Jose posted:

extremely antisemitic of you to make the op instead of a jewish poster guavanaut

quote:

These are the hands
That touch us first
Feel your head
Find the pulse
And make your bed.

These are the hands
That tap your back
Test the skin
Hold your arm
Wheel the bin
Change the bulb
Fix the drip
Pour the jug
Replace your hip.

These are the hands
That fill the bath
Mop the floor
Flick the switch
Soothe the sore
Burn the swabs
Give us a jab
Throw out sharps
Design the lab.

And these are the hands
That stop the leaks
Empty the pan
Wipe the pipes
Carry the can
Clamp the veins
Make the cast
Log the dose
And touch us last.

quote:

When sister has to go to work
She locks me in the room
Has given me a doll
So that I'm not alone

Dark clouds in the sky
I dutifully take my medicine
And wait here in the down bed
Until the sun goes down

And then I tear off the doll's head
Then I tear off the doll's head
Yes, I bite off the doll's neck
I am not doing well

quote:

Dead squirrel strategy
This tactic is one used by passionate supporters of a party, usually Labour, rather than parties themselves, which (sensibly) stay well away from it. The trick begins with “extremely online” party supporters creating a “fake news” meme with some ridiculous claim about a politician, then circulating it with a sense of faux outrage among a group of people in on the joke.

The catchier of the memes, such as a claim that Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson enjoys murdering squirrels with a catapult, eventually catch on with regular internet users who believe the story, are outraged by it and share it.

When this goes really well, it leads to journalists (unable to ignore a good viral story) asking the politician about it, and if the politician really screws up, they then deny the viral claim and send it through the mainstream too. Who knows if it wins any votes, but it’s certainly an effective wind-up.

Barry Foster posted:

As irrational as it is I wish people wouldn't say stuff like this

Halisnacks posted:

So there was some programme on after Marr where they were interviewing a group of people who were politically engaged, had developed opinions on a range of policy issues, and yet were apparently “undecided” about how they would vote.

I can understand how low-information voters who are not engaged with politics could be undecided at this stage in an election, but I find it so hard to fathom that people who follow politics wouldn’t have made their mind up one way or another 11 days out from a hugely consequential election.

Xaerael posted:

I'd like to make the announcement that Lib Dem supported Tory cuts and austerity have finally caused the imminent shut down two major mental health social care projects at my workplace. One that helped non-elderly people with complex mental health problems who literally need someone to help them organise their lives with things like help getting to, and keeping appointments, keeping track of medications, paying bills, food shopping. The other helped Elderly disabled people around the house with cleaning, bills, phone calls, and such.

Apraxin posted:

Oh my god, he's mastered the hidden runes!
https://twitter.com/RobParsonsYP/status/1201160122514509824

Lady Demelza posted:

They're all a bit of a charisma-vacuum.

Jaeluni Asjil posted:

Anti-semitism chat:

Just downloaded this wretched report on which some of the recent claims are based.

https://antisemitism.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Antisemitism-Barometer-2019.pdf

OK I haven't read it in depth but paging through the first 25 pages and skimming the rest, it looks to me that they have defined anti-zionism as anti-semitism. Nowhere do they seem to describe how they identified 'far-left' nor indeed what proportion of the sample were deemed as far-left.

(Am aware that the Campaign Against Anti-semitism were heavily criticized for flawed research in 2015 by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research).

quote:

It has been prominently and persistently asserted that there is a ‘crisis’ of antisemitism in the Labour Party. The charge-sheet comprises three main allegations: that antisemitism in Labour is widespread, that it has become institutionalised, and that elected party leader Jeremy Corbyn is himself an antisemite.

This last claim—a recent invention even in the context of the ‘Labour antisemitism’ campaign—is the most tenuous, flying as it does in the face of Corbyn’s entire documented political career. From April 1977, when he helped organise the defence of Jewish-populated Wood Green from a National Front rally;[1] to the 1980s, when he headed Anti-Fascist Action and was arrested protesting apartheid in South Africa;[2] to June 2015, when he worked with antifascists to prevent a neo-Nazi march on Golders Green;[3] to his first day as Labour Party leader, when he spoke at a demonstration in support of refugees[4]—throughout his political life, Jeremy Corbyn has been a dedicated and principled anti-racist campaigner.

