Thursday 23rd January 2025

[refitman]

Morning all.

[refitman]

[Frog222]

Happy down under --
E. Summerspoon ‪@brizzlerobin.bsky.social‬

It’s been all over the news in Australia.
The joys of watching Murdoch eat his own shit. Mwahaha.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Another QT/football clash this evening so I'm afraid this week's review will probably be as rubbish as the last one. Good to have Dr Matthew Parris on the panel. I do hope someone asks him how he came up with the novel concept of curing thousands of people with mental health conditions by writing fallacious, misleading articles for a national newspaper.

[AnatolyKasparov]

This is why they almost always settle out of court, even on pretty humiliating terms - it makes it easier for their media pals to sweep it under the carpet.

[refitman]

Isn't everyone glad we've now got people who care about the environment in charge, eh?

[AnatolyKasparov]

Loads of speculation in that and not so much hard fact, a few Graun stories bashing Labour have been like that recently.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Question Time came tonight from Stockport.

For Labour we had Lucy Powell. Lucy did Ok, even got some applause at the end when defending flexible working, but she was as disappointing as the government she was there to represent for all the same reasons. Take Trump saying he'd been 'saved by god to save the world'. I get that a member of the UK government isn't going to laugh and call him a mad bastard, but there's subtle ways to make your feelings known without actually slagging the guy off and causing a diplomatic incident. A raised eyebrow here, a barely concealed smirk there, but no Lucy just blandly blathered on giving not the slightest hint that a racist, rapist demagogue had taken control of a historical ally while his creepy lieutenant performed Nazi salutes during his coronation. It was as if she simply didn't give a shit.

For the Tories we had David Davis. David is increasingly sounding (and behaving) like your daft old uncle who rambles on at excruciating length about any topic thinking he's impressing everyone with his wisdom and experience while in reality everyone's desperately waiting for him to shut the fuck up. He's rapidly transforming into the Abe Simpson of UK politics. Take for instance his response to a question about Reeves' budget, after prattling on for while about how Reeves' had killed off growth she'd inherited from the Tories Lucy Powell objected and he got fact checked by Fiona Bruce. You'd think under such circumstances he'd argue his case, but instead he ignored them before plaintively imploring (and I quote), 'Let me finish my story'. It was sadly touching in a, 'Oh go on then, let the harmless old fool have his go', kinda way.

For the Tory press we had Matthew Parris. I'm going to skip over the part where Matthew said he works from home and does all his own research online which caused me to burst into bitter laughter because otherwise he made a couple of decent contributions. The best being his refusal to join Starmer's knee jerk nonsense in creating an entirely new definition of terrorism to accommodate the Southport child murderer. As he rightly pointed out it was an absurdity that would make Jack the Ripper a terrorist and flew in the face of everything the judge at the trial had said. For the entirety of human history we've had fucked up freaks who've taken it upon themselves to murder their fellow human beings for no rational reason. Was Peter Sutcliffe a terrorist? Or Harold Shipman? Given the bollocks Starmer came out with today apparently the answer is yes.

For Green energy and the funding of the Left we had Dale Vince. Look, I like Dale and all that he stands for, but does he have to be so bloody miserable? He's a perfect example of how having all the money in the world doesn't make you happy. I wouldn't argue with a single thing he said tonight from taxing the rich to making social media companies responsible for the shit they publish but he spent the whole programme looking like someone had just shot his dog. I dunno, I guess it's understandable to be downcast given all that's going on, and to fair he got more applause than anyone else on the panel so...

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Loads of speculation in that and not so much hard fact, a few Graun stories bashing Labour have been like that recently.

When this inevitably turns out to be true, which we both know it will, are we going to get a mea culpa from you?

I'm still waiting for you to answer my question about whether you’re proud that the Labour party chose to take up the Tory baton and continue taking a disability campaigner to court when she was simply asking for honesty on behalf of hundreds of thousands of sick and disabled people.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Just on the "definition of terrorism" thing; some involved in the Southport case have called the killer's actions terrorism and that they should be defined as such - so its not just a whim from Starmer (who is, after all, a lawyer who - whatever his other failings may be - actually genuinely cares about the rule of law) Is there a hard and fast, universally agreed definition of the term anyway? Famously, according to some Nelson Mandela was one.

As for this PMB from the LibDems (and that is what it is, the Graun headline may be misleading in that respect as well) we shall see what we shall see. Governments have never been under an obligation to pass PMBs if they are not happy with them, and there have (as even that piece admitted) been genuine attempts to come to an agreement. At the end of the day if opposition MPs primarily want to grandstand that is up to them (and yes - *some* PMBs promoted by Labour MPs when the Tories were in power clearly fell into that category, even if they were highly "desirable" in themselves)

[Sky'sGoneOut]

A friend of mine scoffed a few years ago that they were naming so many storms they'd soon run out of names and have to resort to fantasy. I countered by pointing out we have at least 6000 years of historical names to choose from going all the way back to Sumerian cuneiform tablets.

And yet my rickety garden fence held together with old shoelaces is about to face storm Éowyn, a Tolkien warrior babe.

Sigh.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Have the storm names really become sillier recently, or are we just getting old?

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Just on the "definition of terrorism" thing; some involved in the Southport case have called the killer's actions terrorism and that they should be defined as such - so its not just a whim from Starmer (who is, after all, a lawyer who - whatever his other failings may be - actually genuinely cares about the rule of law) Is there a hard and fast, universally agreed definition of the term anyway? Famously, according to some Nelson Mandela was one.

Don't be so ridiculous.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Which part of that is "ridiculous"? They are pretty much all true statements AFAICS.

(OK the bit about Starmer *is* more of a value judgement, but one which would be accepted even by many who do not massively rate him overall)

[Sky'sGoneOut]