I wonder who’ll be next week’s Prime Minister?
Politics and Current Affairs
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Sounds like they’ve actually deluded themselves into believing that doubling down on fuck-the-working-class-and-the-poor laissez-faire Thatcher capitalism combined with ruthless nationalism can save the Conservative Party now. Trying to reclaim the UKIP crowd now that those have reached their original aims and are presumably floundering.
Well, good luck with that. The German conservative party has been going down a similar route, but they don’t have the whole Brexit chaos to deal with, and they’re doing it from a position of opposition against an unpopular government, so they actually have a shot (unfortunately).
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Yeah, I think it’s a more blatant lean to the right than ever before, partly because they think it’s their best shot at gaining votes at this point, but also because they’re gearing up for a post-Sunak leadership contest and the likes of Braverman want to set out their stalls as the next arsehole-in-chief.
Trying to reclaim the UKIP crowd now
And they haven’t even been subtle about this – Sunak yesterday was openly courting Farage to rejoin the Tories, which I don’t think would ever happen but shows where they’re at.
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The best way to fight fascists has obviously always been to adopt their policies. Or so conservative politicians seem to think.
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Don’t forget the other anti stuff they’ve gone full on with:
- Migrants
- Trans
- Net zero
- Environment
- Benefits
- Pensioners
- The NHS
- Doctors
- Teachers
- Business
Shorter Q to ask is who they haven’t screwed over in this conference.
Also, anti- 15 minute cities.
I for one am immensely relieved that I’m not going to have any shops, doctors, or leisure facilities within a 15-minute walk of my house. Get that shit away from me!
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everything will just be delivered by drones
Are you watching Sunak’s conference speech too?
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Huh, he droning on then?
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To be fair the Tory conference has been marginally more successful than the last one with Truss.
They really need to go now, flat out of ideas. It’s basically just lying about shit now. They promised in their 2019 manifesto to electrify the South Wales train line, cancelled it. Yesterday Sunak said they would electrify the (less busy) North Wales line, it’s never going to happen. Meat taxes never happened.
I saw a thread on Twitter that detailed how they have announced making the A1 dual carriageway near the Scottish border every single year since elected, promised again yesterday. Nationally people won’t know that and it may sound good on his list of works but locally they will know it’s a long undelivered project.
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Guardian made a very fun three-minute video summarising the conference. The with the lying about shit does become very clear.
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Meat taxes never happened.
The whole Meat Tax thing is so brilliantly stupid that I bet scriptwriters around the world are kicking themselves. Such a perfect little nonsense phrase, better even than Quiet Bat-People.
Whenever I see it now, I imagine it sung to the tune of Love Shack by the B-52s.
“If you see a Labour sign in the manifesto, that says 15 months ’til the..”
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You’re all going to be singing that in your heads now whenever the Meat Tax is mentioned.
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You know, it’s one of the potential great advantages of leaving the EU that you don’t have to follow their fucked-up agricultural subsidy system which awards subsidies just according to the size of the land farmers are farming, instead of any criteria that would actually make any fucking sense, like how sustainable what you’re doing with your farm is. And it does seem that the UK has been doing this now, post-Brexit:
These made up 80% of the UK’s 2018 CAP budget.[2] Farmers receive payments based on how much land they farm, although they are required to meet ‘greening’ requirements and may have their subsidy cut if they do not comply with environmental regulations. In the UK, direct payments are provided through the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), administered by the UK government for England and devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Measures to support market prices also fall under pillar one.
Pillar two – Rural development payments
These made up 20% of the UK’s 2018 CAP budget.[3] This provides financial support to farmers and other rural businesses for delivering environmental benefits (such as preserving habitats and managing flood risks), improving farm efficiency (such as helping farmers use less feed and pesticides) and supporting rural development. In the UK, these payments are provided through multi-annual Rural Development Programmes, such as the Countryside Stewardship Scheme.
Reliance on public subsidies varies between farmers. Between 2014/15 and 2016/17, direct payments (under pillar one) made up an average of 9% of farm revenue or 61% of farm profits in England, although this figure is much higher for some sub-sectors, such as upland farms grazing livestock.[4]
How were agricultural subsidies distributed within the UK?
Agricultural policy is devolved. When the UK was a member of the EU, the four governments were responsible for administering subsidies according to EU rules. Outside the EU, the different administrations can develop their own schemes.How will farms be supported in England?
England has made the most progress in establishing a post-Brexit agricultural subsidy regime. The new regime is being ‘co-designed’ with farmers, land managers and other interested parties, whereby these groups work with officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to develop the new schemes.In 2018, Defra announced its intention to adopt the principle of ‘public money for public goods’, whereby farmers and other land managers will be paid for delivering (primarily) environmental benefits rather than the amount of land they farm. The government argued that direct payments were a poor use of public money.
