Has Leon heard anything from his MAGA sources? Trump suddenly sounds old and vulnerable, and that might be a positive spin.
If The Leonster has come across that photo of Katie Price on his regular patrol of Twitter's mottled underbelly then clear your agendas, lads, because that'll be all we hear about for days.
Do you have a link?
y'all need to rename the sandpit to the shitpit
If that’s who I think it is, we definitely don’t want that whale polluting our beach.
Many years ago (early 2000s) I had a friend who worked for the Foreign Office and he was on the Middle East desk and one of his jobs was to scour local news articles for info.
One thing he used to do was to google ‘Syria’, ‘Lebanon’ etc, but the first time he googled ‘Jordan’ it led to him having a discussion with HR.
Were they willing to pay for ALL the therapy he required?
They were not.
Makes me glad I didn’t apply for a job with the Foreign Office.
I had I would have become an ambassador by now, I had all the skills, multi lingual, subtlety and nuance.
In alternate universe I could be His Majesty’s Most Excellent Ambassador Extraordinaire and Plenipotentiary to France.
Some time ago the wife (then fiancee) of a friend was working at Goldmans. She's from Cumbria and wanted to take him for a romantic trip to the Lakes. She remembered a nice place from her youth and Googles it. Problem was it was this pub and she omitted the words "The" and "Inn"
So, the story goes, as the results of said search appeared on the screen she literally ripped the cables out of the back of the PC and ran down to IT. Apparently they pissed themselves about it and no harm was done. These days though...
@trussliz I am appalled by the attacks on free speech in Britain and Europe.
We can't be truly free without free speech.
Good for @elonmusk and @X for standing up to these bullies.
Farage says Keir Starmer is the biggest threat to free speech we've seen in our history.
The real threat is from people who say things like that imo.
Elon Musk is becoming a massive problem for western governments. The problem is this: He is not being subtle. He is saying 'it is a war and you have to choose a side', and his message goes down well with a lot of people. It works against trying to achieve any kind of cohesion and inclusion.
However, in a deeper sense it could be interpreted as a delayed reaction/realisation to changes bought forward by governments of both left and right whilst in power over the last 30 years, ie legislation about equalities, hate speech, harrassment etc which do act as a significant limit on free political expression, particularly by 'majority' groups.
I have said a few times that the example of Finland is one that we would do well to look at, the 'far right' are part of the political culture, and have been for the last 20 years, but they are integrated and not excluded from it, however reluctantly.
I don't think you need a grand theory of "delayed reaction/realisation to changes bought forward by governments of both left and right" to explain Musk's behaviour. He's acting like a 15-year old edgelord; he's been sucked in by a process of social media radicalisation. The problem is a system that gives so much power to deluded tech bros.
It's a spillover of electing Trump President. Once you've given up on any basic levels of expected common sense, this is what you get.
Trump does speak 'common sense' to people though. The idea of building a wall on the border is 'common sense' to many voters, even though his opponents see it as outrageous. The liberal governing elite keep on with the insisentence that they must be correct and rational, even as they carry out plainly irrational acts, like taking in an unlimited amount of migrants, and supporting protests against racism leading to 'superspreader' events in the middle of the covid pandemic.
With Musk, there is an element of what you are saying that is correct; but what is really significant and dangerous is that people with enormous power and influence are dropping the idea that any of these issues can be resolved through the democratic political system.
If there is any hope of saving the system, the elite need to stop believing they are right all the time and start to be more self critical and start listening to everyone. This is to build a credible system that accommodates differing views, rather than one that exists solely to impose an elite worldview on everyone else.
I would have thought that the 'problems' we are having with immigration should demonstrate that physical barriers aren't always the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything migratory.
It may or may not be coincidence, but since Sir Royale Starmer, my heroic PM who is ALSO my brave MP, got rightly elected to office, mainly thanks to my vote, Camden Town has been transformed
For several years it has been getting grottier and grottier, the homeless getting more persistent, the litter worse, the grunge more intense, tent villages spriging up, ugh. Quite dystopian
Suddenly in the last six weeks (basically since I went to France) it has all changed. The tents have gone, the litter is cleared, the graffiti is being cleaned, the homeless are being hosed into the gutter. It's still a bit scruffy, it's Camden, and it gets 30 trillion visitors every weekend, who drop their crap everywhere. Nonetheless, the change is remarkable
Is this because Labour have brilliantly cleaned up the country in a month? I doubt it. But could it be a kind of "prime minister" effect? He can't have his OWN constituency looking like Downtown Dar Es Salaam, and presumably if you get a call from Number 10 in Camden Town Council you pay attention, as against the usual locals moarning
Anyway, well done Sir Kir. What a dude. Glad I voted for you
Walk up Tottenham Court Road tonight at 11pm. Count the tents and report back tomorrow.
