Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. Sign in or register to get started.

If controlling hospital admissions is the objective then the pandemic is almost over – politicalbett

1234568»

Comments

  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826

    Leon said:

    This is superb

    Mad conspiracy theorists think the conspiracy theory about aliens is a conspiracy to stop them talking about another, different conspiracy

    ‘QAnon Crowd Convinced UFOs Are a Diversion From Voter Fraud thedailybeast.com/qanon-crowd-co… via @thedailybeast’

    https://twitter.com/micalizio333/status/1397178184165052423?s=21

    That's literally what I (and separately someone else, LostPassword ?) have suggested.
    lol. @Philip Thompson slips and admits alignment with QAnon.
    You're a frigging numpty. 🤦‍♂️

    Leon and LostPassword would have known the context of that remark, and it was not alignment with QAnon. What we both said was that this would be a very smart way to wean the conspiracy theorists away from the Q bullshit, by giving them alien bullshit to worry about instead.

    QAnon-ers have been angry and against all this alien BS, because it distracts from their Q BS. I think the alien BS is BS, but is infinitely better than Q and if people need a "conspiracy detox" then this is infinitely better than Q.

    But I'm sure this logic is too complicated for your petty, tiny little mind where anyone who disagrees with you on anything is an extremist in a completely different direction. You are institutionally incapable of literacy, or concepts like nuance etc so it won't surprise me that this all went over your head. Whoosh!
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,431

    I like Jerusalem because it's all about building a paradise, rather than war and fighting, using "Jerusalem" as a metaphor. I find it very inspiring.

    Nah, it has the original QTWTAIN.

    'And did those feet in ancient time.'

    The second verse is the good one.
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,784
    Carnyx said:

    Mr. Boy, slavery was endemic in Africa at the time. And Arabia. And continued elsewhere after we stopped it.

    A fetish for self-flagellation is not something I find appealing.

    Oh, and, of course, we've got the tens of millions Stalin imprisoned and slaughtered, the Holocaust, Mao's epic death toll, Roman slavery. And the Aztec sacrifices.

    Why are you so afraid of addressing bad things we did in the past? It isn't a reflection on us personally. It doesn't affect the pride we can take in the good things we did. It's just a question of being honest. The fact is that Britain built its wealth and power over the course of a couple of hundred years off the back of African Labour in the new world, a trade in human misery that we were active participants in. It's just laughable that people act so defensively whenever anyone brings it up or suggests minor acts of remembrance (like no longer venerating slave traders).
    You need to read Tony Blair's article in the New Statesman:

    "People are suspicious that behind the agenda of many of the culture warriors on the left lies an ideology they find alien and extreme.'

    Mr Blair warned that voters do not like 'their country their flag or their history being disrespected'.

    '''Defund the police' may be the left's most damaging political slogan since ''the dictatorship of the proletariat'',' he said.

    'People do not like their country, their flag or their history being disrespected. People like common sense, proportion and reason.'"

    https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2021/05/tony-blair-without-total-change-labour-will-die
    Common sense: don't venerate slave traders and white supremacists, people who do not represent the values of our great country and are unworthy of our respect.
    Proportion: remove statues of slave traders and white supremacists from positions of prominence and put them in a museum where they can be placed in their historical context and understood against the prevalent historical currents.
    Reason: understand our history in full rather than drawing a veil over the parts that make us feel uncomfortable or reacting angrily to those who want to discuss historical wrongs.
    Anyone who thinks the answer is iconoclasm is someone either not thinking clearly or someone who has a more ideological agenda.

