General News Thread

[Jimothy]

My girlfriends daughter lives in Belfast. I'm genuinely more concerned for her safety after all this violence and rioting than I ever was after the stabbing incident. Unfortunately isolated incidents of people physically attacking people happen every day, the perpetrators being of all different colours and from UK and abroad. If we live our lives in fear of those things we'd never leave the house. But widespread violence, disorder, rioting, and disruption are different and create a horrible environment in any town or city. Is that what the people who did this wanted to achieve? To scare people and worry families?

 

I understand if people are upset, but there is never an excuse for large scale disorder. You can take to streets in numbers and make your voices heard without causing massive damage and fear.

[Lionator]

I gotta be honest Starmer was never great but he seems to have gotten really BAD at politics over the last 6 months or so 

[Foxdiamond]

6 minutes ago, Jimothy said:

My girlfriends daughter lives in Belfast. I'm genuinely more concerned for her safety after all this violence and rioting than I ever was after the stabbing incident. Unfortunately isolated incidents of people physically attacking people happen every day, the perpetrators being of all different colours and from UK and abroad. If we live our lives in fear of those things we'd never leave the house. But widespread violence, disorder, rioting, and disruption are different and create a horrible environment in any town or city. Is that what the people who did this wanted to achieve? To scare people and worry families?

 

I understand if people are upset, but there is never an excuse for large scale disorder. You can take to streets in numbers and make your voices heard without causing massive damage and fear.

Unfortunately there is often an element that will use crowd anger as an opportunity to engage in violent and other criminal acts. I guess a lot of them don't care much about the original incident. All this deflects from the horrific crime and how the authorities vet people allowed to settle here particularly young single men

[Raj]

3 minutes ago, Lionator said:

I gotta be honest Starmer was never great but he seems to have gotten really BAD at politics over the last 6 months or so 

As opposed to the last batch of Tory PM's who were incredible.

 

Edited 5 hours ago by Raj

[LCFCJohn]

4 minutes ago, Lionator said:

I gotta be honest Starmer was never great but he seems to have gotten really BAD at politics over the last 6 months or so 

I’m quite happy for him to get replaced by someone like Burnham (by election pending) if it means Labour can get their popularity back up, as I believe as a party and what they stand for, they are our best bet going forward. Extreme politics, left or right is not going to solve anything in my opinion. 
 

But why do people have such an issue with him I have to ask? I admit to not following the details of what is happening day to day closely with politics but I agree with the calls he has made on an international level (such as refusing to bow to pressure and send us to war with the US), immigration is down generally, NHS seems to be improving (easier to get appointments) and we are seeing swift action to deal with people causing riots and unrest. 
 

He doesn’t seem to be a particularly strong speaker and I’m aware there are things that have been gone back on. But the level of hate he gets does seem….disproportionate, in my own humble opinion of course.

[Lionator]

5 minutes ago, Raj said:

As opposed to the last batch of Tory PM's who were incredible.

 

Still doesn’t mean much, I don’t he started off badly but now is truly pathetic. This whole era of politicians has been an absolute disaster. 

[Lionator]

Just now, LCFCJohn said:

I’m quite happy for him to get replaced by someone like Burnham (by election pending) if it means Labour can get their popularity back up, as I believe as a party and what they stand for, they are our best bet going forward. Extreme politics, left or right is not going to solve anything in my opinion. 
 

But why do people have such an issue with him I have to ask? I admit to not following the details of what is happening day to day closely with politics but I agree with the calls he has made on an international level (such as refusing to bow to pressure and send us to war with the US), immigration is down generally, NHS seems to be improving (easier to get appointments) and we are seeing swift action to deal with people causing riots and unrest. 
 

He doesn’t seem to be a particularly strong speaker and I’m aware there are things that have been gone back on. But the level of hate he gets does seem….disproportionate, in my own humble opinion of course.

These are good points. Honestly I think he’s relatively ok on the policy side of the stuff, though I wish he was more radical on some things (means tested pensions), but to succeed in this role you have to have some modicum of personality. It also appears he’s sold himself to the ‘Westminster bubble’. He is the continuity PM of what came before him. What’s annoying is before he was PM he gave loads of interviews where he just came across as a normal bloke, he’s got 400 seats in the commons ffs, better than Blair. Do something with it. 

[LCFCJohn]

Just now, Lionator said:

These are good points. Honestly I think he’s relatively ok on the policy side of the stuff, though I wish he was more radical on some things (means tested pensions), but to succeed in this role you have to have some modicum of personality. It also appears he’s sold himself to the ‘Westminster bubble’. He is the continuity PM of what came before him. What’s annoying is before he was PM he gave loads of interviews where he just came across as a normal bloke, he’s got 400 seats in the commons ffs, better than Blair. Do something with it. 

