Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. Sign in or register to get started.

Options

politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Now Labour’s divisions are being talked about as being “a P

SystemSystem Posts: 11,017
edited January 2016 in General

imagepoliticalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Now Labour’s divisions are being talked about as being “a Political Civil War”

What a day. First there was the news that Cameron is to allow ministers freedom to campaign for LEAVE in EURef campaign… and Corbyn’s reshuffle is sending our reverberations that look set to make any form of reconciliation in the party nigh on impossible.

Read the full story here


«1345

Comments

  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 91,725
    edited January 2016
    Fallout from it? It's barely even happened at all, what's there to be fallout from?

    Maybe I'm just naiive, but when given a free vote the MPs mostly backed their leader's position, and I don't think he's as isolated there now as we think, even if senior figures are thin on the ground.
  • Options
    AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340
    Labour First seems to have been founded explicitly to conduct a civil war:

    https://labourfirst.wordpress.com/about/

    "Labour First is a network which exists to ensure that the voices of moderate party members are heard while the party is kept safe from the organised hard left, and those who seek to divert us from the work of making life better for ordinary working people and their families."
  • Options
    I have a special avatar which is only to be used on special occasions this year....
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,364
    From the last thread:
    Roger said:

    SeanT said:

    SeanT said:

    SeanT said:

    The new German "Code of Conduct for Women" - don't laugh, mainly stay at home etc - has a lovely 1930s name: Verhaltensregeln Fur Frauen.

    They're introducing a code of conduct for women? I can't believe that. Something lost in translation? Maybe it's about the treatment of women.
    No, it's a code of conduct - for women

    https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http://www.rp-online.de/nrw/panorama/koeln-krisenstab-will-verhaltensregeln-fuer-karneval-aufstellen-aid-1.5669639&edit-text=
    It's only five years since the slutwalk phenomenon burst on the scene:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SlutWalk

    Time to have this debate again, I guess.
    With literally millions of MENA migrants heading for Europe I think this debate is a bit bigger than "re-enacting slutwalk"

    Indeed, as others have implied, it's pretty bloody insulting to use the word "slut" in relation to the assaulted girls and women of Cologne - some were 15 and with their parents as they were groped and molested FFS.
    You've completely got the wrong end of the stick. Far from suggesting that the women of Cologne are sluts, I'm suggesting that the women of Cologne should not be asked by their government to tailor their behaviour to appease a large gang of lawless men and that instead the German authorities should be concentrating on apprehending the members of said large gang as a matter of urgency, putting them behind bars and culturally enlightening them with cold water, bromine and, if all else fails, two bricks.
    In Hamburg questions of dress have been around for a while. The Reeperbahn has more prostitutes and brothels than any other area in the world. The girls can be quite aggressive and often parade themselves topless. I've worked in Hamburg loads of times but it has a very particular type of heavy metal aggression which can be intimidating.

    If the incomers don't know the place and have some money they could seriously get taken. It's very organized though you wouldn't know it. Whether Cologne is the same I don't know but if it is it would explain why the reaction there isn't as hysterical as it is on here

    Ah.. Victim blaming. What next Woger? A law that all women not in a tent and walking x paces behind a male relative are fair game?
  • Options
    RodCrosbyRodCrosby Posts: 7,737
    edited January 2016
    Sky News showing report that ISIS have discovered a way to re-activate obsolete SAM missiles...

    Former Chief of RAF says: "we're now in a different ballpark. There are hundreds of thousands of these things lying around, on scrapheaps..."
  • Options
    MP_SEMP_SE Posts: 3,642

    Labour First seems to have been founded explicitly to conduct a civil war:

    https://labourfirst.wordpress.com/about/

    "Labour First is a network which exists to ensure that the voices of moderate party members are heard while the party is kept safe from the organised hard left, and those who seek to divert us from the work of making life better for ordinary working people and their families."

    Labour First have all the hallmarks of a professional operation, a free Wordpress domain name and a Gmail email address.
  • Options
    SpeedySpeedy Posts: 12,100
    As I mentioned before, since Corbyn's enemies would have declared war on him on even the smallest pretext, it's better to cull the lot in the shadow cabinet in one blow.
    After all they have already declared war, they never cared if Corbyn would keep Benn or not (as the Dugher issue shows), they just want to fight him at all costs.
  • Options
    JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 38,973
    RodCrosby said:

    Sky News showing report that ISIS have discovered a way to re-active obsolete SAM missiles...

    Former Chief of RAF says: "we're now in a different ballpark. There are hundreds of thousands of these things lying around, on scrapheaps..."

    Presumably that would involve creating new solid rocket propellant? (I think most are solid-propelled, and that is one of the first thing that degrades). Were they talking about low-altitude MANPADs or something more high-altitude?

    One thing though: I doubt they're getting them off 'scrapheaps'; surely they'd need to be kept in the dry at least?

    On that note, it's years since I've been to Anchor Supplies or Silvermans ... ;)
  • Options
    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,235
    This is turning into a moment for Corbyn.

    One can picture the scene. "If we get rid of that tory bastard Benn 8 other tories are going to walk from the shadow cabinet. We can't do it comrades."

    "But we need to be seen to be doing something or we will look ridiculous" (self awareness not being a strong point).

    "Who can we sack that not many people really care about? That fifth columnist Dugher, he doesn't have many friends and no one knows what the department of Culture does anyway. Let's sack him. That'll show we mean business and are not to be messed with."

    "Who can replace him? How the hell do I know? That is tomorrow's problem."
  • Options
    CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,202
    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.
  • Options
    notmenotme Posts: 3,293
    RodCrosby said:

    Sky News showing report that ISIS have discovered a way to re-activate obsolete SAM missiles...

    Former Chief of RAF says: "we're now in a different ballpark. There are hundreds of thousands of these things lying around, on scrapheaps..."

    Seems a bit unlikely. Getting rockets to work, is well, rocket science. They need exceptional maintenance to keep them in top condition. If they arent in top condition they'll kill more of your own side than the enemy.

    Are we to believe that ISIS has the infrastructure and capacity to reactivate and retrofit these on a large scale? The failure rate if experts were doing it would be 75% at best.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,364

    RodCrosby said:

    Sky News showing report that ISIS have discovered a way to re-active obsolete SAM missiles...

    Former Chief of RAF says: "we're now in a different ballpark. There are hundreds of thousands of these things lying around, on scrapheaps..."

    Presumably that would involve creating new solid rocket propellant? (I think most are solid-propelled, and that is one of the first thing that degrades). Were they talking about low-altitude MANPADs or something more high-altitude?

    One thing though: I doubt they're getting them off 'scrapheaps'; surely they'd need to be kept in the dry at least?

    On that note, it's years since I've been to Anchor Supplies or Silvermans ... ;)
    Very doubtful they are pouring their own grain - "amateur" rocket experts in the US and UK don't try this. Which given the skill level indicates just how difficult it is to do.

    More likely, someone with training is teaching how they work. Soviet equiped armies used MANPADS on an incredible scale. So expect a bunch of guys going through a pile of slightly dented SA-7/14 to find and patch the salvagable ones.

    Then give them to the more expendable Jihadis to fire. If one blows up.. who cares?
  • Options
    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,235
    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    It is often said that all political careers end in failure. Merkel looked like she might be an exception.

    Until now.

    For all her undoubted successes and brilliant management of the German economy she is going to be remembered for the mistakes she has made on immigration and the consequences for her own people.
  • Options
    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,317
    I've said it before and I'll say it again: Merkel will go down in history as one of the worst Western leaders of the early 21st Century.
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,607
    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    It should be a lesson we need only learn once. I wouldn't blame you. If my partner were assaulted in this manner and the police turned a blind eye I would be looking to take the law into my own hands. If the government and the police are not there to protect people from crime of the worst type then why even bother having them.

    Cultural sensitivity is a complete bullshit phrase that needs to be stamped on and thrown out of our vocabulary. I'm not going to be sensitive towards those who have an inferior culture to our own.
  • Options
    notmenotme Posts: 3,293
    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    Listening to the Radio 5 live today, you would not have guessed that the perpetrators were anyone other than normal full blooded Germans who inexplicably went on a rampage.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,364
    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    The response will be the same as that to the Libyans who behaved similarly here - "not really their fault for not knowing our laws".

    The obvious response is for all women to wear a tent, and only go out in the company of male relative.
  • Options
    RodCrosbyRodCrosby Posts: 7,737
    edited January 2016
    notme said:

    RodCrosby said:

    Sky News showing report that ISIS have discovered a way to re-activate obsolete SAM missiles...

    Former Chief of RAF says: "we're now in a different ballpark. There are hundreds of thousands of these things lying around, on scrapheaps..."

    Seems a bit unlikely. Getting rockets to work, is well, rocket science. They need exceptional maintenance to keep them in top condition. If they arent in top condition they'll kill more of your own side than the enemy.

    Are we to believe that ISIS has the infrastructure and capacity to reactivate and retrofit these on a large scale? The failure rate if experts were doing it would be 75% at best.
    Make of it what you wish
    http://news.sky.com/story/1617229/is-bomb-skills-truly-the-stuff-of-nightmares

    The discussion claimed ISIS had in fact found a way to make their own thermal batteries...
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,364
    notme said:

    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    Listening to the Radio 5 live today, you would not have guessed that the perpetrators were anyone other than normal full blooded Germans who inexplicably went on a rampage.
    The Germans are about 5 years behind us on this - the BBC learnt that lying/concealing the ethnic identity of various kinds of criminals just made things worse about then.
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,607

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: Merkel will go down in history as one of the worst Western leaders of the early 21st Century.

    I'm hoping that the CDU commit suicide and keep her there for 2017. The SPD is already down in the dumps and they are being whittled away by the greens and left party. Hopefully AfD can begin to make real inroads into the CDU share so the cosy grand coalition will be impossible in 2017.
  • Options
    JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 38,973
    notme said:

    RodCrosby said:

    Sky News showing report that ISIS have discovered a way to re-activate obsolete SAM missiles...

    Former Chief of RAF says: "we're now in a different ballpark. There are hundreds of thousands of these things lying around, on scrapheaps..."

    Seems a bit unlikely. Getting rockets to work, is well, rocket science. They need exceptional maintenance to keep them in top condition. If they arent in top condition they'll kill more of your own side than the enemy.

