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Given that the BBC has always been the vassal of the Establishment and therefore left leaning, who are we to look to for a fair representation of news and events in this benighted country? Surely not GB News?? I despair of the Guradian and the Daily Flail in equal amounts. Tried The I but it is a bit vapid. Maybe the fate of the grey middle ground is to just muddle along whilst being irritated by left and right wing barbs?
It makes you realise that political leanings are based on relative perceptions and not on absolutes. A fact I'm sometime reminded of when I consider some of the policies of "left-leaning" US politicians that seem right wing to UK standards, or "centre-right" French politicians that seem left wing to UK standards.
https://ground.news/
There are some discount offers available at the moment.
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Go to 25 minutes on this video and you'll see an explanation and a discount code.
For a more in-depth analysis of current affairs and issues try The Palladium Magazine. The newsletter is free. Below is a link as an example suggesting an answer as to why 'stuff' isn't working so well in the West as it used to!Quote:
Originally Posted by Witton Park
https://www.palladiummag.com/2023/06...etence-crisis/
It's a good piece - takes some reading :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Mossdog
It's not news though is it. It's a written analysis of the sort of issues we might access via Unherd or Spiked Online, or maybe even the Daily Sceptic.
And that it appeals to me and you (at least this piece) perhaps it's not written by a political independent.
It's interesting now to look at the Port Talbot Steel situation.
Can you imagine this is in the 80s?
It would have been Labour and the TUC threatening to bring the country to a standstill.
Now the loudest dissent comes from.... Reform UK. Richard Tice, Farage etc.
Tories are looking to save as many jobs as they can - yeh right.
Labour want a green transition and as far as I can see, Starmer hasn't spoken on the matter yet and the shadow trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds has said "We have earmarked up to £3 billion for investment in green steel alongside industry, working with steel communities to ensure the transition to green steel comes with jobs."
Whilst Tories and Labour try and outbid themselves in how much debt they will commit to in our name, to subsidise a green transition for the UK steel industry which will make us glorified recyclers, it looks like it's Farage for PM :D
Green steel will be horseshit. Kidney ore is second only to Swedish coruna ore in its ability to produce material with desirable properties like malleability and corrosion resistance. If you try and make things like drive shafts and springs out of recycled Chinese steel they will be doomed to fatigue related failure and won't heat cycle very well if at all. It would be expensive and difficult to separate it out into grades in order to control the quality of what's being produced. At our place we have constant problems with porosity in foreign castings, but the British foundries we used to use have closed down. I've seen components costing tens of thousands with scrap stickers on them due to porosity.Quote:
Originally Posted by Witton Park
Thanks for posting that MrB. I hadn't realised the implications from that perspective (although I knew they were bad!).Quote:
Originally Posted by mr brightside
Searching a bit further, I came across this explanation which puts it in laymen's terms I could grasp better.
"Blast furnaces make iron which feeds the steelmaking process and electric arc furnaces make the steel. Port Talbot will stop making iron.
Think of bread. The blast furnaces make the flour and the electric furnaces make the bread. If you start with bad flour you get bad bread.
The electric arc furnaces will use scrap flour, of unknown quality. The bread will be of poorer quality. The output has thereby been downgraded. Most of the scrap comes from China – but not the iron ore which makes the iron. Therefore, we continue the dependence on China. Politically bad".
This comes from the comments section of https://unherd.com/thepost/european-...ping-net-zero/
Nut-Zero = Unilateral Economic Disarmament in favour of China, Russia and India - what could possibly go wrong?
Quote:
Originally Posted by mr brightside
Thanks for posting that MrB. I hadn't realised the implications from that perspective (although I knew they were bad!).
Searching a bit further, I came across this explanation which puts it in laymen's terms I could grasp better.
"Blast furnaces make iron which feeds the steelmaking process and electric arc furnaces make the steel. Port Talbot will stop making iron.
Think of bread. The blast furnaces make the flour and the electric furnaces make the bread. If you start with bad flour you get bad bread.
