General News Thread

[bovril]

I do think Brexit is the biggest geopolitical error a developed country has made possibly since WW1, so even though it's not totally to blame for Britain's economic malaise, I think it's fair that a high % of people chose it. 

[urban.spaceman]

55 minutes ago, bovril said:

I do think Brexit is the biggest geopolitical error a developed country has made possibly since WW1, so even though it's not totally to blame for Britain's economic malaise, I think it's fair that a high % of people chose it. 

It's the stupidest thing a country has ever done to itself. 

[urban.spaceman]

RIP

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/01/ghislaine-maxwell-prison-transfer

[The Doctor]

8 hours ago, Alf Bentley said:

 

Your and @bovril's comments about folk on the Right blaming Blair for immigration/multiculturalism seem reasonable, even if he mainly presided over a big influx from the EU, whereas the Tories more recently presided over a big influx from Asia and the Middle East, which I'd expect right-wingers to find even more abhorrent.

to be blunt, I think you expect more intellectual honesty than would be forthcoming here. The record doesn't matter so much as the perception, and besides that politics becomes a team sport for far too many, where whether a policy is good or bad is determined by whether it's the blue or red team introducing it. It's most obviously the case in America, but our political system is becoming an embarrassing facsimile of theirs. So, even if the tories presided over mass immigration from asia and the Middle East, for right wingers that's either good because [insert flimsy justification here] or they're a victim of labours open door policy that the poor tories with their 14 years in power just couldn't undo.

[leicsmac]

1 hour ago, The Doctor said:

to be blunt, I think you expect more intellectual honesty than would be forthcoming here. The record doesn't matter so much as the perception, and besides that politics becomes a team sport for far too many, where whether a policy is good or bad is determined by whether it's the blue or red team introducing it. It's most obviously the case in America, but our political system is becoming an embarrassing facsimile of theirs. So, even if the tories presided over mass immigration from asia and the Middle East, for right wingers that's either good because [insert flimsy justification here] or they're a victim of labours open door policy that the poor tories with their 14 years in power just couldn't undo.

Bingo. 

 

Prescription being more important than fact is a massive problem. And it never ends well. 

[Md9]

9 hours ago, urban.spaceman said:

RIP

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/01/ghislaine-maxwell-prison-transfer

She will either be gone in 2 weeks or she will get a pardon from trump for naming any one other than him and that’s what she gets in return. 

[Md9]

Why is trump allowed to change everything in the White House and add a massive ball room to it? Surely it should have to stay how it is it’s not his to add stuff to if he wants to do that do it to his own properties. 
I imagine little things you can do but a 200 mil ball room is a little bit much 

[The Doctor]

1 minute ago, Md9 said:

Why is trump allowed to change everything in the White House and add a massive ball room to it? Surely it should have to stay how it is it’s not his to add stuff to if he wants to do that do it to his own properties. 
I imagine little things you can do but a 200 mil ball room is a little bit much 

Presidents have always been able to renovate the white house as they see fit, to the point that Truman did a full 3 year reconstruction to stop the place falling to bits. The question isn't of allowed to or not, the question as with every bloody politician is where the moneys coming from for this and what those donors are getting in exchange.

[Lionator]

12 hours ago, SkidsFox said:

Meanwhile Trump’s decided to play Call my nuclear bluff with the Russkies. Stay safe everyone

Nothing makes sense, on one hand NASA and the Russian equivalent are meeting on great space project terms, Witkoff is in Moscow and Rubio talks nicely about Lavrov. On the other hand Trump does this. At least with Biden you knew both sides hated each other. It’s all theatre for these guys. I bet they’ll cut a deal on Ukraine soon enough, or we all die. 

[Alf Bentley]

11 hours ago, bovril said:

I do think Brexit is the biggest geopolitical error a developed country has made possibly since WW1, so even though it's not totally to blame for Britain's economic malaise, I think it's fair that a high % of people chose it. 

 

I think it's fair, too. I just find it surprising that 1 in 3 respondents think the main cause of the UK being on the wrong track is the Brexit Referendum - esp. with all the other options.

 

I think it was deeply unwise and damaging - and seems even worse now, due to other developments like Trump and growing division & extremism worldwide.

But I do still think we need to look wider for the MAIN cause of the mess.....otherwise how do we explain that all other developed nations are in a mess to varying extents?

[The Doctor]

I mean if you want a very left field shout for root cause: Operation Paperclip and it's counterparts. By allowing fascists to integrate back into society after WWII, rather than inviting them to the local esso petrol station, the groundwork was set for a fash comeback - they bided their time, consolidated their power and came back which they were always going to do because the marketplace of ideas doesn't exist and you can't conclusively defeat someone in it

[leicsmac]

1 minute ago, The Doctor said:

I mean if you want a very left field shout for root cause: Operation Paperclip and it's counterparts. By allowing fascists to integrate back into society after WWII, rather than inviting them to the local esso petrol station, the groundwork was set for a fash comeback - they bided their time, consolidated their power and came back which they were always going to do because the marketplace of ideas doesn't exist and you can't conclusively defeat someone in it

*cue discussion on how things might have turned out if the Americans didn't get von Braun and Korolev didn't die on the operating table*

[SpacedX]

3 minutes ago, The Doctor said:

I mean if you want a very left field shout for root cause: Operation Paperclip and it's counterparts. By allowing fascists to integrate back into society after WWII

Wernher von Braun was indeed a member of the Nazi party, but he joined simply though expedience to get support and funding for his work. He despised Hitler and all that he ideologically stood for - however that could not be said for some of his counterparts that were covertly integrated into American society when they should have been in the dock at Nuremberg. 

