leicsmac

No doubt. But with that in mind, what can be done there? There's not many choices and most if not all seem bad.

At least Thatcher had a fair bit of scientific training and respected it when it came to a fair few areas of policy. Can't say the same for her more modern counterparts.

Since 2000, they've won around 100 Tests in Oz, with just 19 losses and around 20 draws. Three lost series - two against India, one against England. They are formidable at home, and it shows very clearly they are ruthless when ahead in a series. Interestingly enough, England actually have a pretty formidable record at home as well, at least in terms of series - the only away team to win a series there since 2010 is the Saffers (I think?), with only three series losses since 2000 themselves.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9qednjzwv1o Teachers will be given training to spot the signs of misogyny and tackle it in the classroom as part of the government's long-awaited strategy to halve violence against women and girls within the next decade. The plans - which focus on preventing the radicalisation of young men - are due to be unveiled on Thursday, after being pushed back three times this year. Pupils will be taught about issues such as consent, the dangers of sharing intimate images, how to identify positive role models, and to challenge unhealthy myths about women and relationships. The £20m package will also include a new helpline for teenagers to get support for concerns about abuse in their own relationships. This is well-meaning and there certainly needs to be something done, but I'm honestly not sure about how effective it will be in addressing the very important issue without other measures taken as well.

Disappointing.

https://phys.org/news/2025-12-uk-sunniest-year.html The lengthy periods of clear skies contributed towards Britain experiencing its hottest summer on record this year. The Met Office said in September that the mean temperature in the summer months was 16.10C, surpassing the previous record of 15.76C set in 2018. Scientists have warned persistently that human-driven climate change is resulting in more frequent and intense weather events worldwide. "Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do."

Party politics is causing too much damage to the progress of long term scientific infrastructure projects based on entirely valid research that should in no way be party political. In the UK and other places, too. I'm not sure exactly how (perhaps some kind of bipartisan organisation), but the process by which such projects are done needs to change so that they can be started and completed as planned, rather than becoming white elephants to the detriment of everyone.

Just keep her away from holy symbols, running water and sunlight, mate.

Well, that is in fact true. .... it's just slower than they're saying.

Apparently the Berlin Wall never fell. Seems like the US really want their "business friendly" Pinochet-style guy.

I don't think that something different is simply desirable. I think that something different is a matter of necessity given the challenges we face in the future. There's more and more evidence practically every week showing why this is the case. That's an insult to respectable creatures, tbh. At least they have the decency to not know any better.

Agree with all of this. We'll only know how good it is once England have batted on it. I will say though that at least a few of the Aus wickets look like they're playing shots that would get them pelters if they were English.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdxwglkpdw7o Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said a group of US lawmakers will be shown the full, unedited video of a controversial September boat strike in the Caribbean. Hegseth told reporters after a classified briefing for Senators on Tuesday that appropriate congressional committees would be allowed to see it, but not the general public. If you have to deny an action that you took, then it was likely a shitty action in the first place.

And both of these anecdotes show that the current system doesn't always, or even mostly, benefit working people or serve the purpose of reducing inequality. Goodness only knows how it will cope with some real pressure from the natural world, rather than the shot across the bows that Covid was (as damaging as it was).

Believe me, if I were writing headlines for them, concerning current matters the first one would be "Trump directly incited coup against the result of free and fair election, evidence shows", and I'd stand by it no matter what instead of pussyfooting around as they have. But I do appreciate the impromptu economics info (sincerely) and this discourse has certainly given me food for thought, seeing as I have a rather dim view of that particular "science".

Well, we do agree on the infrastructure projects. Let's consider for a moment that the government 2010-2024 was lavish in terms of its spending on public services, as you suggest. If that didn't help much and so isn't the way to go, then how will the also suggested reduced taxation? Funding infrastructure projects is the right thing to do, but that's not going to mean much to the critically sick guy waiting 12 hours for a hospital bed or the SEN kid who can't get to school anymore because the transport option is no longer available. Honestly, I would consider such a working model if one was demonstrably shown to actually exist.

Up until Covid practically forced them to do otherwise in critical areas. Wasn't that what "austerity" cuts were about? But in any case, rather than that single area of focus, I'm still wondering how low taxation and quality public services can coexist anywhere and at any time, and if there are examples, it would be interesting. Actually, now that I think about it, South Korea in recent times seemed to make that balance reasonably (for a given value of that word) better than most, so...

Then that will be a failure of execution, not intent, if failure is indeed the result. Pardon me, but I just had (and have) trouble getting my head around the concept of someone thinking of lassez-faire economics and valued public services coexisting. If there is a current or even past example of this, I'd be happy to hear it.

Then given this expression of respect for such services, I'm not sure both where the expectation for such things to get better in such an unreasonable timeframe and advocating for an ideology that is practically guaranteed to make them worse, at the expense of everyone, comes from. Pardon me, but that all sounds a little cognitively dissonant.

That's because they want their kind of middle aged white men (eg. Self interested sociopaths) controlling media output.

Presumably because you had never to rely on a public service of any kind for any length of time? The laissez faire, low tax and "business incentivising" economic model was very much in vogue in the 1980s and the Gilded Age. What it did (or didn't do) for those who actually needed help the most is reasonably clear.

Possibly so, but I'm not sure how much of a precedent there is in the UK for such a sentence for any crimes where (thankfully) no lives were taken.

Think that's about right tbh.

It's just unfortunately that the decisions he makes cause issues that harm almost (if not) everyone, so there's not really much room for fence sitting.