    The Government are quite right to quash this with the general law.
    It's a very odd law. Why privilege statues over other structures? Should it be illegal to demolish any building?
    Is there any statue you would agree to take down if it were currently gracing the High Street of a British town? Jimmy Saville? Joseph Stalin? Fred West? Adolf Hitler? Or are all stone representations of historical figures to be preserved for all time regardless of how the person is now viewed?
    Mr Saville got cancelled.

    https://www.thenational.scot/news/16033718.glasgows-wooden-jimmy-savile-statue-destroyed/

    By the government’s logic that should have been re-erected at public expense and afforded police protection. I'm surprised we haven't seen any of the PB Agalmatophiles raising a subscription for that very purpose.
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    If we want a new anthem we could get Hibs fans to sing ‘Sunshine on Leith’ every time, and give the world goosebumps

    https://youtu.be/LeHkQYDoVJ0

    The national anthem should be Bohemian Rhapsody.
    80% of the teams in my pub quiz last week couldn’t even remember the first line of that song.
    Was this in real life?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,339
    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    If we want a new anthem we could get Hibs fans to sing ‘Sunshine on Leith’ every time, and give the world goosebumps

    https://youtu.be/LeHkQYDoVJ0

    The national anthem should be Bohemian Rhapsody.
    80% of the teams in my pub quiz last week couldn’t even remember the first line of that song.
    And yet, THIS

    Half a million people in Hyde Park singing all of Bohemian Rhapsody - word-perfect - just like that.

    The greatest example of spontaneous communal singing I’ve ever seen. Spine tingling

    https://youtu.be/cZnBNuqqz5g

    They even sing the guitar chords, and do the Spinal Tap head-bang
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,585
    edited May 2021

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    If we want a new anthem we could get Hibs fans to sing ‘Sunshine on Leith’ every time, and give the world goosebumps

    https://youtu.be/LeHkQYDoVJ0

    The national anthem should be Bohemian Rhapsody.
    80% of the teams in my pub quiz last week couldn’t even remember the first line of that song.
    Was this in real life?
    Close, but no cigar.

    Edit: now I’m not sure if you mean the lyric or the pub quiz. Yes, real life pub quiz, live entertainment allowed from last week.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,073

    Nigelb said:

    Carnyx said:

    As PB's resident Eurovision expert I'd like to point out Wales has had entries in the Junior Eurovision contest.

    I think they were granted an entry as it was a Welsh language contestant.

    So Scotland could enter a Gaelic language entry.

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

    Edit - I'd also like to point out we let Israel and Australia compete in a European music contest.

    So entry to the contest is pretty flexible.

    I look forward to seeing this on Eurovision:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeSrkZfpAjc

    Certainly no more unusual than somer of the stuff there - and actually a functional song.

    Very much so.

    The thing that consoles me as the UK finishes bottom for most of this millenium in Eurovision is that we're competing with the best musical groups/singers the other countries have whilst we send rubbish.

    Just imagine if the UK sent one of the better bands/singers to next year's Eurovision, you know The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Steps, The Who, or The Stone Roses.

    We'd win a landslide.
    *Imagines the Radiohead entry.... *
    Le Royaume-Uni moins cent points.
    Vraiment incroyable.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,840

    Carnyx said:

    Mr. Boy, slavery was endemic in Africa at the time. And Arabia. And continued elsewhere after we stopped it.

    A fetish for self-flagellation is not something I find appealing.

    Oh, and, of course, we've got the tens of millions Stalin imprisoned and slaughtered, the Holocaust, Mao's epic death toll, Roman slavery. And the Aztec sacrifices.

    Why are you so afraid of addressing bad things we did in the past? It isn't a reflection on us personally. It doesn't affect the pride we can take in the good things we did. It's just a question of being honest. The fact is that Britain built its wealth and power over the course of a couple of hundred years off the back of African Labour in the new world, a trade in human misery that we were active participants in. It's just laughable that people act so defensively whenever anyone brings it up or suggests minor acts of remembrance (like no longer venerating slave traders).
    You need to read Tony Blair's article in the New Statesman:

    "People are suspicious that behind the agenda of many of the culture warriors on the left lies an ideology they find alien and extreme.'

    Mr Blair warned that voters do not like 'their country their flag or their history being disrespected'.

    '''Defund the police' may be the left's most damaging political slogan since ''the dictatorship of the proletariat'',' he said.

