The Commission was specifically designed to be immune from popular pressure. That’s why the European Parliament is the only one in the world that cannot initiate legislation. Everything has to start with the Commission. It’s like a government that can’t be voted out. The top team is decided by the Member States, but the vast bulk of personnel do not change. It is a Gosplan for our times.
I swear to God this country would be better off if everybody was forced to write out 1000 times "The Government is in Whitehall. The Parliament is in Westminster. They are not the same thing".
We do not vote the Government in or out. We vote for MPs in the Parliament, not Ministers in the Cabinet. The Prime Minister is appointed by the Queen, s/he appoints the Cabinet, and they work via the Civil Service. The vast bulk of the Civil Service do not change from year to year. Apart from Private Members' Bills, the Parliament does not initiate legislation, the Government does. Government does not stop during elections, it remains in place (which was why Alistair Darling continued to act as Chancellor after the 2010 election until Cameron became PM and replaced him with Osborne). These wanton misconceptions are incredibly difficult to shift.
And while Vita Corleone is a sinister puppetmaster he certainly wasn't Jewish. Nor for that matter was Marlon Brando.
It is anti-Semitic when the target in question is Jewish.
It was widely used by the Nazis (and Stalin) to denigrate the Jews and their critics who were Jewish.
So is there a list of approved and unapproved imagery which you are allowed to use to criticize different groups ?
Presumably if Soros had been of Italian or Catholic background then the puppet-master imagery would also have been deemed inadmissable.
You’re like The Guardian.
The Guardian has admitted that a cartoon about the Israel-Gaza conflict portraying a grotesque Benjamin Netanyahu as a puppet master controlling William Hague and Tony Blair "inevitably" echoed "past antisemitic usage of such imagery".
Its bullshit. A way for people like you - those who can't argue a case through logic and facts - to try and smear their opponents by drawing false equivalency with extremist views.
Being proud that the country created the NHS is like being proud of the local government reorganisation of 1972: it was an administrative measure, not a very well-thought out one, and one which, because of its flaws, continues to cause difficulties decades later.
Some years ago a PB-er (I'm afraid I regret the name) said that being proud of Britain because of the NHS was like being proud of Britain because of PAYE. At the time I thought this was very funny and very true; it remains so.
Nonetheless conservatives like us have to recognise that many people feel this way, just as rational republicans have to respect the natonwide popularity of the monarchy (however illogical it seems to them).
The NHS is seen, prima facie, as a great and shared endeavour. It is one of the few big things we all understand, as a nation, and have nearly all experienced, personally. That is why it is "popular", it is fuck all to do with its efficiency - as is obvious, if you drill down into any personal encounter with the NHS, you soon hit the hard rock of critique and dissent.
Yes, while there are many grumbles, and often legitimate ones including my own, it is undeniable that the system itself has widespread support across the ages and parties.
It is not unrelated to the Blitz spirit, or experience of the trenches or Dunkirk*. The NHS was born of a particular time, for a reason. It was officially created in 1948, but actually British doctors and nurses had almost all been working for a decade as government employees, either in uniform or under the defacto nationalisation of hospitals as a war time measure. The NHS is the visible remnant of that cultural unity.
* Blitz spirit, trenches and Dunkirk are also national mythologies, not always backed up by forensic study. We stood alone in 1940 as the worlds largest empire, with a quarter of the worlds land area and people. We had the grain of Canada, the minerals of Africa and Australia, the multitudes of India and the oil of the Gulf under our control. We were not just a small island off the North Shore of Europe.
That, and your earlier comment, do help explain the mythos of the NHS.
Being proud that the country created the NHS is like being proud of the local government reorganisation of 1972: it was an administrative measure, not a very well-thought out one, and one which, because of its flaws, continues to cause difficulties decades later.
Some years ago a PB-er (I'm afraid I regret the name) said that being proud of Britain because of the NHS was like being proud of Britain because of PAYE. At the time I thought this was very funny and very true; it remains so.
Nonetheless conservatives like us have to recognise that many people feel this way, just as rational republicans have to respect the natonwide popularity of the monarchy (however illogical it seems to them).
The NHS is seen, prima facie, as a great and shared endeavour. It is one of the few big things we all understand, as a nation, and have nearly all experienced, personally. That is why it is "popular", it is fuck all to do with its efficiency - as is obvious, if you drill down into any personal encounter with the NHS, you soon hit the hard rock of critique and dissent.
Yes, while there are many grumbles, and often legitimate ones including my own, it is undeniable that the system itself has widespread support across the ages and parties.
It is not unrelated to the Blitz spirit, or experience of the trenches or Dunkirk*. The NHS was born of a particular time, for a reason. It was officially created in 1948, but actually British doctors and nurses had almost all been working for a decade as government employees, either in uniform or under the defacto nationalisation of hospitals as a war time measure. The NHS is the visible remnant of that cultural unity.
* Blitz spirit, trenches and Dunkirk are also national mythologies, not always backed up by forensic study. We stood alone in 1940 as the worlds largest empire, with a quarter of the worlds land area and people. We had the grain of Canada, the minerals of Africa and Australia, the multitudes of India and the oil of the Gulf under our control. We were not just a small island off the North Shore of Europe.
Generally I find the NHS only has widespread support because people have never experienced the far better systems that exist across much of Europe. The idea that the NHS is anywhere near the best in the world is a widely believed myth, but a myth none the less.
I basically agree. It's all history, and small beer compared to the enormous changes that are coming down the line, for all of humanity, very soon (from AI onwards)
I'm just saying that if actually ASKED why I am proud to be British, our incredible military prowess and remarkable ability to manipulate the entire world, for 300 years, is right at the top. Certainly way ahead of a mediocre heath system.
