* she was a shit candidate?
    She got more votes than Trump. That suggests to me she wasn’t that shit a candidate.
    As he was even shittier, it doesn’t tell us much.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,549
    "Reform’s success is a mirage. Even a Canada-style Tory wipeout won’t change that
    Nobody disagrees with their basic list of policies. They simply have no realistic way of delivering them
    DANIEL HANNAN"

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/20/nigel-farage-general-election-reform-conservative-party/
  • geoffwgeoffw Posts: 8,708

    Nigelb said:

    Rep. Victoria Spartz, originally from Chernihiv region of Ukraine, voted against the US aid package for her home country…
    https://twitter.com/olgatokariuk/status/1781763746689409055

    Full list of shame at the link.

    Check out Rep. Spartz (R-UKR Uturn) wiki bio on her position(s) re: Russian invasion.

    Trying to work both sides of the street . . . like at least one PBer . . .
    the postie?

  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,407

    ..

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    J K Rowling tweeting that Dr Hilary Cass feels she can no longer safely travel on public transport. Jeez.

    Just incredible how this irrational trans ideology has taken hold. A deadly mixture of woke and identity politics.

    Had a long discussion last night with my 21yo youngest daughter. She is at Edinburgh Uni and told me that a lot of her friends think emotions and feelings are more important than facts when making decisions - lived experience is more valid than measurable outcomes or the law. What on earth have we done in educating that generation? Social media has done so much damage.
    It’s great though that Rowling and her pals are really dialling down the emotions and feelz in this debate.
    Why the fuck should you call for her to back down when you don't call for the looney wing of the trans ideoligists to stand down? Now if you had called for both then fair enough but you didn't
    Touchy little fucker aint you.
    Insofar as it would make the slightest difference I'm not asking the ridiculous narcissist to do anything, though I daresay she'd enjoy some of the simping on here.
    Touchy little fucker because I pointed out the truth here, I didn't support rowling I just said you never criticise the extremists on the other side....go vote for independence most of us south of the border dont want you anymore....oh right you cant because even the scottish hate you
    You'll be turning your little weenie anger on the posters highlighting 'a deadly mixture of woke and identity politics' of a damaged generation on the other side shortly I suppose?
    Have a pank. You'll feel better.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,311
    nico679 said:

    Glad I don't live next door to Angela Rayner or her neighbours.

    Angela Rayner confronted her neighbours demanding £240 and calling herself “the landlady” after a window was smashed at the property she claims had been her principal house, police were told yesterday.

    The Times has learnt that Greater Manchester police began interviewing neighbours at the deputy Labour leader’s former home in Stockport on Friday as part of their investigation into multiple allegations relating to where she lived in the 2010s.

    Residents of Vicarage Road are understood to have told the force that Rayner was involved in a row with the family of a boy who kicked a football through her front window in 2015.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/landlady-angela-rayner-lost-it-over-smashed-window-says-neighbour-f5z7dd5rt

    So they didn’t like her and so one could argue they weren’t exactly impartial.
    Pathetic crap , what are the Tories on
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,061
    Andy_JS said:

    "Reform’s success is a mirage. Even a Canada-style Tory wipeout won’t change that
    Nobody disagrees with their basic list of policies…

    Nobody ?

    What is their “basic list of policies” then ?

  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 11,044
    Hillary Clinton got 48.2% of the vote in the 2016 US presidential election. 48.2% is, of course, more than Johnson, May, Cameron, Brown, Blair, Major, Thatcher, Wilson or Heath ever got, although Wilson in '66 was close. (Macmillan and Eden did better.)
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,407

    J K Rowling tweeting that Dr Hilary Cass feels she can no longer safely travel on public transport. Jeez.

    Just incredible how this irrational trans ideology has taken hold. A deadly mixture of woke and identity politics.

    Had a long discussion last night with my 21yo youngest daughter. She is at Edinburgh Uni and told me that a lot of her friends think emotions and feelings are more important than facts when making decisions - lived experience is more valid than measurable outcomes or the law. What on earth have we done in educating that generation? Social media has done so much damage.
    The new CEO of NPR in the US has explicitly said that seeking the truth is a problem:

    https://twitter.com/CatchUpFeed/status/1780492395790086460

    “Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction getting in the way of finding common ground & getting things done.”
    I can top that. The then US President got much of the country to believe he hadn’t lost an election that, in truth, he had lost.
    Hillary Clinton got much of the country to believe that she was legitimate winner in 2016 too.
    She and Liz Truss would get on.
    To be fair she got almost 3m more votes than the Orange One. She just didn’t win enough States.
    Shoulda woulda coulda.

    She lost. And she's learnt nothing from it, even today.
    She lost because of the system. As Attlee did in 1951. And as he did, accepted it.
    Doesn’t mean it’s a fair system, or a good one.
    She lost because she was a shit candidate.

    There's no dressing that up.
    Both candidates were. There’s no dressing that up, either. If she’s learned nothing from it, more fool her. To be fair, her opponent has learned nothing either.
    The fact remains that she won the popular vote.
    She lost. No ifs no buts.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,214
    Andy_JS said:

    "Reform’s success is a mirage. Even a Canada-style Tory wipeout won’t change that
    Nobody disagrees with their basic list of policies. They simply have no realistic way of delivering them
    DANIEL HANNAN"

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/20/nigel-farage-general-election-reform-conservative-party/

    And what's Dan's problem?

    Copyright infringment?
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 11,044
    Nigelb said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "Reform’s success is a mirage. Even a Canada-style Tory wipeout won’t change that
    Nobody disagrees with their basic list of policies…

    Nobody ?

    What is their “basic list of policies” then ?

    Their literature says:

    Lower taxes
    Net zero immigration
    Cheaper energy
    Zero waiting lists
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,071
    TimS said:

    One more from the Post: "Moments after the House approved a long-stalled foreign aid package, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said she’d make no formal move Saturday to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.)."
    source$: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/20/house-vote-ukraine-israel-aid-johnson/

    Sooner or later I expect MTG will be exposed as a Russian asset.
    She's too obvious. You only get that kind of passionate support from the truly convinced.
  • geoffwgeoffw Posts: 8,708

    Hillary Clinton got 48.2% of the vote in the 2016 US presidential election. 48.2% is, of course, more than Johnson, May, Cameron, Brown, Blair, Major, Thatcher, Wilson or Heath ever got, although Wilson in '66 was close. (Macmillan and Eden did better.)

    So US presidential elections are comparable in this way to British general elections in the percentages game?
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,061

    Nigelb said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "Reform’s success is a mirage. Even a Canada-style Tory wipeout won’t change that
    Nobody disagrees with their basic list of policies…

    Nobody ?

    What is their “basic list of policies” then ?

    Their literature says:

    Lower taxes
    Net zero immigration
    Cheaper energy
    Zero waiting lists
    That’s a wishlist.

    What are their policies ?
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,071

    Hillary Clinton got 48.2% of the vote in the 2016 US presidential election. 48.2% is, of course, more than Johnson, May, Cameron, Brown, Blair, Major, Thatcher, Wilson or Heath ever got, although Wilson in '66 was close. (Macmillan and Eden did better.)

    I'm not sure there's really anything useful in that comparison given the electoral systems and types of elections involved, not to mention the different political situations of the two nations.
  • Stark_DawningStark_Dawning Posts: 9,678
    Andy_JS said:

    "Reform’s success is a mirage. Even a Canada-style Tory wipeout won’t change that
    Nobody disagrees with their basic list of policies. They simply have no realistic way of delivering them
    DANIEL HANNAN"

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/20/nigel-farage-general-election-reform-conservative-party/

    BTL and Hannan don't appear to be, er, in 100% agreement.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,407
    ydoethur said:

    J K Rowling tweeting that Dr Hilary Cass feels she can no longer safely travel on public transport. Jeez.

    Just incredible how this irrational trans ideology has taken hold. A deadly mixture of woke and identity politics.

    Had a long discussion last night with my 21yo youngest daughter. She is at Edinburgh Uni and told me that a lot of her friends think emotions and feelings are more important than facts when making decisions - lived experience is more valid than measurable outcomes or the law. What on earth have we done in educating that generation? Social media has done so much damage.
    The new CEO of NPR in the US has explicitly said that seeking the truth is a problem:

    https://twitter.com/CatchUpFeed/status/1780492395790086460

    “Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction getting in the way of finding common ground & getting things done.”
    I can top that. The then US President got much of the country to believe he hadn’t lost an election that, in truth, he had lost.
    Hillary Clinton got much of the country to believe that she was legitimate winner in 2016 too.
    She and Liz Truss would get on.
    To be fair she got almost 3m more votes than the Orange One. She just didn’t win enough States.
    Shoulda woulda coulda.

    She lost. And she's learnt nothing from it, even today.
    She lost because of the system. As Attlee did in 1951. And as he did, accepted it.
    Doesn’t mean it’s a fair system, or a good one.
    She lost because she was a shit candidate.

    There's no dressing that up.
    Can I suggest a compromise?

    She lost because it was an unfair system *and* she was a shit candidate?
    Well, it's a system designed for electing a President of the United States of America, which is a federation of those same States- hence the electoral college electing the President via weighted delegates from each State.

