Rayvin

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.

I do too sorry - I meant he was knowingly walking into it himself.

Looks like Starmer is going to spring the elephant trap today. I do note that the polls indicate that most people think we should sign the deal even from the Remain camp, so presumably he's making the right call across the nation's mood here.

Hope everyone had a nice day

Merry Christmas everyone! Gonna echo sentiments about the importance of this community - it's genuinely helped me at times to know that I can come on here and argue relentlessly with people about total trivialities despite the fact that we're all basically on the same side of everything And I am grateful for your tolerance of my enthusiasm for that. Stay safe and best wishes over the Christmas period.

https://www.dw.com/en/bbc-nominates-jk-rowlings-controversial-essay-on-trans-rights-for-award/a-56014673 The BBC have decided to nominate JK Rowling for an award because of her factually inaccurate and dog whistling trans article that we discussed a few months back As if any further confirmation was needed on what they have now become. "Look at us, we're in touch with the gammonfolk, we're even justifying it by saying that offence is the price of free speech! See we're on your side!"

Out of curiousity, will securing this deal mean that the disaster capitalists have missed a trick, or do they just wait for businesses to go under next year?

I don't know anything at all about MMA, Boxing, whatever - but are you meant to push both hands forwards when you go for a punch like he does over and over? He looks like a toddler playing at boxing to me, but then I'm uninitiated.

I didn't know what that graph was saying for a moment and was fully terrified by this comment

Aye if this happened it would tick two very rare boxes for me: 1 - A fight I'd actually pay to see 2 - A "sporting" engagement where I'd actually cheer on the mackem.

I appreciate you're not looking for condolences mate, but I'm so sorry for your loss. That is utterly tragic. I've read everything you've written here twice over, and will take it to heart indeed. The strength it must have taken to write it and the determination to help others avoid the same thing are both admirable in the extreme. Thank you for the warning which I for one will absolutely keep in mind. There's nothing anyone can say about stuff like this that remotely does it justice, I'm just really sorry to hear it. I wish nothing but the best for you and your family.

I'm not sure that's even on the government really. Coming out at 6pm and saying the rules come into play in a few hours is less notice than they've given previously by quite a distance. And yes they could have done many things differently but IMO this rush happens however they do it unless the literally shut the trains down instantly. This is just selfishness from all those travelling.

Jesus... You know that they wouldn't have done that unless they absolutely had to, dragged kicking and screaming most likely. The government lockdown that is, apparently not Rod Liddle, disturbingly.

Aaaand Sony have pulled it from sale. What a mess. Flat out greed from the developer frankly - if it can't run on PS4 and X box then it shouldn't have been released on them.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/dec/16/unicef-feed-hungry-children-uk-first-time-history UNICEF providing food packages to hungry children in the UK - the first time they've had to do it in the 70 years they've been operating. What a pathetic nation we are. @Christmas Tree Is this poverty yet? You were supposed to let me know when we got here

It does appear that the Guardian will effortlessly manage to annoy not just the right, but also every single faction within the centre and left, almost all the time. Some might say this represents a valuable spread of opinions I guess. We need to hang on to the Guardian though because as terrible as it often is, I'm struggling to think of any other credible centre/left media sources besides the Independent.

Very true!

Under fire from the Guardian itself, is what I'd take from this. And in fairness, this is exactly the sort of thing they'd get worked up about. I've not really approached it from this angle, I was making a more general point about the voter base, but if we're looking at internal party politics, it seems that the Labour left are going to try and do to him what the Labour centre did to Corbyn. Great news for all concerned, I'm sure.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/dec/14/keir-starmer-under-fire-failing-challenge-radio-caller-racism "Keir Starmer under fire for failing to challenge radio caller's racism" A woman called in worrying about white people being a minority by 2066 and talking about them being persecuted (i.e. great replacement theory) - Starmer's response wasn't terrible IMO, but didn't directly take it head on and failed to call it out for the racist view it is. So I'm not bringing this up as a stick to beat him with believe it or not - he's playing the game he is because he needs these daft muppets on board and things like "the white race being replaced" is something that they are irrationally concerned about. However, I do think it's worth considering from the point of view of analysing how far from the more sane and informed groups of society he is going to have to travel to make this work. Is it worth it? What is left at the end? How much of this nonsense will we have to swallow just to get our broad church back?

How disappointing. I think if it was just poorly optimised I could have forgiven it to some extent though, and waited for the patches to fix it - but it sounds like it's been rushed in all senses - aspects of gameplay letting it down as much as mechanical issues. I would imagine it'll be playable eventually I guess - hopefully they give it a relaunch at that point.

https://www.gamingbible.co.uk/news/games-cyberpunk-2077-developers-sorry-for-state-of-game-on-last-gen-20201214 Refunds available for Cyber on console for anyone who has given up on it, along with an apology from CDPR for "not having paid enough attention to the console release". Which I think, as a rough translation, we can take to mean "Sorry that the outcry was so big that we had to actually respond to it". I've also been told that people are breaking the game in stacking damage boosters, and that you can buy $10 items and dismantle them into parts which can be sold for $70 Methinks playtesting was one of the things they didn't have time for. Despite this, some of the people I've talked to are apparently enjoying it, and clearly a couple of people here have too. But for each one of those, I know someone else who has given up trying to play it because of all the issues...

I've been reading a few opinions on this and I actually think rejoining is extremely unlikely now. They'd insist on the Euro for starters. And they'll also take the opportunity to move the union on politically towards greater integration, every step resulting in more and more people in the UK getting cold feet. It seems highly improbable.