General News Thread

[CornwallFox]

13 hours ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

I'd have thought a Viking coalition at least.

 

Saab Viggen v F-18 would be interesting.

Id have thought there'd be a diplomatic crisis where basically NATO and all of Americas allies make it clear America will be shunned should they continue

[Mike Oxlong]

Anyone else thinking that there must literally have been thousands of As in Balmoral who both knew Ghislaine Maxwell and were able to fly around the world asking her to procure “inappropriate friends” 

Edited 24 December 2025 by Mike Oxlong

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp39kngz008o

 

Two British social media campaigners are among five people denied US visas after the State Department accused them of seeking to "coerce" American tech platforms into suppressing free speech.

Imran Ahmed, an ex-Labour adviser who now heads the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), and Clare Melford, CEO of the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), were labelled "radical activists" by the Trump administration and banned from entering the US.

 

Land of the free... apparently. 

[danny.]

39 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp39kngz008o

 

Two British social media campaigners are among five people denied US visas after the State Department accused them of seeking to "coerce" American tech platforms into suppressing free speech.

Imran Ahmed, an ex-Labour adviser who now heads the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), and Clare Melford, CEO of the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), were labelled "radical activists" by the Trump administration and banned from entering the US.

 

Land of the free... apparently. 

Do you not think sovereign countries have the right to allow or deny visas for whoever they want to? The USA (and the majority of countries) don't have open borders.

[leicsmac]

5 minutes ago, danny. said:

Do you not think sovereign countries have the right to allow or deny visas for whoever they want to? The USA (and the majority of countries) don't have open borders.

Of course.

 

What's also obvious is that something like this, done for the reasons stated, puts yet another lie to their sense of superiority on such matters that appear to be a cornerstone of this administration.

 

The hypocrisy is profound.

[Sampson]

37 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Of course.

 

What's also obvious is that something like this, done for the reasons stated, puts yet another lie to their sense of superiority on such matters that appear to be a cornerstone of this administration.

 

The hypocrisy is profound.

It's always been done though. I mean, someone from North Korea or Iraq doesn't just fill out a simple form with no checks to get a visa to visit the UK. All that's happened is what has happened to people from other diplomatically adversarial countries is now what's happening to British, French and German people.

 

The issue is too many people are still in the October 2024 mindset that the US is a friendly diplomatic nation towards the UK, despite the fact the US has been quite open in the past few months that they see the UK and the rest of Europe as diplomatic adversaries not as allies. It is brutal for US/UK families and friends who live in both countries who are going to find it harder to see each other now, but people need to take the US at their word they're not a friendly country towards us anymore, and stop burying their head in the sand about it.

 

Our biggest allies/closest diplomatic relationships now are the EU, Australia/NZ and Canada (maybe Japan, Singapore and S. Korea too but that's up in the air right now I'd say). We shouldn't be seeing the US as part of that anymore and if anything, realise they're actively part of the other side.

Edited 24 December 2025 by Sampson

[leicsmac]

4 minutes ago, Sampson said:

It's always been done though. I mean, someone from North Korea or Iraq doesn't just fill out a simple form visa to visit the UK. All that's happened is what has happened to people from other countries is now what's happening to British, French and German people.

 

The issue is too many people are still in the October 2024 mindset that the US is a friendly diplomatic nation towards the UK, despite the fact the US has been quite open in the past few months that they see the UK and the rest of Europe as diplomatic adversaries not as allies. It is brutal for US/UK families and friends who live in both countries who are going to find it harder to see each other now, but people need to take the US on their word they're not a friendly country towards us anymore, and stop burying their head in the sand about it. Our biggest allies/closest diplomatic relationships now are the EU, Australia/NZ, Canada, Japan and S. Korea. We shouldn't be seeing the US as part of that anymore.

Absolutely no disagreement whatsoever there. The US as it is now is at least a potential and at most an actual belligerent towards the UK and the values it and other forward looking nations should possess. 