The electric arc furnaces will use scrap flour, of unknown quality. The bread will be of poorer quality. The output has thereby been downgraded. Most of the scrap comes from China – but not the iron ore which makes the iron. Therefore, we continue the dependence on China. Politically bad".
This comes from the comments section of https://unherd.com/thepost/european-...ping-net-zero/
Nut-Zero = Unilateral Economic Disarmament in favour of China, Russia and India - what could possibly go wrong?
Thanks for posting that MrB. I hadn't realised the implications from that perspective (although I knew they were bad!).Quote:
Originally Posted by mr brightside
Searching a bit further, I came across this explanation which puts it in laymen's terms I could grasp better.
"Blast furnaces make iron which feeds the steelmaking process and electric arc furnaces make the steel. Port Talbot will stop making iron.
Think of bread. The blast furnaces make the flour and the electric furnaces make the bread. If you start with bad flour you get bad bread.
The electric arc furnaces will use scrap flour, of unknown quality. The bread will be of poorer quality. The output has thereby been downgraded. Most of the scrap comes from China – but not the iron ore which makes the iron. Therefore, we continue the dependence on China. Politically bad".
This comes from the comments section of https://unherd.com/thepost/european-...ping-net-zero/
Nut-Zero = Unilateral Economic Disarmament in favour of China, Russia and India - what could possibly go wrong?
In the late 1960s/early 1970s FIAT used a lot of Russian steel (Italy being the most communist-oriented country in western Europe at the time) as part of a general cosy relationship between FIAT and communist regime car makers. So FIAT built car plants in Russia and sold the machinery that produced the Lada and the Polski FIAT, etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mossdog
This eventually destroyed the reputation of FIAT, Alfa Romeo and Lancia for being other than rust buckets in countries where it rained - and in the case of Lancia led to its complete withdrawal from the UK market after the calamitous Lancia Beta.
Why do I remember? Because in my youth I had a bought-from-new FIAT 124 which was written off, when less than 4 years old, because of internal corrosion.
There is Swedish steel, Russian cheese pretending to be steel and whatever the Chinese choose to sell us steel.
I do remember their reputation for rust. However, in 1985, or so, I bought a Fiat Uno from a lovely Irish couple who lived in Swanage, Dorset, with some 15,000 on the clock. In a bid to reverse their reputation, Fiat embalmed all of their cars in waxoil - quite a pleasant smell. That little Fiat went on to accumulate just under 200,000 miles before I gave it away, gratis, to a friend, and it lived on for a good few years afterwards. This was despite having an in-line 'tin' device, (the name of which I forget) in the fuel line when they phased out leaded fuel. The 'tin' increased the octane level. At the time, I heard about this device at a VW Beetle owners club meeting and the designer had used them during WW2, on the GB spitfires, sent to the USSR, as the Russian fuel had poor octane levels. You see, Russia again!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
FIAT did sort themselves out - but for a car to fail its first MOT as effectively scrap...! Even the garage was astonished and looked up the build date to check it hadn't been stored in a field for a few years before registration.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mossdog
Anyway for the last thirty years I have only driven a Mercedes. You can always trust German engineering. Ha ha!
https://cdn-uks.imagedelivery.space/...?fm=webp&h=600
Bahco, the world's best shifter, made from swedish steel.
When I started work in 1966 I was issued with one of these, I still have it and it still looks like new.Quote:
Originally Posted by mr brightside
just not their emissions dataQuote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
Ah yes. So could all you Mercedes, et al, owners form two queues:Quote:
Originally Posted by Witton Park
- those that scrupulously studied emission data before choosing the same make of car that Hitler paraded around Paris in, believing that their stonking diesel engine would be doing good to the planet, and,
- those with an eye to the main chance of compensation who will protest that they feel betrayed and are not just opportunistic hypocrites and that the issue is about principle and not about money and greed. Not at all. Oh dear me no.:D
In 1980 our college lecturer explained the fallacy of clean diesel and health issues with particulate emissions, do you think that would preclude me from winning a claim? ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
Absolutely not.Quote:
Originally Posted by Steph
I am confident any avaricious, mendacious, opportunistic ambulance-chasing lawyer will advise you that being intelligent, well informed and of sound mind and in full control of all your critical intellectual faculties will not be the slightest hindrance to your taking your rightful place at the front of the queue for the money trough.
