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Apologising for the Liz Truss mishanter – politicalbetting.com

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  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 11,968
    Foxy said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Stereodog said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Leon said:


    Now Clarkson has made another enormously successful and funny show about something entirely different - proving all along that he was The Talent - and Top Gear has quietly and sadly died

    The inexorable rise of automotive YouTube killed TG (and his stupid Amazon shit) not Jexit.

    Harry's Garage does reviews way better than TG ever did. Haggard Garage, etc. did the arsing about way better than TG ever did. Whatever your automotive niche fetish is, you can get a far more informed and in-depth version of it on YouTube. The remaining and dwindling audience for TG/GT was lightweight car enthusiasts who don't know what Instant Centre is and don't even own multiple piston ring compressors.

    Disclaimer: never seen a full episode of TG or the stupid Amazon shit but I can still authoritatively disclaim upon them.
    lol

    Top Gear with Clarkson & Co was literally the biggest TV show in the world. Not biggest car show on TV, biggest TV show of any kind. Bought by dozens of countries, with multiple international spin offs, it generated tens of millions for the BBC every year

    Why? Because it wasn’t a car show at all. It was a self satirising comedy about three middle aged men with hobbies and rivalries - and yet a friendship beneath it

    That’s why all the spin offs tried to copy it to the last old geezer detail

    "And on that bombshell, good night!"
    If the BBC wasn’t full of such pathetic Woke wankers, they could have kept Clarkson - and now they’d have a massive hit in Clarkson’s Farm

    But the BBC is full of woke wankers so they didn’t and they haven’t
    I refer the Honourable PBer to the answer given by Mr J Clarkson. The BBC wanted the production office to be based in Scotland. Bureaucracy rather than woke, perhaps.
    https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3QCO0uNNpJk


    Public sector organisations are driven by public policy.
    No public sector organisations are driven by what they want to do and generally manage to find a way to twist the public policy to be what they wanted to do in the first place. This is because public policy is fairly woolly in the first place. For example a public policy could be "reduce inequality".....the two extremes of how to deal with that is from "Execute the bottom decile....to expropriate the wealth of top ten percent and jail them".....both satisfy the public policy.

    The last people that should be trusted to enact public policy is public sector organisations. It is part of why we are in this situation. Instead policy makes need to tell them this is what we want, these are acceptable ways to achieve it
    Your last sentence is entirely correct but you're ire is in the wrong place. I've worked around senior civil servants for years and in that time I'm utterly convinced that they carry out the wishes of ministers with diligence and competence. The problem is that ministers refuse to make decisions and choices because to make choices is to annoy a section of the electorate. Axing the Winter Fuel Allowance is a classic example. Axing it for anyone not in receipt of other benefits is a clear decision that Civil Servants can and did carry out efficiently. Reinstating but also telling the DWP that they still need to cut spending on pensioners whilst keeping the triple lock in place is a ministerial fudge that will yield bad results.
    I too have worked on projects for the civil service, the first I worked on was they wanted to show that public transport was both cheaper and took less time than using a car. DFT project, we were a private sector company they employed. They were told in the first meeting their project would show nothing of the kind. They still insisted it would despite us being experts and then spent 7 million to create a system that showed exactly what we suggested it would which was that mostly car travel was quicker and cheaper than public transport.

    If they had listened they would have saved 7 million, they were responding to the policy get more people using public transport.

    Sorry the civil service needs a lot more oversight it wastes money in the same way sailors spend on dockside hookers
    Another project I worked on was for the nhs, replacing pagers with something more useful. We wrote an app that worked on a cheap android, not just a phone number to ring but info about what the emergency was etc....trialled was loved. The idea was the phone was given out at shift start...sign in....sign out hand phone back for reissue.

    Trial successful but wouldn't adopt it till we made an iphone version.....result phones cost min of 30 times more and half of them mysteriously vanished over the first year and had to be replaced.....far from it for me to suggest that some nhs staff were thinking hey free i phone for me
    I've not had a pager for 15 years. We just use our own phones and switchboard connects.

    No need to issue work phones at all.
    Shrugs we were asked to build the app by the nhs so sounds like was an even bigger waste of money by them
  • MattWMattW Posts: 27,784
    Taz said:

    Labour MP considering Lib Dem’s. 😉

    Not building here…..

    https://x.com/chinchliffmp/status/1930994336126169344?s=61

    That's a pitch saying that the Govt is threatening nature, whilst caving in to developers.

    Looking at his proposals, I don't think that's what they actually do, and imo he is spinning to get more Tory voters moving across. His Councils have up to date Local Plans, so developers can't take control very easily. He was previously a Campaigns Officer for CPRE.

    https://www.chrishinchliff.co.uk/planning-petition

  • FF43FF43 Posts: 18,120

    Sir John Curtice:


    Times Radio
    @TimesRadio

    “Reform has essentially taken the coalition of people who gave Boris Johnson his majority in 2019.”

    https://x.com/TimesRadio/status/1931346961321402512

    That worked out well, didn't it?
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 45,694
    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Ha, just ripped through the Andorra defence there. One nil!

    hmm country where 1 in 7300 citizens are in the football team against country where we have a choice of 6.2 million for each position and we are celebrating being 1 up....now either andorrans are all natural born footballers or just our team is crap
    We have a team of world-beating superstars who should be capable of winning every tournament. Problem is their insipid Lefty manager Gareth Southgate is drowning the players ambition and potential in a sea of woke. Once he finally goes the magic will commence.
    Are they still taking the bleedin' knee?
    I'm pleased to say they do.
    You are pleased they are still racist
    Que?
    If you take the knee because black lives matter you are implying by inference those lives are more important than asian lives or white lives. Sorry if you can't see that
    The slogan has the subtext that far too often it seems that black lives matter less or not at all.

    If it helps imagine a 'too' at the end or a 'just as much as others'.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 61,826

    kinabalu said:

    nico67 said:

    DOGE should be renamed the department for screwing the poor and those who need to use public services .

    DOGE has discovered billions in council tax receipts being wasted on public services. We are putting an end to that! Who needs libraries anyway?
    UK Yusuf DOGE will prat around and then get to the same point that Musk DOGE has reached: huge amounts of £ are spent on welfare, pensions, and in UK case, social and health care. Yes you can close down overseas aid but that doesn't cut the mustard on the big bucks.
    I hope he's not going to start waving a chainsaw around.
    Doubt it. That kind of weird exhibitionist behaviour doesn't travel well to Britain.

    If I was Yusuf I would wave around a slide rule and say I going to run this over every department and its costs.

    No one under 55 will get the allusion but then no one under 55 other than the 18 year olds will vote Reform anyway.
    I know quite a few young Reform voters. They are extremely pissed off about things like housing, and they have now - belatedly - made the connection with mass immigration. Derrr

    Also, John Curtice does not explain my suddenly Reform-y posho friends in Notting Hill. Ergo, I suspect its voter base is somewhat wider than he admits - it is basically almost everyone who is fucked off with the Yookay as is, and the appeal spreads far beyond England
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 55,705
    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Ha, just ripped through the Andorra defence there. One nil!

    hmm country where 1 in 7300 citizens are in the football team against country where we have a choice of 6.2 million for each position and we are celebrating being 1 up....now either andorrans are all natural born footballers or just our team is crap
    We have a team of world-beating superstars who should be capable of winning every tournament. Problem is their insipid Lefty manager Gareth Southgate is drowning the players ambition and potential in a sea of woke. Once he finally goes the magic will commence.
    Are they still taking the bleedin' knee?
    I'm pleased to say they do.
    You are pleased they are still racist
    Que?
    If you take the knee because black lives matter you are implying by inference those lives are more important than asian lives or white lives. Sorry if you can't see that
    The slogan has the subtext that far too often it seems that black lives matter less or not at all.

    If it helps imagine a 'too' at the end or a 'just as much as others'.
    Then perhaps people who use it should be prosecuted for inciting racial hatred given that it encourages people to think that those of a different colour don't think their lives have value.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 11,968
    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Ha, just ripped through the Andorra defence there. One nil!

    hmm country where 1 in 7300 citizens are in the football team against country where we have a choice of 6.2 million for each position and we are celebrating being 1 up....now either andorrans are all natural born footballers or just our team is crap
    We have a team of world-beating superstars who should be capable of winning every tournament. Problem is their insipid Lefty manager Gareth Southgate is drowning the players ambition and potential in a sea of woke. Once he finally goes the magic will commence.
    Are they still taking the bleedin' knee?
    I'm pleased to say they do.
    You are pleased they are still racist
    Que?
    If you take the knee because black lives matter you are implying by inference those lives are more important than asian lives or white lives. Sorry if you can't see that
    The slogan has the subtext that far too often it seems that black lives matter less or not at all.

    If it helps imagine a 'too' at the end or a 'just as much as others'.
    It might do if we were the US where yes killing black people seems to be a police past time, though if you look at police killings in the us the more commonality seems to be poor people.

    Here not so much so the sub text doesn't work here its just a racist exposition
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 11,448
    Embarrassing display
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 45,694
    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    nico67 said:

    DOGE should be renamed the department for screwing the poor and those who need to use public services .

    DOGE has discovered billions in council tax receipts being wasted on public services. We are putting an end to that! Who needs libraries anyway?
    UK Yusuf DOGE will prat around and then get to the same point that Musk DOGE has reached: huge amounts of £ are spent on welfare, pensions, and in UK case, social and health care. Yes you can close down overseas aid but that doesn't cut the mustard on the big bucks.
    I hope he's not going to start waving a chainsaw around.
    That's labours job currently, the assisted dying bill is the chainsaw and will soon be under nice assesment...keeping you alive costs more than our qualy assessment....shall we inject you now or just let you die. We all know its coming because thats why they stacked the committee and are ramrodding it through with reduced protections
    That isn't how AD will work if it comes in. The bill (which btw is not a Labour bill) has more protections and is more restrictive than the equivalent system in most countries who have one.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 35,630
    Don't know anything about football but surely England should have won that 10-nil?
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 38,911
    There’s a lot of wishful thinking about Reform; that once Rupert Lowe brings his libel action, he’ll show them up; or that people will be upset by the Chairman’s resignation; or their performance on local authorities will turn people against them.

    Well, they gained another four council seats yesterday, Labour lost three, and the Conservatives two. And, they’ll keep gaining seats for the foreseeable.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,694
    Andy_JS said:

    Don't know anything about football but surely England should have won that 10-nil?

    No, Andorra are not terrible like San Marino and Liechtenstein.
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 11,448
    Andy_JS said:

    Don't know anything about football but surely England should have won that 10-nil?

    Pathetic effort by very low effort lazy arses. Could barely control the ball from short passes.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 66,286

    Andy_JS said:

    Don't know anything about football but surely England should have won that 10-nil?

    Pathetic effort by very low effort lazy arses. Could barely control the ball from short passes.
    It's been a long season.
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 11,448
    tlg86 said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Don't know anything about football but surely England should have won that 10-nil?

    No, Andorra are not terrible like San Marino and Liechtenstein.
    They've lost twice to Gibralter
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 78,272
    .
    eek said:



    Random fact:

    Bradford once had the most private members' clubs outside of London, with five establishments.

    Bradford used to be (albeit not for long) one of the richest cities in the world
    It was, pre-WWI.
    Industrialist like Lister and Salt, and a financial sector run by Germans (Little Germany)...

    The war wiped out the latter, but it remained highly prosperous, as anyone who's read The Wasteland knows.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 35,630
    edited June 7
    Foxy said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Stereodog said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Leon said:


    Now Clarkson has made another enormously successful and funny show about something entirely different - proving all along that he was The Talent - and Top Gear has quietly and sadly died

    The inexorable rise of automotive YouTube killed TG (and his stupid Amazon shit) not Jexit.

    Harry's Garage does reviews way better than TG ever did. Haggard Garage, etc. did the arsing about way better than TG ever did. Whatever your automotive niche fetish is, you can get a far more informed and in-depth version of it on YouTube. The remaining and dwindling audience for TG/GT was lightweight car enthusiasts who don't know what Instant Centre is and don't even own multiple piston ring compressors.

    Disclaimer: never seen a full episode of TG or the stupid Amazon shit but I can still authoritatively disclaim upon them.
    lol

    Top Gear with Clarkson & Co was literally the biggest TV show in the world. Not biggest car show on TV, biggest TV show of any kind. Bought by dozens of countries, with multiple international spin offs, it generated tens of millions for the BBC every year

    Why? Because it wasn’t a car show at all. It was a self satirising comedy about three middle aged men with hobbies and rivalries - and yet a friendship beneath it

    That’s why all the spin offs tried to copy it to the last old geezer detail

    "And on that bombshell, good night!"
    If the BBC wasn’t full of such pathetic Woke wankers, they could have kept Clarkson - and now they’d have a massive hit in Clarkson’s Farm

    But the BBC is full of woke wankers so they didn’t and they haven’t
    I refer the Honourable PBer to the answer given by Mr J Clarkson. The BBC wanted the production office to be based in Scotland. Bureaucracy rather than woke, perhaps.
    https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3QCO0uNNpJk


    Public sector organisations are driven by public policy.
    No public sector organisations are driven by what they want to do and generally manage to find a way to twist the public policy to be what they wanted to do in the first place. This is because public policy is fairly woolly in the first place. For example a public policy could be "reduce inequality".....the two extremes of how to deal with that is from "Execute the bottom decile....to expropriate the wealth of top ten percent and jail them".....both satisfy the public policy.

    The last people that should be trusted to enact public policy is public sector organisations. It is part of why we are in this situation. Instead policy makes need to tell them this is what we want, these are acceptable ways to achieve it
    Your last sentence is entirely correct but you're ire is in the wrong place. I've worked around senior civil servants for years and in that time I'm utterly convinced that they carry out the wishes of ministers with diligence and competence. The problem is that ministers refuse to make decisions and choices because to make choices is to annoy a section of the electorate. Axing the Winter Fuel Allowance is a classic example. Axing it for anyone not in receipt of other benefits is a clear decision that Civil Servants can and did carry out efficiently. Reinstating but also telling the DWP that they still need to cut spending on pensioners whilst keeping the triple lock in place is a ministerial fudge that will yield bad results.
    I too have worked on projects for the civil service, the first I worked on was they wanted to show that public transport was both cheaper and took less time than using a car. DFT project, we were a private sector company they employed. They were told in the first meeting their project would show nothing of the kind. They still insisted it would despite us being experts and then spent 7 million to create a system that showed exactly what we suggested it would which was that mostly car travel was quicker and cheaper than public transport.

    If they had listened they would have saved 7 million, they were responding to the policy get more people using public transport.

    Sorry the civil service needs a lot more oversight it wastes money in the same way sailors spend on dockside hookers
    Another project I worked on was for the nhs, replacing pagers with something more useful. We wrote an app that worked on a cheap android, not just a phone number to ring but info about what the emergency was etc....trialled was loved. The idea was the phone was given out at shift start...sign in....sign out hand phone back for reissue.

    Trial successful but wouldn't adopt it till we made an iphone version.....result phones cost min of 30 times more and half of them mysteriously vanished over the first year and had to be replaced.....far from it for me to suggest that some nhs staff were thinking hey free i phone for me
    I've not had a pager for 15 years. We just use our own phones and switchboard connects.

    No need to issue work phones at all.
    Wouldn't work phones be more secure than personal phones?
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 11,968
    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    nico67 said:

    DOGE should be renamed the department for screwing the poor and those who need to use public services .