    'People do not like their country, their flag or their history being disrespected. People like common sense, proportion and reason.'"

    https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2021/05/tony-blair-without-total-change-labour-will-die
    Common sense: don't venerate slave traders and white supremacists, people who do not represent the values of our great country and are unworthy of our respect.
    Proportion: remove statues of slave traders and white supremacists from positions of prominence and put them in a museum where they can be placed in their historical context and understood against the prevalent historical currents.
    Reason: understand our history in full rather than drawing a veil over the parts that make us feel uncomfortable or reacting angrily to those who want to discuss historical wrongs.
    Anyone who thinks the answer is iconoclasm is someone either not thinking clearly or someone who has a more ideological agenda.

    The Government are quite right to quash this with the general law.
    It's a very odd law. Why privilege statues over other structures? Should it be illegal to demolish any building?
    Is there any statue you would agree to take down if it were currently gracing the High Street of a British town? Jimmy Saville? Joseph Stalin? Fred West? Adolf Hitler? Or are all stone representations of historical figures to be preserved for all time regardless of how the person is now viewed?
    Mr Saville got cancelled.

    https://www.thenational.scot/news/16033718.glasgows-wooden-jimmy-savile-statue-destroyed/

    By the government’s logic that should have been re-erected at public expense and afforded police protection. I'm surprised we haven't seen any of the PB Agalmatophiles raising a subscription for that very purpose.
    'Wrong' government, it would seem.

    Interestingly, the one down south don't seem to have defended this one -

    https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/mannequin-jimmy-savile-placed-edward-4318348
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    If we want a new anthem we could get Hibs fans to sing ‘Sunshine on Leith’ every time, and give the world goosebumps

    https://youtu.be/LeHkQYDoVJ0

    The national anthem should be Bohemian Rhapsody.
    80% of the teams in my pub quiz last week couldn’t even remember the first line of that song.
    Was this in real life?
    Close, but no cigar.

    Edit: now I’m not sure if you mean the lyric or the pub quiz. Yes, real life pub quiz.
    It was a joke, spinning the first line into a question about a real life pub quiz.
  • Fysics_TeacherFysics_Teacher Posts: 6,285
    Carnyx said:

    Cookie said:

    Mr. Boy, I'd be interested to know how far back you'd go with that. Living memory would be my instinctive approach to this sort of thing. How would you handle Caesar, who massacred a tribe (NB including women and children) of Thuringii during peace talks in... 53 BC (I think)?

    I'm not an especial fan of Caesar, certainly not compared to Mr. Eagles, but I don't think that incident should be the prism through which he is viewed, just one of numerous significant events and decisions that he was involved in.

    Although we disagree on some things you do seem reasonable, but many who bang on about this are not. They're iconoclasts, revisionists, and sometimes outright racists. With that in mind, I hope you forgive me if I seemed a little sharp in response.

    No forgiveness necessary.
    It's an interesting question. Personally I would have a very high bar for removing statues. I think it's a question of weighing up the positives and negatives, and you'd need to see the negatives outweighing the positives by a wide margin before acting. Churchill is the obvious kind of figure that would not make the cut for removal. Equally a slave trader doesn't seem to me someone that a society that is knowledgeable about its history would want to see honoured in its Town centres. I see little in Rhodes' history that merits his prominent position on an Oxford college, either.
    Since Caesar was an aggressive foreign invader I'm not sure we should be having a statue of him anyway (do we have one? I have no idea). I am guessing if I were Italian I wouldn't be calling for his statue to be removed.
    Isn't Rhodes' commemoration at Oxford due to him leaving money for Rhodes scholarships?
    He also paid for the Rhodes Building, Oriel on which the statue stands.
    And did he not pay for Rhodes House? Very striking Cotswoldish between-wars architecture - very different from the University Museum almost opposite.
    Almost opposite? It's St Mary's, the University Church, which is opposite, with All Souls and Brasenose to either side. The various museums are much further north.
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 18,362
    Sandpit said:

    Carnyx said:

    As PB's resident Eurovision expert I'd like to point out Wales has had entries in the Junior Eurovision contest.

    I think they were granted an entry as it was a Welsh language contestant.

    So Scotland could enter a Gaelic language entry.

