General News Thread

[Trav Le Bleu]

4 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Pretty sure my 2nd in Klingon Studies at Coventry University made me the man I am today.

jlQochbe, qo' tln loDnl!

[Foxdiamond]

4 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

The greater availability of council housing also meant that private house costs were driven down. Why pay loads of money when it was easy to get a big house for very little rent and a decent, regulated landlord? Thus house prices were relatively cheaper.

 

Supply and demand, etc.

If only this was the norm now

[Trav Le Bleu]

3 minutes ago, The Doctor said:

? 

It was mentioned that people stay in education longer now. I made the point badly.

 

Not happy with that post at all, but I stand by it.

[Trav Le Bleu]

Just now, Foxdiamond said:

If only this was the norm now

It was absolutely the norm, if you were working class, possibly even lower-middle starting off in life, you'd apply for a council house.

[Dahnsouff]

3 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

jlQochbe, qo' tln loDnl!

Ka jro talòh keu nyoe

[Heathrow fox]

4 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Yes, I think being away at university can help garner some independence and self reliance, but even then you are funded either via loans, grants via parental provision, so supporting yourself fully never really hits home until you work I think.

Bills keys and babies

[Heathrow fox]

11 minutes ago, Foxdiamond said:

If only this was the norm now

So many of the current and future ill’s of society can and will be traced back to the housing crisis.

[Foxdiamond]

Just now, Heathrow fox said:

So many of the current and future ill’s of society can and will be traced back to the housing crisis.

Nail on head

[JonnyBoy]

A problem with some young people they want the 3 bed new build detached straight away. If you look on rightmove the market is flooded with 2 bed terraces priced 170-200k that aren’t really shifting. the government are offering incentives to buy new builds as well. 5% deposit for a 300 grand house? Oh go on then. I first hand know a lot of people trying to sell small terrace houses that are really struggling. Some People are not interested in buying a small house as their first house, before in a few years stepping into a 3/4/5 bed house. 

 

all whilst driving their Audi on finance sipping their daily Starbucks. 
 

 

[Jattdogg]

I'm 45 and really hate voting as the options are between a bell end  on the left or a bell end on the right.

 

I also recognize that I should shutup and run for office if I have nothing better to say haha.

 

So, bell end it is! Lol

 

 

[Super_horns]

1 hour ago, Foxdiamond said:

Nail on head

My sister works in the housing development industry and they do their best to built new affordable homes but people as is probably their right reject the ideas and protest against the plans .

 

So it all takes ages to go through.

[Super_horns]

3 hours ago, Dahnsouff said:

The  lowering of the voting age is of greater benefit to Labour than other parties, and the younger voters are also more likely to lean toward more liberal issues than older voters, so it may help current climate concerns and this lurch to the right.

So at 16 you cannot buy a can of Red Bull without being ID  but can vote ?

 

 

Apparently it’s not a legal requirement but retail stores ask employees to check as part of their “Think 25” policy 

Edited 17 July 2025 by Super_horns

[Foxdiamond]

27 minutes ago, Super_horns said:

My sister works in the housing development industry and they do their best to built new affordable homes but people as is probably their right reject the ideas and protest against the plans .

 

So it all takes ages to go through.

The lack of political will at the top is probably a big issue. 

[RowlattsFox]

If 16/17 do vote then I'd imagine the vast majority will vote for who their parents tell them too. 

 

Small sample size but I work with this age group daily in my area and I'd be amazed if more than a couple of them knew what the voting options were. 

If anything reform would get the most as they are probably the stuff they see and hear the most of (particularly from their parents)

Lack of ID would stop most of them voting anyway. 

[Dahnsouff]

7 hours ago, Super_horns said:

So at 16 you cannot buy a can of Red Bull without being ID  but can vote ?

 

 

Apparently it’s not a legal requirement but retail stores ask employees to check as part of their “Think 25” policy 

As you note, high caffeinated drinks are liable to restriction by retailers presumably for their own protection.

This is not a Governmental thing, so not sure how its relevant tbh  

 

Booo! Boo! Down with Tesco Express?

[Super_horns]

18 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

As you note, high caffeinated drinks are liable to restriction by retailers presumably for their own protection.

This is not a Governmental thing, so not sure how its relevant tbh  

 

Booo! Boo! Down with Tesco Express?

Yes it seems to be .

 

Probably not relevant at all but shows they can be trusted at times but not all the time .

[Torquay Gunner]

So Diane Abbott has been censored again by Labour for being antisemitic.  Not a great fan of hers, but unless I am missing something could not see the antisemitism in her original remarks, nor these more recent ones. 

[Dahnsouff]

2 minutes ago, Super_horns said:

Yes it seems to be .

 

Probably not relevant at all but shows they can be trusted at times but not all the time .

Drinking red bull at all probably warrants government intervention anyway tbh...  

[davieG]

Ever since privatisation these water companies have been fleecing us with their undeserved bonuses and pay rises whilst selling off surplus land and providing minimum investment now they want us to pay to put it right. Will they then claim how great they are and award themselves even bigger bonuses.