    DOGE has discovered billions in council tax receipts being wasted on public services. We are putting an end to that! Who needs libraries anyway?
    UK Yusuf DOGE will prat around and then get to the same point that Musk DOGE has reached: huge amounts of £ are spent on welfare, pensions, and in UK case, social and health care. Yes you can close down overseas aid but that doesn't cut the mustard on the big bucks.
    I hope he's not going to start waving a chainsaw around.
    That's labours job currently, the assisted dying bill is the chainsaw and will soon be under nice assesment...keeping you alive costs more than our qualy assessment....shall we inject you now or just let you die. We all know its coming because thats why they stacked the committee and are ramrodding it through with reduced protections
    That isn't how AD will work if it comes in. The bill (which btw is not a Labour bill) has more protections and is more restrictive than the equivalent system in most countries who have one.
    And when it was bought in for those countries it was more restrictive till it wasn't to the point that a paralympian was referred in canada to their assisted dying program because she asked for a ramp to be installed. Within 5 years this is how this bill will work because all the safeguards have been watered down and I say that as a proponent of assisted dying.

    This is labours bill all the way, they encouraged leadbetter to put it in, they are throwing support behind it. The only reason they didn't do it as a labour bill is because they are worried about the backlash when the safeguards are shown to be failing. The safeguards not being sufficient however they regard as a feature not a bug
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 45,694

    Sir John Curtice:

    Times Radio
    @TimesRadio

    “Reform has essentially taken the coalition of people who gave Boris Johnson his majority in 2019.”

    https://x.com/TimesRadio/status/1931346961321402512

    That's pretty much it. Almost 90% of REF voters who voted in 2016 voted Leave. I don't have the figs for their GE19 vote but I imagine it will be similar (for Boris). It's not really a new movement.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 66,286
    Sean_F said:

    There’s a lot of wishful thinking about Reform; that once Rupert Lowe brings his libel action, he’ll show them up; or that people will be upset by the Chairman’s resignation; or their performance on local authorities will turn people against them.

    Well, they gained another four council seats yesterday, Labour lost three, and the Conservatives two. And, they’ll keep gaining seats for the foreseeable.

    There's very little chance that their performance in local government over next three years is going to dent their poll rating. Almost no one has a clue what is happening at their local council unless they literally stop emptying bins (hello Birmingham!). Plus even if they did the desire to stop the boats etc is a harder driver.

  • MattWMattW Posts: 27,784
    edited June 7

    kinabalu said:

    nico67 said:

    DOGE should be renamed the department for screwing the poor and those who need to use public services .

    DOGE has discovered billions in council tax receipts being wasted on public services. We are putting an end to that! Who needs libraries anyway?
    UK Yusuf DOGE will prat around and then get to the same point that Musk DOGE has reached: huge amounts of £ are spent on welfare, pensions, and in UK case, social and health care. Yes you can close down overseas aid but that doesn't cut the mustard on the big bucks.
    I hope he's not going to start waving a chainsaw around.
    Doubt it. That kind of weird exhibitionist behaviour doesn't travel well to Britain.

    If I was Yusuf I would wave around a slide rule and say I going to run this over every department and its costs.

    No one under 55 will get the allusion but then no one under 55 other than the 18 year olds will vote Reform anyway.
    One of Yusuf's problems is that he has started his efforts with a process with no integrity and a surplus of PR stunts, and so he is destroying any trust that might exist - leaving aside the threats that have been made against staff.

    We looked at his claims about "waste" in "recruitment" in Kent here, when he claimed "Doge have found ..". He tweeted out a further graphic of"waste" that he asserted they had found in Kent; looking at those they had mainly been found last year or the year before, been identified and dealt with, and he was reposting bits and pieces from the local paper and similar, to which he is laying claim.

    To anyone who scratches the surface, he comes across as a bullshitter - just like Farage.

    It is too like Musk's disastrous process in the USA to be taken seriously imo.

    There are things RefUK can do in local Councils, but they will need to put their thinking caps on, apply themselves serious, and stop relying on Farage-worship and windy assertions.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 31,122

    Sir John Curtice:


    Times Radio
    @TimesRadio

    “Reform has essentially taken the coalition of people who gave Boris Johnson his majority in 2019.”

    https://x.com/TimesRadio/status/1931346961321402512

    Yes, Sir JC. Reform is NOTA. Boris was NOTA. Brexit was NOTA. We know it was NOTA.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 61,826
    edited June 7
    Sean_F said:

    There’s a lot of wishful thinking about Reform; that once Rupert Lowe brings his libel action, he’ll show them up; or that people will be upset by the Chairman’s resignation; or their performance on local authorities will turn people against them.

    Well, they gained another four council seats yesterday, Labour lost three, and the Conservatives two. And, they’ll keep gaining seats for the foreseeable.

    Exactly right. There is also a wishful reliance on Farage being voter repellent for many, which he is; but I know people who are voting Reform DESPITE Farage, not because of him

    These people despise, dislike or mistrust Farage, but they are so angry at the State of The Nation they have lost any hope in the other parties: so Reform it is, even if it means Nige in Number 10
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 45,694
    tlg86 said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Don't know anything about football but surely England should have won that 10-nil?

    No, Andorra are not terrible like San Marino and Liechtenstein.
    One nil is a bit meh but it's job done. Take the points and move on.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 66,286
    MattW said:

    kinabalu said:

    nico67 said:

    DOGE should be renamed the department for screwing the poor and those who need to use public services .

    DOGE has discovered billions in council tax receipts being wasted on public services. We are putting an end to that! Who needs libraries anyway?
    UK Yusuf DOGE will prat around and then get to the same point that Musk DOGE has reached: huge amounts of £ are spent on welfare, pensions, and in UK case, social and health care. Yes you can close down overseas aid but that doesn't cut the mustard on the big bucks.
    I hope he's not going to start waving a chainsaw around.
    Doubt it. That kind of weird exhibitionist behaviour doesn't travel well to Britain.

    If I was Yusuf I would wave around a slide rule and say I going to run this over every department and its costs.

    No one under 55 will get the allusion but then no one under 55 other than the 18 year olds will vote Reform anyway.
    One of Yusuf's problems is that he has started his efforts with a process with no integrity, and so he is destroying any trust that might exist - leaving aside the threats that have been made against staff.

    We looked at his claims about "waste" in "recruitment" in Kent here, when he claimed "Doge have found ..". He tweeted out a further graphic of"waste" that he asserted they had found in Kent; looking at those they had mainly been found last year or the year before, been identified and dealt with, and he was reposting bits and pieces from the local paper and similar.

    To anyone who scratches the surface, he comes across as a bullshitter - just like Farage.
    They are all snake oil salesman.

    But it seems ≈ 30% of the voters want their snake in the form of an oil.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 11,968

    Sir John Curtice:


    Times Radio
    @TimesRadio

    “Reform has essentially taken the coalition of people who gave Boris Johnson his majority in 2019.”

    https://x.com/TimesRadio/status/1931346961321402512

    Yes, Sir JC. Reform is NOTA. Boris was NOTA. Brexit was NOTA. We know it was NOTA.
    Given we have had not nota parties for the last 5 decades or more and they have fucked the country harder than a ginger stepchild has been slapped you are surprised people vote nota?
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 44,373
    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Ha, just ripped through the Andorra defence there. One nil!

    hmm country where 1 in 7300 citizens are in the football team against country where we have a choice of 6.2 million for each position and we are celebrating being 1 up....now either andorrans are all natural born footballers or just our team is crap
    We have a team of world-beating superstars who should be capable of winning every tournament. Problem is their insipid Lefty manager Gareth Southgate is drowning the players ambition and potential in a sea of woke. Once he finally goes the magic will commence.
    Are they still taking the bleedin' knee?
    I'm pleased to say they do.
    You are pleased they are still racist
    Que?
    If you take the knee because black lives matter you are implying by inference those lives are more important than asian lives or white lives. Sorry if you can't see that
    The slogan has the subtext that far too often it seems that black lives matter less or not at all.

    If it helps imagine a 'too' at the end or a 'just as much as others'.
    From all reality the message is black lives matter more than any others, methinks yiu are getting a bit mixed up.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 78,272

    Roger said:

    MaxPB said:

    Roger said:

    Leon said:

    MaxPB said:

    We finished Clarkson's Farm this morning, definitely a step down from the first three seasons but absolutely brilliant anyway. Once again, you really get a sense of how up against it British farmers are (and I'm sure the story isn't particularly different across all of Europe). The government's betrayal of our family run farms will hopefully put Labour out of power for a generation and I hope both the Tories and Reform commit to reversing the tractor tax in their manifestos.

    Every time I think I might give Labour a chance I remember that they hate traditional British culture and the people. I can't see any way they will ever get my vote at this stage. This betrayal will ruin family run businesses for a generation all so we could give Mauritius £40bn and some territory. Absolute joke of a country.

    Yes, quite

    There’s a discussion above about “hating politicians”. I agree that hatred is a distressing emotion and generally negative for all, nevertheless if I had to describe my emotions about this government and its leader it would come uncomfortably close to “hatred”

    They are damaging and impoverishing us as a country, a people, and a culture - and they do it quite
    overtly. They barely try to hide it. They clearly despise us - and me - so I despise them right back
    Do you and Max prepare your Victor Meldrew/Alf Garnet posts before coming on here or do you just feed off each other? You've always been what you are but I'm sure there was a time when Max was civilised and with an impressive understanding of economics
    However much you suck up to the Hamas supporting flag wavers, you're still Jewish and gay, Roger. They will push you off the building to your death the same as those they killed without mercy on October 7th. Maybe you're so deluded or brainwashed that you think they'd spare you but they won't. I guess you'd walk up to the precipice having realised what you enabled but I'm not so sure.
    I am an Arabphile. I have worked with many from different countries in the Middle East. I did a hair commercial for a Procter and Gamble shampoo and as is their way when it was successful no other Director would do. So however long I kept them waiting or charged it had to be me.......

    I got to know them well and liked them a lot. Like a lot of ancient civilisations they have a very considered way of seeing things. They tell great stories and laugh a lot. The girls beg me to take them to Raymond's when we post produce in London and the girls laugh all the way through

    I've found them warm and humble. in many ways they're sympatico like some Jews but as the Jews i knosw are mainly English and American it's difficult to make comparisons but I can sense the similarities. They have a lot of the Italian in them another nationality I like a lot. I'm not gay but the English hairdresser I take with me is and the females are like giggling schoolgirls when they are around him. More so when he wears skirts. They know their restrictions and talk to you endlessly about them. But they love life and having fun.
    In any case isn’t the Hamas chucking gays off rooftops thing apocryphal, conflated with Isis nutter doing it in Iraq?
    Indeed. Claims of chucking people off rooves are false. That was ISIS. Male homosexuality does not attract the death penalty in Gaza, although it is semi-criminalised. (The law isn't clear, but female homosexuality is legal.) Hamas does execute people: mostly for claims of spying, sometimes because of factional infighting.
    Ironically Netanyahu now revealed to be funding an ISIS militia in Gaza. I’m sure he’s made stringent checks on their gay friendliness.
    Isn't that a bit like he did with Hamas way back when ?
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 11,968
    malcolmg said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Ha, just ripped through the Andorra defence there. One nil!

    hmm country where 1 in 7300 citizens are in the football team against country where we have a choice of 6.2 million for each position and we are celebrating being 1 up....now either andorrans are all natural born footballers or just our team is crap
    We have a team of world-beating superstars who should be capable of winning every tournament. Problem is their insipid Lefty manager Gareth Southgate is drowning the players ambition and potential in a sea of woke. Once he finally goes the magic will commence.
    Are they still taking the bleedin' knee?
    I'm pleased to say they do.
    You are pleased they are still racist
    Que?
    If you take the knee because black lives matter you are implying by inference those lives are more important than asian lives or white lives. Sorry if you can't see that
    The slogan has the subtext that far too often it seems that black lives matter less or not at all.

    If it helps imagine a 'too' at the end or a 'just as much as others'.
    From all reality the message is black lives matter more than any others, methinks yiu are getting a bit mixed up.
    If the accountants claim was true about subtext why did they get so upset about people proclaiming "All lives matter"
  • LeonLeon Posts: 61,826
    malcolmg said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Ha, just ripped through the Andorra defence there. One nil!

    hmm country where 1 in 7300 citizens are in the football team against country where we have a choice of 6.2 million for each position and we are celebrating being 1 up....now either andorrans are all natural born footballers or just our team is crap
    We have a team of world-beating superstars who should be capable of winning every tournament. Problem is their insipid Lefty manager Gareth Southgate is drowning the players ambition and potential in a sea of woke. Once he finally goes the magic will commence.
    Are they still taking the bleedin' knee?
    I'm pleased to say they do.
    You are pleased they are still racist
    Que?
    If you take the knee because black lives matter you are implying by inference those lives are more important than asian lives or white lives. Sorry if you can't see that
    The slogan has the subtext that far too often it seems that black lives matter less or not at all.

    If it helps imagine a 'too' at the end or a 'just as much as others'.
    From all reality the message is black lives matter more than any others, methinks yiu are getting a bit mixed up.
    BLM is also massively damaging for the Left, as the ultra-Wokery makes them look mad

    4 years after George Floyd died and it went tits up, Trump won a comprehensive victory, better than 2016. There is a through line here
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 44,373

    Andy_JS said:

    Don't know anything about football but surely England should have won that 10-nil?

    Pathetic effort by very low effort lazy arses. Could barely control the ball from short passes.
    England team are the Reform equivalents, lots of hot air but losers
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 38,911
    Nigelb said:

    Roger said:

    MaxPB said:

    Roger said:

    Leon said:

    MaxPB said:

    We finished Clarkson's Farm this morning, definitely a step down from the first three seasons but absolutely brilliant anyway. Once again, you really get a sense of how up against it British farmers are (and I'm sure the story isn't particularly different across all of Europe). The government's betrayal of our family run farms will hopefully put Labour out of power for a generation and I hope both the Tories and Reform commit to reversing the tractor tax in their manifestos.

    Every time I think I might give Labour a chance I remember that they hate traditional British culture and the people. I can't see any way they will ever get my vote at this stage. This betrayal will ruin family run businesses for a generation all so we could give Mauritius £40bn and some territory. Absolute joke of a country.

    Yes, quite

    There’s a discussion above about “hating politicians”. I agree that hatred is a distressing emotion and generally negative for all, nevertheless if I had to describe my emotions about this government and its leader it would come uncomfortably close to “hatred”

    They are damaging and impoverishing us as a country, a people, and a culture - and they do it quite
    overtly. They barely try to hide it. They clearly despise us - and me - so I despise them right back
    Do you and Max prepare your Victor Meldrew/Alf Garnet posts before coming on here or do you just feed off each other? You've always been what you are but I'm sure there was a time when Max was civilised and with an impressive understanding of economics
    However much you suck up to the Hamas supporting flag wavers, you're still Jewish and gay, Roger. They will push you off the building to your death the same as those they killed without mercy on October 7th. Maybe you're so deluded or brainwashed that you think they'd spare you but they won't. I guess you'd walk up to the precipice having realised what you enabled but I'm not so sure.
    I am an Arabphile. I have worked with many from different countries in the Middle East. I did a hair commercial for a Procter and Gamble shampoo and as is their way when it was successful no other Director would do. So however long I kept them waiting or charged it had to be me.......

