Rayvin

Why though, what sort of priorities does the community have?

Labour reported to be feeling less than confident of holding Batley and Spen, with some suggestions that it could trigger a backbench revolt and potentially even a leadership challenge. Not sure on the demographics of this seat personally but it sounds as though George Galloway is running as an independent on a strong workers/left wing ticket, and Labour actually believe he might be a deciding factor in their potential loss to the Tories.

They shouldn't but that's not always how the world works. British music is popular in Europe, I'm just saying I can see them having more success here than elsewhere.

So we're going for soft power now. In fairness to them, music is one of the few areas where we probably have some of that. Not convinced it's going to make a big difference but you never know I suppose.

And fwiw, I'm absolutely one of the people who is excited about it.

The unfortunate truth here, IMO (and doubtless an unpopular one tbh) is something I was thinking in the prematch build up. Germany are to England, what Newcastle are to Sunderland. If we go out in the next round 7-0 it won't matter because we beat Germany. I daresay more people are excited about that fact alone, than the idea of progressing in the tournament.

I don't fucking believe it Never thought I'd see the day .

Struggling to think of one. Makes England look like the mackems of international football.

This right here is a serious concern for me in supporting England. If by some bloody miracle we won the damn thing, we would never, ever hear the end of it from the leavers. It would instantly become the defining representation of how England can go it alone. "Plucky little England", "British bulldog spirit" etc etc Although the team itself doesn't really personify that. They're professional but I'm not sure there's a lot of spirit there...

Yep. I think we should have worked on attaching a sense of national identity/pride to being in the EU frankly, how we were leaders within it, shaping a destiny for all of Europe. Or better yet, we could have not had the bloody referendum at a time when the government and 'elites' were pissing on the average man in the street with austerity.

Bloody arrogant Germans... this is exactly why we left the EU

Christ If we weren't going to lose to Germany before, we sure as fuck will now.

True. I think the bitter pill to swallow in all of this, in the end, will be that 'Joe Public' will have to accept that educated subject matter experts do know more about the technical specifics of certain issues than he does, and that he would be wise to allow himself to be informed by their opinions. But as you say, the magnitude of it is masked - hopefully in time it will be apparent.

I see. I mean it's just fucking tedious, all of this. Anyone with half a brain could have negotiated a better Brexit than the one we got.

I mean of course Presumably because that would somehow make us look needy.

I see the standard of discourse in here as fallen somewhat.. Quiff, no offence but it currently looks like you're that angry drunk at the pub who is trying to pick a fight with everyone. I mean I read back through this and you were the one who started it, no one was even talking about you. The idea that you would prefer to have a pint with Hancock over almost any other member of the human race is risible. The man defines the word 'weakness', and is seemingly one of the most selfish and blatantly corrupt politicians we've ever had in office. I know you think all politicians are as bad as each other, but not all of them lie to government while thousands are dying in order to protect their fucking jobs. I mean think about that ffs, Hancock saw thousands of deaths amongst his fellow citizens and decided none of them were worth his own career. The man is a fucking psychopath.

I'm honestly starting to think that your average leaver wanted a Brexit wherein we could go over to Europe as if we were in the single market, but Europeans couldn't do the same with us. The EU said clearly that it wouldn't compromise its political integrity for anyone. What does he expect the government to do about this situation? Our government is utterly powerless in the face of the EU presently - both because we're run by the most stupid collection of politicians I've ever seen, and because we need them so much more than they need us.

Might need more detail on this one but at face value yes, I can't begin to imagine why it would have any relevance..

In the end it wasn't the devastation to the economy from poorly executed lockdowns, nor the tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths. Not even the blatant corruption while he was in office. It was a sex scandal exposed by the Sun. And who do we get now? Which incompetent (but loyal to Johnson) minister will replace the weak fuck that is and was Hancock. I'm half expecting it to be Carrie Johnson tbh.

How is he surviving this. Just how. He's a national laughing stock.

Perfect excuse for Johnson to sack him while avoiding the uncomfortable revelations from Cummings..

Have pulled this back in here because the CV thread isn't the place for it really. See, I can understand that position to a point - but you do seem to be taking a lot of this personally. There's no endgame coming as far as I can tell, this is going to run on for quite some time yet (in my view, generations). And its worth noting that for leavers, this was a 40 year struggle. It's going to be the same the other way around now, I'm almost certain of it. So buckle in for the long term, especially if you're going to be this animated about it. As for false positions, I do feel like there's a big misunderstanding of motive that leavers have when viewing remainers. I want, as I assume the rest of the people here do, what is best for this country. I'm not a farmer or a fisherman, but I still want those industries in this country to succeed. I am proud (or at least was) of the country I was born and raised in, and for me a lot of that came down to our international clout and success - especially when considering how small a country we are. While I wasn't proud of our imperial past, we were transitioning into something positive on the whole. What I see from Brexit is that we are hugely diminished and weakened. I see it as an act of traitors, and I really mean that. None of us have to be farmers to be annoyed that a British industry is going to be hurt by this. Maybe you're right and the cheaper meat will allow impoverished children to afford it. However there's an inevitable standards issue there of course, so we need to look at why the Australians are cheaper. We also need to consider that this will likely cause a race to the bottom within the UK market as our own farmers struggle to compete - meaning a drop in standards for everyone and maybe our farms going out of business, thus impacting our sustainability in any future food crisis. Alternatively we could have more equally distributed resources so that children living in poverty could afford British meat, stayed in the EU, and avoided the drop in standards. I don't personally think Brexit was the answer to that issue, I think a Labour government would have been.

He didn't call anyone a think cunt tbf. He said this was a dumb fucking country - a view I fully share with him. And I'd say it to Gemmill's Mam's face, too. I know some sound Brexiteers myself. Unfortunately, all the ones I know are also politically ignorant. Doesn't make them bad people, but does mean that at least for the ones I know they've flung us into something that they didn't comprehend. Why is this getting to you so much anyway, what have you been reading/viewing lately that's got you so worked up about remainers. Who cares what we think, we lost, remember? What difference does any of our schadenfraude make to you? I mean from memory, you voted remain - so it's not even like you're the one being attacked here. I don't quite get why this has become such a personal thing, I mean who are you defending, and why?

I also doubt you'll find anyone here who thinks this place is anything other than an echo chamber tbh. And honestly I would prefer a bit more diversity of opinion myself, but I understand that the aggressive nature of the debate on here tends to put people off. So I mean honestly, not really going to disagree with what you've said But you have to understand that we've had these debates to death (I mean you know this, you've been in them) and I think the stage we're all at now is that we know our positions on this. You've come in with a stance wherein you've spent a few weeks trying to encourage us to listen to the other side of this, which I think tbf, all of us have done. You'd get more traction if you came in with actual information from the other side, rather than just protesting us calling them stupid. I will gladly discuss, in a charitable way, any detail on most areas of politics. I've watched fucking hundreds of hours of right wing commentators and podcasts, I've been around the block with their views many times. Some of them are reasonable, many of them are disingenuous. But seriously, I'm more than happy to be educated on an alternative viewpoint if it's more logical than my own. I'll even pivot to it if it makes sense. I mean ffs, I spent about two solid days arguing in defence of the Tories over a nursing policy a couple of years back, because I felt that everyone was misinterpreting what they had said. I remember it fondly tbh For my part, sorry if anything I've said has bothered you.

This is never a good basis for the forming of an opinion. It's the same as when people claim they're note going to vote Labour because people keep calling them stupid. Like, I understand that no one likes to be called stupid, but that's a really idk... insecure way of coming to a political position. Also I mostly just wanted to share that image tbh, apologies if it offended