    Are we to believe that ISIS has the infrastructure and capacity to reactivate and retrofit these on a large scale? The failure rate if experts were doing it would be 75% at best.
    I haven't seen the report, so might well be on totally the wrong tangent: might they have got hold of some old stock from a weapons dealer that, whilst nominally not working, could be renovated?

    The chances of such changes working seem fairly remote and as you say, might blow up more of their own people than the enemy. Also, I'd be dubious about the electronics if they have not been stored well.
  • Options
    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,235
    Tim's latest comment sums up the point rather well:

    "@OwenJones84 If you are trying to rebuild an 18% economic competence rating it's probably best to look competent at something occasionally."

  • Options
    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,317
    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    If (and it's a whoppingly large if) this leads to irresistible public pressure on Merkel to change her policy (and I'm not holding my breath) then perhaps some good may come from it.

    But i fear it will take much tougher measures than I think she is willing to politically accept to stop the migration flows in their tracks now.

    She has opened Pandora's box.
  • Options
    richardDoddrichardDodd Posts: 5,472
    Why is Benn speaking so slowly.one ....word....at ....a...time...very ....slowly...maybe it is being in close proximity to Corbyn....Come on lad...spit it out..
  • Options
    notmenotme Posts: 3,293
    RodCrosby said:

    notme said:

    RodCrosby said:

    Sky News showing report that ISIS have discovered a way to re-activate obsolete SAM missiles...

    Former Chief of RAF says: "we're now in a different ballpark. There are hundreds of thousands of these things lying around, on scrapheaps..."

    Seems a bit unlikely. Getting rockets to work, is well, rocket science. They need exceptional maintenance to keep them in top condition. If they arent in top condition they'll kill more of your own side than the enemy.

    Are we to believe that ISIS has the infrastructure and capacity to reactivate and retrofit these on a large scale? The failure rate if experts were doing it would be 75% at best.
    Make of it what you wish
    http://news.sky.com/story/1617229/is-bomb-skills-truly-the-stuff-of-nightmares
    thanks, im sceptical but still frightened.... What happens when they're able to develop drones...
  • Options
    CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,202
    MaxPB said:

    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    It should be a lesson we need only learn once. I wouldn't blame you. If my partner were assaulted in this manner and the police turned a blind eye I would be looking to take the law into my own hands. If the government and the police are not there to protect people from crime of the worst type then why even bother having them.

    Cultural sensitivity is a complete bullshit phrase that needs to be stamped on and thrown out of our vocabulary. I'm not going to be sensitive towards those who have an inferior culture to our own.
    I agree wholeheartedly. Some cultures are better than others. I think Western culture is better on the whole than Middle Eastern culture. Those living in the Middle East may disagree. That is their right. But if they come to live here they live according to our rules. And if they don't want to, they can piss off.

    What they need to - and don't - understand is that the freedoms which allow women to do what they want, including getting pissed and fall into the gutter after having given blow jobs to the local light infantry (if that is what they want to do) are the same freedoms which have resulted in us having a stable, free and economically prosperous society which is so attractive to the migrants. You can't have one without the other.

    The freedom to do what you want is indivisible from the freedom to think what you want, to say what you want, to ask "why" and "why not", to invent, to create, to change and to refuse to accept that you have discovered all possible human knowledge and that there is nothing more to learn and that therefore nothing must change.
  • Options
    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,235

    notme said:

    RodCrosby said:

    Sky News showing report that ISIS have discovered a way to re-activate obsolete SAM missiles...

    Former Chief of RAF says: "we're now in a different ballpark. There are hundreds of thousands of these things lying around, on scrapheaps..."

    Seems a bit unlikely. Getting rockets to work, is well, rocket science. They need exceptional maintenance to keep them in top condition. If they arent in top condition they'll kill more of your own side than the enemy.

    Are we to believe that ISIS has the infrastructure and capacity to reactivate and retrofit these on a large scale? The failure rate if experts were doing it would be 75% at best.
    I haven't seen the report, so might well be on totally the wrong tangent: might they have got hold of some old stock from a weapons dealer that, whilst nominally not working, could be renovated?

    The chances of such changes working seem fairly remote and as you say, might blow up more of their own people than the enemy. Also, I'd be dubious about the electronics if they have not been stored well.
    You are not factoring in asymmetric warfare. Even the possibility that one of our elderly fighter bombers might be brought down by one of these things, however remote, will have a material effect on our already vanishingly modest contribution to the effort.

    As I said at the time the vote on bombing in Syria was the largest amount of self important delusional piffle that our frankly weird ruling class has come up with for a while. Warfare by gesture to make us feel good and important. Sad and pathetic really.
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 53,959
    MaxPB said:

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: Merkel will go down in history as one of the worst Western leaders of the early 21st Century.

    I'm hoping that the CDU commit suicide and keep her there for 2017. The SPD is already down in the dumps and they are being whittled away by the greens and left party. Hopefully AfD can begin to make real inroads into the CDU share so the cosy grand coalition will be impossible in 2017.
    The last three opinion polls in Germany have AfD on c. 9%, and the FDP scraping into parliament with 5%. If both those parties make it, it will make a much more interesting parliament.

    That being said, CDU + SPD currently gets 60%, so hard to see a scenario where a grand coalition is not possible.
  • Options
    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,317
    MaxPB said:

    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    It should be a lesson we need only learn once. I wouldn't blame you. If my partner were assaulted in this manner and the police turned a blind eye I would be looking to take the law into my own hands. If the government and the police are not there to protect people from crime of the worst type then why even bother having them.

    Cultural sensitivity is a complete bullshit phrase that needs to be stamped on and thrown out of our vocabulary. I'm not going to be sensitive towards those who have an inferior culture to our own.
    This is exactly how far-right parties take off.

    You'd have thought the Germans, of all peoples, would understand that.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,364
    RodCrosby said:

    notme said:

    RodCrosby said:

    Sky News showing report that ISIS have discovered a way to re-activate obsolete SAM missiles...

    Former Chief of RAF says: "we're now in a different ballpark. There are hundreds of thousands of these things lying around, on scrapheaps..."

    Seems a bit unlikely. Getting rockets to work, is well, rocket science. They need exceptional maintenance to keep them in top condition. If they arent in top condition they'll kill more of your own side than the enemy.

    Are we to believe that ISIS has the infrastructure and capacity to reactivate and retrofit these on a large scale? The failure rate if experts were doing it would be 75% at best.
    Make of it what you wish
    http://news.sky.com/story/1617229/is-bomb-skills-truly-the-stuff-of-nightmares
    Oh. Batteries. GSCE level electronics to create a replacement power supply that creates the correct voltage and ampage to replace an expired MANPAD battery. Particularly when the voltage and ampage are written on the original battery....

    Bit like being surprised that someone can get a cement mixer, fertilizer and diesel fuel together.
  • Options
    john_zimsjohn_zims Posts: 3,399
    edited January 2016
    @Roger

    'Whether Cologne is the same I don't know but if it is it would explain why the reaction there isn't as hysterical as it is on here'


    Cologne was (until medieval man arrived) a very pleasant mid sized German city with its massive cathedral that somehow avoided the allied bombing, there is no red light area around the station.

    If you had taken the trouble to actually read the articles I think even you would have realized how disturbed people were from the mayor downwards with this barbaric behavior.

    No coincidence that both Sweden & Denmark abandoned Schengen yesterday.
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,607

    MaxPB said:

    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    It should be a lesson we need only learn once. I wouldn't blame you. If my partner were assaulted in this manner and the police turned a blind eye I would be looking to take the law into my own hands. If the government and the police are not there to protect people from crime of the worst type then why even bother having them.

    Cultural sensitivity is a complete bullshit phrase that needs to be stamped on and thrown out of our vocabulary. I'm not going to be sensitive towards those who have an inferior culture to our own.
    This is exactly how far-right parties take off.

    You'd have thought the Germans, of all peoples, would understand that.
    Well at least this time AfD are there to hoover up the discontented votes like UKIP do over here.
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 53,959
    Cyclefree said:

    MaxPB said:

    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    It should be a lesson we need only learn once. I wouldn't blame you. If my partner were assaulted in this manner and the police turned a blind eye I would be looking to take the law into my own hands. If the government and the police are not there to protect people from crime of the worst type then why even bother having them.

    Cultural sensitivity is a complete bullshit phrase that needs to be stamped on and thrown out of our vocabulary. I'm not going to be sensitive towards those who have an inferior culture to our own.
    I agree wholeheartedly. Some cultures are better than others. I think Western culture is better on the whole than Middle Eastern culture. Those living in the Middle East may disagree. That is their right. But if they come to live here they live according to our rules. And if they don't want to, they can piss off.

    What they need to - and don't - understand is that the freedoms which allow women to do what they want, including getting pissed and fall into the gutter after having given blow jobs to the local light infantry (if that is what they want to do) are the same freedoms which have resulted in us having a stable, free and economically prosperous society which is so attractive to the migrants. You can't have one without the other.

    The freedom to do what you want is indivisible from the freedom to think what you want, to say what you want, to ask "why" and "why not", to invent, to create, to change and to refuse to accept that you have discovered all possible human knowledge and that there is nothing more to learn and that therefore nothing must change.
    Excellent post.
  • Options
    CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,202

    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    The response will be the same as that to the Libyans who behaved similarly here - "not really their fault for not knowing our laws".

    The obvious response is for all women to wear a tent, and only go out in the company of male relative.
    The obvious response is to carry a sharp knife with you and use it on any Libyan, ignorant or otherwise, to teach him a long-lasting lesson about (a) his own biology; (b) our laws; and (c) that our women won't put up with this shit.

  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,607
    rcs1000 said:

    MaxPB said:

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: Merkel will go down in history as one of the worst Western leaders of the early 21st Century.

    I'm hoping that the CDU commit suicide and keep her there for 2017. The SPD is already down in the dumps and they are being whittled away by the greens and left party. Hopefully AfD can begin to make real inroads into the CDU share so the cosy grand coalition will be impossible in 2017.
    The last three opinion polls in Germany have AfD on c. 9%, and the FDP scraping into parliament with 5%. If both those parties make it, it will make a much more interesting parliament.

