Until further notice discussions about the grooming story are off limits on PB.
I cannot risk OGH’s financial future, particularly with the Online Safety Bill coming into force shortly.
If you are desperate to discuss this subject there are other places such as Elon Musk’s Twitter platform.
I am posting this for the final time today.
And so the chilling on public discourse starts. I do not blame you or criticise your reasoning. Indeed, serious thought should be given as to whether the likes of PB can survive in the world created by this absurd legislation. Have those at risk considered some form of incorporation to limit their potential exposure?
We have huge freedom on this site to say what we want about almost anything (Radiohead being a possible exception). With that freedom comes responsibility and that burden of responsibility has just got considerably heavier. We all need to be aware of this. We live in a Brave New World and it is not as free as we are used to.
The broadcast media, Yvette Cooper in the house, and newspapers are providing extensive coverage and it seems this issue is not allowed to be referred to on here
Of course I understand the concerns, but if this is applied to controversial issues then I do think it has huge implications for free speech no matter which side of the debate you are on
I assume it would be out of order to refer to debate in the house of commons or indeed a very interesting debate on Sky
And this is exactly what Starmer (and the Tories before them) are hoping for with these acts. No need to enforce them. Just make sure people are too frightened and cowed (with justification and no criticism intended of the people concerned at all) so they curtail their own freedom of speech.
I will never vote for Farage and Reform for my own personal reasons but I understand why many more will do so with these sorts of laws being enacted by the other parties.
Day by day it does feel as though we're edging ever close to a Farage government in 2029...
Presumably the OSB means that the online debate of trans will be shut down everywhere? Whatever the stance on trans, someone, somewhere will claim it’s harmful.
Is that what people really want?
I’m reminded on the Happiness Patrol (if you know, you know).
There'd need to be more than that. You need serious harm and intent. But let's see how it pans out in practice.
Although measurement isn't straightforward. How will we know how much less shit is getting posted as a consequence of the act?
Others have suggested that serious harm need not have occurred, only that such harm could occur. We already have debate on PB being shut down out of fear of possible consequences of the act.
A number of sites have already shuttered.
And they aren’t who you might think or expect.
One issue is online reviews. Certain companies have tried to use defamation laws in various countries to get negative reviews taken down. “His review threatens the jobs of my work force - therefore it scares and upsets them”.
As I pointed out previously, this doesn’t even have to win in court. A high end law firm serves notices - people’s hosting and accounts get cancelled then and there. All you need is a law to hang it on. Happened many times already.
And @kinabalu sits there, enthroned in his tiny Palace of Stupid, saying this is a good thing
Not sure tbh. Perhaps it will do more good than harm but not a great deal of either. Or perhaps it's a fateful step towards a totalitarian future where you need to take a deep breath and look around before uttering anything but the most banal of banalities. Let's hope and pray it's the first of those. That's where my money is fwiw.
Interestingly a report in Nature suggests that those born before 1968 might have a better resistance to Bird Flu because a dominant flu virus matched H5N1. Although not for the same reasons it could have a similar impact to the Spanish Flu when it was the young that were killed off and the old survived (cytokine storm in the healthy). I'm still guessing being old and not in good health is not ideal, but unlike Covid it might be the young that need protecting.
Were a lot of the Influenza epidemics and pandemics of the 20th Century (1957, 1968, etc) closely related to the original 1918 pandemic?
Edit: And the 1918 pandemic is thought to have potentially had it's origins in a nasty outbreak that occurred in 1868 which is why older people had some immunity in 1918 and younger people didn't.
I think the answer to that is we don't know. We don't have any samples from the 1918 pandemic so we are not certain exactly what form it was. Back in 1998 there was an expedition by Norwegian researchers to try and retreive samples from victims in the permafrost in Spitzbergen but it was unsuccessful. There was a similar attempt from Northern Alaska. But as far as I know to date we have never obtained a sample of the virus from a victim of the 1918 pandemic. .
Until further notice discussions about the grooming story are off limits on PB.
I cannot risk OGH’s financial future, particularly with the Online Safety Bill coming into force shortly.
If you are desperate to discuss this subject there are other places such as Elon Musk’s Twitter platform.
I am posting this for the final time today.
And so the chilling on public discourse starts. I do not blame you or criticise your reasoning. Indeed, serious thought should be given as to whether the likes of PB can survive in the world created by this absurd legislation. Have those at risk considered some form of incorporation to limit their potential exposure?
We have huge freedom on this site to say what we want about almost anything (Radiohead being a possible exception). With that freedom comes responsibility and that burden of responsibility has just got considerably heavier. We all need to be aware of this. We live in a Brave New World and it is not as free as we are used to.
The broadcast media, Yvette Cooper in the house, and newspapers are providing extensive coverage and it seems this issue is not allowed to be referred to on here
Of course I understand the concerns, but if this is applied to controversial issues then I do think it has huge implications for free speech no matter which side of the debate you are on
I assume it would be out of order to refer to debate in the house of commons or indeed a very interesting debate on Sky
And this is exactly what Starmer (and the Tories before them) are hoping for with these acts. No need to enforce them. Just make sure people are too frightened and cowed (with justification and no criticism intended of the people concerned at all) so they curtail their own freedom of speech.
I will never vote for Farage and Reform for my own personal reasons but I understand why many more will do so with these sorts of laws being enacted by the other parties.
Day by day it does feel as though we're edging ever close to a Farage government in 2029...
I hope you are wrong but fear you are right.
Yes, and once they're in power any instinct to remove these restrictions on free speech will magically disappear, they'll use the same stupid laws to silence their enemies.
Until further notice discussions about the grooming story are off limits on PB.
I cannot risk OGH’s financial future, particularly with the Online Safety Bill coming into force shortly.
If you are desperate to discuss this subject there are other places such as Elon Musk’s Twitter platform.
I am posting this for the final time today.
And so the chilling on public discourse starts. I do not blame you or criticise your reasoning. Indeed, serious thought should be given as to whether the likes of PB can survive in the world created by this absurd legislation. Have those at risk considered some form of incorporation to limit their potential exposure?
We have huge freedom on this site to say what we want about almost anything (Radiohead being a possible exception). With that freedom comes responsibility and that burden of responsibility has just got considerably heavier. We all need to be aware of this. We live in a Brave New World and it is not as free as we are used to.
The broadcast media, Yvette Cooper in the house, and newspapers are providing extensive coverage and it seems this issue is not allowed to be referred to on here
Of course I understand the concerns, but if this is applied to controversial issues then I do think it has huge implications for free speech no matter which side of the debate you are on
I assume it would be out of order to refer to debate in the house of commons or indeed a very interesting debate on Sky
Sky is just a moving wallpaper version of the News of the World. I don't know what Starmer has done to Beth Rigby either. She sounds very vindictive.
Until further notice discussions about the grooming story are off limits on PB.
I cannot risk OGH’s financial future, particularly with the Online Safety Bill coming into force shortly.
If you are desperate to discuss this subject there are other places such as Elon Musk’s Twitter platform.
I am posting this for the final time today.
And so the chilling on public discourse starts. I do not blame you or criticise your reasoning. Indeed, serious thought should be given as to whether the likes of PB can survive in the world created by this absurd legislation. Have those at risk considered some form of incorporation to limit their potential exposure?
We have huge freedom on this site to say what we want about almost anything (Radiohead being a possible exception). With that freedom comes responsibility and that burden of responsibility has just got considerably heavier. We all need to be aware of this. We live in a Brave New World and it is not as free as we are used to.
The broadcast media, Yvette Cooper in the house, and newspapers are providing extensive coverage and it seems this issue is not allowed to be referred to on here
Of course I understand the concerns, but if this is applied to controversial issues then I do think it has huge implications for free speech no matter which side of the debate you are on
I assume it would be out of order to refer to debate in the house of commons or indeed a very interesting debate on Sky
Sky is just a moving wallpaper version of the News of the World. I don't know what Starmer has done to Beth Rigby either. She sounds very vindictive.
Here's a question
What about the OSA in those remarks
What does OSA mean?
Online Safety Act which is the thread header by Cyclefree
Interestingly a report in Nature suggests that those born before 1968 might have a better resistance to Bird Flu because a dominant flu virus matched H5N1. Although not for the same reasons it could have a similar impact to the Spanish Flu when it was the young that were killed off and the old survived (cytokine storm in the healthy). I'm still guessing being old and not in good health is not ideal, but unlike Covid it might be the young that need protecting.
Were a lot of the Influenza epidemics and pandemics of the 20th Century (1957, 1968, etc) closely related to the original 1918 pandemic?
Edit: And the 1918 pandemic is thought to have potentially had it's origins in a nasty outbreak that occurred in 1868 which is why older people had some immunity in 1918 and younger people didn't.
I replied before your edit (see other post) and can see we both remembered/knew about the flu outbreak some years before the Spanish flu which probably provided protection to the more elderly. I can not think of its name. I want to say Portuguese or Prussian, but can't be bothered to look it up at this time of night. However the deadliness of the Spanish Flu was due to the cytokine storm which was also more likely to impact the fit. So a double whammy for the young.