    It's not a unitary state so winning the popular vote means nothing unless you win the electoral college too.
  • FF43FF43 Posts: 17,208
    edited April 20

    J K Rowling tweeting that Dr Hilary Cass feels she can no longer safely travel on public transport. Jeez.

    Just incredible how this irrational trans ideology has taken hold. A deadly mixture of woke and identity politics.

    Had a long discussion last night with my 21yo youngest daughter. She is at Edinburgh Uni and told me that a lot of her friends think emotions and feelings are more important than facts when making decisions - lived experience is more valid than measurable outcomes or the law. What on earth have we done in educating that generation? Social media has done so much damage.
    The new CEO of NPR in the US has explicitly said that seeking the truth is a problem:

    https://twitter.com/CatchUpFeed/status/1780492395790086460

    “Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction getting in the way of finding common ground & getting things done.”
    I can top that. The then US President got much of the country to believe he hadn’t lost an election that, in truth, he had lost.
    Hillary Clinton got much of the country to believe that she was legitimate winner in 2016 too.
    She and Liz Truss would get on.
    To be fair she got almost 3m more votes than the Orange One. She just didn’t win enough States.
    Shoulda woulda coulda.

    She lost. And she's learnt nothing from it, even today.
    She lost because of the system. As Attlee did in 1951. And as he did, accepted it.
    Doesn’t mean it’s a fair system, or a good one.
    She lost because she was a shit candidate.

    There's no dressing that up.
    Hilary Clinton was a shit candidate only because she lost. Otherwise she's would have been fine as a president compared with Trump, as anyone with half a brain cell would have realised at the time.

    You need to win. I don't downplay that. But for anyone making a choice she was the better candidate by light years.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,071
    Nigelb said:

    Nigelb said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "Reform’s success is a mirage. Even a Canada-style Tory wipeout won’t change that
    Nobody disagrees with their basic list of policies…

    Nobody ?

    What is their “basic list of policies” then ?

    Their literature says:

    Lower taxes
    Net zero immigration
    Cheaper energy
    Zero waiting lists
    That’s a wishlist.

    What are their policies ?
    https://assets.nationbuilder.com/reformuk/pages/303/attachments/original/1696527070/Reform_is_Essential_-_5Oct23.pdf?1696527070

    Eg

    Free up 6 million people from paying
    Income Tax by lifting the minimum
    threshold to £20,000 from £12,571 p.a.
    This amounts to 1 in 5 taxpayers. Basic
    Income Tax rate stays at 20%

    Lift threshold for 40% income tax rate to
    £70,000.

    If you cannot be seen by a GP in
    3 days, you get a voucher to go private
    elsewhere.

    Reform the voting system: To
    make it more representative. Smaller
    parties mean more choice, new ideas,
    and better debate. Proportional
    representation is essential.

    Net zero immigration means that the
    number legally allowed to enter to live
    and work in the UK each year should
    equal the number emigrating, so the
    overall population remains approximately
    the same


    They have policies, it's easy to come up with them and put them in a document - how many would be in a manifesto when one is produced, and how many of those currently supporting them know about most of them is another matter.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,311
    geoffw said:

    J K Rowling tweeting that Dr Hilary Cass feels she can no longer safely travel on public transport. Jeez.

    Just incredible how this irrational trans ideology has taken hold. A deadly mixture of woke and identity politics.

    Had a long discussion last night with my 21yo youngest daughter. She is at Edinburgh Uni and told me that a lot of her friends think emotions and feelings are more important than facts when making decisions - lived experience is more valid than measurable outcomes or the law. What on earth have we done in educating that generation? Social media has done so much damage.
    The new CEO of NPR in the US has explicitly said that seeking the truth is a problem:

    https://twitter.com/CatchUpFeed/status/1780492395790086460

    “Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction getting in the way of finding common ground & getting things done.”
    I can top that. The then US President got much of the country to believe he hadn’t lost an election that, in truth, he had lost.
    Hillary Clinton got much of the country to believe that she was legitimate winner in 2016 too.
    She and Liz Truss would get on.
    To be fair she got almost 3m more votes than the Orange One. She just didn’t win enough States.
    Shoulda woulda coulda.

    She lost. And she's learnt nothing from it, even today.
    She lost because of the system. As Attlee did in 1951. And as he did, accepted it.
    Doesn’t mean it’s a fair system, or a good one.
    She lost because she was a shit candidate.

    There's no dressing that up.
    Both candidates were. There’s no dressing that up, either. If she’s learned nothing from it, more fool her. To be fair, her opponent has learned nothing either.
    The fact remains that she won the popular vote.
    In the wrong places

    In a shit system , how can you win most votes and lose , mental
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,061
    A Ukrainian soldier texts from Donbas:

    - The whole unit was watching. After the vote, one could hear all over the trench: “YESSS!”

    Thank you!

    https://twitter.com/olex_scherba/status/1781746268739448975
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,311

    ..

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    J K Rowling tweeting that Dr Hilary Cass feels she can no longer safely travel on public transport. Jeez.

    Just incredible how this irrational trans ideology has taken hold. A deadly mixture of woke and identity politics.

    Had a long discussion last night with my 21yo youngest daughter. She is at Edinburgh Uni and told me that a lot of her friends think emotions and feelings are more important than facts when making decisions - lived experience is more valid than measurable outcomes or the law. What on earth have we done in educating that generation? Social media has done so much damage.
    It’s great though that Rowling and her pals are really dialling down the emotions and feelz in this debate.
    Why the fuck should you call for her to back down when you don't call for the looney wing of the trans ideoligists to stand down? Now if you had called for both then fair enough but you didn't
    Touchy little fucker aint you.
    Insofar as it would make the slightest difference I'm not asking the ridiculous narcissist to do anything, though I daresay she'd enjoy some of the simping on here.
    Touchy little fucker because I pointed out the truth here, I didn't support rowling I just said you never criticise the extremists on the other side....go vote for independence most of us south of the border dont want you anymore....oh right you cant because even the scottish hate you
    You'll be turning your little weenie anger on the posters highlighting 'a deadly mixture of woke and identity politics' of a damaged generation on the other side shortly I suppose?
    Have a pank. You'll feel better.
    You been on the vegan venison
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,071
    Of course the Americans already had a perfectly fine system of being under British colonial rule, so it's their own fault for casting that off in favour of some electoral college nonsense.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,071
    Nigelb said:

    A Ukrainian soldier texts from Donbas:

    - The whole unit was watching. After the vote, one could hear all over the trench: “YESSS!”

    Thank you!

    https://twitter.com/olex_scherba/status/1781746268739448975

    Just infuriating to think how many damage has been done by the delay.
  • geoffwgeoffw Posts: 8,708
     
    malcolmg said:

    geoffw said:

    J K Rowling tweeting that Dr Hilary Cass feels she can no longer safely travel on public transport. Jeez.

    Just incredible how this irrational trans ideology has taken hold. A deadly mixture of woke and identity politics.

    Had a long discussion last night with my 21yo youngest daughter. She is at Edinburgh Uni and told me that a lot of her friends think emotions and feelings are more important than facts when making decisions - lived experience is more valid than measurable outcomes or the law. What on earth have we done in educating that generation? Social media has done so much damage.
    The new CEO of NPR in the US has explicitly said that seeking the truth is a problem:

    https://twitter.com/CatchUpFeed/status/1780492395790086460

    “Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction getting in the way of finding common ground & getting things done.”
    I can top that. The then US President got much of the country to believe he hadn’t lost an election that, in truth, he had lost.
    Hillary Clinton got much of the country to believe that she was legitimate winner in 2016 too.
    She and Liz Truss would get on.
    To be fair she got almost 3m more votes than the Orange One. She just didn’t win enough States.
    Shoulda woulda coulda.

    She lost. And she's learnt nothing from it, even today.
    She lost because of the system. As Attlee did in 1951. And as he did, accepted it.
    Doesn’t mean it’s a fair system, or a good one.
    She lost because she was a shit candidate.

    There's no dressing that up.
    Both candidates were. There’s no dressing that up, either. If she’s learned nothing from it, more fool her. To be fair, her opponent has learned nothing either.
    The fact remains that she won the popular vote.
    In the wrong places

    In a shit system , how can you win most votes and lose , mental
    Their system is what it is. That's the game they were (and are) playng. You want them to move the goalposts?
  • FF43FF43 Posts: 17,208
    I'm actually surprised by how many Republican representatives did the right thing and voted for the Ukraine package.

    I guess the question needed to be forced.
  • Stark_DawningStark_Dawning Posts: 9,678

    Andy_JS said:

    "Reform’s success is a mirage. Even a Canada-style Tory wipeout won’t change that
    Nobody disagrees with their basic list of policies. They simply have no realistic way of delivering them
    DANIEL HANNAN"

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/20/nigel-farage-general-election-reform-conservative-party/

    And what's Dan's problem?

    Copyright infringment?
    Bit patronizing towards his readership - suddenly declaring himself as Captain Trade-Off and the only grown-up politician in the room.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,407
    malcolmg said:

    ..

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    J K Rowling tweeting that Dr Hilary Cass feels she can no longer safely travel on public transport. Jeez.

    Just incredible how this irrational trans ideology has taken hold. A deadly mixture of woke and identity politics.