 

Anyone still of the mindset you mention needs to (as you say) get their head out of the sand, or be viewed as someone keen on the kind of inevitably destructive nationalism the US is currently selling. 

[CornwallFox]

34 minutes ago, Sampson said:

It's always been done though. I mean, someone from North Korea or Iraq doesn't just fill out a simple form with no checks to get a visa to visit the UK. All that's happened is what has happened to people from other diplomatically adversarial countries is now what's happening to British, French and German people.

 

The issue is too many people are still in the October 2024 mindset that the US is a friendly diplomatic nation towards the UK, despite the fact the US has been quite open in the past few months that they see the UK and the rest of Europe as diplomatic adversaries not as allies. It is brutal for US/UK families and friends who live in both countries who are going to find it harder to see each other now, but people need to take the US at their word they're not a friendly country towards us anymore, and stop burying their head in the sand about it.

 

Our biggest allies/closest diplomatic relationships now are the EU, Australia/NZ and Canada (maybe Japan, Singapore and S. Korea too but that's up in the air right now I'd say). We shouldn't be seeing the US as part of that anymore and if anything, realise they're actively part of the other side.

Indeed. We really should be calling it out publicly as a close friend of the US, and tell it how it is. We're not going to tow the American line while trump is threatening it's allies. 

[bovril]

It's obvious to anyone paying attention that the American far right have long been quite anti Britain, both its current form but also historically as a country that helped develop and spread liberalism around the world. British right wingers with their very cute belief in the 'Anglosphere' are the last ones to work it out, as usual. 

[Trav Le Bleu]

2 hours ago, leicsmac said:

Absolutely no disagreement whatsoever there. The US as it is now is at least a potential and at most an actual belligerent towards the UK and the values it and other forward looking nations should possess. 

 

Anyone still of the mindset you mention needs to (as you say) get their head out of the sand, or be viewed as someone keen on the kind of inevitably destructive nationalism the US is currently selling. 

It won't be long before saying anything negative about loveable uncle Donny is classified as a hate crime with a custodial sentence.

[MaidstoneFox]

3 hours ago, Sampson said:

It's always been done though. I mean, someone from North Korea or Iraq doesn't just fill out a simple form with no checks to get a visa to visit the UK. All that's happened is what has happened to people from other diplomatically adversarial countries is now what's happening to British, French and German people.

 

The issue is too many people are still in the October 2024 mindset that the US is a friendly diplomatic nation towards the UK, despite the fact the US has been quite open in the past few months that they see the UK and the rest of Europe as diplomatic adversaries not as allies. It is brutal for US/UK families and friends who live in both countries who are going to find it harder to see each other now, but people need to take the US at their word they're not a friendly country towards us anymore, and stop burying their head in the sand about it.

 

Our biggest allies/closest diplomatic relationships now are the EU, Australia/NZ and Canada (maybe Japan, Singapore and S. Korea too but that's up in the air right now I'd say). We shouldn't be seeing the US as part of that anymore and if anything, realise they're actively part of the other side.

They still want the world to buy their products though - Nike, MacDonalds, Disney, Netflix, Ford, Amazon etc etc.

[deep blue]

3 hours ago, CornwallFox said:

Indeed. We really should be calling it out publicly as a close friend of the US, and tell it how it is. We're not going to tow the American line while trump is threatening it's allies. 

At least the LibDem leader is calling out the US for their behaviour.  I suppose you can forgive the reluctance of the government in that respect as their position is more delicate and they must feel they have to be more diplomatic (ironic since the US seem to have dropped that word from their vocabulary). What about the Tories? Can't remember them having anything anti to say.

[leicsmac]

1 hour ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

It won't be long before saying anything negative about loveable uncle Donny is classified as a hate crime with a custodial sentence.

I wish this was absolutely sure to be satirical and have no basis in fact. 

