General News Thread

[leicsmac]

Looking elsewhere for a moment:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp9kp2kx329o

 

This is where lack of planning and ignorance of environment in the name of economic growth gets you. 

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c87l7xjp235o

 

China clearly continuing to follow their version of the Monroe Doctrine. 

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2g263v3kzo

 

A genuine bona fide hero. 

[Bellend Sebastian]

Two fatal house fires in the space of a couple of days, both involving kids.

 

Horrible that this still happens

[bovril]

14 hours ago, splinterdream said:

The EU wanted a United States of Europe with decisions being made in Brussels, the Country that voted wasn't keen on that.

I would say they'd have hoped negotiations for Brexit could have been better but there you go. Eastern European labour caused issues for the working classes with wages and conditions being stifled, training non existent and money being earned then moved out of the Country 

 

well you'll be pleased to know millions of Europeans are now leaving (maybe escaping is a better word). 

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15403461/great-exodus-Brexit-Romanians-crime-NHS-cost-living.html

 

I'm sure those things you mention - "issues for the working classes with wages and conditions being stifled, training non existent and money being earned then moved out of the Country" - will all improve now. Golden years ahead!

Edited 29 December 2025 by bovril

[splinterdream]

23 minutes ago, bovril said:

well you'll be pleased to know millions of Europeans are now leaving (maybe escaping is a better word). 

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15403461/great-exodus-Brexit-Romanians-crime-NHS-cost-living.html

 

I'm sure those things you mention - "issues for the working classes with wages and conditions being stifled, training non existent and money being earned then moved out of the Country" - will all improve now. Golden years ahead!

It did improve in the haulage sector, couldnt tell you if they did in the construction industry even though i'm part of it, it's difficult to gauge as everything else has gone up, that might be blamed on brexit but often seems like profiteering to me 

[splinterdream]

11 hours ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Top marks to the government there!

They come for the welfare and we hand that out like candy 

[splinterdream]

14 hours ago, leicsmac said:

I fail to see how this stops different demographics from looking at each other like they think they're superior to the other guy (when in fact none of them are) with the resulting divisionand consequences of that division, but fair enough. 

 

Yeah, but Brits (particularly when they're a particular skin colour) are somehow inherently elevated when it comes to financial and cultural contributions no matter where they happen to be.

 

Apparently. 

Do you think all cultures are morally and ethically the same? This argument got debated when Kemi said not all cultures are equally valid and I tend to agree with her.

[leicsmac]

20 minutes ago, splinterdream said:

Do you think all cultures are morally and ethically the same? This argument got debated when Kemi said not all cultures are equally valid and I tend to agree with her.

I'm more inclined to think that belief in cultural supremacy tends to go from that to rather horrible ethnic cleansing and history clearly shows it not only goes there often it often goes there fast. Whichever "culture" is doing it tends to be mostly irrelevant. 

 

Total cultural egalitarianism is likely a fools errand, but if it's a choice between making the effort there and the alternative above...

[Robo61]

56 minutes ago, splinterdream said:

They come for the welfare and we hand that out like candy 

I am sure you know that is not at all true,  but I'll spell it out for you.   Welfare benefits for asylum seekers are greater in France than they are in the UK and France allow then to work,  which we do not,  so there are other pull factors (langauge, family ties etc) for the minority who attempt to cross from France.  

[Salisbury Fox]

4 hours ago, Robo61 said:

I am sure you know that is not at all true,  but I'll spell it out for you.   Welfare benefits for asylum seekers are greater in France than they are in the UK and France allow then to work,  which we do not,  so there are other pull factors (langauge, family ties etc) for the minority who attempt to cross from France.  

I’m pretty sure welfare provision for asylum seekers in France and the UK is broadly similar. The French allow them to work when they are pending a decision after 6 months via a temporary permit, whereas in the UK they can work after 12 months if a decision is still pending, provided the delay in the decision is not due to the asylum seeker.

[Lionator]

Im usually a bit of a skeptic to anti Russian stuff but this drone attack on Putin’s mansion is the most obvious false flag I’ve ever seen. Russian government are absolute idiots 

[Zear0]

10 minutes ago, Lionator said:

Im usually a bit of a skeptic to anti Russian stuff but this drone attack on Putin’s mansion is the most obvious false flag I’ve ever seen. Russian government are absolute idiots 

Only takes one idiot to believe it for it to be successful and it appears he did.

[Leicester_Loyal]

11 hours ago, st albans fox said:

He’s said sorry now and that the tweets in question were when he was young (about 30?) and the homophobic ones were tongue in cheek (as were the holocaust ones) - he was mocking to make a point.   he’ll  be under a lot of observation by the authorities or he won’t if he actually is ‘one of ours’. (As per an extrapolation of your thoughts above). 

 

I think both the left and right need to decide if historic social media stuff is a bad thing or not.  It seems that it is when it suits a narrative and isn’t when it doesn’t 

 

 

If I posted those same tweets tonight, I'd be in prison by the end of 2026.

 

I think putting people in prison for social media posts is insane btw, for what it's worth.

[Md9]

57 minutes ago, Zear0 said:

Only takes one idiot to believe it for it to be successful and it appears he did.