Many people in Canada LOVE being the 51st State. The United States can no longer suffer the massive Trade Deficits and Subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat. Justin Trudeau knew this, and resigned. If Canada merged with the U.S., there would be no Tariffs, taxes would go way down, and they would be TOTALLY SECURE from the threat of the Russian and Chinese Ships that are constantly surrounding them. Together, what a great Nation it would be!!!
My son's girlfriend is Canadian. From what she tells us this is not a particularly popular view there.
I have actually met Canadians who want to fuse with the USA - but not many
On my recent trip to Vancouver and BC the sense I got was a new and right wing Canadian nationalism, very anti Trudeau and anti Woke, but also proudly Canuck. I saw more maple leaf flags in gardens than you see Stars and Stripes in the USA
Quite surprising. Obvs reflected in the political polling and the demise of Trudeau
That gives me the horn.
Canada has just endured an incredible wave of immigration. You see it everywhere. I believe it might be even bigger than ours, per capita
Partly as a result the country is swinging sharply to the right. It’s like lefties can’t work out this natural equation, all over the world
In 2023 the Canadian immigration rate was 1.18%. I believe the equivalent figure for the UK was 1.37%, so the Tories had Trudeau beat.
Both numbers are, obviously, insane - but theirs is less insane given how empty Canada is, and how they do integration better
WTF were the Tories on in 2020-23? Fentanyl? 1 MILLION migrants in a single year
They must never be forgiven for this. I hope Reform and Nigel beat the shit out of them in 2028 and they become some dismal rump party relying on Nigel Farage PM
The thing with Canada is that a high immigration rate has been declared government policy for quite some time. But the Tory policy was to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands. They failed at that, and then pushed the numbers in the opposite direction without telling anyone that's what they were doing.
I still - genuinely - do not understand why the Tories did this. Open all the doors. Let them flood in
Fucking madness and they deserve to die
We needed Doctors and Nurses after Brexit.
Lord Johnson of Uxbridge and Henley on Thames explained this to you before the vote. He said after the nasty Eastern Europeans went home we could invite our friends from the Indian Subcontinent to cover the work of the departing Europeans. He told you the truth- for once.
Don't forget social care workers.
Increase pay from £11.50 to £13.50 and natives would do it - more than 80% of care workers are native. Or, if you want to be mercenary, take immigrants from anywhere. Why prefer europeans? The average phillipino has better English - and isn't entitled to benefits.
This "we need them" stuff is so mawkish. We "need them" only because of policy decisions we take. It's not a fucking law of physics.
But that takes time. There was always bound to be a huge influx of people in the interim to replace those gone, unless people wanted the economy to collapse.
It's just that the Tories, and their press outlets, had to lie about this part, to win the 2019 election.
"Increase pay from £11.50 to £13.50 and natives would do it"
Pay is about to go up to a minimum of £12.21
To go higher would require UK government to give more to councils for social care. That is on hold awaiting three years of analysing the problem yet again by yet another commission.
Most agencies charge at least £25/hr whilst paying minimum wage, but councils have to use them because regulations, certifications, inspections etc etc etc.
You do wonder whether it would be better done in house or through a National Care Service (probably not, but it is a thought).
But the cost of the care worker's wage is at best only 50% of the problem.
I heard a Radio 4 interview with a Birmingham agency last year. They were getting £17.10 per hour all in. Tight margins, even at minimum wage.
...
"Most agencies charge at least £25/hr"
Rubbish. Reference please!
I'm talking what councils pay not what private citizens pay because they have more than £23K in savings.
Just went looking and found this from the Homecare Association which represents private companies providing agency homecare personal to councils as well as to the private sector.
"The Homecare Association’s new calculation for the Minimum Price for Homecare in England is £28.53 per hour, effective from April 2024, when the UK’s statutory National Living Wage increases.
Our Minimum Price is the amount required to ensure the minimum legally compliant pay rate for careworkers (excluding any enhancements for unsocial hours working), their travel time, mileage, and wage-related on-costs. The rate also includes the minimum contribution towards the costs of running"
... Our lovely house in the Bahamas?
HomeCare's own website also reports that
"Average hourly fee rates for homecare, weighted for the volume of hours purchased by state commissioners, were:
£21.59 in England"
The minimum pricing thing mentioned by Richard is I think their aspiration of what is actually needed not what council commissioners are paying.
Until further notice discussions about the grooming story are off limits on PB.
I cannot risk OGH’s financial future, particularly with the Online Safety Bill coming into force shortly.
If you are desperate to discuss this subject there are other places such as Elon Musk’s Twitter platform.
I am posting this for the final time today.
And so the chilling on public discourse starts. I do not blame you or criticise your reasoning. Indeed, serious thought should be given as to whether the likes of PB can survive in the world created by this absurd legislation. Have those at risk considered some form of incorporation to limit their potential exposure?
We have huge freedom on this site to say what we want about almost anything (Radiohead being a possible exception). With that freedom comes responsibility and that burden of responsibility has just got considerably heavier. We all need to be aware of this. We live in a Brave New World and it is not as free as we are used to.
The broadcast media, Yvette Cooper in the house, and newspapers are providing extensive coverage and it seems this issue is not allowed to be referred to on here
Of course I understand the concerns, but if this is applied to controversial issues then I do think it has huge implications for free speech no matter which side of the debate you are on
I assume it would be out of order to refer to debate in the house of commons or indeed a very interesting debate on Sky
Sky is just a moving wallpaper version of the News of the World. I don't know what Starmer has done to Beth Rigby either. She sounds very vindictive.
Here's a question
What about the OSA in those remarks
What does OSA mean?
Online Safety Act which is the thread header by Cyclefree
Oic I'm sure neither Starmer or Rigby have been upset by my comments.
Until further notice discussions about the grooming story are off limits on PB.
I cannot risk OGH’s financial future, particularly with the Online Safety Bill coming into force shortly.
If you are desperate to discuss this subject there are other places such as Elon Musk’s Twitter platform.
I am posting this for the final time today.
And so the chilling on public discourse starts. I do not blame you or criticise your reasoning. Indeed, serious thought should be given as to whether the likes of PB can survive in the world created by this absurd legislation. Have those at risk considered some form of incorporation to limit their potential exposure?
We have huge freedom on this site to say what we want about almost anything (Radiohead being a possible exception). With that freedom comes responsibility and that burden of responsibility has just got considerably heavier. We all need to be aware of this. We live in a Brave New World and it is not as free as we are used to.
The broadcast media, Yvette Cooper in the house, and newspapers are providing extensive coverage and it seems this issue is not allowed to be referred to on here
Of course I understand the concerns, but if this is applied to controversial issues then I do think it has huge implications for free speech no matter which side of the debate you are on
I assume it would be out of order to refer to debate in the house of commons or indeed a very interesting debate on Sky
Sky is just a moving wallpaper version of the News of the World. I don't know what Starmer has done to Beth Rigby either. She sounds very vindictive.
Here's a question
What about the OSA in those remarks
What does OSA mean?
Online Safety Act which is the thread header by Cyclefree
Oic I'm sure neither Starmer or Rigby have been upset by my comments.
I suspect this is a paper tiger comment.
Not really - It is posing a question many are asking about free speech
Reading the Act the other day, to be honest if I ran this forum I’d close it down. I would be sad to see it happen but would understand it. By its nature this forum attracts controversy below the line and it will be so hard to track and manage it without destroying the nature of the place.
Any small forum like this, but with disproportionate reach, is now arguably not worth it.
Reading the Act the other day, to be honest if I ran this forum I’d close it down. I would be sad to see it happen but would understand it. By its nature this forum attracts controversy below the line and it will be so hard to track and manage it without destroying the nature of the place.
Any small forum like this, but with disproportionate reach, is now arguably not worth it.
What a world to live in.
It saddens me to say but I do not know how this forum continues under this act
Almost anything said could be challenged by anyone or any business offended and the site owners cannot afford that risk
Reading the Act the other day, to be honest if I ran this forum I’d close it down. I would be sad to see it happen but would understand it. By its nature this forum attracts controversy below the line and it will be so hard to track and manage it without destroying the nature of the place.
Any small forum like this, but with disproportionate reach, is now arguably not worth it.
What a world to live in.
It saddens me to say but I do not know how this forum continues under this act
Almost anything said could be challenged by anyone or any business offended and the site owners cannot afford that risk
I haven't yet read the Act properly but I wonder if there's a loophole in "likely audience" part, perhaps by making the comments less accessible to the general public.
"Much mentioned among my friends is the feeling that the re-election of Donald Trump last year confirms that his ascendancy marked not an aberration but the arrival of a new order. The technocratic, good-mannered, optimistic and consensual politics we grew up with and which have prevailed in the West since the Second World War is not a normality to which we will inevitably return, but a part of history."
My initial reaction was to ridicule the author, which is a pity because I'm a bit of a fan of his. But then I read it and yes, broadly, he's right, but I don't know what if anything to do about it. Things end, and we are coming/have passed the end of some major periods we thought, in our foolish mayfly existence, to be constant. The US Sixth Party System: gone. Globalisation: breaking before our eyes. The Washington consensus, Thatcher/Blair neoliberalism, going, going, gone. He points out some things I didn't think of, such as the decline in literacy, reading, the internal combustion engine., Coins, clocks, bees, birdsong, nursery rhymes, smoking are ending slowly. It may be, although I hope not, that autocracies will replace democracies, a thought greeted with joy by too many bad people. The powerful have multiple children non-monogomously, the middle-class have increasingly few. Population waves wash over old certainties.