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

    Edit - I'd also like to point out we let Israel and Australia compete in a European music contest.

    So entry to the contest is pretty flexible.

    I look forward to seeing this on Eurovision:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeSrkZfpAjc

    Certainly no more unusual than somer of the stuff there - and actually a functional song.

    Very much so.

    The thing that consoles me as the UK finishes bottom for most of this millenium in Eurovision is that we're competing with the best musical groups/singers the other countries have whilst we send rubbish.

    Just imagine if the UK sent one of the better bands/singers to next year's Eurovision, you know The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Steps, The Who, or The Stone Roses.

    We'd win a landslide.
    We need to find an established act that doesn’t take itself so seriously, that can write a catchy tune, come up with a dance or mad stage show.

    This was the favourite to win last year, before it was cancelled. It’s the sort of thing we need to emulate.

    Russians, from America, singing in Spanish.
    https://youtube.com/watch?v=L_dWvTCdDQ4
    Something like these people?

    https://youtu.be/8iEB8bfP7wE
  • FishingFishing Posts: 5,039

    I like Jerusalem because it's all about building a paradise, rather than war and fighting, using "Jerusalem" as a metaphor. I find it very inspiring.

    Although the music was written during the First World War, as a way to keep people's minds of the ghastly slaughter.

  • CookieCookie Posts: 13,803

    I like Jerusalem because it's all about building a paradise, rather than war and fighting, using "Jerusalem" as a metaphor. I find it very inspiring.

    Nah, it has the original QTWTAIN.

    'And did those feet in ancient time.'
    Doesn't matter. Part of the wonderful ambiguity of it. Arguably improves it - 'this is nowhere special, yet still I love it".
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,840

    Carnyx said:

    Cookie said:

    Mr. Boy, I'd be interested to know how far back you'd go with that. Living memory would be my instinctive approach to this sort of thing. How would you handle Caesar, who massacred a tribe (NB including women and children) of Thuringii during peace talks in... 53 BC (I think)?

    I'm not an especial fan of Caesar, certainly not compared to Mr. Eagles, but I don't think that incident should be the prism through which he is viewed, just one of numerous significant events and decisions that he was involved in.

    Although we disagree on some things you do seem reasonable, but many who bang on about this are not. They're iconoclasts, revisionists, and sometimes outright racists. With that in mind, I hope you forgive me if I seemed a little sharp in response.

    No forgiveness necessary.
    It's an interesting question. Personally I would have a very high bar for removing statues. I think it's a question of weighing up the positives and negatives, and you'd need to see the negatives outweighing the positives by a wide margin before acting. Churchill is the obvious kind of figure that would not make the cut for removal. Equally a slave trader doesn't seem to me someone that a society that is knowledgeable about its history would want to see honoured in its Town centres. I see little in Rhodes' history that merits his prominent position on an Oxford college, either.
    Since Caesar was an aggressive foreign invader I'm not sure we should be having a statue of him anyway (do we have one? I have no idea). I am guessing if I were Italian I wouldn't be calling for his statue to be removed.
    Isn't Rhodes' commemoration at Oxford due to him leaving money for Rhodes scholarships?
    He also paid for the Rhodes Building, Oriel on which the statue stands.
    And did he not pay for Rhodes House? Very striking Cotswoldish between-wars architecture - very different from the University Museum almost opposite.
    Almost opposite? It's St Mary's, the University Church, which is opposite, with All Souls and Brasenose to either side. The various museums are much further north.
    A misunderstanding, evidently. The one I mean is additional: this one

    https://www.google.com/maps/place/Rhodes+House/@51.7577078,-1.2554712,18.38z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x20878642aafb6de4!8m2!3d51.7576894!4d-1.2550257
  • CookieCookie Posts: 13,803
    Further encouraging signs the peak is past in Bolton in today's data:
    https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/cases?areaType=ltla&areaName=Bolton
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 37,360

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    When recovering from the worst pandemic in a century it’s important to get priorities sorted ..

