General News Thread

[SkidsFox]

9 hours ago, Sampson said:

This is it for me. Social media exacerbates misery and amplifies fear to make it sound like Britain is some post-apocalyptic Hell hole, “a failed state” is a popular line of many who are on social media too much, but it’s not something most of us actually recognise in real life if we’re honest with ourselves, unless we’re actively looking for it in any little thing so we can complain about it. 
 

Go outside on a normal evening and you’ll see normal people enjoying themselves, sitting outside with friends or family and drinking or eating and laughing, people walking their dogs or going out on a jog, construction workers out fixing roads - just as they all did 25 years ago at the height of Blair-ite optimism before the Iraq war. Sure there’s some idiots, but the country is hardly some anarchist hellhole. Don’t let it grind you down, Britain is a good country and we only live once, so go out and spend time with friends and family and you’ll see most people who live in Britain are good people, enjoy life, and hope we don’t vote away democracy because social media has tricked us into saying the country has anarchy on its streets.

To an extent I'd agree. But there does seem to be a section of the population who seem to have looked at Northern Ireland in the 70s and decided let's turn England into that, whether it be flag waving hooligan meet-ups, or choosing to blame all society ills on a minority. They don't just exist on social media, you can bump into them in the local shop or pub or takeaway. So far we are lucky that the vast majority elsewhere contribute in some way, whether it's in the care home, the takeaway shop or the rubbish collectors. But there are dark forces who feel they are getting closer to power. God help us all if they manage to do so.

[leicsmac]

19 minutes ago, SkidsFox said:

To an extent I'd agree. But there does seem to be a section of the population who seem to have looked at Northern Ireland in the 70s and decided let's turn England into that, whether it be flag waving hooligan meet-ups, or choosing to blame all society ills on a minority. They don't just exist on social media, you can bump into them in the local shop or pub or takeaway. So far we are lucky that the vast majority elsewhere contribute in some way, whether it's in the care home, the takeaway shop or the rubbish collectors. But there are dark forces who feel they are getting closer to power. God help us all if they manage to do so.

The only comfort I can offer there is that their reign, should they take it, will be nasty, brutish and short. The Earth will see to their fate. 

[Trav Le Bleu]

Peace in Gaza!

 

And yet the bombardment continues.

[South Shire Fox]

17 hours ago, leicsmac said:

The only comfort I can offer there is that their reign, should they take it, will be nasty, brutish and short. The Earth will see to their fate. 

Reforms only real policy is to reduce immigration. Just think if we had a Government who would actually sort that then Reform would be completley irrelevant. Conservatives reign of drastically increasing immigration and Labour doing nothing about it has only made Reform stronger. Completley the fault of the current and previous Government this is. 
 

Get legal immigration down to 10s of thousands. Sort the illegal boat crossings. Change the law so that immigrants who commit serious crimes cant find a loophole to stop their deportation. Do all that and then Farage and Reform will not be an issue

Edited 5 October 2025 by South Shire Fox

[Sampson]

26 minutes ago, South Shire Fox said:

Reforms only real policy is to reduce immigration. Just think if we had a Government who would actually sort that then Reform would be completley irrelevant. Conservatives reign of drastically increasing immigration and Labour doing nothing about it has only made Reform stronger. Completley the fault of the current and previous Government this is. 
 

Get legal immigration down to 10s of thousands. Sort the illegal boat crossings. Sort the law out so immigrants who commit serious crimes cant find a loophole to stop their deportation. Do all that and then Farage and Reform will not be an issue

I don’t share your view sadly. Reform have already moved the goalpost to “we want net negative migration” and “we want to deport people and strip them with permanent residency even if they’ve been living here for 50 years with a British partner, children and grandchildren working hard and paying taxes.” 

 

And this kind of right wing populism is still just as rampant in Japan, which is a westernised economy famous for having very little immigration and Australia which already did all of that brutalising of its immigration laws a few years back and it hadn’t helped stop the populists.

 

The “we just reduce immigration and Reform go away” feels like the optimistic talk of 2 or 3 years ago that hasn’t really paid attention to world events since. Reform will always go one further and they have their base now who’ll follow them regardless and their supporters will never be happy because their whole schtick is to constantly talk down the country, keep repeating what a shithole Britain is and keep it chaos and keep people in fear.

Edited 5 October 2025 by Sampson

[bovril]

12 minutes ago, Sampson said:

I don’t share your view sadly. Reform have already moved the goalpost to “we want net negative migration” and “we want to deport people and strip them with permanent residency even if they’ve been living here for 50 years with a British partner, children and grandchildren working hard and paying taxes.” 

 

And this kind of right wing populism is still just as rampant in Japan, which is a westernised economy famous for having very little immigration and Australia which already did all of that brutalising of its immigration laws a few years back and it hadn’t helped stop the populists.

 

The “we just reduce immigration and Reform go away” feels like the optimistic talk of 2 or 3 years ago that hasn’t really paid attention to world events since. Reform will always go one further and they have their base now who’ll follow them regardless and their supporters will never be happy because they’re whole schtick is to constantly talk down the country, keep repeating what a shithole Britain is and keep it chaos and keep people in fear.

