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TACD posted:but enough about the uk Our deals are pretence so we can punch ourselves in the face again.
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Jun 6, 2022 01:24
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forkboy84 posted:Time for some good news amidst the sea of pessimism I've been to one shinty match in my life, it was between Newtonmore and Kingussie. I think it was a cup match, or at least the final of some tournament. Newtonmore won, but then I heard later they got disqualified because they'd brought on an illegal player or something. In any case, I'd highly recommend watching shinty, it's like hockey with golf swings, and I've no idea how field hockey survives as a sport in the face of such a clear improvement on the format.
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Jun 6, 2022 11:19
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josh04 posted:This is naked sabre-rattling at the at-risk MPs to vote for him, not a real threat. If he loses, is there any reason not to follow through out of spite?
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Jun 6, 2022 15:08
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OwlFancier posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQrdKtPJxI0 For me it's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KDQGgOoX_4
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Jun 6, 2022 20:44
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forkboy84 posted:You are wildly optimistic if you think that Boris cannot guarantee a majority in parliament. Very few of the 148 will be willing to go so far as to vote against the government on a whipped vote, never mind on an issue of confidence or supply I'm not so sure about that, Johnson and Sunak's economic policies have been very unpopular among some of the more swivel eyed backbenchers. If the cost of living crisis continues to worsen the government is going to end up under some real popular pressure to do something, anything, while the more militant MPs are going to be opposed even to fig-leaves that give credence to the notion that the filthy scroungers deserve anything at all. The question in my mind is only whether the government will break first under pressure from its backbenchers or the polling companies.
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Jun 6, 2022 22:05
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forkboy84 posted:The swivel eyed loons want massive tax cuts. It's not like Boris or Rishi are opposed to them. We hosed During their tenure National Insurance has gone up and they're now imposing a windfall tax on energy companies. If they only thing they cared about was cutting taxes they wouldn't have done either of those things, they have other concerns that drove them to make those decisions, and if they are motivated to make similar decisions in future, it's far more likely the backbenchers who are opposed to those policies will rebel now. Yes we're hosed, but we're probably hosed even worse.
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Jun 7, 2022 01:16
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WhatEvil posted:They want tax cuts... for the rich. National insurance is regressive and the rises avoid having to increase taxes on the rich. The "windfall tax" isn't as straightforward as that - Sunak announced at the same time that companies investing in new fossil fuel production will receive a tax break of up to 90% of the windfall tax. NI is regressive, sure, but employers need to pay it too, so a raise in NI is still a tax rise for the rich. It's not as big a rise on the rich as a rise in an actual progressive tax, but a rise is still a rise and lots of tories are ideologically opposed to any rise in tax when the alternative is to cut spending. And a windfall tax that's 90% offset by other tax breaks is still a windfall tax on a net 10% of the announced amount. They clearly didn't want to do the windfall tax in the first place, they spent weeks briefing on why it was a bad idea, so it's clear the windfall tax was a case of them facing some outside pressure they felt they had to bow to, and then searching for a way to work around that pressure in the form of the offset. The backbenchers are going to be able to push back against that sort of thing harder now. They don't want fig-leaf taxes and rises in national insurance, they want tax cuts and for spending to be slashed, much harder and much faster than the present government cares to do. We should expect to see more cuts in both tax and spending over the next few years as a result of this, and if the government does try raising taxes for any reason, expect a rebellion.
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Jun 7, 2022 10:10
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Noxville posted:Yeah they’re triple cooked, once par-boiled until very soft, then cooled, then fried for a short time, then cooled again, then fried one more time. I’ve done it once and it makes great chips but is an incredible faff. I have heard that when you're doing this method, that freezing them in between the first fry and the second makes them even crispier, in addition to letting you get the vast majority of the faff out of the way separately to when you want to actually eat.
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Jun 7, 2022 14:35
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I don't see how a wildcat referendum is going to end well at all. If they hold it, the unionists will boycott it, and Westminster will refuse to recognise it. What then? A UDI will be, at best, ignored, at worst, just make Sturgeon the next Puigdemont. Certainly nobody in the independence movement is willing to pick up a gun and shoot people to get independence. And the SNP seem completely unwilling to actually turn to Sinn Fein-style abstentionism, which is the only thing I can see that has any chance at all of forcing westminster to respond in some way. Unless this is step 1 of turning that boat towards abstentionism it all seems like it's going to just fizzle out with the SNP unwilling to pursue any non-decorous solution.
