paulgriffiths77.bsky.social
1,081 posts
104 followers
214 following
Discussion Master
comment in response to
post
The big problem with liberal leave and the EFTA argument was to all intents and purposes you end up with a "pointless" brexit (same rules, same immigration, less influence)
The hard brexit did at least offer some extra freedoms for parliament (mainly immigration policy) at a big 5% of GDP cost!
comment in response to
post
For somebody who is head of the European Movement UK, he seems to spend a lot of time talking about Gaza and Trump.
It isn't even that his opinions are wrong. It is they are at best a distraction from the alleged end goals of his organisation!
comment in response to
post
Millennials really aren't that young any more. GenX are at that comfortable point the boomers were at when they voted for brexit! They inevitably will become the generation to hate as the entitled selfish members of the cohort forget to check their privilege!
comment in response to
post
I'm very unpersuaded by Farage's damascene conversion to benefit claimants.
Its clearly a trap where if they get the benefits cut done he'll claim to be the good guy.
If they don't he'll pivot to "labour wasting your money we would have given out the money better so it didn't go to forrigns!"
comment in response to
post
I remember a lot of the tech utopia around that time. Essentially a lot of people saying that technology would enable people to get to the truth without "big media" feeding them lies!
Twenty years later and the zeitgeist now is all about filter bubbles and misinformation on the Internet!
comment in response to
post
Are you talking about the technology itself or the commercial implementations of it?
comment in response to
post
Surely both can be true. Some of the maddest Internet brained people are Gen X and bloomer.
But we need to protect young people as well as educate then on the risks of the technology given they are the future. We don't want them going the way of their mad old uncles!
comment in response to
post
All the books on evolution and ranting on Religion and Richard Dawkins lasting legacy will be inventing the word "meme"!
comment in response to
post
All parents are hypocrites. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing. The alternative is passing on all your worse habits!
comment in response to
post
Indeed. Hence foreign policy is complex. I get the concern about Gaza. However, there are awful wars in Ukraine, Sudan, Maghreb and Myanmar... there are arguments for more focus on any of them!
I'm surprised that Mike puts so much energy into this bit of foreign policy whilst leading the EM!
comment in response to
post
To be fair, it isn't just a problem linked to British ex pats. Plenty of disporia communities have an out of date and romanticised view of the homeland!
comment in response to
post
Nine days until we find out if Hannan was right about brexit. It could all turn around in the next nine days (I guess):-
www.reaction.life/p/britain-lo...
comment in response to
post
John Major was pretty boring. In retrospect I now realise why that was a really good thing!
A tory party will fewer Carswells types and more Majors types would be a significant improvement!
comment in response to
post
"Curious" roughly sums up my view as well!
Can't help thinking there is a lot to be said for boring politicans who just want to make an imperfect world incrementally better and "interesting" politicans with grand visions should be treated with a big dose of scepticism!
comment in response to
post
It shouldn't therefore be a surprise that people susceptible to that kind of thinking, end up buying into other nonsense!
comment in response to
post
I strongly suspect belief in brexit was a big tell as Brexit was typically based on conspiracy theory.
As far as I can tell, they believed a generation of politicans of all parties had signed the UK to a organisation detrimental to the national interest so they could get baubles in Brussels.
comment in response to
post
It's up there with cancel diversity initatives in the public sector and fix NHS waiting lists.
Sadly it works because there are plenty of people who don't like diversity initiatives and don't understand budgets!
comment in response to
post
Pre 2016 brexit could project loads of positive visions into brexit. See this vision for the world in 10 days time.
www.reaction.life/p/britain-lo...
comment in response to
post
Why performative.... could just be stupidity!
comment in response to
post
Not sure the problem is here that different from those presented by a recommendation algorithm.
Hence you have video/article recommends on mainstream platforms take users on "journeys" that start of at anti-corporate/banking and quickly go full Rothschild conspiracy!
comment in response to
post
Indeed. I suspect if the breaking point poster had featured a long queue of young blond scanadavian au pairs, it won't have had any impact.
Farage has always been very much appealing to the vibe in Lowe's post but has the savvy to not say the quiet bit out loud!
comment in response to
post
As a GenXer, I remember all 80s/90s propaganda from boomers in medialand about how they were the generation that shock things up!
We've swung from boomers saved the world to boomers are selfish gits who only care for themselves.
No doubt the same fate awaits the GenXers when we retire!
comment in response to
post
Well I'm shocked shocked that this would happen on Lisa Nandy's watch at culture. There were literally no signs during the brexit period that she would equivocate on everything!
comment in response to
post
Rather depends on how they go about it. If there is a magic formula to win people over whilst keeping reporting objectively then fine.
If it means taking on a reform worldview with conspiracy theories and xenophobia that entails then that is problematic.
comment in response to
post
Really struggle to get that argument. I suspect it is an attempt to appease an ethno-nationalist right by letting them have English as an ethno-nationalist identity whilst leaving space for a multi- ethnic British identity.
By how they thing that line is coherent or would hold is beyond me!
comment in response to
post
Can't help thinking that the ability to read news stories and detect biases and agendas might be quite a bit more useful practical analysis than spotting frontal adverbs and understanding iambic pentameter.