And our imperial history is no small thing. It has changed the whole world. e.g. The internet - i.e. the future - speaks English. Why? Because this little island kicked the living squits out of every significant global rival from about 1700-1945.
More because this little island (and especially London) was so focused on trade: the military bit - which was mainly the Navy - was a support to that, and the Empire was to a large extent a by-product.
There is much prosperity to be had, in being the smaller, free trading appendix to a large protectionist empire. Cf Hong Kong, and Singapore. Or Iceland.
You'd be looking at Iceland a long time before you thought "prosperity". It's basically a flat Scotland for goodlooking people.
Being proud that the country created the NHS is like being proud of the local government reorganisation of 1972: it was an administrative measure, not a very well-thought out one, and one which, because of its flaws, continues to cause difficulties decades later.
Some years ago a PB-er (I'm afraid I regret the name) said that being proud of Britain because of the NHS was like being proud of Britain because of PAYE. At the time I thought this was very funny and very true; it remains so.
[snip]
That's a better analogy than mine, except that PAYE works rather well.
Unlike much of HMRC.
I don't know about that, as far as I can see HMRC works very well compared with its equivalents in other countries, and is certainly much easier to deal with than most. Have you seen a US tax form?
The Irish tax agency seems to work pretty well.
But in such things personal experience colours thoughts.
And I've certainly heard about the nightmares of American bureaucracy.
I basically agree. It's all history, and small beer compared to the enormous changes that are coming down the line, for all of humanity, very soon (from AI onwards)
I'm just saying that if actually ASKED why I am proud to be British, our incredible military prowess and remarkable ability to manipulate the entire world, for 300 years, is right at the top. Certainly way ahead of a mediocre heath system.
And our imperial history is no small thing. It has changed the whole world. e.g. The internet - i.e. the future - speaks English. Why? Because this little island kicked the living squits out of every significant global rival from about 1700-1945.
More because this little island (and especially London) was so focused on trade: the military bit - which was mainly the Navy - was a support to that, and the Empire was to a large extent a by-product.
There is much prosperity to be had, in being the smaller, free trading appendix to a large protectionist empire. Cf Hong Kong, and Singapore. Or Iceland.
You'd be looking at Iceland a long time before you thought "prosperity". It's basically a flat Scotland for goodlooking people.
I suspect that if you think Iceland is flat in any way you probably haven't been there. The only flat bits tend to be around the edges.
This kinda stuff gives me THE HORN. We are THE warrior nation. Without peer. In terms of macho pride Britain is IT. We would have probably invaded the moon if we hadn't been too hungover. We WON.
It obviously didn't tumesce you to the extent that you felt compelled to pick up a rifle or stand a dog watch yourself. You've never had a number next to your name (prison doesn't count) so your pride is hollow.
lol. I've been under fire, and been shelled, bombed, and held at gunpoint. Not for Britain's army, admittedly, but for the British media. Maxim Magazine, to be precise.
I should almost certainly have died. But I escaped. Sheer luck got me out of a near-fatal scrape caused by my utter, witless, arrogant and block-headed stupidity.
Nonetheless I have been there.
Can you say better? If not: do one.
If memory serves, @Dura_Ace is an ex-Navy flier who flew in warzones in the Noughties, and is probably not the best person to make that challenge to...
George Soros has certainly been the subject of more than his fair share of anti-Semitism. That doesn’t put his actions beyond criticism but it does mean that responsible national newspapers need cast iron evidence before giving birth to new memes.
And while Vita Corleone is a sinister puppetmaster he certainly wasn't Jewish. Nor for that matter was Marlon Brando.
It is anti-Semitic when the target in question is Jewish.
It was widely used by the Nazis (and Stalin) to denigrate the Jews and their critics who were Jewish.
OMG OMG OMG
I've just realised why Conservatives were so obsessed with saying that Ed Miliband had 'stabbed in the back' his brother.
It was a straight echo of the Nazi attack that Jews had 'stabbed in the back' Germany.
A great big dogwhistle that Ed Miliband was Jewish and 'treacherous'.
Yep, though I suspect that you mean it as jest.
The antisemitism of the right differs from that of the left in its nuances. The left focusses on Israel as the puppet master, on the right it is more that Jews are untrustworthy, lacking in patriotism and scheming.
No, straight-up I hadn't realised.
When you're reading and thinking about politics everyday you don't need the more insidious imagery to give you an opinion.
I'd always thought that Ed Miliband was a bit of a wet-wipe but preferred him to his cowardly, complacent and over-rated brother. I never could understand why EdM beating DM was called 'back-stabbing' whereas there was no similar criticism of DM.
I basically agree. It's all history, and small beer compared to the enormous changes that are coming down the line, for all of humanity, very soon (from AI onwards)
I'm just saying that if actually ASKED why I am proud to be British, our incredible military prowess and remarkable ability to manipulate the entire world, for 300 years, is right at the top. Certainly way ahead of a mediocre heath system.
And our imperial history is no small thing. It has changed the whole world. e.g. The internet - i.e. the future - speaks English. Why? Because this little island kicked the living squits out of every significant global rival from about 1700-1945.
More because this little island (and especially London) was so focused on trade: the military bit - which was mainly the Navy - was a support to that, and the Empire was to a large extent a by-product.
There is much prosperity to be had, in being the smaller, free trading appendix to a large protectionist empire. Cf Hong Kong, and Singapore. Or Iceland.
You'd be looking at Iceland a long time before you thought "prosperity". It's basically a flat Scotland for goodlooking people.
I was in Iceland about a year ago. My first visit in two decades. To be honest I expected hollowed out Great Recessiony wilderness. I found the opposite. It seemed remarkably content, affluent, relaxed, and full of ideas and optimism.
