desensitized43

It's like having to choose from a line up of STI's.

Let’s just hope he follows in the footsteps of big Olof the Viking.

Just seen there’s a video doing the rounds on Twitter of bassini engaged in…well make up your own minds…with someone of “questionable” gender and let’s just say Bassini’s man hood is about the size of the blues fan base. Won’t post the link as it will no doubt get me some kind of ban. Feel free to search yourself…if you dare apologies just seen someone had already mentioned earlier…sentiment still stands

There's clearly going to be an element of this however, just because the fat incompetent buffoon has gone it doesn't mean the problems the country and the Tory party faces have gone away. The economy is clearly going to get worse and we'll have to see whether whatever government we get after this is able to mitigate it while also creating a narrative that "none of it's our fault". I think that'll be very difficult. The last election was fought along Brexit lines, the next one will be fought on the economy and cost of living.

This is what you get with someone who, from the moment he emerged from the womb, has been told he’s special, better than everyone else, entitled to anything and everything he wants. Johnson’s time in government is the only evidence you need that we need an actual, defined, written constitution to ensure we have a framework politicians have to work within and that someone can be removed when they’ve gone off the deep end. We also need a reform of the voting system. A party that only received 43% of the popular vote can’t wield 80 seat majorities.

Brandon Lewis gone now

How can you tell? He always has that vacant expression my dog gives me when he's not sure if he's done something wrong.

Oh it's 100% on purpose. It's like that episode of The Office where Steve Carell's character tells everyone that one of the employees is having an affair and then deliberately makes stuff up about everyone else too so no one can discern the many lies from the one truth.

FTFY

I suppose it depends on whether you think this vote has any chance of having democratic legitimacy at all. It's a non-binding consultative vote which will all but certainly guarantee a lower turnout than last time which will favour the Yes side. Has there been any discussion on the terms of engagement for each side? What are they allowed to spend? Who'll enforce that? Who's going to monitor the vote for any irregularities? Who qualifies for a vote? Are they allowing those scots living in other places to vote? It's all pretty murky. FWIW I agree with you that it's up to the Scots to decide their own destiny. I hope they get independence. Personally I'd love nothing more than for a vote that ensured I'd never have to take another Tory government I didn't vote for ever again. We've had a decade of successive referenda and elections that have essentially broken our society. I don't know how we repair the bonds anymore and there's people on all sides, but particularly on the SNP side who have no interest in even trying to make it work.

Does anyone think that the best response from the “No” side of this referendum would be to encourage their side to stay home. I think the SNP are hoping that the UK government will either take them to court so they can play the victim and anti Tory card or that it’s a win for them with a decent turnout. The only way for the union side to come out of this well is if the whole legitimacy of the vote is destroyed with an SNP win with like 90% yes vote on a pathetically low turnout.

I'd think the main argument a Scot would make would be to see the back of Tories forever. It's a pretty powerful one as well since they look increasingly like the English National Party by the day. Their main problem is the currency issue. It was last time and they've still got no answer to it. I know what I'd do in their place, take the Euro. It works for all the other countries but it seems in Scotland, like the rest of the UK we're obsessed by having the face of an old lady on currency that most of us are increasingly carrying less and less.

Well I know it’s been talked about in those circles since “the lost cause” crap started but it’s now started happening the other side with people in the liberal states talking about cutting loose from their Christian fundamentalist brethren.

Agreed

My point is that he has a large base of support in the states at the last election that could turn out for him again. It's my fear that they will and he'll get elected if those opposing these fascists decide to stay at home.

I think it’s pretty much inevitable at this point that if he’s allowed to run he’ll win. He got more votes that any losing candidate in history. America has always been a divided country but I can’t remember it being this bad in my lifetime. I’m not old enough to remember the civil rights and anti Vietnam struggle but it certainly feels like we’re getting back to that point. Am I right in saying secession is a word being thrown around in places like California?

The only surprise about last night is that the Tories got as many votes as they did. Who the **** is looking at this lot after everything and saying "yep, they're for me".

The problem is that once you or someone you love has been seriously affected by the strike all sense of reason will understandably go out the window. It's like asking someone who's relative has been murdered what they think about bringing back the death penalty (an extreme case, I know). You're less likely to get reasoned and balanced opinions. It's terrible that people are missing hospital appointments and other things that are very urgent and you have all my sympathy (fwiw) but the right to withhold your labour in the event that your rights are under attack is an important principal that should be celebrated and protected. I'm sure if my hospital treatment today was cancelled I would be rightly pretty upset but I don't think it would all be directed at the strikers. The government, network rail bosses and the hospitals themselves have a lot to answer for in that situation (there are other ways for doctors to get around after all).

They have money....it's just not for the likes of you. Get to work, pleb.

I agree with everything you say but it still doesn't matter. Johnson would love nothing more than to drag the debate onto territory he feels he can win. That's getting a load of the people (and the news outlets they read) frothing at the mouth over foreigners, the EU and ECHR etc. That's the entire reason they're doing the Rwanda and Nothern Ireland stuff right now. It's an attempt to divert away from areas they can't win like the cost of living and the fact that their leader has less in the way of morality than Darth Vader. It's annoying but Labour are doing the right thing by not engaging with it as it'll only allow it to become a proper debate on the ground Tories like.

https://news.sky.com/story/fina-votes-to-effectively-ban-transgender-swimmers-in-elite-womens-competition-and-create-open-category-12636874 Seems like a common sense position to me that they need an open category for those that have been through male puberty. I don't think it's right to discriminate against anybody but the governing bodies in alot of sports need to make a decision on this, as fina has done.

They really haven’t gone all in. They haven’t officially started conscripting all the young men of the country and converting all their industrial might to making military stuff. I hear the nuclear weapons thing a lot but we don’t know for sure what state that nuclear arsenal is in. The Soviet Union had the worlds most powerful nuclear arsenal but that was more than 30 years ago. It’s wildly expensive to maintain a nuclear arsenal, as we well know, and for a lot of that 30 years the Russians didn’t have a pot to piss in.

It’s the 2022 version of hiding in a fridge.

Spurs and City I agree. Liverpool the jury is out on whether they'll be better for losing Mane and getting Nunez in. Arsenal will be better swapping Lacazette for Jesus, probably. Marquinos is decent. Chelsea and Man United haven't done anything yet

It's horses for courses though, isn't it? When he was appointed we were just on the back of a total humiliation at the World Cup in Brazil and we employed a pragmatic, defensive coach in Allardyce who turned out to be as corrupt as the day is long who left in disgrace. They then turned to another pragmatic coach, but this time one that they knew was clean and already had knowledge of the setup. He then set about doing the only thing he could do with what was a pretty poor squad at the time and turned us into Greece circa 2004 and the results improved, we got the Semi at the World Cup. He then did the same thing at the Euro's, but with the better players that had come through and we got a final. They issue with Southgate isn't his record at tournaments. He was undoubtedly the manager we needed at the time to steady the ship and work with the dross that he had but the attacking players that have come through are better now to the point that it's no longer acceptable to play like Greece 2004. We have a massive pool of attacking talent available but he won't use them because he's still in a 2018/2019 mindset of "we're crap and we need to win 1-0".