The Agriculture Act, passed in November 2020, sets out a legislative framework for the new subsidy regime in England, including the list of ‘public goods’ for which subsidies may be paid. Shortly afterwards, Defra published an updated plan, The Path to Sustainable Farming: An Agricultural Transition Plan 2021 to 2024. This set out plans for a range of schemes, including initiatives to increase biodiversity, restore landscapes, promote animal welfare and increase productivity through investment in new equipment and technology. Central to the new regime is the Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS).
https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/article/explainer/agriculture-subsidies-after-brexit
Look, what I’m saying is that by (very sensibly) reducing the direct payment subsidies to the general livestock farming sector, the current UK government have probably caused meat prices to rise (again, very sensibly). Kinda like a… meat tax.
Meat tax, baby, yeah…
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The biggest argument against the EU has always been the CAP. It’s a policy that costs a huge amount of money to appease constituents and enable them to not be very effective at what they do.
We tend to be drawn into very binary arguments nowadays, that either the EU is perfect or disastrous. It has never been either, you can also rip it apart for the approach to Greece’s problems, where the priority was propping up the Euro in the richer countries over helping the Greeks. I can also praise that it is pretty much the only global institution to challenge tech monopolies.
I am still strongly remain/rejoin on the EU argument but the CAP is still outdated and bad.
They should also introduce a meat tax.
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Former Vice President Mike Pence suspends his 2024 presidential bid
How much of a chance did he really have, anyway, considering how much of a cult of personality for Trump the GOP has become?
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Maybe he thought he just couldn’t, you know, swing it?
…too far?
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Yeah, it’ll be Trump. But I do wonder whether the fight will be between Trump and DeSantis, as everybody seems to expect. I mean, if crazy fascist is the direction you want to go, surely you’ll go with Trump. It might be a better idea for the non-Trump part of the GOP to go with a more rational candidate, like Haley (who probably would have far better chances of winning the Presidentship than Trump does).
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So not quite so teflon, eh, Mark?
Yeşilgöz-Zegerius looks cool, it’s shame she’s into lasser-faire capitalism. Bit weird, too, given her background. Her wiki bio doesn’t really go into at which point she switched from socialism to neo-liberalism.
Still, she does seem like she could be a breath of fresh air for Dutch politics.
She’s to the right of Rutte. She evn floated the idea of working together with Wilders, which was always out of the question under Rutte. She says she was always in the classically liberal tradition of equal rights with free enterprise, meritocracy etc it just took her a while to realize she wasn’t left wing.
The next coalition seems likely to be VVD, NSC and BBB, plus one or two other small parties. NSC and BBB are both spin offs from the Christian Democratic party
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Pig-screwer is in the air, en route to the Middle East.
I kid you not. Sunak has appointed Cameron as Foreign Secretary!
And he has to take up a seat in the Lords to do so. How very….tidy.
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You’ve got to hand it to them, it’s a hell of a distraction from the Braverman sacking and the media appear to be eating it up. And it’s a great gig for Cameron as well. They make him a lord and he gets to prance around the world until the next election in a year, acting like Britain still has a say in anything important…The absolute swine.
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The absolute swine.
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Any claim Sunak had to being “moderate” is dead, as he has announced he will change the law to get around the Supreme Court verdict on flying refugees to Rwanda, that it is illegal.
This is the same right-wing extremism that has ran the country into the ground since 2010. Something is illegal? They will declare it legal.
The Conservatives have no principles or beliefs save staying in power and that’s not good enough.
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I find it hard to recognise my country these days. The fucking fascists are the second largest party now, according to surveys, and all of the other parties have allowed them to make immigration and refugees the only topic that’s being broadly discussed right now, making the refugees the scapegoats for everything that sucks instead of making social equality the topic.
Honestly, sometimes it makes me want to give up.
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I find it hard to recognise my country these days. The fucking fascists are the second largest party now, according to surveys, and all of the other parties have allowed them to make immigration and refugees the only topic that’s being broadly discussed right now, making the refugees the scapegoats for everything that sucks instead of making social equality the topic.
Honestly, sometimes it makes me want to give up.
Is the CDU open to working with AfD or do they rule that out?
Here we have the slight chance that Wilders will have some part in the next government but I don’t think it will happen.
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Could have guessed…I could make fun about this, but that would be stupid. Rather it is sad that people are so browbeaten by safetyism.
That’s not the gist of the findings at all. It’s more about different personality types and how they dealt with both lockdown rules and the mental health fallout from covid.
They identified that people with “communal” personalities – who are more caring, sensitive and aware of others’ needs – adhered the most rigorously with the lockdown protocols that Boris Johnson and senior medics and scientists recommended.
However, people with “agentic” personalities – who are more independent, more competitive and like to have control over their lives – were least likely to exhibit those behaviours.