    I got to know them well and liked them a lot. Like a lot of ancient civilisations they have a very considered way of seeing things. They tell great stories and laugh a lot. The girls beg me to take them to Raymond's when we post produce in London and the girls laugh all the way through

    I've found them warm and humble. in many ways they're sympatico like some Jews but as the Jews i knosw are mainly English and American it's difficult to make comparisons but I can sense the similarities. They have a lot of the Italian in them another nationality I like a lot. I'm not gay but the English hairdresser I take with me is and the females are like giggling schoolgirls when they are around him. More so when he wears skirts. They know their restrictions and talk to you endlessly about them. But they love life and having fun.
    In any case isn’t the Hamas chucking gays off rooftops thing apocryphal, conflated with Isis nutter doing it in Iraq?
    Indeed. Claims of chucking people off rooves are false. That was ISIS. Male homosexuality does not attract the death penalty in Gaza, although it is semi-criminalised. (The law isn't clear, but female homosexuality is legal.) Hamas does execute people: mostly for claims of spying, sometimes because of factional infighting.
    Ironically Netanyahu now revealed to be funding an ISIS militia in Gaza. I’m sure he’s made stringent checks on their gay friendliness.
    Isn't that a bit like he did with Hamas way back when ?
    Netanyahu is one of the few politicians who does not possess a single redeeming feature. He is actively malevolent.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 27,784
    MattW said:

    kinabalu said:

    nico67 said:

    DOGE should be renamed the department for screwing the poor and those who need to use public services .

    DOGE has discovered billions in council tax receipts being wasted on public services. We are putting an end to that! Who needs libraries anyway?
    UK Yusuf DOGE will prat around and then get to the same point that Musk DOGE has reached: huge amounts of £ are spent on welfare, pensions, and in UK case, social and health care. Yes you can close down overseas aid but that doesn't cut the mustard on the big bucks.
    I hope he's not going to start waving a chainsaw around.
    Doubt it. That kind of weird exhibitionist behaviour doesn't travel well to Britain.

    If I was Yusuf I would wave around a slide rule and say I going to run this over every department and its costs.

    No one under 55 will get the allusion but then no one under 55 other than the 18 year olds will vote Reform anyway.
    One of Yusuf's problems is that he has started his efforts with a process with no integrity and a surplus of PR stunts, and so he is destroying any trust that might exist - leaving aside the threats that have been made against staff.

    We looked at his claims about "waste" in "recruitment" in Kent here, when he claimed "Doge have found ..". He tweeted out a further graphic of"waste" that he asserted they had found in Kent; looking at those they had mainly been found last year or the year before, been identified and dealt with, and he was reposting bits and pieces from the local paper and similar, to which he is laying claim.

    To anyone who scratches the surface, he comes across as a bullshitter - just like Farage.

    It is too like Musk's disastrous process in the USA to be taken seriously imo.

    There are things RefUK can do in local Councils, but they will need to put their thinking caps on, apply themselves serious, and stop relying on Farage-worship and windy assertions.
    Adverbal Typo - "apply themselves seriously."
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 66,286
    President Donald Trump on Saturday said there would be “serious consequences” if tech mogul Elon Musk funds Democratic candidates to run against Republicans who vote in favor of the GOP’s sweeping budget bill.

    “If he does, he’ll have to pay the consequences for that,” Trump told NBC News in a phone interview, but declined to share what those consequences would be.

    NBC

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-elon-musk-consequences-funds-democratic-candidates-rcna211605
  • RogerRoger Posts: 20,738

    Roger said:

    MaxPB said:

    Roger said:

    Leon said:

    MaxPB said:

    We finished Clarkson's Farm this morning, definitely a step down from the first three seasons but absolutely brilliant anyway. Once again, you really get a sense of how up against it British farmers are (and I'm sure the story isn't particularly different across all of Europe). The government's betrayal of our family run farms will hopefully put Labour out of power for a generation and I hope both the Tories and Reform commit to reversing the tractor tax in their manifestos.

    Every time I think I might give Labour a chance I remember that they hate traditional British culture and the people. I can't see any way they will ever get my vote at this stage. This betrayal will ruin family run businesses for a generation all so we could give Mauritius £40bn and some territory. Absolute joke of a country.

    Yes, quite

    There’s a discussion above about “hating politicians”. I agree that hatred is a distressing emotion and generally negative for all, nevertheless if I had to describe my emotions about this government and its leader it would come uncomfortably close to “hatred”

    They are damaging and impoverishing us as a country, a people, and a culture - and they do it quite
    overtly. They barely try to hide it. They clearly despise us - and me - so I despise them right back
    Do you and Max prepare your Victor Meldrew/Alf Garnet posts before coming on here or do you just feed off each other? You've always been what you are but I'm sure there was a time when Max was civilised and with an impressive understanding of economics
    However much you suck up to the Hamas supporting flag wavers, you're still Jewish and gay, Roger. They will push you off the building to your death the same as those they killed without mercy on October 7th. Maybe you're so deluded or brainwashed that you think they'd spare you but they won't. I guess you'd walk up to the precipice having realised what you enabled but I'm not so sure.
    I am an Arabphile. I have worked with many from different countries in the Middle East. I did a hair commercial for a Procter and Gamble shampoo and as is their way when it was successful no other Director would do. So however long I kept them waiting or charged it had to be me.......

    I got to know them well and liked them a lot. Like a lot of ancient civilisations they have a very considered way of seeing things. They tell great stories and laugh a lot. The girls beg me to take them to Raymond's when we post produce in London and the girls laugh all the way through

    I've found them warm and humble. in many ways they're sympatico like some Jews but as the Jews i knosw are mainly English and American it's difficult to make comparisons but I can sense the similarities. They have a lot of the Italian in them another nationality I like a lot. I'm not gay but the English hairdresser I take with me is and the females are like giggling schoolgirls when they are around him. More so when he wears skirts. They know their restrictions and talk to you endlessly about them. But they love life and having fun.
    In any case isn’t the Hamas chucking gays off rooftops thing apocryphal, conflated with Isis nutter doing it in Iraq?
    There was the famous incident in central Beirut during the Lebanese civil war. The Christian militia entered the Holiday Inn and the retreating Palestinians preferred their chances jumping off the roof than facing Gemayel's militia.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 11,968
    Sean_F said:

    Nigelb said:

    Roger said:

    MaxPB said:

    Roger said:

    Leon said:

    MaxPB said:

    We finished Clarkson's Farm this morning, definitely a step down from the first three seasons but absolutely brilliant anyway. Once again, you really get a sense of how up against it British farmers are (and I'm sure the story isn't particularly different across all of Europe). The government's betrayal of our family run farms will hopefully put Labour out of power for a generation and I hope both the Tories and Reform commit to reversing the tractor tax in their manifestos.

    Every time I think I might give Labour a chance I remember that they hate traditional British culture and the people. I can't see any way they will ever get my vote at this stage. This betrayal will ruin family run businesses for a generation all so we could give Mauritius £40bn and some territory. Absolute joke of a country.

    Yes, quite

    There’s a discussion above about “hating politicians”. I agree that hatred is a distressing emotion and generally negative for all, nevertheless if I had to describe my emotions about this government and its leader it would come uncomfortably close to “hatred”

    They are damaging and impoverishing us as a country, a people, and a culture - and they do it quite
    overtly. They barely try to hide it. They clearly despise us - and me - so I despise them right back
    Do you and Max prepare your Victor Meldrew/Alf Garnet posts before coming on here or do you just feed off each other? You've always been what you are but I'm sure there was a time when Max was civilised and with an impressive understanding of economics
    However much you suck up to the Hamas supporting flag wavers, you're still Jewish and gay, Roger. They will push you off the building to your death the same as those they killed without mercy on October 7th. Maybe you're so deluded or brainwashed that you think they'd spare you but they won't. I guess you'd walk up to the precipice having realised what you enabled but I'm not so sure.
    I am an Arabphile. I have worked with many from different countries in the Middle East. I did a hair commercial for a Procter and Gamble shampoo and as is their way when it was successful no other Director would do. So however long I kept them waiting or charged it had to be me.......

    I got to know them well and liked them a lot. Like a lot of ancient civilisations they have a very considered way of seeing things. They tell great stories and laugh a lot. The girls beg me to take them to Raymond's when we post produce in London and the girls laugh all the way through

    I've found them warm and humble. in many ways they're sympatico like some Jews but as the Jews i knosw are mainly English and American it's difficult to make comparisons but I can sense the similarities. They have a lot of the Italian in them another nationality I like a lot. I'm not gay but the English hairdresser I take with me is and the females are like giggling schoolgirls when they are around him. More so when he wears skirts. They know their restrictions and talk to you endlessly about them. But they love life and having fun.
    In any case isn’t the Hamas chucking gays off rooftops thing apocryphal, conflated with Isis nutter doing it in Iraq?
    Indeed. Claims of chucking people off rooves are false. That was ISIS. Male homosexuality does not attract the death penalty in Gaza, although it is semi-criminalised. (The law isn't clear, but female homosexuality is legal.) Hamas does execute people: mostly for claims of spying, sometimes because of factional infighting.
    Ironically Netanyahu now revealed to be funding an ISIS militia in Gaza. I’m sure he’s made stringent checks on their gay friendliness.
    Isn't that a bit like he did with Hamas way back when ?
    Netanyahu is one of the few politicians who does not possess a single redeeming feature. He is actively malevolent.
    Sounds like he should be in starmers cabinet
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 45,694
    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    nico67 said:

    DOGE should be renamed the department for screwing the poor and those who need to use public services .

    DOGE has discovered billions in council tax receipts being wasted on public services. We are putting an end to that! Who needs libraries anyway?
    UK Yusuf DOGE will prat around and then get to the same point that Musk DOGE has reached: huge amounts of £ are spent on welfare, pensions, and in UK case, social and health care. Yes you can close down overseas aid but that doesn't cut the mustard on the big bucks.
    I hope he's not going to start waving a chainsaw around.
    That's labours job currently, the assisted dying bill is the chainsaw and will soon be under nice assesment...keeping you alive costs more than our qualy assessment....shall we inject you now or just let you die. We all know its coming because thats why they stacked the committee and are ramrodding it through with reduced protections
    That isn't how AD will work if it comes in. The bill (which btw is not a Labour bill) has more protections and is more restrictive than the equivalent system in most countries who have one.
    And when it was bought in for those countries it was more restrictive till it wasn't to the point that a paralympian was referred in canada to their assisted dying program because she asked for a ramp to be installed. Within 5 years this is how this bill will work because all the safeguards have been watered down and I say that as a proponent of assisted dying.

    This is labours bill all the way, they encouraged leadbetter to put it in, they are throwing support behind it. The only reason they didn't do it as a labour bill is because they are worried about the backlash when the safeguards are shown to be failing. The safeguards not being sufficient however they regard as a feature not a bug
    I disagree. I think the bill errs the other way. It's too restrictive. Nevertheless I hope it passes because if it doesn't that's probably it for a generation. For me this is something whose time has come. I think it's one of those things that will be accepted and feel natural after it's been in for a few years. We'll wonder what the fuss was all about.
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 11,448
    Sean_F said:

    Nigelb said:

    Roger said:

    MaxPB said:

    Roger said:

    Leon said:

    MaxPB said:

    We finished Clarkson's Farm this morning, definitely a step down from the first three seasons but absolutely brilliant anyway. Once again, you really get a sense of how up against it British farmers are (and I'm sure the story isn't particularly different across all of Europe). The government's betrayal of our family run farms will hopefully put Labour out of power for a generation and I hope both the Tories and Reform commit to reversing the tractor tax in their manifestos.

    Every time I think I might give Labour a chance I remember that they hate traditional British culture and the people. I can't see any way they will ever get my vote at this stage. This betrayal will ruin family run businesses for a generation all so we could give Mauritius £40bn and some territory. Absolute joke of a country.

    Yes, quite

    There’s a discussion above about “hating politicians”. I agree that hatred is a distressing emotion and generally negative for all, nevertheless if I had to describe my emotions about this government and its leader it would come uncomfortably close to “hatred”

    They are damaging and impoverishing us as a country, a people, and a culture - and they do it quite
    overtly. They barely try to hide it. They clearly despise us - and me - so I despise them right back
    Do you and Max prepare your Victor Meldrew/Alf Garnet posts before coming on here or do you just feed off each other? You've always been what you are but I'm sure there was a time when Max was civilised and with an impressive understanding of economics
    However much you suck up to the Hamas supporting flag wavers, you're still Jewish and gay, Roger. They will push you off the building to your death the same as those they killed without mercy on October 7th. Maybe you're so deluded or brainwashed that you think they'd spare you but they won't. I guess you'd walk up to the precipice having realised what you enabled but I'm not so sure.
    I am an Arabphile. I have worked with many from different countries in the Middle East. I did a hair commercial for a Procter and Gamble shampoo and as is their way when it was successful no other Director would do. So however long I kept them waiting or charged it had to be me.......

    I got to know them well and liked them a lot. Like a lot of ancient civilisations they have a very considered way of seeing things. They tell great stories and laugh a lot. The girls beg me to take them to Raymond's when we post produce in London and the girls laugh all the way through

    I've found them warm and humble. in many ways they're sympatico like some Jews but as the Jews i knosw are mainly English and American it's difficult to make comparisons but I can sense the similarities. They have a lot of the Italian in them another nationality I like a lot. I'm not gay but the English hairdresser I take with me is and the females are like giggling schoolgirls when they are around him. More so when he wears skirts. They know their restrictions and talk to you endlessly about them. But they love life and having fun.
    In any case isn’t the Hamas chucking gays off rooftops thing apocryphal, conflated with Isis nutter doing it in Iraq?
    Indeed. Claims of chucking people off rooves are false. That was ISIS. Male homosexuality does not attract the death penalty in Gaza, although it is semi-criminalised. (The law isn't clear, but female homosexuality is legal.) Hamas does execute people: mostly for claims of spying, sometimes because of factional infighting.
    Ironically Netanyahu now revealed to be funding an ISIS militia in Gaza. I’m sure he’s made stringent checks on their gay friendliness.
    Isn't that a bit like he did with Hamas way back when ?
    Netanyahu is one of the few politicians who does not possess a single redeeming feature. He is actively malevolent.
    He's a pussy compared to Ben-Gvir
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 44,373

    Andy_JS said:

    Don't know anything about football but surely England should have won that 10-nil?

    Pathetic effort by very low effort lazy arses. Could barely control the ball from short passes.
    It's been a long season.
    poor diddums 250K + a week for 90 minutes or so, must be terrible.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 11,968
    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    nico67 said:

    DOGE should be renamed the department for screwing the poor and those who need to use public services .

    DOGE has discovered billions in council tax receipts being wasted on public services. We are putting an end to that! Who needs libraries anyway?
    UK Yusuf DOGE will prat around and then get to the same point that Musk DOGE has reached: huge amounts of £ are spent on welfare, pensions, and in UK case, social and health care. Yes you can close down overseas aid but that doesn't cut the mustard on the big bucks.
    I hope he's not going to start waving a chainsaw around.
    That's labours job currently, the assisted dying bill is the chainsaw and will soon be under nice assesment...keeping you alive costs more than our qualy assessment....shall we inject you now or just let you die. We all know its coming because thats why they stacked the committee and are ramrodding it through with reduced protections
    That isn't how AD will work if it comes in. The bill (which btw is not a Labour bill) has more protections and is more restrictive than the equivalent system in most countries who have one.
    And when it was bought in for those countries it was more restrictive till it wasn't to the point that a paralympian was referred in canada to their assisted dying program because she asked for a ramp to be installed. Within 5 years this is how this bill will work because all the safeguards have been watered down and I say that as a proponent of assisted dying.