I saw a robin in December and stood, marvelling. A pure sweet little thing, singing. And then it flew away.
Final post on the free speech subject from me - the reason I know the new laws will end up being a disaster is the same reason the hate speech laws have ended up being a disaster. The police are incentivised to chase arrests and conviction stats not to solve actual crime. That means a new law which allows them to log a lot of arrests and boost their stats, pushing speech that might be perceived as potentially harmful into criminal justice system will result in people getting arrested and convicted with these weak "crimes" because individual police officers will chase their stats to earn promotions and pay rises.
So whatever the drafting intends, whatever the the spirit of the law might intend, the end result will be police officers chasing easy arrests and convictions for things people write on the internet and to avoid being arrested people like OGH and other people who run small time forums/blogs/comment sections in the UK will close up shop or only allow the most milquetoast of commentary.
Reading the Act the other day, to be honest if I ran this forum I’d close it down. I would be sad to see it happen but would understand it. By its nature this forum attracts controversy below the line and it will be so hard to track and manage it without destroying the nature of the place.
Any small forum like this, but with disproportionate reach, is now arguably not worth it.
What a world to live in.
It saddens me to say but I do not know how this forum continues under this act
Almost anything said could be challenged by anyone or any business offended and the site owners cannot afford that risk
I haven't yet read the Act properly but I wonder if there's a loophole in "likely audience" part, perhaps by making the comments less accessible to the general public.
We won’t know every much about the application of the Act until there’s some case law. And you’d have to have deep pockets to want to go first.
Reading the Act the other day, to be honest if I ran this forum I’d close it down. I would be sad to see it happen but would understand it. By its nature this forum attracts controversy below the line and it will be so hard to track and manage it without destroying the nature of the place.
Any small forum like this, but with disproportionate reach, is now arguably not worth it.
What a world to live in.
It saddens me to say but I do not know how this forum continues under this act
Almost anything said could be challenged by anyone or any business offended and the site owners cannot afford that risk
I haven't yet read the Act properly but I wonder if there's a loophole in "likely audience" part, perhaps by making the comments less accessible to the general public.
There is some reference to a challenge through the ECHR and Cyclefree does refer to this, and maybe she can expand the point for us
Reading the Act the other day, to be honest if I ran this forum I’d close it down. I would be sad to see it happen but would understand it. By its nature this forum attracts controversy below the line and it will be so hard to track and manage it without destroying the nature of the place.
Any small forum like this, but with disproportionate reach, is now arguably not worth it.
What a world to live in.
It saddens me to say but I do not know how this forum continues under this act
Almost anything said could be challenged by anyone or any business offended and the site owners cannot afford that risk
I haven't yet read the Act properly but I wonder if there's a loophole in "likely audience" part, perhaps by making the comments less accessible to the general public.
It has to be read somewhat flexibly, otherwise all the police would do all day is arrest people tweeting and posting on social media forums
Reading the Act the other day, to be honest if I ran this forum I’d close it down. I would be sad to see it happen but would understand it. By its nature this forum attracts controversy below the line and it will be so hard to track and manage it without destroying the nature of the place.
Any small forum like this, but with disproportionate reach, is now arguably not worth it.
Reading the Act the other day, to be honest if I ran this forum I’d close it down. I would be sad to see it happen but would understand it. By its nature this forum attracts controversy below the line and it will be so hard to track and manage it without destroying the nature of the place.
Any small forum like this, but with disproportionate reach, is now arguably not worth it.
What a world to live in.
Would Reform pledge to abolish the act I wonder?
Doubt it. It will be bloody useful for any government, perhaps with a tweak here or there to what is now “acceptable”.
Heh. I just had a mental picture of people avoiding this act through using anonymous leaflets and coffee houses. The 18th century redux.
More likely it will be totally ignored and no one can do anything about it as the police are already well busy.
Edit: And of course ofcom. They are responsible I believe under the new Act. Luckily they have a track record of cracking down on tv channels that will stand them in good stead.
Reading the Act the other day, to be honest if I ran this forum I’d close it down. I would be sad to see it happen but would understand it. By its nature this forum attracts controversy below the line and it will be so hard to track and manage it without destroying the nature of the place.
Any small forum like this, but with disproportionate reach, is now arguably not worth it.
What a world to live in.
It saddens me to say but I do not know how this forum continues under this act
Almost anything said could be challenged by anyone or any business offended and the site owners cannot afford that risk
I haven't yet read the Act properly but I wonder if there's a loophole in "likely audience" part, perhaps by making the comments less accessible to the general public.
It has to be read somewhat flexibly, otherwise all the police would do all day is arrest people tweeting and posting on social media forums
"Much mentioned among my friends is the feeling that the re-election of Donald Trump last year confirms that his ascendancy marked not an aberration but the arrival of a new order. The technocratic, good-mannered, optimistic and consensual politics we grew up with and which have prevailed in the West since the Second World War is not a normality to which we will inevitably return, but a part of history."
My initial reaction was to ridicule the author, which is a pity because I'm a bit of a fan of his. But then I read it and yes, broadly, he's right, but I don't know what if anything to do about it. Things end, and we are coming/have passed the end of some major periods we thought, in our foolish mayfly existence, to be constant. The US Sixth Party System: gone. Globalisation: breaking before our eyes. The Washington consensus, Thatcher/Blair neoliberalism, going, going, gone. He points out some things I didn't think of, such as the decline in literacy, reading, the internal combustion engine., Coins, clocks, bees, birdsong, nursery rhymes, smoking are ending slowly. It may be, although I hope not, that autocracies will replace democracies, a thought greeted with joy by too many bad people. The powerful have multiple children non-monogomously, the middle-class have increasingly few. Population waves wash over old certainties.
I saw a robin in December and stood, marvelling. A pure sweet little thing, singing. And then it flew away.
"But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world."
Heh. I just had a mental picture of people avoiding this act through using anonymous leaflets and coffee houses. The 18th century redux.
The modern day equivalent. VPNs and servers outside the national borders. I am sure our Government will try and take some lessons from China but I am equally sure they will not be up to the task.
"Much mentioned among my friends is the feeling that the re-election of Donald Trump last year confirms that his ascendancy marked not an aberration but the arrival of a new order. The technocratic, good-mannered, optimistic and consensual politics we grew up with and which have prevailed in the West since the Second World War is not a normality to which we will inevitably return, but a part of history."
My initial reaction was to ridicule the author, which is a pity because I'm a bit of a fan of his. But then I read it and yes, broadly, he's right, but I don't know what if anything to do about it. Things end, and we are coming/have passed the end of some major periods we thought, in our foolish mayfly existence, to be constant. The US Sixth Party System: gone. Globalisation: breaking before our eyes. The Washington consensus, Thatcher/Blair neoliberalism, going, going, gone. He points out some things I didn't think of, such as the decline in literacy, reading, the internal combustion engine., Coins, clocks, bees, birdsong, nursery rhymes, smoking are ending slowly. It may be, although I hope not, that autocracies will replace democracies, a thought greeted with joy by too many bad people. The powerful have multiple children non-monogomously, the middle-class have increasingly few. Population waves wash over old certainties.
I saw a robin in December and stood, marvelling. A pure sweet little thing, singing. And then it flew away.
"But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world."
Well if we are trading poetry:
“The future is all unknown. Best live as we may, from day to day”.
Heh. I just had a mental picture of people avoiding this act through using anonymous leaflets and coffee houses. The 18th century redux.
The modern day equivalent. VPNs and servers outside the national borders. I am sure our Government will try and take some lessons from China but I am equally sure they will not be up to the task.
The extra-territorial bit in the Act is, as ever, hilarious.
A slogan that annoys me a lot is "stay safe". It sounds like something a little old granny might have said in the 1980s or 1990s from behind the net curtains. I prefer "stay adventurous".
A slogan that annoys me a lot is "stay safe". It sounds like something a little old granny might have said in the 1980s or 1990s from behind the net curtains. I prefer "stay adventurous".
Have always liked “mind how you go” as it implies you will, still, “go”.
A slogan that annoys me a lot is "stay safe". It sounds like something a little old granny might have said in the 1980s or 1990s from behind the net curtains. I prefer "stay adventurous".
I would much prefer to be living in some sort of equivalent of the mid-1990s, without people like Musk.
Golden days; the class of '93, the ERM and Lovejoy on the telly.
And your mobile phone was screwed to the dashboard of your car. Who remembers coming back from a meeting and chasing all those missed calls? And that is all you could do with it - make phonecalls.
I would much prefer to be living in some sort of equivalent of the mid-1990s, without people like Musk.
Golden days; the class of '93, the ERM and Lovejoy on the telly.
And your mobile phone was screwed to the dashboard of your car. Who remembers coming back from a meeting and chasing all those missed calls? And that is all you could do with it - make phonecalls.
"Cory Doctorow’s prescient novella about health insurance and murder: ‘They’re going to be afraid’ The parallels between the science fiction writer’s five-year-old story and present-day events are startling"
Many people in Canada LOVE being the 51st State. The United States can no longer suffer the massive Trade Deficits and Subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat. Justin Trudeau knew this, and resigned. If Canada merged with the U.S., there would be no Tariffs, taxes would go way down, and they would be TOTALLY SECURE from the threat of the Russian and Chinese Ships that are constantly surrounding them. Together, what a great Nation it would be!!!