Is it bad? It is also shite in Kentish Town, I noticed - not tents, just grot
So maybe this is a strictly Camden Town thing. Nonetheless what I report is true
One theory I have is that Sir Kir can't afford to have his very OWN constituency looking hideously run down. It screams Daily Mail article - "How the PM's own constituency looks like the Fall of Rome with extra Fentanyl" - so he has to get it sorted. But of course I might be entirely wrong and it is coincidence. Quite odd timing, tho
It's a Labour seat - of course it's hideously run down.
The really baffling thing is that people can look at the absolute state of a Labour constituency and think 'I really want my neighbourhood to be more like that!'
Could possibly be psychological, but I'm convinced Canterbury is much less nice than it was even just a decade ago...
This is weird logic on so many levels.
Are you suggesting that if - for example - Richmond Yorkshire were to elect a Labour MP, then it would only be a matter of months before a bustling market sprung up by its canal? And that dense blocks of flats would be erected?
Not mere months, but, in the longer term, yes, absolutely. And after 50 years or so of continuous Labour representation and the decline that goes therewith we'd be in riot territory, and it would start showing up in crime statistics.
One can debate how much is symptom and how much is cause, but persistent Labour-voting areas are worse, by many different metrics, than places that don't vote Labour.
I genuinely struggle to think of a single 'desirable' place anywhere in this country that has been continually Labour in my lifetime. Possibly the centre of York, but even that was Tory under Thatcher. And is less nice than it was when I first visited.
The reasons behind this are undoubtedly complex. Traditionally it may have had something to with Conservative voters having more of a sense of civic/local pride and making more of an effort, but those types of people are rapidly dying out and I fear a shortage of flower-arrangers is looming.
Depending a little on reorganisations of boundaries, I think City of York has had Lib Dem, Tory as you say, and lots of NOC.
"Andrew Neil lives in France, Douglas Murray lives in New York, Tommy Robinson is hiding in Athens, Nigel Farage never visits Clacton, Laurence Fox is hiding in Ireland. That tells you everything you need to know about these 'patriots'."
Blade of the Sun is a bit of a clown. Don’t get his beef with Andrew Neil who also lives in the U.S. and the U.K.
If you live abroad do you suddenly stop caring about your home nation ?
Blade of the Sun also seems to think there is a University in Borehamwood. Although they did film the On the Buses films there.
"Elstree und Borehamwood" station is actually in Borehamwood.
I love the fact people go on "On the Buses" movies location spotting. I have done location spotting for Dr Who, Blakes Seven, Get Carter and Shoestring but never the wonderful On the Buses movies
"Andrew Neil lives in France, Douglas Murray lives in New York, Tommy Robinson is hiding in Athens, Nigel Farage never visits Clacton, Laurence Fox is hiding in Ireland. That tells you everything you need to know about these 'patriots'."
It tells you they've got the good sense to get out of this declining, authoritarian toilet of a country, where you can be arrested for tweeting about pigeons as you stare at the drizzle
Somebody has to fight for the UK. If not us, who?
I take it you are fighting for us one asinine copy pasted tweet at a time.
@trussliz I am appalled by the attacks on free speech in Britain and Europe.
We can't be truly free without free speech.
Good for @elonmusk and @X for standing up to these bullies.
Farage says Keir Starmer is the biggest threat to free speech we've seen in our history.
The real threat is from people who say things like that imo.
Elon Musk is becoming a massive problem for western governments. The problem is this: He is not being subtle. He is saying 'it is a war and you have to choose a side', and his message goes down well with a lot of people. It works against trying to achieve any kind of cohesion and inclusion.
However, in a deeper sense it could be interpreted as a delayed reaction/realisation to changes bought forward by governments of both left and right whilst in power over the last 30 years, ie legislation about equalities, hate speech, harrassment etc which do act as a significant limit on free political expression, particularly by 'majority' groups.
