desensitized43

4 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

Yep, I’ve read some of what she says and as I said, she has a nugget of a legitimate point that needs to be discussed including us being a society that has the ability to offer everyone a safe space. But everyone needs to mean everyone. Not just the group she advocates for, it’s a dead end argument to argue that one group should be protected and not another.

She regularly takes that point she wants to make and ends up in shrieking arguments online and creating social media pile ons. In contributing to that, she makes less people safe. 

Then, because of the weight of her identity and presence in the discussion any debate on any ‘serious’ news channel ends up simply reflecting that online shouty ping pong. We don’t get a sensible debate without it quickly turning in to whether you support or dislike Rowling and interpretations of what she stands for.  

 

Agreed. I don't like the way she's gone about it at all and persnally think she's doing harm to her cause but I'm not sure how we move forward. The tendancy is to talk about women in general terms, like they all think like Rowling. I know my Mrs says she personally isn't bothered if someone Trans is using the womens toilet or changing room but I don't think she's ever known when someone Trans was, so is it a non-argument? It's a pretty wooly debate that ultimately boils down to how certain women (but evidently not all) "feel" about it rather than any kind of hard evidence of anyone being in actual danger.

As a man though, I don't feel like this is my fight to be had. It doesn't affect me and I don't really care what bathroom or changing room someone uses. It feels to me like something prominent women politicians need to sort out as they're the ones 'at the coal face', if you like and the rest of us need to butt out and be guided by them.

11 hours ago, chrisp65 said:

I don’t understand why she’s got so deep in to the spat on the extreme end of transgender politics and has essentially called out all transgender people as fakes. There is an intelligent debate to be had about a level playing field in sport, and safe spaces, and criminal activity. But for some reason she has taken those reasonable points and decided to absolutely focus hate on the entirety of a very fragile minority.

 

She wrote a massive blog about it some time ago that went pretty in depth as to her reasons. Wjhat I took from reading it was that she's a woman who's been abused by a man in the past (like a lot of women tbh) and her issue isn't with Trans people, it's a fear of men. So when she's in a women-only 'safe space', she doesn't want someone who's a biological man there regardless of whether they 'just identify' as a woman or are actively transitioning.

Personally I think you can do whatever you want to as long as you're not harming anyone else but there lies the rub of the issue...she feels she's being harmed by it.

5 hours ago, blandy said:

Kind of. But it’s an everybody loses scenario. I believe BT workers and Uni workers pension funds are significant shareholders. So those people suffer too. All the contractors and creditors who are owed money, they get shafted to the tune of close to 2 billion quid. And the public, we get shafted, because the work to stop the pollution and leaks and repair sewers and the like. That still needs doing and paying for. So now the taxpayer has to pay for it. Taxpayers in Brum and Manchester have to pay to fix London’s water.

It’s the worst option, but potentially the final option if all others fall through.  Other options include the government giving (via OFWAT) some wider leeway for the company to sort shit out - more time over which to spread the costs and then the shareholders pump more money in. But that lets the company fail to meet standards when other companies are not given that permission.

like I posted earlier it’s kind of a who blinks first, bluff calling stage at the moment.

 

I see the thing about pension funds all the time. It’s just an excuse not to do anything. We can’t nationalise it because the pension funds, we can’t let it go into administration because the pension funds, we can’t fine them for shit performance because the pension funds.

It’s **** blackmail.

Am I missing something?

The company is unviable and potentially insolvent and the shareholders are unwilling to provide it with the capital injection to continue. Surely the thing just goes into administration and the government create a new entity, buy the assets and the debt gets wiped out? The old shareholders get **** all and we get a shiny new co with none of the debts, as tax payers we’d still need to pump some capital in to get the infrastructure up to standard but that’s surely something that’s worth the investment, from a state perspective?

10 minutes ago, PieFacE said:

Not expected to face any further ban apparently. 

 

Translation:

we’ve already bunged the FA some of our dirty oil money to **** off and leave us to our sportswashing and murdering.