Bobby Deluxe posted:

I did, but I'm ashamed to admit that it went over my head completely. I have no idea about higher finance or the kind of saving schemes that seem like everyday business for the likes of the /r/personalfinance subreddit. I don't even know what dividends are. Sort of all comes across to me as complicated tricks that the rich use to keep themselves rich, and it all kicks along fine as long as nobody tells the proles about it.

Pesky Splinter posted:

https://twitter.com/MrJackGrant/status/1201234975561060353

Pound_Coin posted:

We regret to inform you that next weeks gogglebox is cancelled

kecske posted:

if theres no monarch to confer power to a parliament does the election get abandoned?

quote:

Screens will glow. There will be tweets. At the BBC, the “radio alert transmission system” (Rats), will be activated – a cold war-era alarm designed to withstand an attack on the nation’s infrastructure. Rats, which is also sometimes referred to as “royal about to snuff it”, is a near mythical part of the intricate architecture of ritual and rehearsals for the death of major royal personalities that the BBC has maintained since the 1930s. Most staff have only ever seen it work in tests; many have never seen it work at all. “Whenever there is a strange noise in the newsroom, someone always asks, ‘Is that the Rats?’ Because we don’t know what it sounds like,” one regional reporter told me.

Jaeluni Asjil posted:

Yes monarchy transfer is faster than light.

quote:

For people stuck in traffic, or with Heart FM on in the background, there will only be the subtlest of indications, at first, that something is going on. Britain’s commercial radio stations have a network of blue “obit lights”, which is tested once a week and supposed to light up in the event of a national catastrophe. When the news breaks, these lights will start flashing, to alert DJs to switch to the news in the next few minutes and to play inoffensive music in the meantime. Every station, down to hospital radio, has prepared music lists made up of “Mood 2” (sad) or “Mood 1” (saddest) songs to reach for in times of sudden mourning. “If you ever hear Haunted Dancehall (Nursery Remix) by Sabres of Paradise on daytime Radio 1, turn the TV on,” wrote Chris Price, a BBC radio producer, for the Huffington Post in 2011. “Something terrible has just happened.”

Pesky Splinter posted:

In actual news:
https://twitter.com/ToryFibs/status/1201267256551968774

[e]: Also, good on you and happy birthday Sanford

jaete posted:

The election being held between Christmas and new year would be so perfectly idiotic that I'm now convinced it will happen

I mean think about it, law says 14 days forward, right? Well not necessarily, law can be changed, to make the election take place in January instead, right? ...Except how exactly, since there are no MPs

Apraxin posted:

https://twitter.com/andrew_lilico/status/1201195919296933889

Continuity RCP posted:

Oh god what the hell is that

kustomkarkommando posted:

BBC Breaking News: Gibbo is full of shite mate remember that time he said dogs can't look up total loving bellend

quote:

Firms who provide trains for the country’s crumbling rail network have paid out a staggering £1.2billion to shareholders, an investigation has revealed.

The little known companies have links to a tax haven and make a fortune from leasing the rolling stock to train operators across the UK.

The huge payments come as millions of passengers are suffering delays, overcrowding and rocketing rail fares.

Union leaders and passenger groups have blasted the windfall payouts and called for the trains to be taken back into public ownership with the savings then going back into providing a better service.

quote:

Labour’s shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald has been talking to BBC Radio 5 Live this morning, after the party announced plans to cut rail fares.

Asked to justify plans to use funds from vehicle excise duty which had formerly been earmarked for road building to subsidise cheaper rail fares, McDonald said: “You cannot road-build your way out of a climate crisis.”

Angepain posted:

The queen should fake her own death every now and then so we all get a holiday. She'd be able to get away with it a few times i think

Tesseraction posted:

Now now lad, Lukasz has shown himself plenty trustworthy

ukle posted:

So the US trade documents leak is likely to have come from Russia, or someone who is working in exactly the same manner.