    SNP MP calls for #Eurovision to let Scotland enter separately from the UK

    https://twitter.com/ryancapperauld/status/1397182247350976518?s=20

    Let them. It would give the English somebody not to vote for....
    They can't, they are part of the sovereign UK and no non sovereign country competes in Eurovision
    So Scotland competes in the Euros, World Cup, Rugby World Cup, Cricket World Cup yet is not allowed to compete in effing Eurovision??

    That is pathetic and ridiculous.
    If they did it would set a precedent, soon you would have Catalonia, Wales even Bavaria and Venice demanding to do the same
    I don't think Eurovision really cares about setting a geopolitical precedent. They just want to see drag queens singing.
    Tough, Scotland is part of the UK and that is where it is staying. If there is a UK team or contestant already that UK team or contestant stays.
    Football and rugby are different as the UK does not compete as one entity (although Scotland did compete as part of the UK football team in the 2012 Olympics)
    It has its own team in most major sports, sports which are played by millions and followed by billions...

    Football
    Cricket
    Rugby Union
    Rugby League
    Golf
    Hockey
    Netball

    Yet it cannot be allowed to enter a drag act from Falkirk into a naff singing competition – as to do so would cause some sort of diplomatic incident?

    I'm going to enjoy hearing your reasoning on this one...
    As there is already a UK entry, there is no UK team in any of the sports you listed above apart from the UK football team and Hockey teams at the Olympics (plus there is the British Lions too of course in rugby union).

    So a logical solution would to bring Eurovision into line. I see what you are saying. I look forward to the Home Nations' singing in years to come. Maybe Wales would win??
    The Welsh national anthem is magnificent

    My dear late Scottish father in law said it is the best beyond compare
    Nonsense, the greatest national anthem is La Marseillaise.

    It pains me to say that, especially England & The UK has a bloody dirge.
    "Guide me oh, thou Great Redeemer" would be a stirring national anthem, or perhaps The Naval Hymn.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 51,648
    I see what's happened there. Someone has renamed their wifi in an effort to fool the government's anti-vax detector vans.
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 37,360

    Mr. Boy, slavery was endemic in Africa at the time. And Arabia. And continued elsewhere after we stopped it.

    A fetish for self-flagellation is not something I find appealing.

    Oh, and, of course, we've got the tens of millions Stalin imprisoned and slaughtered, the Holocaust, Mao's epic death toll, Roman slavery. And the Aztec sacrifices.

    Why are you so afraid of addressing bad things we did in the past? It isn't a reflection on us personally. It doesn't affect the pride we can take in the good things we did. It's just a question of being honest. The fact is that Britain built its wealth and power over the course of a couple of hundred years off the back of African Labour in the new world, a trade in human misery that we were active participants in. It's just laughable that people act so defensively whenever anyone brings it up or suggests minor acts of remembrance (like no longer venerating slave traders).
    You need to read Tony Blair's article in the New Statesman:

    "People are suspicious that behind the agenda of many of the culture warriors on the left lies an ideology they find alien and extreme.'

    Mr Blair warned that voters do not like 'their country their flag or their history being disrespected'.

    '''Defund the police' may be the left's most damaging political slogan since ''the dictatorship of the proletariat'',' he said.

    'People do not like their country, their flag or their history being disrespected. People like common sense, proportion and reason.'"

    https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2021/05/tony-blair-without-total-change-labour-will-die
    Common sense: don't venerate slave traders and white supremacists, people who do not represent the values of our great country and are unworthy of our respect.
    Proportion: remove statues of slave traders and white supremacists from positions of prominence and put them in a museum where they can be placed in their historical context and understood against the prevalent historical currents.
    Reason: understand our history in full rather than drawing a veil over the parts that make us feel uncomfortable or reacting angrily to those who want to discuss historical wrongs.
    A white supremacist or a slave trader may still have achieved great deeds. Historical figures have to be judged in the round.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,558

    Mr. Boy, slavery was endemic in Africa at the time. And Arabia. And continued elsewhere after we stopped it.

    A fetish for self-flagellation is not something I find appealing.