    This is labours bill all the way, they encouraged leadbetter to put it in, they are throwing support behind it. The only reason they didn't do it as a labour bill is because they are worried about the backlash when the safeguards are shown to be failing. The safeguards not being sufficient however they regard as a feature not a bug
    I disagree. I think the bill errs the other way. It's too restrictive. Nevertheless I hope it passes because if it doesn't that's probably it for a generation. For me this is something whose time has come. I think it's one of those things that will be accepted and feel natural after it's been in for a few years. We'll wonder what the fuss was all about.
    I predict you will be here moaning about it in a few years time when the safeguards are shown to be as useful as wet toilet paper is at stopping 7.62 rifle ammo
  • LeonLeon Posts: 61,826
    Sean_F said:

    Nigelb said:

    Roger said:

    MaxPB said:

    Roger said:

    Leon said:

    MaxPB said:

    We finished Clarkson's Farm this morning, definitely a step down from the first three seasons but absolutely brilliant anyway. Once again, you really get a sense of how up against it British farmers are (and I'm sure the story isn't particularly different across all of Europe). The government's betrayal of our family run farms will hopefully put Labour out of power for a generation and I hope both the Tories and Reform commit to reversing the tractor tax in their manifestos.

    Every time I think I might give Labour a chance I remember that they hate traditional British culture and the people. I can't see any way they will ever get my vote at this stage. This betrayal will ruin family run businesses for a generation all so we could give Mauritius £40bn and some territory. Absolute joke of a country.

    Yes, quite

    There’s a discussion above about “hating politicians”. I agree that hatred is a distressing emotion and generally negative for all, nevertheless if I had to describe my emotions about this government and its leader it would come uncomfortably close to “hatred”

    They are damaging and impoverishing us as a country, a people, and a culture - and they do it quite
    overtly. They barely try to hide it. They clearly despise us - and me - so I despise them right back
    Do you and Max prepare your Victor Meldrew/Alf Garnet posts before coming on here or do you just feed off each other? You've always been what you are but I'm sure there was a time when Max was civilised and with an impressive understanding of economics
    However much you suck up to the Hamas supporting flag wavers, you're still Jewish and gay, Roger. They will push you off the building to your death the same as those they killed without mercy on October 7th. Maybe you're so deluded or brainwashed that you think they'd spare you but they won't. I guess you'd walk up to the precipice having realised what you enabled but I'm not so sure.
    I am an Arabphile. I have worked with many from different countries in the Middle East. I did a hair commercial for a Procter and Gamble shampoo and as is their way when it was successful no other Director would do. So however long I kept them waiting or charged it had to be me.......

    I got to know them well and liked them a lot. Like a lot of ancient civilisations they have a very considered way of seeing things. They tell great stories and laugh a lot. The girls beg me to take them to Raymond's when we post produce in London and the girls laugh all the way through

    I've found them warm and humble. in many ways they're sympatico like some Jews but as the Jews i knosw are mainly English and American it's difficult to make comparisons but I can sense the similarities. They have a lot of the Italian in them another nationality I like a lot. I'm not gay but the English hairdresser I take with me is and the females are like giggling schoolgirls when they are around him. More so when he wears skirts. They know their restrictions and talk to you endlessly about them. But they love life and having fun.
    In any case isn’t the Hamas chucking gays off rooftops thing apocryphal, conflated with Isis nutter doing it in Iraq?
    Indeed. Claims of chucking people off rooves are false. That was ISIS. Male homosexuality does not attract the death penalty in Gaza, although it is semi-criminalised. (The law isn't clear, but female homosexuality is legal.) Hamas does execute people: mostly for claims of spying, sometimes because of factional infighting.
    Ironically Netanyahu now revealed to be funding an ISIS militia in Gaza. I’m sure he’s made stringent checks on their gay friendliness.
    Isn't that a bit like he did with Hamas way back when ?
    Netanyahu is one of the few politicians who does not possess a single redeeming feature. He is actively malevolent.
    Don't know if it is a redeeming feature, but Netanyahu was an exceptionally handsome young man. Like a Hollywood movie star

    https://www.newsweek.com/how-entebbe-changed-bibi-65191#slideshow/50953

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/saving-sergeant-netanyahu/
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 11,448
    edited June 7
    malcolmg said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Don't know anything about football but surely England should have won that 10-nil?

    Pathetic effort by very low effort lazy arses. Could barely control the ball from short passes.
    It's been a long season.
    poor diddums 250K + a week for 90 minutes or so, must be terrible.
    They have to drive the Bentley to the training ground for a kickabout some days too
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 45,694

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Ha, just ripped through the Andorra defence there. One nil!

    hmm country where 1 in 7300 citizens are in the football team against country where we have a choice of 6.2 million for each position and we are celebrating being 1 up....now either andorrans are all natural born footballers or just our team is crap
    We have a team of world-beating superstars who should be capable of winning every tournament. Problem is their insipid Lefty manager Gareth Southgate is drowning the players ambition and potential in a sea of woke. Once he finally goes the magic will commence.
    Are they still taking the bleedin' knee?
    I'm pleased to say they do.
    You are pleased they are still racist
    Que?
    If you take the knee because black lives matter you are implying by inference those lives are more important than asian lives or white lives. Sorry if you can't see that
    The slogan has the subtext that far too often it seems that black lives matter less or not at all.

    If it helps imagine a 'too' at the end or a 'just as much as others'.
    Then perhaps people who use it should be prosecuted for inciting racial hatred given that it encourages people to think that those of a different colour don't think their lives have value.
    Straining a bit there, William.
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 11,448
    Leon said:

    Sean_F said:

    Nigelb said:

    Roger said:

    MaxPB said:

    Roger said:

    Leon said:

    MaxPB said:

    We finished Clarkson's Farm this morning, definitely a step down from the first three seasons but absolutely brilliant anyway. Once again, you really get a sense of how up against it British farmers are (and I'm sure the story isn't particularly different across all of Europe). The government's betrayal of our family run farms will hopefully put Labour out of power for a generation and I hope both the Tories and Reform commit to reversing the tractor tax in their manifestos.

    Every time I think I might give Labour a chance I remember that they hate traditional British culture and the people. I can't see any way they will ever get my vote at this stage. This betrayal will ruin family run businesses for a generation all so we could give Mauritius £40bn and some territory. Absolute joke of a country.

    Yes, quite

    There’s a discussion above about “hating politicians”. I agree that hatred is a distressing emotion and generally negative for all, nevertheless if I had to describe my emotions about this government and its leader it would come uncomfortably close to “hatred”

    They are damaging and impoverishing us as a country, a people, and a culture - and they do it quite
    overtly. They barely try to hide it. They clearly despise us - and me - so I despise them right back
    Do you and Max prepare your Victor Meldrew/Alf Garnet posts before coming on here or do you just feed off each other? You've always been what you are but I'm sure there was a time when Max was civilised and with an impressive understanding of economics
    However much you suck up to the Hamas supporting flag wavers, you're still Jewish and gay, Roger. They will push you off the building to your death the same as those they killed without mercy on October 7th. Maybe you're so deluded or brainwashed that you think they'd spare you but they won't. I guess you'd walk up to the precipice having realised what you enabled but I'm not so sure.
    I am an Arabphile. I have worked with many from different countries in the Middle East. I did a hair commercial for a Procter and Gamble shampoo and as is their way when it was successful no other Director would do. So however long I kept them waiting or charged it had to be me.......

    I got to know them well and liked them a lot. Like a lot of ancient civilisations they have a very considered way of seeing things. They tell great stories and laugh a lot. The girls beg me to take them to Raymond's when we post produce in London and the girls laugh all the way through

    I've found them warm and humble. in many ways they're sympatico like some Jews but as the Jews i knosw are mainly English and American it's difficult to make comparisons but I can sense the similarities. They have a lot of the Italian in them another nationality I like a lot. I'm not gay but the English hairdresser I take with me is and the females are like giggling schoolgirls when they are around him. More so when he wears skirts. They know their restrictions and talk to you endlessly about them. But they love life and having fun.
    In any case isn’t the Hamas chucking gays off rooftops thing apocryphal, conflated with Isis nutter doing it in Iraq?
    Indeed. Claims of chucking people off rooves are false. That was ISIS. Male homosexuality does not attract the death penalty in Gaza, although it is semi-criminalised. (The law isn't clear, but female homosexuality is legal.) Hamas does execute people: mostly for claims of spying, sometimes because of factional infighting.
    Ironically Netanyahu now revealed to be funding an ISIS militia in Gaza. I’m sure he’s made stringent checks on their gay friendliness.
    Isn't that a bit like he did with Hamas way back when ?
    Netanyahu is one of the few politicians who does not possess a single redeeming feature. He is actively malevolent.
    Don't know if it is a redeeming feature, but Netanyahu was an exceptionally handsome young man. Like a Hollywood movie star

    https://www.newsweek.com/how-entebbe-changed-bibi-65191#slideshow/50953

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/saving-sergeant-netanyahu/
    All of us handsome guys turn into monsters
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 44,373
    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    nico67 said:

    DOGE should be renamed the department for screwing the poor and those who need to use public services .

    DOGE has discovered billions in council tax receipts being wasted on public services. We are putting an end to that! Who needs libraries anyway?
    UK Yusuf DOGE will prat around and then get to the same point that Musk DOGE has reached: huge amounts of £ are spent on welfare, pensions, and in UK case, social and health care. Yes you can close down overseas aid but that doesn't cut the mustard on the big bucks.
    I hope he's not going to start waving a chainsaw around.
    That's labours job currently, the assisted dying bill is the chainsaw and will soon be under nice assesment...keeping you alive costs more than our qualy assessment....shall we inject you now or just let you die. We all know its coming because thats why they stacked the committee and are ramrodding it through with reduced protections
    That isn't how AD will work if it comes in. The bill (which btw is not a Labour bill) has more protections and is more restrictive than the equivalent system in most countries who have one.
    And when it was bought in for those countries it was more restrictive till it wasn't to the point that a paralympian was referred in canada to their assisted dying program because she asked for a ramp to be installed. Within 5 years this is how this bill will work because all the safeguards have been watered down and I say that as a proponent of assisted dying.

    This is labours bill all the way, they encouraged leadbetter to put it in, they are throwing support behind it. The only reason they didn't do it as a labour bill is because they are worried about the backlash when the safeguards are shown to be failing. The safeguards not being sufficient however they regard as a feature not a bug
    Anybody that wants to die should be allowed to get on with it. Liberal fcukwits can refuse to be involved,
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 45,694
    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Ha, just ripped through the Andorra defence there. One nil!

    hmm country where 1 in 7300 citizens are in the football team against country where we have a choice of 6.2 million for each position and we are celebrating being 1 up....now either andorrans are all natural born footballers or just our team is crap
    We have a team of world-beating superstars who should be capable of winning every tournament. Problem is their insipid Lefty manager Gareth Southgate is drowning the players ambition and potential in a sea of woke. Once he finally goes the magic will commence.
    Are they still taking the bleedin' knee?
    I'm pleased to say they do.
    You are pleased they are still racist
    Que?
    If you take the knee because black lives matter you are implying by inference those lives are more important than asian lives or white lives. Sorry if you can't see that
    The slogan has the subtext that far too often it seems that black lives matter less or not at all.

    If it helps imagine a 'too' at the end or a 'just as much as others'.
    It might do if we were the US where yes killing black people seems to be a police past time, though if you look at police killings in the us the more commonality seems to be poor people.

    Here not so much so the sub text doesn't work here its just a racist exposition
    It has more resonance in America, I'd agree with that. But it's not totally inappropriate here. Anti-black racism isn't a 'sorted' issue.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 45,694
    Leon said:

    Sean_F said:

    Nigelb said:

    Roger said:

    MaxPB said:

    Roger said:

    Leon said:

    MaxPB said:

    We finished Clarkson's Farm this morning, definitely a step down from the first three seasons but absolutely brilliant anyway. Once again, you really get a sense of how up against it British farmers are (and I'm sure the story isn't particularly different across all of Europe). The government's betrayal of our family run farms will hopefully put Labour out of power for a generation and I hope both the Tories and Reform commit to reversing the tractor tax in their manifestos.

    Every time I think I might give Labour a chance I remember that they hate traditional British culture and the people. I can't see any way they will ever get my vote at this stage. This betrayal will ruin family run businesses for a generation all so we could give Mauritius £40bn and some territory. Absolute joke of a country.

    Yes, quite

    There’s a discussion above about “hating politicians”. I agree that hatred is a distressing emotion and generally negative for all, nevertheless if I had to describe my emotions about this government and its leader it would come uncomfortably close to “hatred”

    They are damaging and impoverishing us as a country, a people, and a culture - and they do it quite
    overtly. They barely try to hide it. They clearly despise us - and me - so I despise them right back
    Do you and Max prepare your Victor Meldrew/Alf Garnet posts before coming on here or do you just feed off each other? You've always been what you are but I'm sure there was a time when Max was civilised and with an impressive understanding of economics
    However much you suck up to the Hamas supporting flag wavers, you're still Jewish and gay, Roger. They will push you off the building to your death the same as those they killed without mercy on October 7th. Maybe you're so deluded or brainwashed that you think they'd spare you but they won't. I guess you'd walk up to the precipice having realised what you enabled but I'm not so sure.
    I am an Arabphile. I have worked with many from different countries in the Middle East. I did a hair commercial for a Procter and Gamble shampoo and as is their way when it was successful no other Director would do. So however long I kept them waiting or charged it had to be me.......

    I got to know them well and liked them a lot. Like a lot of ancient civilisations they have a very considered way of seeing things. They tell great stories and laugh a lot. The girls beg me to take them to Raymond's when we post produce in London and the girls laugh all the way through

    I've found them warm and humble. in many ways they're sympatico like some Jews but as the Jews i knosw are mainly English and American it's difficult to make comparisons but I can sense the similarities. They have a lot of the Italian in them another nationality I like a lot. I'm not gay but the English hairdresser I take with me is and the females are like giggling schoolgirls when they are around him. More so when he wears skirts. They know their restrictions and talk to you endlessly about them. But they love life and having fun.
    In any case isn’t the Hamas chucking gays off rooftops thing apocryphal, conflated with Isis nutter doing it in Iraq?
    Indeed. Claims of chucking people off rooves are false. That was ISIS. Male homosexuality does not attract the death penalty in Gaza, although it is semi-criminalised. (The law isn't clear, but female homosexuality is legal.) Hamas does execute people: mostly for claims of spying, sometimes because of factional infighting.
    Ironically Netanyahu now revealed to be funding an ISIS militia in Gaza. I’m sure he’s made stringent checks on their gay friendliness.
    Isn't that a bit like he did with Hamas way back when ?
    Netanyahu is one of the few politicians who does not possess a single redeeming feature. He is actively malevolent.
    Don't know if it is a redeeming feature, but Netanyahu was an exceptionally handsome young man. Like a Hollywood movie star

    https://www.newsweek.com/how-entebbe-changed-bibi-65191#slideshow/50953

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/saving-sergeant-netanyahu/
    He still is quite foxy. And that deep deep voice. Oh my word.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 43,948
    Leon said:

    Sean_F said:

    Nigelb said:

    Roger said:

    MaxPB said:

    Roger said:

    Leon said:

    MaxPB said:

    We finished Clarkson's Farm this morning, definitely a step down from the first three seasons but absolutely brilliant anyway. Once again, you really get a sense of how up against it British farmers are (and I'm sure the story isn't particularly different across all of Europe). The government's betrayal of our family run farms will hopefully put Labour out of power for a generation and I hope both the Tories and Reform commit to reversing the tractor tax in their manifestos.

    Every time I think I might give Labour a chance I remember that they hate traditional British culture and the people. I can't see any way they will ever get my vote at this stage. This betrayal will ruin family run businesses for a generation all so we could give Mauritius £40bn and some territory. Absolute joke of a country.