    Had a long discussion last night with my 21yo youngest daughter. She is at Edinburgh Uni and told me that a lot of her friends think emotions and feelings are more important than facts when making decisions - lived experience is more valid than measurable outcomes or the law. What on earth have we done in educating that generation? Social media has done so much damage.
    It’s great though that Rowling and her pals are really dialling down the emotions and feelz in this debate.
    Why the fuck should you call for her to back down when you don't call for the looney wing of the trans ideoligists to stand down? Now if you had called for both then fair enough but you didn't
    Touchy little fucker aint you.
    Insofar as it would make the slightest difference I'm not asking the ridiculous narcissist to do anything, though I daresay she'd enjoy some of the simping on here.
    Touchy little fucker because I pointed out the truth here, I didn't support rowling I just said you never criticise the extremists on the other side....go vote for independence most of us south of the border dont want you anymore....oh right you cant because even the scottish hate you
    You'll be turning your little weenie anger on the posters highlighting 'a deadly mixture of woke and identity politics' of a damaged generation on the other side shortly I suppose?
    Have a pank. You'll feel better.
    You been on the vegan venison
    I refer you to the post last week.

    Stopped being funny over a year ago mate.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,071
    FF43 said:

    J K Rowling tweeting that Dr Hilary Cass feels she can no longer safely travel on public transport. Jeez.

    Just incredible how this irrational trans ideology has taken hold. A deadly mixture of woke and identity politics.

    Had a long discussion last night with my 21yo youngest daughter. She is at Edinburgh Uni and told me that a lot of her friends think emotions and feelings are more important than facts when making decisions - lived experience is more valid than measurable outcomes or the law. What on earth have we done in educating that generation? Social media has done so much damage.
    The new CEO of NPR in the US has explicitly said that seeking the truth is a problem:

    https://twitter.com/CatchUpFeed/status/1780492395790086460

    “Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction getting in the way of finding common ground & getting things done.”
    I can top that. The then US President got much of the country to believe he hadn’t lost an election that, in truth, he had lost.
    Hillary Clinton got much of the country to believe that she was legitimate winner in 2016 too.
    She and Liz Truss would get on.
    To be fair she got almost 3m more votes than the Orange One. She just didn’t win enough States.
    Shoulda woulda coulda.

    She lost. And she's learnt nothing from it, even today.
    She lost because of the system. As Attlee did in 1951. And as he did, accepted it.
    Doesn’t mean it’s a fair system, or a good one.
    She lost because she was a shit candidate.

    There's no dressing that up.
    Hilary Clinton was a shit candidate only because she lost. Otherwise she's would have been fine as a president compared with Trump, as anyone with half a brain cell would have realised at the time.

    You need to win. I don't downplay that. But for anyone making a choice she was the better candidate by light years.
    Even people who hated Donald Trump and thought he would be bad probably did not think he would turn out to be 'refuse to accept he lost' bad.

    That's pretty apparent from how most of his Cabinet refuse to back his current attempt at re-election, some in the strongest possible terms.
  • My middle lad just told me Captain Spok or something (his spelling) is at a Comic Con that my lad has wandered into 2 minutes from his girlfriend's house in Ohio. Turns out it's William Shatner, some Dukes of Hazzard and the first female R2D2. Ole Kirk wants 270 bucks for a photo and autograph. My lad is more interested in the Pokemon resellers.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,870

    ..

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    J K Rowling tweeting that Dr Hilary Cass feels she can no longer safely travel on public transport. Jeez.

    Just incredible how this irrational trans ideology has taken hold. A deadly mixture of woke and identity politics.

    Had a long discussion last night with my 21yo youngest daughter. She is at Edinburgh Uni and told me that a lot of her friends think emotions and feelings are more important than facts when making decisions - lived experience is more valid than measurable outcomes or the law. What on earth have we done in educating that generation? Social media has done so much damage.
    It’s great though that Rowling and her pals are really dialling down the emotions and feelz in this debate.
    Why the fuck should you call for her to back down when you don't call for the looney wing of the trans ideoligists to stand down? Now if you had called for both then fair enough but you didn't
    Touchy little fucker aint you.
    Insofar as it would make the slightest difference I'm not asking the ridiculous narcissist to do anything, though I daresay she'd enjoy some of the simping on here.
    Touchy little fucker because I pointed out the truth here, I didn't support rowling I just said you never criticise the extremists on the other side....go vote for independence most of us south of the border dont want you anymore....oh right you cant because even the scottish hate you
    You'll be turning your little weenie anger on the posters highlighting 'a deadly mixture of woke and identity politics' of a damaged generation on the other side shortly I suppose?
    I don't believe I have ever joined the woke debate here. I was merely highlighting your hypocrisy in only calling out one side of the debate. Thats a you problem not a me problem.
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 12,541
    edited April 20
    Leon said:

    boulay said:

    Penddu2 said:

    Even in the historical Centre around Chatelet & Les Halles - after 8pm it takes on a very threatening feel compared to the day..

    I’m trying to remember if I found anywhere within zone 2 of London (just a random way of thinking about the larger centre of London) remotely threatening at night and it wasn’t as far as I remember. I found central Geneva at night much more dangerous and dodgy with lots of mates being mugged a lot, girls threatened by big gangs of guys.

    Maybe because our drinking culture you are more likely to get into a scrap in a bar than when everyone is wandering around pissed on the streets en masse.
    I’m in Les Halles now. My god. Horribly menacing

    Groups of men all drinking. Hundreds. Like a convention or aggressive young hobos. Very few women. This is meant to be the Parisian Covent Garden



    I mean, they look friendly don’t they. Charming French characters. Might go over for a chat about patisserie
    Say what you want about the French but their media is ace. Le Monde means the world to me.
  • tysontyson Posts: 6,117
    Again the trans debate rears it head...for such a niche issue it touches a lot of nerves.

    FWIW...I think the likes of Rowling and our own Cyclefree are old school feminists who just hate the idea that men want to take ownership of their gender. And it really winds them up. For The Right it presents a golden opportunity to attack Liberals (aka Wokes) because most people on the doorstep think it's odd that some people want to change their gender. And the Trans community just get really angry and feel violated that other people are making very personal judgements on something that is fundamentally important to them.

    My own view is that we all should out of this debate. People's choice of gender is entirely up to them, their families and health care professionals if treatments are required. It's got no place in political discourse.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,407
    Great news that in the last 2 hours the House has finally approved £49bn of aid for Ukraine.

    Won't last long, and might take a while to hit the front lines, but let's hope that's come in the nick of time.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,417
    malcolmg said:

    geoffw said:

    J K Rowling tweeting that Dr Hilary Cass feels she can no longer safely travel on public transport. Jeez.

    Just incredible how this irrational trans ideology has taken hold. A deadly mixture of woke and identity politics.

    Had a long discussion last night with my 21yo youngest daughter. She is at Edinburgh Uni and told me that a lot of her friends think emotions and feelings are more important than facts when making decisions - lived experience is more valid than measurable outcomes or the law. What on earth have we done in educating that generation? Social media has done so much damage.
    The new CEO of NPR in the US has explicitly said that seeking the truth is a problem:

    https://twitter.com/CatchUpFeed/status/1780492395790086460

    “Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction getting in the way of finding common ground & getting things done.”
    I can top that. The then US President got much of the country to believe he hadn’t lost an election that, in truth, he had lost.
    Hillary Clinton got much of the country to believe that she was legitimate winner in 2016 too.
    She and Liz Truss would get on.
    To be fair she got almost 3m more votes than the Orange One. She just didn’t win enough States.
    Shoulda woulda coulda.

    She lost. And she's learnt nothing from it, even today.
    She lost because of the system. As Attlee did in 1951. And as he did, accepted it.
    Doesn’t mean it’s a fair system, or a good one.
    She lost because she was a shit candidate.

    There's no dressing that up.
    Both candidates were. There’s no dressing that up, either. If she’s learned nothing from it, more fool her. To be fair, her opponent has learned nothing either.
    The fact remains that she won the popular vote.
    In the wrong places

    In a shit system , how can you win most votes and lose , mental
    Applies in UK. 1951 for example.Then Feb 1974.
  • geoffwgeoffw Posts: 8,708

    Great news that in the last 2 hours the House has finally approved £49bn of aid for Ukraine.

    Won't last long, and might take a while to hit the front lines, but let's hope that's come in the nick of time.

    i.e. when the rasputitsa is over

  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,549
    O/T

    New game I've discovered recently. The Watermelon Game.

    https://suikagame.com
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,061
    kle4 said:

    Nigelb said:

    A Ukrainian soldier texts from Donbas:

    - The whole unit was watching. After the vote, one could hear all over the trench: “YESSS!”

    Thank you!

    https://twitter.com/olex_scherba/status/1781746268739448975

    Just infuriating to think how many damage has been done by the delay.
    Indeed.
    And had they voted for it earlier, the GOP would have also got a bill which delivered billions in funding for making it more difficult to cross the Mexican border.

    Bunch of idiots for dancing to Trump’s tune.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,071
    edited April 20
    tyson said:

    Again the trans debate rears it head...for such a niche issue it touches a lot of nerves.

    FWIW...I think the likes of Rowling and our own Cyclefree are old school feminists who just hate the idea that men want to take ownership of their gender. And it really winds them up. For The Right it presents a golden opportunity to attack Liberals (aka Wokes) because most people on the doorstep think it's odd that some people want to change their gender. And the Trans community just get really angry and feel violated that other people are making very personal judgements on something that is fundamentally important to them.

