MemberlistThe Library Index  FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   RegisterRegister   ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 
Questions Of The Day (Politics)
Reply to topic Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3 ... 201, 202, 203 ... 299, 300, 301  Next
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Grant



View user's profile
Reply with quote

Astonishing that Starmer with his forensic mind can’t see that most Labour voters are pleased that lorry drivers will be paid more money because of Brexit. And bricklayers, and farm hands, and street sweepers and….

The next Tory election campaign writes itself: Cheap Labour
Send private message
Mick Harper
Site Admin

In: London
View user's profile
Reply with quote

You are assuming that voters have class solidarity. It is all very well giving a lorry driver a pay rise but that means a penny on a loaf. Has any voter ever voted for that?

This brings us to the heart of the matter. Is an 0.1% rise in GNP worth having if it requires an 0.1% rise in the population to get it? In other words, is the increased goodies arising from net migration going to the net migrants? As AE-ists we are not British so we would take the view that migrants benefiting is as good as Britons benefiting but, were we to convert it to a political question by asking how should British political parties approach the matter, we will find ourselves in genuinely new territory.

The Brexit position, Grant's position, is that without recourse to cheap foreign labour, and Britain already being at full employment, British producers will have to start automating processes, say pea-picking. It is true the consequent rise in productivity -- the 'high wage economy' everybody is always talking about -- will be trumpeted as a good thing. Except the automating process has to be bought and paid for so it will still be point something of a penny on the pea and point something of a billion not invested in the future buzzword industries. Presumably it will be discovered that growing crops-that-need-picking will no longer be a viable proposition in Britain (it is fairly absurd) and that too will have be paid for. Maybe in a benign way -- for example by bringing down currently ridiculously high agricultural land values and releasing all that lolly for the buzzword industries.

Actually, the 'high wage economy' will have an effect that no government dare trumpet: exposing the myth of 'full employment'. This has been achieved by all governments -- Labour, Tory and Lib Dem coalitions -- massaging the employment figures to make sure that it looks like 'full employment'. But really they have just thought up constant wheezes to convert 'the unemployed' into something else. In my case, for example, 'self-employed', 'on an approved training course', 'aged 58-65' (i.e. skiving) but it also applies to such as 'single parents', 'people on disability benefit' and (the biggest sector) 'unrecorded, presumed not actively seeking employment'.

All of a sudden, all these people will be having their bona fides looked at searchingly. Without foreign labour, your country will be needing you. It could be a good thing, it could be a bad thing. Britain, as the first industrialised country, is always the first to find these things out.
Send private message
Mick Harper
Site Admin

In: London
View user's profile
Reply with quote

UK: Demon-obsessed teen gets 35 years in slaying of sisters] | Star Tribune

My attention was arrested by this headline and I clicked on eagerly to find what it was all about. I was mildly disappointed that it was the Danyal Hussein and the murder of the two women in the park case about which I had only taken an interest because of the 'Police took no notice' angle. Even that dulled quickly when it was patently obvious that the police had behaved perfectly properly -- no police force can mobilise every time a couple of women are reported missing, at least not in the first twenty-four hours. But the police didn't stand a chance in today's climate.

However now I am thinking about it... how the hell can Danyal Husssein have even been found guilty? A more obvious case of diminished responsibility it is hard to imagine. But he didn't stand a chance in today's climate.
Send private message
Mick Harper
Site Admin

In: London
View user's profile
Reply with quote

This palaver about the MP resigning and whether the Standards Commissioner is about to follow him is more important than these spats generally are. This is what's going to happen

1. Boris is going to get it in the neck for his wallpaper and all the other sundry things he did, not because he is corrupt but because he's a twat
2. The Tory Party is going to twig that Boris has served his purpose (only a twat could have slept-walked us out of the EU) but heading into the next election led by a twat is not the thing any self-respecting party-of-government should be contemplating.
3. Irrespective of Boris's actual peccadilloes, Tory grandees, one dark and dismal night, are going to ring the bell of No 10. "It is with a heavy heart, prime minister..."
Send private message
Mick Harper
Site Admin

In: London
View user's profile
Reply with quote

One's heart must go out to President Lukashenko. He's going to have ten thousand economic migrants milling around in Minsk forever. They won't be going home and they won't be getting into the EU. He can't lock 'em up, he invited them in! If there's one thing Belarussians dislike more than Jews it's anybody else that isn't a Slav but in any case Greece and Italy can tell Lukie what having ten thousand economic migrants milling around does for a government's popularity. And him a populist and all. Doesn't bear thinking about.