    Oh, and, of course, we've got the tens of millions Stalin imprisoned and slaughtered, the Holocaust, Mao's epic death toll, Roman slavery. And the Aztec sacrifices.

    Why are you so afraid of addressing bad things we did in the past? It isn't a reflection on us personally. It doesn't affect the pride we can take in the good things we did. It's just a question of being honest. The fact is that Britain built its wealth and power over the course of a couple of hundred years off the back of African Labour in the new world, a trade in human misery that we were active participants in. It's just laughable that people act so defensively whenever anyone brings it up or suggests minor acts of remembrance (like no longer venerating slave traders).
    Because it's a complete and utter waste of time.
  • FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 4,668
    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Cookie said:

    Mr. Boy, I'd be interested to know how far back you'd go with that. Living memory would be my instinctive approach to this sort of thing. How would you handle Caesar, who massacred a tribe (NB including women and children) of Thuringii during peace talks in... 53 BC (I think)?

    I'm not an especial fan of Caesar, certainly not compared to Mr. Eagles, but I don't think that incident should be the prism through which he is viewed, just one of numerous significant events and decisions that he was involved in.

    Although we disagree on some things you do seem reasonable, but many who bang on about this are not. They're iconoclasts, revisionists, and sometimes outright racists. With that in mind, I hope you forgive me if I seemed a little sharp in response.

    No forgiveness necessary.
    It's an interesting question. Personally I would have a very high bar for removing statues. I think it's a question of weighing up the positives and negatives, and you'd need to see the negatives outweighing the positives by a wide margin before acting. Churchill is the obvious kind of figure that would not make the cut for removal. Equally a slave trader doesn't seem to me someone that a society that is knowledgeable about its history would want to see honoured in its Town centres. I see little in Rhodes' history that merits his prominent position on an Oxford college, either.
    Since Caesar was an aggressive foreign invader I'm not sure we should be having a statue of him anyway (do we have one? I have no idea). I am guessing if I were Italian I wouldn't be calling for his statue to be removed.
    Isn't Rhodes' commemoration at Oxford due to him leaving money for Rhodes scholarships?
    He also paid for the Rhodes Building, Oriel on which the statue stands.
    And did he not pay for Rhodes House? Very striking Cotswoldish between-wars architecture - very different from the University Museum almost opposite.
    Almost opposite? It's St Mary's, the University Church, which is opposite, with All Souls and Brasenose to either side. The various museums are much further north.
    A misunderstanding, evidently. The one I mean is additional: this one

    https://www.google.com/maps/place/Rhodes+House/@51.7577078,-1.2554712,18.38z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x20878642aafb6de4!8m2!3d51.7576894!4d-1.2550257
    Yes, that's the one I thought you meant. It would have been a lot better without the columns...
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,585

    I see what's happened there. Someone has renamed their wifi in an effort to fool the government's anti-vax detector vans.
    My home wifi is called “Novichok”. Hopefully that does a better job of keeping away the Russian spies.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,635

    NEW THREAD

  • Fysics_TeacherFysics_Teacher Posts: 6,285
    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    When recovering from the worst pandemic in a century it’s important to get priorities sorted ..

    SNP MP calls for #Eurovision to let Scotland enter separately from the UK

    https://twitter.com/ryancapperauld/status/1397182247350976518?s=20

    Let them. It would give the English somebody not to vote for....
    They can't, they are part of the sovereign UK and no non sovereign country competes in Eurovision
    So Scotland competes in the Euros, World Cup, Rugby World Cup, Cricket World Cup yet is not allowed to compete in effing Eurovision??

    That is pathetic and ridiculous.
    If they did it would set a precedent, soon you would have Catalonia, Wales even Bavaria and Venice demanding to do the same
    I don't think Eurovision really cares about setting a geopolitical precedent. They just want to see drag queens singing.
    Tough, Scotland is part of the UK and that is where it is staying. If there is a UK team or contestant already that UK team or contestant stays.
    Football and rugby are different as the UK does not compete as one entity (although Scotland did compete as part of the UK football team in the 2012 Olympics)
    It has its own team in most major sports, sports which are played by millions and followed by billions...