I have said a few times that the example of Finland is one that we would do well to look at, the 'far right' are part of the political culture, and have been for the last 20 years, but they are integrated and not excluded from it, however reluctantly.
I don't think you need a grand theory of "delayed reaction/realisation to changes bought forward by governments of both left and right" to explain Musk's behaviour. He's acting like a 15-year old edgelord; he's been sucked in by a process of social media radicalisation. The problem is a system that gives so much power to deluded tech bros.
It's a spillover of electing Trump President. Once you've given up on any basic levels of expected common sense, this is what you get.
Trump does speak 'common sense' to people though. The idea of building a wall on the border is 'common sense' to many voters, even though his opponents see it as outrageous. The liberal governing elite keep on with the insisentence that they must be correct and rational, even as they carry out plainly irrational acts, like taking in an unlimited amount of migrants, and supporting protests against racism leading to 'superspreader' events in the middle of the covid pandemic.
With Musk, there is an element of what you are saying that is correct; but what is really significant and dangerous is that people with enormous power and influence are dropping the idea that any of these issues can be resolved through the democratic political system.
If there is any hope of saving the system, the elite need to stop believing they are right all the time and start to be more self critical and start listening to everyone. This is to build a credible system that accommodates differing views, rather than one that exists solely to impose an elite worldview on everyone else.
I would have thought that the 'problems' we are having with immigration should demonstrate that physical barriers aren't always the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything migratory.
Trump's solutions can be nonsensical whilst still addressing an issue that many people want addressed.
Personally I don't think the answer lies anywhere near the US/Mexico border, but I can appreciate that 'some answer' appears better to many people than what appears to them to be no answer at all.
On topic again. Although the debate over abortion was mostly Catholics versus others, one of the most effective spokesmen for the pro-life side was Nat Hentoff, a Jewish atheist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Hentoff
(For the record: I have always admired Hentoff for his consistency. He was opposed to abortion and the death penalty for, as he saw it, the same reason. I should add that I disagree with him on both, thinking the death penalty appropriate in some instances, and it impossible to completely ban abortion, without a ChiCom level of tyranny.)
Has Leon heard anything from his MAGA sources? Trump suddenly sounds old and vulnerable, and that might be a positive spin.
If The Leonster has come across that photo of Katie Price on his regular patrol of Twitter's mottled underbelly then clear your agendas, lads, because that'll be all we hear about for days.
Do you have a link?
y'all need to rename the sandpit to the shitpit
If that’s who I think it is, we definitely don’t want that whale polluting our beach.
Many years ago (early 2000s) I had a friend who worked for the Foreign Office and he was on the Middle East desk and one of his jobs was to scour local news articles for info.
One thing he used to do was to google ‘Syria’, ‘Lebanon’ etc, but the first time he googled ‘Jordan’ it led to him having a discussion with HR.
Were they willing to pay for ALL the therapy he required?
They were not.
Makes me glad I didn’t apply for a job with the Foreign Office.
I had I would have become an ambassador by now, I had all the skills, multi lingual, subtlety and nuance.
In alternate universe I could be His Majesty’s Most Excellent Ambassador Extraordinaire and Plenipotentiary to France.
Some time ago the wife (then fiancee) of a friend was working at Goldmans. She's from Cumbria and wanted to take him for a romantic trip to the Lakes. She remembered a nice place from her youth and Googles it. Problem was it was this pub and she omitted the words "The" and "Inn"
So, the story goes, as the results of said search appeared on the screen she literally ripped the cables out of the back of the PC and ran down to IT. Apparently they pissed themselves about it and no harm was done. These days though...
We IT guys do generally have a sense of humour, albeit a slightly weird one sometimes to most outsiders.
A young lady running in with her browser inadvertently full of pr0n, would have made our day.
Some things we have to take very seriously, but not everything.
In a nutshell, that's the economy, housing, health, tax and spending paradox in data form.
It's interesting to note the level of economic inactivity has remained remarkably consistent since 2011 as has the level of employment so little changed during the time of the last Government. Exhortations to get the inactive back to work clearly had little or no impact.
I don't know how the 9.41 million is beoken down - do we have students (there will be many in full time education). There will be those who, like me, have taken early retirement. There will be others who have simply chosen not to work.
Basically, three quarters of those who can work do, the rest either want to work but can't or choose not to but we ran a fairly stable state on similar ratios before - why is it so different now? Is it?