    My own view is that we all should out of this debate. People's choice of gender is entirely up to them, their families and health care professionals if treatments are required. It's got no place in political discourse.

    And yet lots of legal and political questions and issues get raised, by both sides, pushing for changes to law or policy or against said changes (or indeed, a reversal of some other change).

    So it won't be going away since the legal effects of people choosing their gender, or lack of legal effect, or what can be offered to support people transitioning or discourage it etc, are absolutely political questions.

    Politics is where such matters get determined, it's what politics is for - indeed, to determine where the line between state involvement or not is a political question.
  • FF43FF43 Posts: 17,208
    kle4 said:

    FF43 said:

    J K Rowling tweeting that Dr Hilary Cass feels she can no longer safely travel on public transport. Jeez.

    Just incredible how this irrational trans ideology has taken hold. A deadly mixture of woke and identity politics.

    Had a long discussion last night with my 21yo youngest daughter. She is at Edinburgh Uni and told me that a lot of her friends think emotions and feelings are more important than facts when making decisions - lived experience is more valid than measurable outcomes or the law. What on earth have we done in educating that generation? Social media has done so much damage.
    The new CEO of NPR in the US has explicitly said that seeking the truth is a problem:

    https://twitter.com/CatchUpFeed/status/1780492395790086460

    “Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction getting in the way of finding common ground & getting things done.”
    I can top that. The then US President got much of the country to believe he hadn’t lost an election that, in truth, he had lost.
    Hillary Clinton got much of the country to believe that she was legitimate winner in 2016 too.
    She and Liz Truss would get on.
    To be fair she got almost 3m more votes than the Orange One. She just didn’t win enough States.
    Shoulda woulda coulda.

    She lost. And she's learnt nothing from it, even today.
    She lost because of the system. As Attlee did in 1951. And as he did, accepted it.
    Doesn’t mean it’s a fair system, or a good one.
    She lost because she was a shit candidate.

    There's no dressing that up.
    Hilary Clinton was a shit candidate only because she lost. Otherwise she's would have been fine as a president compared with Trump, as anyone with half a brain cell would have realised at the time.

    You need to win. I don't downplay that. But for anyone making a choice she was the better candidate by light years.
    Even people who hated Donald Trump and thought he would be bad probably did not think he would turn out to be 'refuse to accept he lost' bad.

    That's pretty apparent from how most of his Cabinet refuse to back his current attempt at re-election, some in the strongest possible terms.
    Maybe. I admit to being baffled at the time by normally intelligent people on this site saying, "You would have to put a gun to my head" before they would support Hillary when it was obvious to me she was night and day better qualified to be president, on her track record, than Donald Trump.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,239
    malcolmg said:

    Leon said:

    boulay said:

    Leon said:

    Imagine watching 3 seasons of Emily in Paris then actually coming here. Lol

    Isn’t there the “Paris syndrome” thingy where Japanese tourists (and others) were so discombobulated by the disconnect between their preconceptions of Paris v the reality?
    Yes exactly. I just never expected to experience it myself
    You are making me feel really great , I am off to paris next week
    Just avoid Les Halles (especially at night) and most of the 1st arr. and the banks of the Seine. And anywhere really touristy. And all the suburbs. In fact don’t go there. Skip it and go to Bordeaux. Much nicer
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,870
    FF43 said:

    kle4 said:

    FF43 said:

    J K Rowling tweeting that Dr Hilary Cass feels she can no longer safely travel on public transport. Jeez.

    Just incredible how this irrational trans ideology has taken hold. A deadly mixture of woke and identity politics.

    Had a long discussion last night with my 21yo youngest daughter. She is at Edinburgh Uni and told me that a lot of her friends think emotions and feelings are more important than facts when making decisions - lived experience is more valid than measurable outcomes or the law. What on earth have we done in educating that generation? Social media has done so much damage.
    The new CEO of NPR in the US has explicitly said that seeking the truth is a problem:

    https://twitter.com/CatchUpFeed/status/1780492395790086460

    “Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction getting in the way of finding common ground & getting things done.”
    I can top that. The then US President got much of the country to believe he hadn’t lost an election that, in truth, he had lost.
    Hillary Clinton got much of the country to believe that she was legitimate winner in 2016 too.
    She and Liz Truss would get on.
    To be fair she got almost 3m more votes than the Orange One. She just didn’t win enough States.
    Shoulda woulda coulda.

    She lost. And she's learnt nothing from it, even today.
    She lost because of the system. As Attlee did in 1951. And as he did, accepted it.
    Doesn’t mean it’s a fair system, or a good one.
    She lost because she was a shit candidate.

    There's no dressing that up.
    Hilary Clinton was a shit candidate only because she lost. Otherwise she's would have been fine as a president compared with Trump, as anyone with half a brain cell would have realised at the time.

    You need to win. I don't downplay that. But for anyone making a choice she was the better candidate by light years.
    Even people who hated Donald Trump and thought he would be bad probably did not think he would turn out to be 'refuse to accept he lost' bad.

    That's pretty apparent from how most of his Cabinet refuse to back his current attempt at re-election, some in the strongest possible terms.
    Maybe. I admit to being baffled at the time by normally intelligent people on this site saying, "You would have to put a gun to my head" before they would support Hillary when it was obvious to me she was night and day better qualified to be president, on her track record, than Donald Trump.
    Hilary Clinton was directly involved in the death of a friend in benghazi, yes I dislike her therefore
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,071
    FF43 said:

    kle4 said:

    FF43 said:

    J K Rowling tweeting that Dr Hilary Cass feels she can no longer safely travel on public transport. Jeez.

    Just incredible how this irrational trans ideology has taken hold. A deadly mixture of woke and identity politics.

    Had a long discussion last night with my 21yo youngest daughter. She is at Edinburgh Uni and told me that a lot of her friends think emotions and feelings are more important than facts when making decisions - lived experience is more valid than measurable outcomes or the law. What on earth have we done in educating that generation? Social media has done so much damage.
    The new CEO of NPR in the US has explicitly said that seeking the truth is a problem:

    https://twitter.com/CatchUpFeed/status/1780492395790086460

    “Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction getting in the way of finding common ground & getting things done.”
    I can top that. The then US President got much of the country to believe he hadn’t lost an election that, in truth, he had lost.
    Hillary Clinton got much of the country to believe that she was legitimate winner in 2016 too.
    She and Liz Truss would get on.
    To be fair she got almost 3m more votes than the Orange One. She just didn’t win enough States.
    Shoulda woulda coulda.

    She lost. And she's learnt nothing from it, even today.
    She lost because of the system. As Attlee did in 1951. And as he did, accepted it.
    Doesn’t mean it’s a fair system, or a good one.
    She lost because she was a shit candidate.

    There's no dressing that up.
    Hilary Clinton was a shit candidate only because she lost. Otherwise she's would have been fine as a president compared with Trump, as anyone with half a brain cell would have realised at the time.

    You need to win. I don't downplay that. But for anyone making a choice she was the better candidate by light years.
    Even people who hated Donald Trump and thought he would be bad probably did not think he would turn out to be 'refuse to accept he lost' bad.

    That's pretty apparent from how most of his Cabinet refuse to back his current attempt at re-election, some in the strongest possible terms.
    Maybe. I admit to being baffled at the time by normally intelligent people on this site saying, "You would have to put a gun to my head" before they would support Hillary when it was obvious to me she was night and day better qualified to be president, on her track record, than Donald Trump.
    Oh, I think it was a clear choice. I'm sure I even recall some surprising people who might be thought of as Trump boosters are admitting at the time they'd back Hilary when push comes to shove.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,061
    FF43 said:

    I'm actually surprised by how many Republican representatives did the right thing and voted for the Ukraine package.

    I guess the question needed to be forced.

    Yes, rather more than voted for Lend Lease in 1941.

    The House also passed a bill in favour of handing about $8bn of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,355
    FF43 said:

    kle4 said:

    FF43 said:

    J K Rowling tweeting that Dr Hilary Cass feels she can no longer safely travel on public transport. Jeez.

    Just incredible how this irrational trans ideology has taken hold. A deadly mixture of woke and identity politics.

    Had a long discussion last night with my 21yo youngest daughter. She is at Edinburgh Uni and told me that a lot of her friends think emotions and feelings are more important than facts when making decisions - lived experience is more valid than measurable outcomes or the law. What on earth have we done in educating that generation? Social media has done so much damage.
    The new CEO of NPR in the US has explicitly said that seeking the truth is a problem:

    https://twitter.com/CatchUpFeed/status/1780492395790086460

    “Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction getting in the way of finding common ground & getting things done.”
    I can top that. The then US President got much of the country to believe he hadn’t lost an election that, in truth, he had lost.
    Hillary Clinton got much of the country to believe that she was legitimate winner in 2016 too.
    She and Liz Truss would get on.
    To be fair she got almost 3m more votes than the Orange One. She just didn’t win enough States.
    Shoulda woulda coulda.

    She lost. And she's learnt nothing from it, even today.
    She lost because of the system. As Attlee did in 1951. And as he did, accepted it.
    Doesn’t mean it’s a fair system, or a good one.
    She lost because she was a shit candidate.