CGI Stardust posted:

welcome to the thread, lurker! please accept a creature. normally it'd be a bird, but, well

giant flying red and white squirrel

CGI Stardust posted:

please don't be mean. how could you be mean to this face

Debbie Does Dagon posted:

How many grey squirrels would you have to actually kill before the red squirrels recovered their numbers? Isn't it more realistic to just accept that we have grey squirrels now, and move on

quote:

According to some animal rights groups the grey squirrel is a victim of circumstance. They say it has been made a scapegoat for regional red squirrel population extinctions and claim that loss of the reds is caused entirely coincidentally by habitat change. They suggest the true facts are being hidden and scientific research being intentionally misinterpreted.

If so, then this conspiracy must extend to British legal provisions and EU directives both listing the grey squirrel as an invader to be controlled, right?

Well, no – put this argument to the test and you’ll see that the facts actually do stack up against the grey squirrel. The reality is that, while the grey squirrel is an important part of North American forest ecosystems, since being brought to Europe by the Victorians in 1876, the animal has had severe ecological and economic impacts on British woodlands.

Acrobatic and entertaining they may be, but the charge sheet against the grey squirrel is based on hundreds of peer-reviewed research papers. There really is no defence for it.

Greys vs red in Europe
Today there are approximately 2.5m grey squirrels in Britain, but less than 140,000 reds. Grey squirrels out-compete native reds for food and space. They also dig up and consume seed that red squirrels have buried as a winter store. This behaviour reduces red squirrel skeletal growth rates and adult size, and greatly depresses juvenile survival rates too.

In addition, greys harbour infections – including squirrel pox, which can devastate red squirrel populations. They elevate local viral and nematode infection rates, and bring in new parasites, such as Strongyloides robustus, which are picked up by red squirrels.

Occasionally a healthy red squirrel is found with squirrel pox antibodies – some researchers have suggested that this is evidence of them evolving resistance to the pox. Unfortunately, 63% of red squirrels dying from pox have also been found to have this antibody response present and there is no evidence that these antibodies confer immunity. Even if they did, research has also shown that antibodies are gone within 18 months and, irrespective of any resistance, red populations would be replaced by grey via competition anyway.

Woodland damage
Grey squirrels also damage and kill forest trees making it impossible for foresters to grow high-grade hardwood. This means such material is imported instead, bringing with it the risk of new tree pests and pathogens.

Tree damage is most frequently seen on the branches and trunks of oak, beech and maple; bark is stripped by squirrels eager to consume the the sap underneath. Tree stems break or die following stripping, which in turn leads to changes in the structure and species composition of high canopy in amenity woodlands.

Even songbirds are affected by grey squirrels. A recent study gave evidence of negative association between woodland songbird fledging rates and presence of grey squirrels – though it must be noted that this was not observed annually and only seen on some of the sites studied. Earlier studies didn’t find evidence to indicate greys affect bird population, but also didn’t exclude the possibility – even for bird species whose population is increasing overall.

Other animals may be affected by greys too: there has been some suggestion that squirrels compete with dormice for hazel nuts, though more research is needed to confirm the true impact.

Controlling greys
The Wildlife Trust has recently started to recruit 5,000 volunteers to monitor and control grey squirrel populations. However, a look beyond the headlines will reveal thousands of people are already legally trapping and shooting greys across the country to control their numbers. Volunteer groups cull 6,000 grey squirrels per year in the north of England, for example. Even in areas where reds are absent, locals control grey squirrels to protect woodlands or prevent damage to property. This is not some dramatic new approach by the Wildlife Trust, but is simply reinforcing an established national movement.

The eradication of greys from the Welsh isle of Anglesey saw red squirrel numbers increase from 40 to 700 and there are other examples of grey control halting or reversing red squirrel decline. Research has also demonstrated that red squirrels do not prefer conifer to broadleaved habitat and are just as happy in either.

