Sampson

Pretty sure it’s the police’s decision to release the names not the prime ministers regardless

I agree. However he absolutely needs to win back the 25-30% of the country who now say they’ll vote Green or LibDem and overwhelmingly hated Brexit. I think it’s more aimed at them.

Finally Starmer allowing himself to mention the B word again and hammering Farage by pointing out the obvious that the Brexit Farage brought about is the reason we can’t return asylum seekers to other European countries

It doesn’t matter if he gets a majority though. The Tories purged all the moderates from their party and under Badenoch or Jenrick they are basically Reform wannabes who’d happily form a coalition with them and let Farage walk all over them and do what they want. Even though I wasn’t a fan at the time, I’d happily vote for a Theresa May, David Cameron or Rishi Sunak led Tory party if it meant keeping Reform out - at least those believed in science, the institutions, checks and balances of democracy and international law, but the Tories are no longer that party and let it get taken over by their furthest to the right politicians.

Agreed. Not too expensive and it takes like 2 minutes and then Bob’s your uncle…. and also your Father-in-Law.

That seems more like a Shelbyville idea.

What about mouth breathers?

Hard to know what any of us would do in that situation I think. People act on instinct in those situations not rationale and he’s probably going to be hearing those screams and beating himself up for not acting sooner for the rest of his life. Can’t imagine it’s a thing you would ever be able to get out your brain. Definitely doesn’t belong in this thread, I know they’ll be some vice signalers saying “he was a coward, he should’ve done xyz” but I feel quite sorry for him tbh.

High ups in Reform UK admitting being bribed by Russia? Who’d have thunk it?

I don’t really get the opposition to it. They already exist in basically every other European country. It’s just the same as a driving licence or passport. I expect the cringely over the top backlash because Starmer is implementing it regardless but they’re really not a big deal either way.

This is the first time I’ve actually seen Badenoch show signs of a spine towards Farage and not just tacitly agree with him or even try to out-Farage him. Tories might actually stand for something again it they can actually keep this train of thought.

In other news, impressed by Ed Davey this week. He won’t get heard in the press, but it’s nice there’s at least one leader of a party in the uk at least still out there trying to defend and go out to bat for international law, institutions and western ideals

For years one of the biggest problems has long been the moderates and soft right doing the whole “you’re overreacting, Trump/Farage are just grifters, they’re not that bad, stop comparing them to Russia/China/1920s Italy” etc. Or even the “they’re just 90s Democrats” meme that was around for a while. Although there’s still some holding out, I do find most in the centre and centre-right have realised by now (although I fear they realised too late) that Trumpism/Farageism are authoritarian and fundamental dangers to democracy, peace, international order and they actively want the chaos, war and cruelty for the same reason producers of the Real Housewives programmes want constant fights and arguments - they’re reality tv stars in their heads and the more chaos, drama, death, destruction and insanity, the more people’s eyeballs are glued to them and that’s ultimately all they care about. If you approach Trump and Farage from the position that they are just like Real Housewives stars who just want to be the most famous people on earth, and don’t care whether that attention comes from good or evil, pretty much all of what they do makes sense.

I don’t share your optimism sadly. Reform will be packed with Maga style politics and probably have foreign money coming into them by 2029, and at that point where Farage won’t actually have to do much work and will just the face behind some massive authoritarian overhaul similar to Trump with Project 2025. Farage is a “reality tv” politician like Trump and would just revel in the chaos and spectacle of it all.

Just saw this, was a good video summarising it. Does feel like this could genuinely be the beginning of proof of life on other planets. I think we find life on other planets through a series of press conferences rather than a “great contact moment”.

It’s not that simple - not every country allows dual citizenship - and then you’re asking people to give up their right to go and visit their families in their country of birth to do so - not to mention citizenship is as an expensive process not everyone can afford.

Imagine telling people who’ve been living in the UK 50 years, worked here for decades and are drawing a pension, have been married to a British person for 45 years, have British children and grandchildren they suddenly have no right to be here as they don’t earn enough and have to leave the country and go and move back to a country they have no friends or family in, no pension, no money in their 70s. As Farage is obsessed with the “how would you feel if your daughter was…” meme when discussing immigration, I’ll use the same one and say. How would you feel if your daughter was married to a non-British person who’d been living in the UK for decades, working hard and paying tax and they had children (your grandchildren) and suddenly the government decided they no longer have the right to live here because they don’t earn enough or their pension isn’t enough? This is the kind of stuff that breaks up families.

