Also in the news

[Buce]

2 minutes ago, Strokes said:

Great news for the environment 

 

Not necessarily.

 

When it leads to the inevitable job losses, the unemployed workers may become depressed and choose to self-medicate with drugs; increased demand will cause drug farmers to increase their yield, leading to the formation of monoculture belts, which in turn will lead to decreased biodiversity. Those that use marijuana as their self-medication of choice will inevitably increase their consumption of cakes/biscuits etc, most of which contain palm oil from unsustainable sources. The increased consumption of said consumables will encourage large supermarkets to increase stock, which in turn increases the carbon footprint due to increased production and the associated transportation. Furthermore, increased demand for Rizla will lead to more trees being felled with all the attendant effects on the environment.

 

Ipso facto, Brexit is destroying the planet.

[Strokes]

7 minutes ago, Buce said:

 

Not necessarily.

 

When it leads to the inevitable job losses, the unemployed workers may become depressed and choose to self-medicate with drugs; increased demand will cause drug farmers to increase their yield, leading to the formation of monoculture belts, which in turn will lead to decreased biodiversity. Those that use marijuana as their self-medication of choice will inevitably increase their consumption of cakes/biscuits etc, most of which contain palm oil from unsustainable sources. The increased consumption of said consumables will encourage large supermarkets to increase stock, which in turn increases the carbon footprint due to increased production and the associated transportation. Furthermore, increased demand for Rizla will lead to more trees being felled with all the attendant effects on the environment.

 

Ipso facto, Brexit is destroying the planet.

Don’t worry, if you’re unemployed for more than 3 months following brexit, you will be executed. It will be in the British bill of rights. #savetheplanet

[Buce]

6 minutes ago, Strokes said:

Don’t worry, if you’re unemployed for more than 3 months following brexit, you will be executed. It will be in the British bill of rights. #savetheplanet

 

Pft. 

 

Have you any idea of the amount of greenhouses gases created in the disposal of human remains?

[Alf Bentley]

10 minutes ago, Buce said:

 

Pft. 

 

Have you any idea of the amount of greenhouses gases created in the disposal of human remains?

 

Knowing the Tories, they'll cut costs "to reduce the deficit" by doing without any disposal of the remains.

They'll just leave the bodies where they fall - and promote it as a beneficial green policy, encouraging the development of natural ecosystems of crows and maggots.

#thenastyparty

[Innovindil]

16 minutes ago, Alf Bentley said:

 

Knowing the Tories, they'll cut costs "to reduce the deficit" by doing without any disposal of the remains.

They'll just leave the bodies where they fall - and promote it as a beneficial green policy, encouraging the development of natural ecosystems of crows and maggots.

#thenastyparty

Can't we just turn them into potted plants like the muricans? 

[Alf Bentley]

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/may/30/may-urges-tories-cut-tuition-fees-revive-student-grants

 

"Theresa May has thrown down the gauntlet to the Tory leadership candidates to slash tuition fees and reinstate maintenance grants for the poorest students".

 

She should defect to Labour or the Lib Dems, shouldn't she? 

 

It'll be interesting to see what sort of a backbencher she'll be. She's put up with an awful lot of shite from her backbenchers as leader - and strikes me as quite a vengeful woman.

I reckon there could be payback. Can see her and Hammond (once he's sacked by Boris, Raab or whoever) leading the rebellion against a No Deal Brexit. 

[simFox]

They tend to keep quiet and start on the after dinner speaker circuit, giving insight on how to not be a leader.

[Alf Bentley]

1 minute ago, simFox said:

They tend to keep quiet and start on the after dinner speaker circuit, giving insight on how to not be a leader.

 

Major, Blair, Brown and Heseltine (ex-Deputy PM) have all been intervening in ways not obviously helpful to their respective party leaders - and I can't imagine Thatcher staying quiet if she'd still been around.

 

Callaghan is about the only ex-PM who didn't intervene with his predecessor. Maybe Hume? Wilson, too, but he was already unwell by the time he left office.

MacMillan vocally criticised Thatcher and Heath made it his life's mission to do so. Bring it on! 

[bovril]

Phillip Hammond talking about discharging a mandate is not a mental image I want. 

[urban.spaceman]

2 hours ago, Strokes said:

Don’t worry, if you’re unemployed for more than 3 months following brexit, you will be executed. It will be in the British bill of rights. #savetheplanet

I’ve been unemployed since the Brexit vote so to be quite honest I’m looking forward to this. 

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48454409

 

Big news over here as you might expect, tragic.

[LiberalFox]

1 hour ago, Alf Bentley said:

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/may/30/may-urges-tories-cut-tuition-fees-revive-student-grants

 

"Theresa May has thrown down the gauntlet to the Tory leadership candidates to slash tuition fees and reinstate maintenance grants for the poorest students".

 

She should defect to Labour or the Lib Dems, shouldn't she? 

