UK General Discussion: Rishecession

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

https://twitter.com/chrislhayes/status/1702762468806656032?s=46

If the government wants to set its cranks to work on dog bans instead of bathroom/gender politics and camps in Rwanda, I'm all for it. Political debate isn't going to be serious in this country until they're gone, so it shouldn't revolve around serious issues.

[JimJamUK]

Theresa May says she is “woke and proud”.

As you do.

[Хahar 🤔]

Yes--a great number of online Americans delight in such performative displays, usually motivated more by reacting against their youthful television-based Anglophilia or emulating those who are than anything else, which in this latest instance has turned out to be finding any way to pick at the murder dog ban. It is pathetic.

This isn't meant to refer directly to you or anyone else on this site, but something I've noticed having seen many online posts from Britons is that they consistently fail to understand to what extent Britain is the villain in our national myth or how important that is to all Americans. There is essentially no class of Americans, online or not, for whom this is not the case.

In this case, I'm not sure how you can accuse the quoted post of looking to "pick at the murder dog ban" when its author makes it very clear in the post itself that he neither knows nor cares about this British dog issue, which has no impact on us Americans. It's just a way to make fun of Britain, which every American loves to do. It doesn't really matter if people on X are making jokes about Britain; it'll be fine.

[Torrain]

Hayes has praised our gun-control approach in the past, for moving quickly to ban handguns after our first, and thankfully - as a direct result, only, school shooting.

If he’s going to stick his oar in, it’s lazy of him to ignore that banning a dog breed with a recent history of quite public attacks, leading to mutilation and injury, springs from a similar instinct, under political and public pressure.

A man in his 50s was killed by two of those dogs yesterday - which seems to have been the tipping point.

[CumbrianLefty]

Theresa May says she is “woke and proud”.

As you do.

Her reinvention is certainly intriguing, I will say that much.

[MayorCarcetti]

A Special Dispatches episode is to air on Channel 4 tonight and rumours are abound that it will be about the inappropriate sexual behaviour of a certain 'A-List' comedian.

Incidentally, cut-price Che Guevara Russell Brand has denied 'serious criminal allegations' he claims are being made against him

[Cassius]

Theresa May says she is “woke and proud”.

As you do.

Her reinvention is certainly intriguing, I will say that much.

Hardly surprising, given her track record as the originator of the stupid and self-defeating ‘nasty party’ moniker.

[Silent Hunter]

A Special Dispatches episode is to air on Channel 4 tonight and rumours are abound that it will be about the inappropriate sexual behaviour of a certain 'A-List' comedian.

Incidentally, cut-price Che Guevara Russell Brand has denied 'serious criminal allegations' he claims are being made against him

Legally, Channel 4 would be required to contact someone like that for comment. Or indeed, anyone they're accusing of serious stuff.

[TheTide]

If Russell Brand hadn't recklessly thrown his cards onto the table during the 2015 general election campaign, then he would have likely been a high-profile Corbynista (for better or worse) during the years that followed. As it was, he rather faded into obscurity after that election, at least as a supposed political commentator.

Incidentally, he is the third household name broadcasting/showbiz British personality to be accused of sexual misdemeanors this year, after Schofield and Edwards. It almost feels like 2012 again, and not in the Jubilee or Olympic sense.  

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I wouldn't say these accusations are of misdemeanors.

[Cassius]

Time to bring up one of my favourite opinion pieces of all time:

https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/04/russell-brand-endorsed-labour-tories-should-be-worried

[Zinneke]

The age of consent should be raised to 18 with some leeway for teen couples. It's utterly sickening that these media personalities can get away with blatant grooming.

[Blair]

I am saying this carefully but I do worry about the impact that lockdown & covid-19 has had on the state of public opinion.

Stephen Bush commented on this & said that he's seen a very large spike in it when knocking on doors or interviewing people around elections.

It is going to make public policy decisions over the next decade e.g road tax, digital currency, tax reform, gas boilers etc very difficult to do.

[CumbrianLefty]

Theresa May says she is “woke and proud”.

As you do.

Her reinvention is certainly intriguing, I will say that much.

Hardly surprising, given her track record as the originator of the stupid and self-defeating ‘nasty party’ moniker.