    There's no dressing that up.
    Hilary Clinton was a shit candidate only because she lost. Otherwise she's would have been fine as a president compared with Trump, as anyone with half a brain cell would have realised at the time.

    You need to win. I don't downplay that. But for anyone making a choice she was the better candidate by light years.
    Even people who hated Donald Trump and thought he would be bad probably did not think he would turn out to be 'refuse to accept he lost' bad.

    That's pretty apparent from how most of his Cabinet refuse to back his current attempt at re-election, some in the strongest possible terms.
    Maybe. I admit to being baffled at the time by normally intelligent people on this site saying, "You would have to put a gun to my head" before they would support Hillary when it was obvious to me she was night and day better qualified to be president, on her track record, than Donald Trump.
    I will admit I was doubtful as to how much worse he could be than she was.

    I will also admit I'm regretting finding out.
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 12,496

    My middle lad just told me Captain Spok or something (his spelling) is at a Comic Con that my lad has wandered into 2 minutes from his girlfriend's house in Ohio. Turns out it's William Shatner, some Dukes of Hazzard and the first female R2D2. Ole Kirk wants 270 bucks for a photo and autograph. My lad is more interested in the Pokemon resellers.

    Followers of PB must range from those for whom every word of this means something, to those for whom the entire thing communicates nothing at all. funny old world.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,071
    Nigelb said:

    kle4 said:

    Nigelb said:

    A Ukrainian soldier texts from Donbas:

    - The whole unit was watching. After the vote, one could hear all over the trench: “YESSS!”

    Thank you!

    https://twitter.com/olex_scherba/status/1781746268739448975

    Just infuriating to think how many damage has been done by the delay.
    Indeed.
    And had they voted for it earlier, the GOP would have also got a bill which delivered billions in funding for making it more difficult to cross the Mexican border.

    Bunch of idiots for dancing to Trump’s tune.
    More of them would have backed the aid had it been earlier as well, as there would have been less time for Trump's directive to stop supporting Ukraine to take effect. I'm a little baffled why Johnson has finally done this and allowed a vote, when there was always the votes for the aid, and it's not like the MTG crowd would ever have been mollified on the issue, so the caucus is no less split by doing it now then doing it 4 months ago.
  • algarkirk said:

    My middle lad just told me Captain Spok or something (his spelling) is at a Comic Con that my lad has wandered into 2 minutes from his girlfriend's house in Ohio. Turns out it's William Shatner, some Dukes of Hazzard and the first female R2D2. Ole Kirk wants 270 bucks for a photo and autograph. My lad is more interested in the Pokemon resellers.

    Followers of PB must range from those for whom every word of this means something, to those for whom the entire thing communicates nothing at all. funny old world.
    I wish I was as clever as you.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,061
    Pentagon arms will reach Ukraine in less than a week once aid bill clears Congress - The Washington Post

    The Pentagon has a massive infusion of military aid for Ukraine “ready to go,” U.S. officials said. They also noted that the Defense Department initiated the assembly of this assistance package well before the coming votes in a bid to speed the process.

    One official, on condition of anonymity, said that once the $95 billion foreign aid bill is signed into law, it will take less than a week for some of the weapons to reach the battlefield.

    This package is almost certain to contain desperately needed ammunition for systems Ukrainian personnel rely on most, including 155mm shells used in NATO howitzers and munitions for medium-range rocket artillery.

    It is also likely the Pentagon will provide Ukraine with a fresh tranche of air defense equipment and ammunition to defend against Russia's attacks on civilian infrastructure.

    https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1781697485179683299
  • Jim_MillerJim_Miller Posts: 2,998
    Off topic: Can any of you recommend a good biography of John Bright?
    (This https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bright )

    I have been impressed by the help he gave to Lincoln and the Republicans during our great Civil War, as mentioned in Carl Sandburg's biography of Lincoln.

    Something like the biographies in Tuchman's "Proud Tower" would be fine.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,549
    "Tony Blair: ‘Politics is for the weird and the wealthy’

    The former prime minister has reinvented himself as a secret global influencer and the Tony Blair Institute’s 800 staff are now helping to run almost 40 countries. If Labour wins, will he be pulling the strings?"

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/what-tony-blair-doing-now-prime-minister-labour-k7779cst9
  • MightyAlexMightyAlex Posts: 1,660

    Andy_JS said:

    "Reform’s success is a mirage. Even a Canada-style Tory wipeout won’t change that
    Nobody disagrees with their basic list of policies. They simply have no realistic way of delivering them
    DANIEL HANNAN"

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/20/nigel-farage-general-election-reform-conservative-party/

    BTL and Hannan don't appear to be, er, in 100% agreement.
    I'd like our politics to have a 'big call' protocol.

    An MP can stand in Parliament and say for me this is a big call. From then they're actually listened to. The BBC and assorted media are mandated to cover your idea, the clerks write it up and a free vote happens three weeks after.

    However If said idea turns to shit you're done. No columns, articles, junkets or appearances. You get bed and board in your old constituency and you disappear.
  • TimSTimS Posts: 12,984
    Leon said:

    malcolmg said:

    Leon said:

    boulay said:

    Leon said:

    Imagine watching 3 seasons of Emily in Paris then actually coming here. Lol

    Isn’t there the “Paris syndrome” thingy where Japanese tourists (and others) were so discombobulated by the disconnect between their preconceptions of Paris v the reality?
    Yes exactly. I just never expected to experience it myself
    You are making me feel really great , I am off to paris next week
    Just avoid Les Halles (especially at night) and most of the 1st arr. and the banks of the Seine. And anywhere really touristy. And all the suburbs. In fact don’t go there. Skip it and go to Bordeaux. Much nicer
    Ignore him, Paris is a lovely city. Not particularly exciting but pleasant. The area around Parc Monceau, Bvd Malesherbes and Bvd Courcelles is my favourite bit. Sort of Parisian Marylebone. And the grandeur around the Tuileries eclipses anything in London for the projection of raw political power.

    But it’s definitely not as good a city overall as either London or NY. Better than Tokyo. Better than anything in Germany, Italy, China, Canada. Better than Moscow. But sub-NYC and London.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,071
    edited April 20
    I'm not sure of this 'Starmergeddon' stuff from Reform, it looks pretty amateurish (even without the blur for some reason)
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,814

    ydoethur said:

    J K Rowling tweeting that Dr Hilary Cass feels she can no longer safely travel on public transport. Jeez.

    Just incredible how this irrational trans ideology has taken hold. A deadly mixture of woke and identity politics.

    Had a long discussion last night with my 21yo youngest daughter. She is at Edinburgh Uni and told me that a lot of her friends think emotions and feelings are more important than facts when making decisions - lived experience is more valid than measurable outcomes or the law. What on earth have we done in educating that generation? Social media has done so much damage.
    The new CEO of NPR in the US has explicitly said that seeking the truth is a problem:

    https://twitter.com/CatchUpFeed/status/1780492395790086460

    “Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction getting in the way of finding common ground & getting things done.”
    I can top that. The then US President got much of the country to believe he hadn’t lost an election that, in truth, he had lost.
    Hillary Clinton got much of the country to believe that she was legitimate winner in 2016 too.
    She and Liz Truss would get on.
    To be fair she got almost 3m more votes than the Orange One. She just didn’t win enough States.
    Shoulda woulda coulda.

    She lost. And she's learnt nothing from it, even today.
    She lost because of the system. As Attlee did in 1951. And as he did, accepted it.
    Doesn’t mean it’s a fair system, or a good one.
    She lost because she was a shit candidate.

    There's no dressing that up.
    Can I suggest a compromise?

    She lost because it was an unfair system *and* she was a shit candidate?
    Well, it's a system designed for electing a President of the United States of America, which is a federation of those same States- hence the electoral college electing the President via weighted delegates from each State.

    It's not a unitary state so winning the popular vote means nothing unless you win the electoral college too.
    Smaller states have disproportionally more electors per capita than the larger states.
  • TimSTimS Posts: 12,984
    kle4 said:

    I'm not sure of this 'Starmergeddon' stuff from Reform, it looks pretty amateurish (even without the blur for some reason)

    The “they’re both the same” messaging is useful in persuading Tories to sit this next one out.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 51,603
    Leon said:

    malcolmg said:

    Leon said:

    boulay said:

    Leon said:

    Imagine watching 3 seasons of Emily in Paris then actually coming here. Lol

    Isn’t there the “Paris syndrome” thingy where Japanese tourists (and others) were so discombobulated by the disconnect between their preconceptions of Paris v the reality?
    Yes exactly. I just never expected to experience it myself
    You are making me feel really great , I am off to paris next week
    Just avoid Les Halles (especially at night) and most of the 1st arr. and the banks of the Seine. And anywhere really touristy. And all the suburbs. In fact don’t go there. Skip it and go to Bordeaux. Much nicer
    Although if you go to Bordeaux, be careful when drinking alcohol:

    https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2024/04/12/fatal-stabbing-in-bordeaux-connected-to-victims-alcohol-consumption-on-eid_6668222_7.html
  • Jim_MillerJim_Miller Posts: 2,998
    One way to understand the US electoral college is that it was originally intended for nominations, not the election itself, which would take place in the House of Representatives.

