British Politics

Scots are way bigger drinkers than the English.

I worked and drank a lot with some Kiwis in London back in the 80s. They had friends in Scotland and went there for Hogmanay and couldn’t cope with the volume of pints the following day.

Went to Cardiff to watch rugby world cup England vs Australia semi final (yes we won). At my nieces student digs while Cardiff was absolutely jam packed with NZ & France fans who had gone to watch the other semi final live. All the Welsh people seemed to be passionately supporting australia for some reason. An odd day.

A lot of drinking was done but didn't seem particularly unusual for the UK. Biggest drinking I've seen was Salt lake City (belgium a close second). I posted pics a long time ago.

Something has really caught my attention again over here with the start of a career in between and speaking with a lot of Australians and the odd Brits but there is this thought that us Aussies don't speak English - yes that is crazy on its face as what other language do we speak but I think it is more the poor man's version with the American and Britain's version preferred to listen to. We sound very coarse or rough and frankly I somewhat agree listening to people speak here. Maybe I might be slightly different to the average Australian but that is one thing I have been interested in and how people converse with each other and what we can learn from it - but I guess it could also be that pub culture that it does enable them to become good conversationalists.

Is this just a recent thing that Cardiff seems to be a destination during summer for big concerts? I feel like it is and brings out the big drinker in the Welsh - I just left the city centre as I'm staying outside of it but will head back in in a few hours time and will be packed I suspect like it was yesterday. And there is this just overt or nonchalant attitude when it comes to drinking in public - not that it is illegal unless causing a disturbance but as much as we are a big drinking nation it is all done on licensed venues

My understanding is there has been an insane amount of capital flight in the last few years, with Australia being the main beneficiary.

Grenfeld Tower tragedy

The Daily Mail doxxed the guy who had the faulty fridge and tried to imply that an Islamist terrorist started it but it turned out he was a Christian. He was put on witness protection for his safety.

This is the mass media we have in the UK.

Britain moving ever closer to thought crime territory while wasting police resources.
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/london-...

where were you when they arrested people for mean posts on facebook?

I commented on that before too. Their escalation is why I used the words "moving ever closer".

Arresting people who are sympathizers of terrorists isn't being closer than arresting people for racism.

Being a sympathizer of terrorism is infinitely worse than being a racist (which should be a completly legitimate and always avaiable option for citizens of a first world country, unlike sympathizing with terrorism).

Not a particular fan of Palestinian Action, but spray painting a RAF plane is hardly Brigate Rosse levels of terrorism and should be considered as trespassing and vandalism.
People can be a sympathiser of and support whoever tf they like, whether it's greenpeace, the Nazi party, antifa or your favourite boogeymen the Marxists, long as they're not committing crimes as part of said support- that's the essence of freedom, be it via speech, expression or right to assembly. People peacefully protesting in support of Palestinian Action shouldn't be subject to arrest. It comes across as draconian. You only seem to like freedom when it's for the things you like and agree with, hence the reason you're outraged at the UK police policing social media for nasty comments. That's not how it works. You should condemn both instances, be it for some Tommy Robinson loving gobshite on X getting arrested for obnoxious but non inciting posts, or pro Palestinian action gobshites peacefully protesting.

The decision seems appalling to me but that mean doesn't having the laws is bad. This is the front line of politics.

I dont know if the proscribing will be upheld in court but if it is then part of the politcal fight is to change the law. In the meantime the tension, media coverage and the generally strong feelings that this is unjust can be do more damage to the government than anything else could.

Whatever the law says clearly needs to be better defined to prevent it from being abused by reckless or malicious politicians. Though invariably there is some thin end of the wedge with any such legislation.

I believe it's a common city center thing

I dont like banning things but my inclination is to ban public drinking in groups just because of the absolute shite they are drinking. No-one should have to see that. Especially children.

Most people can’t afford to get pissed on a bottle of 20 year old malt too often. I hear rumours that back in the 70s people would turn up to parties with a large amount of the unspeakably horrid Watneys Red Barrel.

We dont know if it's lawful yet but yes we have to support political parties and people who have decent values and principles. The sort who actually believe their job is to do something

Sure if they're drinking absolute shite because it's cheap then I fully support that. Pretty sure proper beer is way cheaper than the heavily marketed crap taht is commonly being drunk.

Wev'e got the tech. Just ban the ones drinking expensive heavily marketed shite.

My fave yt channel these days.

Can’t speak highly enough of this chaps descriptions and tours of London pubs.

Having laws against terrorism-? Or having laws to proscribe groups you dislike? Big difference there. Hamas are terrorists. Some Nordie muppets like Kneecap waving a Hezbollah flag is hardly terrorism though. Neither is expressing support for groups like Palestinian Action.
Start going down that route and terrorism will be anything the authorities want it to be. You can't have that. It pisses on the sacrifice people made when they died fighting for freedom

Actually no they can't support violent groups. Not even automatically under the american 1a (it's complicated there) and certainly not in most european countries. There is no freedom to organize to violate other people body or property nor to support anyone who wants to do that.

You mentioned brigate rosse and yes, any form of support to them should be considered as being an active member of the group and as sharing all the criminal liabilities of being a member of the group do. Protesting in favor of X is unpaid labor in support of X, is an action that furthers the goal of X. Is X is inherently criminal , doing anything in favor of X is inherently criminal.

While hating others without being violent nor supporting violence, is absolutely, transparently within freedom of expression in most constitutions.

Agree. I bought an off license product and I just couldn't crack it open as I just don't feel it does the area any good. I don't know what that makes me - anti-freedom of association? Drinking in public should only be at parks or recreational ovals. Not walking down the street

So your problem is with defining "palestinian action" a terrorist group. fine that's something that should be discussed. Why do you disagree with defining "palestinian action" a terrorist group? it's a group that explicitly endorses, and organizes, violence for political purposes.

Yes the authorities have to be kept in check if they define as terror something that isn't terror. Terror is the use of illegal violence for political purposes. "palestine action" clearly qualifies if you accept that violence against property is violence that requires the same reaction by the state as violence against people do.

I’d be a terrible hypocrite if I wanted non licensed public drinking banned, considering the number of times I enjoyed it in my youth.

And who hasn’t left a pub at closing time and taken the remainder of a pint into the street with them? Most people have a stack of pint glasses at home, and they didn’t buy them.

My main problem is defining supporting PA as terrorism especially when they're peacefully protesting to show said support. Spray painting a plane is vandalism not violence, no different than graffiti. You just have a bee in your bonnet re property but your personal opinion isn't empirical fact. They haven't murdered anyone or planted bombs or engaged in violence from what I've seen. So no presently I don't regard them as terrorists. They're more of a nuisance than anything.
Would you consider them indistinguishable from Brigate Rosse or the IRA or Baadher Meinhof in terms of terrorism?