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“Communal” types displayed the highest levels of continuing disturbance to their mental wellbeing. However, “agentic” people had been able to “bounce back” better from lockdown mode.
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“Safetyism”? OK, we can add anti-health and safety to the various batshit Arjan’s signed up to.
Meanwhile, cut taxes, turbocharge growth…. this all feels rather deja vu.
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Could have guessed…I could make fun about this, but that would be stupid. Rather it is sad that people are so browbeaten by safetyism.
What a bullshit post.
Considering that not issuing quarantine would have TENS OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE DYING, it really was the only viable solution.
Arjan, what would you have done? How would you have guaranteed tens of millions of people would not have died?
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Jesus…Wilders won the election. I agree with him on certain points, but you can’t generalize all Muslims like he does.
Still it will be hard for him to form a coalition.
You LITERALLY claimed we were at war with the Muslim world a few weeks ago.
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About damn time:
House votes to expel indicted Rep. George Santos from Congress
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About damn time:
House votes to expel indicted Rep. George Santos from Congress
Great news! Now let’s see what we can do about forcing corrupt bastard Clarence Thomas to resign from the Supreme Court. Then we can go after Bob Menendez…then Joe Manchin…then Mitch McConnell…the list is endless…
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This Hugo Keith KC fellow is very good at what he does;
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About damn time:
House votes to expel indicted Rep. George Santos from Congress
Regarding Santos:
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Regarding Santos:
And yet it STILL took the Republican-led Congress eleven months to expel him!! ELEVEN MONTHS, even though many of the listed allegations were known before he was even sworn in!!
God Bless America!
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This Hugo Keith KC fellow is very good at what he does;
Keith pressed on. The UK had one of the worst death rates in Europe. No, it didn’t, said Johnson. We were about average. The suave KC sighed pointedly, summoning up a slide showing the UK to be second last. The Convict seemed amazed that a lawyer might actually have some evidence.
:D
That’s just awesome.
With a recurring sense of conscience, Keith kept returning to a sense of right and wrong. Johnson was nonplussed by this leitmotif. Understandably. He is unfamiliar with a moral universe. All that ever mattered was his self-preservation. Hindsight was a foreign country. A place where he might be expected to be capable of self-reflection. When he talked of letting people die it was only ever meant as a rhetorical device. No one could have done more for the country than him. To call him indecisive was a calumny. He frequently made up his mind. It was just that he then had a habit of changing it.
Fantastic. It’s always great when people who are used to lying through the teeth and just getting away with it are introduced to the reality of a court case (see also: Sam Bankman-Fried).
I’m still hoping that Trump will have the opportunity to get that kind of reality shock.
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Guiliani is guilty of defamation and has to pay $148m.
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Guiliani is guilty of defamation and has to pay $148m.
If only that was true. The reality is his lawyers will appeal, he’ll have another trial, and if he’s found guilty and fined again, he will immediately declare bankruptcy. And then he will write a book that will perpetuate his lies about election fraud. That’s how these shitbags operate.
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Yeah but those tricks are getting rumbled too. Alex Jones tried the bankruptcy round bit I think he got blocked from doing so. I can hope.
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Let’s see what is up with the climate change people…aha
Nothing says trustworthy like the New York Post. What’s your next citation, the Sunday Sport?
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Arjan’s getting a visit from the ghosts of Miqque and Henry.
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Going to be an awkward Christmas for Cleverly:
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A spokesperson for the home secretary said: “In what was always understood as a private conversation, James, the home secretary, tackling spiking made what was clearly meant to be an ironic joke – for which he apologises.”
That spokesperson seems to have missed the point.
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Colorado before, and now Maine:
What is to become of this? Next year will be something.
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And in NY, he faces charges that he inflated the property value of his residences and assets to secure these huge loans.
Somewhere in there is some commentary of getting by on clout and privilege.
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And…Uh oh
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/former-trump-officials-warn-white-house-return/story?id=105988942
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Bolton has always been a bloodthirsty asshole. He has wanted to attack Iran for years.
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Why Trump’s critics are citing Justice Gorsuch in fight over ballots, insurrection
Something else for me to be cautiously optimistic about.
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Bolton has always been a bloodthirsty asshole. He has wanted to attack Iran for years.
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Yeah, just a list of names isn’t going to do any good for anybody except for the media having the opportunity to have a big day with it.
It’s disappointing that Gislaine Maxwell hasn’t been talking more.
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Yeah, just a list of names isn’t going to do any good for anybody except for the media having the opportunity to have a big day with it.
It’s disappointing that Gislaine Maxwell hasn’t been talking more.
I’m surprised Maxwell hasn’t been suicided yet.
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She knows the only way to stay alive is to keep her mouth shut. But that’s no guarantee.
Reminds me a little of the Heidi Fleiss story years ago.
