General News Thread

[st albans fox]

2 hours ago, davieG said:

Didn't China fairly recently had a one child only law?

 Not for a while 

And it was effectively enforced via no state payments for child support beyond child 1

 

so those with money had as many kids as they wanted 

[MPH]

7 hours ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Very much the case in the UK.

40 minutes to Market Overton from Leicester is very different to a  small village in the middle of nowhere with  not even a shop  or pub that’s a few hours along winding mountain roads to a city   In Japan  that’s  in the video we are discussing.

[MPH]

7 hours ago, Sampson said:

Well, the point is that the reason why population ageing hasn’t been as pronounced in Europe, the US, Canada etc. despite being still a huge issue is because of a semi-regular flow of working age immigrants throughout the 90s, 00s and 10s, which has now become politically unviable in the 20s.

 

Like Europe and North America, Japan and South Korea’s birth rates started to drop below 2 children per women during the late 1970s, and now that birth cohort where the population dropped below replacement rate are in their 50s - population ageing is of course something that takes decades to actually affect society, but will exponentially only get worse as the years go by with women having less than 2 children on average - no country has managed to reverse it either - plenty have tried different things - Sweden tried more benefits for having more children and lengthy parental leave, Poland tried higher benefits, France has tried “semi-retirement” schemes with part time work and reduced pension, Austria has tried hiking up retirement age, Orban offered that any woman having 3 or more children would be excempt from income tax for the rest of their lives, but none of them have managed to really successfully raise the birth rate.

 

Worth saying that China and South East Asia all started dropping below replacement rate in the 00s and South America had dropped below it within the past decade or so.

 

Africa, India and the Middle East hasn’t yet which is why so much immigration comes from those areas - but it appears to be a constant of advanced, industrialised capitalism - that once economies reach a certain level of comfort people kind of stop having children and no one knows how to reverse it.

 

that might be part of the reason. Also, for the UK, nothing is as far away  as is depicted in the video . Plus  the Japanese seem to take their health very seriously. Seen quite a few videos of parks full of 80 year old + people at 7am  excersisng

[Jon the Hat]

4 hours ago, MPH said:

 

that might be part of the reason. Also, for the UK, nothing is as far away  as is depicted in the video . Plus  the Japanese seem to take their health very seriously. Seen quite a few videos of parks full of 80 year old + people at 7am  excersisng

I believe there are remote valleys and islands in the highlands of Scotland who are pretty empty of young adults and dying off slowly, but we don't have that many places in England as you say.

[Mike Oxlong]

He's at it again 

 

[Lionator]

This is a good take. Labour’s inability to show off the good they’ve ACTUALLY done is one of the reasons why they’re so stupid. 

[leicsmac]

2 minutes ago, Lionator said:

This is a good take. Labour’s inability to show off the good they’ve ACTUALLY done is one of the reasons why they’re so stupid. 

Yeah, it's another US import - the idea of "vote for me because I'm not them".

 

Thing is, that argument carries some weight, certainly over there and somewhat over here (if you consider the consequences of future policy decisions accurately) but it really can't stand alone as a platform - sooner rather than later people are going to want to see what you yourself are actually doing to make things better. 

[davieG]

2 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Yeah, it's another US import - the idea of "vote for me because I'm not them".

Hasn't that always been the case with our 'two' party system whether said or not.

[leicsmac]

2 minutes ago, davieG said:

Hasn't that always been the case with our 'two' party system whether said or not.

Likely so, but I do think it's become more pronounced in recent times. It used to be the case that parties spent more time highlighting their own policy platform and deeds than attacking those of other parties. That seems to have become inverted recently. 

 

Of course, that's just my take. 

[davieG]

Just now, leicsmac said:

Likely so, but I do think it's become more pronounced in recent times. It used to be the case that parties spent more time highlighting their own policy platform and deeds than attacking those of other parties. That seems to have become inverted recently. 

 

Of course, that's just my take. 

True but the actually voting is usually down to whether the Party in government is seen to be doing well or not. 

 

I  just feel that a large majority have never really looked at what the partys are offering and go more on the gut feel the the incumbents are good or bad. They're left with the option vote for the other big party or a protest one.

 

It's why I dislike party politics especially in it's current form.

[leicsmac]

14 minutes ago, davieG said:

True but the actually voting is usually down to whether the Party in government is seen to be doing well or not. 

 

I  just feel that a large majority have never really looked at what the partys are offering and go more on the gut feel the the incumbents are good or bad. They're left with the option vote for the other big party or a protest one.

 

It's why I dislike party politics especially in it's current form.

It's a really difficult conundrum - how does a democratic government serve both the needs of the individuals who vote for it, but also the needs of everyone when needed? Parties have their use as blocs to act on behalf of groups, but it's hardly a perfect system, as you say. 

