General News Thread

[Blue-fox]

Just now, Brainy said:

And what has the shooters family done to deserve your idea of punishment?

Exactly the same as Charlie Kirk’s. I know I’m wrong but I’m just thoroughly pissed off that a man who had his own views, and who was willing to stand up and debate them fairly and equally, has been killed because other people can’t handle it. Really done me this one has. Similar age and kids appear to be similar age too. 
 

 

[urban.spaceman]

3 minutes ago, Blue-fox said:

Exactly the same as Charlie Kirk’s. I know I’m wrong but I’m just thoroughly pissed off that a man who had his own views, and who was willing to stand up and debate them fairly and equally, has been killed because other people can’t handle it. Really done me this one has. Similar age and kids appear to be similar age too. 
 

 

There is not yet any evidence of that. 

[Blue-fox]

Just now, urban.spaceman said:

There is not yet any evidence of that. 

What other motive would there possibly be? 

[Tommy G]

2 minutes ago, urban.spaceman said:

There is not yet any evidence of that. 

After the way you’ve been tonight I’d step away from the keyboard. 

[MC Prussian]

Just watched parts of the immediate Utah press conference.

 

Campus police had a measly six (!) officers on the spot in order to control a crowd of 3000 people.

Edited 10 September 2025 by MC Prussian

[StanSP]

I have sympathy for his family who are left without a husband/father. They're the real victims here. 

 

I don't agree with Kirk's views or comments and don't ever believe anyone should be shot or killed for their opinions, not how it should be. Hatred and killing isn't the answer. 

 

Just like hatred and killing and threatening to burn asylum seekers' places of accommodation or homes isn't the way to go either. I fully get that the right side of politics will be absolutely fuming at what has happened today. And while it is tragic in some regards, they should probably look inwards at how their words and actions can have knock on effects to what people do. And that their own actions or stoking of violence isn't really the way to go about getting what you want...

 

Whoever has shot Kirk today is just as bad. It gains absolutely nothing taking the life of another just because they may hold opposing opinions to you. They've solved nothing. 

 

(I know there's been references to keeping politics out of it all, but it's nigh on impossible at the end of the day) 

Edited 10 September 2025 by StanSP

[urban.spaceman]

4 minutes ago, Blue-fox said:

What other motive would there possibly be? 

I'd suggest waiting until we have more information. 

[ithuriel]

18 minutes ago, urban.spaceman said:

I'd suggest waiting until we have more information. 

Seriously, wow.

[ithuriel]

 

[Jattdogg]

We all need to see the world come back to somewhere around the centre of politics.

 

 

[MPH]

5 minutes ago, ithuriel said:

Seriously, wow.

 

come on now. He’s right no matter how unlikely it is.  And even if it is a ‘Lettie’ that doesn’t mean we should tarnish  the whole of ‘ the left’ with the same brush.

 

now isnt the time for pitchforks.

[ithuriel]

3 minutes ago, MPH said:

 

come on now. He’s right no matter how unlikely it is.  And even if it is a ‘Lettie’ that doesn’t mean we should tarnish  the whole of ‘ the left’ with the same brush.

 

now isnt the time for pitchforks.

Its not the time for silly messaging either, peeps need to grow up.  Left, Right, who cares, peeps should dial it back a bit.

Edited 10 September 2025 by ithuriel

[urban.spaceman]

3 minutes ago, ithuriel said:

Its not the time for silly messaging either, peeps need to grow up.

What is silly about saying we should wait for more information before forming an opinion on something?

[ithuriel]

Just now, urban.spaceman said:

What is silly about saying we should wait for more information before forming an opinion on something?

I'm going to go to bed now because otherwise I'm going to say something I should not, pal.

[urban.spaceman]

Just now, ithuriel said:

I'm going to go to bed now because otherwise I'm going to say something I should not, pal.

Feel free to message me

[MPH]

4 minutes ago, ithuriel said:

Its not the time for silly messaging either, peeps need to grow up.

 

I don’t even know what you mean by that.

[ithuriel]

In fact having read some of the stuff on here over the past few weeks, I'm giving this place a miss for the time being, goodbye.

[foxes1988]

Absolutely horrible scenes.

 

Doesn't matter your political beliefs and opinions we should all condemn this murder.

 

Hopefully the have got the culprit and can bring him to justice 

[foxfanazer]

Genuinely stunned by that. Not even interested in the political side. A family has lost a father, a husband and a son at the end of the day. Terrifying that you can be here one second and someone can decide to just end you in an instance 

 

RIP

Edited 11 September 2025 by foxfanazer

[Sly]

8 hours ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Labour/Conservative alliance to take on Reform?

 

My enemy's enemy is my friend.

This Conservative Party isn’t the one with the same principle values as the one David Cameron headed up. 
 

However, I think it is coming back from the far right to be more centre right, however they don’t have that presence at the moment. To do that they need a strong leader and figure head. Unfortunately that isn’t always the smartest person in the room but someone who’s charismatic. Boris was that person.