My son's girlfriend is Canadian. From what she tells us this is not a particularly popular view there.
I have actually met Canadians who want to fuse with the USA - but not many
On my recent trip to Vancouver and BC the sense I got was a new and right wing Canadian nationalism, very anti Trudeau and anti Woke, but also proudly Canuck. I saw more maple leaf flags in gardens than you see Stars and Stripes in the USA
Quite surprising. Obvs reflected in the political polling and the demise of Trudeau
That gives me the horn.
Canada has just endured an incredible wave of immigration. You see it everywhere. I believe it might be even bigger than ours, per capita
Partly as a result the country is swinging sharply to the right. It’s like lefties can’t work out this natural equation, all over the world
In 2023 the Canadian immigration rate was 1.18%. I believe the equivalent figure for the UK was 1.37%, so the Tories had Trudeau beat.
Both numbers are, obviously, insane - but theirs is less insane given how empty Canada is, and how they do integration better
WTF were the Tories on in 2020-23? Fentanyl? 1 MILLION migrants in a single year
They must never be forgiven for this. I hope Reform and Nigel beat the shit out of them in 2028 and they become some dismal rump party relying on Nigel Farage PM
The thing with Canada is that a high immigration rate has been declared government policy for quite some time. But the Tory policy was to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands. They failed at that, and then pushed the numbers in the opposite direction without telling anyone that's what they were doing.
I still - genuinely - do not understand why the Tories did this. Open all the doors. Let them flood in
Fucking madness and they deserve to die
We needed Doctors and Nurses after Brexit.
Lord Johnson of Uxbridge and Henley on Thames explained this to you before the vote. He said after the nasty Eastern Europeans went home we could invite our friends from the Indian Subcontinent to cover the work of the departing Europeans. He told you the truth- for once.
Don't forget social care workers.
Increase pay from £11.50 to £13.50 and natives would do it - more than 80% of care workers are native. Or, if you want to be mercenary, take immigrants from anywhere. Why prefer europeans? The average phillipino has better English - and isn't entitled to benefits.
This "we need them" stuff is so mawkish. We "need them" only because of policy decisions we take. It's not a fucking law of physics.
But that takes time. There was always bound to be a huge influx of people in the interim to replace those gone, unless people wanted the economy to collapse.
It's just that the Tories, and their press outlets, had to lie about this part, to win the 2019 election.
"Increase pay from £11.50 to £13.50 and natives would do it"
Pay is about to go up to a minimum of £12.21
To go higher would require UK government to give more to councils for social care. That is on hold awaiting three years of analysing the problem yet again by yet another commission.
Most agencies charge at least £25/hr whilst paying minimum wage, but councils have to use them because regulations, certifications, inspections etc etc etc.
You do wonder whether it would be better done in house or through a National Care Service (probably not, but it is a thought).
But the cost of the care worker's wage is at best only 50% of the problem.
The level of agency vs employees in a key metric in any care home business. Below 10% on a long term basis is great - above 20% is bad. Kills margins.
Final post on the free speech subject from me - the reason I know the new laws will end up being a disaster is the same reason the hate speech laws have ended up being a disaster. The police are incentivised to chase arrests and conviction stats not to solve actual crime. That means a new law which allows them to log a lot of arrests and boost their stats, pushing speech that might be perceived as potentially harmful into criminal justice system will result in people getting arrested and convicted with these weak "crimes" because individual police officers will chase their stats to earn promotions and pay rises.
So whatever the drafting intends, whatever the the spirit of the law might intend, the end result will be police officers chasing easy arrests and convictions for things people write on the internet and to avoid being arrested people like OGH and other people who run small time forums/blogs/comment sections in the UK will close up shop or only allow the most milquetoast of commentary.
I don't think this can stand. But in the meantime, PB - and many others - will has necessarily to walk on eggshells.
LOL, the Ukranians are having fun with their innovations at the moment.
Taking out $10m assets such as air defences with $5k disposable drones is just brilliant.
Here’s the story about how they took out an entire Russian airbase, starting with a drone swarm that totally overwhelmed the air defences, followed by a couple of drones aimed straight at the radar, followed by a large volley of HIMARS and ATACMS that took out the runway and the planes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW7AOjRijBA
The rest of us need to wake up to the innovations of this war. In any future land war, small drones are absolutely the biggest threat. Until three years ago they were only ever used for reconnaissance and for refining targets for artillery, but now they are the most offensive of weapons on the battlefield.
Reading the Act the other day, to be honest if I ran this forum I’d close it down. I would be sad to see it happen but would understand it. By its nature this forum attracts controversy below the line and it will be so hard to track and manage it without destroying the nature of the place.
Any small forum like this, but with disproportionate reach, is now arguably not worth it.
What a world to live in.
It saddens me to say but I do not know how this forum continues under this act
Almost anything said could be challenged by anyone or any business offended and the site owners cannot afford that risk
I haven't yet read the Act properly but I wonder if there's a loophole in "likely audience" part, perhaps by making the comments less accessible to the general public.
It has to be read somewhat flexibly, otherwise all the police would do all day is arrest people tweeting and posting on social media forums
That’s exactly when they plan to do all day. Will be great for their statistics.
Good luck getting them to properly investigate anything else short of a murder or a ‘far-right’ protest.
LOL, the Ukranians are having fun with their innovations at the moment.
Taking out $10m assets such as air defences with $5k disposable drones is just brilliant.
Here’s the story about how they took out an entire Russian airbase, starting with a drone swarm that totally overwhelmed the air defences, followed by a couple of drones aimed straight at the radar, followed by a large volley of HIMARS and ATACMS that took out the runway and the planes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW7AOjRijBA
The rest of us need to wake up to the innovations of this war. In any future land war, small drones are absolutely the biggest threat. Until three years ago they were only ever used for reconnaissance and for refining targets for artillery, but now they are the most offensive of weapons on the battlefield.
And yet Russia grinds on.
The city of Kurakhove has been lost and occupied. And it appears Russian forces have taken at least part of the grounds of Ukraine’s largest coking coal mining operation, located in Pishchane, just SW of Pokrovsk. Its loss is a big blow to the country’s steel production industry. https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1876394724342304853
Golden Globes host comedian Nikki Glaser went on Howard Stern’s show Monday morning, and read out all the jokes that got cut out from the night before. The proper roast jokes that you definitely can’t say on network TV, and especially not with the butt of the joke sitting in the audience!
It must be so much fun writing for a show like this, having to get the pitch just right between roasting the crowd of A-listers in the audience, but also making sure everyone laughs along rather than being offended by them.
Of course you could go full Ricky Gervais when he knew it was his last time hosting, and simply not care how offended they all get, but it looks like Miss Glaser will be back again next year.
LOL, the Ukranians are having fun with their innovations at the moment.
Taking out $10m assets such as air defences with $5k disposable drones is just brilliant.
Here’s the story about how they took out an entire Russian airbase, starting with a drone swarm that totally overwhelmed the air defences, followed by a couple of drones aimed straight at the radar, followed by a large volley of HIMARS and ATACMS that took out the runway and the planes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW7AOjRijBA
The rest of us need to wake up to the innovations of this war. In any future land war, small drones are absolutely the biggest threat. Until three years ago they were only ever used for reconnaissance and for refining targets for artillery, but now they are the most offensive of weapons on the battlefield.
And yet Russia grinds on.
The city of Kurakhove has been lost and occupied. And it appears Russian forces have taken at least part of the grounds of Ukraine’s largest coking coal mining operation, located in Pishchane, just SW of Pokrovsk. Its loss is a big blow to the country’s steel production industry. https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1876394724342304853
There’s been small gains and losses on both sides in the last few days, I do find it still quite remarkable that the Ukranian invasion of Kursk still hasn’t been defeated despite tens of thousands of Russian losses on what should be their own territory.
Last year Russia gained something like an area the size of Luxembourg at the cost of 400,000 men, countless machines, hundreds of billions of dollars, and what’s now looking like an almost destroyed Russian economy.
Final post on the free speech subject from me - the reason I know the new laws will end up being a disaster is the same reason the hate speech laws have ended up being a disaster. The police are incentivised to chase arrests and conviction stats not to solve actual crime. That means a new law which allows them to log a lot of arrests and boost their stats, pushing speech that might be perceived as potentially harmful into criminal justice system will result in people getting arrested and convicted with these weak "crimes" because individual police officers will chase their stats to earn promotions and pay rises.
So whatever the drafting intends, whatever the the spirit of the law might intend, the end result will be police officers chasing easy arrests and convictions for things people write on the internet and to avoid being arrested people like OGH and other people who run small time forums/blogs/comment sections in the UK will close up shop or only allow the most milquetoast of commentary.
The commonality of issues affecting most western democracies is clear at this distance. Whether Canada, New Zealand or the UK, the core issues are or have become immigration, inflation (which covers the gamut of economic issues) and crime/security.
The three issues didn’t develop overnight and were masked, to an extent, in periods of economic prosperity but have come back into focus with anaemic growth and a growing perception of desperation, resignation, hopelessness, anger (pick whichever works for you).
