General News Thread

[Nalis]

Didnt want to derail the not worthy of a thread thread into politics but regardless of your position on Isreael/ Palestine, I find it amusing when bands say Free Palestine at gigs just to get a big cheer from the fans. Bit of a cheap pseudo edgy way of getting the crowd on your side.

Edited 13 May by Nalis

[bovril]

6 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

 

 

 making your boobs bugger 

[Trav Le Bleu]

1 minute ago, Jon the Hat said:

 

 

Lee Valley Marina is a non-residential marina.  He was not supposed to be living there but has revealed he was indeed living on the boat.

If you live mainly on a boat, it is subject to council tax.  You are responsible for your tax, and not knowing this, or indeed others also not knowing this if they were also living there, is not a defence.

The media like to point out political hypocrisy, especially from people who want others to pay more tax, but don't pay their own.

 

To either deliberately or accidentally underpay council tax is either criminal or incompetent.  I would say the latter in this case, but on top of the antisemitism, the history of strange statements about hypnotherapy making your boobs bugger doesn't exactly suggest this is a man to invent much faith in.

 

Dan Neidle tweets about questionable tax behaviour (including for example by the then deputy leader of the Labour party and the then Tory Chancellor).

 

Not saying this in defence of the guy, but suppose you are lucky enough to have two residences (and TBF, I always thought you paid council tax on each that you own) that you spend roughly an equal amount of time in, or flit between both so much that it's difficult to be sure? Or if you say one is your primary residence and due to other circumstances (sudden repairs needed, change of job, visitors) you actually spend more time in the other?

[leicsmac]

8 minutes ago, davieG said:

Do other countries have the knee jerk reaction to any major or even some minor incidents to change the government. It's becoming more difficult to have two consecutive terms in parliament. Certainly Labour have struggled with this.

This I believe is the upturn of influence from the massive increase in media a lot of it driven by the right wing or money grabbing heads of businesses.

It's been said here before, but I'll repeat it; other comparable democracies to the UK appear to have a stronger social contract in place, and less wealth disparity. A decent hypothesis might be that is one of the main reasons why their politics appears to be less fast food (and less unstable) than that of the UK. 

[Nalis]

42 minutes ago, davieG said:

Classic example of two wrongs dont make a right, different scales obviously but still

[Jon the Hat]

17 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Not saying this in defence of the guy, but suppose you are lucky enough to have two residences (and TBF, I always thought you paid council tax on each that you own) that you spend roughly an equal amount of time in, or flit between both so much that it's difficult to be sure? Or if you say one is your primary residence and due to other circumstances (sudden repairs needed, change of job, visitors) you actually spend more time in the other?

You certainly pay on both, often more on the second one these days.  The fact he didn't I guess is because it was a boat, and because it was non-residential, the council never asked for it.

[Spudulike]

18 minutes ago, Nalis said:

Didnt want to derail the not worthy of a thread thread into politics but regardless of your position on Isreael/ Palestine, I find it amusing when bands say Free Palestine at gigs to get a big cheer from the fans. Bit of a cheap pseudo edgy way of getting the crowd on your side.

Amusing?! I'm with Noel Gallagher on this. Sick to death of it. They need a new trendy cause to latch on to. The last thing I want at a gig is to be lectured on politics. 

[leicsmac]

8 minutes ago, Spudulike said:

Amusing?! I'm with Noel Gallagher on this. Sick to death of it. They need a new trendy cause to latch on to. The last thing I want at a gig is to be lectured on politics. 

I'm sure Buffalo Springfield and Johnny Cash, among others, would be very disappointed to hear that, given their own musical messages. (Were they still with us.)

[Finnegan]

23 minutes ago, Spudulike said:

Amusing?! I'm with Noel Gallagher on this. Sick to death of it. They need a new trendy cause to latch on to. The last thing I want at a gig is to be lectured on politics. 

 

Not specifically talking about you as I've got no idea what you listen to but it does make me laugh how many of the people that trot out phrases like this these days are watching groups like RATM or SOAD or Green Day or some punk band whose lyrics and behavior have always made it clear they are profoundly political in what they do

 

I'd say 90% of the time I hear people being outraged about a band or artist having made a political statement it was a band or artist that are famously and notoriously political like, all the time. 

 

Ain't nobody turning up to a Taylor Swift gig and all of a sudden hearing her yelling from the river to the sea or **** MAGA or death to Putin or something are they. 

 

[slymunn]

32 minutes ago, Spudulike said:

Amusing?! I'm with Noel Gallagher on this. Sick to death of it. They need a new trendy cause to latch on to. The last thing I want at a gig is to be lectured on politics. 

This was happening long before the Sex Pistols, so its not really new.

[Innovindil]

22 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

Not specifically talking about you as I've got no idea what you listen to but it does make me laugh how many of the people that trot out phrases like this these days are watching groups like RATM or SOAD or Green Day or some punk band whose lyrics and behavior have always made it clear they are profoundly political in what they do

 

I'd say 90% of the time I hear people being outraged about a band or artist having made a political statement it was a band or artist that are famously and notoriously political like, all the time. 