    (Everyone involved in writing it knew that George Washington would be the first president, so the writers of the Constitution (our second) paid less attention to the details than they perhaps should have. And they did not realize that mass elections were on their way.

    In their defense I should add that they were doing something unprecedented, in creating rules for a democracy on that scale.

    "Constitutionally, the legislature of each state determines how its electors are chosen; Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 states that each state shall appoint electors "in such Manner as the Legislature Thereof May Direct".[15] During the first presidential election in 1789, only 6 of the 11 eligible states chose electors by any form of popular vote.[16][note 2]

    Gradually throughout the years, the states began conducting popular elections to choose their slate of electors. In 1800, only five of the 16 states chose electors by a popular vote; by 1824, after the rise of Jacksonian democracy, the proportion of states that chose electors by popular vote had sharply risen to 18 out of 24 states.[17] This gradual movement toward greater democratization coincided with a gradual decrease in property restrictions for the franchise.[17] By 1840, only one of the 26 states (South Carolina) still selected electors by the state legislature."
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election#History


  • DonkeysDonkeys Posts: 723
    edited April 20
    The Campaign Against Antisemitism - whose CEO Gideon Falter was threatened with arrest by a London police officer last Saturday - is calling for Met commissioner Mark Rowley to resign or be fired.

    They are also having an organised walk next Saturday, the day of London's next big pro-Palestinian march, on which they hope to "force" the London police service to "make London actually safe":

    https://twitter.com/i/status/1781032832204214308

    In that earlier statement, they didn't call for Rowley to go.

    Rishi Sunak is going to have to address this, possibly this evening.

    (Cf. Boris Johnson on the Oxford Street incident of November 2021.)
  • BartholomewRobertsBartholomewRoberts Posts: 21,968
    edited April 20
    tyson said:

    Again the trans debate rears it head...for such a niche issue it touches a lot of nerves.

    FWIW...I think the likes of Rowling and our own Cyclefree are old school feminists who just hate the idea that men want to take ownership of their gender. And it really winds them up. For The Right it presents a golden opportunity to attack Liberals (aka Wokes) because most people on the doorstep think it's odd that some people want to change their gender. And the Trans community just get really angry and feel violated that other people are making very personal judgements on something that is fundamentally important to them.

    My own view is that we all should out of this debate. People's choice of gender is entirely up to them, their families and health care professionals if treatments are required. It's got no place in political discourse.

    Odd logic, that you want to get out of the debate but then dictate what everything is and that "feminists" get no say.

    People's gender is not a choice, its a characteristic they're born with. Cyclefree didn't choose to be a woman, she is a woman. Someone with a penis is not.

    They may identify as a transwoman, and good luck to them if so. And so long as safeguarding is not violated then they can be called whatever they choose.

    But they are not, and never will be, a woman in the same way as Rowling and Cyclefree are. That's just biological fact. When safeguarding matters, then reality as opposed to how people identify, is what matters.
  • pigeonpigeon Posts: 4,837
    TimS said:

    kle4 said:

    I'm not sure of this 'Starmergeddon' stuff from Reform, it looks pretty amateurish (even without the blur for some reason)

    The “they’re both the same” messaging is useful in persuading Tories to sit this next one out.
    Perhaps, though in truth they're not really quite the same, are they?

    Spending a large sum of cash on a truly outstanding meal with a lot of booze makes one more sympathetically inclined towards the Tories. Somehow one feels that they are marginally less inclined to bleed ones disposable income to spend it on the smelly poor which, when one is in an advanced state of inebriation and therefore feeling really quite selfish, is an important consideration.

    I have decided that I like Rishi this evening. And Jeremy Hunt too. There should be more government by multi-millionaires. They understand that massive restaurant bills need to be paid for and are, moreover, a social good. Indeed, a necessity.

    Yay for the Conservative Party!
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 18,354

    ydoethur said:

    J K Rowling tweeting that Dr Hilary Cass feels she can no longer safely travel on public transport. Jeez.

    Just incredible how this irrational trans ideology has taken hold. A deadly mixture of woke and identity politics.

    Had a long discussion last night with my 21yo youngest daughter. She is at Edinburgh Uni and told me that a lot of her friends think emotions and feelings are more important than facts when making decisions - lived experience is more valid than measurable outcomes or the law. What on earth have we done in educating that generation? Social media has done so much damage.
    The new CEO of NPR in the US has explicitly said that seeking the truth is a problem:

    https://twitter.com/CatchUpFeed/status/1780492395790086460

    “Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction getting in the way of finding common ground & getting things done.”
    I can top that. The then US President got much of the country to believe he hadn’t lost an election that, in truth, he had lost.
    Hillary Clinton got much of the country to believe that she was legitimate winner in 2016 too.
    She and Liz Truss would get on.
    To be fair she got almost 3m more votes than the Orange One. She just didn’t win enough States.
    Shoulda woulda coulda.

    She lost. And she's learnt nothing from it, even today.
    She lost because of the system. As Attlee did in 1951. And as he did, accepted it.
    Doesn’t mean it’s a fair system, or a good one.
    She lost because she was a shit candidate.

    There's no dressing that up.
    Can I suggest a compromise?

    She lost because it was an unfair system *and* she was a shit candidate?
    Well, it's a system designed for electing a President of the United States of America, which is a federation of those same States- hence the electoral college electing the President via weighted delegates from each State.

    It's not a unitary state so winning the popular vote means nothing unless you win the electoral college too.
    Smaller states have disproportionally more electors per capita than the larger states.
    That's a deliberate decision to prevent the small states being overly dominated by the large ones. It's a feature of the design. Everyone knows that is part of the rules.

    The popular vote is good for bragging rights and in terms of measuring the size of a victory, but the system is decided on electoral college votes.
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 18,354

    One way to understand the US electoral college is that it was originally intended for nominations, not the election itself, which would take place in the House of Representatives.

    (Everyone involved in writing it knew that George Washington would be the first president, so the writers of the Constitution (our second) paid less attention to the details than they perhaps should have. And they did not realize that mass elections were on their way.

    In their defense I should add that they were doing something unprecedented, in creating rules for a democracy on that scale.

    "Constitutionally, the legislature of each state determines how its electors are chosen; Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 states that each state shall appoint electors "in such Manner as the Legislature Thereof May Direct".[15] During the first presidential election in 1789, only 6 of the 11 eligible states chose electors by any form of popular vote.[16][note 2]

    Gradually throughout the years, the states began conducting popular elections to choose their slate of electors. In 1800, only five of the 16 states chose electors by a popular vote; by 1824, after the rise of Jacksonian democracy, the proportion of states that chose electors by popular vote had sharply risen to 18 out of 24 states.[17] This gradual movement toward greater democratization coincided with a gradual decrease in property restrictions for the franchise.[17] By 1840, only one of the 26 states (South Carolina) still selected electors by the state legislature."
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election#History

    Yes, and I believe that the Italian President is still elected by a vote in the Italian Parliament, so it's not unusual for a ceremonial President to be elected in such a way. Perhaps if the US Presidency hadn't accumulated so much Executive power then things would be better?
  • DonkeysDonkeys Posts: 723
    edited April 20
    Donkeys said:

    The Campaign Against Antisemitism - whose CEO Gideon Falter was threatened with arrest by a London police officer last Saturday - is calling for Met commissioner Mark Rowley to resign or be fired.

    They are also having an organised walk next Saturday, the day of London's next big pro-Palestinian march, on which they hope to "force" the London police service to "make London actually safe":

    https://twitter.com/i/status/1781032832204214308

    In that earlier statement, they didn't call for Rowley to go.

    Rishi Sunak is going to have to address this, possibly this evening.

    (Cf. Boris Johnson on the Oxford Street incident of November 2021.)

    Suella Braverman says Rowley should resign.

    https://archive.is/gNKQo

    That was quick off the mark.
    I wonder who else will join her.
    Rowley is toast. It'll be interesting to see who else is.

    https://archive.is/mvNH2
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,239
    edited April 20
    TimS said:

    Leon said:

    malcolmg said:

    Leon said:

    boulay said:

    Leon said:

    Imagine watching 3 seasons of Emily in Paris then actually coming here. Lol

    Isn’t there the “Paris syndrome” thingy where Japanese tourists (and others) were so discombobulated by the disconnect between their preconceptions of Paris v the reality?
    Yes exactly. I just never expected to experience it myself
    You are making me feel really great , I am off to paris next week
    Just avoid Les Halles (especially at night) and most of the 1st arr. and the banks of the Seine. And anywhere really touristy. And all the suburbs. In fact don’t go there. Skip it and go to Bordeaux. Much nicer
    Ignore him, Paris is a lovely city. Not particularly exciting but pleasant. The area around Parc Monceau, Bvd Malesherbes and Bvd Courcelles is my favourite bit. Sort of Parisian Marylebone. And the grandeur around the Tuileries eclipses anything in London for the projection of raw political power.

    But it’s definitely not as good a city overall as either London or NY. Better than Tokyo. Better than anything in Germany, Italy, China, Canada. Better than Moscow. But sub-NYC and London.
    I wouldn’t necessarily disagree. That’s possibly fair. It is still Paris - as I said today “it is still a magnificent city”. At its best it is the most impressive city in the world architecturally. The harmony and the grandeur

    I’m just shocked at how tatty it is looking and how much that homeless seedy Gare du Nord vibe has spread to several other significant areas. I’ve never felt menaced by anywhere in Europe as I did in Les Halles this evening. It’s fucking horrible
  • Jim_MillerJim_Miller Posts: 2,998
    American states were much closer in population sizes at the time the Constitution was written than they are now. (It is true that smaller states can be over-represented; it is also true, for example, that a voter in California can influence far more electoral votes than a voter in, for example, Wyoming.)
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,549
    "Are we all becoming hermits now?