    Yes, quite

    There’s a discussion above about “hating politicians”. I agree that hatred is a distressing emotion and generally negative for all, nevertheless if I had to describe my emotions about this government and its leader it would come uncomfortably close to “hatred”

    They are damaging and impoverishing us as a country, a people, and a culture - and they do it quite
    overtly. They barely try to hide it. They clearly despise us - and me - so I despise them right back
    Do you and Max prepare your Victor Meldrew/Alf Garnet posts before coming on here or do you just feed off each other? You've always been what you are but I'm sure there was a time when Max was civilised and with an impressive understanding of economics
    However much you suck up to the Hamas supporting flag wavers, you're still Jewish and gay, Roger. They will push you off the building to your death the same as those they killed without mercy on October 7th. Maybe you're so deluded or brainwashed that you think they'd spare you but they won't. I guess you'd walk up to the precipice having realised what you enabled but I'm not so sure.
    I am an Arabphile. I have worked with many from different countries in the Middle East. I did a hair commercial for a Procter and Gamble shampoo and as is their way when it was successful no other Director would do. So however long I kept them waiting or charged it had to be me.......

    I got to know them well and liked them a lot. Like a lot of ancient civilisations they have a very considered way of seeing things. They tell great stories and laugh a lot. The girls beg me to take them to Raymond's when we post produce in London and the girls laugh all the way through

    I've found them warm and humble. in many ways they're sympatico like some Jews but as the Jews i knosw are mainly English and American it's difficult to make comparisons but I can sense the similarities. They have a lot of the Italian in them another nationality I like a lot. I'm not gay but the English hairdresser I take with me is and the females are like giggling schoolgirls when they are around him. More so when he wears skirts. They know their restrictions and talk to you endlessly about them. But they love life and having fun.
    In any case isn’t the Hamas chucking gays off rooftops thing apocryphal, conflated with Isis nutter doing it in Iraq?
    Indeed. Claims of chucking people off rooves are false. That was ISIS. Male homosexuality does not attract the death penalty in Gaza, although it is semi-criminalised. (The law isn't clear, but female homosexuality is legal.) Hamas does execute people: mostly for claims of spying, sometimes because of factional infighting.
    Ironically Netanyahu now revealed to be funding an ISIS militia in Gaza. I’m sure he’s made stringent checks on their gay friendliness.
    Isn't that a bit like he did with Hamas way back when ?
    Netanyahu is one of the few politicians who does not possess a single redeeming feature. He is actively malevolent.
    Don't know if it is a redeeming feature, but Netanyahu was an exceptionally handsome young man. Like a Hollywood movie star

    https://www.newsweek.com/how-entebbe-changed-bibi-65191#slideshow/50953

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/saving-sergeant-netanyahu/
    All the deforming, evil shit has obviously risen to the surface.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 45,694
    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    nico67 said:

    DOGE should be renamed the department for screwing the poor and those who need to use public services .

    DOGE has discovered billions in council tax receipts being wasted on public services. We are putting an end to that! Who needs libraries anyway?
    UK Yusuf DOGE will prat around and then get to the same point that Musk DOGE has reached: huge amounts of £ are spent on welfare, pensions, and in UK case, social and health care. Yes you can close down overseas aid but that doesn't cut the mustard on the big bucks.
    I hope he's not going to start waving a chainsaw around.
    That's labours job currently, the assisted dying bill is the chainsaw and will soon be under nice assesment...keeping you alive costs more than our qualy assessment....shall we inject you now or just let you die. We all know its coming because thats why they stacked the committee and are ramrodding it through with reduced protections
    That isn't how AD will work if it comes in. The bill (which btw is not a Labour bill) has more protections and is more restrictive than the equivalent system in most countries who have one.
    And when it was bought in for those countries it was more restrictive till it wasn't to the point that a paralympian was referred in canada to their assisted dying program because she asked for a ramp to be installed. Within 5 years this is how this bill will work because all the safeguards have been watered down and I say that as a proponent of assisted dying.

    This is labours bill all the way, they encouraged leadbetter to put it in, they are throwing support behind it. The only reason they didn't do it as a labour bill is because they are worried about the backlash when the safeguards are shown to be failing. The safeguards not being sufficient however they regard as a feature not a bug
    I disagree. I think the bill errs the other way. It's too restrictive. Nevertheless I hope it passes because if it doesn't that's probably it for a generation. For me this is something whose time has come. I think it's one of those things that will be accepted and feel natural after it's been in for a few years. We'll wonder what the fuss was all about.
    I predict you will be here moaning about it in a few years time when the safeguards are shown to be as useful as wet toilet paper is at stopping 7.62 rifle ammo
    I think not, but noted.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 11,968
    malcolmg said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    nico67 said:

    DOGE should be renamed the department for screwing the poor and those who need to use public services .

    DOGE has discovered billions in council tax receipts being wasted on public services. We are putting an end to that! Who needs libraries anyway?
    UK Yusuf DOGE will prat around and then get to the same point that Musk DOGE has reached: huge amounts of £ are spent on welfare, pensions, and in UK case, social and health care. Yes you can close down overseas aid but that doesn't cut the mustard on the big bucks.
    I hope he's not going to start waving a chainsaw around.
    That's labours job currently, the assisted dying bill is the chainsaw and will soon be under nice assesment...keeping you alive costs more than our qualy assessment....shall we inject you now or just let you die. We all know its coming because thats why they stacked the committee and are ramrodding it through with reduced protections
    That isn't how AD will work if it comes in. The bill (which btw is not a Labour bill) has more protections and is more restrictive than the equivalent system in most countries who have one.
    And when it was bought in for those countries it was more restrictive till it wasn't to the point that a paralympian was referred in canada to their assisted dying program because she asked for a ramp to be installed. Within 5 years this is how this bill will work because all the safeguards have been watered down and I say that as a proponent of assisted dying.

    This is labours bill all the way, they encouraged leadbetter to put it in, they are throwing support behind it. The only reason they didn't do it as a labour bill is because they are worried about the backlash when the safeguards are shown to be failing. The safeguards not being sufficient however they regard as a feature not a bug
    Anybody that wants to die should be allowed to get on with it. Liberal fcukwits can refuse to be involved,
    I don't disagree with that. What I do disagree with and is likely to be coming down the line based on the supposed safeguards before the bill is two years old is a) people with power of attorney being able to petition for it on the basis of quality of life, and b) the state petitioning for it on the grounds of medical costs.

    Not people that want to die, people that are just inconvenient for others whether individual or state
  • LeonLeon Posts: 61,826
    Fascinating

    "Zia Yusuf says his resignation was a mistake and will return to working with Reform, cites overwork, online racist abuse.

    Yusuf says were he an MP, he'd "probably" vote to ban the burqa."


    https://x.com/timothy_stanley/status/1931387539916554629
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 63,588

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Ha, just ripped through the Andorra defence there. One nil!

    hmm country where 1 in 7300 citizens are in the football team against country where we have a choice of 6.2 million for each position and we are celebrating being 1 up....now either andorrans are all natural born footballers or just our team is crap
    We have a team of world-beating superstars who should be capable of winning every tournament. Problem is their insipid Lefty manager Gareth Southgate is drowning the players ambition and potential in a sea of woke. Once he finally goes the magic will commence.
    A spoof? Or after nearly 10 years of Brexit obsession are you finally coming back to your centre-right senses?
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 11,968
    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Ha, just ripped through the Andorra defence there. One nil!

    hmm country where 1 in 7300 citizens are in the football team against country where we have a choice of 6.2 million for each position and we are celebrating being 1 up....now either andorrans are all natural born footballers or just our team is crap
    We have a team of world-beating superstars who should be capable of winning every tournament. Problem is their insipid Lefty manager Gareth Southgate is drowning the players ambition and potential in a sea of woke. Once he finally goes the magic will commence.
    Are they still taking the bleedin' knee?
    I'm pleased to say they do.
    You are pleased they are still racist
    Que?
    If you take the knee because black lives matter you are implying by inference those lives are more important than asian lives or white lives. Sorry if you can't see that
    The slogan has the subtext that far too often it seems that black lives matter less or not at all.

    If it helps imagine a 'too' at the end or a 'just as much as others'.
    It might do if we were the US where yes killing black people seems to be a police past time, though if you look at police killings in the us the more commonality seems to be poor people.

    Here not so much so the sub text doesn't work here its just a racist exposition
    It has more resonance in America, I'd agree with that. But it's not totally inappropriate here. Anti-black racism isn't a 'sorted' issue.
    Neither is anti white racism nor anti asian racism and both happen here as well. Your argument therefore is null and void....factor in also our police kill very few people compared to american police
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 44,373
    Pagan2 said:

    malcolmg said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    nico67 said:

    DOGE should be renamed the department for screwing the poor and those who need to use public services .

    DOGE has discovered billions in council tax receipts being wasted on public services. We are putting an end to that! Who needs libraries anyway?
    UK Yusuf DOGE will prat around and then get to the same point that Musk DOGE has reached: huge amounts of £ are spent on welfare, pensions, and in UK case, social and health care. Yes you can close down overseas aid but that doesn't cut the mustard on the big bucks.
    I hope he's not going to start waving a chainsaw around.
    That's labours job currently, the assisted dying bill is the chainsaw and will soon be under nice assesment...keeping you alive costs more than our qualy assessment....shall we inject you now or just let you die. We all know its coming because thats why they stacked the committee and are ramrodding it through with reduced protections
    That isn't how AD will work if it comes in. The bill (which btw is not a Labour bill) has more protections and is more restrictive than the equivalent system in most countries who have one.
    And when it was bought in for those countries it was more restrictive till it wasn't to the point that a paralympian was referred in canada to their assisted dying program because she asked for a ramp to be installed. Within 5 years this is how this bill will work because all the safeguards have been watered down and I say that as a proponent of assisted dying.

    This is labours bill all the way, they encouraged leadbetter to put it in, they are throwing support behind it. The only reason they didn't do it as a labour bill is because they are worried about the backlash when the safeguards are shown to be failing. The safeguards not being sufficient however they regard as a feature not a bug
    Anybody that wants to die should be allowed to get on with it. Liberal fcukwits can refuse to be involved,
    I don't disagree with that. What I do disagree with and is likely to be coming down the line based on the supposed safeguards before the bill is two years old is a) people with power of attorney being able to petition for it on the basis of quality of life, and b) the state petitioning for it on the grounds of medical costs.

    Not people that want to die, people that are just inconvenient for others whether individual or state
    Totally agree with you there
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 63,588
    Leon said:

    malcolmg said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Ha, just ripped through the Andorra defence there. One nil!

    hmm country where 1 in 7300 citizens are in the football team against country where we have a choice of 6.2 million for each position and we are celebrating being 1 up....now either andorrans are all natural born footballers or just our team is crap
    We have a team of world-beating superstars who should be capable of winning every tournament. Problem is their insipid Lefty manager Gareth Southgate is drowning the players ambition and potential in a sea of woke. Once he finally goes the magic will commence.
    Are they still taking the bleedin' knee?
    I'm pleased to say they do.
    You are pleased they are still racist
    Que?
    If you take the knee because black lives matter you are implying by inference those lives are more important than asian lives or white lives. Sorry if you can't see that
    The slogan has the subtext that far too often it seems that black lives matter less or not at all.

    If it helps imagine a 'too' at the end or a 'just as much as others'.
    From all reality the message is black lives matter more than any others, methinks yiu are getting a bit mixed up.
    BLM is also massively damaging for the Left, as the ultra-Wokery makes them look mad

    4 years after George Floyd died and it went tits up, Trump won a comprehensive victory, better than 2016. There is a through line here
    George Floyd. God, I remember that.

    Yes, he was murdered in real-time on camera, despicably, and then he became a Saint, and then the world went completely mad.
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 38,911

    Leon said:

    Sean_F said:

    Nigelb said:

    Roger said:

    MaxPB said:

    Roger said:

    Leon said:

    MaxPB said:

    We finished Clarkson's Farm this morning, definitely a step down from the first three seasons but absolutely brilliant anyway. Once again, you really get a sense of how up against it British farmers are (and I'm sure the story isn't particularly different across all of Europe). The government's betrayal of our family run farms will hopefully put Labour out of power for a generation and I hope both the Tories and Reform commit to reversing the tractor tax in their manifestos.

    Every time I think I might give Labour a chance I remember that they hate traditional British culture and the people. I can't see any way they will ever get my vote at this stage. This betrayal will ruin family run businesses for a generation all so we could give Mauritius £40bn and some territory. Absolute joke of a country.

    Yes, quite

    There’s a discussion above about “hating politicians”. I agree that hatred is a distressing emotion and generally negative for all, nevertheless if I had to describe my emotions about this government and its leader it would come uncomfortably close to “hatred”

    They are damaging and impoverishing us as a country, a people, and a culture - and they do it quite
    overtly. They barely try to hide it. They clearly despise us - and me - so I despise them right back
    Do you and Max prepare your Victor Meldrew/Alf Garnet posts before coming on here or do you just feed off each other? You've always been what you are but I'm sure there was a time when Max was civilised and with an impressive understanding of economics
    However much you suck up to the Hamas supporting flag wavers, you're still Jewish and gay, Roger. They will push you off the building to your death the same as those they killed without mercy on October 7th. Maybe you're so deluded or brainwashed that you think they'd spare you but they won't. I guess you'd walk up to the precipice having realised what you enabled but I'm not so sure.
    I am an Arabphile. I have worked with many from different countries in the Middle East. I did a hair commercial for a Procter and Gamble shampoo and as is their way when it was successful no other Director would do. So however long I kept them waiting or charged it had to be me.......

    I got to know them well and liked them a lot. Like a lot of ancient civilisations they have a very considered way of seeing things. They tell great stories and laugh a lot. The girls beg me to take them to Raymond's when we post produce in London and the girls laugh all the way through

    I've found them warm and humble. in many ways they're sympatico like some Jews but as the Jews i knosw are mainly English and American it's difficult to make comparisons but I can sense the similarities. They have a lot of the Italian in them another nationality I like a lot. I'm not gay but the English hairdresser I take with me is and the females are like giggling schoolgirls when they are around him. More so when he wears skirts. They know their restrictions and talk to you endlessly about them. But they love life and having fun.
    In any case isn’t the Hamas chucking gays off rooftops thing apocryphal, conflated with Isis nutter doing it in Iraq?
    Indeed. Claims of chucking people off rooves are false. That was ISIS. Male homosexuality does not attract the death penalty in Gaza, although it is semi-criminalised. (The law isn't clear, but female homosexuality is legal.) Hamas does execute people: mostly for claims of spying, sometimes because of factional infighting.
    Ironically Netanyahu now revealed to be funding an ISIS militia in Gaza. I’m sure he’s made stringent checks on their gay friendliness.
    Isn't that a bit like he did with Hamas way back when ?
    Netanyahu is one of the few politicians who does not possess a single redeeming feature. He is actively malevolent.
    Don't know if it is a redeeming feature, but Netanyahu was an exceptionally handsome young man. Like a Hollywood movie star

    https://www.newsweek.com/how-entebbe-changed-bibi-65191#slideshow/50953

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/saving-sergeant-netanyahu/
    All the deforming, evil shit has obviously risen to the surface.
    Like Dorian Gray.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 43,948

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Ha, just ripped through the Andorra defence there. One nil!

    hmm country where 1 in 7300 citizens are in the football team against country where we have a choice of 6.2 million for each position and we are celebrating being 1 up....now either andorrans are all natural born footballers or just our team is crap
    We have a team of world-beating superstars who should be capable of winning every tournament. Problem is their insipid Lefty manager Gareth Southgate is drowning the players ambition and potential in a sea of woke. Once he finally goes the magic will commence.
    A spoof? Or after nearly 10 years of Brexit obsession are you finally coming back to your centre-right senses?
    Southgate’s been gone for a while, so a spoof I imagine.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 55,077

    kinabalu said:

    nico67 said:

    DOGE should be renamed the department for screwing the poor and those who need to use public services .