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Jun 14, 2022 14:58
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roomtone posted:I'm not excited about the campaign itself either, but just ignore it if you've already made up your mind. I'll probably get involved in a way I didn't the first time, but I don't mean following media coverage. Not because it sounds fun, but because I think it really should happen. If it wasn't independence, people would just be endlessly rambing about whatever poo poo was on the news that month anyway, so it might as well be about something that matters rather than beers for kier. "and was sanctioned by the UK government" is the important part of that, though. Spain has previously said that as long as there is a lawful and legitimate separation process they don't have an issue, and that would surely be the case for the rest of the world generally. The problem is that the UK government have intimated that they won't sanction a referendum or a separation, and if we do actually unilaterally declare independence despite opposition from the UK we should expect zero recognition from any other country. I'll also vote yes for basically the same reasons as forkboy, but I don't actually see a workable path to independence without a serious change in how things are going.
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Jun 14, 2022 17:13
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Guavanaut posted:The best thing that an incoming Labour admin can do is require Lib and Green and SNP votes to get anything done and be forced to actually do proportional representation this time around. I wonder about that. I could easily see the SNP wishing to avoid PR being implemented now that they have a sufficient plurality to win most FPTP seats in Scotland.
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Jun 15, 2022 11:14
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feedmegin posted:People tend to have a habit of saying that as if it's a given. I'm not so sure. South Africa has been ruled by the ANC since it stopped being whites only, for one example. Mexico was ruled by the PRI for decades. Japan likewise by the LDP for decades. It might fracture, or it might be that all politics that matters ends up happening within the SNP. No way of knowing til it happens. Yeah i'm skeptical of the SNP meaningfully fracturing. I think you'd likely see them continue to command their "centrist with centre-left accents" position post independence since that sort of conversion actually seems to have been the general trend in Europe, with the new scottish independent conservatives taking up position on the right and the greens capturing the "slightly more left" sphere. If there is a split I'm expecting a Finna Fail/Fine Gael sort of split where the difference between the remnants is about a cigarette paper wide.
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Jun 15, 2022 13:50
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crispix posted:prob just cooking chocolate bulked out with the fat disposed of by catering operations and quarry dust It seems like Wonka bars are a favourite of this particular scam, I'd guess it being a combination of the simple branding being both easy to print and recognisable to kids but not readily spotted as counterfeit by adults. Apparently the last time, they were buying asda smart price chocolate bars for 30p and selling them for £3. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-24806690
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Jun 15, 2022 16:15
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Apparently a Labour source told a BBC correspondent they might lose their deposit in Tiverton and Honiton. I'm aware they'd apparently decided not to seriously campaign to give the Lib Dems a shot at the seat, but I wonder if coming in that low is going to have ramifications.
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Jun 24, 2022 01:57
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ConanThe3rd posted:For as much as it's trying to be jokey jokes and everything Lower Decks' kinda has a feel to it. Of all the new trek stuff Lower Decks has been the only one I've enjoyed. Most of the new stuff just didn't hit that Star Trek aesthetic, that optimistic view of the future, the commitment to resolving stuff peacefully (and actually succeeding), and a general "serious" tone. Lower Decks still strikes that optimistic view, and by being an actual comedy it can sidestep the tone issues. I haven't seen strange new worlds yet, though, maybe it is better. Re: Good chaos gods: 
Reveilled fucked around with this message at 12:16 on Jun 28, 2022 |
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Jun 28, 2022 12:13
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I am very keen to see how Burnham threads the needle between "the 2011 Alternative Vote referendum did not settle the question of PR" and "The 2014 Scottish Independence referendum was a once in a generation event".
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Jun 28, 2022 12:21
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keep punching joe posted:AV was very much not PR though, it's a slightly fairer FPTP. Shouldn't even bother with a referendum imo, that's what a majority is for in the current system. Sure, but I doubt Burnham would endorse that same logic from the SNP.
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Jun 28, 2022 12:45
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Dabir posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2A2wDXYhEE Was the cameraman drunk when this was filmed?
