leicsmac

Fair enough. As @Sampson above then says, when you go down that road, you likely end up abandoning a great many human beings to their fate simply because they weren't lucky enough to be born in the right place. How well that sits is clearly up to the beholder.

...and what of the argument that the foreign policy of Reform would not even come close to addressing the origin of these "small boat" attempts in the first place? Or is the cause immaterial and only the solution matters?

You'd be amazed at the amount of people (most of whom haven't been within a thousand miles of a war) who think that it is.

That doesn't seem to stop their counterparts stateside, but here's hoping.

Quite frankly they don't have the power by themselves right now, local or federal, to do so. Not through the usual channels. Countering this isn't just on them - it's on judiciary, local officials and, at a basic level, everyday people.

The vote share for Reform is slightly slanted based on age, but not nearly as much as one might think. This isn't really a problem with one age demographic - there's plenty of young men (and I'm sorry, it is mostly men) who are in favour of their ideas.

Well, those that want to had better get better at controlling the argument then. Stuff like this is already happening: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/justice-department-louisiana-donald-trump-naacp-america-b2743274.html When the Justice Department lifted a school desegregation order in Louisiana this week, officials called its continued existence a “historical wrong” and suggested that others dating to the Civil Rights Movement should be reconsidered. The end of the 1966 legal agreement with Plaquemines Parish schools announced Tuesday shows the Trump administration is “getting America refocused on our bright future,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said. (Just in case anyone was wondering, "bright" = "white".)

Nah, the USSR paid the heaviest in lives, infrastructure and (relative) money. Yeah, that's then and this is now but nothing about this statement deserves any kind of praise or is based on fact. Both egotistical bastards - Trump and Putin - are exactly that.

A twit who, unfortunately, seems to have struck a chord with people in the UK in terms of policy, if today is any judge. But maybe it's just a local election bump.

As well it might, what I've read about how the world is changing and will change in the future sometimes terrifies me. But for all that, we owe it to that future to do what we can, until we cannot.

And a quick reminder about the person that Farage et al carry water for:

WRT the "small boats" that seem to have become a focal point of the local elections to the benefit of Reform, I'm not sure singularly focusing on that matter at the expense of: - the world foreign policy decisions that cause so many people to flee their countries in the first place - the matter of increasing global temperatures that will cause a refugee crisis that will make the present one look very small ...is necessarily good political decision making, but hey, power through appealing to short term self interest is much easier, right?

The only rather cold comfort I can offer is that their ideology will never conquer for even a short time, because either it will destroy itself or the Earth will not tolerate the ignorance of the laws of physics that it embodies. So, no matter what, such people cannot "win" - not for long, anyway.

It's certainly an interesting topic. ... and "interesting" isn't always "good".

No, and that's another way for the world to end up burning.

Automation is a possible solution both for older and younger people, but then that means getting rid of the whole concept of guilt-based work ethic that those with power weaponise, and I'm pretty sure that they'll see civilisation collapse before they allow that.

And that won't be accepted. What lies after that could get rather ugly.

Yes, and as also stated, it's a challenge for which there really appears to be no good solution - it's about choosing the best bad one, which of course isn't really a vote winner.

Appreciate that clarification. It's a juxtaposition for me that Trump is (with very good reason) strongly disliked in the UK but then you seemingly have a lot of people ready to vote for policies he would himself implement.

Can you please elaborate here?

You're making the mistake of assuming a lot of people act logically or rationally.

Exactly. Everyone knows what Trump stands for and it would be both easy and (IMO) effective to link him directly to Farage and Reform. I can't think of a good reason why Labour and the Lib Dems aren't doing so.

It's darkly ironic that at the same time Canada is (thankfully) rejecting Trumpian politics wholeheartedly, some in the UK are bound and determined to embrace it. Perhaps Trump should directly threaten the UK's sovereignty, too? If it's being done as a "protest vote" or not has zero effect on the consequences of such choices for everyone and doesn't mean much imo.

If we can do without fission power as a species, then we should, for all the reasons given. However, I'm yet to be convinced that we can everywhere while maintaining and developing quality of life.

Appreciate the insight from that angle. Sounds like a problem with inequality of cost based on location meaning that it's worth building in one location and not in another, then?