 

Thinkers since the time of ancient Greece have been struggling with that idea, and so far no one idea has been shown to be really anywhere near optimal. It's likely there is no one optimal idea - rather, only best choices based on situation that require adaptation and change where needed - something a lot of people struggle with, sadly.

 

 

[davieG]

2 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

It's a really difficult conundrum - how does a democratic government serve both the needs of the individuals who vote for it, but also the needs of everyone when needed? Parties have their use as blocs to act on behalf of groups, but it's hardly a perfect system, as you say. 

 

Thinkers since the time of ancient Greece have been struggling with that idea, and so far no one idea has been shown to be really anywhere near optimal. It's likely there is no one optimal idea - rather, only best choices based on situation that require adaptation and change where needed - something a lot of people struggle with, sadly.

 

 

Some form of proportional representation would help as there'd be a point in voting for someone unlikely to be able to form a government but could be an MP.

[leicsmac]

2 minutes ago, davieG said:

Some form of proportional representation would help as there'd be a point in voting for someone unlikely to be able to form a government but could be an MP.

Agreed. 

 

And as it happens, the balance of power in terms of votes is now so nearly even that a vote on the matter might pass where it failed just over a decade ago. 

[Lionator]

1 hour ago, leicsmac said:

Likely so, but I do think it's become more pronounced in recent times. It used to be the case that parties spent more time highlighting their own policy platform and deeds than attacking those of other parties. That seems to have become inverted recently. 

 

Of course, that's just my take. 

It’s because nobody can truly sell a positive vision. Reform’s ’positive vision’ is to go back to a point in time that never excited. Labour and Tories are ‘we’re less bad than the other at managing uk decline’, Greens just not viable. Interestingly Plaid will do well in Wales because a more independent Wales is actually exciting.

[Lionator]

.

 

Edited 6 May by Lionator

[Innovindil]

13 minutes ago, Lionator said:

In other news, it’s cruel for those on board, but that cruise ship needs to be sunk. We can’t risk another global pandemic. 

[MPH]

8 hours ago, Jon the Hat said:

I believe there are remote valleys and islands in the highlands of Scotland who are pretty empty of young adults and dying off slowly, but we don't have that many places in England as you say.

 

there’s no village in the UK that’s more than 50 miles from a city, and that’s not even counting large towns. In places like Japan, they have villages that can be 500-600 miles from, a city. Surely you understand the difference that can make?

Edited 6 May by MPH

[Sampson]

Hantavirus is not even a particularly transmissible virus via humans. Genuinely saying sink a boat and kill thousands of innocent people is nuts. 

Edited 6 May by Sampson

[Super_horns]

Hopefully just a minor outbreak that can be controlled and contained 

[st albans fox]

2 hours ago, Sampson said:

Hantavirus is not even a particularly transmissible virus via humans. Genuinely saying sink a boat and kill thousands of innocent people is nuts. 

thousands ? 
 

obvs it’s not an option in any case - is anyone seriously suggesting that ?

[deep blue]

6 hours ago, Lionator said:

It’s because nobody can truly sell a positive vision. Reform’s ’positive vision’ is to go back to a point in time that never excited. Labour and Tories are ‘we’re less bad than the other at managing uk decline’, Greens just not viable. Interestingly Plaid will do well in Wales because a more independent Wales is actually exciting.

One of the problems is the lack of political interest and awareness with people in this country.  For example, I see you make no reference to the Liberal Democrats, the third largest party in the Commons and with a much more rounded policy position than newbies Reform and Green. 

[st albans fox]

42 minutes ago, deep blue said:

One of the problems is the lack of political interest and awareness with people in this country.  For example, I see you make no reference to the Liberal Democrats, the third largest party in the Commons and with a much more rounded policy position than newbies Reform and Green. 

I think the Lib Dem’s are culpable for allowing labour voters to seemingly just abandon them for the greens.  You’d expect the Lib Dem’s to have picked up some of these voters.

[Lionator]

6 hours ago, Sampson said:

Hantavirus is not even a particularly transmissible virus via humans. Genuinely saying sink a boat and kill thousands of innocent people is nuts. 

It was sarcasm! 

[Parafox]

On 05/05/2026 at 12:05, MPH said:

 

saw this last night. I’m  A big fan of Yes theory.  Are we in the UK an aging population?  Also, I don’t think we have the rural issue that Japan has and the escape to the ‘ bright lights’ of a big city  that the rural young people of Japan are doing.  I suppose to some degree with all the advancements in science and medicine, most nations will see a noticeable increase in elderly people, it’s just in Britain, I think, we will continue to live side by side for the most part..

 

On 05/05/2026 at 14:50, Trav Le Bleu said:

Very much the case in the UK.

 

For the young, ambitious professionals maybe so, but for the older successful people the move is in the opposite direction.

[Parafox]

6 hours ago, Super_horns said:

Hopefully just a minor outbreak that can be controlled and contained 

It's on a ship, so very isolated and contained and controllable as long as no one gets off it.