Senior Reform sources say Rupert Lowe was aware of these complaints when he gave incendiary Pierce interview this week attacking Farage. A number of concerns had been raised of late, separately, but credibility of one complainer escalated itNo suspension as of yet however. https://t.co/eWCkeAUxxZ
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That Terence McKenna clip, esp at the beginning, is so on point it deserves to be transcribed
"I think it is just going to get weirder and weirder and weirder, and finally it's going to be so weird, that people are going to have to talk about how weird it is. And at that point Novelty Theory can come out of the woods. Because eventually people are going to say 'what the hell is going on, it's just too nuts', it's not enough to say it's nuts, you have to explain WHY it's nuts.
"I look for the invention of artificial life, the cloning of human beings, possible contact with extra terrestrials, possible human immortality. And at the same time appalling acts of brutality, genocide, race baiting, homophobia, famine, starvation. Because the systems that are in place to keep the world sane are utterly inadequate to the forces that have been unleashed."
https://x.com/FrederikNeckar/status/1753170039308427331
As of now we have
1. the invention of artificial life
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/may/15/cambridge-scientists-create-worlds-first-living-organism-with-fully-redesigned-dna
2. human cloning
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22540374
3. Extra terrestrial panic, for sure
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/jan/14/what-happens-if-we-have-been-visited-by-aliens-lied-to-ufos-uaps-grusch-congress
4. Human immortality moves closer
https://medium.com/@david.a.ragland/the-promise-of-longevity-escape-velocity-are-we-on-the-brink-of-reversing-time-2eae526a926b
I don't think we need links for the brutality, genocide, race baiting, etc
Terence McKenna gave that interview in 1998, possibly while off his head on shrooms
Actually, make that nastier.
This leads to consideration of why they fell in with Farage to start with.
To me this looks like a potential party-ending clash, and a huge opportunity for the Tories, if they have the good sense to move sharply right and dump Kemi for a Jenrick (or someone like him, that "gets it")
Will go down badly with the faithful but I suspect but will be more popular with the country at large.
Artificial life invention is an exaggeration. It is adaptation from original sources. We still have no decent idea how to start it off from raw materials, still less BTW how this could happen by accident.
Human cloning. Yes. This will happen in time beyond the early embryo stage. Though identical twins are already clones of each other. It's a terrible idea, and people will reject it. Clones will be regarded as being under a curse.
Extra terrestrials. Zero evidence. (I suspect there aren't any, but I will be in the minority. If there are they are an awfully long way away).
Human immortality. Even if achieved (it won't be) there is always a way out. The Greeks, IIRC, had a story about living and ageing for ever. horrific thought. Most people know there are lots of worse things than dying.
With the third Heathrow runway and Starmer in favour of the two oil fields currently held up, when will Miliband resign ?
Maybe it's an opportunity for a right-SDP gang of four to create something new and credible: Lowe, Jenrick, Mordaunt (?), Glasman (?). It could then merge with the actual SDP which is confusingly operating in exactly this space at the moment but without any media profile.
It is true, I didn't Google re. your Atacama pic!
BUT
I have a very good memory. Many, many YEARS ago, that pic was your Twitter and PB avatar, and you discussed it on here passim.
While I agree with the main thrust of this, they should also clearly and at the same time increase some taxes on the better off, and get a little bit tough with pensioners by equalising the tax/NI regime and abolishing the triple lock.
https://www.itv.com/news/2025-03-07/government-to-make-6bn-welfare-savings-with-benefits-shake-up
We have done that
"Craig Venter creates synthetic life form
Craig Venter and his team have built the genome of a bacterium from scratch and incorporated it into a cell to make what they call the world's first synthetic life form"
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/may/20/craig-venter-synthetic-life-form
As I am not allowed to talk about AI I shall simply say we are very close there, as well
Very few people in the real world know who Rupert Lowe is. Fewer care.
I agree Starmer didn't need to make that commitment or box his Government into such a corner but he did and breaking that manifesto commitment now would be a millstone he'd be carrying to the next election.
There is a lot of mileage in cutting welfare because plenty of people who don't get welfare think too much is spent on welfare so we've had the progressive demonisation of "scroungers" and even those on disability. We even hear some on here claiming there are "millions" on welfare who should effectively be forced into work.
On the prior thread others were speculating why this place could be so spooking
So, here's the answer
That eerie mining ghost town with the Snoopy and the toys and the crosses is indeed in the Atacama desert, but it is not just in the desert, it is in the driest, most deserty place on earth. A place where it has rained only a few times in 200,000 years
Such is the aridity of this little zone (subject to a fierce double rain shadow) and the hostility of its soils, it is thought to the the "deathliest" place on the planet, ie the most lifeless, the most sterile. There is very nearly no life here, whereas even in the iceaps of Greenland or Antarctica you can find fairly plentiful microbes and the like, it is much harder to find them here (there are a few if you dig deep). It is THE place on earth which is MOST absent of life, it is the zone of ulimate deadness (which is why I think it should be world famous, and why it is so amazing you can just drive there, and take pictures of Snoopy). NASA goes there to compare it to Mars
It is called Yungay. I recommend it for all connoisseuers of Extreme Noom. The ambience is intense and menacing
https://twanight.org/gallery/yungay-the-absolute-desert-on-earth/
Whatever happened to the Popular Front? He’s over there - SPLITTER!!!