If Britain could be a giant, giant Iceland I would be delighted. It won't be easy. But that must be our post-Brexit aim
It's not beyond our reach. This is what we used to be. Elizabethan England really was the nimble early mammal skipping between stupid ageing dinosaurs. We can be that, again.
Indeed. Given the reality of a Brexit, it seems to be the only way forward.
George Soros has certainly been the subject of more than his fair share of anti-Semitism. That doesn’t put his actions beyond criticism but it does mean that responsible national newspapers need cast iron evidence before giving birth to new memes.
A key pro-EU campaign to reverse the Brexit vote has been given more than £400,000 of funding by American billionaire George Soros’s foundation, the Guardian can disclose.
Or having the Northern Ireland secretary on the committee makes sense given the customs union and border issues and the need for some sort of agreement with the Republic?
If Anna Soubry was being appointed to the rule I might think otherwise.
I basically agree. It's all history, and small beer compared to the enormous changes that are coming down the line, for all of humanity, very soon (from AI onwards)
I'm just saying that if actually ASKED why I am proud to be British, our incredible military prowess and remarkable ability to manipulate the entire world, for 300 years, is right at the top. Certainly way ahead of a mediocre heath system.
And our imperial history is no small thing. It has changed the whole world. e.g. The internet - i.e. the future - speaks English. Why? Because this little island kicked the living squits out of every significant global rival from about 1700-1945.
More because this little island (and especially London) was so focused on trade: the military bit - which was mainly the Navy - was a support to that, and the Empire was to a large extent a by-product.
There is much prosperity to be had, in being the smaller, free trading appendix to a large protectionist empire. Cf Hong Kong, and Singapore. Or Iceland.
You'd be looking at Iceland a long time before you thought "prosperity". It's basically a flat Scotland for goodlooking people.
I suspect that if you think Iceland is flat in any way you probably haven't been there. The only flat bits tend to be around the edges.
Ouch! Yes. I meant to write "flatter" but thinking about it that probably wasn't great either...
The NHS is one of many ways of organising health care, some others are better and others are worse. Clearly it has symbolism that appeals to all parties and both sides of Brexit. It is worth speculating why. In some other countries other organs take on similar unifying cultural significance. The flag, Constitution and military in the USA, the Catholic Church in Poland, the Royal family in Thailand, the language in France, etc. Often these too are quite recent.
The NHS has significance because of its fundamental decency, in that all are entitled to the same level of treatment. Just this week, I have seen both a member of the HoL and a convicted murderer handcuffed to two guards in my clinic. Both got the same treatment. I think this chimes with the British sense of fair play, and a primitive sense of communiality that probably predated even the Anglo-Saxons.
Coupled with this is a deep distrust of the profit motive in this context, both from a long history of communal self help in the working classes, and from a distrust of trade, and sense of noblesse oblige in the wealthier classes. Class relations are profound in Britain but usually not as bitter as our European neighbours. No tumbrils or gulags here. Our upper classes have survived where others perished because of this sense of social solidarity.
The NHS is both a product of, and embodiment of, our collective cultural capital. As we know from Brexit, cultural issues trump economic ones. Other systems may have financial or even clinical advantages, but do not have the same unifying ability. Politicians mess with it at their peril.
What saves us from being a dystopian sci fi hell is the fact that private medical care is so crap in this country. You go private to have your varicose veins sorted or your baby delivered, but not to be operated on for cancer, because the freshly squeezed orange juice and grid girl nurses don't compensate for the increased risk of dying. It is odd that this should be the case.
Very true. I've had several well known doctors (i.e. well paid private quacks) say to me that if you have something majorly wrong, a real emergency, then go to the NHS. Always. It's not just the money, you will probably get better care.
Private hospitals in the UK are ideal for people with chronic but non urgent conditions who want better food, and their own room.
This does not mean the NHS is utopian, it's just the eccentric way UK healthcare is warped by the behemoth that is the NHS.
When Petr Cech had his head injury he ended up being rushed to Oxford, and being treated alongside my buddie in the NHS...Abramovich's billions didn't keep him from the NHS....
Being proud that the country created the NHS is like being proud of the local government reorganisation of 1972: it was an administrative measure, not a very well-thought out one, and one which, because of its flaws, continues to cause difficulties decades later.
Some years ago a PB-er (I'm afraid I regret the name) said that being proud of Britain because of the NHS was like being proud of Britain because of PAYE. At the time I thought this was very funny and very true; it remains so.
The NHS is seen, prima facie, as a great and shared endeavour. It is one of the few big things we all understand, as a nation, and have nearly all experienced, personally. That is why it is "popular", it is fuck all to do with its efficiency - as is obvious, if you drill down into any personal encounter with the NHS, you soon hit the hard rock of critique and dissent.
Yes, while there are many grumbles, and often legitimate ones including my own, it is undeniable that the system itself has widespread support across the ages and parties.
It is not unrelated to the Blitz spirit, or experience of the trenches or Dunkirk*. The NHS was born of a particular time, for a reason. It was officially created in 1948, but actually British doctors and nurses had almost all been working for a decade as government employees, either in uniform or under the defacto nationalisation of hospitals as a war time measure. The NHS is the visible remnant of that cultural unity.
* Blitz spirit, trenches and Dunkirk are also national mythologies, not always backed up by forensic study. We stood alone in 1940 as the worlds largest empire, with a quarter of the worlds land area and people. We had the grain of Canada, the minerals of Africa and Australia, the multitudes of India and the oil of the Gulf under our control. We were not just a small island off the North Shore of Europe.
Generally I find the NHS only has widespread support because people have never experienced the far better systems that exist across much of Europe. The idea that the NHS is anywhere near the best in the world is a widely believed myth, but a myth none the less.