    DOGE has discovered billions in council tax receipts being wasted on public services. We are putting an end to that! Who needs libraries anyway?
    UK Yusuf DOGE will prat around and then get to the same point that Musk DOGE has reached: huge amounts of £ are spent on welfare, pensions, and in UK case, social and health care. Yes you can close down overseas aid but that doesn't cut the mustard on the big bucks.
    I hope he's not going to start waving a chainsaw around.
    Maybe we need a Milei:

    https://en.mercopress.com/2025/06/04/oecd-expects-argentina-to-grow-more-than-other-g20-nations

    According to the biannual Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) 2025 Economic Outlook published Tuesday, Argentina is projected to experience significant economic growth of 5.2% in 2025 and 4.3% in 2026, the highest among Latin American G20 countries and second only to India globally.
    That is because successive Argentine governments ran the place into the ground, such that there are economic refugees from Argentina. In Peru…

    Starting from such an insanely low base, Milei has been (pretty much) applying basic economics to stop the government fucking the economy quite so hard.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 63,588
    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Sean_F said:

    Nigelb said:

    Roger said:

    MaxPB said:

    Roger said:

    Leon said:

    MaxPB said:

    We finished Clarkson's Farm this morning, definitely a step down from the first three seasons but absolutely brilliant anyway. Once again, you really get a sense of how up against it British farmers are (and I'm sure the story isn't particularly different across all of Europe). The government's betrayal of our family run farms will hopefully put Labour out of power for a generation and I hope both the Tories and Reform commit to reversing the tractor tax in their manifestos.

    Every time I think I might give Labour a chance I remember that they hate traditional British culture and the people. I can't see any way they will ever get my vote at this stage. This betrayal will ruin family run businesses for a generation all so we could give Mauritius £40bn and some territory. Absolute joke of a country.

    Yes, quite

    There’s a discussion above about “hating politicians”. I agree that hatred is a distressing emotion and generally negative for all, nevertheless if I had to describe my emotions about this government and its leader it would come uncomfortably close to “hatred”

    They are damaging and impoverishing us as a country, a people, and a culture - and they do it quite
    overtly. They barely try to hide it. They clearly despise us - and me - so I despise them right back
    Do you and Max prepare your Victor Meldrew/Alf Garnet posts before coming on here or do you just feed off each other? You've always been what you are but I'm sure there was a time when Max was civilised and with an impressive understanding of economics
    However much you suck up to the Hamas supporting flag wavers, you're still Jewish and gay, Roger. They will push you off the building to your death the same as those they killed without mercy on October 7th. Maybe you're so deluded or brainwashed that you think they'd spare you but they won't. I guess you'd walk up to the precipice having realised what you enabled but I'm not so sure.
    I am an Arabphile. I have worked with many from different countries in the Middle East. I did a hair commercial for a Procter and Gamble shampoo and as is their way when it was successful no other Director would do. So however long I kept them waiting or charged it had to be me.......

    I got to know them well and liked them a lot. Like a lot of ancient civilisations they have a very considered way of seeing things. They tell great stories and laugh a lot. The girls beg me to take them to Raymond's when we post produce in London and the girls laugh all the way through

    I've found them warm and humble. in many ways they're sympatico like some Jews but as the Jews i knosw are mainly English and American it's difficult to make comparisons but I can sense the similarities. They have a lot of the Italian in them another nationality I like a lot. I'm not gay but the English hairdresser I take with me is and the females are like giggling schoolgirls when they are around him. More so when he wears skirts. They know their restrictions and talk to you endlessly about them. But they love life and having fun.
    In any case isn’t the Hamas chucking gays off rooftops thing apocryphal, conflated with Isis nutter doing it in Iraq?
    Indeed. Claims of chucking people off rooves are false. That was ISIS. Male homosexuality does not attract the death penalty in Gaza, although it is semi-criminalised. (The law isn't clear, but female homosexuality is legal.) Hamas does execute people: mostly for claims of spying, sometimes because of factional infighting.
    Ironically Netanyahu now revealed to be funding an ISIS militia in Gaza. I’m sure he’s made stringent checks on their gay friendliness.
    Isn't that a bit like he did with Hamas way back when ?
    Netanyahu is one of the few politicians who does not possess a single redeeming feature. He is actively malevolent.
    Don't know if it is a redeeming feature, but Netanyahu was an exceptionally handsome young man. Like a Hollywood movie star

    https://www.newsweek.com/how-entebbe-changed-bibi-65191#slideshow/50953

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/saving-sergeant-netanyahu/
    He still is quite foxy. And that deep deep voice. Oh my word.
    Err, umm, OK.

    Are you a bit like Roger yourself?
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 31,122

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Ha, just ripped through the Andorra defence there. One nil!

    hmm country where 1 in 7300 citizens are in the football team against country where we have a choice of 6.2 million for each position and we are celebrating being 1 up....now either andorrans are all natural born footballers or just our team is crap
    We have a team of world-beating superstars who should be capable of winning every tournament. Problem is their insipid Lefty manager Gareth Southgate is drowning the players ambition and potential in a sea of woke. Once he finally goes the magic will commence.
    A spoof? Or after nearly 10 years of Brexit obsession are you finally coming back to your centre-right senses?
    Of course it is a spoof. Thomas Tuchel is manager now. Southgate left after the last time we nearly won something.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 35,630
    "Matthew Syed"
    What two days in Calais taught me about our broken migration system
    The situation is miserable for refugees and a disaster for the West. Heartless as it sounds, we must change the postwar legal framework and put an end to this" (£)

    https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/what-two-days-in-calais-taught-me-about-our-broken-migration-system-bn02n9s0j
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 63,588

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Ha, just ripped through the Andorra defence there. One nil!

    hmm country where 1 in 7300 citizens are in the football team against country where we have a choice of 6.2 million for each position and we are celebrating being 1 up....now either andorrans are all natural born footballers or just our team is crap
    We have a team of world-beating superstars who should be capable of winning every tournament. Problem is their insipid Lefty manager Gareth Southgate is drowning the players ambition and potential in a sea of woke. Once he finally goes the magic will commence.
    A spoof? Or after nearly 10 years of Brexit obsession are you finally coming back to your centre-right senses?
    Southgate’s been gone for a while, so a spoof I imagine.
    I don't follow football at all (have zero interest) so wouldn't know, tbf.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 45,694
    malcolmg said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Ha, just ripped through the Andorra defence there. One nil!

    hmm country where 1 in 7300 citizens are in the football team against country where we have a choice of 6.2 million for each position and we are celebrating being 1 up....now either andorrans are all natural born footballers or just our team is crap
    We have a team of world-beating superstars who should be capable of winning every tournament. Problem is their insipid Lefty manager Gareth Southgate is drowning the players ambition and potential in a sea of woke. Once he finally goes the magic will commence.
    Are they still taking the bleedin' knee?
    I'm pleased to say they do.
    You are pleased they are still racist
    Que?
    If you take the knee because black lives matter you are implying by inference those lives are more important than asian lives or white lives. Sorry if you can't see that
    The slogan has the subtext that far too often it seems that black lives matter less or not at all.

    If it helps imagine a 'too' at the end or a 'just as much as others'.
    From all reality the message is black lives matter more than any others, methinks yiu are getting a bit mixed up.
    I didn't for one moment take it that way. I find that an odd reaction to it. It was in response to the casual torture killing of a black man by a white policeman.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 11,968

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Ha, just ripped through the Andorra defence there. One nil!

    hmm country where 1 in 7300 citizens are in the football team against country where we have a choice of 6.2 million for each position and we are celebrating being 1 up....now either andorrans are all natural born footballers or just our team is crap
    We have a team of world-beating superstars who should be capable of winning every tournament. Problem is their insipid Lefty manager Gareth Southgate is drowning the players ambition and potential in a sea of woke. Once he finally goes the magic will commence.
    A spoof? Or after nearly 10 years of Brexit obsession are you finally coming back to your centre-right senses?
    Southgate’s been gone for a while, so a spoof I imagine.
    I don't follow football at all (have zero interest) so wouldn't know, tbf.
    isnt the saying football is a game for two halfwits?
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 19,335
    This is an interesting article about Fiona Hill and the defence review. It sounds like the defence review might actually be worth reading.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jun/06/russia-is-at-war-with-uk-and-us-no-longer-reliable-ally
  • LeonLeon Posts: 61,826

    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Sean_F said:

    Nigelb said:

    Roger said:

    MaxPB said:

    Roger said:

    Leon said:

    MaxPB said:

    We finished Clarkson's Farm this morning, definitely a step down from the first three seasons but absolutely brilliant anyway. Once again, you really get a sense of how up against it British farmers are (and I'm sure the story isn't particularly different across all of Europe). The government's betrayal of our family run farms will hopefully put Labour out of power for a generation and I hope both the Tories and Reform commit to reversing the tractor tax in their manifestos.

    Every time I think I might give Labour a chance I remember that they hate traditional British culture and the people. I can't see any way they will ever get my vote at this stage. This betrayal will ruin family run businesses for a generation all so we could give Mauritius £40bn and some territory. Absolute joke of a country.

    Yes, quite

    There’s a discussion above about “hating politicians”. I agree that hatred is a distressing emotion and generally negative for all, nevertheless if I had to describe my emotions about this government and its leader it would come uncomfortably close to “hatred”

    They are damaging and impoverishing us as a country, a people, and a culture - and they do it quite
    overtly. They barely try to hide it. They clearly despise us - and me - so I despise them right back
    Do you and Max prepare your Victor Meldrew/Alf Garnet posts before coming on here or do you just feed off each other? You've always been what you are but I'm sure there was a time when Max was civilised and with an impressive understanding of economics
    However much you suck up to the Hamas supporting flag wavers, you're still Jewish and gay, Roger. They will push you off the building to your death the same as those they killed without mercy on October 7th. Maybe you're so deluded or brainwashed that you think they'd spare you but they won't. I guess you'd walk up to the precipice having realised what you enabled but I'm not so sure.
    I am an Arabphile. I have worked with many from different countries in the Middle East. I did a hair commercial for a Procter and Gamble shampoo and as is their way when it was successful no other Director would do. So however long I kept them waiting or charged it had to be me.......

    I got to know them well and liked them a lot. Like a lot of ancient civilisations they have a very considered way of seeing things. They tell great stories and laugh a lot. The girls beg me to take them to Raymond's when we post produce in London and the girls laugh all the way through

    I've found them warm and humble. in many ways they're sympatico like some Jews but as the Jews i knosw are mainly English and American it's difficult to make comparisons but I can sense the similarities. They have a lot of the Italian in them another nationality I like a lot. I'm not gay but the English hairdresser I take with me is and the females are like giggling schoolgirls when they are around him. More so when he wears skirts. They know their restrictions and talk to you endlessly about them. But they love life and having fun.
    In any case isn’t the Hamas chucking gays off rooftops thing apocryphal, conflated with Isis nutter doing it in Iraq?
    Indeed. Claims of chucking people off rooves are false. That was ISIS. Male homosexuality does not attract the death penalty in Gaza, although it is semi-criminalised. (The law isn't clear, but female homosexuality is legal.) Hamas does execute people: mostly for claims of spying, sometimes because of factional infighting.
    Ironically Netanyahu now revealed to be funding an ISIS militia in Gaza. I’m sure he’s made stringent checks on their gay friendliness.
    Isn't that a bit like he did with Hamas way back when ?
    Netanyahu is one of the few politicians who does not possess a single redeeming feature. He is actively malevolent.
    Don't know if it is a redeeming feature, but Netanyahu was an exceptionally handsome young man. Like a Hollywood movie star

    https://www.newsweek.com/how-entebbe-changed-bibi-65191#slideshow/50953

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/saving-sergeant-netanyahu/
    He still is quite foxy. And that deep deep voice. Oh my word.
    Err, umm, OK.

    Are you a bit like Roger yourself?
    @kinabalu has indeed confessed to having certain *feelz* in that direction
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 11,448
    Diane Abbott has called Starmers Island of Strangers speech 'fundamentally racist' in news sure to cheer him up no end
  • geoffwgeoffw Posts: 9,095

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Ha, just ripped through the Andorra defence there. One nil!

    hmm country where 1 in 7300 citizens are in the football team against country where we have a choice of 6.2 million for each position and we are celebrating being 1 up....now either andorrans are all natural born footballers or just our team is crap
    We have a team of world-beating superstars who should be capable of winning every tournament. Problem is their insipid Lefty manager Gareth Southgate is drowning the players ambition and potential in a sea of woke. Once he finally goes the magic will commence.
    Afaik Southgate has not been the manager since the beginning of the year ... or is it a joke? I believe the manager is a German fellow named Tuchel, but whether he (pronoun?) is woke or not I dunno

  • LeonLeon Posts: 61,826
    Andy_JS said:

    "Matthew Syed"
    What two days in Calais taught me about our broken migration system
    The situation is miserable for refugees and a disaster for the West. Heartless as it sounds, we must change the postwar legal framework and put an end to this" (£)

    https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/what-two-days-in-calais-taught-me-about-our-broken-migration-system-bn02n9s0j

    Brilliant piece. Entirely repeats what I have been saying, and also @DavidL

    This is the ONLY sane and humane action we can take, re the boat people

    "The more I got to know these often impressive people (although admittedly I spoke only to the self-selecting group willing to engage with a western journalist) the stronger my conviction that we must end this deadly game. We should rewrite the treaties and human rights framework so that asylum seekers can be instantly and legally deported either back home or to unappealing third nations, for this is the only way to stop them starting their journeys in the first place; the only way to stop them paying the people smugglers; the only way to end the deaths at sea."
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 63,588
    Andy_JS said:

    "Matthew Syed"
    What two days in Calais taught me about our broken migration system
    The situation is miserable for refugees and a disaster for the West. Heartless as it sounds, we must change the postwar legal framework and put an end to this" (£)

    https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/what-two-days-in-calais-taught-me-about-our-broken-migration-system-bn02n9s0j

    I don't think I've ever disagreed with Matthew Syed.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 11,968
    kinabalu said:

    malcolmg said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Ha, just ripped through the Andorra defence there. One nil!

    hmm country where 1 in 7300 citizens are in the football team against country where we have a choice of 6.2 million for each position and we are celebrating being 1 up....now either andorrans are all natural born footballers or just our team is crap
    We have a team of world-beating superstars who should be capable of winning every tournament. Problem is their insipid Lefty manager Gareth Southgate is drowning the players ambition and potential in a sea of woke. Once he finally goes the magic will commence.
    Are they still taking the bleedin' knee?
    I'm pleased to say they do.
    You are pleased they are still racist
    Que?
    If you take the knee because black lives matter you are implying by inference those lives are more important than asian lives or white lives. Sorry if you can't see that
    The slogan has the subtext that far too often it seems that black lives matter less or not at all.

    If it helps imagine a 'too' at the end or a 'just as much as others'.
    From all reality the message is black lives matter more than any others, methinks yiu are getting a bit mixed up.
    I didn't for one moment take it that way. I find that an odd reaction to it. It was in response to the casual torture killing of a black man by a white policeman.
    I suspect however if the english football team had taken the knee to declare "White lives matter" after the decapitation of that lorry driver delivering aid by islamic fundamentalists you would be the first screaming it was racist
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 63,588

    This is an interesting article about Fiona Hill and the defence review. It sounds like the defence review might actually be worth reading.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jun/06/russia-is-at-war-with-uk-and-us-no-longer-reliable-ally

    I've already read it, in full, and I agree.

