Rayvin

I could see this happening, a few of the talking heads have put it forward.

So Parler is being taken off app stores and there seems to be a real crack down happening from the big tech on the right. Once upon a time I would have decried this as a dangerous precedent taking us towards censorship but frankly, even if it is eventually turned on the left, I think it's probably worth it to stop the right escalating things further.

Does sound like me

I'll add incidentally that there is a sudden groundswell of right wing, populist talking heads going on about setting up parties to "represent the working class". It's happening here and in the US, and it wouldn't surprise me if it spreads. The left has to be very careful to hold on to those working class voters or we're going to see a re-run of the 1930s IMO. Another decade of austerity, lockdowns that they don't understand the science behind, and relentless right wing shit about immigrants, coupled with rampant patriotism, and I think that's where we potentially end up. So Biden, Clinton, Starmer, whoever - they need to get out ahead of this somehow. If I was Biden I'd be cracking down on social media like I was running a totalitarian state.

That sounds about right - and yes, it has. At the time I saw Trump as a possible pressure release on nationalism. The notion that the right would see how godawful he was and realise that this kind of shit wasn't the answer. Clearly some Americans have indeed seen this given the record numbers of turnout to stop his re-election, but ultimately I can't claim to have been right in any sense, given that record numbers also voted for Trump. What I didn't predict was that fake news would only get worse, and that the polarisation of the two sides would become more important than what they were even fighting about (to the Trumpists at least). I mean, no thinking person should actually be capable of watching a Trump press conference and fully buy into what he's saying. It's so transparently fake that I don't believe it's possible to even be hoodwinked into it. My fear was that we'd be at a point sort of like this, but after 4 years of Clinton during which time the right would organise and the threat would grow. It's impossible to know for sure but given that Trump clearly isn't the real enemy behind this, I don't think we should imagine that this will all settle down without him. Remember at the time we were seeing populists coming to power all over the place - it's not going to go away because Trump has been defeated. But on balance, clearly nothing positive has come from him having won versus my alternative scenario, and so we may as well have had 4 years of stability and adult politics. Therefore yes, Clinton would have been a better outcome even with respect of my concerns at the time (and clearly in all the normal ways anyway). I will still argue she was the wrong candidate to choose though, for the Democrats.

I don't see any difference in the overall trajectory for Western civilisation as it refuses to learn the lessons from its mistakes. There are plenty of personal and political differences between Biden and Trump and I'm delighted that Biden won because it gives us a 5 year extension ahead of the inevitable apocalypse

I thought the one 18 hours ago was about Biden, my bad - I stand by the Titanic sentiment though, the ship is going down either way. But if that other one is the best you've got then I'm pretty happy tbh.

A business I'm working with has just been hit with customs forms for trying to ship to a customer in Northern Ireland. Most couriers now won't take up the service, there's only one who will (Hermes) and they need paperwork for 'international shipping'. Possibly shipping to NI simply won't be possible in the long run.

For what? Ignorance? I made myself open to learning something and accepted it, nothing to apologise for. Are you saying that the deaths of 4 nazis are comparable to the deaths of tens of thousands of brown people...? I can't actually remember far back enough as to my views on Clinton doubling down on Syria but for all you've thrown it up at me over the years I'm confident that it was far more of a Parky angle than it ever was my view. Having said that though, I daresay ewerk will find a choice quote in due course. I recall thinking Clinton was a bland continuation of the sorts of problems that led us here, and I stand by it. We didn't get here without a lot of groundwork being laid. I also remember saying Trump would be so ineffective in office that he would represent a better alternative than some alternate universe where Clinton won and the forces of darkness poured their energy into someone competent. We'll never know on that front, but I don't think I thought Trump ever represented a better option than Clinton save for that unknown. I think this storming of the capitol is actually not that big a deal in practice, albeit significant in symbolism. We should make as much political capital as possible out of it though, so I'm not going to criticise anyone who goes on like it's a full on civil war. If it was a big deal something serious would have happened in response, and it does not appear that this will be the case.

Thanks for this.

Actually no, I'm not - maybe that would explain this. What is it?

The Guardian has Priti Patel quoted as saying this: The UK home secretary, Priti Patel, said Donald Trump’s incendiary remarks directly provoked the violence witnessed in the US Capitol as she urged him to condemn it. “His comments directly led to the violence and so far he has failed to condemn that violence – and that is completely wrong,” she said. She said the departing president’s statement, in which he said “we love you” to the rioters, and repeated his unproven claims of electoral fraud did “very little to de-escalate the situation”. “He basically has made a number of comments yesterday that helped to fuel that violence and he didn’t do anything to de-escalate that whatsoever,” she told BBC Breakfast. Which is perhaps a little closer to the kind of thing you might want a UK politician to say about the matter, but still doesn't go far enough.

I mean, a bunch of nazis stormed the capitol and I'm meant to be shocked that his shirt aligns him with them? Sorry yes, I'm very shocked the nazi is wearing an obviously pro-nazi shirt.

"Work brings Freedom" Who does this muppet think he's arguing with? Which political movement is anti-work?

Do you think taking the vaccine will be mandatory in this country? Or have I missed the info on that. I read the other day that 40% of French people are reluctant to take it and while the numbers in the UK aren't that bad, I think there's still a solid quarter of the population opposed.

Curiously that does look as of the main victors of a LD collapse are the Tories. Haven't paid any attention to the LDs whatsoever (now behind both the Greens and the SNP) but presumably something has just happened to them?

It's because Corbyn is such a useless leader of the opposition Or more accurately because almost the entire media line up behind the Tories and the best you can say about those that don't is that they offer a diversity of opinion that occasionally includes some pro-labour sentiment. They're going to get to 20 straight years in power, no question.

Have to say like, I'm getting fucking sick of the Tories and their 'economic competence'. We won't survive another round of austerity as anything like what we were pre-Cameron. It'll polarise everyone even further, more far right, more far left, as people get increasingly fucking desperate.

Which side of all of this is Starmer on btw? He's been pretty firmly pro-return to school so far. This makes me nervous, because if both Johnson and Starmer are on relatively the same footing, could it be that they're right?

We had Shefki Kuqi for a while under Pardew. That was a desperate time

This is the saddest part of the whole thing in some ways - to have had this imposed on us by people who are clearly so ill informed about the consequences and what it all means to people living outside their ridiculous bubbles. Buccaneering ffs.

Happy New Year everyone. Let's hope we all make it through 2021..

This is a savage shot for a NYE like

I think that would lead to human cost more than economic. They must be weighing something up here unless you think they're not going full lockdown just to appease their back benches. Which I could believe tbf.

Probably because of the economy. I actually don't envy the government this one at all. We aren't going to be able to take much more locking down without the damage becoming long lasting I suspect.