I don't argue with that, but cultural myths are very deeply felt. Privatising the NHS is political suicide:
Any health reform needs to be done within the parameters of a national system, with universal access, free at the point of use and by non profit making bodies. Those are the political realities for the forseable future, for better or worse.
And while Vita Corleone is a sinister puppetmaster he certainly wasn't Jewish. Nor for that matter was Marlon Brando.
It is anti-Semitic when the target in question is Jewish.
It was widely used by the Nazis (and Stalin) to denigrate the Jews and their critics who were Jewish.
So is there a list of approved and unapproved imagery which you are allowed to use to criticize different groups ?
Presumably if Soros had been of Italian or Catholic background then the puppet-master imagery would also have been deemed inadmissable.
You’re like The Guardian.
The Guardian has admitted that a cartoon about the Israel-Gaza conflict portraying a grotesque Benjamin Netanyahu as a puppet master controlling William Hague and Tony Blair "inevitably" echoed "past antisemitic usage of such imagery".
This kinda stuff gives me THE HORN. We are THE warrior nation. Without peer. In terms of macho pride Britain is IT. We would have probably invaded the moon if we hadn't been too hungover. We WON.
It obviously didn't tumesce you to the extent that you felt compelled to pick up a rifle or stand a dog watch yourself. You've never had a number next to your name (prison doesn't count) so your pride is hollow.
lol. I've been under fire, and been shelled, bombed, and held at gunpoint. Not for Britain's army, admittedly, but for the British media. Maxim Magazine, to be precise.
I should almost certainly have died. But I escaped. Sheer luck got me out of a near-fatal scrape caused by my utter, witless, arrogant and block-headed stupidity.
Nonetheless I have been there.
Can you say better? If not: do one.
If memory serves, @Dura_Ace is an ex-Navy flier who flew in warzones in the Noughties, and is probably not the best person to make that challenge to...
Idly flying around in a fucking RAF chopper in the Cairngorms does not, with all due respect, compare to being literally kidnapped at gunpoint by Hezbollah, and then sitting in a room waiting to die.
Well, if we're going there...
Kosovo: 19 combat missions. Released weapons 19 times. Afghanistan: 66 combat missions. Released weapons 28 times. Iraq: lost count but it was just about every day for a year.
George Soros has certainly been the subject of more than his fair share of anti-Semitism. That doesn’t put his actions beyond criticism but it does mean that responsible national newspapers need cast iron evidence before giving birth to new memes.
Foreign Jewish financial mastermind is pulling the strings to betray the sturdy British yeomanry?
I await the cries of anti-semitism aimed at the Daily Telegraph from the PB chatterati...
Well its you who has mentioned that he is Jewish.
Do you Corbyn fans have a list of who is or is not a Jew ?
Foxy is a LD
An LD who has become a big Corbyn, albeit not Labour, fan.
Partly I expect because Cable doesn't impress him but I wonder if Foxy is having guilt feelings of having voted Conservative in 2010. At least I think he said he did.
I think people forget the detoxification project of Cameron actually reached a majority of Doctors in 2010......so it doesn't surprise me that Foxy flirted with the dark side like many of his colleagues. Fucking idiots in retrospect because after 8 years of the Tories many are as miserable as sin at work....but there you go.....
And..... times you sat in a chair with a fucking bearded fucking lunatic with a gun pointed at you?
Zero.
And this is your JOB. You dropped fucking bombs for a living. I got into my shit as a JOKE. Which went bad. Yet I still experienced something way more frightening than you. Sorry.
So how do your Pound Shop Ross Kemp antics give any legitimacy to your shared pride in Britain's martial heritage?
This kinda stuff gives me THE HORN. We are THE warrior nation. Without peer. In terms of macho pride Britain is IT. We would have probably invaded the moon if we hadn't been too hungover. We WON.
It obviously didn't tumesce you to the extent that you felt compelled to pick up a rifle or stand a dog watch yourself. You've never had a number next to your name (prison doesn't count) so your pride is hollow.
lol. I've been under fire, and been shelled, bombed, and held at gunpoint. Not for Britain's army, admittedly, but for the British media. Maxim Magazine, to be precise.
I should almost certainly have died. But I escaped. Sheer luck got me out of a near-fatal scrape caused by my utter, witless, arrogant and block-headed stupidity.
Nonetheless I have been there.
Can you say better? If not: do one.
If memory serves, @Dura_Ace is an ex-Navy flier who flew in warzones in the Noughties, and is probably not the best person to make that challenge to...
Idly flying around in a fucking RAF chopper in the Cairngorms does not, with all due respect, compare to being literally kidnapped at gunpoint by Hezbollah, and then sitting in a room waiting to die.
Well, if we're going there...
Kosovo: 19 combat missions. Released weapons 19 times. Afghanistan: 66 combat missions. Released weapons 28 times. Iraq: lost count but it was just about every day for a year.
And..... times you sat in a chair with a fucking bearded fucking lunatic with a gun pointed at you?
Zero.
And this is your JOB. You dropped fucking bombs for a living. I got into my shit as a JOKE. Which went bad. Yet I still experienced something way more frightening than you. Sorry.
Denis Healey's law of holes: When you are in one, stop digging.
I have done neither, and am heavily peacenik, but have great respect for people like @Dura_Ace who see their duty to the nation and the world differently.
Foreign Jewish financial mastermind is pulling the strings to betray the sturdy British yeomanry?
I await the cries of anti-semitism aimed at the Daily Telegraph from the PB chatterati...
Well its you who has mentioned that he is Jewish.
Do you Corbyn fans have a list of who is or is not a Jew ?
Foxy is a LD
An LD who has become a big Corbyn, albeit not Labour, fan.
Partly I expect because Cable doesn't impress him but I wonder if Foxy is having guilt feelings of having voted Conservative in 2010. At least I think he said he did.
