General News Thread

[Trav Le Bleu]

9 hours ago, DennisNedry said:

That political compass thing is in need of an update. Some of the questions are silly too imo. Apparently I'm slightly to the left now. Weirdly as I get older I'm getting more left wing (isn't it supposed to be the other way around?)

 

9 hours ago, FoxesDeb said:

I was always under the impression people move further to the right the older they get too, but I know this definitely hasn't been true for me. 

 

I think global events over my lifetime have caused the change in my case though, and I imagine it's the same for plenty of others too.

 

It's the accumulation of stuff.

 

As you get older you accumulate things (money/property) you never had in your youth and right wing politics is very much about maintaining wealth, and left wing about apportioning it.

 

Both ideologies get abused though. More often than not.

[leicsmac]

1 hour ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

 

It's the accumulation of stuff.

 

As you get older you accumulate things (money/property) you never had in your youth and right wing politics is very much about maintaining wealth, and left wing about apportioning it.

 

Both ideologies get abused though. More often than not.

Pretty much. 

 

To be honest though, I think I'll repeat a point made here before and say that in world that is changing as quickly as it is, the descriptions applied over two centuries ago for such things are looking very dated. 

[Greg2607]

21 hours ago, urban.spaceman said:

It takes longer than a year to turn around a sinking country after 14 years of destruction, especially when the Tories salted the earth before they went, and when there's global chaos caused by a fascist in the Oval Office. Not to mention the generational damage Brexit is doing. Despite all that, and despite the headlines, they're actually making decent progress. 

even as a labour voter, I think the party have got some stuff wrong over the last 12 months.... mainly through a rush to get something done, or through failing to explain the reasoning behind it other than "£22bn black hole"...... 

 

WFA allowance as an example... they could have approached it in two different ways..... EITHER..... taken more consideration around the mechanism - i.e. really considered the point at which it's removed and align it to minimum wage.... (as an example, i'm not saying that's right!) 

 

OR - position it that they would need to do this, to allow them to protect the triple lock for those that are MOST in need..... everyone still benefits from the Triple Lock.... but by removing the WFA, position it, that it continues to support the affordability of that scheme. 

 

instead they positioned it that they had no choice because of the mess the tories left behind..... 

 

that isn't going to resonate with many people. 

 

in fact.... personally..... i'd prefer them to move entirely away from that narrative now as a staging post and move towards, "this is the future we COULD have, if we continue to do these things".... 

[Suzie the Fox]

[FoyleFox]

After 12 years living in Northern Ireland where they argue about feckin' flags a lot, it's incessant and they're absolutely everywhere. The roundabouts, lamp posts and curbstones are painted in the relevant colour to your area. I was looking forward to no flags and painted road stuff intruding into my life, save a bit of world cup fever or a royal jubilee.... that's been a short lived break! 

Edited 27 August 2025 by FoyleFox

[Wymsey]

It is what it is..

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c78zgz7j576o

 

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0j9l08902eo

 

Denmark's foreign minister has summoned the top US diplomat in Copenhagen, following a report that American citizens have been conducting covert operations in Greenland.

Denmark's public broadcaster DR quoted sources as saying the aim was to infiltrate Greenland's society and promote its secession from Denmark to the US, although it was unable to clarify who the men were working for.

Danish intelligence warned Greenland was being targeted by "various kinds of influence campaigns".

 

The mask continues to slip. 

[foxy boxing]

24 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0j9l08902eo

 

Denmark's foreign minister has summoned the top US diplomat in Copenhagen, following a report that American citizens have been conducting covert operations in Greenland.

Denmark's public broadcaster DR quoted sources as saying the aim was to infiltrate Greenland's society and promote its secession from Denmark to the US, although it was unable to clarify who the men were working for.

Danish intelligence warned Greenland was being targeted by "various kinds of influence campaigns".

 

The mask continues to slip. 

How l9ng before a full scale invasion!. 

[leicsmac]

1 minute ago, foxy boxing said:

How l9ng before a full scale invasion!. 

A NATO member triggering Article 5 against another NATO member will be...amusing, I guess?