    That being said, CDU + SPD currently gets 60%, so hard to see a scenario where a grand coalition is not possible.
    As I said, I would love to see AfD continue make inroads into the CDU/CSU share and the other two left parties continue to hollow out the SPD. If that 60% turns into 50% over the next two years it is difficult to see a grand coalition.
  • Options
    FensterFenster Posts: 2,115
    Dugher for next Lab leader?
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 53,959
    notme said:

    RodCrosby said:

    notme said:

    RodCrosby said:

    Sky News showing report that ISIS have discovered a way to re-activate obsolete SAM missiles...

    Former Chief of RAF says: "we're now in a different ballpark. There are hundreds of thousands of these things lying around, on scrapheaps..."

    Seems a bit unlikely. Getting rockets to work, is well, rocket science. They need exceptional maintenance to keep them in top condition. If they arent in top condition they'll kill more of your own side than the enemy.

    Are we to believe that ISIS has the infrastructure and capacity to reactivate and retrofit these on a large scale? The failure rate if experts were doing it would be 75% at best.
    Make of it what you wish
    http://news.sky.com/story/1617229/is-bomb-skills-truly-the-stuff-of-nightmares
    thanks, im sceptical but still frightened.... What happens when they're able to develop drones...
    You mean, like these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imtqooJj0I4
  • Options
    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,317
    MaxPB said:

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: Merkel will go down in history as one of the worst Western leaders of the early 21st Century.

    I'm hoping that the CDU commit suicide and keep her there for 2017. The SPD is already down in the dumps and they are being whittled away by the greens and left party. Hopefully AfD can begin to make real inroads into the CDU share so the cosy grand coalition will be impossible in 2017.
    I think it'd require border fences, armed troops at the border, gendarmerie patrolling the streets of major German citied and German money, troops and resources deployed to EU border states now with naval forces in the med turning all boats around and refugee camps in MENA (EU/German run) to return them to with forced repatriation to meaningfully stop the migration flows now.

    I'm not sure I see any German political party willing to do that.
  • Options
    RodCrosbyRodCrosby Posts: 7,737
    edited January 2016
    MaxPB said:

    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    Cultural sensitivity is a complete bullshit phrase that needs to be stamped on and thrown out of our vocabulary. I'm not going to be sensitive towards those who have an inferior culture to our own.
    But that rather begs the question. Why permit these people to immigrate into your country at all, unless you actually seek its destruction?
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 53,959
    rcs1000 said:

    notme said:

    RodCrosby said:

    notme said:

    RodCrosby said:

    Sky News showing report that ISIS have discovered a way to re-activate obsolete SAM missiles...

    Former Chief of RAF says: "we're now in a different ballpark. There are hundreds of thousands of these things lying around, on scrapheaps..."

    Seems a bit unlikely. Getting rockets to work, is well, rocket science. They need exceptional maintenance to keep them in top condition. If they arent in top condition they'll kill more of your own side than the enemy.

    Are we to believe that ISIS has the infrastructure and capacity to reactivate and retrofit these on a large scale? The failure rate if experts were doing it would be 75% at best.
    Make of it what you wish
    http://news.sky.com/story/1617229/is-bomb-skills-truly-the-stuff-of-nightmares
    thanks, im sceptical but still frightened.... What happens when they're able to develop drones...
    You mean, like these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imtqooJj0I4
    As an aside: I am at CES, and when the Disco is launched, I am SOOOOOO getting one.
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,607
    Cyclefree said:

    I agree wholeheartedly. Some cultures are better than others. I think Western culture is better on the whole than Middle Eastern culture. Those living in the Middle East may disagree. That is their right. But if they come to live here they live according to our rules. And if they don't want to, they can piss off.

    What they need to - and don't - understand is that the freedoms which allow women to do what they want, including getting pissed and fall into the gutter after having given blow jobs to the local light infantry (if that is what they want to do) are the same freedoms which have resulted in us having a stable, free and economically prosperous society which is so attractive to the migrants. You can't have one without the other.

    The freedom to do what you want is indivisible from the freedom to think what you want, to say what you want, to ask "why" and "why not", to invent, to create, to change and to refuse to accept that you have discovered all possible human knowledge and that there is nothing more to learn and that therefore nothing must change.

    Spot on. Your example reminded me of a young woman in my first year of uni who disappeared into her bedroom with three rugby boys and reappeared the following day looking pretty dishevelled. I went to her wedding last year, unsurprisingly the story didn't get a mention!
  • Options
    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,317
    RodCrosby said:

    MaxPB said:

    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    Cultural sensitivity is a complete bullshit phrase that needs to be stamped on and thrown out of our vocabulary. I'm not going to be sensitive towards those who have an inferior culture to our own.
    But that rather begs the question. Why permit these people to immigrate into your country at all, unless you actually seek its destruction?
    Perhaps some do at a subconscious level?

    Western post-colonial guilt runs very deep.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,364
    rcs1000 said:

    notme said:

    RodCrosby said:

    notme said:

    RodCrosby said:

    Sky News showing report that ISIS have discovered a way to re-activate obsolete SAM missiles...

    Former Chief of RAF says: "we're now in a different ballpark. There are hundreds of thousands of these things lying around, on scrapheaps..."

    Seems a bit unlikely. Getting rockets to work, is well, rocket science. They need exceptional maintenance to keep them in top condition. If they arent in top condition they'll kill more of your own side than the enemy.

    Are we to believe that ISIS has the infrastructure and capacity to reactivate and retrofit these on a large scale? The failure rate if experts were doing it would be 75% at best.
    Make of it what you wish
    http://news.sky.com/story/1617229/is-bomb-skills-truly-the-stuff-of-nightmares
    thanks, im sceptical but still frightened.... What happens when they're able to develop drones...
    You mean, like these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imtqooJj0I4
    A friend has just got one of those. Awesome.

    Think on it the other way round. How long before sub-national groups can have fun with the Jihadis?
  • Options
    tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,189
    Interesting comments from Ken Clarke on the Six O'Clock news this evening. I thought it was the Eurosceptics who were going to cause trouble in this parliament. His comments about the PM's decision came across as being very bitter.
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 53,959
    MaxPB said:

    rcs1000 said:

    MaxPB said:

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: Merkel will go down in history as one of the worst Western leaders of the early 21st Century.

    I'm hoping that the CDU commit suicide and keep her there for 2017. The SPD is already down in the dumps and they are being whittled away by the greens and left party. Hopefully AfD can begin to make real inroads into the CDU share so the cosy grand coalition will be impossible in 2017.
    The last three opinion polls in Germany have AfD on c. 9%, and the FDP scraping into parliament with 5%. If both those parties make it, it will make a much more interesting parliament.

    That being said, CDU + SPD currently gets 60%, so hard to see a scenario where a grand coalition is not possible.
    As I said, I would love to see AfD continue make inroads into the CDU/CSU share and the other two left parties continue to hollow out the SPD. If that 60% turns into 50% over the next two years it is difficult to see a grand coalition.
    But what's the alternative:

    CDU + FDP + AfD?
    SPD + Linke + Greens?

    Increasing fragmentation means ever more unstable coalitions, and an inability to make difficult necessary reforms.
  • Options
    AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 23,754

    RodCrosby said:

    MaxPB said:

    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    Cultural sensitivity is a complete bullshit phrase that needs to be stamped on and thrown out of our vocabulary. I'm not going to be sensitive towards those who have an inferior culture to our own.
    But that rather begs the question. Why permit these people to immigrate into your country at all, unless you actually seek its destruction?
    Perhaps some do at a subconscious level?

    Western post-colonial guilt runs very deep.
    I still hold that english bastard Sunil responsible for the potato famine.
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,607
    RodCrosby said:

    MaxPB said:

    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    Cultural sensitivity is a complete bullshit phrase that needs to be stamped on and thrown out of our vocabulary. I'm not going to be sensitive towards those who have an inferior culture to our own.
    But that rather begs the question. Why permit these people to immigrate into your country at all, unless you actually seek its destruction?
    Search me, I'm half in the Trump camp of halting all immigration from Muslim countries. I make no bones about it, I think Islamic culture is vastly inferior to British culture, it does nothing to enrich this country and causes nothing but harm. Those that want to integrate I have no issue with, but too many are unwilling to do so and until they prove they are why bother with the hassle.
  • Options
    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,317
    rcs1000 said:

    Cyclefree said:

    MaxPB said:

    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    It should be a lesson we need only learn once. I wouldn't blame you. If my partner were assaulted in this manner and the police turned a blind eye I would be looking to take the law into my own hands. If the government and the police are not there to protect people from crime of the worst type then why even bother having them.

    Cultural sensitivity is a complete bullshit phrase that needs to be stamped on and thrown out of our vocabulary. I'm not going to be sensitive towards those who have an inferior culture to our own.
    I agree wholeheartedly. Some cultures are better than others. I think Western culture is better on the whole than Middle Eastern culture. Those living in the Middle East may disagree. That is their right. But if they come to live here they live according to our rules. And if they don't want to, they can piss off.

    What they need to - and don't - understand is that the freedoms which allow women to do what they want, including getting pissed and fall into the gutter after having given blow jobs to the local light infantry (if that is what they want to do) are the same freedoms which have resulted in us having a stable, free and economically prosperous society which is so attractive to the migrants. You can't have one without the other.

    The freedom to do what you want is indivisible from the freedom to think what you want, to say what you want, to ask "why" and "why not", to invent, to create, to change and to refuse to accept that you have discovered all possible human knowledge and that there is nothing more to learn and that therefore nothing must change.
    Excellent post.
    Seconded.
  • Options
    RodCrosbyRodCrosby Posts: 7,737
    notme said:

    RodCrosby said:

    notme said:

    RodCrosby said:

    Sky News showing report that ISIS have discovered a way to re-activate obsolete SAM missiles...

    Former Chief of RAF says: "we're now in a different ballpark. There are hundreds of thousands of these things lying around, on scrapheaps..."

    Seems a bit unlikely. Getting rockets to work, is well, rocket science. They need exceptional maintenance to keep them in top condition. If they arent in top condition they'll kill more of your own side than the enemy.