    A new anthropological type is emerging, says Pascal Bruckner – the shrivelled, hyperconnected being who no longer needs others or the outside world

    Stuart Jeffries"

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/are-we-all-becoming-hermits-now/
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 18,354

    ydoethur said:

    J K Rowling tweeting that Dr Hilary Cass feels she can no longer safely travel on public transport. Jeez.

    Just incredible how this irrational trans ideology has taken hold. A deadly mixture of woke and identity politics.

    Had a long discussion last night with my 21yo youngest daughter. She is at Edinburgh Uni and told me that a lot of her friends think emotions and feelings are more important than facts when making decisions - lived experience is more valid than measurable outcomes or the law. What on earth have we done in educating that generation? Social media has done so much damage.
    The new CEO of NPR in the US has explicitly said that seeking the truth is a problem:

    https://twitter.com/CatchUpFeed/status/1780492395790086460

    “Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction getting in the way of finding common ground & getting things done.”
    I can top that. The then US President got much of the country to believe he hadn’t lost an election that, in truth, he had lost.
    Hillary Clinton got much of the country to believe that she was legitimate winner in 2016 too.
    She and Liz Truss would get on.
    To be fair she got almost 3m more votes than the Orange One. She just didn’t win enough States.
    Shoulda woulda coulda.

    She lost. And she's learnt nothing from it, even today.
    She lost because of the system. As Attlee did in 1951. And as he did, accepted it.
    Doesn’t mean it’s a fair system, or a good one.
    She lost because she was a shit candidate.

    There's no dressing that up.
    Can I suggest a compromise?

    She lost because it was an unfair system *and* she was a shit candidate?
    Well, it's a system designed for electing a President of the United States of America, which is a federation of those same States- hence the electoral college electing the President via weighted delegates from each State.

    It's not a unitary state so winning the popular vote means nothing unless you win the electoral college too.
    Smaller states have disproportionally more electors per capita than the larger states.
    That's a deliberate decision to prevent the small states being overly dominated by the large ones. It's a feature of the design. Everyone knows that is part of the rules.

    The popular vote is good for bragging rights and in terms of measuring the size of a victory, but the system is decided on electoral college votes.
    The other thing to say about this - and it shouldn't really need to be said among this group of voting system nerds - is that there's no such thing as a perfect electoral system. It's been proved mathematically that it isn't possible for any voting system to satisfy all the properties that you might want a perfect voting system to have.

    So in choosing a voting system you have to choose which properties are most important to you. And then everyone has to agree that the choice made is legitimate.

    A voting system will fail if too many voters no longer see it as legitimate - which might come to be the case if Republicans repeatedly win the electoral college while losing the popular vote - but could also be the case if one side were able to force through a change without the consent of the other.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,549
    TimS said:

    Leon said:

    malcolmg said:

    Leon said:

    boulay said:

    Leon said:

    Imagine watching 3 seasons of Emily in Paris then actually coming here. Lol

    Isn’t there the “Paris syndrome” thingy where Japanese tourists (and others) were so discombobulated by the disconnect between their preconceptions of Paris v the reality?
    Yes exactly. I just never expected to experience it myself
    You are making me feel really great , I am off to paris next week
    Just avoid Les Halles (especially at night) and most of the 1st arr. and the banks of the Seine. And anywhere really touristy. And all the suburbs. In fact don’t go there. Skip it and go to Bordeaux. Much nicer
    Ignore him, Paris is a lovely city. Not particularly exciting but pleasant. The area around Parc Monceau, Bvd Malesherbes and Bvd Courcelles is my favourite bit. Sort of Parisian Marylebone. And the grandeur around the Tuileries eclipses anything in London for the projection of raw political power.

    But it’s definitely not as good a city overall as either London or NY. Better than Tokyo. Better than anything in Germany, Italy, China, Canada. Better than Moscow. But sub-NYC and London.
    But would you agree the general atmosphere in Paris has gone downhill in recent years?

    When I think of what Paris ought to be like, I tend to think of this Clive James documentary from 1988.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=przhiqnhOdI
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,627
    Ever wonder why we spend so much yet still get crap public services? See the cover of the Indy, and understand Sunaks Britain.


  • Alphabet_SoupAlphabet_Soup Posts: 3,243
    Leon said:

    malcolmg said:

    Leon said:

    boulay said:

    Leon said:

    Imagine watching 3 seasons of Emily in Paris then actually coming here. Lol

    Isn’t there the “Paris syndrome” thingy where Japanese tourists (and others) were so discombobulated by the disconnect between their preconceptions of Paris v the reality?
    Yes exactly. I just never expected to experience it myself
    You are making me feel really great , I am off to paris next week
    Just avoid Les Halles (especially at night) and most of the 1st arr. and the banks of the Seine. And anywhere really touristy. And all the suburbs. In fact don’t go there. Skip it and go to Bordeaux. Much nicer
    Les Halles, of course, is (or, rather, was) the Parisian equivalent of Covent Garden. After the demise of the vegetable market they could have had a congeries of winding streets of niche boutiques and single-sex gentlemen's clubs but decided instead that a bleak, urban dystopia would better reflect the French inventive genius.

    They were right.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,700
    DavidL said:

    This has been a good day. The world is a safer place tonight. And Mike Johnson might well have shown that there is a future for the GOP beyond that scumbag currently being tried in New York.

    Bi-partisanship is back!

    Yah!
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,068
    Andy_JS said:

    "Reform’s success is a mirage. Even a Canada-style Tory wipeout won’t change that
    Nobody disagrees with their basic list of policies. They simply have no realistic way of delivering them
    DANIEL HANNAN"

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/20/nigel-farage-general-election-reform-conservative-party/

    Archive link: https://archive.is/fu88b

    It is possible to achieve Reform's goals, just not in the way they pretend. I think Milei is demonstrating this in real time. Usually in politics, what is thought to be impossible is anything but. It's just that the cost is more than thought... :(
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,239
    edited April 20

    Leon said:

    malcolmg said:

    Leon said:

    boulay said:

    Leon said:

    Imagine watching 3 seasons of Emily in Paris then actually coming here. Lol

    Isn’t there the “Paris syndrome” thingy where Japanese tourists (and others) were so discombobulated by the disconnect between their preconceptions of Paris v the reality?
    Yes exactly. I just never expected to experience it myself
    You are making me feel really great , I am off to paris next week
    Just avoid Les Halles (especially at night) and most of the 1st arr. and the banks of the Seine. And anywhere really touristy. And all the suburbs. In fact don’t go there. Skip it and go to Bordeaux. Much nicer
    Les Halles, of course, is (or, rather, was) the Parisian equivalent of Covent Garden. After the demise of the vegetable market they could have had a congeries of winding streets of niche boutiques and single-sex gentlemen's clubs but decided instead that a bleak, urban dystopia would better reflect the French inventive genius.

    They were right.
    What’s brilliant about Les Halles is that they demolished all the nice Victorian stuff and installed a truly grotesque bit of modernist crap which everyone agreed was awful. Then they knocked it down and everyone breathed a sigh of relief - and they’ve built something even WORSE

    It already looks 40 years out of date and they only finished it about 8 years ago and it is a perfect urine yellow colour. And it’s beginning to rust. It was immediately hailed as a disaster

    https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/apr/06/les-halles-paris-architecture-custard-coloured-flop
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,068
    Andy_JS said:

    "Are we all becoming hermits now?

    A new anthropological type is emerging, says Pascal Bruckner – the shrivelled, hyperconnected being who no longer needs others or the outside world

    Stuart Jeffries"

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/are-we-all-becoming-hermits-now/

    As ever, science fiction got there first

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops

    (Also Stephen Baxter's story "Glass Earth Inc.", which uses the same trope)
  • nico679nico679 Posts: 6,275
    I see the DE is throwing a party to celebrate one of the spineless gimps planes taking off soon .

    That paper would still be arse licking the Tories even if they started a forced euthanasia programme for pensioners.
  • DonkeysDonkeys Posts: 723
    edited April 20
    viewcode said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "Are we all becoming hermits now?

    A new anthropological type is emerging, says Pascal Bruckner – the shrivelled, hyperconnected being who no longer needs others or the outside world

    Stuart Jeffries"

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/are-we-all-becoming-hermits-now/

    As ever, science fiction got there first

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops

    (Also Stephen Baxter's story "Glass Earth Inc.", which uses the same trope)
    It's a theme. A trope is e.g. irony or metonymy.

    We'll be hearing more about hikikomoris. It doesn't seem to be a particularly negative word. I've met a few online.

    The truly committed hikikomori doesn't breed...so we segue straight away to China's "last generation".
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,068

    My middle lad just told me Captain Spok or something (his spelling) is at a Comic Con that my lad has wandered into 2 minutes from his girlfriend's house in Ohio. Turns out it's William Shatner, some Dukes of Hazzard and the first female R2D2. Ole Kirk wants 270 bucks for a photo and autograph. My lad is more interested in the Pokemon resellers.