Some great stuff here, plenty has already been said, especially in @Alf Bentley’s post but to add a couple more: 1. Get into board/card games. Whether it’s Bridge, poker, modern Euro games, classic diplomacy or wargames or just simple word and party games.There’s few better ways of being social with people you don’t know and making friends as you get older. And. in an age of screens forever being on they’re an amazing way to take you away from your screens and your mind off the world and just enjoy having fun with friends and family for a few hours. 2. Kind of related - but we get “play” coached out of us as adults and like we’re not supposed to just do things to have fun anymore. I’m sure if we have young children/grandchildren/nieces and nephews then we’ll all have experienced a time when they found some random object in the garden or street and you spent all day having a whale of a time with them as they made up some completely often nonsensical game that the whole family had to play with them but was just really fun. Then going home and realising you miss that childlike wonder of just having fun or spending time with loved ones. Try and make that happen more often and don’t lose that feeling of play as day to day adult life grinds it out of you. Took me too long to appreciate that actually me and my friends all missed the old weekend long games or tournaments of Poker, Cosmic Encounter, Dune, Diplomacy and Dungeons & Dragons we used to play in our 20s - as we got into our 30s and 40s, so we ended up starting them again and really helped us enjoy just playing and laughing with each other through the games and we saw each often way more often again. Wish we hadn’t neglected it for 15-odd years.

Just finished the GeoWizard one brilliant. When he’s going through the sewers was crazy. Always a great watch, love how casual he is doing all these lunatic adventures.

Yeah. Sadly I don’t think this is a sign that Belarus is starting to tire of Russia, that’s coming from an assumption that the US under Trump is still on our side. I think it’s more a sign that Trump at best doesn’t care and if he does he’s on the side of Russia/Belarus not the side of Ukraine/western & Central Europe.

Not really a skill but I’d love the ability to do and understand practice science - like physics or biology experiments for example. Be able to see and properly understand molecules or cells and understand what we actually are. For more practical things I wish I could properly build structures with my hands like carpentry or bricklaying while also understanding the engineering/architecture behind it. Would love to have said I built my own shed or something bigger.

To chime in on the debate about Farage’s policy, guessing at his manifesto etc. To me above all else, the reason I strongly don’t want him in in his language (albeit dressed up in a way that appeals to British people) is all the same as many other right wing populists like Bolsanaro, Erfogan, Orban, Trump etc. - it’s all about gutting the civil service, attacking institutions, the courts, the lawyers, the entire legal system etc. and it gets dressed up in “cutting through bureaucracy to get things done” but these are the check and balances and separation of powers that 1000s of years of European history have shown you need in a democracy to uphold it. When you see these leaders putting in their own judges into the Supreme Court who’ll just pass through whatever the party wants regardless if it is blatantly unconstitutional or not then it’s no longer a functioning democracy - it’s an authoritarian government that has the power to do what the hell they like without respecting the centuries long institutions the country is based on - individuals and governments should not have that much power in a democracy - the institutions should supersede them. One example where they’ve been pulled back from this was in Poland under ZP where they tried to install their own judges into their Supreme Court but the judges reported them to the ECJ and the ECJ stepped in threatening sanctions if the Polish government started these appointments in the courts so they reneged and one of the big checks and balances held - this is one of the reasons Farage wants to leave the ECJ and ECHR as highest priority when he gets in because unlike say the US or Brazil, there is no watchdog on upholding the legal system as there is in Europe. I also think that’s why he whips up immigration so much as the biggest issue and how he’s spent years weaponising the issue as a way to go after the ECHR and ECJ - notice how so much of his rhetoric around immigration is actually about why the ECHR and ECJ are stopping us doing anything about it - it’s mostly just a way that he can convince people to leave these institutions so that he can then follow through the tried and tested formula that Bolsanaro gave the blueprint for in 2014 of giving himself and his government the power to do what the hell they like restrained from the checks and balances of democracy and not having to care about the law and institutions that allow a country to still stand in a democracy where new parties ideologies can change tact. FWIW, it’s not just right wing populism as I think Corbyn (who I also strongly disliked) had a lot of the same tendencies and Corbyn and Farage and the populist right and left also have way more in common than they like to admit. To me it’s not really about left vs right atm, it’s about liberal democracy vs populist authoritarianism. Just my 2 pennies thoughts anyway.

100% agree with you on this. FPTP is designed for a 2 party system and we’ve now split into a European style 5 party system where you need it so every party gets represented so you end up with “blocks” - it’s not perfect and has its issues, but it’s surely better than everyone taking votes off each other and some party just randomly getting in on 20% of the vote just because of how their vote was distributed rather than who or how many actually voted for them.

Poland requesting to invoke article 4 now. With Isreal and Russia both attacking neutral territory the past 24 hours it does start to feel like one of these things is going to kick off World War 3 at some point tbf. Not time to stock up yet but the camel’s back surely can’t take too many more strands of straw

In Portsmouth where I lived for many years it’s the same too - they’ve tried to spruce up the centre with kids play areas and free table tennis and stuff in the empty shops, it looks ok but it’s also clear just no one goes shopping anymore so the old shopping mall is full of half empty shops and so many closed buildings that no one maintains. Since Covid all the night clubs are going the same way as it seems the students and youngsters aren’t interested in night clubs anymore either. Reality is internet shopping has meant no one goes out on a Saturday to go browsing shops anymore so most town or city centres are just slowly getting run down and full of half empty buildings. Many of the smaller shopping malls are now basically empty of shops and more like museum pieces to what people did in the 1990s.