 

Ain't nobody turning up to a Taylor Swift gig and all of a sudden hearing her yelling from the river to the sea or **** MAGA or death to Putin or something are they. 

 

 

Any excuse to post this again. Sometimes, you get exactly what you expect. 

[leicsmac]

4 minutes ago, Innovindil said:

 

Any excuse to post this again. Sometimes, you get exactly what you expect. 

I dont quite believe that there was a single person involved at the Beeb that didn't see this coming. 

 

I mean, it's in the actual lyric itself, guys. 

[MPH]

On a side note, there’s a guy out there called Mon Rovia, he was adopted out of a civil war in Liberia and lives in the Appalachian mountains. He sings along to a ukulele that he plays himself.  He has a song about the government called Heavy foot.  You should definitely not check that out.

[DJW1]

13 hours ago, MPH said:

 

you can’t blame reform entirely, for this mess. I mean, a swing from Labour to reform is surely a much larger swing than a from Labour to the Tories. Labour had a massive vote, the Tories were dead and buried and yet they still managed to let such a massive    Voting block melt through their fingers.. they had the votes… they didn’t need to persuade anyone to join them… how can millions of voters vote for Labour and then make the switch to reform?

A switch from Labour to Reform is, for me, not that hard to believe.

After the Brexit vote, Theresa May made the mistake of assuming that the pro-Brexit (mainly working class) voters of the Midlands and northern England would all vote Tory. In fact the pro-Brexit vote split equally between  the Tories and Labour (the pro-Brexit party at the time either didn´t stand or received few votes), meaning she didn´t get a majority

These "switchers" are socially conservative (i.e., racist) but economically "left-wing" (i.e., they want greater government spending that will benefit them).

[Spudulike]

38 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

I'm sure Buffalo Springfield and Johnny Cash, among others, would be very disappointed to hear that, given their own musical messages. (Were they still with us.)

 

20 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

Not specifically talking about you as I've got no idea what you listen to but it does make me laugh how many of the people that trot out phrases like this these days are watching groups like RATM or SOAD or Green Day or some punk band whose lyrics and behavior have always made it clear they are profoundly political in what they do

 

I'd say 90% of the time I hear people being outraged about a band or artist having made a political statement it was a band or artist that are famously and notoriously political like, all the time. 

 

Ain't nobody turning up to a Taylor Swift gig and all of a sudden hearing her yelling from the river to the sea or **** MAGA or death to Putin or something are they. 

 

 

16 minutes ago, slymunn said:

This was happening long before the Sex Pistols, so its not really new.

This is all true, of course it is. My post was too generalised when it was actually in response to the point about artists using the Israel/Palestine conflict to get cheap approval from the audience. Antisemitism has become acceptable mainstream. It's frightening.

 

Just for the record, I spent my late teenage years at the very beginning of the punk era and the very early 2-Tone so politics in music is nothing new to me. However, it was never lectured in the way it is now.

[Jon the Hat]

37 minutes ago, DJW1 said:

A switch from Labour to Reform is, for me, not that hard to believe.

After the Brexit vote, Theresa May made the mistake of assuming that the pro-Brexit (mainly working class) voters of the Midlands and northern England would all vote Tory. In fact the pro-Brexit vote split equally between  the Tories and Labour (the pro-Brexit party at the time either didn´t stand or received few votes), meaning she didn´t get a majority

These "switchers" are socially conservative (i.e., racist) but economically "left-wing" (i.e., they want greater government spending that will benefit them).

Here we go again.  Stop calling people you don't agree with racist at every opportunity and they might listen to you a bit more.

[MPH]

29 minutes ago, DJW1 said:

A switch from Labour to Reform is, for me, not that hard to believe.

After the Brexit vote, Theresa May made the mistake of assuming that the pro-Brexit (mainly working class) voters of the Midlands and northern England would all vote Tory. In fact the pro-Brexit vote split equally between  the Tories and Labour (the pro-Brexit party at the time either didn´t stand or received few votes), meaning she didn´t get a majority

These "switchers" are socially conservative (i.e., racist) but economically "left-wing" (i.e., they want greater government spending that will benefit them).

  The media would like to make it all about  Brexit of course right now but it’s much deeper than that.

 

Reform will curtail the building of wind farms, stop all subsidies for solar panels and electric cars.. opt for looser emissions limits  and extend the deadline to  reach an acceptable carbon footprint.. Also, I can’t help but wonder what policies are they trying to dilute for the sake of their public image? What will change or strengthen if they get elected?

 

and what happens if there is a hung parliament? Who will be in his coalition? There’s every chance Rupert Lowe and restore get a seat or two at the next election  and if you think Reform are bad, you need to read deeper into Restore.

 

 

anyway, my point being it goes way deeper than just brexit and a few extra pounds in the coffers..

[Jon the Hat]

5 minutes ago, MPH said:

  The media would like to make it all about  Brexit of course right now but it’s much deeper than that.

 

Reform will curtail the building of wind farms, stop all subsidies for solar panels and electric cars.. opt for looser emissions limits  and extend the deadline to  reach an acceptable carbon footprint.. Also, I can’t help but wonder what policies are they trying to dilute for the sake of their public image? What will change or strengthen if they get elected?