I think people forget the detoxification project of Cameron actually reached a majority of Doctors in 2010......so it doesn't surprise me that Foxy flirted with the dark side like many of his colleagues. Fucking idiots in retrospect because after 8 years of the Tories many are as miserable as sin at work....but there you go.....
Yep, hands up to that one. I genuinely believed it in 2010 when Cameron seemed to have changed the Tory party.
I remain an LD, though sympathetic to much of Corbyn's social agenda, because I do not support his economic agenda. I am dry as dust on debt and fixing the deficit.
This kinda stuff gives me THE HORN. We are THE warrior nation. Without peer. In terms of macho pride Britain is IT. We would have probably invaded the moon if we hadn't been too hungover. We WON.
It obviously didn't tumesce you to the extent that you felt compelled to pick up a rifle or stand a dog watch yourself. You've never had a number next to your name (prison doesn't count) so your pride is hollow.
lol. I've been under fire, and been shelled, bombed, and held at gunpoint. Not for Britain's army, admittedly, but for the British media. Maxim Magazine, to be precise.
I should almost certainly have died. But I escaped. Sheer luck got me out of a near-fatal scrape caused by my utter, witless, arrogant and block-headed stupidity.
Nonetheless I have been there.
Can you say better? If not: do one.
If memory serves, @Dura_Ace is an ex-Navy flier who flew in warzones in the Noughties, and is probably not the best person to make that challenge to...
Idly flying around in a fucking RAF chopper in the Cairngorms does not, with all due respect, compare to being literally kidnapped at gunpoint by Hezbollah, and then sitting in a room waiting to die.
Well, if we're going there...
Kosovo: 19 combat missions. Released weapons 19 times. Afghanistan: 66 combat missions. Released weapons 28 times. Iraq: lost count but it was just about every day for a year.
And..... times you sat in a chair with a fucking bearded fucking lunatic with a gun pointed at you?
Zero.
And this is your JOB. You dropped fucking bombs for a living. I got into my shit as a JOKE. Which went bad. Yet I still experienced something way more frightening than you. Sorry.
Denis Healey's law of holes: When you are in one, stop digging.
I have done neither, and am heavily peacenik, but have great respect for people like @Dura_Ace who see their duty to the nation and the world differently.
It does seem strange to proclaim your pride in the British military and then slag off the experience of someone who served.
Foreign Jewish financial mastermind is pulling the strings to betray the sturdy British yeomanry?
I await the cries of anti-semitism aimed at the Daily Telegraph from the PB chatterati...
Well its you who has mentioned that he is Jewish.
Do you Corbyn fans have a list of who is or is not a Jew ?
Foxy is a LD
An LD who has become a big Corbyn, albeit not Labour, fan.
Partly I expect because Cable doesn't impress him but I wonder if Foxy is having guilt feelings of having voted Conservative in 2010. At least I think he said he did.
I think people forget the detoxification project of Cameron actually reached a majority of Doctors in 2010......so it doesn't surprise me that Foxy flirted with the dark side like many of his colleagues. Fucking idiots in retrospect because after 8 years of the Tories many are as miserable as sin at work....but there you go.....
Yep, hands up to that one. I genuinely believed it in 2010 when Cameron seemed to have changed the Tory party.
I remain an LD, though sympathetic to much of Corbyn's social agenda, because I do not support his economic agenda. I am dry as dust on debt and fixing the deficit.
In some ways Cameron did change the Tory party... gay marriage or the commitment to international aid.
The Conservatives are four points ahead of Labour in the latest poll of voting intentions for The Times despite open divisions across the party.
The YouGov poll shows the Tories on 43 per cent, up 1 point compared with last week, Labour on 39 per cent, down 3 points, and the Lib Dems on 8 per cent, up 2 points.
The news will be a relief for the Conservatives, who have faced widespread coverage of the leaks and splits throughout the party over Brexit.
Theresa May extended her advantage over Jeremy Corbyn to 8 points on the question of which would make the best prime minister, up from 6 points last week. Some 37 per cent think she would do best, 29 per cent would back the Labour leader and 33 per cent do not know.
The news will be a relief for the Conservatives, who have faced widespread coverage of the leaks and splits throughout the party over Brexit.
Theresa May extended her advantage over Jeremy Corbyn to 8 points on the question of which would make the best prime minister, up from 6 points last week. Some 37 per cent think she would do best, 29 per cent would back the Labour leader and 33 per cent do not know.
This kinda stuff gives me THE HORN. We are THE warrior nation. Without peer. In terms of macho pride Britain is IT. We would have probably invaded the moon if we hadn't been too hungover. We WON.
It obviously didn't tumesce you to the extent that you felt compelled to pick up a rifle or stand a dog watch yourself. You've never had a number next to your name (prison doesn't count) so your pride is hollow.
lol. I've been under fire, and been shelled, bombed, and held at gunpoint. Not for Britain's army, admittedly, but for the British media. Maxim Magazine, to be precise.
I should almost certainly have died. But I escaped. Sheer luck got me out of a near-fatal scrape caused by my utter, witless, arrogant and block-headed stupidity.
Nonetheless I have been there.
Can you say better? If not: do one.
If memory serves, @Dura_Ace is an ex-Navy flier who flew in warzones in the Noughties, and is probably not the best person to make that challenge to...
Idly flying around in a fucking RAF chopper in the Cairngorms does not, with all due respect, compare to being literally kidnapped at gunpoint by Hezbollah, and then sitting in a room waiting to die.
Well, if we're going there...
Kosovo: 19 combat missions. Released weapons 19 times. Afghanistan: 66 combat missions. Released weapons 28 times. Iraq: lost count but it was just about every day for a year.
And..... times you sat in a chair with a fucking bearded fucking lunatic with a gun pointed at you?