 

It'll be interesting to see what sort of a backbencher she'll be. She's put up with an awful lot of shite from her backbenchers as leader - and strikes me as quite a vengeful woman.

I reckon there could be payback. Can see her and Hammond (once he's sacked by Boris, Raab or whoever) leading the rebellion against a No Deal Brexit. 

There's an article on the bbc suggesting fees may be cut to 7.5k per year but with repayment length increased by 10 years and the threshold for repayments lowered. This would amount to a substantial increase in tuition fee repayments for all but the highest earning graduates. 

[Strokes]

29 minutes ago, urban.spaceman said:

I’ve been unemployed since the Brexit vote so to be quite honest I’m looking forward to this. 

I’ll pop in on my way home, how would you like it?

[Alf Bentley]

2 minutes ago, LiberalFox said:

There's an article on the bbc suggesting fees may be cut to 7.5k per year but with repayment length increased by 10 years and the threshold for repayments lowered. This would amount to a substantial increase in tuition fee repayments for all but the highest earning graduates. 

 

Yes, Martin Lewis, the moneysavingexpert geezer, was saying the same on Breakfast News. We'll have to see the detail if/when anything is introduced, I suppose.

Sounds like an attempt to get good publicity for cutting the headline figure, while adjusting the system to ensure they don't lose out on repayments - or potentially get even more.

The return of maintenance grants for some sounds like good news, though probably very limited.

 

Btw. When I described Jo Swinson as a "cynical old party hack" the other day, I wasn't referring to her age, more her manner - avoiding interviewers' questions, interrupting opponents with rhetorical questions, superfluous partisan party political points...

I've not seen that much of her, though, so will reserve judgment if she's elected LD leader. I was mainly disappointed that Moran had dropped out, as she had impressed me when I'd seen her - more of a "normal non-politician" person, answering questions honestly, more articulate etc. I hope the Lib Dems continue to do well whoever is leader, so as to damage the Tories and be a good influence on Labour.....though a wider political realignment seems possible just now. I strongly support the Lib Dem support for electoral reform and see it as a crucial issue.

[LiberalFox]

9 minutes ago, Alf Bentley said:

 

Yes, Martin Lewis, the moneysavingexpert geezer, was saying the same on Breakfast News. We'll have to see the detail if/when anything is introduced, I suppose.

Sounds like an attempt to get good publicity for cutting the headline figure, while adjusting the system to ensure they don't lose out on repayments - or potentially get even more.

The return of maintenance grants for some sounds like good news, though probably very limited.

 

Btw. When I described Jo Swinson as a "cynical old party hack" the other day, I wasn't referring to her age, more her manner - avoiding interviewers' questions, interrupting opponents with rhetorical questions, superfluous partisan party political points...

I've not seen that much of her, though, so will reserve judgment if she's elected LD leader. I was mainly disappointed that Moran had dropped out, as she had impressed me when I'd seen her - more of a "normal non-politician" person, answering questions honestly, more articulate etc. I hope the Lib Dems continue to do well whoever is leader, so as to damage the Tories and be a good influence on Labour.....though a wider political realignment seems possible just now. I strongly support the Lib Dem support for electoral reform and see it as a crucial issue.

I'll have to try making my own website so I can invited onto tv to state the obvious . There was always going to be a problem as the government wasn't realistic about the amount of money that could be repaid, they essentially created false assets by inflating the loans and forecasting larger repayments. If they reverse the cuts to grants then that is something, though it was them that took grants away and if she wanted to do something about it she could have.

 

I think I know what you mean with Jo Swinson, I suppose she's definitely a career politician, though so was Charles Kennedy and he was great. Moran is really good and hopefully still a future leader. 

[urban.spaceman]

32 minutes ago, Strokes said:

I’ll pop in on my way home, how would you like it?

 

[Alf Bentley]

7 minutes ago, LiberalFox said:

 

I think I know what you mean with Jo Swinson, I suppose she's definitely a career politician, though so was Charles Kennedy and he was great. Moran is really good and hopefully still a future leader. 

 

Yes, I liked old Charlie boy. A thoughtful, fairly honest, articulate, human and amusing politician - too few of them in any party. I agreed with most things he said. Shame he couldn't conquer his booze issues.

 

Some of our politicians these days are shockingly poor on multiple levels, including basic intelligence and articulacy. I saw Matt Hancock interviewed yesterday and he was inarticulate and apparently incapable of answering simple questions. 

 

Then I saw Esther McVey this morning and she comes across as thick as pigshit. The interviewer mentioned Jeremy Hunt admitting to having once consumed a cannabis lassi. She seemed not to know what a lassi was, a bit of a faux pas in an age when Indian food is almost a national cuisine. She then tried to disguise her ignorance by saying she didn't understand where the cannabis came into it.  Apparently Rory Stewart once had opium in Iran, which is fairly exotic. He's one of the few who, regardless of politics, comes across as having the personal calibre to aspire to high office. Not a party political point as there are some very dim and dull politicians on the Labour & Lib Dem benches, too.