 

and what happens if there is a hung parliament? Who will be in his coalition? There’s every chance Rupert Lowe and restore get a seat or two at the next election  and if you think Reform are bad, you need to read deeper into Restore.

 

anyway, my point being it goes way deeper than just brexit and a few extra pounds in the coffers..

Reform are not going to win the next election.  They have peaked already, and people will vote tactically to keep them out.  They will get maybe 50-60 seats, but comfortably leave the option for a coalition government to form.  The question is whether that coalition is Labour Liberal or Conservative Reform.  Nigel deputy PM worst case imo.  It is still possible imo for Labour or Conservatives to get their shit together enough to win.

[leicsmac]

3 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

Here we go again.  Stop calling people you don't agree with racist at every opportunity and they might listen to you a bit more.

Has taking such a moral high ground actually worked anywhere in the last decade where these issues have really been the hot button ones? 

 

In any case, the policy platform of parties like Reform in the UK and elsewhere represents a threat to everyone, not just certain demographics (at least in the long term). Perhaps that's a better accusation to level. 

[Jon the Hat]

1 minute ago, leicsmac said:

Has taking such a moral high ground actually worked anywhere in the last decade where these issues have really been the hot button ones? 

 

In any case, the policy platform of parties like Reform in the UK and elsewhere represents a threat to everyone, not just certain demographics (at least in the long term). Perhaps that's a better accusation to level. 

Point out the incoherent nonsense they come out with, instead of calling those who believe it stupid.  It's the only way forward.  It might not work, but calling people racist and stupid has been proven to fail.

[leicsmac]

1 minute ago, Jon the Hat said:

Point out the incoherent nonsense they come out with, instead of calling those who believe it stupid.  It's the only way forward.  It might not work, but calling people racist and stupid has been proven to fail.

Sometimes it's rather difficult to separate one from the other, but I see what you mean.

[slymunn]

58 minutes ago, Spudulike said:

 

 

This is all true, of course it is. My post was too generalised when it was actually in response to the point about artists using the Israel/Palestine conflict to get cheap approval from the audience. Antisemitism has become acceptable mainstream. It's frightening.

 

Just for the record, I spent my late teenage years at the very beginning of the punk era and the very early 2-Tone so politics in music is nothing new to me. However, it was never lectured in the way it is now.

There's so much more news/social media/awareness in the whole world, that everything is hard to avoid. I dare say up to 10/15 years ago there was no where near this awareness of everything.

 

For example you used to have the local paper once a week, but now most people are on a whatsapp group for the street they live on as well as the town, cities community page. If you didn't find out in a chat a few years ago you didn't know. Now you know who's car got bumped at Tesco or if a plant pots stolen from a garden when you don't even know they person. Now add in the algorithms online and you watch a couple of videos online and similar show up for a good while longer, keeping you in whether you wanted more or not.

[Finnegan]

1 hour ago, Spudulike said:

However, it was never lectured in the way it is now.

 

See this is the part I just can't agree with. 

 

Politics and music have gone hand in hand pretty much for eternity. 

 

Even just looking at what we'd probably think of as contemporary music, starting around the 60s or so you've got the entire counter culture movement that's steeped in political feeling. Not just in the music and lyrics themselves but in the words and the actions of the performers both on stage and off. 

 

For me as someone that's spent most of my life listening to rock, punk and metal I'd probably find it harder to list apolitical bands than political ones and for pretty much my whole life I've been watching artists go on stage and use the platform to speak out. 

 

Edit: just because I've seen @Samilktray react to this post, it's not exclusive to rock either. Look at the infancy of hip hop, from Gil Scott-Heron through to the early years of NWA et all, there's always been a heavy political current through hip hop. 

 

Edited 13 May by Finnegan

[ramboacdc]

1 hour ago, Innovindil said:

 

Any excuse to post this again. Sometimes, you get exactly what you expect. 

 

1 hour ago, leicsmac said:

I dont quite believe that there was a single person involved at the Beeb that didn't see this coming. 

 

I mean, it's in the actual lyric itself, guys. 

Fun fact that I know from used to talking to Jon and Tracy Morter who organised the whole thing. There were more complaints submitted for what the host said after they got rid of the band. She said "Go buy Joe's record" and people complained it wasn't impartial and was commercial promotion. Not sure if the complaint was upheld, but I know it drew more ire than Zach being Zach.

[DJW1]

50 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

Here we go again.  Stop calling people you don't agree with racist at every opportunity and they might listen to you a bit more.

The definitions in my earlier comment were derived from a study of UK voters carried out several years ago. Another study states that 30% of British people admit to being racist.

 

Everyone is naturally bigoted. It derives from a fear/mistrust of people who are different from yourself (it´s hardwired into all of us, genetically). Most people try to fight against it.

 

I think it´s bit more complicated. For example, an Afghan family arriving in the UK with no money. skills or English would be rejected by most people. An Afghan family who were well educated, spoke perfect English and had money in the bank to start a business would receive the red carpet treatment. So, there is economic bigotry too.