Interesting how both the Dems and GOP will give the listing their own spin according to their agenda.
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Interesting how both the Dems and GOP will give the listing their own spin according to their agenda.
The list includes Dem Bill Clinton and Rep Donald Trump; people who live in glass houses and all that….
Of course, Bill Clinton is retired from politics and not currently running for president, so…
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My cautious optimism will be tested further:
The Supreme Court will decide if Donald Trump can be kept off 2024 presidential ballots
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The West, or the Atlanticist cause, only backs secessionism when it benefits the West, it opposes it when it goes against the West or when it would strengthen a faction that is anti-West. It’s all a power play.
Well, it certainly is right now, given how we’re smack in the middle of a new Cold War. What, you think Russia hasn’t been supporting Dodik and pushing for a secession? Even if it means civil war?
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More like stopping what happened the last time the Serbs tried this 30 years ago, which was war, ethnic cleansing and mass rape.
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If it were an entirely peaceful undertaking that would be a rather different. Because what’s covered here? Sure doesn’t sound it.
If there’s an example of how to do this right, the Czechs and Slovaks have to be in the running. You didn’t hear much about it? Probably because they did it right.
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Yeah I realize there’s a prospect here for further war, and I think if the Serbs fall back into their old ways, we have to fight them. However I do think there is a cynical, non-democratic approach that occurs in the EU and the West that opposes even peaceful independence movements when they’re not useful to the West’s own political goals.
I think many of use may share this criticism to some extent, but the problem is, Arjan, that in these kinds of discussions you always say “the EU” and “the West” in a way that suggests that there are other forces in the world – specifically, one suspects, Russia – that are less hypocritical and more the good guys in these scenarios. While the opposite is the case: You can e.g. certainly accuse the West of not doing enough to support Armenia, but the actions of Azerbaijan are supported by Turkey, which most definitely isn’t “the West”, and this is also been happening because Russia has – in direct contradiction to what you suggest above – withdrawn its support and protection of Armenia in recent years.
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in these kinds of discussions you always say “the EU” and “the West” in a way that suggests that there are other forces in the world – specifically, one suspects, Russia – that are less hypocritical and more the good guys
Honestly people on this board keep saying I did that but I don’t think I did. I don’t think I ever said this, if I did it may have been at an emotional moment and I shouldn’t have said it. While I think there are many things wrong in Western countries, Russia is at least as bad, and probably a bit worse at this moment in time.
tldr; when I say we’re not the good guy, I don’t mean Russia is the good guy. We both suck.
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Problem is there is masses of bad information out in the wilder Internet. And you’re very susceptible to finding it, then posting it here.
That does a couple of things – because it’s bad info it hacks me and others off. But the same exposure is also doing you harm too.
There’s very little going on in the world you can do much about directly, but you can manage your information exposure. And doing that might really help you in ways you don’t expect.
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Honestly people on this board keep saying I did that but I don’t think I did. I don’t think I ever said this, if I did it may have been at an emotional moment and I shouldn’t have said it. While I think there are many things wrong in Western countries, Russia is at least as bad, and probably a bit worse at this moment in time.
Okay, fair enough, then. I think it’s also that the phrasing sometimes suggest that you’ve been ingesting news from sources that are close to Russia. And I actually think there’s great worth in looking at news sources outside of our normal field of discourse, but like Ben says, it can really counter-productive if you’re taking in too much from sources that are less than trustworthy, or very biased in their view.
tldr; when I say we’re not the good guy, I don’t mean Russia is the good guy. We both suck.
Well, I certainly agree with that, for what it’s worth. And the world certainly sucks like hell right at the moment.
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@Christian, what do you think about Wagenknecht’s new party? I saw they had quite a lot of support in a new poll. It reminds me of the party I vote for here in the Netherlands, the SP.
AfD would suck, if they win. I am in favor of some common sense checks on immigration, but not like what these guys want. Like I don’t want European countries to force people back to Syria. (Or become friendly with Assad.)
We need something new. Our current leaders are running headlong towards war and collapse.
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What it comes down to is that they’d like to send anybody who isn’t white to a concentration camp in Africa. This has been compared, not unreasonably, to the Nazis’ Madagascar Plan (in which they were planning on resettling German Jews in Madagascar).
That’s terrible. If that’s true, I would be in favor of those proposals to outlaw them.
Liberal democracy has the inbaked problem that movements that are undemocratic and unliberal, that threaten basic human rights, can rise to power within the system, but we do have the tools to stop them if we are attentive.
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What an absolute shock! Said no one:
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sen-tim-scott-endorse-donald-trump/story?id=106519265
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What an absolute shock! Said no one:
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sen-tim-scott-endorse-donald-trump/story?id=106519265
And…
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/26/trump-e-jean-carroll-defamation-trial-closing-arguments.html
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