    Are we to believe that ISIS has the infrastructure and capacity to reactivate and retrofit these on a large scale? The failure rate if experts were doing it would be 75% at best.
    Make of it what you wish
    http://news.sky.com/story/1617229/is-bomb-skills-truly-the-stuff-of-nightmares
    thanks, im sceptical but still frightened.... What happens when they're able to develop drones...
    The discussion centered around the possibility of them smuggling them into Europe, etc. to take down civilian airliners.
  • Options
    john_zimsjohn_zims Posts: 3,399
    @RodCrosby


    'But that rather begs the question. Why permit these people to immigrate into your country at all, unless you actually seek its destruction? '


    A politician desperate for a legacy influenced by a sensational media ?
    /



  • Options
    CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,202
    edited January 2016

    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    If (and it's a whoppingly large if) this leads to irresistible public pressure on Merkel to change her policy (and I'm not holding my breath) then perhaps some good may come from it.

    But i fear it will take much tougher measures than I think she is willing to politically accept to stop the migration flows in their tracks now.

    She has opened Pandora's box.
    I would like to hope so. But crimes against women - however awful or wide ranging - rarely have any sort of real or long-lasting political impact, partly because female politicians don't make enough of a fuss, partly because it is seen as a women's issue (as if it were some side issue like VAT on tampons, only of interest to the slightly obsessed) and partly because male politicians don't take it seriously and make it front and centre - as it would be if men and boys were being attacked and anally raped in the centres of our towns.

    The paradox is that we give the impression, as a society, that we don't value women and those from societies where men's honour is, at least in part, carried by "pure" women, take their cue from that and their own idea of women, as people who are not actors in their own right, in charge of their own lives, but simply a vehicle for others - as either the "pure" woman, keeper of the family's "honour" or as a slut to be used for sex and nothing else.
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 53,959
    MaxPB said:

    RodCrosby said:

    MaxPB said:

    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    Cultural sensitivity is a complete bullshit phrase that needs to be stamped on and thrown out of our vocabulary. I'm not going to be sensitive towards those who have an inferior culture to our own.
    But that rather begs the question. Why permit these people to immigrate into your country at all, unless you actually seek its destruction?
    Search me, I'm half in the Trump camp of halting all immigration from Muslim countries. I make no bones about it, I think Islamic culture is vastly inferior to British culture, it does nothing to enrich this country and causes nothing but harm. Those that want to integrate I have no issue with, but too many are unwilling to do so and until they prove they are why bother with the hassle.
    Trump doesn't just want to stop Muslim immigration, he wants to stop Muslims entering the US full stop.
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,607
    rcs1000 said:

    MaxPB said:

    rcs1000 said:

    MaxPB said:

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: Merkel will go down in history as one of the worst Western leaders of the early 21st Century.

    I'm hoping that the CDU commit suicide and keep her there for 2017. The SPD is already down in the dumps and they are being whittled away by the greens and left party. Hopefully AfD can begin to make real inroads into the CDU share so the cosy grand coalition will be impossible in 2017.
    The last three opinion polls in Germany have AfD on c. 9%, and the FDP scraping into parliament with 5%. If both those parties make it, it will make a much more interesting parliament.

    That being said, CDU + SPD currently gets 60%, so hard to see a scenario where a grand coalition is not possible.
    As I said, I would love to see AfD continue make inroads into the CDU/CSU share and the other two left parties continue to hollow out the SPD. If that 60% turns into 50% over the next two years it is difficult to see a grand coalition.
    But what's the alternative:

    CDU + FDP + AfD?
    SPD + Linke + Greens?

    Increasing fragmentation means ever more unstable coalitions, and an inability to make difficult necessary reforms.
    It really depends on the numbers but I don't think a grand coalition at 50% of the share would be stable, there would be too much internal dissent between the three parties. The CSU especially loathe the SPD and are much closer to AfD politically.
  • Options
    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,317

    RodCrosby said:

    MaxPB said:

    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    Cultural sensitivity is a complete bullshit phrase that needs to be stamped on and thrown out of our vocabulary. I'm not going to be sensitive towards those who have an inferior culture to our own.
    But that rather begs the question. Why permit these people to immigrate into your country at all, unless you actually seek its destruction?
    Perhaps some do at a subconscious level?

    Western post-colonial guilt runs very deep.
    I still hold that english bastard Sunil responsible for the potato famine.
    I hold him responsible for his vote for Labour last year helping to toss out a Conservative and gift us the pleasure of another Labour MP.

    What was he thinking? Was he thinking?
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,607
    rcs1000 said:

    MaxPB said:

    RodCrosby said:

    MaxPB said:

    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    Cultural sensitivity is a complete bullshit phrase that needs to be stamped on and thrown out of our vocabulary. I'm not going to be sensitive towards those who have an inferior culture to our own.
    But that rather begs the question. Why permit these people to immigrate into your country at all, unless you actually seek its destruction?
    Search me, I'm half in the Trump camp of halting all immigration from Muslim countries. I make no bones about it, I think Islamic culture is vastly inferior to British culture, it does nothing to enrich this country and causes nothing but harm. Those that want to integrate I have no issue with, but too many are unwilling to do so and until they prove they are why bother with the hassle.
    Trump doesn't just want to stop Muslim immigration, he wants to stop Muslims entering the US full stop.
    That's why I said half.
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 53,959
    RodCrosby said:

    notme said:

    RodCrosby said:

    notme said:

    RodCrosby said:

    Sky News showing report that ISIS have discovered a way to re-activate obsolete SAM missiles...

    Former Chief of RAF says: "we're now in a different ballpark. There are hundreds of thousands of these things lying around, on scrapheaps..."

    Seems a bit unlikely. Getting rockets to work, is well, rocket science. They need exceptional maintenance to keep them in top condition. If they arent in top condition they'll kill more of your own side than the enemy.

    Are we to believe that ISIS has the infrastructure and capacity to reactivate and retrofit these on a large scale? The failure rate if experts were doing it would be 75% at best.
    Make of it what you wish
    http://news.sky.com/story/1617229/is-bomb-skills-truly-the-stuff-of-nightmares
    thanks, im sceptical but still frightened.... What happens when they're able to develop drones...
    The discussion centered around the possibility of them smuggling them into Europe, etc. to take down civilian airliners.
    Getting a job on the cleaning staff at a regional airport in the UK, and simply smuggling a bomb on might be a lot simpler.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,364
    tlg86 said:

    Interesting comments from Ken Clarke on the Six O'Clock news this evening. I thought it was the Eurosceptics who were going to cause trouble in this parliament. His comments about the PM's decision came across as being very bitter.

    There is a certain kind of Europhile that doesn't understand that giving people a real choice actually increases the chance that they will agree with you. Ted Heath actually stated that he would ignore the result of any anti-EU vote....

    BIt like some Labour party types who try and "blame" Cameron for the independence referendum. They actually seem to believe that it would have been less risky from a Unionist point of view to deny the Scots a vote.
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,986

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: Merkel will go down in history as one of the worst Western leaders of the early 21st Century.

    Germany has lower unemployment and debt than we do and she is probably the most powerful woman in the world, she is not even in the pool of worst leaders
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 53,959
    MaxPB said:

    rcs1000 said:

    MaxPB said:

    RodCrosby said:

    MaxPB said:

    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    Cultural sensitivity is a complete bullshit phrase that needs to be stamped on and thrown out of our vocabulary. I'm not going to be sensitive towards those who have an inferior culture to our own.
    But that rather begs the question. Why permit these people to immigrate into your country at all, unless you actually seek its destruction?
    Search me, I'm half in the Trump camp of halting all immigration from Muslim countries. I make no bones about it, I think Islamic culture is vastly inferior to British culture, it does nothing to enrich this country and causes nothing but harm. Those that want to integrate I have no issue with, but too many are unwilling to do so and until they prove they are why bother with the hassle.
    Trump doesn't just want to stop Muslim immigration, he wants to stop Muslims entering the US full stop.
    That's why I said half.
    The great irony is that US Muslims are much more integrated than in the UK, with above average incomes and levels of educational achievement. For humour value, you should check out The Shahs of Sunset, which is a reality TV show about Persian Muslims in LA.
  • Options
    notmenotme Posts: 3,293

    tlg86 said:

    Interesting comments from Ken Clarke on the Six O'Clock news this evening. I thought it was the Eurosceptics who were going to cause trouble in this parliament. His comments about the PM's decision came across as being very bitter.

    There is a certain kind of Europhile that doesn't understand that giving people a real choice actually increases the chance that they will agree with you. Ted Heath actually stated that he would ignore the result of any anti-EU vote....

    BIt like some Labour party types who try and "blame" Cameron for the independence referendum. They actually seem to believe that it would have been less risky from a Unionist point of view to deny the Scots a vote.
    Tim somebody from the LibDems was saying something similar, that allowing ministers to campaign how they wish was putting the interests of the Conservative Party above the interests of the country. I couldnt quite see how.
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 53,959
    HYUFD said:

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: Merkel will go down in history as one of the worst Western leaders of the early 21st Century.

    Germany has lower unemployment and debt than we do and she is probably the most powerful woman in the world, she is not even in the pool of worst leaders
    After running her country flawlessly for a decade she made a monumental error. History is good at remembering mistakes.
  • Options
    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,317
    tlg86 said:

    Interesting comments from Ken Clarke on the Six O'Clock news this evening. I thought it was the Eurosceptics who were going to cause trouble in this parliament. His comments about the PM's decision came across as being very bitter.

    The PM might have had as little choice as Corbyn.

    If he insisted on ministerial support he'd have had to sack the likes of IDS, Grayling and perhaps Patel and Hammond too.

    Which begs the question: which Conservatives does he replace them with?

    He'd have had to find at least semi-competent Tory backbenchers that supported the PMs line to promote in their place. And there aren't too many of those.

    Meanwhile it'd have done everything possible to split the party by putting all serious eurosceptics outside the Government.

    Heseltine was totally wrong. This way Cameron keeps his government and party together and allows those who distrust or disagree with the EU in principle to let their views be known without being disloyal.
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 53,959

    tlg86 said:

    Interesting comments from Ken Clarke on the Six O'Clock news this evening. I thought it was the Eurosceptics who were going to cause trouble in this parliament. His comments about the PM's decision came across as being very bitter.

    The PM might have had as little choice as Corbyn.

    If he insisted on ministerial support he'd have had to sack the likes of IDS, Grayling and perhaps Patel and Hammond too.

    Which begs the question: which Conservatives does he replace them with?