Zero.
And this is your JOB. You dropped fucking bombs for a living. I got into my shit as a JOKE. Which went bad. Yet I still experienced something way more frightening than you. Sorry.
Denis Healey's law of holes: When you are in one, stop digging.
I have done neither, and am heavily peacenik, but have great respect for people like @Dura_Ace who see their duty to the nation and the world differently.
The shovel seems quite apt here......
Thinking about other PD types who like to big up their cogliones...I find it incredible how the persistent draft dodger Trump gets away with it all.......
There is an even divide on whether it was right to vote to leave in 2016, with 43 per cent agreeing and 44 per cent disagreeing. Last week there was a significant, six-point lead for those saying it was wrong to leave.
Foreign Jewish financial mastermind is pulling the strings to betray the sturdy British yeomanry?
I await the cries of anti-semitism aimed at the Daily Telegraph from the PB chatterati...
Well its you who has mentioned that he is Jewish.
Do you Corbyn fans have a list of who is or is not a Jew ?
Foxy is a LD
An LD who has become a big Corbyn, albeit not Labour, fan.
Partly I expect because Cable doesn't impress him but I wonder if Foxy is having guilt feelings of having voted Conservative in 2010. At least I think he said he did.
I think people forget the detoxification project of Cameron actually reached a majority of Doctors in 2010......so it doesn't surprise me that Foxy flirted with the dark side like many of his colleagues. Fucking idiots in retrospect because after 8 years of the Tories many are as miserable as sin at work....but there you go.....
Yep, hands up to that one. I genuinely believed it in 2010 when Cameron seemed to have changed the Tory party.
I remain an LD, though sympathetic to much of Corbyn's social agenda, because I do not support his economic agenda. I am dry as dust on debt and fixing the deficit.
I actually think in 2010 many Doctors were NuLaboured to death with the performance management crap, meaningless targets and bullshit NuLab NHS speak.....I think that more than anything insulted their intelligence and subsequently repelled them as much as they were seduced by Cameron's snake oil charm...
Foreign Jewish financial mastermind is pulling the strings to betray the sturdy British yeomanry?
I await the cries of anti-semitism aimed at the Daily Telegraph from the PB chatterati...
Well its you who has mentioned that he is Jewish.
Do you Corbyn fans have a list of who is or is not a Jew ?
Foxy is a LD
An LD who has become a big Corbyn, albeit not Labour, fan.
Partly I expect because Cable doesn't impress him but I wonder if Foxy is having guilt feelings of having voted Conservative in 2010. At least I think he said he did.
I think people forget the detoxification project of Cameron actually reached a majority of Doctors in 2010......so it doesn't surprise me that Foxy flirted with the dark side like many of his colleagues. Fucking idiots in retrospect because after 8 years of the Tories many are as miserable as sin at work....but there you go.....
Yep, hands up to that one. I genuinely believed it in 2010 when Cameron seemed to have changed the Tory party.
I remain an LD, though sympathetic to much of Corbyn's social agenda, because I do not support his economic agenda. I am dry as dust on debt and fixing the deficit.
In some ways Cameron did change the Tory party... gay marriage or the commitment to international aid.
I an remain unconvinced how deep and meaningful was the Cameron conversion of the Party, I suspect it was a fad at the time...
There is an even divide on whether it was right to vote to leave in 2016, with 43 per cent agreeing and 44 per cent disagreeing. Last week there was a significant, six-point lead for those saying it was wrong to leave.
If these figures remain the same in March, then it's all over for even the diehard Remainiacs in the Malaysian foxholes of plebiscitary delusion. Surely.
Brexit is upon us. At what point do the Jolyon Maughams of this world swallow the pill, and make the best of it?
The trouble with saying BREXIT is upon us....is what is BREXIT? Until there is a coherent argument based around a clear vision then there will be divisions and splits and dare I say it disagreement here and in the country.
Foreign Jewish financial mastermind is pulling the strings to betray the sturdy British yeomanry?
I await the cries of anti-semitism aimed at the Daily Telegraph from the PB chatterati...
Well its you who has mentioned that he is Jewish.
Do you Corbyn fans have a list of who is or is not a Jew ?
Foxy is a LD
An LD who has become a big Corbyn, albeit not Labour, fan.
Partly I expect because Cable doesn't impress him but I wonder if Foxy is having guilt feelings of having voted Conservative in 2010. At least I think he said he did.
I think people forget the detoxification project of Cameron actually reached a majority of Doctors in 2010......so it doesn't surprise me that Foxy flirted with the dark side like many of his colleagues. Fucking idiots in retrospect because after 8 years of the Tories many are as miserable as sin at work....but there you go.....
Yep, hands up to that one. I genuinely believed it in 2010 when Cameron seemed to have changed the Tory party.
I remain an LD, though sympathetic to much of Corbyn's social agenda, because I do not support his economic agenda. I am dry as dust on debt and fixing the deficit.
In some ways Cameron did change the Tory party... gay marriage or the commitment to international aid.
I an remain unconvinced how deep and meaningful was the Cameron conversion of the Party, I suspect it was a fad at the time...
On gay marriage I doubt they will go back. On international aid it’s certainly possible.
The Conservatives are four points ahead of Labour in the latest poll of voting intentions for The Times despite open divisions across the party.
The YouGov poll shows the Tories on 43 per cent, up 1 point compared with last week, Labour on 39 per cent, down 3 points, and the Lib Dems on 8 per cent, up 2 points.
The news will be a relief for the Conservatives, who have faced widespread coverage of the leaks and splits throughout the party over Brexit.
Theresa May extended her advantage over Jeremy Corbyn to 8 points on the question of which would make the best prime minister, up from 6 points last week. Some 37 per cent think she would do best, 29 per cent would back the Labour leader and 33 per cent do not know.