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Jun 28, 2022 14:26
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forkboy84 posted:A majority of MSPs at Holyrood & Scottish MPs at Westminster support independence. How long we meant to wait until Suffolk sorts itself out? I do think we're nearing the "poo poo or get off the pot" moment in Scottish Politics though. If the referendum goes through it will likely be rejected as illegitimate or merely consultative by Westminster, and there's going to be a real need for the SNP to be seen to be doing something about it. The same is true if the next election is fought on that basis, perhaps especially so, since that presents a clear parallel between the next election and the one in 1918. If the SNP win that election in Scotland and still Wesminster refuse to budge, do the SNP go abstentionist? They've always been opposed to that in the past, but if they just continue on the same as before I think the SNP rank-and-file are going to really start losing their poo poo.
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Jun 28, 2022 15:44
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Jippa posted:I was searching for "mr whippy" for undisclosed reasons and I saw this and it sounded very ukmt if had existed back then: Wait hang on, is this saying that Margaret Thatcher having invented soft-serve ice cream is a myth? I thought that was like, the one actually good thing she ever did. EDIT: Well now I'm even more gladder she's dead: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/reality-check/2013/apr/17/margaret-thatcher-team-mr-whippy Reveilled fucked around with this message at 14:13 on Jun 29, 2022 |
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Jun 29, 2022 14:11
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OwlFancier posted:I don't think I found them difficult to read so much as banks doesn't write characters that I am invested in or can remember anything about. I don't know if that is just a stylistic thing or whether it counts as being "bad" at writing them. Also while the setting is very compelling I feel like the fact that the protagonists are utterly uninterested in it, kinda spoils it, because I just find myself wishing there were just pages long descriptions of background stuff. That pretty much mirrors my own feelings, having read the first two books also, I just couldn't get invested in any of the characters. Ultimately I decided the style wasn't for me, much as I wanted it to be. Heck, I think I remember even less about Consider Phlebas, there was a...planet that had like...a bunch of underground train stations or something?? It had an AI in it they needed to get. I don't think I could tell you literally anything about the characters other than that one was an Iridian and the other was a Culture operative. I think? It just completely failed to have any impact on me which I found rather disappointing.
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Jul 1, 2022 17:14
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That reminds me of the story about the guy who refused to wipe because touching your butt is gay. https://www.reddit.com/r/gatekeeping/comments/iaoamq/real_men_dont_wipe_their_ass/ Unrelated to this, I've relistened to Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds again for the first time in a few years and was surprised I'd never noticed just how much of a direct satire of fascism the artilleryman's song was. Like, I'd always understood that the point of the song is how unrealistic and detatched from reality the artilleryman has become, but for some reason I'd never quite picked up on how he's laying things out pretty much exactly how a fascist would describe their idealised society. Lots of good lines, but I think the funniest is "Everything we need: banks, prisons and schools." It's a good album.
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Jul 5, 2022 11:20
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sebzilla posted:It owns, my 7 year old has been obsessed since we picked it up at a boot sale. I saw the live show many years ago and can confirm it's great. I also was obsessed with it as a kid, as was my sister. It's like having a bedtime story read to you by a parent, except your mum and dad somehow have a prog rock orchestra in the room with you. Does your kid listen to the last track with the NASA voices? I always found that bit too scary as a wee 'un.
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Jul 5, 2022 13:01
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I could understand when she was technically a Labour councillor her opinions being very very tenuously relevant, but now that she is apparently just some rando I'm not sure why her stupid views are of any more interest or import than any other random transphobic idiot on twitter.
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Jul 5, 2022 15:23
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Honestly the biggest tragedy of all this is that pistolpete is going to assume we're all talking about how we wipe our asses again.
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Jul 5, 2022 18:48
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I'm trying to game this out in my head, if Johnson does decide to trigger an election out of pure spite (do it!), he literally just has to draft a piece of paper dissolving parliament and calling for an election, drive to the palace and have the queen sign it, right? What can the tories do to stop that? If they change the leadership rules, I suppose they could adopt a new measure which holds an instant vote for an interim leader, who would ideally be some temporary compromise candidate agreed in advance, and that person then needs to drive to Buckingham Palace to meet the queen and advise that they are the one who has the confidence of the house and should therefore be appointed prime minister? Is it just a race then to see who gets to the palace first? Would the queen necessarily be bound to act on whoever gets there first, or is she going to be forced to choose who to listen to ala Australia's Governor-General John Kerr in 1975? Would be loving hilarious if in addition to just burning down parliament in spite he manages to trash the Royals' (public) reputation as politically neutral too.