    He'd have had to find at least semi-competent Tory backbenchers that supported the PMs line to promote in their place. And there aren't too many of those.

    Meanwhile it'd have done everything possible to split the party by putting all serious eurosceptics outside the Government.

    Heseltine was totally wrong. This way Cameron keeps his government and party together and allows those who distrust or disagree with the EU in principle to let their views be known without being disloyal.
    It was the right thing for the Conservative Party, and for the country.
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,607
    rcs1000 said:

    MaxPB said:

    rcs1000 said:

    MaxPB said:

    RodCrosby said:

    MaxPB said:

    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    Cultural sensitivity is a complete bullshit phrase that needs to be stamped on and thrown out of our vocabulary. I'm not going to be sensitive towards those who have an inferior culture to our own.
    But that rather begs the question. Why permit these people to immigrate into your country at all, unless you actually seek its destruction?
    Search me, I'm half in the Trump camp of halting all immigration from Muslim countries. I make no bones about it, I think Islamic culture is vastly inferior to British culture, it does nothing to enrich this country and causes nothing but harm. Those that want to integrate I have no issue with, but too many are unwilling to do so and until they prove they are why bother with the hassle.
    Trump doesn't just want to stop Muslim immigration, he wants to stop Muslims entering the US full stop.
    That's why I said half.
    The great irony is that US Muslims are much more integrated than in the UK, with above average incomes and levels of educational achievement. For humour value, you should check out The Shahs of Sunset, which is a reality TV show about Persian Muslims in LA.
    Yes I know. The majority of US Muslims are Shia moderates who escaped the Iranian regime, they are not very Muslim. Most grew up under the Shah, drank, the women wore mini-skirts and went out without wearing a veil.

    The majority of our Muslims are Sunnis from the Pakistani countryside brought over for cheap labour.

    The difference is vast.
  • Options
    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,317
    HYUFD said:

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: Merkel will go down in history as one of the worst Western leaders of the early 21st Century.

    Germany has lower unemployment and debt than we do and she is probably the most powerful woman in the world, she is not even in the pool of worst leaders
    Bollocks.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,364
    rcs1000 said:

    MaxPB said:

    rcs1000 said:

    MaxPB said:

    RodCrosby said:

    MaxPB said:

    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    Cultural sensitivity is a complete bullshit phrase that needs to be stamped on and thrown out of our vocabulary. I'm not going to be sensitive towards those who have an inferior culture to our own.
    But that rather begs the question. Why permit these people to immigrate into your country at all, unless you actually seek its destruction?
    Search me, I'm half in the Trump camp of halting all immigration from Muslim countries. I make no bones about it, I think Islamic culture is vastly inferior to British culture, it does nothing to enrich this country and causes nothing but harm. Those that want to integrate I have no issue with, but too many are unwilling to do so and until they prove they are why bother with the hassle.
    Trump doesn't just want to stop Muslim immigration, he wants to stop Muslims entering the US full stop.
    That's why I said half.
    The great irony is that US Muslims are much more integrated than in the UK, with above average incomes and levels of educational achievement. For humour value, you should check out The Shahs of Sunset, which is a reality TV show about Persian Muslims in LA.
    Iranian muslims in the US tend to be descendants of refugees from the fall of the Shah. So they tend not to look favorably on the head choppy types. NOt to mention that being Shia, they are quite resistant to the allure of Wahabite death cultism (include "Death to all Shia!", of course
  • Options
    tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,189

    tlg86 said:

    Interesting comments from Ken Clarke on the Six O'Clock news this evening. I thought it was the Eurosceptics who were going to cause trouble in this parliament. His comments about the PM's decision came across as being very bitter.

    The PM might have had as little choice as Corbyn.

    If he insisted on ministerial support he'd have had to sack the likes of IDS, Grayling and perhaps Patel and Hammond too.

    Which begs the question: which Conservatives does he replace them with?

    He'd have had to find at least semi-competent Tory backbenchers that supported the PMs line to promote in their place. And there aren't too many of those.

    Meanwhile it'd have done everything possible to split the party by putting all serious eurosceptics outside the Government.

    Heseltine was totally wrong. This way Cameron keeps his government and party together and allows those who distrust or disagree with the EU in principle to let their views be known without being disloyal.
    Agreed. What will be interesting is the dynamic between cabinet ministers on opposite sides. Is it possible that Leave could be led - including in a debate against the PM - by a cabinet minister?
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,364
    notme said:

    tlg86 said:

    Interesting comments from Ken Clarke on the Six O'Clock news this evening. I thought it was the Eurosceptics who were going to cause trouble in this parliament. His comments about the PM's decision came across as being very bitter.

    There is a certain kind of Europhile that doesn't understand that giving people a real choice actually increases the chance that they will agree with you. Ted Heath actually stated that he would ignore the result of any anti-EU vote....

    BIt like some Labour party types who try and "blame" Cameron for the independence referendum. They actually seem to believe that it would have been less risky from a Unionist point of view to deny the Scots a vote.
    Tim somebody from the LibDems was saying something similar, that allowing ministers to campaign how they wish was putting the interests of the Conservative Party above the interests of the country. I couldnt quite see how.
    In his world the EU is the shining city on the hill. Anything to protect it. The very idea of not crushing opponents, if you have the power, to The Dream is anathema.
  • Options
    john_zimsjohn_zims Posts: 3,399
    @Cyclefree


    'If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.'


    Like a lot.

  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 24,965
    rcs1000 said:

    HYUFD said:

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: Merkel will go down in history as one of the worst Western leaders of the early 21st Century.

    Germany has lower unemployment and debt than we do and she is probably the most powerful woman in the world, she is not even in the pool of worst leaders
    After running her country flawlessly for a decade she made a monumental error. History is good at remembering mistakes.
    Yep especially when that single error will have cascading repercussions for years....
  • Options
    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,317
    Cyclefree said:

    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    If (and it's a whoppingly large if) this leads to irresistible public pressure on Merkel to change her policy (and I'm not holding my breath) then perhaps some good may come from it.

    But i fear it will take much tougher measures than I think she is willing to politically accept to stop the migration flows in their tracks now.

    She has opened Pandora's box.
    I would like to hope so. But crimes against women - however awful or wide ranging - rarely have any sort of real or long-lasting political impact, partly because female politicians don't make enough of a fuss, partly because it is seen as a women's issue (as if it were some side issue like VAT on tampons, only of interest to the slightly obsessed) and partly because male politicians don't take it seriously and make it front and centre - as it would be if men and boys were being attacked and anally raped in the centres of our towns.

    The paradox is that we give the impression, as a society, that we don't value women and those from societies where men's honour is, at least in part, carried by "pure" women, take their cue from that and their own idea of women, as people who are not actors in their own right, in charge of their own lives, but simply a vehicle for others - as either the "pure" woman, keeper of the family's "honour" or as a slut to be used for sex and nothing else.
    I think feminists are happy to make those arguments against white men, particularly privileged white men.

    But in the culture wars race trumps gender every time.
  • Options
    JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 38,973

    RodCrosby said:

    notme said:

    RodCrosby said:

    Sky News showing report that ISIS have discovered a way to re-activate obsolete SAM missiles...

    Former Chief of RAF says: "we're now in a different ballpark. There are hundreds of thousands of these things lying around, on scrapheaps..."

    Seems a bit unlikely. Getting rockets to work, is well, rocket science. They need exceptional maintenance to keep them in top condition. If they arent in top condition they'll kill more of your own side than the enemy.

    Are we to believe that ISIS has the infrastructure and capacity to reactivate and retrofit these on a large scale? The failure rate if experts were doing it would be 75% at best.
    Make of it what you wish
    http://news.sky.com/story/1617229/is-bomb-skills-truly-the-stuff-of-nightmares
    Oh. Batteries. GSCE level electronics to create a replacement power supply that creates the correct voltage and ampage to replace an expired MANPAD battery. Particularly when the voltage and ampage are written on the original battery....

    Bit like being surprised that someone can get a cement mixer, fertilizer and diesel fuel together.
    The Palestinian terrorists have got rather adept at making unguided rockets, albeit with Iran's help:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qassam_rocket

    Guidance is the biggest problem. The article makes it sound as if they've taken a 'dumb' rocket as fitted to planes / helicopters and added a guidance package: IR homing 'radar' to make an improvised SAM. That sounds remarkably dodgy.

    The other part about the replacement batteries would not surprise me, although it might be more involved than just recreating the voltage and amperage.
  • Options
    CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,202
    john_zims said:

    @RodCrosby


    'But that rather begs the question. Why permit these people to immigrate into your country at all, unless you actually seek its destruction? '


    A politician desperate for a legacy influenced by a sensational media ?
    /



    It's what happens when decisions are based on sentiment and emotion and fear of pictures on social media and a lack of courage to speak some home truths and do some hard-headed reasoning. A few tears, desperate people crying and shouting, a dead child on a beach and all sense flies out of the window.

    There are three and only three questions to be asked when deciding whether to let people into the country:-

    1. Do we need immigrants?
    2. Do we need this class / group of / this individual immigrant?

    And this has to depend not just on their skills - people are not just economic units - but on whether they are willing and capable of becoming English or German or whatever, which is something more than holding a passport. It means shedding in considerable part their old life and attitudes and embracing new ones and we are entitled to judge this on the basis of how successful or otherwise immigration from that same group has been in the past and whether increasing the numbers of that group will aid or hold back integration.

    3. If they turn out not be a good immigrant, can we send them back?

    Sentimentality rarely leads to good judgment.

  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,364

    RodCrosby said:

    notme said:

    RodCrosby said:

    Sky News showing report that ISIS have discovered a way to re-activate obsolete SAM missiles...

    Former Chief of RAF says: "we're now in a different ballpark. There are hundreds of thousands of these things lying around, on scrapheaps..."

    Seems a bit unlikely. Getting rockets to work, is well, rocket science. They need exceptional maintenance to keep them in top condition. If they arent in top condition they'll kill more of your own side than the enemy.

    Are we to believe that ISIS has the infrastructure and capacity to reactivate and retrofit these on a large scale? The failure rate if experts were doing it would be 75% at best.
    Make of it what you wish
    http://news.sky.com/story/1617229/is-bomb-skills-truly-the-stuff-of-nightmares
    Oh. Batteries. GSCE level electronics to create a replacement power supply that creates the correct voltage and ampage to replace an expired MANPAD battery. Particularly when the voltage and ampage are written on the original battery....