The news will be a relief for the Conservatives, who have faced widespread coverage of the leaks and splits throughout the party over Brexit.
Theresa May extended her advantage over Jeremy Corbyn to 8 points on the question of which would make the best prime minister, up from 6 points last week. Some 37 per cent think she would do best, 29 per cent would back the Labour leader and 33 per cent do not know.
lol. I despise TMay's pathetic government (like every sane Briton) but these are catastrophic figures for Labour. HMG is in the middest of possible midterms, yet Labour are still behind, and very significantly behind in the crucial metrics.
They imply a massive defeat for Labour in 2022. Let the new infighting begin.
"Middest of possible midterms"? It's only seven and a bit months since the last election. How long are you expecting parliaments to be from now on?
The Conservatives are four points ahead of Labour in the latest poll of voting intentions for The Times despite open divisions across the party.
The YouGov poll shows the Tories on 43 per cent, up 1 point compared with last week, Labour on 39 per cent, down 3 points, and the Lib Dems on 8 per cent, up 2 points.
The news will be a relief for the Conservatives, who have faced widespread coverage of the leaks and splits throughout the party over Brexit.
Theresa May extended her advantage over Jeremy Corbyn to 8 points on the question of which would make the best prime minister, up from 6 points last week. Some 37 per cent think she would do best, 29 per cent would back the Labour leader and 33 per cent do not know.
The news will be a relief for the Conservatives, who have faced widespread coverage of the leaks and splits throughout the party over Brexit.
Theresa May extended her advantage over Jeremy Corbyn to 8 points on the question of which would make the best prime minister, up from 6 points last week. Some 37 per cent think she would do best, 29 per cent would back the Labour leader and 33 per cent do not know.
lol. I despise TMay's pathetic government (like every sane Briton) but these are catastrophic figures for Labour. HMG is in the middest of possible midterms, yet Labour are still behind, and very significantly behind in the crucial metrics.
They imply a massive defeat for Labour in 2022. Let the new infighting begin.
I think Labour did so well in 2017 because nearly everyone assumed the Tories were going to win easily and therefore at least some people could afford to cast a heart-over-head "romantic" vote for Corbyn sure in the knowledge that he wasn't going to get anywhere near Downing Street. In fact he got within 950 votes of becoming prime minister in a rainbow coalition. Also it would be difficult for the Tory campaign to be as awful as it was last time.
George Soros has certainly been the subject of more than his fair share of anti-Semitism. That doesn’t put his actions beyond criticism but it does mean that responsible national newspapers need cast iron evidence before giving birth to new memes.
I basically agree. It's all history, and small beer compared to the enormous changes that are coming down the line, for all of humanity, very soon (from AI onwards)
I'm just saying that if actually ASKED why I am proud to be British, our incredible military prowess and remarkable ability to manipulate the entire world, for 300 years, is right at the top. Certainly way ahead of a mediocre heath system.
And our imperial history is no small thing. It has changed the whole world. e.g. The internet - i.e. the future - speaks English. Why? Because this little island kicked the living squits out of every significant global rival from about 1700-1945.
More because this little island (and especially London) was so focused on trade: the military bit - which was mainly the Navy - was a support to that, and the Empire was to a large extent a by-product.
There is much prosperity to be had, in being the smaller, free trading appendix to a large protectionist empire. Cf Hong Kong, and Singapore. Or Iceland.
You'd be looking at Iceland a long time before you thought "prosperity". It's basically a flat Scotland for goodlooking people.
I was in Iceland about a year ago. My first visit in two decades. To be honest I expected hollowed out Great Recessiony wilderness. I found the opposite. It seemed remarkably content, affluent, relaxed, and full of ideas and optimism.
If Britain could be a giant, giant Iceland I would be delighted. It won't be easy. But that must be our post-Brexit aim
It's not beyond our reach. This is what we used to be. Elizabethan England really was the nimble early mammal skipping between stupid ageing dinosaurs. We can be that, again.
Indeed. Given the reality of a Brexit, it seems to be the only way forward.
They sent bankers to jail and sought to avoid the personal debt trap we and our kids are in. Sounds good to me
I think Labour did so well in 2017 because nearly everyone assumed the Tories were going to win easily and therefore at least some people could afford to cast a heart-over-head "romantic" vote for Corbyn sure in the knowledge that he wasn't going to get anywhere near Downing Street.
Agreed. On top of that, the Tories thought they were so far ahead they could afford to spend electoral capital on the social care reforms. Double oops.
Being proud that the country created the NHS is like being proud of the local government reorganisation of 1972: it was an administrative measure, not a very well-thought out one, and one which, because of its flaws, continues to cause difficulties decades later.
Some years ago a PB-er (I'm afraid I regret the name) said that being proud of Britain because of the NHS was like being proud of Britain because of PAYE. At the time I thought this was very funny and very true; it remains so.
[snip]
That's a better analogy than mine, except that PAYE works rather well.
Unlike much of HMRC.
I don't know about that, as far as I can see HMRC works very well compared with its equivalents in other countries, and is certainly much easier to deal with than most. Have you seen a US tax form?
OMFG, American tax forms. Jesus F Christ on a tricycle.
I think I first realised that America's supremacy, as a nation, was time-limited and ending, when I first encountered the US tax system. A nation capable of such stupid, sapping bureaucracy was a nation destined for decline, like all others, from Nineveh to Tyre.
My theory is that the two largest groups that settled America in the 17th and 18th centuries were the English and the Germans. America therefore could have had a bureaucracy with all the flexibility of the English and all the efficiency of the Germans. Sadly it got the reverse.
And of course, one reason why the tax system is such a mess is that the tax preparation firms lobby Congress to keep it a mess and make their services necessary.