55 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

He's a very obvious troll

He’s trying his best to get himself a presenter spot on Gbeebies.

21 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Its not really. Clubs are breaking the rules then facing consequences when caught

Only certain clubs are facing consequences when we all know there are far bigger rule breakers who they’re either scared to go after or have decided not to for other reasons.

It’s like the police sitting at the side of the road with a speed gun all day while burglaries and muggings go uninvestigated and thinking they’ve done a good job.

Not to mention the rules themselves are set at a level far too low to allow those clubs to actually be mobile within the pyramid.

“staffed by believers” **** me.

It’s becoming religious now. If the people running the system believe hard enough it’ll work. Conversely, it’s not that the current system is bat shit crazy, underfunded and generally unworkable. It’s just that the people there don’t believe enough.

Simplistic answers for people with simple minds.

14 hours ago, VILLAMARV said:

After completing the DS9 marathon it's on to Enterprise. Or rubbish Star Trek as it's called in this house. I always think Hoshi and Phlox are a bit hard done by, the performances and characters don't deserve to be in the franchise killer. But it really is laughable. And that theme tune......

I think that’s overly harsh tbh. Seasons 3 and 4 were great. It’s well known that all Star Trek shows need a couple of seasons to find their feet. The first few of next generation were trash as well.

Agree on the theme tune though. They tried to do something different and I think they kinda acknowledge all these years later that it didn’t work.

The scenes in decontamination where they rub gel over each other were creepy and unnecessary.

9 minutes ago, Genie said:

Local primary school children here are currently based at the high school whilst the repairs take place. I’ve no idea how this compares to the national backlog of work required though. 

At least it's getting done I suppose.

56 minutes ago, Genie said:

Potholes seem to be a turd that the Tories are deliberately not fixing to give Labour a headache. 

Add it to the list.

Have they fixed the collapsing school roofs yet?

Reading Forests statement I agree with pretty much everything that say on PSR. The rules are absurd. The cut off date being before the end of the window is ridiculous and just means clubs have to choose between getting less money now or breaching the rules to get more value later. That can’t be in the spirit of the rules.

It’s also unarguable that these rules are harming mobility within the football pyramid.

That being said, 4 points seems a fair reflection and does take into account their mitigating circumstances around Brennan Johnson. They’ll moan and appeal because it’s risk free to them as the appeals panel won’t increase the deduction for a frivolous appeal so in that way you the statement about how they feel “disappointed and dismayed” is largely for show. They would have thought given what happened to Everton this would be the outcome (4-6 points) and I’d think they fancy their chances of getting 1 point more than Luton over the next 10 games.

5 hours ago, chrisp65 said:

 

I’m actually waiting for someone from the militant nutter wing to suggest there is too much of a national emergency to have an election just yet.

They’d need to burn down the reichstag first.

White told him he didn't want to be considered. I know what my answer to that would have been. Book yourself a nice holiday in June you word removed because you won't be on the plane with us.

It was interesting that Sky chose to run an interview this morning with a guy who's current really involved with several Muslim groups Friends of Al-Aqsa, Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), Muslim Engagement and Development who says that this is an attack on free speech. He was also one of the main ring leaders of the group that was protesting outside schools in Birmingham saying they shouldn't be allowing "LGBT literature" in schools. Hardly a poster boy for the "we're definitely not extremists" cause.

16 hours ago, Genie said:

He has that mix of stupidity, over confidence and high profile. He’ll say or do something in the next few weeks and it’ll be big news and Reform will shit the bed and bin him off in a panic. Thats my prediction.