The political movements which can or appear to resolve these issues will enjoy huge popularity but currently no one has or seems to have the answers. It may be technological ingenuity or innovation will unlock renewed economic growth as it has in the past and that happens irrespective of the party or ideology in charge.
The problem will be getting there and the resultant economic, social and cultural upheaval.
More on topic, we’ve seen many times in the last 50 years, starting with the Prevention of Terrorism Act in 1974, how Government responses to acts of terror are more often about curtailing the civil liberties of the many in the name of security and safety. I share the concern of many on here the OSA is a poor solution to a very real problem.
I come back to where I’ve always struggled - there’s a lot talked about the Right to Offend but the corollary is the Right to be Offended or, as I prefer it, the Freedom to Offend versus Freedom from Offence?
Challenging and provocative arguments often posit viewpoints which cut through the “mainstream” and that’s how it should be. The response needs to be robust and evidence-based. You don’t deal with conflicting viewpoints by shutting them down, nor do you deal with them by going into the gutter.
A claim or an allegation, if repeated often enough and loudly enough, becomes a fact or a truth and that’s how it operates. Post your version of the truth 50 or 100 times a day and it gains real currency.
Hello from Aberdeen airport. Travelled down the night before as the forecast overnight looked gnarly. As expected, many reports of terrible road conditions this morning. Boarded the Amsterdam flight for an on time 6am departure. Only for the airport to close for 2 hours as the runway hasn’t been cleared of ice…
Ah well, I had minimal expectations of getting to Madrid by lunchtime. Can you claim EU261 for weather delays? I know that freak weather isn’t covered, but this isn’t freak.
Hello from Aberdeen airport. Travelled down the night before as the forecast overnight looked gnarly. As expected, many reports of terrible road conditions this morning. Boarded the Amsterdam flight for an on time 6am departure. Only for the airport to close for 2 hours as the runway hasn’t been cleared of ice…
Ah well, I had minimal expectations of getting to Madrid by lunchtime. Can you claim EU261 for weather delays? I know that freak weather isn’t covered, but this isn’t freak.
Not in the circumstance you describe - weather is excluded unless you delay is a knock inform issues elsewhere
Hello from Aberdeen airport. Travelled down the night before as the forecast overnight looked gnarly. As expected, many reports of terrible road conditions this morning. Boarded the Amsterdam flight for an on time 6am departure. Only for the airport to close for 2 hours as the runway hasn’t been cleared of ice…
Ah well, I had minimal expectations of getting to Madrid by lunchtime. Can you claim EU261 for weather delays? I know that freak weather isn’t covered, but this isn’t freak.
Hello from Aberdeen airport. Travelled down the night before as the forecast overnight looked gnarly. As expected, many reports of terrible road conditions this morning. Boarded the Amsterdam flight for an on time 6am departure. Only for the airport to close for 2 hours as the runway hasn’t been cleared of ice…
Ah well, I had minimal expectations of getting to Madrid by lunchtime. Can you claim EU261 for weather delays? I know that freak weather isn’t covered, but this isn’t freak.
There’s also two BAs that closed out already. 06:10 Easy is showing 08:45, and the Loganiars are all showing 08:00.
Poor from the airport operations team to not inform their customers (the airlines) of the delay before letting everyone board, if they knew they were going to be hours late getting the runway open! They probably waited until 05:30 to send a car down the runway, and decided it was too slippery at that point, trying to get away without the cost of however many tonnes of de-ice fluid if it was the right side of marginal. Proper prior planning prevents…
LOL, the Ukranians are having fun with their innovations at the moment.
Taking out $10m assets such as air defences with $5k disposable drones is just brilliant.
Here’s the story about how they took out an entire Russian airbase, starting with a drone swarm that totally overwhelmed the air defences, followed by a couple of drones aimed straight at the radar, followed by a large volley of HIMARS and ATACMS that took out the runway and the planes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW7AOjRijBA
The rest of us need to wake up to the innovations of this war. In any future land war, small drones are absolutely the biggest threat. Until three years ago they were only ever used for reconnaissance and for refining targets for artillery, but now they are the most offensive of weapons on the battlefield.
And yet Russia grinds on.
The city of Kurakhove has been lost and occupied. And it appears Russian forces have taken at least part of the grounds of Ukraine’s largest coking coal mining operation, located in Pishchane, just SW of Pokrovsk. Its loss is a big blow to the country’s steel production industry. https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1876394724342304853
There’s been small gains and losses on both sides in the last few days, I do find it still quite remarkable that the Ukranian invasion of Kursk still hasn’t been defeated despite tens of thousands of Russian losses on what should be their own territory.
Last year Russia gained something like an area the size of Luxembourg at the cost of 400,000 men, countless machines, hundreds of billions of dollars, and what’s now looking like an almost destroyed Russian economy.
LOL, the Ukranians are having fun with their innovations at the moment.
Taking out $10m assets such as air defences with $5k disposable drones is just brilliant.
Here’s the story about how they took out an entire Russian airbase, starting with a drone swarm that totally overwhelmed the air defences, followed by a couple of drones aimed straight at the radar, followed by a large volley of HIMARS and ATACMS that took out the runway and the planes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW7AOjRijBA
The rest of us need to wake up to the innovations of this war. In any future land war, small drones are absolutely the biggest threat. Until three years ago they were only ever used for reconnaissance and for refining targets for artillery, but now they are the most offensive of weapons on the battlefield.
And yet Russia grinds on.
The city of Kurakhove has been lost and occupied. And it appears Russian forces have taken at least part of the grounds of Ukraine’s largest coking coal mining operation, located in Pishchane, just SW of Pokrovsk. Its loss is a big blow to the country’s steel production industry. https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1876394724342304853
There’s been small gains and losses on both sides in the last few days, I do find it still quite remarkable that the Ukranian invasion of Kursk still hasn’t been defeated despite tens of thousands of Russian losses on what should be their own territory.
Last year Russia gained something like an area the size of Luxembourg at the cost of 400,000 men, countless machines, hundreds of billions of dollars, and what’s now looking like an almost destroyed Russian economy.
Hello from Aberdeen airport. Travelled down the night before as the forecast overnight looked gnarly. As expected, many reports of terrible road conditions this morning. Boarded the Amsterdam flight for an on time 6am departure. Only for the airport to close for 2 hours as the runway hasn’t been cleared of ice…
Ah well, I had minimal expectations of getting to Madrid by lunchtime. Can you claim EU261 for weather delays? I know that freak weather isn’t covered, but this isn’t freak.
There’s also two BAs that closed out already. 06:10 Easy is showing 08:45, and the Loganiars are all showing 08:00.
Poor from the airport operations team to not inform their customers (the airlines) of the delay before letting everyone board, if they knew they were going to be hours late getting the runway open! They probably waited until 05:30 to send a car down the runway, and decided it was too slippery at that point, trying to get away without the cost of however many tonnes of de-ice fluid if it was the right side of marginal. Proper prior planning prevents…
I don’t understand why they were bothering to de-ice the first BA when the runway was closed…
Interestingly a report in Nature suggests that those born before 1968 might have a better resistance to Bird Flu because a dominant flu virus matched H5N1. Although not for the same reasons it could have a similar impact to the Spanish Flu when it was the young that were killed off and the old survived (cytokine storm in the healthy). I'm still guessing being old and not in good health is not ideal, but unlike Covid it might be the young that need protecting.
Were a lot of the Influenza epidemics and pandemics of the 20th Century (1957, 1968, etc) closely related to the original 1918 pandemic?
Edit: And the 1918 pandemic is thought to have potentially had it's origins in a nasty outbreak that occurred in 1868 which is why older people had some immunity in 1918 and younger people didn't.
I think the answer to that is we don't know. We don't have any samples from the 1918 pandemic so we are not certain exactly what form it was. Back in 1998 there was an expedition by Norwegian researchers to try and retreive samples from victims in the permafrost in Spitzbergen but it was unsuccessful. There was a similar attempt from Northern Alaska. But as far as I know to date we have never obtained a sample of the virus from a victim of the 1918 pandemic. .
I would much prefer to be living in some sort of equivalent of the mid-1990s, without people like Musk.
Golden days; the class of '93, the ERM and Lovejoy on the telly.
And your mobile phone was screwed to the dashboard of your car. Who remembers coming back from a meeting and chasing all those missed calls? And that is all you could do with it - make phonecalls.
Hello from Aberdeen airport. Travelled down the night before as the forecast overnight looked gnarly. As expected, many reports of terrible road conditions this morning. Boarded the Amsterdam flight for an on time 6am departure. Only for the airport to close for 2 hours as the runway hasn’t been cleared of ice…
Ah well, I had minimal expectations of getting to Madrid by lunchtime. Can you claim EU261 for weather delays? I know that freak weather isn’t covered, but this isn’t freak.
There’s also two BAs that closed out already. 06:10 Easy is showing 08:45, and the Loganiars are all showing 08:00.
Poor from the airport operations team to not inform their customers (the airlines) of the delay before letting everyone board, if they knew they were going to be hours late getting the runway open! They probably waited until 05:30 to send a car down the runway, and decided it was too slippery at that point, trying to get away without the cost of however many tonnes of de-ice fluid if it was the right side of marginal. Proper prior planning prevents…
I don’t understand why they were bothering to de-ice the first BA when the runway was closed…
BA will be furious because they’ll have to de-ice that plane again if it sits for more than about half an hour. BA and KLM will also be getting charged for ground power and a/c while they’re sitting on the ramp for hours, or will be running the APU and burning fuel.