I will save you a place:D
I'm tempted to buy an old EV just so I can scoop up some £££ when the 'truth' finally dawns in a decade or so.. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Steph
I collected my new car two weeks ago. It runs on petrol.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mossdog
Of course I can only drive it at night because it lacks the green "look at me I'm holier than thou because I'm saving the planet" splodge on the number plate.:(
My driving career does not involve that many cars, but the one that was most fun to drive by far was a Fiat Brava - it was a hire car for 2 weeks - we were staying near Naples - it handled the bends beautifully. I would never buy one though - even though it was new it developed problems during that 2 weeks: a window became unreliable, and there was an odd noise in one of the forward gears.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mossdog
My only experience of Fiat is being chauffeured about in a girlfriends X1/9. She wouldn't let me drive it but the way she threw it around corners it certainly stuck like glue. In addition to the usual boyfriend duties my two jobs were to take the roof off and stash it under the bonnet and try and get the lights to pop up when they refused to do so.
A fantastic car and an even more fantastic girlfriend ;)
My only experience of a Fiat was a 500 hire car in the Algarve a few years ago when they were becoming popular again in certain circles.
The boot was just about big enough for my laptop case.
Oh no, I've just reminded myself that I also had a girlfriend who drove a Renault Fuego GTX.
I don't want to talk about either!
Back on Farage, there's been some polling out. It doesn't just ask who you intend to vote for, it asks other questions such as how strongly you are likely to stick to that choice.
Those polling for Tories are only 47% likely to hold to that.
Those polling for Labour a higher 67%.
However that is remarkably low by historical levels.
In addition when asked about leadership, Sunak was 25% and Starmer 33% with none of the above/don't know at 50%.
The polling analaysed was done by Lord Ashcrofts setup and analysis by Derrick Berthelsen, who is a lesser known political analyst who's starting to get the odd appearance on TV and radio.
I saw that yesterday.
Then overnight Sunak's advisor has resigned with the end of his statement quite notable.
"if Farage comes back, the Conservative Party essentially won’t exist by Christmas"
I had a natter with a partner of a recently ex Labour MP about 2 weeks ago.
I suggested that a Farage comeback might take 10% off the Tories current polling and 5% off Labour giving us something like Labour 40%, Reform 30%, Tories 15%.
He agreed with the Tory element, but not with the Labour one. He didn't think Labour would lose votes to Farage - I disagree and this Ashcroft polling would back that up.
Interestingly though, he did think that the Greens might eat in to Labour a little as some of the Corbynites could jump ship - some have already - and they intend to field more candidates at the GE.
It's going to be an interesting year in politics.
Indeed.
Although I don't vote conservative, I'm worried by what might replace them.
Having said that, I used to work with a local Conservative party activist during the Blair years. It looked like they'd never come back then, but then we've had 13 years of Conservative rule. These things are cyclical.
[QUOTE=noel;686836]Indeed.
Although I don't vote conservative, I'm worried by what might replace them.
/QUOTE]
Oh don't worry. In power Starmer is even less likely to take any decisions when it actually matters what he thinks (if he does think) so in a few years the Conservatives can take up where they left off. :)
First Tory MP wobbled and jumped ship.Quote:
Originally Posted by Witton Park
Haha this is the fruit loop right wing (which now includes the Conservative Party lock, stock and biscuit barrel) just re-arranging the deck chairs on the titanic
On any poll you care to mention a solid two thirds of the electorate do not support the conservatives and reform combined and the biggest irony of all is that the conservatives are putting all their efforts in going further to the right (if that is even possible) to try and win back voters that they’re losing to reform
Farage is a racist bigot, as is Lee Anderson, and, by the looks of things today, so is the biggest donor to the Conservative Party :D
If Nigel Farage and Lee Anderson are racist bigots for raising issues that many people are concerned about, then I'm afraid, I must be labeled a racist bigot too.
What's the definition of a racist?