Future control may involve giving the squirrels contraception, but will almost certainly not rely solely on this because of logistical barriers. The pine marten may assist in some landscapes too: one Irish study found a strong negative correlation between pine martens and greys in the woodlands studied. However, the use of trapping and shooting will inevitably continue as part of an integrated national approach.

And so the grey squirrel stands guilty as charged. Their presence has decimated the British countryside since they were introduced from North America, and if we do not continue to control the species, the future for red squirrels and woodland ecosystems will be bleak.

CGI Stardust posted:

Gorn Myson posted:

The right doesn't have a sense of humour. They don't even know how to shitpost.

quote:

Labour has promised to end what it calls the “hostile environment” for disabled people in the social security system as part of a raft of plans to tackle discrimination.

The party’s disability manifesto, published on Tuesday morning, proposes a range of measures across welfare, public services, transport, housing and jobs to enable disabled people to live independently, be treated with dignity and respect, and participate fully in society.

The manifesto promises to sweep away a hostile environment of prejudice against disabled people it says was promoted by government to justify nine years of austerity cuts, and replace it with system that ends poverty and offers people security and dignity.

The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said: “The treatment of disabled people by Conservative and Lib Dem governments, from devastating cuts to social security support, to cruel and unnecessary assessments, and a complete failure to address the disability employment gap, should be a source of shame.

“Labour will put right this injustice. We’ll ensure that disabled people get the support they need to lead independent lives and participate fully in society. We are on your side.

“This election is a chance for real change, for a more inclusive, fair and equal society that works for the many, not the few.”

The party promises to scrap universal credit “in the medium-run” and replace it with a new benefits system co-designed by disabled people. Labour says this cannot happen overnight, so it will introduce reforms to soften the process, such as ending the five-week wait for a first payment and removing punitive benefit sanctions.

The Department for Work and Pensions – which the party says has “become a symbol of fear for disabled people” – will be overhauled as part of plans to transform the culture of social security. “Labour will make us as proud of our social security system as we are of the NHS,” the disability manifesto says.

The much-criticised assessments for personal independence payments and employment and support allowance, both currently delivered by private contractors, will be scrapped and replaced with a more responsive system that engages with claimants’ medical evidence.

The manifesto adds: “Labour will work with disabled people’s organisations to develop a replacement to the current assessments based on a personalised, holistic assessment framework that provides each individual with a tailored plan, building on their strengths and addressing barriers.”

It promises to challenge the discrimination faced by disabled people in the workplace, and halve the disability employment gap, which currently means just 51% of disabled people of working age are in work, compared with 81% of non-disabled employees.

Employers would be legally required to close pay gaps – currently disabled people are paid 12% less than non-disabled counterparts – and supported to retain disabled employees.

A government-backed “reasonable adjustments passport” scheme would be introduced to help disabled people move more easily between jobs.

Labour’s approach to change will be driven by disabled people, the manifesto says. “Under Labour, change will not be something that happens to disabled people – it will be something that is led and shaped by them.”

Vlex posted:

It's a parody account

Bardeh posted:

The replies to that Swinson tweet are eye opening. Even the meltiest fubpees have now seen entirely through her. She'll resign or be forced out as soon as the election is over.

quote:

Those who criticise our election coverage by focusing on a couple of mistakes ignore the overall quality and evenness.

But some people have chosen to ignore all of this and focused instead on a couple of editorial mistakes that they suggest are either emblematic of all our election coverage, or damning evidence of an editorial agenda that favours the Conservative party.

Conspiracy theories are much in vogue these days.

Fran Unsworth is the BBC’s director of news and current affairs

Azza Bamboo posted:

Is your campaign a tired old road? Does it throw us under a bus? Is it completely off the rails?

quote:

The chart showed that a Labour majority is scooping up more than one in every five of the bets placed, this despite it being a best priced 25-1 (it probably won’t please the party’s spinners to learn that their slice was coloured lime green

"Over the last 24 hours a Labour majority has been our most popular selection out of all the markets at 20/1,” said Paddy Power’s Lee Price when I raised the issue with him.