    Take the Shatner. He's in his 90's now and it'll only go up when he dies. Nobody cares about the Dukes of Hazzard. Christine Galey (R2D2 inhabitant) has some time to go yet.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,870
    Andy_JS said:

    "Are we all becoming hermits now?

    A new anthropological type is emerging, says Pascal Bruckner – the shrivelled, hyperconnected being who no longer needs others or the outside world

    Stuart Jeffries"

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/are-we-all-becoming-hermits-now/

    See I identify with the hermit here, however the article is wrong in so many ways.

    Yes I don't go down my local like my father did every night. But then when he did he just talked to the same 6 or 7 people every night. I on the other hand talk with about 100 people round the world on a weekly basis varying from usa, several european states, the uk in various localities, australia, china, russia even. This year I expect visits from people from the us and holland of these friends and have been invited to northern ireland for a long weekend which I plan to take up.

    Yet somehow I am the social hermit rather that the person who meets the same people week in week out, yeah that guy with that study can sit on one of leons flinty toys and bounce on it. He sounds like my father its not a real friendship if you dont meet face to face in a pub what a twat
  • DonkeysDonkeys Posts: 723
    edited April 20
    Pagan2 said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "Are we all becoming hermits now?

    A new anthropological type is emerging, says Pascal Bruckner – the shrivelled, hyperconnected being who no longer needs others or the outside world

    Stuart Jeffries"

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/are-we-all-becoming-hermits-now/

    See I identify with the hermit here, however the article is wrong in so many ways.

    Yes I don't go down my local like my father did every night. But then when he did he just talked to the same 6 or 7 people every night. I on the other hand talk with about 100 people round the world on a weekly basis varying from usa, several european states, the uk in various localities, australia, china, russia even. This year I expect visits from people from the us and holland of these friends and have been invited to northern ireland for a long weekend which I plan to take up.

    Yet somehow I am the social hermit rather that the person who meets the same people week in week out, yeah that guy with that study can sit on one of leons flinty toys and bounce on it. He sounds like my father its not a real friendship if you dont meet face to face in a pub what a twat
    Never mind what some stupid bastard scribbles in a review in the Spectator to get through his word allowance, or maybe he shares a publisher or agent with the author whose book he's reviewing, or will do in the future.

    The hikikomori phenomenon is interesting. You are not a hikikomori. A hikikomori doesn't meet people IRL.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 122,889
    edited April 20
    viewcode said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "Reform’s success is a mirage. Even a Canada-style Tory wipeout won’t change that
    Nobody disagrees with their basic list of policies. They simply have no realistic way of delivering them
    DANIEL HANNAN"

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/20/nigel-farage-general-election-reform-conservative-party/

    Archive link: https://archive.is/fu88b

    It is possible to achieve Reform's goals, just not in the way they pretend. I think Milei is demonstrating this in real time. Usually in politics, what is thought to be impossible is anything but. It's just that the cost is more than thought... :(
    These are the key paragraphs 'When we were in Brussels together, Farage often used to talk of the 1993 Canadian precedent, where Preston Manning’s prairies protest movement, significantly also called Reform, overtook and eventually merged with the Tories, providing the combined party with its first leader, Stephen Harper.

    Harper is a hero of mine and a personal friend. He may be the greatest Canadian PM since Sir John A Macdonald. But Harper would be the first to confirm that he governed as a mainstream conservative. Not because he had forgotten his Reform roots or gone soft, but because he had to govern in the real world.

    In the mean time, first-past-the-post brutally punished the split on Canada’s Right. If the same thing happened here, Labour would be in office until 2037. Then we would have ample time to test the bizarre claim that the two main parties are the same. '

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/20/nigel-farage-general-election-reform-conservative-party/

    Milei won the Argentine presidency because he was the only rightwing candidate in a presidential runoff of 2 against an unpopular leftwing governnment's candidate.

  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,068
    kle4 said:

    tyson said:

    Again the trans debate rears it head...for such a niche issue it touches a lot of nerves.

    FWIW...I think the likes of Rowling and our own Cyclefree are old school feminists who just hate the idea that men want to take ownership of their gender. And it really winds them up. For The Right it presents a golden opportunity to attack Liberals (aka Wokes) because most people on the doorstep think it's odd that some people want to change their gender. And the Trans community just get really angry and feel violated that other people are making very personal judgements on something that is fundamentally important to them.

    My own view is that we all should out of this debate. People's choice of gender is entirely up to them, their families and health care professionals if treatments are required. It's got no place in political discourse.

    And yet lots of legal and political questions and issues get raised, by both sides, pushing for changes to law or policy or against said changes (or indeed, a reversal of some other change).

    So it won't be going away since the legal effects of people choosing their gender, or lack of legal effect, or what can be offered to support people transitioning or discourage it etc, are absolutely political questions.

    Politics is where such matters get determined, it's what politics is for - indeed, to determine where the line between state involvement or not is a political question.
    It's almost as if somebody wrote an article about how the politics of the body will be a key issue in the 2020s.

    https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2024/04/07/transhumanism/
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,700

    Kate Ferguson
    @kateferguson4
    EXCL - Rishi Sunak reveals a key manifesto pledge.

    The PM says he will keep the 2 child benefit cap if reelected.

    It is part of his mission to curb Britain's ballooning benefits bill

    https://twitter.com/kateferguson4/status/1781767145375854662
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,068
    Andy_JS said:

    O/T

    New game I've discovered recently. The Watermelon Game.

    https://suikagame.com

    I'm not playing it. If I press the wrong button it'll install bad things on my laptop and Chinese people will laugh at my rude bits. Not that I'm paranoid or anything... :)
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,068
    HYUFD said:

    viewcode said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "Reform’s success is a mirage. Even a Canada-style Tory wipeout won’t change that
    Nobody disagrees with their basic list of policies. They simply have no realistic way of delivering them
    DANIEL HANNAN"

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/20/nigel-farage-general-election-reform-conservative-party/

    Archive link: https://archive.is/fu88b

    It is possible to achieve Reform's goals, just not in the way they pretend. I think Milei is demonstrating this in real time. Usually in politics, what is thought to be impossible is anything but. It's just that the cost is more than thought... :(
    These are the key paragraphs 'When we were in Brussels together, Farage often used to talk of the 1993 Canadian precedent, where Preston Manning’s prairies protest movement, significantly also called Reform, overtook and eventually merged with the Tories, providing the combined party with its first leader, Stephen Harper.

    Harper is a hero of mine and a personal friend. He may be the greatest Canadian PM since Sir John A Macdonald. But Harper would be the first to confirm that he governed as a mainstream conservative. Not because he had forgotten his Reform roots or gone soft, but because he had to govern in the real world.

    In the mean time, first-past-the-post brutally punished the split on Canada’s Right. If the same thing happened here, Labour would be in office until 2037. Then we would have ample time to test the bizarre claim that the two main parties are the same. '

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/20/nigel-farage-general-election-reform-conservative-party/

    Milei won the Argentine presidency because he was the only rightwing candidate in a presidential runoff of 2 against an unpopular leftwing governnment's candidate.

    Good point, thank you. Although I might be the only people on here who was (once and briefly) an expert on Western Canadian politics... :)
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,549
    David Gilbert about to knock world champion Luca Brecel out of the World Snooker championship in the first round.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,214


    Kate Ferguson
    @kateferguson4
    EXCL - Rishi Sunak reveals a key manifesto pledge.

    The PM says he will keep the 2 child benefit cap if reelected.

    It is part of his mission to curb Britain's ballooning benefits bill

    https://twitter.com/kateferguson4/status/1781767145375854662

    ... is that it? I mean, we all know that the Conservative ideas cupboard is pretty bare, but really?

    (Of course, what it really is is a crude attempt to put SKS on the spot. Which it might, but at the price of emphasising Sunak's Stingy Squillionaire image.)
  • eekeek Posts: 28,366


    Kate Ferguson
    @kateferguson4
    EXCL - Rishi Sunak reveals a key manifesto pledge.

    The PM says he will keep the 2 child benefit cap if reelected.

    It is part of his mission to curb Britain's ballooning benefits bill

    https://twitter.com/kateferguson4/status/1781767145375854662

    ... is that it? I mean, we all know that the Conservative ideas cupboard is pretty bare, but really?

    (Of course, what it really is is a crude attempt to put SKS on the spot. Which it might, but at the price of emphasising Sunak's Stingy Squillionaire image.)
    Labour's policy was to retain it last year https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/labour/2023/07/rachel-reeves-defends-two-child-benefit-cap

    I doubt anything has changed since then...
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,700


    Kate Ferguson
    @kateferguson4
    EXCL - Rishi Sunak reveals a key manifesto pledge.

    The PM says he will keep the 2 child benefit cap if reelected.

    It is part of his mission to curb Britain's ballooning benefits bill

    https://twitter.com/kateferguson4/status/1781767145375854662

    ... is that it? I mean, we all know that the Conservative ideas cupboard is pretty bare, but really?

    (Of course, what it really is is a crude attempt to put SKS on the spot. Which it might, but at the price of emphasising Sunak's Stingy Squillionaire image.)
    "And the union workhouses - are they still in operation?"
This discussion has been closed.