And it was such a great plan too. Who knew the EU was going to grow a pair? Who knew that even the Compassion Brigade would lose heart at the sight of ten thousand economic migrants who had cynically spotted the main chance and can't pass themselves off as asylum seekers and refugees. Mice and men, m'dears, mice and men.
Send private message
Mick Harper
Site Admin

In: London
View user's profile
Reply with quote

Channel 4 News devoted its first half to Racism in Britain. OK, what ya got for us? Most of it was Rafiq telling MP's about this twat saying twatty stuff to some other twat. The other twat being Rafiq and the twatty stuffy being ridiculously lame jibes featuring Pakistan or Asians or Islam or oil wells. Since they were the exact same stories we've heard before you can be pretty sure there wasn't all that much racism going on at Yorkshire Cricket Club. Jesus Christ, these are young hormonally fuelled youths in an ultra-competitive workplace. You were practically thanking them for their moderation. Anything else, Channel 4?

'Oh, yes, we have. A whole list. Are you sitting comfortably?' First came the Bristol statue toppling. That wasn't racism, that's lefties enjoying themselves. Then a reference to Black Lives Matter. That's not here, that's in the USA. Then came 'the torrent of racist abuse' aimed at the black penalty-missing footballers. No, it wasn't. It was a small amount of non-racist abuse. Blimey O'Reilly, it was about a thousandth of what David Bickham got for being sent off. One person posting from abroad was the only racist abuser. A record to be proud of I would have thought in the circumstances.

Then we got some news.
Send private message
Grant



View user's profile
Reply with quote

This anti-racism nonsense is a cult, and like all cults if you raise an objection you are a monster.

The question is how long before there is a backlash? I reckon it will happen when every blonde beauty on TV has a black boyfriend and every commissioner of police is a black lesbian.

But that’s only a few years away. Russia went mad in 1917 and it took seventy years to wake up.
Send private message
Mick Harper
Site Admin

In: London
View user's profile
Reply with quote

This anti-racism nonsense is a cult, and like all cults if you raise an objection you are a monster.

On the other hand racism has clearly been declining steadily. It would appear that eternal vigilance is paying off.

The question is how long before there is a backlash? I reckon it will happen when every blonde beauty on TV has a black boyfriend and every commissioner of police is a black lesbian.

The trick, dear ladies, is to have sex with black men but children with white ones.

But that’s only a few years away. Russia went mad in 1917 and it took seventy years to wake up.

My reading of the situation is that Russia went mad in the sixteenth century with Ivan the Terrible. We got Elizabeth the First and multiculturalism.
Send private message
Mick Harper
Site Admin

In: London
View user's profile
Reply with quote

Anti-racism reaches new heights of hysteria. First cricket

The game's week of shame shows where and how it must improve The Guardian

In order to be 'the game' rather than 'Yorkshire Cricket Club a few years ago' an Australian cricket captain texting a dick-pick four years ago has to be dragged in. He's walked the plank for it. OK? Job done? Australia is the same old racist country it's always been. I mean sexist. I mean... same old Australia. The country that handles these things rather judiciously. Just enough New Liberalism to avoid too much world obloquy, not enough to get the natives up in arms.

Back home the main event is everyone assuring everyone else that Rafiq being outed as a racist-texter himself is irrelevant. No it bleedin' isn't. It shows that in those days this kind of thing was regarded as par for the course. Reprehensible, yes; ought to be stopped, yes; the signal for a wholesale cleansing of English cricketing stables, no.

We must see what our cultural style icon, Marina Hyde, is making of it all.
Send private message
Mick Harper
Site Admin

In: London
View user's profile
Reply with quote

Racism isn't something you can cancel out Marina Hyde Guradian

She wasn't responsible for the headline but no, when it comes to the human condition, things can't be cancelled out.

It’s interesting to see people suddenly feel able to dismiss the whole racism-in-cricket horror show, because Yorkshire whistleblower Azeem Rafiq has now himself been found to have sent racist messages.

Not if it was a horror show, Marina. If it was a tempest in a teacup show, then yes, I imagine most people would dismiss it if they hadn't already.

Logically, this feels questionable. Presumably the fact that former England batsman Alex Hales was pictured in blackface in 2009 is further evidence that there is nothing to see here.