Yet thanks to Gove English at primary seems very focused on the latter!
comment in response to
post
Pretty sure indie, grunge and early Britpop were very middle class and student-y. Not so sure that was true of the early DJ/electronica movement
By the mid 90s the two scenes were converging with the chemical brothers, orbital, later phase prodigy etc taking electronica to the indie kids!
comment in response to
post
And weirdly if you look at the current pop music then electronica and hip hop of that area seems to have far influence!
comment in response to
post
Norway has a similar dynamic with the centre party. It functions as the rural populist party in the centre left block.
Arguably Labour really needs to be (at least) two parties to win over the different parts of its coalition without alienating the other part!
comment in response to
post
Jesus Jones, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Ride and the charlatans all in the top 40. Almost makes up for Hale and Pace!
comment in response to
post
... and yet the one policy they are linked to is near universally seen as a disaster!
Doesn't suggest people are paying much attention!
comment in response to
post
We aren't forced to watch the same four TV channels any more. What gets fed to us by recommendation engines means that we can be going down cultural (and political) rabbit holes without realising!
comment in response to
post
How can you say that? In 17 days we will all be letting off fireworks to celebrate independence day? At least that's what Hannan says and he is notoriously correct about everything!
www.reaction.life/p/britain-lo...
comment in response to
post
The most extreme and fervent believers in any ideology and the best recruiting agents for the opposite side.
See for example Liz Truss!
comment in response to
post
Starmer is cynical at times. But he clearly believes in internationalism, liberalism, fairness and tolerance. He often cloaks it in the language of the nativist right because doesn't want to alienate them and drive more people to reform!
comment in response to
post
I suspect it is the type of "transparency" that leads to gotcha politics. Some well meaning councillor say something ill advised in an otherwise dry meeting and it is preyed upon by social media!
Far better to focus on communicating clearly what local government does and the incumbents objectives
comment in response to
post
All three of those things got taken to extremes by some in progressive America. Late term abortion in America isn't 24weeks as is in the UK!
comment in response to
post
White foreign apparently....
Wonder why he didn't put in a line for it.... or a split the non White grouping into British and foreign.
All very strange.... unless there was some kind of racist agenda at play!
comment in response to
post
I agree that Clegg made mistakes. I also agree we need to learn from them.
I also agree debating Farage was a big mistake. Yet as things stand, he'll go into the next election leading in the polls and will almost certainly need to be debated again!
comment in response to
post
To be honest public opinion naturally bends to the reactionary to a good communicator on that side of politics is onto a winner!
Liberals naturally fight like cats in a sack over small differences then blame each other when the reactionary right come out on top! Which I'm also guilty of!
comment in response to
post
Furthermore I'm willing to bet that Farage supporters see this noise from the liberals and then consider their man no more corrupt than any of the others!
In short it risks becoming the British version of "... but her emails"
comment in response to
post
He was just another Monday club type Conservative in the late 80s/90s. He's more or less stayed with those views but also found some good grifts along the way!
Thing is his supporters don't care about the grifting. Meanwhile liberals hold their own to a much higher standard!
comment in response to
post
I don't care that much about Clegg. He made plenty of mistakes and like all moderately successful ex politicans, his reputation is in the bin!
... which goes back to my fundamental point claiming with hindsight "I always thought that politican was a wrong'un" isn't particularly helpful!
comment in response to
post
I completely disagree with your assessment of Farage. I think he always was a chancer. He got lucky and became an MEP in 1999 and after that he had a good grift in Brussels.
Suspect if he stayed with the tories he would have become stuck as a local councillor... and he knows it!
comment in response to
post
Indeed just look at companies like Huggingface. The founders are French but based in America.
Europe has the intellectual heft but the market and capital are in the USA! That needs to be fixed before the EU/UK can play a technology leadership role!
comment in response to
post
If we don't make that distinction then you get the attitude of "they are all as bad as each other" which quickly leads to "might as well vote for the one who says it as it as" and from there it is a few steps to Prime Minister Farage!
I think we can all agree that would be a dire outcome!
comment in response to
post
My view (and it is just my view) that people need to distinguished between politicans with sincerely held views based on good intentions which lead to bad outcomes (eg Clegg)
And politicans who love a bit of agitation and adulation from the crowd (eg Trump, Farage)
comment in response to
post
My original comment was about hindsight which started this whole thread!
My person view is that with hindsight it is easy to say "i always though he was a wrong'un"... easy and not particularly helpful!
Nevertheless take on board your comment about your personal view and actions in 2010!
comment in response to
post
I don't dispute that you can judge him a political failure. But that's the value of hindsight!
Claiming he could have had foresight to predict every unintended consequence is in my opinion naive.
Pundits who do that are putting unrealistic expectations on politicans which is also corrosive!
comment in response to
post
Call me a cynic but you have a lot of middle class families losing child benefit and a lot of younger professional struggling to put the foundations in place to start a family.
In that environment a policy which gives money to poor but large families could be toxic (regardless of the moral case)