Yeah this is fair. In some ways he likely has plenty of strengths that might make him suited to a senior position in the cabinet without being the ‘main man’. 
 

I have sympathy as labour have been in less than 2 years, following 14 years of another government implementing their own policies. All this in the backdrop of the domestic issues like the Southport attacks and subsequent riots in the first month or so, increasing tensions stirred up by the likes of Reform and international chaos with Russia and then Trump coming back into power and causing mayhem. 
 

It’s got to be tough. I think we need to see more tangible things that people can see to their benefit in terms of cost of living. And opportunities for young people. 
 

But I do believe a government needs some time to implement their ideas and changes and may need more than one terms to do so. But they must communicate what they are doing and blow their trumpet so to speak which is where this current labour government also need to do much better at, especially in light of the pressure from Reform.

[Lionator]

Tomorrow will be the 1567th day of the Ukraine war which officially makes it longer than the First World War. It has to be one of the stupidest most pathetic waste of life events in human history. 

[Raj]

7 minutes ago, Lionator said:

Still doesn’t mean much, I don’t he started off badly but now is truly pathetic. This whole era of politicians has been an absolute disaster. 

Really?

 

What do you prefer?

 

Someone like Trump, Farage, BoJo who are entertainers but full of BS?

11 minutes ago, LCFCJohn said:

I’m quite happy for him to get replaced by someone like Burnham (by election pending) if it means Labour can get their popularity back up, as I believe as a party and what they stand for, they are our best bet going forward. Extreme politics, left or right is not going to solve anything in my opinion. 
 

But why do people have such an issue with him I have to ask? I admit to not following the details of what is happening day to day closely with politics but I agree with the calls he has made on an international level (such as refusing to bow to pressure and send us to war with the US), immigration is down generally, NHS seems to be improving (easier to get appointments) and we are seeing swift action to deal with people causing riots and unrest. 
 

He doesn’t seem to be a particularly strong speaker and I’m aware there are things that have been gone back on. But the level of hate he gets does seem….disproportionate, in my own humble opinion of course.

Exactly not sure what people want a top tier Tony Blair?

[LCFCJohn]

3 minutes ago, Raj said:

Exactly not sure what people want a top tier Tony Blair?

I do think Burnham could be interesting. As I say, I think Labour are just missing the side of them to create that link to the public, communicate what they are doing and highlight their achievements to drown out the noise coming from elsewhere.

 

Burnham is capable (very popular in his current role) and more charismatic. Not saying this in a way that like you say, not wanting someone who is all charisma and no ability to back it up. 

[bovril]

44 minutes ago, Jimothy said:

My girlfriends daughter lives in Belfast. I'm genuinely more concerned for her safety after all this violence and rioting than I ever was after the stabbing incident. Unfortunately isolated incidents of people physically attacking people happen every day, the perpetrators being of all different colours and from UK and abroad. If we live our lives in fear of those things we'd never leave the house. But widespread violence, disorder, rioting, and disruption are different and create a horrible environment in any town or city. Is that what the people who did this wanted to achieve? To scare people and worry families?

 

I understand if people are upset, but there is never an excuse for large scale disorder. You can take to streets in numbers and make your voices heard without causing massive damage and fear.

There is often an excuse for large scale disorder, it is one of the best ways of affecting change. Although they might not be able to articulate it very well, I think people are tired of living in a country that has given up trying to improve people's living standards and instead seems to focus mostly on managing relations between Britain's now pretty disparate 'communities'. Throw in to the mix an alarmingly high rate of young men not in work or education, increasing cost of living, wage compression, plus social media, and obviously it's not going to end well. It never does, I don't know why the Brits think they'll be any different.

 

Having said all that, loyalists do be loyalists. 

Edited 5 hours ago by bovril

[Fox92]

37 minutes ago, Jimothy said:

My girlfriends daughter lives in Belfast. I'm genuinely more concerned for her safety after all this violence and rioting than I ever was after the stabbing incident. Unfortunately isolated incidents of people physically attacking people happen every day, the perpetrators being of all different colours and from UK and abroad. If we live our lives in fear of those things we'd never leave the house. But widespread violence, disorder, rioting, and disruption are different and create a horrible environment in any town or city. Is that what the people who did this wanted to achieve? To scare people and worry families?

 

I understand if people are upset, but there is never an excuse for large scale disorder. You can take to streets in numbers and make your voices heard without causing massive damage and fear.