And of course the idiot is trump 😂

[Md9]

Can’t stop collecting  awards what a guy 

[Danizen]

1 hour ago, Lionator said:

Im usually a bit of a skeptic to anti Russian stuff but this drone attack on Putin’s mansion is the most obvious false flag I’ve ever seen. Russian government are absolute idiots 

As if a drone would get within half a mile of Putin's house...

[splinterdream]

8 hours ago, Robo61 said:

I am sure you know that is not at all true,  but I'll spell it out for you.   Welfare benefits for asylum seekers are greater in France than they are in the UK and France allow then to work,  which we do not,  so there are other pull factors (langauge, family ties etc) for the minority who attempt to cross from France.  

Strange, I thought they were given a tent and told to stick it, also the success of an asylum application in the EU is far lower than it is with us, but we know France has the same problems we do 

[Robo61]

3 minutes ago, splinterdream said:

Strange, I thought they were given a tent and told to stick it, also the success of an asylum application in the EU is far lower than it is with us, but we know France has the same problems we do 

Not sure what you are teying to say interms of success, but we are at the lower end of succesful asylum claims per capita across europe. It's also more difficult to send asylum seekers back post Brexit and so coming out of the Dublin convention.

[kenny]

6 minutes ago, Robo61 said:

Not sure what you are teying to say interms of success, but we are at the lower end of succesful asylum claims per capita across europe. It's also more difficult to send asylum seekers back post Brexit and so coming out of the Dublin convention.

As a percentage success rate, the UK is 25% above the EU average. It has come down, but typically, asylum claims are easier here.

 

They are now much lower success rate than they were while we were in the DC.

[splinterdream]

5 minutes ago, Robo61 said:

Not sure what you are teying to say interms of success, but we are at the lower end of succesful asylum claims per capita across europe. It's also more difficult to send asylum seekers back post Brexit and so coming out of the Dublin convention.

Per capita? I really dont see how that is relevent. Asylum was designed for those fleeing war or persecution. I'm sure you are not silly enough to not realise, many of these men are fleeing neither. The first and most important job of a government is to protect its citizens. That is not happening here and you'd have to be a bit naive to believe nothing could be done to make it less attractive  proposition to come here 

[leicsmac]

On 30/10/2025 at 09:08, leicsmac said:

WRT immigration/asylum claims, the situation remains as clear as it ever has been. There are only three options IMO:

 

- work a lot harder, along with everyone else, on foreign policy matters that prevent people having to migrate and leave their nations in the first place

 

- accept the disruption and terrible happenings in other nations as simply "some people are lucky and some aren't", refuse entry for as many of them as possible, and abandon them to their fate

 

- muddle on with the status quo which seems to suit next to nobody

 

If there's another option, I'd like to hear it. 

 

On 04/11/2025 at 19:25, leicsmac said:

 

I think that global problems sometimes transcend national ones, sometimes the two are intertwined, and that while first and foremost a nation should look after its own citizens, doing that in every circumstance doesn't tend to end well. 

 

Edit: again, though, that approach guarantees the suffering and death of a great many people who just don't happen to be British. How well that sits clearly is up to the beholder, but I'd rather people have the stones to regardless admit that is the case and that's the choice they make.

Whenever this particular topic crops up...

 

(Still looking for honest answers or at least honesty of purpose in response to the above, BTW.)

 

[CornwallFox]

10 hours ago, splinterdream said:

They come for the welfare and we hand that out like candy 

Nonsense. 

Having with worked in the benefits world previously, I can tell you that you cannot just turn up in the UK, legally or not, and claim benefits. That is a lie designed to keep people thinking the way you appear to.

[CornwallFox]

44 minutes ago, splinterdream said:

Per capita? I really dont see how that is relevent. Asylum was designed for those fleeing war or persecution. I'm sure you are not silly enough to not realise, many of these men are fleeing neither. The first and most important job of a government is to protect its citizens. That is not happening here and you'd have to be a bit naive to believe nothing could be done to make it less attractive  proposition to come here 

They literally have to prove they are being  persecuted. They can't just claim it. They can't lose their identity. If they cannot prove who they are and that are personally being persecuted they will not get asylum. And the majority of asylum seekers do successfully prove the those things. They are the facts. 

What you've written is ill-informed nonsense.

[Zear0]

Make that two gullible tyrants... 

 

 

 

[StanSP]

13 minutes ago, Zear0 said:

Make that two gullible tyrants... 

 

 

 

he's a *****.

[Robo61]

10 hours ago, splinterdream said:

Per capita? I really dont see how that is relevent. Asylum was designed for those fleeing war or persecution. I'm sure you are not silly enough to not realise, many of these men are fleeing neither. The first and most important job of a government is to protect its citizens. That is not happening here and you'd have to be a bit naive to believe nothing could be done to make it less attractive  proposition to come here 

It is relevant becuase it reflects on of the arguments made from the right on countries abilities to absorb asylum seekers into their populations.  When in the EU we werer able to agree such numbers.  Most who have applied for asylum have been granted it by the last 4 governments who all professed to be tough on it.  There does though seem to be more non genuine cases in the last couple of years,  don't know why that is,  but is certainly not due to pull factors beyond this is a better place to be than their home country,  imagine that.