Reading the Act the other day, to be honest if I ran this forum I’d close it down. I would be sad to see it happen but would understand it. By its nature this forum attracts controversy below the line and it will be so hard to track and manage it without destroying the nature of the place.
Any small forum like this, but with disproportionate reach, is now arguably not worth it.
What a world to live in.
Would Reform pledge to abolish the act I wonder?
I think the only party to mention the Online Safety Act in their manifesto was Reform UK… and they talked of making it stronger!
Interestingly a report in Nature suggests that those born before 1968 might have a better resistance to Bird Flu because a dominant flu virus matched H5N1. Although not for the same reasons it could have a similar impact to the Spanish Flu when it was the young that were killed off and the old survived (cytokine storm in the healthy). I'm still guessing being old and not in good health is not ideal, but unlike Covid it might be the young that need protecting.
Were a lot of the Influenza epidemics and pandemics of the 20th Century (1957, 1968, etc) closely related to the original 1918 pandemic?
Edit: And the 1918 pandemic is thought to have potentially had it's origins in a nasty outbreak that occurred in 1868 which is why older people had some immunity in 1918 and younger people didn't.
I think the answer to that is we don't know. We don't have any samples from the 1918 pandemic so we are not certain exactly what form it was. Back in 1998 there was an expedition by Norwegian researchers to try and retreive samples from victims in the permafrost in Spitzbergen but it was unsuccessful. There was a similar attempt from Northern Alaska. But as far as I know to date we have never obtained a sample of the virus from a victim of the 1918 pandemic. .
The commonality of issues affecting most western democracies is clear at this distance. Whether Canada, New Zealand or the UK, the core issues are or have become immigration, inflation (which covers the gamut of economic issues) and crime/security.
The three issues didn’t develop overnight and were masked, to an extent, in periods of economic prosperity but have come back into focus with anaemic growth and a growing perception of desperation, resignation, hopelessness, anger (pick whichever works for you).
The political movements which can or appear to resolve these issues will enjoy huge popularity but currently no one has or seems to have the answers. It may be technological ingenuity or innovation will unlock renewed economic growth as it has in the past and that happens irrespective of the party or ideology in charge.
The problem will be getting there and the resultant economic, social and cultural upheaval.
More on topic, we’ve seen many times in the last 50 years, starting with the Prevention of Terrorism Act in 1974, how Government responses to acts of terror are more often about curtailing the civil liberties of the many in the name of security and safety. I share the concern of many on here the OSA is a poor solution to a very real problem.
I come back to where I’ve always struggled - there’s a lot talked about the Right to Offend but the corollary is the Right to be Offended or, as I prefer it, the Freedom to Offend versus Freedom from Offence?
Challenging and provocative arguments often posit viewpoints which cut through the “mainstream” and that’s how it should be. The response needs to be robust and evidence-based. You don’t deal with conflicting viewpoints by shutting them down, nor do you deal with them by going into the gutter.
A claim or an allegation, if repeated often enough and loudly enough, becomes a fact or a truth and that’s how it operates. Post your version of the truth 50 or 100 times a day and it gains real currency.
On the Prevention Of Terrorism Act, a senior policeman was asked why it was used, almost entirely, to detain young black men.
“We were given the power, so we had to use it, to get the job done.”
Reading the Act the other day, to be honest if I ran this forum I’d close it down. I would be sad to see it happen but would understand it. By its nature this forum attracts controversy below the line and it will be so hard to track and manage it without destroying the nature of the place.
Any small forum like this, but with disproportionate reach, is now arguably not worth it.
What a world to live in.
Would Reform pledge to abolish the act I wonder?
I think the only party to mention the Online Safety Act in their manifesto was Reform UK… and they talked of making it stronger!
Social media is associated with eating disorders, anxiety, depression, suicide and the child mental health crisis. Launch an inquiry into social media harms.
Thereafter:
Review the Online Safety Bill
Social media giants that push baseless transgender ideology and divisive Critical Race theory should have no role in regulating free speech.”
Reading the Act the other day, to be honest if I ran this forum I’d close it down. I would be sad to see it happen but would understand it. By its nature this forum attracts controversy below the line and it will be so hard to track and manage it without destroying the nature of the place.
Any small forum like this, but with disproportionate reach, is now arguably not worth it.
What a world to live in.
Would Reform pledge to abolish the act I wonder?
I think the only party to mention the Online Safety Act in their manifesto was Reform UK… and they talked of making it stronger!
Reading the Act the other day, to be honest if I ran this forum I’d close it down. I would be sad to see it happen but would understand it. By its nature this forum attracts controversy below the line and it will be so hard to track and manage it without destroying the nature of the place.
Any small forum like this, but with disproportionate reach, is now arguably not worth it.
What a world to live in.
Would Reform pledge to abolish the act I wonder?
I think the only party to mention the Online Safety Act in their manifesto was Reform UK… and they talked of making it stronger!
Has ANY party pledged to revoke the OSA? Is there a new political gap opening or are our concerns too niche?
Hello from Aberdeen airport. Travelled down the night before as the forecast overnight looked gnarly. As expected, many reports of terrible road conditions this morning. Boarded the Amsterdam flight for an on time 6am departure. Only for the airport to close for 2 hours as the runway hasn’t been cleared of ice…
Ah well, I had minimal expectations of getting to Madrid by lunchtime. Can you claim EU261 for weather delays? I know that freak weather isn’t covered, but this isn’t freak.
There’s also two BAs that closed out already. 06:10 Easy is showing 08:45, and the Loganiars are all showing 08:00.
Poor from the airport operations team to not inform their customers (the airlines) of the delay before letting everyone board, if they knew they were going to be hours late getting the runway open! They probably waited until 05:30 to send a car down the runway, and decided it was too slippery at that point, trying to get away without the cost of however many tonnes of de-ice fluid if it was the right side of marginal. Proper prior planning prevents…
I don’t understand why they were bothering to de-ice the first BA when the runway was closed…
BA will be furious because they’ll have to de-ice that plane again if it sits for more than about half an hour. BA and KLM will also be getting charged for ground power and a/c while they’re sitting on the ramp for hours, or will be running the APU and burning fuel.
Good luck being on your way soon!
We’re back in the terminal as are both BA flights. Next update 09:30…
Reading the Act the other day, to be honest if I ran this forum I’d close it down. I would be sad to see it happen but would understand it. By its nature this forum attracts controversy below the line and it will be so hard to track and manage it without destroying the nature of the place.
Any small forum like this, but with disproportionate reach, is now arguably not worth it.
What a world to live in.
Would Reform pledge to abolish the act I wonder?
I think the only party to mention the Online Safety Act in their manifesto was Reform UK… and they talked of making it stronger!
Reading the Act the other day, to be honest if I ran this forum I’d close it down. I would be sad to see it happen but would understand it. By its nature this forum attracts controversy below the line and it will be so hard to track and manage it without destroying the nature of the place.
Any small forum like this, but with disproportionate reach, is now arguably not worth it.
What a world to live in.
Would Reform pledge to abolish the act I wonder?
I think the only party to mention the Online Safety Act in their manifesto was Reform UK… and they talked of making it stronger!
Has ANY party pledged to revoke the OSA? Is there a new political gap opening or are our concerns too niche?
I’m not aware of any political party with that position, although some lobby groups oppose it: Article 19, the Open Rights Group. The Wikimedia Foundation opposes it. Apple, Meta and WhatsApp opposed it.
Reading the Act the other day, to be honest if I ran this forum I’d close it down. I would be sad to see it happen but would understand it. By its nature this forum attracts controversy below the line and it will be so hard to track and manage it without destroying the nature of the place.
Any small forum like this, but with disproportionate reach, is now arguably not worth it.
What a world to live in.
Would Reform pledge to abolish the act I wonder?
I think the only party to mention the Online Safety Act in their manifesto was Reform UK… and they talked of making it stronger!
Reading the Act the other day, to be honest if I ran this forum I’d close it down. I would be sad to see it happen but would understand it. By its nature this forum attracts controversy below the line and it will be so hard to track and manage it without destroying the nature of the place.
Any small forum like this, but with disproportionate reach, is now arguably not worth it.
What a world to live in.
Would Reform pledge to abolish the act I wonder?
I think the only party to mention the Online Safety Act in their manifesto was Reform UK… and they talked of making it stronger!
Has ANY party pledged to revoke the OSA? Is there a new political gap opening or are our concerns too niche?
Once they gain power even parties who promise to promote free speech are pretty consistent in strengthening the powers of the state to control speech. It is a bit like PR, great support amongst parties unfairly treated in opposition, conveniently forgotten about once in power.
Reading the Act the other day, to be honest if I ran this forum I’d close it down. I would be sad to see it happen but would understand it. By its nature this forum attracts controversy below the line and it will be so hard to track and manage it without destroying the nature of the place.
Any small forum like this, but with disproportionate reach, is now arguably not worth it.
What a world to live in.