[stripeyfox]

This is bizarre and a bit sick, no?

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gjr0ylenzo

 

A funeral director has been banned from NHS maternity wards and mortuaries in Leeds after keeping babies' bodies at her home, a BBC investigation has revealed.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust said it had barred 38-year-old Amie Upton from its mortuaries and maternity wards in spring this year.

One mother said she had been left "screaming" after discovering her dead son had been put in a baby bouncer "watching cartoons" in Ms Upton's living room.

Ms Upton said she had only ever had two complaints in her eight years of running her baby loss support and funeral service, Florrie's Army.

Zoe Ward's baby, Bleu, was three weeks old when he died of brain damage at Leeds General Infirmary in 2021.

Ms Ward, 32, asked Florrie's Army to arrange his funeral, after a recommendation from a family friend.

She said she had spoken to Ms Upton and thought the service sounded "brilliant".

Florrie's Army said it supports bereaved parents, offering free handprints, photographs, baby clothing and a dedicated funeral service.

According to her posts on Facebook, Ms Upton set up the group after her own daughter was stillborn in 2017.

Ms Ward said Bleu's body had been picked up from the hospital by someone on behalf of Florrie's Army.

She said she had thought he would be in a "professional setting".

But when she went round to visit the next day, Ms Ward was "terrified" to see Ms Upton "watching" cartoons with her son's body next to her in a baby bouncer in the living room.

"I realised it were Bleu and she [Ms Upton] says: 'Come in, we're watching PJ Masks.'

"There's a cat scratcher in the corner and I can hear a dog barking and there was another [dead] baby on the sofa. It wasn't a nice sight.

"I rang my mum and I'm saying, 'This ain't right'… I was screaming down the phone [saying]: 'It's mucky, it's dirty, he can't stay here.'"

[worthosoriginals]

29 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

A NATO member triggering Article 5 against another NATO member will be...amusing, I guess?

Putin likes this.

[Lionator]

50 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

A NATO member triggering Article 5 against another NATO member will be...amusing, I guess?

If America wants Greenland it will get Greenland. Then you’ll have half the Arctic belonging to USA/Canada and the other half Russia. It’s all for resources in the global warming age. 

[leicsmac]

3 minutes ago, Lionator said:

If America wants Greenland it will get Greenland. Then you’ll have half the Arctic belonging to USA/Canada and the other half Russia. It’s all for resources in the global warming age. 

... if that's true, then bring on the nuclear holocaust some folks believe is around the corner because not only will that attitude guarantee such an outcome at some point, our species will thoroughly deserve it for not being able to rise above the limbic instinct for power and domination. 

 

No one should want to live in a modern world where such principles are so primitive. And no one will. 

[Lionator]

2 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

... if that's true, then bring on the nuclear holocaust some folks believe is around the corner because not only will that attitude guarantee such an outcome at some point, our species will thoroughly deserve it for not being able to rise above the limbic instinct for power and domination. 

 

No one should want to live in a modern world where such principles are so primitive. And no one will. 

European nato countries are weak and pathetic and will happily throw Denmark under the bus to keep Daddy Trump happy as he keeps screwing them over.

[leicsmac]

13 minutes ago, Lionator said:

European nato countries are weak and pathetic and will happily throw Denmark under the bus to keep Daddy Trump happy as he keeps screwing them over.

Then Mother Nature will bat last and push even those ones that think they are all powerful to desperation.

 

Either way, what I said above stands. The way the big boys do business with their nationalism cannot, will not, survive the way the world is changing. 

[Bellend Sebastian]

44 minutes ago, stripeyfox said:

This is bizarre and a bit sick, no?

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gjr0ylenzo

 

A funeral director has been banned from NHS maternity wards and mortuaries in Leeds after keeping babies' bodies at her home, a BBC investigation has revealed.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust said it had barred 38-year-old Amie Upton from its mortuaries and maternity wards in spring this year.

One mother said she had been left "screaming" after discovering her dead son had been put in a baby bouncer "watching cartoons" in Ms Upton's living room.

Ms Upton said she had only ever had two complaints in her eight years of running her baby loss support and funeral service, Florrie's Army.

