British Politics
Been on holiday for a few weeks, surprised to find no general discussion of British politics so though I'd kick one off.
Tory leadership contest is quickly turning into farce. Trump has backed Boris, which should be reason enough for anyone with half a brain to exclude him.
Of the other candidates Rory Stewart looks the best of the outsiders. Surprised to see Cleverly and Javid not further up the betting, but not sure the Tory membership are ready for a brown PM.
https://www.oddschecker.com/politics/bri...
Regarding the LD leadership contest, Jo Swinson is miles ahead of any other candidate (and indeed any of the Tory lot). Should be a shoe in.
Finally, it's Groundhog Day in Labour - the more serious the anti-Semitism claims get, the more Corbyn's cronies write their own obituary by blaming it on outlandish conspiracy theories - this week, it's apparently the Jewish Embassy's fault...
The threat to them is mostly much further down the line.
Highly unlikely they get prosecuted while still in power
Also it could well be they probably wouldn't be prosecuted. That's still leaves enough risk to scare the shite of them.
I doubt that. It's partly political positioning and partly just protecting the government's legal standing in the usual way, as when the Wilson government cancelled the Chieftain tank sale to Israel after the Six-Day War. The UK is currently keeping Karadzic in Parkhurst at our own expense on the ICC's behalf. The ICC depends on the co-operation of sovereign governments and can't behave like a US university faculty, going round accusing everyone in sight of wrongthink and Nazidom and getting the pitchforks and torches out.
We're goign to disagree. i would love boids to be right and it be about panderign to us lot of twats on the left. I also agree that's a very significant factor we need to buld on across the board. Soem part is I'm sure about doing the right tinhing - would be nice if that was much higher.
Very tentaively I'm going with:
worried abut democratic consequences: 40%
Worried about personal consequences: 40 %
Doing the right thing: 20%
I accept the democratic consequences for the politicians are far more likely to transpire but they're also nowhere near as scary.
Of course they also didn't do very much on limiting arms sales. That's because of the pressure the other way. Democratic cosnequences and pressure from the usa/etc
doing the right thing way too high, has to be ~1%
its bc they dont want a chunk of their coalition running off with corbyn's wacky band of jew hating free broadband dispensers
I'm not sure. I think a lot of the current crowd were decent people. They have allowed themselves to become corrupted by the pursuit of power but they will still itch. Plus the lower down people will include some good voices.
its bc they dont want a chunk of their coalition running off with corbyn's wacky band of jew hating free broadband dispensers
Not quite how i would put it but I've allowed 40% for that. It's very good to see the power of refusing to vote for people we dont want getting solid recognition*
It's a figure we can raise across the board if we have the staying power. They might even suddenly find the ability to have some more socialist polciies.
*weren't you strongly arguing that if we wouldn't vote for a party with a chance of winning then we were irrelevent? Have you changed your mind?
It must be 20 years ago or so that I posted about how the housing crises would lead to a rise in racism/etc. Then that it was a big factor in brexit. It's so bad now that it's front page (well opinion page anyway).
Labour, beware: Britain’s housing crisis is driving voters towards populism
John Harris
Whenever I talk to people who are bitterly disconnected from politics, they raise the lack of decent homes. That’s the stark truth the party needs to address
in light of the fact that the new uk govt has put an end to the war in gaza, i can confirm that i was wrong about the supposed irrelevance of your green party vote
It must be 20 years ago or so that I posted about how the housing crises would lead to a rise in racism/etc. Then that it was a big factor in brexit. It's so bad now that it's front page (well opinion page anyway).
I mean i know you keep saying this and i believe you are fully in good faith to claim this , but using the normal definition of populism you guys typically use (say AFD in germany is populist, movimento 5 stelle in italy, Le Pen in france and so on), populism systematically is stronger (ie , they get more votes) in places where houses cost *less* than the national average.
AFD is stronger in eastern germany, Le pen is stronger in rural areas, movimento 5 stelle is stronger in souther italy and so on.
