This actually puts me (possibly) in a minority here in NI, but my national identity is very much my own personal outlook and I’m not interested in a politician representing it on my behalf.
Being from Northern Ireland I have an aversion to political parties and leaders purporting to represent one national identity or another, as it’s something that tends to dominate their politics, so I’m fine that it’s not something he has a strong personal feeling about.
This is the stupidest point in the dumbing down of UK politics - so far.
Good
….like it would be better for ‘Britishness’ to take a back seat to country or even regional identity? I think that might be a better fit with many of the aspects that you mention.
From my point of view in Northern Ireland, even being from a soft unionist background, I feel that a lot of what is considered Britishness either looks like Englishness or isn’t really connected to anything other than institutions or history. In terms of a progressive narrative, it feels….
"Achieving the UK’s net zero target by 2050 will cost less than a single oil shock and bring health and economic benefits while insulating the country against future costs, the government’s climate advisers have forecast."
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
The telling point about these people is that they have zero concept of power or money or any solutions themselves yet people suggesting historically normal and proven policies are the ones lacking understanding?
The thing about UK politics is this could be true and he’d still be the best and least opportunistic party leader by a mile.
‘I wish I could push ChatGPT off a cliff’: professors scramble to save critical thinking in an age of AI
Every criticism of left ‘populism’ ‘offering easy solutions’ is basically an admission that they have no solutions and aren’t even arsed about offering them. Sure why not throw in an insult about the voting public as well. These people probably call the public ‘muggles’ in private.
Lot’s of people saying this, but compared to who? He’s the best party leader by a mile. As far as that goes, as with Corbyn, I don’t really care, it’s the policies that are important. The other parties barely acknowledge the multiple major issues we face, never mind try to address them.
One thing you could say about Campbell is that he certainly played his post-New Labour career a lot cleverer than either of them.
At some point Tony will become too embarrassing and we’ll see a collective forgetting that he was a central, celebrated and revered figure in British politics right until the present, welcome at any event or to pen a column for any newspaper, just like they did with Mandelson.
Narcissism.
European pre-industrial agriculture was actually good for plant diversity. This according to a study that showed diversity slumped with the Black Death as human population crashed and land was abandoned and rewilded itself.
theconversation.com/the-black-de...
#biodiversity #agriculture #rewilding
It doesn’t matter whether the rate of global warming is increasing. It’ll never cease to amaze me that people don’t care that it’s happening at all. It should be the most alarming thing ever.
Dingleton Boiler house (Melrose) 1977 Peter Womersley r/brutalism
Our understanding is that the police's entire "intelligence" basis for the raid was "a social media post about targeting the rich" rather than specific plans for any protests actions.
His actual job is projecting a sense of tactical and political meaning on to people like this. Not sure if he’s noticed that bit yet.
All while polluting our air and destroying our waterways.
Meanwhile, Irish agriculture system entirely incapable of meeting fundamental food needs of our population, with its export-based model predicated on massive fertiliser, animal feed imports.
We are shockingly vulnerable yet nobody is even talking about it.
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
‘Well I think it’s probably best not to get involved in another war, maybe we should be thinking about, you know, the future - energy security and climate change.’
‘Ed you weirdo, I fucking knew you were the cause of all the country’s problems.'
I love reading this sort of stuff, it’s such a great window into the weird wee unreal bubble they all exist in. Of course in the real world, to the normal, casual political observer, Ed is the most forward-thinking, sane and sensible member of the government by a country mile.
I'm not suggesting this is an open secret within the climate science community, but it's remarkable how little impact this sort of research is generating. Because if the rate of warming really has *doubled* then you can kiss goodbye to 2°C. www.carbonbrief.org/pace-of-glob...
I know you’re desperate to find some shit that will stick to the Greens, but this line is just a tired and worn-out cliche at this point.
They’re so obviously scrabbling around for an attack line to hit home. Desperate stuff.
I remember years ago, when polls showed that young people didn’t want to do National Service, Paxman saying that it was a shame that they no longer felt a sense of duty to their country and I just thought - well, they’re just better informed and can see through the bullshit, can't they?
….these people, politicians and media, have been desperately propping up the neoliberal consensus, shut out the alternatives and at some point they would be found out and….here we are.