With the third Heathrow runway and Starmer in favour of the two oil fields currently held up, when will Miliband resign ?
Those carbon capture billions must be looking pretty doomed...
https://www.mirror.co.uk/usvsth3m/7-monster-raving-loony-party-5644717
And here we are again. Change Reform UK.
Andrew Lilico
@andrew_lilico
·
20m
No-one who follows politics closely enough to know who Rupert Lowe is is going to regard these allegations as anything other than a naked hit-job to try to discredit him as a "tallest poppy" - not cos of knowing anything about Lowe. It just seems obvious & Reform looks a joke.
https://x.com/andrew_lilico/status/1898115856288125306
Look at Thiel, Musk and Vance's seeming mentor. He says fhat "democracy and freedom are incompatible. Then you have other figures like Andreesen and Nick Land, in a cluster of techno-supremacists. Peter Thiel and Curtis Yarvin are perhaps the two most worrying intellectual influences on Musk and Vance of all, as explicit anti-democrats.
https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2025/02/26/how-reform-can-win-the-general-election/
A week is indeed a long time in politics.
Not the only thing looking doomed with the Earth yet again seeing the hottest start to a year on record despite a La Niña and global sea ice cover yet again crashing to record lows.
But I appreciate worrying about climate change is a bit late 2010s and is now unfashionable.
Labour: 28% (+2)
Reform: 25% (nc)
Conservative: 21% (-1)
Liberal Democrat: 13% (nc)
Greens: 7% (-1)
No significant changes though the headline extends Labour's lead over Reform to three points.
Fingers crossed, £22bn is 8-12 new boats/subs or 100+ fighter jets or a bunch of tanks and amphibious transports.
£22bn for carbon capture is a gigantic piss away of money.
Given an election campaign they'll be back up above 30% no trouble. I still think the odds of their re-election are strangely underpriced.
But these Fukkers were Farage and Lowe.
Well, something very high proof, anyway.
(Where's Biggles when you need him?)
https://news.sky.com/story/trump-supreme-court-judge-amy-coney-barrett-maga-13323251?dcmp=snt-sf-twitter
£22bn for carbon capture is a gigantic piss away of money.
Big things can happen quickly. The EU has gone from not having shared debt to issuing a "once-only" €800m for covid to planning another €800m for defence. I wonder what the next one will be...
(Vanilla screwed up the blockquoting.)
///premixed.wide.refer
That's the problem there. She is a staunch conservative. She believes in basic conservative values. Trump is not a conservative: he is tearing up the system.
(Vanilla screwed up the blockquoting.)
Billions even ?
Sir Keir seems to have grown into the role - like he did LOTO - and seems to have found the right place to pitch Labour.
Still unsure about the whole vision thing but I think they've got Wes Streeting basically doing that.
But I appreciate worrying about climate change is a bit late 2010s and is now unfashionable.
++++
What's your beef?
You have a vineyard fit for English Fizz in Dorset. Climate change is your best buddy
If so, good. Carbon-capture is expensive, doesn't work, and makes things worse. Over 20 billion is too much. Over 20 pence would be too much. Nuke it from orbit just to be sure.
I am also intrigued that the roars about the WFA cut seem to have blown over. Winter is over and I am not aware of any dead pensioner headlines. Labour seem to have weathered the storm?
That message will filter through in time though.
I get that we are all chameleons. I voted for Labour FFS. But I briskly recanted. Yet you seem to genuinely believe in each incarnation of yourself
The fundamentals in the economy are truely dreadful and the increases in council tax, energy, broadband, mobile and water charges are eye watering and now billions upon billions on defence spending is needed
There were, and remain many frightened pensioners and it is beyond complacent to think Labour have weathered the storm which is yet to come
Every day Trump makes idiotic choices with unknown consequences and it is anyone's guess how this plays out in politics going forward
But I appreciate worrying about climate change is a bit late 2010s and is now unfashionable.
Not sure what has happened to the blockquote there but my comment starts here.
It is just an insane waste of money that would make the underlying economic activity completely pointless, indeed expensive. Abandoning this stupidity is about as close to a no brainer as we are likely to find.
Gene Hackman's wife died from a rare infectious disease around a week before the actor died, medical investigators have said.
Hackman had advanced Alzheimer's and died from heart disease.
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/stuart-pearce-taken-ill-plane-31156853
As stupid as their manifesto commitment on tax
At least the conservatives have questioned the triple lock
@TimothyDSnyder
Curious that all the places Trump wants to annex would be geographically convenient for a Russian partner in annexation.
It is part of what is so depressing about all this and makes one despair at humanity: the way so many GOP people have just binned all they believe in in order to be part of a cult that stands for nothing but one man's ego.
Ok, I can't blame that one on Vanilla.
Hackman said: 'We like simple stories that some of the little low-budget films manage to produce.
'Friday night is set aside for a Comedy Channel marathon, with particular attention paid to Eddie Izzard. The speed of thought is amazing.'