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Jul 6, 2022 14:40
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TACD posted:It's extremely funny that Boris Johnson is able to get away with unlimited sex scandals entirely unscathed, but his government is shattered into a million pieces as soon as anybody else does one. He's like a Prince Rupert's drop of inappropriate touching and I'm just disappointed in myself for not seeing this twist coming While I don't think the tories at large much care about the distinction, I guess the one positive thing you can say about Boris Johnson is that at least he seems to prefer consenting human adults, which I guess helps to make his own sex scandals seem almost quaint compared to those of other MPs.
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Jul 6, 2022 15:12
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Automatic Slim posted:Serious question as a non-UK dweller. Does the amount of trouble/poll numbers Boris has determine if he combs his hair or not? Or some semblance of hair grooming? He keeps his hair messy on purpose, as part of his image. It's supposed to make him look like a lovable scamp, and as if he's unconcerned with his personal appearance to make him look more like a genuine person rather than a plastic politician. Multiple people who've worked with him have noted that he deliberately messes up his hair before going on camera if it looks too neat. EDIT: I also have a bit of a sneaking suspicion he believes that it makes "Eton Mess" a more ready insult to be used against him, which I expect is an insult he actually likes, since it reminds people he went to Eton. Reveilled fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Jul 6, 2022 |
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Jul 6, 2022 16:09
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Cimber posted:i...I really don't know what to say about that. LOL. To give a little more context of the line from the original term to today, England went through a period where Absolutism and Catholicism became linked to the Stuart monarchs, so people who were loyal to the Stuarts in Ireland during the interregnum were often catholic rebels, hence them getting the Tory name. Later when the monarchy was restored, supporters of James II, who was Catholic, were analogised to these earlier catholic rebels and labelled the same. Thus, the notion of being a Tory was associated with being supportive of the Divine Right of Kings, being supportive of The King (especially the old King), and being opposed to “modern” political ideas (“modern” here meaning things like “giving more power to parliament instead of the king” but also “all catholics are potential traitors”). This meant that when the question of a Stuart restoration was stone dead, it became perfectly natural for champions of new ideas to label their enemies as Tories by analogy, suggesting them to be stooges for the monarch and—worst of all—secret catholics. Eventually the insult lost its punch and it just became the generic term for the conservative pro-aristocracy faction in parliament. And this all pre-dates the actual Conservative party as a formal political organisation, so there’s a fair argument to be made that “the Conservatives” is actually the nickname and Tories the real one rather than the other way round. Reveilled fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Jul 8, 2022 |
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Jul 8, 2022 19:38
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Cimber posted:Very interesting. So right until before WW1 a Conservative meant someone who was a monarchist, a Liberal was someone who was a Lockian/Smithian free trade/capitalism/individual mandate libertarian type, and Labour was someone who was a socialist. That about right? I'd say that over the course of the 19th century as Parliamentary democracy began more and more to be seen as Britain's traditional and correct form of government, Conservativism/Toryism began to become more strongly associated less with monarchism per se, and more with a sort of paternalist view favouring economic interventionism and limited social programs, essentially trying to stave off the rise of socialism by attempting to align the interests of the aristocracy and the new working class, preserving their own political power at a financial cost. This was what's usually called "one-nation conservativism". Lest that seem too altruistic, I'd note that you could easily read this as the British aristocracy identifying the up-and-coming capitalists as their actual class enemies and cleverly coming up with a system that let them tax their enemies and then use the money to buy the loyalty of the poor--from the perspective of 19th century European aristrocrats, revolutions most came about as a result of the middle class getting mad and mobilising the poor to kill them, so presenting yourselves as the defenders of the interests of the working class was a shrewd move. Ultimately of course, industrialisation couldn't be stopped, and the logic of capitalism ultimately converted basically every aristocrat into one, at which point that distinction started to become a little moot. By the early-mid 20th century, the Tories and Liberals had essentially converged on policy, and after Labour took over as the second party of government from the Liberals, the Tories themselves became the party of free-market capitalism. But you'll still from time to time see them try to brand their meager social reforms as "one-nation conservativism" like they actually give a poo poo about poor people any time it looks like the winds are swinging against them.