Ofc housing is a hell of a problem in UK right now btw, i am not claiming it isn't, i am just claiming politics isn't monovariate and you should find the justifications for populism elsewhere completly, even if housing is a big problem which would be nice to solve regardless of it's (lack of) implications regarding populism.
Not remotely suggesting politcs is monovariate
rayner said something about a big social housing drive in a speech today
i've read opinion pieces from people who know a thing or two about putting bricks on top of each other. they said that the target of 1.5m homes over the parliament is basically unachievable without some massive push. which is quite worrying as i dont think 1.5m in 5 years really touches the sides of the problem.
in light of the fact that the new uk govt has put an end to the war in gaza, i can confirm that i was wrong about the supposed irrelevance of your green party vote
It was this that says you dont think we're irrelevent
its bc they dont want a chunk of their coalition running off with corbyn's wacky band of jew hating free broadband dispensers
You're saying they make decisions based on us (silly description of us aside).
That makes us relevant.
my point is that it's an empty gesture b/c israel has plenty of weapons suppliers online, and that the only upshot is that it makes you and people like you feel good
i think that if iran and its playthings were about to achieve their stated aim of the destruction of israel and the forced deportation and/or extermination of its jewish inhabitants, then labour would be sending whatever weapons required to prevent it
Ending the financial support for a war run by a state governed by genocidally psychotic racist gangster criminals hellbent on a Holodomor doesn't need any extra benefits to make it worthwhile.
my point is that it's an empty gesture b/c israel has plenty of weapons suppliers online, and that the only upshot is that it makes you and people like you feel good
i think that if iran and its playthings were about to achieve their stated aim of the destruction of israel and the forced deportation and/or extermination of its jewish inhabitants, then labour would be sending whatever weapons required to prevent it
We're not going to disagree about the uk's influence on this being almost entirely minimal
If it helps, nothing about this makes me feel good. I dont want up supporting netanyahu actions (which you know my views on)
This shat started with egregious Blairite cronyism, was amplified by Johnson's amoral corruption and now here we are and it's all completely normal
We're not going to disagree about the uk's influence on this being almost entirely minimal
If it helps, nothing about this makes me feel good. I dont want up supporting netanyahu actions (which you know my views on)
the UK has significant influence but the cited actions (not selling some stuff anymore) don't matter much.
what labour decides to do wrt ICC rulings will be very important and influential though, Tories were contesting jurisdiction, labour seems to be accepting ICC rulings without contesting them, we'll see soon enough
Started reading this report after seeing a few accounts on twitter I follow posting it. It's well worth a read and covers many of the problems that we have in terms of productivity, housing, infrastructure etc.
It would be good to have some discussion on it.
With almost identical population sizes, the UK has under 30 million homes, while France has around 37 million.
Not enough information - the number of homes needed in each country may be quite different.
Not enough information - the number of homes needed in each country may be quite different.
Average household size is indeed higher in the UK at 2.36 vs 2.18 for France.
Then ofc you have the "houses in the middle of nowhere" (that happens in every country) which shouldn't be counted at all, which is why in general going with "total houses in a country" is kinda silly.
Started reading this report after seeing a few accounts on twitter I follow posting it. It's well worth a read and covers many of the problems that we have in terms of productivity, housing, infrastructure etc.
It would be good to have some discussion on it.
Seems like right wing claptrap. Lots of guff about building more toll roads. twitter account is fond of quoting Nick Timothy lol.
what's the objection in the UK about building in height? you aren't as car centric as the USA right, so lack of parking spots/traffic aren't the main concern of higher density i suppose?
For countries, or areas of countries, that aren't super-car-centric it should be very easy to build in height just adding floors to existing already urbanized areas; starting with decommissioned industrial areas ofc, and unused office building conversion, but also a 3 story building can usually go to 5 or 6 without big problems, you aren't even a sismic country