How do full time parents and carers fit into this?
Roughly: 2.7 million students 1.7 million looking after family/home 0.2 million temporary sick 2.8 million long term sick 0.03 million discouraged 1 million retired 1 million other
Beware those bastards on bikes, seems to be the main warning. Curse PB's cycling lobby!
They are basically saying given in to the thieves.
They are acknowledging the Police are impotent so warning people to take care of themselves. You cannot blame the council here.
We have seen with the policing of the riots and the quick justice meted out that the judicial system can do it when it wants. Can do it when the established order are under threat.
They need to do the same of shoplifting, criminal damage, car theft, break ins and the like rather than just shrugging their shoulders.
In contrast to Hentoff, one of the most important advocates for abortion was the late Hugh Hefner.
And it is not hard to understand why. For example, at one time, the NBA gave lectures to rookies explaining how much, and how long, they would ahve to pay child support, if they were to get a woman pregnant. (I have been told the NBA stopped doing that, after complaints from women's groups.)
"Andrew Neil lives in France, Douglas Murray lives in New York, Tommy Robinson is hiding in Athens, Nigel Farage never visits Clacton, Laurence Fox is hiding in Ireland. That tells you everything you need to know about these 'patriots'."
Or read Tom Wolfe's entertaining essay, "Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine". (His example is so insightful, I have started, privately, referring to MVLs (Martha's Vineyard Leftists).
Or just think hard about George W. Bush famous phrase, "the soft bigotry of low expectations".
"Andrew Neil lives in France, Douglas Murray lives in New York, Tommy Robinson is hiding in Athens, Nigel Farage never visits Clacton, Laurence Fox is hiding in Ireland. That tells you everything you need to know about these 'patriots'."
It tells you they've got the good sense to get out of this declining, authoritarian toilet of a country, where you can be arrested for tweeting about pigeons as you stare at the drizzle
Somebody has to fight for the UK. If not us, who?
YOU, not I
Imma done
It only remains to thank you for your brave and gallant service.
Farewell ‘London is BACK!’, I guess it’ll be staying where it is from now on.
Comments
Reckon he's a tad optimistic re: proposed Arkansas pro-choice ballot initiative helping to elect any Democrats to US House, but hope springs eternal!
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g499538-d2213607-Reviews-The_Black_Cock_Inn-Broughton_in_Furness_Duddon_Valley_Lake_District_Cumbria_Engla.html
So, the story goes, as the results of said search appeared on the screen she literally ripped the cables out of the back of the PC and ran down to IT. Apparently they pissed themselves about it and no harm was done. These days though...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico–United_States_border_wall
NEW THREAD
Personally I don't think the answer lies anywhere near the US/Mexico border, but I can appreciate that 'some answer' appears better to many people than what appears to them to be no answer at all.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Hentoff
(For the record: I have always admired Hentoff for his consistency. He was opposed to abortion and the death penalty for, as he saw it, the same reason. I should add that I disagree with him on both, thinking the death penalty appropriate in some instances, and it impossible to completely ban abortion, without a ChiCom level of tyranny.)
A young lady running in with her browser inadvertently full of pr0n, would have made our day.
Some things we have to take very seriously, but not everything.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/economicinactivity/datasets/economicinactivitybyreasonnotseasonallyadjustedinac01nsa
Roughly:
2.7 million students
1.7 million looking after family/home
0.2 million temporary sick
2.8 million long term sick
0.03 million discouraged
1 million retired
1 million other
We have seen with the policing of the riots and the quick justice meted out that the judicial system can do it when it wants. Can do it when the established order are under threat.
They need to do the same of shoplifting, criminal damage, car theft, break ins and the like rather than just shrugging their shoulders.
There's your two tier policing.
And it is not hard to understand why. For example, at one time, the NBA gave lectures to rookies explaining how much, and how long, they would ahve to pay child support, if they were to get a woman pregnant. (I have been told the NBA stopped doing that, after complaints from women's groups.)
Just a third rate engagement farmer from what I Can see.
Or read Tom Wolfe's entertaining essay, "Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine". (His example is so insightful, I have started, privately, referring to MVLs (Martha's Vineyard Leftists).
Or just think hard about George W. Bush famous phrase, "the soft bigotry of low expectations".
Nice picture.
Sadly it’s now the soccer season.