Now this is important, AE-wise. With the Guardian cuttings library at her elbow, a twelve year old pic of a minor England international in blackface is the best she can manage. Does this tell you something about racism in cricket? I predict Marina is going to have to take refuge in Bogus List Syndrome...

If, in the coming days, some player is found to have had a passion for monkey chants or white hoods, then I think we could safely say there is absolutely no point discussing the subject of racism in cricket and beyond for one second more. If “they’re all at it”, then we don’t have a problem with “it” at all.

Again this is significant to the AE-ist. The fact that this high class intellectual ex-sporting journalist can't come up with anything even halfway plausible is for a good reason: nobody knows what will be beyond the racial pale in ten years time. That's why the Rafiqs, the Hales's and the Ballances of this world keep getting caught out and will always be getting caught out. There are legions of people saying quite ordinary things on the internet right now that will cost them their jobs one day. Criminal prosecution if the anti-racists have their way.
Send private message
Grant



View user's profile
Reply with quote

Many years ago I went to Manchester by train when they were rebuilding the railway station. At Piccadilly it wasn’t clear exactly where the taxi rank was, and two taxis arrived from different directions. Both drivers were from the sub-Continent. After listening to them shouting at each other I made the decision for them and jumped into one of the cabs.
As we drove away the cabbie said, totally non-ironically, “Fucking Pakis coming here and taking our jobs!”
One of the few moments in my life where I was genuinely lost for words.
Send private message
Mick Harper
Site Admin

In: London
View user's profile
Reply with quote

A case in point. If they find out that 'Grant' is in fact the Chairman of the BBC Board of Governors (we do background checks but you're all right, nobody reads this) you will have to resign because using the phrase "fucking Pakis" is an absolute and not a relative offence. As I will now be required to do from my own chairpersonship with the World Bank. I may even lose my pension.

My own best experience of intraracial racism is when, as a head porter at a hospital, I had to separate two members of staff who were racially abusing one another. I pointed out to them they were both from the same tiny West Indian island (Grenada), they pointed out to me that one of them was from the town and one of them was from the country.
Send private message
Mick Harper
Site Admin

In: London
View user's profile
Reply with quote

The snowball rolls along. Because it's Bash Boris season everyone is saying he's finished, should hand over the reins to Pritti Patel, should be shot into space in a tight-fitting capsule etc etc and for why? His speech to the CBI. So let's just see what he actually did wrong as opposed to what the ganged-up, hyped up media said he did wrong.

1) He lost his place mid-speech. True, but only because unlike our run of the mill robotic politicians he wasn't either a) using an autocue or b) reading from a prepared script. He was being creative, as we creatifs call it. Maybe PM's ought not to be, but that's a different question.

2) He made childish noises about electric vehicles. No, he didn't. He used his time as a motoring correspondent to emphasise memorably certain things about cars that customers (men anyway) secretly prize and that electric car manufacturers should pay careful heed to. The speech was in an electric car plant so not entirely off the wall.

3) He ended up telling Peppa Pig stories to sober-sided businessmen. No, he didn't. He used a recent visit to a PP theme park (which I used to pass weekly and often pined for but lacked the children to do anything about) to show that the most unpromising thing can lead to a six billion pound worldwide industry. Yes, all right, I agree that probably was wasted on the CBI.
Send private message
Grant



View user's profile
Reply with quote

This is why I never watch the TV news any more (unless I’ve got a plate of food on my lap and can’t move). Every single story either fits an agenda or is just sensationalism to attract viewers.

You will now tell me that it was ever thus, but I’m not sure that’s true. Twenty years ago they tried to show a few stories about what is happening in Britain today. Now even those stories are distorted by current fads like Covid or global warming or racism.

The only genuine news items are the car crashes they report on at the weekend because the political spinmeisters are not working and ITN and BBC need to find something eye-catching to show their addicted viewers.
Send private message
Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
View user's profile
Reply with quote

Grant wrote:
This is why I never watch the TV news any more (unless I’ve got a plate of food on my lap and can’t move). Every single story either fits an agenda or is just sensationalism to attract viewers.



Headline news items must do both, ie be sensational/confirm the Broadcaster narrative, together at the same time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKmfP3krpY0
Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3 ... 201, 202, 203 ... 299, 300, 301  Next

Jump to:  
Page 202 of 301

MemberlistThe Library Index  FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   RegisterRegister   ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group