1. Racist /ˈreɪ.sɪst/ noun: Anyone who wins an argument against a Champagne Socialist using facts, reason and logic.
Thanks for the instant reminder why I don’t come here anymore :D
Actually Brian as a frequent visitor to your neck of the woods I can quite see how you won't be feeling the same way as vast swathes of the UK.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fellbeast
Higher Ribblesdale and the Yorkshire Dales and up in the Lakes where you spend much of your time hasn't seen it's population swelled by 25%, housebuilding on every patch of green land they can find, schools full, folk having to scrat around outside of their home town to get their kids an education.
Is it right-wing to suggest that net migration to the UK should be moderated? 700k a year has pretty much blown apart previous records.
Is it right-wing to suggest that a man should not be able to just declare himself a woman and be addressed and treated as such by the authorities?
The latest scourge in South-west Blackburn are ninja style bike gangs. Apparently they are drugs couriers. They race around town at high speed on plateless motorbikes, no helmets, just black buffs and/or balaclavas.
It's been going on for around 18 months and no evidence of any actions by the local plods, but they can set up a checkpoint under the motorway on Bolton Rd, pulling over random motorists at 8 in the morning.
A simple risk assessment would suggest that a few under cover plods around Mill Hill/Cherry Tree with some strategically placed Stingers might be a bit more productive.
For now, you are insulated to a large degree. But that won't last forever as the urban areas are getting full up, so watch out for Serco block booking Youth Hostels.
You don't have to condone other people's views, just accept them. Accepting and condoning are two different things. Have the facebook group accepted yet that there is no 'best shoe'?Quote:
Originally Posted by Fellbeast
Maybe just make an effort to understand them. I don't think we have any bad folk on this forum.Quote:
Originally Posted by mr brightside
Latest polling:
Labour 46%
Conservative 18%
Reform 13%
Liberal 10%
Green 7%
SNP 4%
Other 2%
Lee Anderson going to Reform is a deckchair that’s already fallen off on the titanic :D
Source: PeoplePolling
LAB: 42%Quote:
Originally Posted by Fellbeast
CON: 24%
LDM: 9%
RFM: 8%
GRN: 7%
SNP: 5%
Source also PeoplePolling from March 2023.
So a 62.5% increase over the year. If that trend continues then we are looking at Reform closing in on 20% by year end.
They are consistently now the 3rd party and I expect we will start seeing some polls placing them in 2nd before long; maybe after the May local elections.
What's clear, beyond dispute, is that these polls are not reflecting undecided, which are mostly still disaffected Conservative voters from 2019 and I think some of these will stick with Tory when push comes to shove, but some will zig to Reform and some zag to Labour.
But in what proportions?
Any swing to reform won’t gain them a single seat in parliament though - all they’re guaranteed in an election is the loss of the one seat Lee Anderson has gifted them
On the other hand a potential doomsday awaits the conservatives, all down to their own stupidity in pursuing austerity, brexit, blatant cronyism and corruption, lying and lying and lying again and again, partying and not following their own lockdown rules, purposeful underfunding and weakening of the NHS and other public sector services, the blatant inability to own up to their own mainly anti-Muslim racism, trying to ‘stop the boats’ to prevent immigration of a relatively small number of what are mostly real refugees while, at the same time, allowing legal immigration to fill jobs at huge never before seen levels, trying to create and inflame culture wars at every opportunity instead of doing their job properly and continually leap frogging further and further to the extreme right in order to attract the only voters left that will consider them
Hopefully the conservatives will have wiped themselves out, come the morning after the election when it comes
Well said!Quote:
Originally Posted by Fellbeast
Maybe, and if they stay in that 10-15% slot I think you are correct.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fellbeast
But up around 20% it becomes a different issue, and I would point you to the LibDems in the noughties.
And combined with a declining Conservative party that also will have an effect not seen before.
I just want to pull you up on one thing.
"anti-muslim racism"
It isn't a race. The most persecuted religion in the world is Christianity at the moment.
Islam has issues to sort out. That small % of people within Islam that are causing problems cannot be dealt with so easily by outsiders.
Criticism of Islam is not racism.