It saddens me to say but I do not know how this forum continues under this act
Almost anything said could be challenged by anyone or any business offended and the site owners cannot afford that risk
I haven't yet read the Act properly but I wonder if there's a loophole in "likely audience" part, perhaps by making the comments less accessible to the general public.
There is some reference to a challenge through the ECHR and Cyclefree does refer to this, and maybe she can expand the point for us
Reading the Act the other day, to be honest if I ran this forum I’d close it down. I would be sad to see it happen but would understand it. By its nature this forum attracts controversy below the line and it will be so hard to track and manage it without destroying the nature of the place.
Any small forum like this, but with disproportionate reach, is now arguably not worth it.
What a world to live in.
Would Reform pledge to abolish the act I wonder?
I think the only party to mention the Online Safety Act in their manifesto was Reform UK… and they talked of making it stronger!
Reading the Act the other day, to be honest if I ran this forum I’d close it down. I would be sad to see it happen but would understand it. By its nature this forum attracts controversy below the line and it will be so hard to track and manage it without destroying the nature of the place.
Any small forum like this, but with disproportionate reach, is now arguably not worth it.
What a world to live in.
Would Reform pledge to abolish the act I wonder?
I think the only party to mention the Online Safety Act in their manifesto was Reform UK… and they talked of making it stronger!
Has ANY party pledged to revoke the OSA? Is there a new political gap opening or are our concerns too niche?
Generally, protecting rights poll poorly, in the U.K.
I recall Blair making the argument that indefinite detention without trial was popular, according to the polls.
{subtext: as long as those detained are Them. You know, wink, wink}
The commonality of issues affecting most western democracies is clear at this distance. Whether Canada, New Zealand or the UK, the core issues are or have become immigration, inflation (which covers the gamut of economic issues) and crime/security.
The three issues didn’t develop overnight and were masked, to an extent, in periods of economic prosperity but have come back into focus with anaemic growth and a growing perception of desperation, resignation, hopelessness, anger (pick whichever works for you).
The political movements which can or appear to resolve these issues will enjoy huge popularity but currently no one has or seems to have the answers. It may be technological ingenuity or innovation will unlock renewed economic growth as it has in the past and that happens irrespective of the party or ideology in charge.
The problem will be getting there and the resultant economic, social and cultural upheaval.
More on topic, we’ve seen many times in the last 50 years, starting with the Prevention of Terrorism Act in 1974, how Government responses to acts of terror are more often about curtailing the civil liberties of the many in the name of security and safety. I share the concern of many on here the OSA is a poor solution to a very real problem.
I come back to where I’ve always struggled - there’s a lot talked about the Right to Offend but the corollary is the Right to be Offended or, as I prefer it, the Freedom to Offend versus Freedom from Offence?
Challenging and provocative arguments often posit viewpoints which cut through the “mainstream” and that’s how it should be. The response needs to be robust and evidence-based. You don’t deal with conflicting viewpoints by shutting them down, nor do you deal with them by going into the gutter.
A claim or an allegation, if repeated often enough and loudly enough, becomes a fact or a truth and that’s how it operates. Post your version of the truth 50 or 100 times a day and it gains real currency.
On the Prevention Of Terrorism Act, a senior policeman was asked why it was used, almost entirely, to detain young black men.
“We were given the power, so we had to use it, to get the job done.”
He should have answered something like, "Well we could have arrested more old Buddhist women just to balance things better, but it was the Prevention of Terrorism Act not the Prevention of Chanting Act".
LOL, the Ukranians are having fun with their innovations at the moment.
Taking out $10m assets such as air defences with $5k disposable drones is just brilliant.
Here’s the story about how they took out an entire Russian airbase, starting with a drone swarm that totally overwhelmed the air defences, followed by a couple of drones aimed straight at the radar, followed by a large volley of HIMARS and ATACMS that took out the runway and the planes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW7AOjRijBA
The rest of us need to wake up to the innovations of this war. In any future land war, small drones are absolutely the biggest threat. Until three years ago they were only ever used for reconnaissance and for refining targets for artillery, but now they are the most offensive of weapons on the battlefield.
And yet Russia grinds on.
The city of Kurakhove has been lost and occupied. And it appears Russian forces have taken at least part of the grounds of Ukraine’s largest coking coal mining operation, located in Pishchane, just SW of Pokrovsk. Its loss is a big blow to the country’s steel production industry. https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1876394724342304853
There’s been small gains and losses on both sides in the last few days, I do find it still quite remarkable that the Ukranian invasion of Kursk still hasn’t been defeated despite tens of thousands of Russian losses on what should be their own territory.
Last year Russia gained something like an area the size of Luxembourg at the cost of 400,000 men, countless machines, hundreds of billions of dollars, and what’s now looking like an almost destroyed Russian economy.
Today, the claimed Russian and North Korean losses - dead, maimed, missing, captured - has exceeded 800,000.
For part of a coking plant?
And the thing is, usually armies get better the more they fight: troops and leadership gain experience, develop new weapons, strategies and tactics.
Russia does not appear to be learning much, aside from the use of drones.
The Russians have reportedly thrown all manner of experienced soldiers into the meatwaves. Those who would train future generations of soldiers have been killed. About the only expertise the next generation will learn from experienced trainers is "how to avoid being killed in a meatwave attack: shoot yourself in the foot. Then if you are really lucky, you'll maybe get medivaced out of the meatwave. Maybe.".
Hello from Aberdeen airport. Travelled down the night before as the forecast overnight looked gnarly. As expected, many reports of terrible road conditions this morning. Boarded the Amsterdam flight for an on time 6am departure. Only for the airport to close for 2 hours as the runway hasn’t been cleared of ice…
Ah well, I had minimal expectations of getting to Madrid by lunchtime. Can you claim EU261 for weather delays? I know that freak weather isn’t covered, but this isn’t freak.
There’s also two BAs that closed out already. 06:10 Easy is showing 08:45, and the Loganiars are all showing 08:00.
Poor from the airport operations team to not inform their customers (the airlines) of the delay before letting everyone board, if they knew they were going to be hours late getting the runway open! They probably waited until 05:30 to send a car down the runway, and decided it was too slippery at that point, trying to get away without the cost of however many tonnes of de-ice fluid if it was the right side of marginal. Proper prior planning prevents…
I don’t understand why they were bothering to de-ice the first BA when the runway was closed…
BA will be furious because they’ll have to de-ice that plane again if it sits for more than about half an hour. BA and KLM will also be getting charged for ground power and a/c while they’re sitting on the ramp for hours, or will be running the APU and burning fuel.
Good luck being on your way soon!
We’re back in the terminal as are both BA flights. Next update 09:30…
Interestingly a report in Nature suggests that those born before 1968 might have a better resistance to Bird Flu because a dominant flu virus matched H5N1. Although not for the same reasons it could have a similar impact to the Spanish Flu when it was the young that were killed off and the old survived (cytokine storm in the healthy). I'm still guessing being old and not in good health is not ideal, but unlike Covid it might be the young that need protecting.
Were a lot of the Influenza epidemics and pandemics of the 20th Century (1957, 1968, etc) closely related to the original 1918 pandemic?
Edit: And the 1918 pandemic is thought to have potentially had it's origins in a nasty outbreak that occurred in 1868 which is why older people had some immunity in 1918 and younger people didn't.
I think the answer to that is we don't know. We don't have any samples from the 1918 pandemic so we are not certain exactly what form it was. Back in 1998 there was an expedition by Norwegian researchers to try and retreive samples from victims in the permafrost in Spitzbergen but it was unsuccessful. There was a similar attempt from Northern Alaska. But as far as I know to date we have never obtained a sample of the virus from a victim of the 1918 pandemic. .
I've been saying for ages that social media and smartphones are ruining civilisation. No-one listened.
The Government have. That is literally what this Bill is about. The fear of the effects of social media and a (very clumsy and authoritarian) way to deal with it.
...SFAICS - no-one has an intelligent way forward....
(sticks had in air)
Ban media using the algorithm model. Limit it to media using the subscription model. They'll still have access to the same info *but* the bad stuff will come to them slower and only if they look for it. Free speech preserved, but radicalisation slowed to a crawl: less suicides, less death threats. I think this is how Bluesky (spelling?) works: you can still find bad stuff but it's longer and less intense.
A requirement that products like social media aren't allowed to harm their users. A bit like medicines are regulated.
LOL, the Ukranians are having fun with their innovations at the moment.
Taking out $10m assets such as air defences with $5k disposable drones is just brilliant.
Here’s the story about how they took out an entire Russian airbase, starting with a drone swarm that totally overwhelmed the air defences, followed by a couple of drones aimed straight at the radar, followed by a large volley of HIMARS and ATACMS that took out the runway and the planes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW7AOjRijBA
The rest of us need to wake up to the innovations of this war. In any future land war, small drones are absolutely the biggest threat. Until three years ago they were only ever used for reconnaissance and for refining targets for artillery, but now they are the most offensive of weapons on the battlefield.
And yet Russia grinds on.
The city of Kurakhove has been lost and occupied. And it appears Russian forces have taken at least part of the grounds of Ukraine’s largest coking coal mining operation, located in Pishchane, just SW of Pokrovsk. Its loss is a big blow to the country’s steel production industry. https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1876394724342304853
There’s been small gains and losses on both sides in the last few days, I do find it still quite remarkable that the Ukranian invasion of Kursk still hasn’t been defeated despite tens of thousands of Russian losses on what should be their own territory.