    Football
    Cricket
    Rugby Union
    Rugby League
    Golf
    Hockey
    Netball

    Yet it cannot be allowed to enter a drag act from Falkirk into a naff singing competition – as to do so would cause some sort of diplomatic incident?

    I'm going to enjoy hearing your reasoning on this one...
    As there is already a UK entry, there is no UK team in any of the sports you listed above apart from the UK football team and Hockey teams at the Olympics (plus there is the British Lions too of course in rugby union).

    So a logical solution would to bring Eurovision into line. I see what you are saying. I look forward to the Home Nations' singing in years to come. Maybe Wales would win??
    The Welsh national anthem is magnificent

    My dear late Scottish father in law said it is the best beyond compare
    Nonsense, the greatest national anthem is La Marseillaise.

    It pains me to say that, especially England & The UK has a bloody dirge.
    La Marseillaise really isn’t a great anthem. It’s a fine, jaunty, uplifting melody, but an anthem needs specific characteristics: it needs to be a strong, distinct tune that is easy to remember and sing, and it needs simple direct words that fit well to the music

    I’ve had numerous French people tell me, over the years, that La Marseillaise does neither. The tune jumps around too much to be easily singable, and the words just don’t fit. You can see this if you watch French sport teams ‘try’ to sing it lustily

    There is also the problem that the French language, liquid and effete, simply isn’t meant for belting out anthems. Sad love songs, perfect

    It is still better than GSTQ (tho GSTQ is nice and simple).

    The Welsh or Russian anthems are the best
    Modern Russian or the old Soviet one?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrI28-4Zi_E
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,784
    Sean_F said:

    Mr. Boy, slavery was endemic in Africa at the time. And Arabia. And continued elsewhere after we stopped it.

    A fetish for self-flagellation is not something I find appealing.

    Oh, and, of course, we've got the tens of millions Stalin imprisoned and slaughtered, the Holocaust, Mao's epic death toll, Roman slavery. And the Aztec sacrifices.

    Why are you so afraid of addressing bad things we did in the past? It isn't a reflection on us personally. It doesn't affect the pride we can take in the good things we did. It's just a question of being honest. The fact is that Britain built its wealth and power over the course of a couple of hundred years off the back of African Labour in the new world, a trade in human misery that we were active participants in. It's just laughable that people act so defensively whenever anyone brings it up or suggests minor acts of remembrance (like no longer venerating slave traders).
    You need to read Tony Blair's article in the New Statesman:

    "People are suspicious that behind the agenda of many of the culture warriors on the left lies an ideology they find alien and extreme.'

    Mr Blair warned that voters do not like 'their country their flag or their history being disrespected'.

    '''Defund the police' may be the left's most damaging political slogan since ''the dictatorship of the proletariat'',' he said.

    'People do not like their country, their flag or their history being disrespected. People like common sense, proportion and reason.'"

    https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2021/05/tony-blair-without-total-change-labour-will-die
    Common sense: don't venerate slave traders and white supremacists, people who do not represent the values of our great country and are unworthy of our respect.
    Proportion: remove statues of slave traders and white supremacists from positions of prominence and put them in a museum where they can be placed in their historical context and understood against the prevalent historical currents.
    Reason: understand our history in full rather than drawing a veil over the parts that make us feel uncomfortable or reacting angrily to those who want to discuss historical wrongs.
    A white supremacist or a slave trader may still have achieved great deeds. Historical figures have to be judged in the round.
    I agree with you and said precisely this down-thread. The government's position is that historical figures shouldn't be judged at all, and that is what I am objecting to.
  • Fysics_TeacherFysics_Teacher Posts: 6,285
    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Cookie said:

    Mr. Boy, I'd be interested to know how far back you'd go with that. Living memory would be my instinctive approach to this sort of thing. How would you handle Caesar, who massacred a tribe (NB including women and children) of Thuringii during peace talks in... 53 BC (I think)?

    I'm not an especial fan of Caesar, certainly not compared to Mr. Eagles, but I don't think that incident should be the prism through which he is viewed, just one of numerous significant events and decisions that he was involved in.