Stupid, self-defeating......and correct

[Cassius]

Theresa May says she is “woke and proud”.

As you do.

Her reinvention is certainly intriguing, I will say that much.

Hardly surprising, given her track record as the originator of the stupid and self-defeating ‘nasty party’ moniker.

Stupid, self-defeating......and correct

That’s just like, your opinion, man.

I am saying this carefully but I do worry about the impact that lockdown & covid-19 has had on the state of public opinion.

Stephen Bush commented on this & said that he's seen a very large spike in it when knocking on doors or interviewing people around elections.

It is going to make public policy decisions over the next decade e.g road tax, digital currency, tax reform, gas boilers etc very difficult to do.

In terms of reducing trust in government (although, in my opinion people have a plenty of reason to treat government pronouncements with more scepticism given some of the pure tosh that was thrown out during the COVID years)? I feel all of these decisions would have been equally difficult prior to COVID (if we cast our minds back to sagas over ID cards, the reform of social care and picayune things like the ‘pasty tax’).

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

Yes--a great number of online Americans delight in such performative displays, usually motivated more by reacting against their youthful television-based Anglophilia or emulating those who are than anything else, which in this latest instance has turned out to be finding any way to pick at the murder dog ban. It is pathetic.

This isn't meant to refer directly to you or anyone else on this side, but something I've noticed having seen many online posts from Britons is that they consistently fail to understand to what extent Britain is the villain in our national myth or how important that is to all Americans. There is essentially no class of Americans, online or not, for whom this is not the case.

In this case, I'm not sure how you can accuse the quoted post of looking to "pick at the murder dog ban" when its author makes it very clear in the post itself that he neither knows nor cares about this British dog issue, which has no impact on us Americans. It's just a way to make fun of Britain, which every American loves to do. It doesn't really matter if people on X are making jokes about Britain; it'll be fine.

The best evidence in favor of this is that when it was revealed that 21 Savage was a citizen of the UK, which caused an uproar online, most memes about this were allusions/references to a) American Revolution b) fact that British people like 'crumpets' or tea. In the mind of most Americans, Britain is an antique country that was once our overlord. Few of us take the country seriously.

[Zinneke]

Ironic that a figure named after the original instigators of the American national project turned out to be British.

[EastAnglianLefty]

A number of animal charities have come out against this - arguing that breed-based bans are ineffective.

Which is not necessarily an unreasonable argument, but the problem is that there aren't really any effective alternatives that wouldn't take a level of resourcing the state doesn't have and isn't willing to provide.

[CumbrianLefty]

The age of consent should be raised to 18 with some leeway for teen couples

Nah, would be completely unenforcable apart from anything else - doing it for 16 is hard enough.

We "just" need to take major age and/or power discrepancies more seriously.

[Blair]

Impressive that Truss has managed to take the worse traits from all the postwar PMs and put it into one bundle with todays speech.

[Pericles]

Impressive that Truss has managed to take the worse traits from all the postwar PMs and put it into one bundle with todays speech.

She really is stupid and so out of touch. Amazing how she can fail so massively and learn nothing. She should be treated like the joke she is, and so should her supporters. If the Tories do take another 'holiday from reality' in 2025 then that will surely lock in a second term for Starmer almost regardless of how he does.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Honestly if Sunak had any sense at all he'd contrive some reason to remove the whip from her.

[Zinneke]

I know this is more for the Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy thread, but assuming a humiliating Tory defeat, can we expect the party to split on roughly the same lines as the Sunak Vs Truss leadership contest or are there other cleavages and factions waiting in the wings? Also, given both are likely to be ruled out of the next leadership contest, who are the would be successors for Continuity Truss and Continuity Sunak?

[EastAnglianLefty]

There are going to be more splits than that. You will have a Trussite lane; an immigration hardliner lane; an assorted culture wars lane; and a moderate lane (relative to the rest of the party, not to the country.) It will be possible for candidates to occupy more than one of those lanes, but I can't see it being a two-way contest. A lot of Tories (even those accepting they're currently on course to lose badly) believe that they can return to power after one election and that means that lots of candidates will want to be the ones to ride the expected wave.

[Pericles]

I wonder if any prospective candidates could lose their seats like Portillo did or if they're all safe?