news & politics:discussion

[steviewevie]

19 minutes ago, Haan said:

I think he's awful on foreign policy and immigration but really good on welfare and austerity. He's easily the most progressive president since Raegan but that's not really a high bar to cross. Also think if it wasn't for the ghoulish Dem senators joe manchin and kyrsten sinema Biden could've gotten even more progressive policies through ($15 min wage!)

I expect he has one eye on mid term elections, and has to balance trying to do as much now with not losing in the house in a couple of years. The republicans are already on the attack about immigrants "swamping" the country...and this sort of thing has a lot of cut through.

[steviewevie]

Meanwhile...

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/29/world-lose-glacier-ice-climate-targets

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56921164

[stuie]

1 hour ago, JoeyT said:

 

This just hurts my head. The amount of people who want to be led by a guy who spends 800 on a roll of wallpaper while whipping his party to vote through policies that inflict hardship on the worse off in our society 🤯

[stuie]

I do love the old Twitter sometimes 😂

[squirrelarmy]

14 minutes ago, stuie said:

This just hurts my head. The amount of people who want to be led by a guy who spends 800 on a roll of wallpaper while whipping his party to vote through policies that inflict hardship on the worse off in our society 🤯

There’s a certain level of drawback to enabling everyone to have an equal vote. 
 

Everyone old enough should have a right to vote, can’t take that away but if they don’t understand what they are voting for then they really shouldn’t. 
 

Politics is all about attracting the less educated masses to your particular cause. Say the right buzzwords and they will lap it up even if it means they become worse off in the process. 

[Haan]

36 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

I expect he has one eye on mid term elections, and has to balance trying to do as much now with not losing in the house in a couple of years. The republicans are already on the attack about immigrants "swamping" the country...and this sort of thing has a lot of cut through.

Yeah to an extent, I also think he simply has an imperialist attitude to foreign policy; the "kids in cages" thing was deeply unpopular during Trump and he just continued it until the massive backlash. 

But overall he's doing v good, and the fact that he has overturned things after backlash does show that progressive Dems have his ear at least.

[Haan]

33 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

Meanwhile...

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/29/world-lose-glacier-ice-climate-targets

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56921164

We need a proper Green New Deal now!

End all fossil fuel and meat and dairy subsidies and apply them to green tech, introduce huge grants for new green tech, massive investment into public transport and try and transform cities to focus more on pedestrians and cyclists rather than cars (like in Holland).

[squirrelarmy]

17 minutes ago, Haan said:

We need a proper Green New Deal now!

End all fossil fuel and meat and dairy subsidies and apply them to green tech, introduce huge grants for new green tech, massive investment into public transport and try and transform cities to focus more on pedestrians and cyclists rather than cars (like in Holland).

Holland has one major advantage when it comes to cycling over us. 
 

They don’t have hills. The average person is more likely to cycle if they don’t have to worry about gradients. The serious cyclists love a hill but it’s very off putting to the commuter cyclist. Add a sprinkle of rain and you’ll struggle to get them out of their cars. 

[Guest]

This indeed. 

[steviewevie]

1 hour ago, Haan said:

We need a proper Green New Deal now!

End all fossil fuel and meat and dairy subsidies and apply them to green tech, introduce huge grants for new green tech, massive investment into public transport and try and transform cities to focus more on pedestrians and cyclists rather than cars (like in Holland).

There was a good article about Biden in New Statesman last week. Was saying his stimulus package for going carbon neutral or whatever it is is impressive, but doesn't come remotely close to what is actually required. The thinking that this was just to push the private market towards renewables and away from fossil fuels. The challenge is massive.

[steviewevie]

57 minutes ago, squirrelarmy said:

Holland has one major advantage when it comes to cycling over us. 
 

They don’t have hills. The average person is more likely to cycle if they don’t have to worry about gradients. The serious cyclists love a hill but it’s very off putting to the commuter cyclist. Add a sprinkle of rain and you’ll struggle to get them out of their cars. 

and the shit weather, but I guess Holland has shit weather too. Copenhagen also very good for cycling...did you see that Ade Adepitan documentary recently?

[steviewevie]

Support for SNP and Scottish independence continues to drop....

https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/worst-polling-for-yes-since-2019-as-snp-support-continues-to-drop-poll-shows-3218102

[steviewevie]

 

[Haan]

 

 

[maelzoid]

53 minutes ago, Haan said:

 

 

The BBC has an obvious bias towards the tories these days, and has for quite a while.

And the phrase "group think by some staff"? FFS, isn't that just some people sharing an opinion.

[topmarksbri]

1 hour ago, Haan said:

 

 

The truth has a left wing bias.

[Guest]

Cracking stuff. 

[fraybentos1]

no cut through with the sleaze angle thus far...

[Guest]

 

[mattiloy]

3 hours ago, steviewevie said:

Support for SNP and Scottish independence continues to drop....

https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/worst-polling-for-yes-since-2019-as-snp-support-continues-to-drop-poll-shows-3218102

I’ve noticed that in all the breaking up of the UK chat, there is a dark horse - the mighty Cymru 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
 

The polling has been consistently trending up towards Yes. They have none of the violent baggage of Northern Ireland but probably the rawest of deals compared to the rest of the nations and Welsh issues are never really on the agenda. I just wonder if they won’t make a late dash to pip the others to the post.

[mattiloy]

10 minutes ago, mattiloy said:

I’ve noticed that in all the breaking up of the UK chat, there is a dark horse - the mighty Cymru 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
 

The polling has been consistently trending up towards Yes. They have none of the violent baggage of Northern Ireland but probably the rawest of deals compared to the rest of the nations and Welsh issues are never really on the agenda. I just wonder if they won’t make a late dash to pip the others to the post.

Getting fucked out of 1/5 of their MPs in 2024 too!

 

[Guest]

 

[steviewevie]

 

[steviewevie]

31 minutes ago, mattiloy said:

I’ve noticed that in all the breaking up of the UK chat, there is a dark horse - the mighty Cymru 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
 

The polling has been consistently trending up towards Yes. They have none of the violent baggage of Northern Ireland but probably the rawest of deals compared to the rest of the nations and Welsh issues are never really on the agenda. I just wonder if they won’t make a late dash to pip the others to the post.

Now, even I don't think this will happen.

[mattiloy]

19 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

Now, even I don't think this will happen.

I think the natural assumption is that they’d be inspired by a United Ireland or an independent Scotland but I could see them just saying sod it and going for it. Welsh labour is more left wing than Scottish labour and seems more receptive to the idea of independence.

It’ll happen!

The sons of Glyndwr are rising up!

Edited April 29, 2021 by mattiloy