I remember "leaving the EU will neutralise the far right"

[South Shire Fox]

1 hour ago, bovril said:

I remember "leaving the EU will neutralise the far right"

Leaving the EU but then replacing EU migrants with an even higher amount of none EU migrants is not going to neutralise anything. In fact its going to make it a lot worse 

[bovril]

Just now, South Shire Fox said:

Leaving the EU but then replacing EU migrants with an even higher amount of none EU migrants is not going to neutralise anything. In fact its going to make it a lot worse 

Sounds a bit like 'project fear' 

[South Shire Fox]

36 minutes ago, bovril said:

Sounds a bit like 'project fear' 

Exactly, a wank3r called Boris Johnson that has driven off into the distance after creating a gigantic mess

Edited 5 October 2025 by South Shire Fox

[bovril]

8 minutes ago, South Shire Fox said:

Exactly, a wank3r called Boris Johnson that has driven off into the distance after creating a gigantic mess

Should've kept May eh? One of the most anti immigration politicians in our history, but not brexity enough for the loons...

[South Shire Fox]

3 minutes ago, bovril said:

Should've kept May eh? One of the most anti immigration politicians in our history, but not brexity enough for the loons...

Anti immigration but happened to make immigration double. First class clown

[bovril]

Just now, South Shire Fox said:

Anti immigration but happened to make immigration double. First class clown

I mean Teresa May was anti immigration. Johnson was always quite vocally pro immigration.

 

Oh and he made it treble, not double

[Soar Fox]

Gary Neville has lost the plot. 

[leicsmac]

3 hours ago, South Shire Fox said:

Reforms only real policy is to reduce immigration. Just think if we had a Government who would actually sort that then Reform would be completley irrelevant. Conservatives reign of drastically increasing immigration and Labour doing nothing about it has only made Reform stronger. Completley the fault of the current and previous Government this is. 
 

Get legal immigration down to 10s of thousands. Sort the illegal boat crossings. Change the law so that immigrants who commit serious crimes cant find a loophole to stop their deportation. Do all that and then Farage and Reform will not be an issue

To add to the discussion and responses since this post which I broadly agree with, Reform would also look to reduce migration while contributing wholesale to a number of global matters that would keep the numbers of migrants high or flat-out increase them to truly gargantuan proportions. The irony would be really funny were the stakes not so high and the consequences not so dire. 

[bovril]

Badenoch is so painfully bad. Real second hand embarrassment watching her. 

[Zear0]

6 minutes ago, bovril said:

Badenoch is so painfully bad. Real second hand embarrassment watching her. 

This the free speech warrior calling for protests to be banned?

 

Seeing her, Philp, Trott, Jenrick and Cleverly at the top table makes you realise how far they've fallen and predictions of their demise are genuinely believable. 

[Robo61]

Reducing immigration to the tens of thousands will not in way help to solve the housing crisis or improve our crumbling public services and infrastructure. These are the real reasons for the rise in Reform, who have managed to dishonestly linked immigration to those issues. If the current government were to solve the immigration conundrum,  Farage would simply move on to blaming others for our contining infrastruture and public service problems. 

[leicsmac]

10 minutes ago, Robo61 said:

Reducing immigration to the tens of thousands will not in way help to solve the housing crisis or improve our crumbling public services and infrastructure. These are the real reasons for the rise in Reform, who have managed to dishonestly linked immigration to those issues. If the current government were to solve the immigration conundrum,  Farage would simply move on to blaming others for our contining infrastruture and public service problems. 

There's only two ways to solve the immigration conundrum:

 

- be a part and make steps on the geopolitical and environmental issues that cause people to migrate in the first instance

 

- vastly reduce immigration with strict enforcement and accept the death and suffering of a truly massive amount of people that goes with it

 

If there's a third option, I'd be happy to hear it.

[Trav Le Bleu]

We'll I see my perfectly sane and sapient question was vetoed 

[Sly]

9 hours ago, Robo61 said:

Reducing immigration to the tens of thousands will not in way help to solve the housing crisis or improve our crumbling public services and infrastructure. These are the real reasons for the rise in Reform, who have managed to dishonestly linked immigration to those issues. If the current government were to solve the immigration conundrum,  Farage would simply move on to blaming others for our contining infrastruture and public service problems. 

Reform is a great example of someone that bemoans something that everyone can see, without giving viable solutions. 

[Sly]

9 hours ago, leicsmac said:

There's only two ways to solve the immigration conundrum:

 

- be a part and make steps on the geopolitical and environmental issues that cause people to migrate in the first instance

 

- vastly reduce immigration with strict enforcement and accept the death and suffering of a truly massive amount of people that goes with it

 

If there's a third option, I'd be happy to hear it.

We could then to Rwanda? 

[Lionator]

Wtf is going on in France? The new government resigned within hours and the PM after only 4 weeks?

 

they had an election last year and it only made it worse, genuinely what’s the way out? Macron resigning? Electoral reform? 
 

Not what we need.

[Danizen]

I'm currently watching Sky News while I wait for my MOT. The Conservative Chancellor (I'm guessing) is giving a rousing speech about how Labour have trashed the economy over the past 16 months. 

 

No prizes for guessing how many times he mentioned the 14 years prior to that.

Edited 6 October 2025 by Danizen

[danny.]

40 minutes ago, Danizen said:

I'm currently watching Sky News while I wait for my MOT. The Conservative Chancellor (I'm guessing) is giving a rousing speech about how Labour have trashed the economy over the past 16 months. 

 

No prizes for guessing how many times he mentioned the 14 years prior to that.

They're both the same party 

[Tommy G]

Sad news for Lewis Moody and his family.