Last year Russia gained something like an area the size of Luxembourg at the cost of 400,000 men, countless machines, hundreds of billions of dollars, and what’s now looking like an almost destroyed Russian economy.
Today, the claimed Russian and North Korean losses - dead, maimed, missing, captured - has exceeded 800,000.
For part of a coking plant?
Well, yes, but given the unreliability of its allies it's crucially important that Ukraine can do as much as possible to supply itself. Losing this coking plant has a material impact on its domestic steel industry.
It's the most significant loss to Russia for some time.
Jesus Nick Robinson is a trite twat. He’s interviewing Jenrick, who I’m no fan of, and just cannot help trying to be overly clever/confrontational instead of getting information.
He was discussing whether there were immigrants coming in from areas who had a “medieval” mindset/culture - and it’s fair to say there are some who do, but instead of acknowledging it he tries to trip Jenrick up by asking “is Sajid Javid’s parents were medieval” then “are Siddiq Khan’s family medieval”.
He’s an absolute ficking joke of an interviewer now as he’s only after the gotcha instead of extracting the info and shouting “answer the question” having interrupted every attempted answer.
He’s tried to snark his question to Jenrick about whether he was sucking up to musk with “why does an ambitious man wanting to lead his party find himself attracted to the billionaire Elon Musk”.
No wonder we don’t hold politicians properly accountable when those who get to hold them accountable in public are too busy trying pathetic Oxford Union arguing instead of being “journalists”.
Comments
…The FPV drones were delivered near Skadovsk by a naval drone
The FPV destroyed 2 Pantsir and 1 Osa air defense system deep into the Russian rear
https://x.com/PStyle0ne1/status/1876289220974911677
"Average hourly fee rates for homecare, weighted for the volume of hours purchased by state commissioners, were:
£21.59 in England"
The minimum pricing thing mentioned by Richard is I think their aspiration of what is actually needed not what council commissioners are paying.
I'm sure neither Starmer or Rigby have been upset by my comments.
I suspect this is a paper tiger comment.
Any small forum like this, but with disproportionate reach, is now arguably not worth it.
What a world to live in.
Almost anything said could be challenged by anyone or any business offended and the site owners cannot afford that risk
I saw a robin in December and stood, marvelling. A pure sweet little thing, singing. And then it flew away.
So whatever the drafting intends, whatever the the spirit of the law might intend, the end result will be police officers chasing easy arrests and convictions for things people write on the internet and to avoid being arrested people like OGH and other people who run small time forums/blogs/comment sections in the UK will close up shop or only allow the most milquetoast of commentary.
Edit: And of course ofcom. They are responsible I believe under the new Act. Luckily they have a track record of cracking down on tv channels that will stand them in good stead.
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world."
“The future is all unknown. Best live as we may, from day to day”.
And your mobile phone was screwed to the dashboard of your car. Who remembers coming back from a meeting and chasing all those missed calls? And that is all you could do with it - make phonecalls.
The parallels between the science fiction writer’s five-year-old story and present-day events are startling"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/20/cory-doctorow-radicalized-novella-healthcare-ceo-killing
But in the meantime, PB - and many others - will has necessarily to walk on eggshells.
https://x.com/AlecStapp/status/1876444909068296683
Taking out $10m assets such as air defences with $5k disposable drones is just brilliant.
Here’s the story about how they took out an entire Russian airbase, starting with a drone swarm that totally overwhelmed the air defences, followed by a couple of drones aimed straight at the radar, followed by a large volley of HIMARS and ATACMS that took out the runway and the planes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW7AOjRijBA
The rest of us need to wake up to the innovations of this war. In any future land war, small drones are absolutely the biggest threat. Until three years ago they were only ever used for reconnaissance and for refining targets for artillery, but now they are the most offensive of weapons on the battlefield.
Good luck getting them to properly investigate anything else short of a murder or a ‘far-right’ protest.
The city of Kurakhove has been lost and occupied. And it appears Russian forces have taken at least part of the grounds of Ukraine’s largest coking coal mining operation, located in Pishchane, just SW of Pokrovsk. Its loss is a big blow to the country’s steel production industry.
https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1876394724342304853
Golden Globes host comedian Nikki Glaser went on Howard Stern’s show Monday morning, and read out all the jokes that got cut out from the night before. The proper roast jokes that you definitely can’t say on network TV, and especially not with the butt of the joke sitting in the audience!
https://x.com/popcrave/status/1876385014356832664
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i33-r26oFuY
It must be so much fun writing for a show like this, having to get the pitch just right between roasting the crowd of A-listers in the audience, but also making sure everyone laughs along rather than being offended by them.
Of course you could go full Ricky Gervais when he knew it was his last time hosting, and simply not care how offended they all get, but it looks like Miss Glaser will be back again next year.
Last year Russia gained something like an area the size of Luxembourg at the cost of 400,000 men, countless machines, hundreds of billions of dollars, and what’s now looking like an almost destroyed Russian economy.
https://x.com/iaponomarenko/status/1874049403503198710
I bet under our ludicrously broad asylum laws they still qualify.
The commonality of issues affecting most western democracies is clear at this distance. Whether Canada, New Zealand or the UK, the core issues are or have become immigration, inflation (which covers the gamut of economic issues) and crime/security.
The three issues didn’t develop overnight and were masked, to an extent, in periods of economic prosperity but have come back into focus with anaemic growth and a growing perception of desperation, resignation, hopelessness, anger (pick whichever works for you).
The political movements which can or appear to resolve these issues will enjoy huge popularity but currently no one has or seems to have the answers. It may be technological ingenuity or innovation will unlock renewed economic growth as it has in the past and that happens irrespective of the party or ideology in charge.
The problem will be getting there and the resultant economic, social and cultural upheaval.
More on topic, we’ve seen many times in the last 50 years, starting with the Prevention of Terrorism Act in 1974, how Government responses to acts of terror are more often about curtailing the civil liberties of the many in the name of security and safety. I share the concern of many on here the OSA is a poor solution to a very real problem.
I come back to where I’ve always struggled - there’s a lot talked about the Right to Offend but the corollary is the Right to be Offended or, as I prefer it, the Freedom to Offend versus Freedom from Offence?
Challenging and provocative arguments often posit viewpoints which cut through the “mainstream” and that’s how it should be. The response needs to be robust and evidence-based. You don’t deal with conflicting viewpoints by shutting them down, nor do you deal with them by going into the gutter.
A claim or an allegation, if repeated often enough and loudly enough, becomes a fact or a truth and that’s how it operates. Post your version of the truth 50 or 100 times a day and it gains real currency.
Footing's pretty tricky. Some mostly solid snow with an icy layer on top, some ordinary ground, some ice, some compacted snow with ice. Lovely.
Ah well, I had minimal expectations of getting to Madrid by lunchtime. Can you claim EU261 for weather delays? I know that freak weather isn’t covered, but this isn’t freak.
Morning, everyone.
My post is about chilling effects, in a way, but hopefully skirts the OSA.
https://www.caa.co.uk/passengers-and-public/resolving-travel-problems/delays-and-cancellations/making-a-claim/am-i-entitled-to-compensation/
06:10 Easy is showing 08:45, and the Loganiars are all showing 08:00.
https://www.aberdeenairport.com/flight-information
Poor from the airport operations team to not inform their customers (the airlines) of the delay before letting everyone board, if they knew they were going to be hours late getting the runway open! They probably waited until 05:30 to send a car down the runway, and decided it was too slippery at that point, trying to get away without the cost of however many tonnes of de-ice fluid if it was the right side of marginal. Proper prior planning prevents…
For part of a coking plant?
Russia does not appear to be learning much, aside from the use of drones.
As another data point: We saw older people showing some resistance to swine flu because they’d lived through the 1968 pandemic.
Good luck being on your way soon!
“We were given the power, so we had to use it, to get the job done.”
“Promote Child Friendly App Restricted Smartphones
Social media is associated with eating disorders, anxiety, depression, suicide and the child mental health crisis. Launch an inquiry into social media harms.
Thereafter:
Review the Online Safety Bill
Social media giants that push baseless transgender ideology and divisive Critical Race theory should have no role in regulating free speech.”
I recall Blair making the argument that indefinite detention without trial was popular, according to the polls.
{subtext: as long as those detained are Them. You know, wink, wink}
NEW THREAD
It's the most significant loss to Russia for some time.
He was discussing whether there were immigrants coming in from areas who had a “medieval” mindset/culture - and it’s fair to say there are some who do, but instead of acknowledging it he tries to trip Jenrick up by asking “is Sajid Javid’s parents were medieval” then “are Siddiq Khan’s family medieval”.
He’s an absolute ficking joke of an interviewer now as he’s only after the gotcha instead of extracting the info and shouting “answer the question” having interrupted every attempted answer.
He’s tried to snark his question to Jenrick about whether he was sucking up to musk with “why does an ambitious man wanting to lead his party find himself attracted to the billionaire Elon Musk”.
No wonder we don’t hold politicians properly accountable when those who get to hold them accountable in public are too busy trying pathetic Oxford Union arguing instead of being “journalists”.