 

For Labour back in the day,  it was Brown for example, dare I say Starmer is maybe that person for labour now?  For Boris it was Rishi. 
 

The public buy into story tellers, they’re sold a dream and the reality is, whoever takes control of the office at the next election, won’t know the full extent of the challenge u til they’ve assessed the books. 
 

This is why we get all of these sweeping g statements like well do this, that and the other, we’ll save “X” amount of millions, then once they’re in power, they can as they’ve got a really sense of the problems they face.

 

Its like three people buying a house and letting the local neighbourhood vote for who gets it. 
 

Person 1 is the current owner and says we have to fix the fundamentals, which we basically need a money tree and the town folk will need to pay for it.

 

Person 2 states no worries, we’ll sort the house but we’re also going to give it a full renovation and it’ll look loads better at the same time. We’ll even stick in solar panels, air source heating, full landscape it etc for half of the cost person 1 is quoting.

 

 

Person 3 is quoting that one they have the house, they’ll dealing with what the towns  perceived issue with people from the neighbouring village coming in and stealing their jobs, then ban them from entering the town. House, what house, we have a plan but you don’t need to know about it that (no one really knows if they have a plan or any experience)
 

The bizarre thing is, people vote for Person 2 because they are selling utopia and a dream. People vote for person 3 because they are dealing with a perceived issue. Person 1 with experience is sat there thinking what on earth am I doing wrong here by not lying about the state of all of this, but stands little to no chance. 
 

Rince and repeat with the house coming back on the market 4 years later, as person 1 and 2 have now swapped. 
 

My very long winded analogy have how politics works and is a snake oil salesman’s job. 

[foxfanazer]

2 hours ago, RonnieTodger said:

Insane that you can just scroll Twitter and that pops up on your feed. Incredibly grim viewing. 

Yeah agreed. Not even hidden to give you the option of seeing it

[Jon the Hat]

2 hours ago, MC Prussian said:

The major outlets in the US lean towards Democrats (the so-called "Liberals"), the distribution is about five to one in terms of TV networks. The two, three major US newspapers are Democrat-leaning, as well.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-does-media-have-left-leaning-bias-james-mcgovern-avise/

 

In (Continental) Europe, the distribution of the political orientation among media professionals is about the same.

It doesn't matter if people only read / view the ones they agree with.

[CornwallFox]

A growing problem it seems. I've taken the below from the BBC. If this does turn out to be partisan political violence, as seems likely but not yet confirmed, then there seems to be a trend towards violence across the political spectrum in the US. I think we can probably all see that our own politics has been Americanised - using division to separate us into tribes that oppose each other, rather than a nation that can discuss and agree, so we should think about how we turn that around:

 

Charlie Kirk's death marks a dramatic escalation in rising political violence across the country in recent years. The shooting comes just months after a gunman entered the homes of two Minnesota Democratic lawmakers and their spouses, killing one couple and injuring the other.

Between 2016 and 2025, there were 25 attacks and threats targeting elected officials, political candidates, judges and government employees that were motivated by partisan beliefs, according to the Center for Strategic International Studies. For comparison, only two such incidents were reported in the two previous decades.

The increase in partisan attacks spans the ideological spectrum but has done little to lower the temperature in political rhetoric. Security, too has become a key concern among elected officials.

[Jon the Hat]

Those who espouse the right to bear arms must imagine they will be on the side of the protector, defending their family, or that the collateral damage is not them or their families. It's easy to justify the cost of allowing guns when you don't expect to have to bear that cost personally.  It turns out the fact that a lot of gun crime is gang / poverty related doesn't mean a white middle class conservative cannot also be a victim.

[Sly]

The world is turning back on itself.

 

We’re edging closer and closer to the longest relatively war free time in European history (WW2 to now), coming to an end.

 

This week alone; we’ve had:

 

Russia strike Poland. 

Israel strike Qatar. 

Charlie Kirk assassinated at a speech.

Vigilant attacks on migrants in Belfast.

School stabbing in Antibes, France.

Upcoming clashes in Melbournes CBD. 
Roadside bombing in Cameroon.

Ongoing gang warfare in public in Limerick.

 

Alone these are isolated incidents and some have largely gone unreported.
 

Compound these with ongoing wars in Ukraine, Gaza, large portions of Africa, Myanmar, Mexico, then other situations like Thailand and even rising tensions in the UK, which continue to turn up the pressure in a melting pot of an area.

The fact we’ve actively got people going around using flags as a symbolic reason of hate, painting roundabouts, then finding time to go and shout at a hotel (which conveniently holds  people who have come here for a better life), is insane if you take a step back. Why hasn’t this been stamped out? Like why are people procrastinating on this and letting it escalate? 

 

The butterfly effect from this entire situation worldwide could be phenomenal in terms of pushing everything off the cliffs edge.

 

Violence and aggression are never the answer in a logical, forward thinking society, However unfortunately it’s a primal state that all living beings resort to, asserting dominance over others. 
 

We are going to hit a point when the other side stands up and that’s where the lid comes off the pressure can and all hell brakes lose.