leicsmac

I honestly don't see that much of a chasm between Rubio and Vance in terms of electability among swing voters (does he really sound that reasonable when he talks about the UK and Denmark, for instance?), but fair enough. Agree that Vance will in all likelihood be the nomination anyway.

Dems - no idea, that one is still wildly up in the air. I wouldn't have minded Booker having another go, but that seems unlikely at the moment. Repubs - think it will be Vance even though Rubio will likely challenge him. I'm curious to hear the reason why Rubio would stand that much more of a chance than Vance when they're near equally tainted in the eyes of swing voters by their close association with Felon#47? Rubio's brand of sociopathy is just a little more subdued but it's reasonably obviously there. You're right about the ego still having massive influence over the party direction and that's not going away any time soon. I fear that only death or a comprehensive criminal conviction will help there.

To give an answer, 2028, but the midterms in November this year could allow the Dems to control both houses of Congress and make Trump at least something of a lame duck for the last two years of his tenure. Edit: they may also get enough in the House of Representatives to impeach him again, but almost certainly not enough in the Senate to guarantee a conviction.

At least some of the international community sees that influence and its consequences on innocent people, so unfortunately they cannot and should not be ignored.

If they are, so much the better, but it doesn't really take away from the damage they have already done.

Not really that strange when a lot of the aforementioned English conservatives would likely have orange mouths after five minutes with Donald Trump and because they back his particular brand of nationalist lunacy, they have to back Israel too. It is strange that they seem to think either can be relied upon to actually help the UK in time of need at the present time, though. That was a genuine inflection point in history, yes. So much could have been different. But the ethnic cleansers couldn't have that, could they?

"Nothing worse than a monster who thinks he's right with God."

Ben-Gvir and Smotrich making noise about the Falklands being "occupied" and action needing to be taken now. The hypocrisy is as palpable as those two are loathsome.

This is fine in principle and practice up until the point a government (at the behest of its voting electorate or not) at some point decides that it won't fulfil those duties anymore.

Yeah, astute observations there. It does however stick as both rather absurd and abhorrent that such realpolitik chicanery needs to be considered in the first instance when the entirely innocent bodies continue to pile up over there.

Is there evidence that the RNLI are intervening with these boats in any capacity other than when they're in difficulty and human lives require to be saved?

I wish I could say I was surprised, though.

Is there a way to pin a post so it appears for everyone to read first up on this matter? A superb primer. There should be criminal and civil sanctions for abuse of such staff in the same way there is for abuse of NHS staff. They're equally essential for saving lives. Someone, at least, needs to give those of a small minded and self interested disposition on this matter a serious lesson in manners, and that's where the state should step in.

You have a point about the lack of effectiveness of the measures being taken right now. That, however, suggests a different method to curb the worst excesses of that government need to be considered, rather than treating them with kid gloves.

Appreciate the further information. IMO the UK really should show solidarity with the EU nations on refusing such trade, no matter the product. I'm sure the UK can source its killing toys from elsewhere of decent quality. It's just unfortunate that everyone concerned is either too toothless or actively encouraging the reasonably blatant illegality that's happening there.

It's an interesting one in Spain by the looks of it - Sanchez is about on a par with other leaders there in terms of straight popularity, but Feijoo's party itself is polling much better. Thankfully Feijoo himself appears to be a moderate who would have a similar stance on a fair few international issues as Sanchez does. WRT the settlement trading sanctions, it baffles me how the UK is even trading in items produced there anyway given the obvious moral and legal dubiousness of the existence of such settlements in the first place.

I wouldn't say that I like it per se, but I do simply know it to be true in the same way gravity is. We certainly aren't in charge, and it would be nice if our species in general both acknowledged that and also did what we could to not make things worse for each other. Goodness knows the natural world can and will give us enough headaches.

And the awful thing about the Earth cooking us all is as it does so, this matter will become more and more significant as vast tracts of land become functionally uninhabitable due to food and potable water becoming practically impossible to source to a necessary degree.

Additionally, on the matter of migration, I apologise if I'm repeating myself here but I do wish that more people who comment on it were less dishonest about both the difficulties of the choices that are on offer and (most importantly) their consequences. Own the results of the worldview you support - good and bad.

For some of them, yes, they expect exactly that. Or at least leave them there if they get into difficulty.

Tough to say definitively, but that the chance is being taken either way should be concerning.

I'm just saying that such ideological movements that gain even just a bit of power in any nation of standing tend to end up with the kind of trouble that results in corpses on the ground directly.

... anyone remember what happened shortly thereafter that happened ninety years ago?

In other news, Farage given at least something of a grilling by Laura K regarding recent revelations, squirmed a bit while pleading ignorance.

Fair enough. In that case, I don't expect to hear a peep from the people involved at Dover and those who back them when a group gets masked up and blocks a road for the sake of drawing attention to increasing global average temperature or sits down in a public place regarding events in the Middle East, then. Though judging by previous history on that I'm not holding my breath.