    Bit like being surprised that someone can get a cement mixer, fertilizer and diesel fuel together.
    The Palestinian terrorists have got rather adept at making unguided rockets, albeit with Iran's help:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qassam_rocket

    Guidance is the biggest problem. The article makes it sound as if they've taken a 'dumb' rocket as fitted to planes / helicopters and added a guidance package: IR homing 'radar' to make an improvised SAM. That sounds remarkably dodgy.

    The other part about the replacement batteries would not surprise me, although it might be more involved than just recreating the voltage and amperage.
    It sounded more as if they have slapped an Atoll (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-13_(missile)) on a rail on the ground point up, fiddled around with the right electrical connections to get it to work....
  • Options
    CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,202

    Cyclefree said:

    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    If (and it's a whoppingly large if) this leads to irresistible public pressure on Merkel to change her policy (and I'm not holding my breath) then perhaps some good may come from it.

    But i fear it will take much tougher measures than I think she is willing to politically accept to stop the migration flows in their tracks now.

    She has opened Pandora's box.
    I would like to hope so. But crimes against women - however awful or wide ranging - rarely have any sort of real or long-lasting political impact, partly because female politicians don't make enough of a fuss, partly because it is seen as a women's issue (as if it were some side issue like VAT on tampons, only of interest to the slightly obsessed) and partly because male politicians don't take it seriously and make it front and centre - as it would be if men and boys were being attacked and anally raped in the centres of our towns.

    The paradox is that we give the impression, as a society, that we don't value women and those from societies where men's honour is, at least in part, carried by "pure" women, take their cue from that and their own idea of women, as people who are not actors in their own right, in charge of their own lives, but simply a vehicle for others - as either the "pure" woman, keeper of the family's "honour" or as a slut to be used for sex and nothing else.
    I think feminists are happy to make those arguments against white men, particularly privileged white men.

    But in the culture wars race trumps gender every time.
    Yeah, well: I'm not going to let "feminists" (they're not real feminists IMO) get away with that load of old bollocks.

  • Options
    ThreeQuidderThreeQuidder Posts: 6,133
    notme said:

    RodCrosby said:

    notme said:

    RodCrosby said:

    Sky News showing report that ISIS have discovered a way to re-activate obsolete SAM missiles...

    Former Chief of RAF says: "we're now in a different ballpark. There are hundreds of thousands of these things lying around, on scrapheaps..."

    Seems a bit unlikely. Getting rockets to work, is well, rocket science. They need exceptional maintenance to keep them in top condition. If they arent in top condition they'll kill more of your own side than the enemy.

    Are we to believe that ISIS has the infrastructure and capacity to reactivate and retrofit these on a large scale? The failure rate if experts were doing it would be 75% at best.
    Make of it what you wish
    http://news.sky.com/story/1617229/is-bomb-skills-truly-the-stuff-of-nightmares
    thanks, im sceptical but still frightened.... What happens when they're able to develop drones...
    That's what they want. It's called terrorism for a reason.
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,607
    HYUFD said:

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: Merkel will go down in history as one of the worst Western leaders of the early 21st Century.

    Germany has lower unemployment and debt than we do and she is probably the most powerful woman in the world, she is not even in the pool of worst leaders
    At the moment Hilary is probably the most powerful woman in the world, she is the presumptive POTUS.

    Merkel will be remembered as the woman who opened the door to extremists and terrorists. Her reputation has been irreparably damaged by the migrant crisis and her reaction to it.

    Even the NYT has changed its tune:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/21/world/europe/hungary-viktor-orban-migrant-crisis.html?_r=2

    "George Konrad, a distinguished novelist, loathes his country’s stridently illiberal prime minister, Viktor Orban.

    “He is not a good democrat and I don’t believe he is a good person,” said Mr. Konrad, a veteran of communist-era struggles against dictatorship."

    “It hurts to admit it, but on this point Orban was right,” Mr. Konrad, 82, "

    A very critical article on the EU/Merkel stance from a bastion of the left, one which praises Orban, an ultra right quasi-dictator.
  • Options
    RogerRoger Posts: 18,891
    Cyclefree said:

    MaxPB said:

    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    It should be a lesson we need only learn once. I wouldn't blame you. If my partner were assaulted in this manner and the police turned a blind eye I would be looking to take the law into my own hands. If the government and the police are not there to protect people from crime of the worst type then why even bother having them.

    Cultural sensitivity is a complete bullshit phrase that needs to be stamped on and thrown out of our vocabulary. I'm not going to be sensitive towards those who have an inferior culture to our own.

    What they need to - and don't - understand is that the freedoms which allow women to do what they want, including getting pissed and fall into the gutter after having given blow jobs to the local light infantry (if that is what they want to do) are the same freedoms which have resulted in us having a stable, free and economically prosperous society which is so attractive to the migrants. You can't have one without the other.

    The freedom to do what you want is indivisible from the freedom to think what you want, to say what you want, to ask "why" and "why not", to invent, to create, to change and to refuse to accept that you have discovered all possible human knowledge and that there is nothing more to learn and that therefore nothing must change.
    You're living in Narnia. That might be how you'd like it to be but not how it is. I bought my flat in Soho in 1985 and every night the police van would come down and pick up as many girls off the street as they could fit in their van. It carried on until about 2000 when the area became gay and the police attitude changed.

    Germany is as you describe. The UK isn't. Try giving someone a blow job in a public place in the UK (if that's what you want to do) and you'll find yourself in jail. Even cycling naked without the blow job will see you incarcerated! It's got better but we're a long way from the place you're describing

  • Options
    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,317
    rcs1000 said:

    tlg86 said:

    Interesting comments from Ken Clarke on the Six O'Clock news this evening. I thought it was the Eurosceptics who were going to cause trouble in this parliament. His comments about the PM's decision came across as being very bitter.

    The PM might have had as little choice as Corbyn.

    If he insisted on ministerial support he'd have had to sack the likes of IDS, Grayling and perhaps Patel and Hammond too.

    Which begs the question: which Conservatives does he replace them with?

    He'd have had to find at least semi-competent Tory backbenchers that supported the PMs line to promote in their place. And there aren't too many of those.

    Meanwhile it'd have done everything possible to split the party by putting all serious eurosceptics outside the Government.

    Heseltine was totally wrong. This way Cameron keeps his government and party together and allows those who distrust or disagree with the EU in principle to let their views be known without being disloyal.
    It was the right thing for the Conservative Party, and for the country.
    The book is clearly pro- bias slanted, but I came away with a much better impression of Cameron having read Anthony Seldon's book over Christmas. He does seem to listen even if I don't always agree with his decisions.

    I feel the opposite about Osborne.
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,986
    rcs1000 said:

    HYUFD said:

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: Merkel will go down in history as one of the worst Western leaders of the early 21st Century.

    Germany has lower unemployment and debt than we do and she is probably the most powerful woman in the world, she is not even in the pool of worst leaders
    After running her country flawlessly for a decade she made a monumental error. History is good at remembering mistakes.
    Historically pre-Syria Merkel actually took less immigrants than Cameron, Brown and Blair
  • Options
    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,317
    Cyclefree said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    If (and it's a whoppingly large if) this leads to irresistible public pressure on Merkel to change her policy (and I'm not holding my breath) then perhaps some good may come from it.

    But i fear it will take much tougher measures than I think she is willing to politically accept to stop the migration flows in their tracks now.

    She has opened Pandora's box.
    I would like to hope so. But crimes against women - however awful or wide ranging - rarely have any sort of real or long-lasting political impact, partly because female politicians don't make enough of a fuss, partly because it is seen as a women's issue (as if it were some side issue like VAT on tampons, only of interest to the slightly obsessed) and partly because male politicians don't take it seriously and make it front and centre - as it would be if men and boys were being attacked and anally raped in the centres of our towns.

    The paradox is that we give the impression, as a society, that we don't value women and those from societies where men's honour is, at least in part, carried by "pure" women, take their cue from that and their own idea of women, as people who are not actors in their own right, in charge of their own lives, but simply a vehicle for others - as either the "pure" woman, keeper of the family's "honour" or as a slut to be used for sex and nothing else.
    I think feminists are happy to make those arguments against white men, particularly privileged white men.

    But in the culture wars race trumps gender every time.
    Yeah, well: I'm not going to let "feminists" (they're not real feminists IMO) get away with that load of old bollocks.

    I'm rooting for you. And I also agree with you.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,364
    Roger said:

    Cyclefree said:

    MaxPB said:

    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    It should be a lesson we need only learn once. I wouldn't blame you. If my partner were assaulted in this manner and the police turned a blind eye I would be looking to take the law into my own hands. If the government and the police are not there to protect people from crime of the worst type then why even bother having them.

    Cultural sensitivity is a complete bullshit phrase that needs to be stamped on and thrown out of our vocabulary. I'm not going to be sensitive towards those who have an inferior culture to our own.

    What they need to - and don't - understand is that the freedoms which allow women to do what they want, including getting pissed and fall into the gutter after having given blow jobs to the local light infantry (if that is what they want to do) are the same freedoms which have resulted in us having a stable, free and economically prosperous society which is so attractive to the migrants. You can't have one without the other.

    The freedom to do what you want is indivisible from the freedom to think what you want, to say what you want, to ask "why" and "why not", to invent, to create, to change and to refuse to accept that you have discovered all possible human knowledge and that there is nothing more to learn and that therefore nothing must change.
    You're living in Narnia. That might be how you'd like it to be but not how it is. I bought my flat in Soho in 1985 and every night the police van would come down and pick up as many girls off the street as they could fit in their van. It carried on until about 2000 when the area became gay and the police attitude changed.