    Although we disagree on some things you do seem reasonable, but many who bang on about this are not. They're iconoclasts, revisionists, and sometimes outright racists. With that in mind, I hope you forgive me if I seemed a little sharp in response.

    No forgiveness necessary.
    It's an interesting question. Personally I would have a very high bar for removing statues. I think it's a question of weighing up the positives and negatives, and you'd need to see the negatives outweighing the positives by a wide margin before acting. Churchill is the obvious kind of figure that would not make the cut for removal. Equally a slave trader doesn't seem to me someone that a society that is knowledgeable about its history would want to see honoured in its Town centres. I see little in Rhodes' history that merits his prominent position on an Oxford college, either.
    Since Caesar was an aggressive foreign invader I'm not sure we should be having a statue of him anyway (do we have one? I have no idea). I am guessing if I were Italian I wouldn't be calling for his statue to be removed.
    Isn't Rhodes' commemoration at Oxford due to him leaving money for Rhodes scholarships?
    He also paid for the Rhodes Building, Oriel on which the statue stands.
    And did he not pay for Rhodes House? Very striking Cotswoldish between-wars architecture - very different from the University Museum almost opposite.
    Almost opposite? It's St Mary's, the University Church, which is opposite, with All Souls and Brasenose to either side. The various museums are much further north.
    A misunderstanding, evidently. The one I mean is additional: this one

    https://www.google.com/maps/place/Rhodes+House/@51.7577078,-1.2554712,18.38z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x20878642aafb6de4!8m2!3d51.7576894!4d-1.2550257
    You are correct: I need to read the full post before firing off my own!
  • Fysics_TeacherFysics_Teacher Posts: 6,285
    Sean_F said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    When recovering from the worst pandemic in a century it’s important to get priorities sorted ..

    SNP MP calls for #Eurovision to let Scotland enter separately from the UK

    https://twitter.com/ryancapperauld/status/1397182247350976518?s=20

    Let them. It would give the English somebody not to vote for....
    They can't, they are part of the sovereign UK and no non sovereign country competes in Eurovision
    So Scotland competes in the Euros, World Cup, Rugby World Cup, Cricket World Cup yet is not allowed to compete in effing Eurovision??

    That is pathetic and ridiculous.
    If they did it would set a precedent, soon you would have Catalonia, Wales even Bavaria and Venice demanding to do the same
    I don't think Eurovision really cares about setting a geopolitical precedent. They just want to see drag queens singing.
    Tough, Scotland is part of the UK and that is where it is staying. If there is a UK team or contestant already that UK team or contestant stays.
    Football and rugby are different as the UK does not compete as one entity (although Scotland did compete as part of the UK football team in the 2012 Olympics)
    It has its own team in most major sports, sports which are played by millions and followed by billions...

    Football
    Cricket
    Rugby Union
    Rugby League
    Golf
    Hockey
    Netball

    Yet it cannot be allowed to enter a drag act from Falkirk into a naff singing competition – as to do so would cause some sort of diplomatic incident?

    I'm going to enjoy hearing your reasoning on this one...
    As there is already a UK entry, there is no UK team in any of the sports you listed above apart from the UK football team and Hockey teams at the Olympics (plus there is the British Lions too of course in rugby union).

    So a logical solution would to bring Eurovision into line. I see what you are saying. I look forward to the Home Nations' singing in years to come. Maybe Wales would win??
    The Welsh national anthem is magnificent

    My dear late Scottish father in law said it is the best beyond compare
    Nonsense, the greatest national anthem is La Marseillaise.

    It pains me to say that, especially England & The UK has a bloody dirge.
    "Guide me oh, thou Great Redeemer" would be a stirring national anthem, or perhaps The Naval Hymn.
    I'd go with "I vow to thee my country".


  • alex_alex_ Posts: 7,518

    Incidentally the UK could surely do worse than having a Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish entries over the next three years. Show some home nation flair.

    And at least Wales, Scotland and NI might get some votes
This discussion has been closed.