 

It'll be interesting to see the likes of Boris, Raab & McVey get properly questioned about their Brexit policy. They've basically all said that, at most, they'd make a bit of an effort to renegotiate but would rule out any extension beyond October, leaving with No Deal, if the EU doesn't jettison the backstop. Yet that gives little chance for renegotiation even if the EU is willing - and it seems clear that Parliament will prevent No Deal by one means or another, quite possibly by triggering a general election at which the Tories could be massacred for not delivering their precious Brexit.....though what the result would be is anyone's guess: probably a hung parliament with Labour as biggest party despite losing seats, Tories reduced to a rump, a fair few Brexit Party, a lot more Lib Dems, a couple of extra Greens & an SNP tartanwash in Scotland? 

[Buce]

8 minutes ago, Alf Bentley said:

 

Yes, I liked old Charlie boy. A thoughtful, fairly honest, articulate, human and amusing politician - too few of them in any party. I agreed with most things he said. Shame he couldn't conquer his booze issues.

 

Some of our politicians these days are shockingly poor on multiple levels, including basic intelligence and articulacy. I saw Matt Hancock interviewed yesterday and he was inarticulate and apparently incapable of answering simple questions. 

 

Then I saw Esther McVey this morning and she comes across as thick as pigshit. The interviewer mentioned Jeremy Hunt admitting to having once consumed a cannabis lassi. She seemed not to know what a lassi was, a bit of a faux pas in an age when Indian food is almost a national cuisine. She then tried to disguise her ignorance by saying she didn't understand where the cannabis came into it.  Apparently Rory Stewart once had opium in Iran, which is fairly exotic. He's one of the few who, regardless of politics, comes across as having the personal calibre to aspire to high office. Not a party political point as there are some very dim and dull politicians on the Labour & Lib Dem benches, too.

 

It'll be interesting to see the likes of Boris, Raab & McVey get properly questioned about their Brexit policy. They've basically all said that, at most, they'd make a bit of an effort to renegotiate but would rule out any extension beyond October, leaving with No Deal, if the EU doesn't jettison the backstop. Yet that gives little chance for renegotiation even if the EU is willing - and it seems clear that Parliament will prevent No Deal by one means or another, quite possibly by triggering a general election at which the Tories could be massacred for not delivering their precious Brexit.....though what the result would be is anyone's guess: probably a hung parliament with Labour as biggest party despite losing seats, Tories reduced to a rump, a fair few Brexit Party, a lot more Lib Dems, a couple of extra Greens & an SNP tartanwash in Scotland? 

4

 

Yeah, but you would, though, wouldn't you...

[Alf Bentley]

2 minutes ago, Buce said:

 

Yeah, but you would, though, wouldn't you...

 

I wouldn't actually. Aside from being thick, she comes across as a harsh, hard-faced woman with zero sensuality or humour, whose talent does not justify her ambition.

 

There are much better options available in the cabinet. But I won't comment further as I don't want to encourage censorious young intellectuals like @bovril and @Finnegan to pop up chastising elderly lechers. Life is tough enough for us already. 

[urban.spaceman]

Some of these parents have said explicitly that god created women for man’s pleasure and that they don’t accept homosexuality (but they’re not homophobic). 

 

If parents know best best for their children what’s the point in sending them to school in the first place?!

[Buce]

9 minutes ago, urban.spaceman said:

Some of these parents have said explicitly that god created women for man’s pleasure and that they don’t accept homosexuality (but they’re not homophobic). 

 

If parents know best best for their children what’s the point in sending them to school in the first place?!

2

 

For an academic education?

[David Guiza]

51 minutes ago, Buce said:

 

For an academic education?

I get your point, but school should also spread beyond an academic education where possible. Sport and the Arts aren't necessarily academic either and the suppression of the latter by the current government is damaging. 

[Buce]

16 minutes ago, David Guiza said:

I get your point, but school should also spread beyond an academic education where possible. Sport and the Arts aren't necessarily academic either and the suppression of the latter by the current government is damaging. 

 

I wasn't really making a point - I thought that the question mark might have indicated that I was suggesting a possible answer to the Spaceman's rhetorical question.

[Legend_in_blue]

McVey appears to be giving it this and that now that she's running for PM.  Not a lot of thought is going into what she's spouting at the minute.  She should stick to TV presenting.

[Buce]

19 minutes ago, David Guiza said:

I get your point, but school should also spread beyond an academic education where possible. Sport and the Arts aren't necessarily academic either and the suppression of the latter by the current government is damaging. 

 

However, to actually deal with Spaceman's point, I find myself somewhat conflicted over the issue; one the one hand, I have no objection to the specifics (teaching kids about LGBT relationships), but I do feel uncomfortable with the principle of allowing the abrogation of parents' rights to decide what they consider to be best for their children, particularly children of a young age.