This type of attack doesn't happen everyday. Victim has life changing injuries, loses his eye, probably lucky to be alive. He was probably just going about his day.

 

I don't condone rioting either but at this point I'm not surprised now. Surely nobody is surprised. These types of attacks are happening all too frequently and people get pissed off about it. But all that ever happens is it gets forgotten about, we move on, until it happens again, then people riot, then the murder that started it all gets forgotten about..

[Lionator]

13 minutes ago, Raj said:

Really?

 

What do you prefer?

 

Someone like Trump, Farage, BoJo who are entertainers but full of BS?

Exactly not sure what people want a top tier Tony Blair?

No ideally I want somebody who is ahead of the curve, who is charismatic and governs in the way that they said they would. 

[leicsmac]

2 minutes ago, Lionator said:

No ideally I want somebody who is ahead of the curve, who is charismatic and governs in the way that they said they would. 

Either a Carney or an Albanese style figure, off the top of my head, would be good right now. 

 

Burnham looks like he could have at least something of the former. 

[Lionator]

1 minute ago, leicsmac said:

Either a Carney or an Albanese style figure, off the top of my head, would be good right now. 

 

Burnham looks like he could have at least something of the former. 

Honestly Burnham isn’t ever going to change the world, or even the country, but the one thing he is is authentic. If he could get a good cabinet behind him we might actually see something. Starmer has also been the worst for London centric leadership especially with his ‘pavement pint’ tripe yesterday that literally only happens in London. 

[bovril]

24 minutes ago, Lionator said:

Honestly Burnham isn’t ever going to change the world, or even the country, but the one thing he is is authentic. If he could get a good cabinet behind him we might actually see something. Starmer has also been the worst for London centric leadership especially with his ‘pavement pint’ tripe yesterday that literally only happens in London. 

Funny how perceptions can differ so much - Burnham strikes me as completely inauthentic and self-absorbed. 

[whoareyaaa]

56 minutes ago, Lionator said:

Tomorrow will be the 1567th day of the Ukraine war which officially makes it longer than the First World War. It has to be one of the stupidest most pathetic waste of life events in human history. 

The only reason it started was to raise the price of energy and other things like food and keep everyone in check. 

 

 

[Zear0]

1 hour ago, Raj said:

As opposed to the last batch of Tory PM's who were incredible.

 

Don’t slag off our Liz. Misunderstood PM. The Kramaric of politics

Edited 4 hours ago by Zear0

[Lionator]

9 minutes ago, whoareyaaa said:

The only reason it started was to raise the price of energy and other things like food and keep everyone in check. 

 

 

Nah honestly it was a combo of Putin’s horrible pathetic paranoia and the worst part of the American foreign policy community thinking they are God. Add the two together and you have this horrible mess. You’ve literally got Ukrainians drones blowing up ports in Romania and Greece these days while you continue to have complete lunatics in charge of Russia too. An utter waste. 

Edited 4 hours ago by Lionator

[Rubbersoul]

Always wonder how different things would be in this country if Trump never won and just faded in obscurity.

 

Would everyone be as crazy? 

[FoxesWalk]

1 hour ago, Raj said:

As opposed to the last batch of Tory PM's who were incredible.

 

Missed off Cameron, who bet the nations trade links with Europe that underpin our economy for his own (perceived) electoral gain, lost, then ran away from the mess. Arguably the worst of the lot. 

Edited 4 hours ago by FoxesWalk

[leicsmac]

20 minutes ago, Rubbersoul said:

Always wonder how different things would be in this country if Trump never won and just faded in obscurity.

 

Would everyone be as crazy? 

Think you could extrapolate that line of thought to the world, tbh. 

 

And for me, the answer is very different. In all likelihood, but not certainly, better. Almost certainly more socially stable. 

 

The baffling (though not really) thing is not how he won the first time, but how he managed it the second time in spite of inciting a legislative coup attempt and having hundreds of thousands of bodies on this watch thanks to a virus he didn't take in any way seriously. It speaks to the degree of subversion of the very idea of truth that is present today (and that he indulges in practically all the time) that that could happen.

Edited 3 hours ago by leicsmac

[Raj]

23 minutes ago, FoxesWalk said:

Missed off Cameron, who bet the nations trade links with Europe that underpin our economy for his own (perceived) electoral gain, lost, then ran away from the mess. Arguably the worst of the lot. 

Add him in mate, another Tory tool...

[Raj]

1 hour ago, Lionator said:

No ideally I want somebody who is ahead of the curve, who is charismatic and governs in the way that they said they would. 

Name me 2 possible candidates?