Ofwat have been spineless, toothless and almost complicit watching them break laws and laughing all the way to the bank

 

Water should never have been privatised there is no chance of competition.

 

 

Serious pollution incidents by water companies have risen 60% in a year, according to the Environment Agency.

In total there were 2,801 pollution incidents in England in 2024, the highest on record, compared with 2,174 in 2023.

Of these, 75 were considered to pose "serious or persistent" harm to fisheries, drinking water and human health - up from 47 last year.

The Public Accounts Committee - a cross party group of MPs - called the level of pollution "woeful".

[kenny]

7 minutes ago, davieG said:

Ever since privatisation these water companies have been fleecing us with their undeserved bonuses and pay rises whilst selling off surplus land and providing minimum investment now they want us to pay to put it right. Will they then claim how great they are and award themselves even bigger bonuses.

Ofwat have been spineless, toothless and almost complicit watching them break laws and laughing all the way to the bank

 

Water should never have been privatised there is no chance of competition.

 

 

Serious pollution incidents by water companies have risen 60% in a year, according to the Environment Agency.

In total there were 2,801 pollution incidents in England in 2024, the highest on record, compared with 2,174 in 2023.

Of these, 75 were considered to pose "serious or persistent" harm to fisheries, drinking water and human health - up from 47 last year.

The Public Accounts Committee - a cross party group of MPs - called the level of pollution "woeful".

I wonder how many more pollution sensors were installed in that period as there is a massive roll out at present or at least there has been for a couple of years.

[Bordersfox]

2 hours ago, RowlattsFox said:

If 16/17 do vote then I'd imagine the vast majority will vote for who their parents tell them too. 

 

Small sample size but I work with this age group daily in my area and I'd be amazed if more than a couple of them knew what the voting options were. 

If anything reform would get the most as they are probably the stuff they see and hear the most of (particularly from their parents)

Lack of ID would stop most of them voting anyway. 

When I was 16/17 I'd have done the exact opposite of that.  Teenagers are not known for complying with parental edicts. 

 

The vast majority will probably vote Green, Labour and some Lib Dem.  Based on polling of 18-24s anyway.  There is little to suggest 16-18 will be much different, but obviously no polls for it currently.  There is no indication they will vote Reform in any numbers, quite the opposite, particularly as Reform opposed giving them the vote.  

[The Bear]

I doubt there'll be a massive percentage of 16 year olds that will want to vote tbh. Most are still so unaware of the responsibilities of general life that they'll mostly vote on environmental issues any way I think. 

 

Of course some will be more mature and politically informed but I reckon most won't give a toss at that point. I certainly wasn't fuming at that age that I had to wait two years. 

[Torquay Gunner]

Wow that’s a lot of lawyers!
 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/15/trump-doj-unit-staff-exodus

[leicsmac]

14 minutes ago, Torquay Gunner said:

Wow that’s a lot of lawyers!
 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/15/trump-doj-unit-staff-exodus

Hopefully more people working for that administration will develop a conscience that they clearly didn't have before and do likewise. 

[Sampson]

1 hour ago, Bordersfox said:

When I was 16/17 I'd have done the exact opposite of that.  Teenagers are not known for complying with parental edicts. 

 

The vast majority will probably vote Green, Labour and some Lib Dem.  Based on polling of 18-24s anyway.  There is little to suggest 16-18 will be much different, but obviously no polls for it currently.  There is no indication they will vote Reform in any numbers, quite the opposite, particularly as Reform opposed giving them the vote.  

Yeah, I keep seeing this “Reform are popular amongst young men/generation Z who are all obsessed with social media bros” but whenever I see a poll of how people vote by age group it just seems like a complete myth. Reform are still very much appealing to older voters like the Tories used to and poll pretty squarely in 4th place behind Labour, LibDems and Greens amongst under 25s.
 

If anything the most striking pattern by age is that the younger a person is so much more likely to vote Green.

 

Edit: Here's the latest btw. Only 8% of 18-24 year olds would vote Reform, compared to 28% Labour, 26% Greens and 20% LibDems (and even 9% Tory - turns out I was wrong, Reform are actually in 5th place under 25s).

 

Also worth saying that for all they are chasing Reform and we keep hearing how Labour voters are defecting to Reform and will defect back "if Labour fix the economy and immigration" - 15% of 2024 Labour voters say they'd vote LibDem and 11% say they'd vote for Green compared to the 6% who say they'd vote Reform, so they seem to be losing way more voters to the LibDems and Greens than Reform. Are the 26% of Labour voters who defected to Greens and LibDems really only defecting because they care so much about getting to net negative immigration (or whatever Reform's latest slogan is) and think Greens or LibDems are the parties to do that as the 6% they are supposedly chasing from Reform? Seems to be like its the 2024 Tory voters who have been defecting to Reform not the Labour voters and Labour should be chasing the LibDem and Green voters.

 

Edited 18 July 2025 by Sampson