Zoe Ward's baby, Bleu, was three weeks old when he died of brain damage at Leeds General Infirmary in 2021.

Ms Ward, 32, asked Florrie's Army to arrange his funeral, after a recommendation from a family friend.

She said she had spoken to Ms Upton and thought the service sounded "brilliant".

Florrie's Army said it supports bereaved parents, offering free handprints, photographs, baby clothing and a dedicated funeral service.

According to her posts on Facebook, Ms Upton set up the group after her own daughter was stillborn in 2017.

Ms Ward said Bleu's body had been picked up from the hospital by someone on behalf of Florrie's Army.

She said she had thought he would be in a "professional setting".

But when she went round to visit the next day, Ms Ward was "terrified" to see Ms Upton "watching" cartoons with her son's body next to her in a baby bouncer in the living room.

"I realised it were Bleu and she [Ms Upton] says: 'Come in, we're watching PJ Masks.'

"There's a cat scratcher in the corner and I can hear a dog barking and there was another [dead] baby on the sofa. It wasn't a nice sight.

"I rang my mum and I'm saying, 'This ain't right'… I was screaming down the phone [saying]: 'It's mucky, it's dirty, he can't stay here.'"

I read this and thought, whilst most would expect her own experience and empathy would make her a natural fit for such a role, it sounds like her own trauma has taken her to a rather strange place. So yes, it's weird, and I can understand why folk would be horrified but I'd be really concerned for this individual

[Parafox]

4 hours ago, stripeyfox said:

This is bizarre and a bit sick, no?

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gjr0ylenzo

 

A funeral director has been banned from NHS maternity wards and mortuaries in Leeds after keeping babies' bodies at her home, a BBC investigation has revealed.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust said it had barred 38-year-old Amie Upton from its mortuaries and maternity wards in spring this year.

One mother said she had been left "screaming" after discovering her dead son had been put in a baby bouncer "watching cartoons" in Ms Upton's living room.

Ms Upton said she had only ever had two complaints in her eight years of running her baby loss support and funeral service, Florrie's Army.

Zoe Ward's baby, Bleu, was three weeks old when he died of brain damage at Leeds General Infirmary in 2021.

Ms Ward, 32, asked Florrie's Army to arrange his funeral, after a recommendation from a family friend.

She said she had spoken to Ms Upton and thought the service sounded "brilliant".

Florrie's Army said it supports bereaved parents, offering free handprints, photographs, baby clothing and a dedicated funeral service.

According to her posts on Facebook, Ms Upton set up the group after her own daughter was stillborn in 2017.

Ms Ward said Bleu's body had been picked up from the hospital by someone on behalf of Florrie's Army.

She said she had thought he would be in a "professional setting".

But when she went round to visit the next day, Ms Ward was "terrified" to see Ms Upton "watching" cartoons with her son's body next to her in a baby bouncer in the living room.

"I realised it were Bleu and she [Ms Upton] says: 'Come in, we're watching PJ Masks.'

"There's a cat scratcher in the corner and I can hear a dog barking and there was another [dead] baby on the sofa. It wasn't a nice sight.

"I rang my mum and I'm saying, 'This ain't right'… I was screaming down the phone [saying]: 'It's mucky, it's dirty, he can't stay here.'"

 

Only a ban from MU's and the mortuaries in Leeds?

 

She needs urgent help but isn't there potentially some criminal offence here?

 

I get that she has probably never recovered from the loss of her own baby as @Sampson has suggested and as a result has become so unwell that she is doing things with the deceased babies that she never got to do with her own.

 

Grief and loss can make some people unstable and I imagine that's more so in the case of losing a baby. 

 

It's tragic for all.

Edited 27 August 2025 by Parafox

[Sampson]

I think you’re confusing me with Bellend Sebastian. Which is understandable as I am a bellend but sadly not a pun on the excellent 90s and 00s Scottish indie pop band (although I have seen them live back in the day).

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c776ye6lrvzo.amp

 

South Korea has passed a bill banning the use of mobile phones and smart devices during class hours in schools - becoming the latest country to restrict phone use among children and teens.