    The issue is that it was asset stripped of specifics because Starmer didn't want to commit to the funding.

    But the strategy is sound.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 43,948
    edited June 7

    Diane Abbott has called Starmers Island of Strangers speech 'fundamentally racist' in news sure to cheer him up no end

    In a spasm of dying’ Putin level diagnostics PBers were predicting Diane was gaga and on her way out before the last GE. She still seems pretty feisty to me,
  • geoffwgeoffw Posts: 9,095

    kinabalu said:

    nico67 said:

    DOGE should be renamed the department for screwing the poor and those who need to use public services .

    DOGE has discovered billions in council tax receipts being wasted on public services. We are putting an end to that! Who needs libraries anyway?
    UK Yusuf DOGE will prat around and then get to the same point that Musk DOGE has reached: huge amounts of £ are spent on welfare, pensions, and in UK case, social and health care. Yes you can close down overseas aid but that doesn't cut the mustard on the big bucks.
    I hope he's not going to start waving a chainsaw around.
    Maybe we need a Milei:

    https://en.mercopress.com/2025/06/04/oecd-expects-argentina-to-grow-more-than-other-g20-nations

    According to the biannual Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) 2025 Economic Outlook published Tuesday, Argentina is projected to experience significant economic growth of 5.2% in 2025 and 4.3% in 2026, the highest among Latin American G20 countries and second only to India globally.
    Milei gives 'em the Thatcher treatment. They'll thank him one day ...
  • LeonLeon Posts: 61,826
    This is what I said earlier today - in reply to a heartfelt comment by @DavidL


    "I doubt anyone on here, of any perspective, would seriously disagree with this. Many asylum seekers are - by definition - genuinely desperate people seeking a better life instead of a terrible life

    But - it must be faced - an awful lot are liars. They destroy their own documents so we can’t truly identify and then deport them. Also, they don’t seek asylum in Greece or Belgium - they come all the way to Britain. Why? Because often they are economic migrants, not asylum seekers at all. True asylum seekers would claim asylum in the first safe country

    Then we have a very small minority who are actively hostile and malign. The relative numbers are tiny - but they exist and they seek to harm us

    It’s a mess. It is unsustainable. The answer is to abandon the outdated concept of asylum and withdraw from the ECHR. Make it illegal to cross the channel in small boats

    Then we choose as a country who we will protect. We can’t shelter the world so let’s stop pretending we can - it’s doing enormous damage to the UK

    We can still do good. We can, for instance, shelter Hong Kongers and Ukrainians. And others in the future"


    I am pleased to see the estimable Mr Syed agrees with me entirely, after his two day visit to Calais
  • BlancheLivermoreBlancheLivermore Posts: 6,404
    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    tlg86 said:

    https://x.com/johncrossmirror/status/1931389765888233977

    @johncrossmirror
    England fans chanting: "Starmer is a ****"


    Not much to sing about regarding what's happening on the pitch.

    EDIT: Oh, hope this doesn't get me banned! :lol:

    Surely, "Starmer is a *anker" scans better as a chant, to "Do do do - Come on and do the Conga".

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvkvWqpS3LM

    Modern football fans !
    I've got it on my laptop in the background, but didn't notice the chant. My guess is they're singing it to the tune of give it up by KC and The Sunshine Band.
    I saw KC &The Sunshine Band live at Gulfstream Park when I worked there for a winter in 96/7

    I think it was a fortnight after seeing Spiro Gyra there, and a fortnight before seeing and then meeting Kool & The Gang. All three were superb

    I went to the last show with a rather tall and very cool black guy I was working with. He was the only person who ever called me the n word, and did so regularly

    At the end of the gig he said "Let's go say Hi to these n words". So we walked past no security onto the stage and said "Hi" to the band, including Ronald "Kool" Bell, and JT Taylor, the lead singer. I got a hug from JT

    Koolest day I ever had
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 11,448

    Diane Abbott has called Starmers Island of Strangers speech 'fundamentally racist' in news sure to cheer him up no end

    In a spasm of dying’ Putin level diagnostics PBers were predicting Diane was gaga and on her way out before the last GE. She still seems pretty feisty to me,
    I think she's thoroughly enjoying making him squirm for events of last year
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 45,694

    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Sean_F said:

    Nigelb said:

    Roger said:

    MaxPB said:

    Roger said:

    Leon said:

    MaxPB said:

    We finished Clarkson's Farm this morning, definitely a step down from the first three seasons but absolutely brilliant anyway. Once again, you really get a sense of how up against it British farmers are (and I'm sure the story isn't particularly different across all of Europe). The government's betrayal of our family run farms will hopefully put Labour out of power for a generation and I hope both the Tories and Reform commit to reversing the tractor tax in their manifestos.

    Every time I think I might give Labour a chance I remember that they hate traditional British culture and the people. I can't see any way they will ever get my vote at this stage. This betrayal will ruin family run businesses for a generation all so we could give Mauritius £40bn and some territory. Absolute joke of a country.

    Yes, quite

    There’s a discussion above about “hating politicians”. I agree that hatred is a distressing emotion and generally negative for all, nevertheless if I had to describe my emotions about this government and its leader it would come uncomfortably close to “hatred”

    They are damaging and impoverishing us as a country, a people, and a culture - and they do it quite
    overtly. They barely try to hide it. They clearly despise us - and me - so I despise them right back
    Do you and Max prepare your Victor Meldrew/Alf Garnet posts before coming on here or do you just feed off each other? You've always been what you are but I'm sure there was a time when Max was civilised and with an impressive understanding of economics
    However much you suck up to the Hamas supporting flag wavers, you're still Jewish and gay, Roger. They will push you off the building to your death the same as those they killed without mercy on October 7th. Maybe you're so deluded or brainwashed that you think they'd spare you but they won't. I guess you'd walk up to the precipice having realised what you enabled but I'm not so sure.
    I am an Arabphile. I have worked with many from different countries in the Middle East. I did a hair commercial for a Procter and Gamble shampoo and as is their way when it was successful no other Director would do. So however long I kept them waiting or charged it had to be me.......

    I got to know them well and liked them a lot. Like a lot of ancient civilisations they have a very considered way of seeing things. They tell great stories and laugh a lot. The girls beg me to take them to Raymond's when we post produce in London and the girls laugh all the way through

    I've found them warm and humble. in many ways they're sympatico like some Jews but as the Jews i knosw are mainly English and American it's difficult to make comparisons but I can sense the similarities. They have a lot of the Italian in them another nationality I like a lot. I'm not gay but the English hairdresser I take with me is and the females are like giggling schoolgirls when they are around him. More so when he wears skirts. They know their restrictions and talk to you endlessly about them. But they love life and having fun.
    In any case isn’t the Hamas chucking gays off rooftops thing apocryphal, conflated with Isis nutter doing it in Iraq?
    Indeed. Claims of chucking people off rooves are false. That was ISIS. Male homosexuality does not attract the death penalty in Gaza, although it is semi-criminalised. (The law isn't clear, but female homosexuality is legal.) Hamas does execute people: mostly for claims of spying, sometimes because of factional infighting.
    Ironically Netanyahu now revealed to be funding an ISIS militia in Gaza. I’m sure he’s made stringent checks on their gay friendliness.
    Isn't that a bit like he did with Hamas way back when ?
    Netanyahu is one of the few politicians who does not possess a single redeeming feature. He is actively malevolent.
    Don't know if it is a redeeming feature, but Netanyahu was an exceptionally handsome young man. Like a Hollywood movie star

    https://www.newsweek.com/how-entebbe-changed-bibi-65191#slideshow/50953

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/saving-sergeant-netanyahu/
    He still is quite foxy. And that deep deep voice. Oh my word.
    Err, umm, OK.

    Are you a bit like Roger yourself?
    An arabophile?

    Well I'd like to be.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 63,588
    Leon said:

    This is what I said earlier today - in reply to a heartfelt comment by @DavidL


    "I doubt anyone on here, of any perspective, would seriously disagree with this. Many asylum seekers are - by definition - genuinely desperate people seeking a better life instead of a terrible life

    But - it must be faced - an awful lot are liars. They destroy their own documents so we can’t truly identify and then deport them. Also, they don’t seek asylum in Greece or Belgium - they come all the way to Britain. Why? Because often they are economic migrants, not asylum seekers at all. True asylum seekers would claim asylum in the first safe country

    Then we have a very small minority who are actively hostile and malign. The relative numbers are tiny - but they exist and they seek to harm us

    It’s a mess. It is unsustainable. The answer is to abandon the outdated concept of asylum and withdraw from the ECHR. Make it illegal to cross the channel in small boats

    Then we choose as a country who we will protect. We can’t shelter the world so let’s stop pretending we can - it’s doing enormous damage to the UK

    We can still do good. We can, for instance, shelter Hong Kongers and Ukrainians. And others in the future"


    I am pleased to see the estimable Mr Syed agrees with me entirely, after his two day visit to Calais

    The good news is (I hope) that outside the ultra hyberliberals there is the prospect of reaching something of a cross-party consensus on this.

    But, will we act as we must?
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 35,630
    edited June 7
    BBC report from 2nd December 2002 about the "closure of the Sangatte refugee camp by the end of the year".

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2533415.stm

    "The French and UK governments have reached a deal to close the controversial Sangatte refugee camp by the end of the year - four months earlier than planned.
    The French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy agreed the move in talks in London with Home Secretary David Blunkett, and Prime Minister Tony Blair. As part of the deal - intended to remove the "magnet" of Sangatte - the UK will take 1,000 Iraqi Kurds from the centre on work permits plus "a proportion" of Afghans with family in the UK. Mr Blunkett said that the two sides had also agreed joint immigration measures at French ports, including the use of new technology."
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 11,968

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    tlg86 said:

    https://x.com/johncrossmirror/status/1931389765888233977

    @johncrossmirror
    England fans chanting: "Starmer is a ****"


    Not much to sing about regarding what's happening on the pitch.

    EDIT: Oh, hope this doesn't get me banned! :lol:

    Surely, "Starmer is a *anker" scans better as a chant, to "Do do do - Come on and do the Conga".

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvkvWqpS3LM

    Modern football fans !
    I've got it on my laptop in the background, but didn't notice the chant. My guess is they're singing it to the tune of give it up by KC and The Sunshine Band.
    I saw KC &The Sunshine Band live at Gulfstream Park when I worked there for a winter in 96/7

    I think it was a fortnight after seeing Spiro Gyra there, and a fortnight before seeing and then meeting Kool & The Gang. All three were superb

    I went to the last show with a rather tall and very cool black guy I was working with. He was the only person who ever called me the n word, and did so regularly

    At the end of the gig he said "Let's go say Hi to these n words". So we walked past no security onto the stage and said "Hi" to the band, including Ronald "Kool" Bell, and JT Taylor, the lead singer. I got a hug from JT

    Koolest day I ever had
    Starts a pb collection to buy blanche some musical taste
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 30,445
    Today was new Tesla day. New Model Y so much better than the old one. And now that it’s actually on sale, we’re going to see sales figures that make the haters upset and confused
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 78,272

    Sean_F said:

    Nigelb said:

    Roger said:

    MaxPB said:

    Roger said:

    Leon said:

    MaxPB said:

    We finished Clarkson's Farm this morning, definitely a step down from the first three seasons but absolutely brilliant anyway. Once again, you really get a sense of how up against it British farmers are (and I'm sure the story isn't particularly different across all of Europe). The government's betrayal of our family run farms will hopefully put Labour out of power for a generation and I hope both the Tories and Reform commit to reversing the tractor tax in their manifestos.

    Every time I think I might give Labour a chance I remember that they hate traditional British culture and the people. I can't see any way they will ever get my vote at this stage. This betrayal will ruin family run businesses for a generation all so we could give Mauritius £40bn and some territory. Absolute joke of a country.

    Yes, quite

    There’s a discussion above about “hating politicians”. I agree that hatred is a distressing emotion and generally negative for all, nevertheless if I had to describe my emotions about this government and its leader it would come uncomfortably close to “hatred”

    They are damaging and impoverishing us as a country, a people, and a culture - and they do it quite
    overtly. They barely try to hide it. They clearly despise us - and me - so I despise them right back
    Do you and Max prepare your Victor Meldrew/Alf Garnet posts before coming on here or do you just feed off each other? You've always been what you are but I'm sure there was a time when Max was civilised and with an impressive understanding of economics
    However much you suck up to the Hamas supporting flag wavers, you're still Jewish and gay, Roger. They will push you off the building to your death the same as those they killed without mercy on October 7th. Maybe you're so deluded or brainwashed that you think they'd spare you but they won't. I guess you'd walk up to the precipice having realised what you enabled but I'm not so sure.
    I am an Arabphile. I have worked with many from different countries in the Middle East. I did a hair commercial for a Procter and Gamble shampoo and as is their way when it was successful no other Director would do. So however long I kept them waiting or charged it had to be me.......

    I got to know them well and liked them a lot. Like a lot of ancient civilisations they have a very considered way of seeing things. They tell great stories and laugh a lot. The girls beg me to take them to Raymond's when we post produce in London and the girls laugh all the way through

    I've found them warm and humble. in many ways they're sympatico like some Jews but as the Jews i knosw are mainly English and American it's difficult to make comparisons but I can sense the similarities. They have a lot of the Italian in them another nationality I like a lot. I'm not gay but the English hairdresser I take with me is and the females are like giggling schoolgirls when they are around him. More so when he wears skirts. They know their restrictions and talk to you endlessly about them. But they love life and having fun.
    In any case isn’t the Hamas chucking gays off rooftops thing apocryphal, conflated with Isis nutter doing it in Iraq?
    Indeed. Claims of chucking people off rooves are false. That was ISIS. Male homosexuality does not attract the death penalty in Gaza, although it is semi-criminalised. (The law isn't clear, but female homosexuality is legal.) Hamas does execute people: mostly for claims of spying, sometimes because of factional infighting.
    Ironically Netanyahu now revealed to be funding an ISIS militia in Gaza. I’m sure he’s made stringent checks on their gay friendliness.
    Isn't that a bit like he did with Hamas way back when ?
    Netanyahu is one of the few politicians who does not possess a single redeeming feature. He is actively malevolent.
    He's a pussy compared to Ben-Gvir
    He invited the open genocidaires into his government.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 63,588
    Part of me wonders if the trouble with the British Empire was that we didn't go far enough.

    Maybe we should have annexed the whole Chinese Empire following the Taiping rebellion.

    Could have Hong Konged the whole place, much to our long-term benefit and the world's.
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 11,448
    edited June 7
    Andy_JS said:

    BBC report from 2nd December 2002 about the "closure of the Sangatte refugee camp by the end of the year".

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2533415.stm

    "The French and UK governments have reached a deal to close the controversial Sangatte refugee camp by the end of the year - four months earlier than planned.
    The French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy agreed the move in talks in London with Home Secretary David Blunkett, and Prime Minister Tony Blair. As part of the deal - intended to remove the "magnet" of Sangatte - the UK will take 1,000 Iraqi Kurds from the centre on work permits plus "a proportion" of Afghans with family in the UK. Mr Blunkett said that the two sides had also agreed joint immigration measures at French ports, including the use of new technology."