    Germany is as you describe. The UK isn't. Try giving someone a blow job in a public place in the UK (if that's what you want to do) and you'll find yourself in jail. Even cycling naked without the blow job will see you incarcerated! It's got better but we're a long way from the place you're describing

    So the lack of complete sexual freedom causes immigrants to attack women? Interesting...
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,986
    rcs1000 said:

    MaxPB said:

    rcs1000 said:

    MaxPB said:

    RodCrosby said:

    MaxPB said:

    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    Cultural sensitivity is a complete bullshit phrase that needs to be stamped on and thrown out of our vocabulary. I'm not going to be sensitive towards those who have an inferior culture to our own.
    But that rather begs the question. Why permit these people to immigrate into your country at all, unless you actually seek its destruction?
    Search me, I'm half in the Trump camp of halting all immigration from Muslim countries. I make no bones about it, I think Islamic culture is vastly inferior to British culture, it does nothing to enrich this country and causes nothing but harm. Those that want to integrate I have no issue with, but too many are unwilling to do so and until they prove they are why bother with the hassle.
    Trump doesn't just want to stop Muslim immigration, he wants to stop Muslims entering the US full stop.
    That's why I said half.
    The great irony is that US Muslims are much more integrated than in the UK, with above average incomes and levels of educational achievement. For humour value, you should check out The Shahs of Sunset, which is a reality TV show about Persian Muslims in LA.
    Depends where you go and San Bernadino suggests not all US Muslims are peeaceloving all American types
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 53,959
    HYUFD said:

    rcs1000 said:

    MaxPB said:

    rcs1000 said:

    MaxPB said:

    RodCrosby said:

    MaxPB said:

    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.

    If the state fails in its most basic task - as Germany would appear to have done, first, by letting such people in; second, failing to protect its citizens from criminals; and thirdly, failing to bring such criminals to justice - then it should not be surprised if citizens take the law into their own hands.

    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    Cultural sensitivity is a complete bullshit phrase that needs to be stamped on and thrown out of our vocabulary. I'm not going to be sensitive towards those who have an inferior culture to our own.
    But that rather begs the question. Why permit these people to immigrate into your country at all, unless you actually seek its destruction?
    Search me, I'm half in the Trump camp of halting all immigration from Muslim countries. I make no bones about it, I think Islamic culture is vastly inferior to British culture, it does nothing to enrich this country and causes nothing but harm. Those that want to integrate I have no issue with, but too many are unwilling to do so and until they prove they are why bother with the hassle.
    Trump doesn't just want to stop Muslim immigration, he wants to stop Muslims entering the US full stop.
    That's why I said half.
    The great irony is that US Muslims are much more integrated than in the UK, with above average incomes and levels of educational achievement. For humour value, you should check out The Shahs of Sunset, which is a reality TV show about Persian Muslims in LA.
    Depends where you go and San Bernadino suggests not all US Muslims are peeaceloving all American types
    You will find nutjobs everywhere.
  • Options
    SquareRootSquareRoot Posts: 7,095

    rcs1000 said:

    tlg86 said:

    Interesting comments from Ken Clarke on the Six O'Clock news this evening. I thought it was the Eurosceptics who were going to cause trouble in this parliament. His comments about the PM's decision came across as being very bitter.

    The PM might have had as little choice as Corbyn.

    If he insisted on ministerial support he'd have had to sack the likes of IDS, Grayling and perhaps Patel and Hammond too.

    Which begs the question: which Conservatives does he replace them with?

    He'd have had to find at least semi-competent Tory backbenchers that supported the PMs line to promote in their place. And there aren't too many of those.

    Meanwhile it'd have done everything possible to split the party by putting all serious eurosceptics outside the Government.

    Heseltine was totally wrong. This way Cameron keeps his government and party together and allows those who distrust or disagree with the EU in principle to let their views be known without being disloyal.
    It was the right thing for the Conservative Party, and for the country.
    The book is clearly pro- bias slanted, but I came away with a much better impression of Cameron having read Anthony Seldon's book over Christmas. He does seem to listen even if I don't always agree with his decisions.

    I feel the opposite about Osborne.
    Get a room with GeorgeOsbornegenius.

  • Options
    surbitonsurbiton Posts: 13,549
    Michael Dugher was such a great Labour guy that until day before yesterday I had not heard of him.
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,607

    Cyclefree said:

    I would like to hope so. But crimes against women - however awful or wide ranging - rarely have any sort of real or long-lasting political impact, partly because female politicians don't make enough of a fuss, partly because it is seen as a women's issue (as if it were some side issue like VAT on tampons, only of interest to the slightly obsessed) and partly because male politicians don't take it seriously and make it front and centre - as it would be if men and boys were being attacked and anally raped in the centres of our towns.

    The paradox is that we give the impression, as a society, that we don't value women and those from societies where men's honour is, at least in part, carried by "pure" women, take their cue from that and their own idea of women, as people who are not actors in their own right, in charge of their own lives, but simply a vehicle for others - as either the "pure" woman, keeper of the family's "honour" or as a slut to be used for sex and nothing else.

    I think feminists are happy to make those arguments against white men, particularly privileged white men.

    But in the culture wars race trumps gender every time.
    Yes well isn't that the problem. Feminists these days seem more interested in wearing a stupid T-Shirt and hounding those who don't, or changing their facebook status or posting some twitter inanity than actually tackling the real issues.

    I brought it up with a few friends of my partner who consider themselves feminists and do all of that stuff, why do feminists go easy on Muslim crime against women/girls. Honour killings, FGM, rape and child sexual abuse are all rife within the Muslim community and all of those crimes disproportionately or are exclusively perpetrated against women/girls and nothing. Their answer was "we can't win that battle, there is no interest within any major political party to solve any of those issues so we fight the battles we can win". Pathetic. If the suffragettes had thought that way it would have taken 50 more years for women to get the vote.
  • Options
    Sean_FSean_F Posts: 35,830
    rcs1000 said:

    HYUFD said:

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: Merkel will go down in history as one of the worst Western leaders of the early 21st Century.

    Germany has lower unemployment and debt than we do and she is probably the most powerful woman in the world, she is not even in the pool of worst leaders
    After running her country flawlessly for a decade she made a monumental error. History is good at remembering mistakes.
    Baldwin and Chamberlain are only remembered now for their failure to stop Hitler. Merkel's mistakes include endlessly tacking left in office, phasing out nuclear power, and bungling the migration crisis. I don't think she'll be judged well by history.
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 53,959
    MaxPB said:

    Cyclefree said:

    I would like to hope so. But crimes against women - however awful or wide ranging - rarely have any sort of real or long-lasting political impact, partly because female politicians don't make enough of a fuss, partly because it is seen as a women's issue (as if it were some side issue like VAT on tampons, only of interest to the slightly obsessed) and partly because male politicians don't take it seriously and make it front and centre - as it would be if men and boys were being attacked and anally raped in the centres of our towns.

    The paradox is that we give the impression, as a society, that we don't value women and those from societies where men's honour is, at least in part, carried by "pure" women, take their cue from that and their own idea of women, as people who are not actors in their own right, in charge of their own lives, but simply a vehicle for others - as either the "pure" woman, keeper of the family's "honour" or as a slut to be used for sex and nothing else.

    I think feminists are happy to make those arguments against white men, particularly privileged white men.

    But in the culture wars race trumps gender every time.
    Yes well isn't that the problem. Feminists these days seem more interested in wearing a stupid T-Shirt and hounding those who don't, or changing their facebook status or posting some twitter inanity than actually tackling the real issues.

    I brought it up with a few friends of my partner who consider themselves feminists and do all of that stuff, why do feminists go easy on Muslim crime against women/girls. Honour killings, FGM, rape and child sexual abuse are all rife within the Muslim community and all of those crimes disproportionately or are exclusively perpetrated against women/girls and nothing. Their answer was "we can't win that battle, there is no interest within any major political party to solve any of those issues so we fight the battles we can win". Pathetic. If the suffragettes had thought that way it would have taken 50 more years for women to get the vote.
    How prevalent is FGM in the UK?
  • Options
    CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758

    RodCrosby said:

    notme said:

    RodCrosby said:

    Sky News showing report that ISIS have discovered a way to re-activate obsolete SAM missiles...

    Former Chief of RAF says: "we're now in a different ballpark. There are hundreds of thousands of these things lying around, on scrapheaps..."

    Seems a bit unlikely. Getting rockets to work, is well, rocket science. They need exceptional maintenance to keep them in top condition. If they arent in top condition they'll kill more of your own side than the enemy.

    Are we to believe that ISIS has the infrastructure and capacity to reactivate and retrofit these on a large scale? The failure rate if experts were doing it would be 75% at best.
    Make of it what you wish
    http://news.sky.com/story/1617229/is-bomb-skills-truly-the-stuff-of-nightmares
    Oh. Batteries. GSCE level electronics to create a replacement power supply that creates the correct voltage and ampage to replace an expired MANPAD battery. Particularly when the voltage and ampage are written on the original battery....

    Bit like being surprised that someone can get a cement mixer, fertilizer and diesel fuel together.
    The Palestinian terrorists have got rather adept at making unguided rockets, albeit with Iran's help:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qassam_rocket

    Guidance is the biggest problem. The article makes it sound as if they've taken a 'dumb' rocket as fitted to planes / helicopters and added a guidance package: IR homing 'radar' to make an improvised SAM. That sounds remarkably dodgy.

    The other part about the replacement batteries would not surprise me, although it might be more involved than just recreating the voltage and amperage.
    It sounded more as if they have slapped an Atoll (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-13_(missile)) on a rail on the ground point up, fiddled around with the right electrical connections to get it to work....
    At least they are heading in the right direction...

    A cousin of mine (a senior bod at Barclays) lit some rockets for his daughter's birthday recently. Didn't realise that the stick was supposed to rest on the ground, not be stuck in it.

    Nearly took the roof off :)
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,607
    HYUFD said:

    rcs1000 said:

    HYUFD said:

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: Merkel will go down in history as one of the worst Western leaders of the early 21st Century.

    Germany has lower unemployment and debt than we do and she is probably the most powerful woman in the world, she is not even in the pool of worst leaders
    After running her country flawlessly for a decade she made a monumental error. History is good at remembering mistakes.
    Historically pre-Syria Merkel actually took less immigrants than Cameron, Brown and Blair
    All of that means nothing when the policy she has pursued is letting in 1.5m people per year from a third world country.
  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 91,725
    surbiton said:

    Michael Dugher was such a great Labour guy that until day before yesterday I had not heard of him.