He did not directly murder anyone. He had sleep-walked into a Faustian bargain—that he had worked with this regime without considering the darker implications of the Third Reich and the Nazi regime. As Technical Director at the Army Rocket Center at Peenemünde his work attracted more and more attention in higher levels. His refusal to join the party would have meant that he would have had to abandon his life's work. Of course he bears some responsibility for his own actions but in the case of concentration camp labour, there wasn’t much he could do to help. The Milgram experiment remains a landmark study in social psychology, raising important questions about obedience, authority, and individual responsibility. von Braun is condemned for being in the middle of that situation, witnessing the concentration camp labour personally, face to face, but powerless to effect change. He admitted visiting the plant at Mittelwerk on many occasions, and later referred to conditions at the plant as "repulsive", but he maintained throughout his life that he never personally saw any deaths or beatings. By 1944 he was certainly privy to the atrocities but he denied ever having visited the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp itself - and there is no evidence that he did, where 20,000 died from illness, beatings, hangings, and appalling working conditions. Yes the slave labour was being used - more people died though this that the actual V2 itself, but contrary to the claims of many, he was not a war criminal or a fascist. The slave labour was not at his behest or choosing and he certainly didn't preside over it as some imply, however he nonetheless took huge guilt, regret and remorse with him to his grave. 

 

Operation Paperclip was part of a broader strategy by the US to secure German scientific talent in the face of emerging Cold War tensions, and ensuring this expertise did not fall into the hands of the Soviet Union or other nations. The operation's legacy has remained controversial in subsequent decades, owing to the undeniable fact that the CIA did shelter individuals that were later found to have had involvement in war crimes and more sinister affiliation with the Nazi Party. 

[DJ Barry Hammond]

 

I know nothing of this case… but there are clear hints in this article there’s lot more to come from this story… as has been alluded to on here.

[SkidsFox]

There must be some severe medical damage that has occurred with the perp. Scary really that someone can change in such a way.

 

Quote

Nottinghamshire Live can now reveal that Ruben has previously been labelled a community champion in Rushcliffe. In September 2015, he became the first person to be nominated in the Rushcliffe Community Awards.

His nomination was for the Supporting Young People Award. Ruben, at the time, ran two after-school clubs for children aged five to 14 - Excite and 5 o'clock.

 Notts man Jon Ruben charged after kids 'became unwell' at camp was once nominated for community award - Nottinghamshire Live

[SkidsFox]

Probably not connected, but strange to see input from Mr Ruben in this 2009 news report on possible dog poisoning.

BBC NEWS | England | Nottinghamshire | Woodland alert after dog deaths

[Tuna]

1 hour ago, DJ Barry Hammond said:

 

I know nothing of this case… but there are clear hints in this article there’s lot more to come from this story… as has been alluded to on here.

https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/local-news/nottinghamshire-man-appears-court-after-10394915

 

This article will shed more light on the direction of travel of this story

 

"Sweets laced with sedatives"

[Trav Le Bleu]

4 hours ago, leicsmac said:

*cue discussion on how things might have turned out if the Americans didn't get von Braun and Korolev didn't die on the operating table*

 

Giant samurai war mechs, Tesla coils and flying dreadnoughts, that's what 

[st albans fox]

3 hours ago, SkidsFox said:

Probably not connected, but strange to see input from Mr Ruben in this 2009 news report on possible dog poisoning.

BBC NEWS | England | Nottinghamshire | Woodland alert after dog deaths

He’s a vet 

[Zear0]

2 hours ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

 

Giant samurai war mechs, Tesla coils and flying dreadnoughts, that's what 

As long as the OP Yuri doesn't make an appearance all will be fine. 

[bovril]

9 hours ago, Alf Bentley said:

 

I think it's fair, too. I just find it surprising that 1 in 3 respondents think the main cause of the UK being on the wrong track is the Brexit Referendum - esp. with all the other options.

 

I think it was deeply unwise and damaging - and seems even worse now, due to other developments like Trump and growing division & extremism worldwide.

But I do still think we need to look wider for the MAIN cause of the mess.....otherwise how do we explain that all other developed nations are in a mess to varying extents?

I think we are uniquely boned though. We bet everything on 'trading with the rest of the world' at precisely the wrong time. It also has negatively affected the university sector which is one of our last successful exports. I won't get into the relationship between the constituent nations lest someone accuse me of scaremongering but the UK feels a bit late Austria-Hungary at the moment.

 

So yes there are things that most developed countries are struggling with but I don't think any country has followed the suicidal macroeconomic policy we have.

[Free Falling Foxes]

I have never needed to turn away or look away from the news before, even if they warn you of distressing content. Tonight though, I couldn't bare it. Children shot dead by the IDF in Gaza.

Just too upsetting.

What the bloody hell are they thinking? 

[davieG]

[Trav Le Bleu]

Well I see my well balanced truth didn't get approved

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3v3rygdrryo

 

Interesting piece on the relocation of an embassy and current relations between the UK and China.