While the algorithms aren't quite there yet, we aren't far off a situation where videos can be faked as easily as still images to a degree of realism that only a real expert will be able to detect real from fake.
That is a pretty scary situation for anybody who has lots of photos of themselves online.
The Tory plotters must be a tad annoyed at this series of polls from different companies showing the Conservatives doing rather well in the circumstances.
The Tory plotters must be a tad annoyed at this series of polls from different companies showing the Conservatives doing rather well in the circumstances.
What is driving this shift I wonder? Nobody can say the headlines have been good for the Tories and they have to be seen as divided by the public on Brexit (and divided is normally a total killer for a political party).
The Conservatives are four points ahead of Labour in the latest poll of voting intentions for The Times despite open divisions across the party.
The YouGov poll shows the Tories on 43 per cent, up 1 point compared with last week, Labour on 39 per cent, down 3 points, and the Lib Dems on 8 per cent, up 2 points.
The news will be a relief for the Conservatives, who have faced widespread coverage of the leaks and splits throughout the party over Brexit.
Theresa May extended her advantage over Jeremy Corbyn to 8 points on the question of which would make the best prime minister, up from 6 points last week. Some 37 per cent think she would do best, 29 per cent would back the Labour leader and 33 per cent do not know.
The news will be a relief for the Conservatives, who have faced widespread coverage of the leaks and splits throughout the party over Brexit.
Theresa May extended her advantage over Jeremy Corbyn to 8 points on the question of which would make the best prime minister, up from 6 points last week. Some 37 per cent think she would do best, 29 per cent would back the Labour leader and 33 per cent do not know.
Comments
We do not vote the Government in or out. We vote for MPs in the Parliament, not Ministers in the Cabinet. The Prime Minister is appointed by the Queen, s/he appoints the Cabinet, and they work via the Civil Service. The vast bulk of the Civil Service do not change from year to year. Apart from Private Members' Bills, the Parliament does not initiate legislation, the Government does. Government does not stop during elections, it remains in place (which was why Alistair Darling continued to act as Chancellor after the 2010 election until Cameron became PM and replaced him with Osborne). These wanton misconceptions are incredibly difficult to shift.
But in such things personal experience colours thoughts.
And I've certainly heard about the nightmares of American bureaucracy.
Graduate loses bid to sue Oxford over 2:1 degree
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-42974641
When you're reading and thinking about politics everyday you don't need the more insidious imagery to give you an opinion.
I'd always thought that Ed Miliband was a bit of a wet-wipe but preferred him to his cowardly, complacent and over-rated brother. I never could understand why EdM beating DM was called 'back-stabbing' whereas there was no similar criticism of DM.
A key pro-EU campaign to reverse the Brexit vote has been given more than £400,000 of funding by American billionaire George Soros’s foundation, the Guardian can disclose.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/feb/07/billionaire-george-soros-backs-campaign-to-reverse-brexit
If Anna Soubry was being appointed to the rule I might think otherwise.
To allow rightwing nutjobs the freedom to target opposition politicians was a political choice made by the conservative government.
https://www.healthinsurancedaily.com/health-insurance/product-area/pmi/article484712.ece
Any health reform needs to be done within the parameters of a national system, with universal access, free at the point of use and by non profit making bodies. Those are the political realities for the forseable future, for better or worse.
Kosovo: 19 combat missions. Released weapons 19 times.
Afghanistan: 66 combat missions. Released weapons 28 times.
Iraq: lost count but it was just about every day for a year.
*is a political choice being made by the conservative government.*
I have done neither, and am heavily peacenik, but have great respect for people like @Dura_Ace who see their duty to the nation and the world differently.
I remain an LD, though sympathetic to much of Corbyn's social agenda, because I do not support his economic agenda. I am dry as dust on debt and fixing the deficit.
The YouGov poll shows the Tories on 43 per cent, up 1 point compared with last week, Labour on 39 per cent, down 3 points, and the Lib Dems on 8 per cent, up 2 points.
The news will be a relief for the Conservatives, who have faced widespread coverage of the leaks and splits throughout the party over Brexit.
Theresa May extended her advantage over Jeremy Corbyn to 8 points on the question of which would make the best prime minister, up from 6 points last week. Some 37 per cent think she would do best, 29 per cent would back the Labour leader and 33 per cent do not know.
The news will be a relief for the Conservatives, who have faced widespread coverage of the leaks and splits throughout the party over Brexit.
Theresa May extended her advantage over Jeremy Corbyn to 8 points on the question of which would make the best prime minister, up from 6 points last week. Some 37 per cent think she would do best, 29 per cent would back the Labour leader and 33 per cent do not know.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/poll-lead-brings-relief-for-tory-party-after-infighting-ss929xtmw
The shovel seems quite apt here......
Thinking about other PD types who like to big up their cogliones...I find it incredible how the persistent draft dodger Trump gets away with it all.......
https://twitter.com/SenDuckworth/status/954872169774841857
Different times Foxy......
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4223091.stm
while in the 1962 Orpington byelection the Liberals were alleged to have used the Conservative's candidates Jewish background as a smear:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpington_by-election,_1962
So all parties might dabble in such things when they think there are votes to be had.
Bloody depressing.
On international aid it’s certainly possible.
And of course, one reason why the tax system is such a mess is that the tax preparation firms lobby Congress to keep it a mess and make their services necessary.
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42984127
While the algorithms aren't quite there yet, we aren't far off a situation where videos can be faked as easily as still images to a degree of realism that only a real expert will be able to detect real from fake.
That is a pretty scary situation for anybody who has lots of photos of themselves online.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dutch-sailor-hendrik-de-jong-who-killed-his-wives-named-as-the-ripper-t53lvjh99
Bloody foreign criminals, coming over here murdering our prozzies...