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Jul 8, 2022 20:21
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Tigey posted:Would be a glorious comedy option, but I doubt it, he mentioned that he anticipated this was likely his last PMQs. I think that's more because the summer recess begins thursday next week, so next wednesday is the last day, so I presume they'll be watching a film on the old TV and signing each other's jumpers instead of doing PMQs.
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Jul 13, 2022 13:02
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Dabir posted:The situation in the US is that they're once Republican victory away from even the barest pretence of democracy evaporating. And if the Dems don't fix the supreme court, the Republicans *will* win 2024, because the court is about to hand the states a license to cheat. I do occasionally wonder, do you think that back in 1900 when the trade unions were deciding to set up a new political party, that people made the same arguments then as they do today? You're splitting the left! What, do you want another Tory government? A liberal government is the lesser evil! I wonder, if we had listened back then, if socialists had stuck by the liberals, would we have an NHS, free at point of use? Would we have gained the various rights and protections for workers which have been steadily eroded by neoliberal governments over the last few decades? Or, would we have instead ended up with a private healthcare system, at will employment? Would we be one Conservative victory away from even the barest pretence of democracy evaporating?
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Jul 15, 2022 13:04
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Convex posted:you could send a handwritten "lol gently caress off" letter https://lettersofnote.com/2011/02/14/regarding-your-stupid-complaint/ quote:Gentlemen: quote:Dear Mr. Cox:
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Jul 16, 2022 14:18
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Kin posted:Do with this impending heatwave coming my wife is looking up all sorts to help keep the house cool for our 7 month old. This is my strategy every summer, blinds closed, windows shut, trap cool air inside the flat. I'm on the ground floor, so the floor itself is cold. The walls are very well insulated but the ceilings a little less so, so heat has a slightly easier time rising out of my flat than it does entering through the walls. But overall the temperature is extremely slow to change--if I make the mistake of letting the heat in, it takes days to get out. In fairness, I live in glasgow, so heatwave weather is closer to 28 than 38, and it's possible that next week the heat outside will force its way in, but I think the principle is sound and opening my windows will only make things worse.
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Jul 17, 2022 01:55
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Chinese Gordon posted:A new socialist party achieves nothing under our current hell system other than ensuring a far right Tory government forevermore. --The Guardian, 1900
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Jul 20, 2022 12:21
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Tesseraction posted:Parma violets are weird in that by all means I should hate them but for some reason I do like them. Same, hate turkish delight (floral flavoured), don't like refreshers, or the bad kind of smarties (chalky sweets), but Parma Violets are fun to eat cause they taste so weird. In a good way, honest
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Jul 23, 2022 23:36
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Jaeluni Asjil posted:Dark chocolate is the devil's work. Someone gave me a bar of 85% - it sat in my fridge for 6 months with only 2 squares taken (shows how gross it is - normally I demolish a bar of choc in a few seconds) before I threw it out. Green and Blacks have a new “smooth” dark chocolate which has the bittering compounds significantly removed somehow, which you might try. You can actually taste the fruity complex taste people rave about in dark chocolates without having to train your brain to ignore the bitter taste. I tend to like milk chocolate which is just a little darker than most standard chocolate, and this stuff was quite a bit darker than I like to go while also being enjoyable to eat. I do find it interesting how there’s this divergence between coffee and dark chocolate culture. Both foods are generally known for their bitterness, but where hardcore chocolate people want to go as dark as possible, acquire a taste for the bitterness, and pride themselves on tasting through that bitterness, hardcore coffee people consider bitterness a flaw (indicative of a bad grind or cheap product) and strive to minimise it in their brews.
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Jul 24, 2022 13:13
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Same, been a while since I ordered but have missed the fudge.
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Jul 25, 2022 20:30
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I wonder how out of touch I am that literally the only people I know on that list are Reg D Hunter and Count Dankula
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Jul 26, 2022 14:27
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That reminds me, I really need to watch Look Who's Back, that German film about Hitler getting isekaied to the present day and becoming a comedian. The Nazi lounge singer comedian kind of feels like someone saw that film and didn't quite understand the point.
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Jul 26, 2022 18:04
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