The law, which comes into effect from the next school year in March 2026, is the result of a bi-partisan effort to curb smartphone addiction, as more research points to its harmful effects.

Lawmakers, parents and teachers argue that smartphone use is affecting students' academic performance and takes away time they could have spent studying.

The ban has its sceptics, including students, who question how it would work, its wider implications and whether it is addressing the root cause of addiction.

 

A place more phone-crazed among the young than the UK applying a general ban. I wonder if the UK will follow suit rather than just leaving it to the schools. 

[kenny]

8 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c776ye6lrvzo.amp

 

South Korea has passed a bill banning the use of mobile phones and smart devices during class hours in schools - becoming the latest country to restrict phone use among children and teens.

The law, which comes into effect from the next school year in March 2026, is the result of a bi-partisan effort to curb smartphone addiction, as more research points to its harmful effects.

Lawmakers, parents and teachers argue that smartphone use is affecting students' academic performance and takes away time they could have spent studying.

The ban has its sceptics, including students, who question how it would work, its wider implications and whether it is addressing the root cause of addiction.

 

A place more phone-crazed among the young than the UK applying a general ban. I wonder if the UK will follow suit rather than just leaving it to the schools. 

Gwan Starmer. Do us all a favour and get them banned. Perhaps Reeves can plug her £64bn black hole with £100 fines for any parent that has a child caught with a phone.

[Parafox]

58 minutes ago, Sampson said:

I think you’re confusing me with Bellend Sebastian. Which is understandable as I am a bellend but sadly not a pun on the excellent 90s and 00s Scottish indie pop band (although I have seen them live back in the day).

 

I was mistaken because your avatars seemed a bit... similar. To me, anyway.

 

They're not really, but I'm easily confused these days.

Edited 27 August 2025 by Parafox

[Muzzy_no7]

12 hours ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

 

It's the accumulation of stuff.

 

As you get older you accumulate things (money/property) you never had in your youth and right wing politics is very much about maintaining wealth, and left wing about apportioning it.

 

Both ideologies get abused though. More often than not.

My result did shock me too tbh as I’ve always seen myself as someone split between the centre and centre right.

 

I came out as dead centre😂.

 

 

[Parafox]

56 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c776ye6lrvzo.amp

 

South Korea has passed a bill banning the use of mobile phones and smart devices during class hours in schools - becoming the latest country to restrict phone use among children and teens.

The law, which comes into effect from the next school year in March 2026, is the result of a bi-partisan effort to curb smartphone addiction, as more research points to its harmful effects.

Lawmakers, parents and teachers argue that smartphone use is affecting students' academic performance and takes away time they could have spent studying.

The ban has its sceptics, including students, who question how it would work, its wider implications and whether it is addressing the root cause of addiction.

 

A place more phone-crazed among the young than the UK applying a general ban. I wonder if the UK will follow suit rather than just leaving it to the schools. 

 

I think we all know the answer to that. 

 

The UK will just hold off saying that we're waiting for the outcome of further research. Otherwise known as "not taking immediate (or any) action".

[leicsmac]

57 minutes ago, kenny said:

Gwan Starmer. Do us all a favour and get them banned. Perhaps Reeves can plug her £64bn black hole with £100 fines for any parent that has a child caught with a phone.

 

6 minutes ago, Parafox said:

 

I think we all know the answer to that. 

 

The UK will just hold off saying that we're waiting for the outcome of further research. Otherwise known as "not taking immediate (or any) action".

From what I can tell the ban is in place in the vast majority of schools of their own volition anyway, so a general ban would either be easy logistically to implement or unnecessary, depending on who's looking at the situation.

 

There's also studies that point in both directions regarding mobile phone use and academic performance/student mental health, so there's not a massive consensus of data on that right now.

[leicsmac]

The Mail excelling itself today then - not one, but two front page headlines that at least flirt with being libelous and at most are flat out untruths that are solely ideological in origin and designed to incite ill feeling. 

 

I'm guessing it's not a step too far for the press regulator, though, given the track record of that particular paper.