    The French hope to be able to stop at least one boat in 23 years time in the summer of 2025, subject to more funds being extorted from Les RosBifs
  • LeonLeon Posts: 61,826

    Leon said:

    This is what I said earlier today - in reply to a heartfelt comment by @DavidL


    "I doubt anyone on here, of any perspective, would seriously disagree with this. Many asylum seekers are - by definition - genuinely desperate people seeking a better life instead of a terrible life

    But - it must be faced - an awful lot are liars. They destroy their own documents so we can’t truly identify and then deport them. Also, they don’t seek asylum in Greece or Belgium - they come all the way to Britain. Why? Because often they are economic migrants, not asylum seekers at all. True asylum seekers would claim asylum in the first safe country

    Then we have a very small minority who are actively hostile and malign. The relative numbers are tiny - but they exist and they seek to harm us

    It’s a mess. It is unsustainable. The answer is to abandon the outdated concept of asylum and withdraw from the ECHR. Make it illegal to cross the channel in small boats

    Then we choose as a country who we will protect. We can’t shelter the world so let’s stop pretending we can - it’s doing enormous damage to the UK

    We can still do good. We can, for instance, shelter Hong Kongers and Ukrainians. And others in the future"


    I am pleased to see the estimable Mr Syed agrees with me entirely, after his two day visit to Calais

    The good news is (I hope) that outside the ultra hyberliberals there is the prospect of reaching something of a cross-party consensus on this.

    But, will we act as we must?
    And, also, will we act fast? As Syed notes, this has to happen really really quickly before all of Europe is destabilised and we see actual Nazi parties in power. Do this on asylum, copy the Danish social democrats on immigration, and do it ASAFP before the whole shebang blows up. Then we can avoid disaster and remaine humane and democratic

    But, I fear the Woke and the Left will prevent speedy action. It will take years to amend the ECHR, you need every nation to agree, I think, and Europe always moves slowly

    Therefore we need unilateral action from the UK. But Starmer will never do it, this is his religion, international law, he's a human rights lawyer. So the situation will worsen and then it's Prime Minister Farage, or something far worse

    Hope I'm wrong, obvs
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 44,373
    kinabalu said:

    malcolmg said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Ha, just ripped through the Andorra defence there. One nil!

    hmm country where 1 in 7300 citizens are in the football team against country where we have a choice of 6.2 million for each position and we are celebrating being 1 up....now either andorrans are all natural born footballers or just our team is crap
    We have a team of world-beating superstars who should be capable of winning every tournament. Problem is their insipid Lefty manager Gareth Southgate is drowning the players ambition and potential in a sea of woke. Once he finally goes the magic will commence.
    Are they still taking the bleedin' knee?
    I'm pleased to say they do.
    You are pleased they are still racist
    Que?
    If you take the knee because black lives matter you are implying by inference those lives are more important than asian lives or white lives. Sorry if you can't see that
    The slogan has the subtext that far too often it seems that black lives matter less or not at all.

    If it helps imagine a 'too' at the end or a 'just as much as others'.
    From all reality the message is black lives matter more than any others, methinks yiu are getting a bit mixed up.
    I didn't for one moment take it that way. I find that an odd reaction to it. It was in response to the casual torture killing of a black man by a white policeman.
    Taking the knee was in mind pointless, American bollox. Had no relevance in UK whatsoever.
  • WhisperingOracleWhisperingOracle Posts: 10,205

    Part of me wonders if the trouble with the British Empire was that we didn't go far enough.

    Maybe we should have annexed the whole Chinese Empire following the Taiping rebellion.

    Could have Hong Konged the whole place, much to our long-term benefit and the world's.

    Hong Kong became a city-state, really. The record of the British Empire in large territories where the original inhabitahts couldn't be extinguished wasn't too good.
    I suspect Britain would have left a poverty-stricken and chaotic China sometime in the late 20th Century.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 11,968
    Pagan2 said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    tlg86 said:

    https://x.com/johncrossmirror/status/1931389765888233977

    @johncrossmirror
    England fans chanting: "Starmer is a ****"


    Not much to sing about regarding what's happening on the pitch.

    EDIT: Oh, hope this doesn't get me banned! :lol:

    Surely, "Starmer is a *anker" scans better as a chant, to "Do do do - Come on and do the Conga".

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvkvWqpS3LM

    Modern football fans !
    I've got it on my laptop in the background, but didn't notice the chant. My guess is they're singing it to the tune of give it up by KC and The Sunshine Band.
    I saw KC &The Sunshine Band live at Gulfstream Park when I worked there for a winter in 96/7

    I think it was a fortnight after seeing Spiro Gyra there, and a fortnight before seeing and then meeting Kool & The Gang. All three were superb

    I went to the last show with a rather tall and very cool black guy I was working with. He was the only person who ever called me the n word, and did so regularly

    At the end of the gig he said "Let's go say Hi to these n words". So we walked past no security onto the stage and said "Hi" to the band, including Ronald "Kool" Bell, and JT Taylor, the lead singer. I got a hug from JT

    Koolest day I ever had
    Starts a pb collection to buy blanche some musical taste
    In case you didnt work it out @BlancheLivermore I wasn't being serious, those bands aren't my cup of tea true but music and comedy are very individual tastes...hell some people are huge scrumpy and western fans
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 11,968

    Part of me wonders if the trouble with the British Empire was that we didn't go far enough.

    Maybe we should have annexed the whole Chinese Empire following the Taiping rebellion.

    Could have Hong Konged the whole place, much to our long-term benefit and the world's.

    Hong Kong became a city-state, really. The record of the British Empire in large territories where the original inhabitahts couldn't be extinguished wasn't too good.
    I suspect Britain would have left a poverty-stricken and chaotic China sometime in the late 20th Century.
    As opposed to it being poverty stricken and chaotic anyway in the late 20th century you mean?
  • WhisperingOracleWhisperingOracle Posts: 10,205
    Pagan2 said:

    Part of me wonders if the trouble with the British Empire was that we didn't go far enough.

    Maybe we should have annexed the whole Chinese Empire following the Taiping rebellion.

    Could have Hong Konged the whole place, much to our long-term benefit and the world's.

    Hong Kong became a city-state, really. The record of the British Empire in large territories where the original inhabitahts couldn't be extinguished wasn't too good.
    I suspect Britain would have left a poverty-stricken and chaotic China sometime in the late 20th Century.
    As opposed to it being poverty stricken and chaotic anyway in the late 20th century you mean?
    Indeed. It would probably have had to develop itself, like India is doing.
  • geoffwgeoffw Posts: 9,095

    Part of me wonders if the trouble with the British Empire was that we didn't go far enough.

    Maybe we should have annexed the whole Chinese Empire following the Taiping rebellion.

    Could have Hong Konged the whole place, much to our long-term benefit and the world's.

    The verb "to hongkong" may be better expressed as "to cowperthwaite" as that would have wider applicability

  • No_Offence_AlanNo_Offence_Alan Posts: 5,085
    Pagan2 said:

    malcolmg said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Ha, just ripped through the Andorra defence there. One nil!

    hmm country where 1 in 7300 citizens are in the football team against country where we have a choice of 6.2 million for each position and we are celebrating being 1 up....now either andorrans are all natural born footballers or just our team is crap
    We have a team of world-beating superstars who should be capable of winning every tournament. Problem is their insipid Lefty manager Gareth Southgate is drowning the players ambition and potential in a sea of woke. Once he finally goes the magic will commence.
    Are they still taking the bleedin' knee?
    I'm pleased to say they do.
    You are pleased they are still racist
    Que?
    If you take the knee because black lives matter you are implying by inference those lives are more important than asian lives or white lives. Sorry if you can't see that
    The slogan has the subtext that far too often it seems that black lives matter less or not at all.

    If it helps imagine a 'too' at the end or a 'just as much as others'.
    From all reality the message is black lives matter more than any others, methinks yiu are getting a bit mixed up.
    If the accountants claim was true about subtext why did they get so upset about people proclaiming "All lives matter"
    Because there was no "All Lives Matter" campaign until after BLM. Why was there not one before?
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 78,272
    .

    This is an interesting article about Fiona Hill and the defence review. It sounds like the defence review might actually be worth reading.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jun/06/russia-is-at-war-with-uk-and-us-no-longer-reliable-ally

    I've already read it, in full, and I agree.

    The issue is that it was asset stripped of specifics because Starmer didn't want to commit to the funding.

    But the strategy is sound.
    Specifics come later anyway.
    It's about setting a new mindset for the civil service / military procurement / heads of the armed forces. A lot of it might sound like waffle, but it matters.

    And yes, there's a large funding gap.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 11,968

    Pagan2 said:

    malcolmg said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Ha, just ripped through the Andorra defence there. One nil!

    hmm country where 1 in 7300 citizens are in the football team against country where we have a choice of 6.2 million for each position and we are celebrating being 1 up....now either andorrans are all natural born footballers or just our team is crap
    We have a team of world-beating superstars who should be capable of winning every tournament. Problem is their insipid Lefty manager Gareth Southgate is drowning the players ambition and potential in a sea of woke. Once he finally goes the magic will commence.
    Are they still taking the bleedin' knee?
    I'm pleased to say they do.
    You are pleased they are still racist
    Que?
    If you take the knee because black lives matter you are implying by inference those lives are more important than asian lives or white lives. Sorry if you can't see that
    The slogan has the subtext that far too often it seems that black lives matter less or not at all.

    If it helps imagine a 'too' at the end or a 'just as much as others'.
    From all reality the message is black lives matter more than any others, methinks yiu are getting a bit mixed up.
    If the accountants claim was true about subtext why did they get so upset about people proclaiming "All lives matter"
    Because there was no "All Lives Matter" campaign until after BLM. Why was there not one before?
    Because for most people bar me its self evident? You don't need a campaign to say the sky is blue either
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 78,272

    President Donald Trump on Saturday said there would be “serious consequences” if tech mogul Elon Musk funds Democratic candidates to run against Republicans who vote in favor of the GOP’s sweeping budget bill.

    “If he does, he’ll have to pay the consequences for that,” Trump told NBC News in a phone interview, but declined to share what those consequences would be.

    NBC

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-elon-musk-consequences-funds-democratic-candidates-rcna211605

    Authoritarian arse.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 11,968

    Pagan2 said:

    Part of me wonders if the trouble with the British Empire was that we didn't go far enough.

    Maybe we should have annexed the whole Chinese Empire following the Taiping rebellion.

    Could have Hong Konged the whole place, much to our long-term benefit and the world's.

    Hong Kong became a city-state, really. The record of the British Empire in large territories where the original inhabitahts couldn't be extinguished wasn't too good.
    I suspect Britain would have left a poverty-stricken and chaotic China sometime in the late 20th Century.
    As opposed to it being poverty stricken and chaotic anyway in the late 20th century you mean?
    Indeed. It would probably have had to develop itself, like India is doing.
    Right so you are saying we shouldnt have taken it over because we would have left it poverty stricken and chaotic.....it did that anyway?

    I don't understand what your india reference has to do with it?

    Are you saying its our fault for not taking it over that it ended up poverty stricken and chaotic?
  • BlancheLivermoreBlancheLivermore Posts: 6,404
    Pagan2 said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    tlg86 said:

    https://x.com/johncrossmirror/status/1931389765888233977

    @johncrossmirror
    England fans chanting: "Starmer is a ****"


    Not much to sing about regarding what's happening on the pitch.

    EDIT: Oh, hope this doesn't get me banned! :lol:

    Surely, "Starmer is a *anker" scans better as a chant, to "Do do do - Come on and do the Conga".

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvkvWqpS3LM

    Modern football fans !
    I've got it on my laptop in the background, but didn't notice the chant. My guess is they're singing it to the tune of give it up by KC and The Sunshine Band.
    I saw KC &The Sunshine Band live at Gulfstream Park when I worked there for a winter in 96/7

    I think it was a fortnight after seeing Spiro Gyra there, and a fortnight before seeing and then meeting Kool & The Gang. All three were superb

    I went to the last show with a rather tall and very cool black guy I was working with. He was the only person who ever called me the n word, and did so regularly

    At the end of the gig he said "Let's go say Hi to these n words". So we walked past no security onto the stage and said "Hi" to the band, including Ronald "Kool" Bell, and JT Taylor, the lead singer. I got a hug from JT

    Koolest day I ever had
    Starts a pb collection to buy blanche some musical taste
    I got to go to three great free gigs in a month at work. I won
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 78,272

    Part of me wonders if the trouble with the British Empire was that we didn't go far enough.

    Maybe we should have annexed the whole Chinese Empire following the Taiping rebellion.

    Could have Hong Konged the whole place, much to our long-term benefit and the world's.

    No, we couldn't.

    The Japanese tried that.
    Messy for everyone.
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 14,732
    Pagan2 said:

    Stereodog said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Leon said:


    Now Clarkson has made another enormously successful and funny show about something entirely different - proving all along that he was The Talent - and Top Gear has quietly and sadly died

    The inexorable rise of automotive YouTube killed TG (and his stupid Amazon shit) not Jexit.

    Harry's Garage does reviews way better than TG ever did. Haggard Garage, etc. did the arsing about way better than TG ever did. Whatever your automotive niche fetish is, you can get a far more informed and in-depth version of it on YouTube. The remaining and dwindling audience for TG/GT was lightweight car enthusiasts who don't know what Instant Centre is and don't even own multiple piston ring compressors.

    Disclaimer: never seen a full episode of TG or the stupid Amazon shit but I can still authoritatively disclaim upon them.
    lol

    Top Gear with Clarkson & Co was literally the biggest TV show in the world. Not biggest car show on TV, biggest TV show of any kind. Bought by dozens of countries, with multiple international spin offs, it generated tens of millions for the BBC every year

    Why? Because it wasn’t a car show at all. It was a self satirising comedy about three middle aged men with hobbies and rivalries - and yet a friendship beneath it

    That’s why all the spin offs tried to copy it to the last old geezer detail

    "And on that bombshell, good night!"
    If the BBC wasn’t full of such pathetic Woke wankers, they could have kept Clarkson - and now they’d have a massive hit in Clarkson’s Farm

    But the BBC is full of woke wankers so they didn’t and they haven’t
    I refer the Honourable PBer to the answer given by Mr J Clarkson. The BBC wanted the production office to be based in Scotland. Bureaucracy rather than woke, perhaps.
    https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3QCO0uNNpJk


    Public sector organisations are driven by public policy.
    No public sector organisations are driven by what they want to do and generally manage to find a way to twist the public policy to be what they wanted to do in the first place. This is because public policy is fairly woolly in the first place. For example a public policy could be "reduce inequality".....the two extremes of how to deal with that is from "Execute the bottom decile....to expropriate the wealth of top ten percent and jail them".....both satisfy the public policy.

    The last people that should be trusted to enact public policy is public sector organisations. It is part of why we are in this situation. Instead policy makes need to tell them this is what we want, these are acceptable ways to achieve it
    Your last sentence is entirely correct but you're ire is in the wrong place. I've worked around senior civil servants for years and in that time I'm utterly convinced that they carry out the wishes of ministers with diligence and competence. The problem is that ministers refuse to make decisions and choices because to make choices is to annoy a section of the electorate. Axing the Winter Fuel Allowance is a classic example. Axing it for anyone not in receipt of other benefits is a clear decision that Civil Servants can and did carry out efficiently. Reinstating but also telling the DWP that they still need to cut spending on pensioners whilst keeping the triple lock in place is a ministerial fudge that will yield bad results.
    I too have worked on projects for the civil service, the first I worked on was they wanted to show that public transport was both cheaper and took less time than using a car. DFT project, we were a private sector company they employed. They were told in the first meeting their project would show nothing of the kind. They still insisted it would despite us being experts and then spent 7 million to create a system that showed exactly what we suggested it would which was that mostly car travel was quicker and cheaper than public transport.

    If they had listened they would have saved 7 million, they were responding to the policy get more people using public transport.

    Sorry the civil service needs a lot more oversight it wastes money in the same way sailors spend on dockside hookers
    I have also experienced government making its mind up at the start of an evaluation, but is that at the behest of the civil servants or because a politician has made that decision?
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