    Ditto. Granted, I could not name half the shadow cabinet anyway, but I could name some, and he was not one of them.
  • Options
    CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,202
    Roger said:

    Cyclefree said:

    MaxPB said:

    Cyclefree said:


    What they need to - and don't - understand is that the freedoms which allow women to do what they want, including getting pissed and fall into the gutter after having given blow jobs to the local light infantry (if that is what they want to do) are the same freedoms which have resulted in us having a stable, free and economically prosperous society which is so attractive to the migrants. You can't have one without the other.

    The freedom to do what you want is indivisible from the freedom to think what you want, to say what you want, to ask "why" and "why not", to invent, to create, to change and to refuse to accept that you have discovered all possible human knowledge and that there is nothing more to learn and that therefore nothing must change.
    You're living in Narnia. That might be how you'd like it to be but not how it is. I bought my flat in Soho in 1985 and every night the police van would come down and pick up as many girls off the street as they could fit in their van. It carried on until about 2000 when the area became gay and the police attitude changed.

    Germany is as you describe. The UK isn't. Try giving someone a blow job in a public place in the UK (if that's what you want to do) and you'll find yourself in jail. Even cycling naked without the blow job will see you incarcerated! It's got better but we're a long way from the place you're describing

    No I'm not. I live here. I know whereof I speak. (And BTW I didn't say the blow jobs had to be in public. That's your assumption.)

    We take the view that women are in charge of their own lives, are sexual beings and can make their own sexual choices, that they can "do" as well as "be done to". We take the view that they are not mere appendages to others, that they are not there to keep and transmit the family's "honour" while the men behave however they like. We are revolted at the idea that rape could be used as a punishment because some man's honour has been impugned, at the idea that "honour" is about appearances rather than the reality.

    Freedom for women is essential to a free society. It is one reason why one of the first things that those societies that turn their back on Western liberal freedoms do is to remove and/or restrict women's freedom and their right to education and their rights to do as they like with their own bodies, with their lives. They understand how dangerous such freedoms are to those who would exercise control and power. They are scared and, like the scared the world over, they try and lash out, using verbal and actual violence.

  • Options
    surbitonsurbiton Posts: 13,549
    edited January 2016
    HYUFD said:

    rcs1000 said:

    MaxPB said:

    rcs1000 said:

    MaxPB said:

    RodCrosby said:

    MaxPB said:

    Cyclefree said:

    If I or my daughter were assaulted by rapists and the police refused to or failed to take any action against the attackers, I would take my own revenge on them. I would be quite capable of killing anyone who harmed my daughter.



    The Germans should be reminded of the outrage they and the rest of us felt when we learnt of the mass rapes of Bosnian Muslim women by Serbs during the Yugoslav civil wars. They should be equally outraged if the same crimes are perpetrated on them.

    The protection of women from what is a most horrible crime is not some optional nice-to-have. Sadly, this seems to be a lesson which needs to be taught every few years.

    Cultural sensitivity is a complete bullshit phrase that needs to be stamped on and thrown out of our vocabulary. I'm not going to be sensitive towards those who have an inferior culture to our own.
    But that rather begs the question. Why permit these people to immigrate into your country at all, unless you actually seek its destruction?
    Search me, I'm half in the Trump camp of halting all immigration from Muslim countries. I make no bones about it, I think Islamic culture is vastly inferior to British culture, it does nothing to enrich this country and causes nothing but harm. Those that want to integrate I have no issue with, but too many are unwilling to do so and until they prove they are why bother with the hassle.
    Trump doesn't just want to stop Muslim immigration, he wants to stop Muslims entering the US full stop.
    That's why I said half.
    The great irony is that US Muslims are much more integrated than in the UK, with above average incomes and levels of educational achievement. For humour value, you should check out The Shahs of Sunset, which is a reality TV show about Persian Muslims in LA.
    Depends where you go and San Bernadino suggests not all US Muslims are peeaceloving all American types
    Most Muslims [ I am not talking abour American, mainly Black Muslims ] and, in fact, most immigrants from East , South Asia and the Middle East are professional and have stayed back after attaining their college / university degrees. The original immigrants to Europe were working class. In fact, rural working class. Their children, of course, are different having taken advantage of free British education. Most immigrant communities pay a lot of importance to education.
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,607
    rcs1000 said:

    MaxPB said:

    Cyclefree said:

    I would like to hope so. But crimes against women - however awful or wide ranging - rarely have any sort of real or long-lasting political impact, partly because female politicians don't make enough of a fuss, partly because it is seen as a women's issue (as if it were some side issue like VAT on tampons, only of interest to the slightly obsessed) and partly because male politicians don't take it seriously and make it front and centre - as it would be if men and boys were being attacked and anally raped in the centres of our towns.

    The paradox is that we give the impression, as a society, that we don't value women and those from societies where men's honour is, at least in part, carried by "pure" women, take their cue from that and their own idea of women, as people who are not actors in their own right, in charge of their own lives, but simply a vehicle for others - as either the "pure" woman, keeper of the family's "honour" or as a slut to be used for sex and nothing else.

    I think feminists are happy to make those arguments against white men, particularly privileged white men.

    But in the culture wars race trumps gender every time.
    Yes well isn't that the problem. Feminists these days seem more interested in wearing a stupid T-Shirt and hounding those who don't, or changing their facebook status or posting some twitter inanity than actually tackling the real issues.

    I brought it up with a few friends of my partner who consider themselves feminists and do all of that stuff, why do feminists go easy on Muslim crime against women/girls. Honour killings, FGM, rape and child sexual abuse are all rife within the Muslim community and all of those crimes disproportionately or are exclusively perpetrated against women/girls and nothing. Their answer was "we can't win that battle, there is no interest within any major political party to solve any of those issues so we fight the battles we can win". Pathetic. If the suffragettes had thought that way it would have taken 50 more years for women to get the vote.
    How prevalent is FGM in the UK?
    Read about it, it's quite bad. Some estimates are 10 in 1000 Muslim girls are subjected to it and many more are at risk of being taken overseas and having it carried out on them.
  • Options
    A late Happy New Year to all here.

    It's strange. I'm a feminist, and I know (surprise, surprise) other feminists who are critical of rape and sexual assault irregardless of the ethnic background of the rapist. Yet according to PB 'feminists' in general are only/mainly critical of privileged white men when it comes to rape and sexual assault? The internet is not the place to go when you want a to see how representative a POV is. Looking at the DM comments section on SPOTY and looking at the actual vote is one example of that.

    I know Corbyn must be bad if even my mum, who has turned left in the last year or so has turned against him. I'd really love to know how his supporters still think his leadership will bring good things for the Labour party. If there is a time where many people need a strong opposition it's now.

    On Merkel, well I'm sure her legacy isn't going to be defined by some people on PB.
  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 91,725

    Looking at the DM comments section on SPOTY

    Sounds like an amusing time.
  • Options
    Charles said:

    RodCrosby said:

    notme said:

    RodCrosby said:

    Sky News showing report that ISIS have discovered a way to re-activate obsolete SAM missiles...

    Former Chief of RAF says: "we're now in a different ballpark. There are hundreds of thousands of these things lying around, on scrapheaps..."

    Seems a bit unlikely. Getting rockets to work, is well, rocket science. They need exceptional maintenance to keep them in top condition. If they arent in top condition they'll kill more of your own side than the enemy.

    Are we to believe that ISIS has the infrastructure and capacity to reactivate and retrofit these on a large scale? The failure rate if experts were doing it would be 75% at best.
    Make of it what you wish
    http://news.sky.com/story/1617229/is-bomb-skills-truly-the-stuff-of-nightmares
    Oh. Batteries. GSCE level electronics to create a replacement power supply that creates the correct voltage and ampage to replace an expired MANPAD battery. Particularly when the voltage and ampage are written on the original battery....

    Bit like being surprised that someone can get a cement mixer, fertilizer and diesel fuel together.
    The Palestinian terrorists have got rather adept at making unguided rockets, albeit with Iran's help:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qassam_rocket

    Guidance is the biggest problem. The article makes it sound as if they've taken a 'dumb' rocket as fitted to planes / helicopters and added a guidance package: IR homing 'radar' to make an improvised SAM. That sounds remarkably dodgy.

    The other part about the replacement batteries would not surprise me, although it might be more involved than just recreating the voltage and amperage.
    It sounded more as if they have slapped an Atoll (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-13_(missile)) on a rail on the ground point up, fiddled around with the right electrical connections to get it to work....
    At least they are heading in the right direction...

    A cousin of mine (a senior bod at Barclays) lit some rockets for his daughter's birthday recently. Didn't realise that the stick was supposed to rest on the ground, not be stuck in it.

    Nearly took the roof off :)
    Setting them off under a roof might have been his first mistake..
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,364

    A late Happy New Year to all here.

    It's strange. I'm a feminist, and I know (surprise, surprise) other feminists who are critical of rape and sexual assault irregardless of the ethnic background of the rapist. Yet according to PB 'feminists' in general are only/mainly critical of privileged white men when it comes to rape and sexual assault?

    Checkout some of the people involved in trying to make reporting what was happening in Rotherham a criminal offense and have subsequently stated that just arresting the criminals would destroy "community harmony".

    Yes, alleged leaders of feminism in this country. Or the notable "feminist" who claimed that a crackdown on FGM was un-necessary and racist.

    It almost like there was a pattern there or something.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,881
    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    notme said:

    RodCrosby said:

    notme said:

    RodCrosby said:

    Sky News showing report that ISIS have discovered a way to re-activate obsolete SAM missiles...

    Former Chief of RAF says: "we're now in a different ballpark. There are hundreds of thousands of these things lying around, on scrapheaps..."

    Seems a bit unlikely. Getting rockets to work, is well, rocket science. They need exceptional maintenance to keep them in top condition. If they arent in top condition they'll kill more of your own side than the enemy.

    Are we to believe that ISIS has the infrastructure and capacity to reactivate and retrofit these on a large scale? The failure rate if experts were doing it would be 75% at best.
    Make of it what you wish
    http://news.sky.com/story/1617229/is-bomb-skills-truly-the-stuff-of-nightmares
    thanks, im sceptical but still frightened.... What happens when they're able to develop drones...
    You mean, like these: youtube.com/watch?v=imtqooJj0I4
    As an aside: I am at CES, and when the Disco is launched, I am SOOOOOO getting one.
    Hell yeah!! How much are they? I have one of their original ar.drone quadcopters which were fantastic 5 years ago, but the tech has moved on a lot since then.
This discussion has been closed.