I don't think he's overconfident. He strikes me as a deeply insecure person on a number of levels, hence getting so defensive when he thinks people are laughing at him. It was only a few weeks ago that he literally admitted changing how he was going to vote at the last minute because people were laughing at him. Like a lot of people he overcompensates through bravado but like you say, he's actually stupid, so he gives the game away with what he actually says when you listen. He even did it again yesterday when he talked about his parents saying he needed to go to reform in order for them to vote for him. I mean, what the **** is that? He can't even count on his parents unconditional support? That maybe hints to something in his upbringing, but who knows. Ultimately, his insecurity causes him to look for some kind of validation or affirmation wherever he can find it so he has to call about the emails and letters he says he receives from people saying "you go, Lee!".

So yeah, total bellend. Obviously one of those guys who's definitely a racist but lacks the self awareness to know he is. Undoubtedly very stupid. Manbaby.

3 hours ago, chrisp65 said:

Journeyman politician now on his 3rd club.

Lib Dems eyeing up a bid for next season.

Who’s sniggling now?

Did you hear the opening to his statement?

He had apparently positioned himself behind a giant flag, started spouting his nonsense and all the journalists were giggling, one assumes, because a giant flag was saying it wanted it's country back.

2 hours ago, Genie said:

The day they admit it was a mistake will be a great day.

I don't know about you but I think when you add "Great British" to the front of something it makes it at least 70, maybe even 100 times better.

Great British Power
Great British Rail
Great British Wind
Great British Bake Off

It's just makes me fell like Winston Churchill is in the room with me telling me everything is going to be alright chap and we're going to beat those Bratwurst eating so and so's.

5 minutes ago, stuart_75 said:

Always struck me as a right shithole. Deffo needs tarting up.

When I stayed there for a work event last year I noticed from my hotel room there was an apartment block opposite and on these massive high rise balconies were artificial grass, kids bikes and slides etc. I just thought - Who'd want their kids playing on a balcony 50 stories up? Who'd want to raise a family in a high rise apartment? It just seemed like an utterly mental way to live unless you're a single person or maybe a young couple without a family.

3 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

See, I can understand flipping from Biden to the GOP candidate (a new one) but flipping back to Trump is absolutely mental. He's not a serious person.

I think it's general dissatisfaction with everything. The urge to give whoever is in power a kicking, regardless of whether you broadly agree with or like them, is pretty powerful.

45 minutes ago, MrBlack said:

Unless of course they're desperate to get his wages off the books, which I suspect they will be. I think the bigger issue will be how much salary he wants. 

That's the double danger of having someone on those wages. You want them gone and you're willing to basically move them on for nothing but the bastards just won't go. We've felt that pain with the likes of Richards, Bent and McCormack.

I've been susprised how well this guy has done. If the money was right I'd sign him permenantly in the summer but knowing Barca he's probably on something utterly ridiculous.

1 hour ago, villa4europe said:

To be fair to him if he says they're out of the CL race on the first weekend in March and with 12 games left then that's him sacked 

Not getting CL is one thing, not even competing for it is another 

Yep. You think the players have a shitty attitude now just wait until they've officially been told they've got nothing more to play for. See Chelsea for how that goes.

On 02/03/2024 at 12:20, bickster said:

Tbh, it’s hardly a story. Sunak makes speech at podium outside No 10 and waffles shite about unspecified threats.

 

What got me was when he started talking about people undermining democracy. I don't think the guy who's not one a general election and lost his own parties internal leadership election but still ended up as leader by default because the person he lost to is batshit crazy can talk about respecting a democractic process.

24 minutes ago, Jareth said:

Who do you think voted for him? 

I'm not sure it's particularly controversial to say different things to different communities as long as what you're saying in one doesn't directly contradict the other. In one he campaigns on stuff that would be pretty standard stuff in a lot of the country (Hospitals, Public Services, Business, Football etc) along with a couple of things more specific to Rochdale (grooming gangs) and a wedge issue (trans) but says nothing of Israel/Palestine. In the other he basically wastes a sheet of paper on a single issue which to me suggests he thinks that demographic are far more interested in what's going on 3000 miles away than what's happening with their local maternity hospital...it might be so, but I doubt it and it's very simplistic.

The fact he won suggests he at least him some of the right notes in that constituency though.