[leicsmac]

11 minutes ago, deep blue said:

At least the LibDem leader is calling out the US for their behaviour.  I suppose you can forgive the reluctance of the government in that respect as their position is more delicate and they must feel they have to be more diplomatic (ironic since the US seem to have dropped that word from their vocabulary). What about the Tories? Can't remember them having anything anti to say.

From current evidence, Badenoch is entirely fine with the Trump administration.

[danny.]

3 hours ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

It won't be long before saying anything negative about loveable uncle Donny is classified as a hate crime with a custodial sentence.

How Starmeresque

[danny.]

2 hours ago, MaidstoneFox said:

They still want the world to buy their products though - Nike, MacDonalds, Disney, Netflix, Ford, Amazon etc etc.

What’s that got to do with border control? Any sovereign country is going to want to both trade and control their borders.
 

Look forward to @Grebfromgrebland leaving the traditional laughing reaction to this too. 

[Trav Le Bleu]

Can't let him off for Xmas.

 

Has anyone seen DT's Christmas phone calls to small children.

 

Pure cringe.

[Alf Bentley]

On 24/12/2025 at 07:41, Mike Oxlong said:

Anyone else thinking that there must literally have been thousands of As in Balmoral who both knew Ghislaine Maxwell and were able to fly around the world asking her to procure “inappropriate friends” 

 

Quite right, Mike. "A" could be anyone. I used to work in a small office where 3 of my colleagues were named Alun, Andrew and Anne.

 

Mind you, I do suspect that the Royal Family might be involved. My money's on Princess Anne. There was always something a bit perverse about her obsession with horses.

 

 

 

[SkidsFox]

8 minutes ago, Alf Bentley said:

 

Quite right, Mike. "A" could be anyone. I used to work in a small office where 3 of my colleagues were named Alun, Andrew and Anne.

 

Mind you, I do suspect that the Royal Family might be involved. My money's on Princess Anne. There was always something a bit perverse about her obsession with horses.

 

 

 

Starting to see some quite disturbing allegations about a certain  Prince. There must have been crimes aplenty over the last decades/centuries by folk in power. Mind you we were warned about all this by Mr Icke.

[Trav Le Bleu]

Enjoy 

 

 

 

 

[Md9]

Could have just said merry Christmas and left it 😂 this guy ain’t seeing 2026 out his brain is a pile of mush

[Danizen]

 

1 hour ago, Md9 said:

Could have just said merry Christmas and left it 😂 this guy ain’t seeing 2026 out his brain is a pile of mush

[leicsmac]

Vance on the UK and France re nuclear weapons:

 

“If they allow themselves to be overwhelmed with very destructive moral ideas, then you allow nuclear weapons to fall in the hands of people who can actually cause very, very serious harm to the United States".

 

Does anyone really think the current US administration is worth anything at all as a friend or an ally to the UK, when they clearly do not give a shit about places apart from how they might benefit themselves only?

[CornwallFox]

44 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Vance on the UK and France re nuclear weapons:

 

“If they allow themselves to be overwhelmed with very destructive moral ideas, then you allow nuclear weapons to fall in the hands of people who can actually cause very, very serious harm to the United States".

 

Does anyone really think the current US administration is worth anything at all as a friend or an ally to the UK, when they clearly do not give a shit about places apart from how they might benefit themselves only?

They are totally crazy. 

Interesting that Putin has talked about the Americans wanting to be involved in running the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant jointly with the Ukrainians - because the Americans want to use it to power cryptocurrency mining.

Literally no reason for him to make it up and no denial from the Americans. 

They're just weird.

Edited 26 December 2025 by CornwallFox

[Trav Le Bleu]

12 minutes ago, CornwallFox said:

They are totally crazy. 

Interesting that Putin has talked about the Americans wanting to be involved in running the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant jointly with the Ukrainians - because the Americans want to use it to power cryptocurrency mining.

Literally no reason for him to make it up and no denial from the Americans. 

They're just weird.

They're not going to use beautiful, clean coal?