Renton

Protection racket, without the protection. Literally worse than the mafia.

Labour. They've been in power less than a year against a backdrop of extreme economic turmoil with Trump in power. They need a chance imo. The cuts are yet to take effect and their impact is not clear. Some of the stuff, like the tweet I posted about school meals being cut, aren't true. What's the alternative? Presuming you rule out the Tories and Reform, you have the Greens and the LDs. Neither party has ever had to handle the reality of governance. It's fine for Davies to act the fool in opposition and appease whatever group he's talking to at the time, but he's never been confronted with the reality of the situation we are in and the difficult trade offs there are in everything. He's a nimby when it suits and at the same time pro-growth without saying how. As for the Greens, their policies are batshit. If you want us to undertake unilateral nuclear disarmament at this time, fill your boots. I do not like what Labour are doing. But I think three things are relevant here. First, we are in a fucking mess caused by the previous administrations intransigence over the last 14 years. It's not getting fixed overnight. Second, whatever you might think, there is a qualitative difference between Labour and the Tories. Labour's cuts are borne of necessity, not ideology. I know many people serving under Labour and I am convinced their intentions are good, even if you can't justify their actions. Finally, it's easy to snipe by the side-lines. But there is very little discussion about what the realistic alternatives are. One idea might be getting closer to the EU. I think this is probably happening under the radar, but you can't wish away the last 10 years as if nothing has happened. Then what? How do you satisfy the bond markets who de facto set our interest rates? It's a simple fact that Truss cost me thousands of pounds I couldn't afford, if that happens again now I'm fucked, I'd default on my mortgage. Then I guess you can say fuck the markets, fuck capitalism. To be replaced by what exactly? We are a medium sized country surrounded by superpowers, we are not in control of our destinies. People need to be careful what they wish for, as been proven time and time again.

Me too.

In my new job I'm going to have to stop using the work laptop for this shit, but will use my own. I just use the windows snip tool and directly put in the images. Added bonus it ensures the images are not too big.

I still can't see your images. It's an odd one like, Labour are shit scared of improving the economy through rejoining the CU and SM, partly because of polling fears. But shitting on disabled people, that's fine. You have to hope there is some master plan, after all, it is early days, but when it comes to politicians, the main lesson I have learned is don't overestimate them.

There is huge buyers remorse over Brexit though. Why Labour won't seize on this and why people like Farage get away with the blame is another matter. I guess in the latter's case it's because he's never been in power, which gives him the wriggle room he needs. I don't think that would apply if he actually achieved power, although I really don't want to find out.

They have one thing on their side - time. The government is stable and I believe will remain so. Another 4 years left. Get the bad news out now and hope for economic improvement. If this doesn't materialise they may be fucked but then they would fucked regardless probably. I think one way or another the US will be a disaster after this period due to economic and political incompetence. Popularist governments lack the competency to be successful. Against this backdrop, if the great British public elect Farage and Reform then so be it. We'll experience steep decline rather than managed decline but we'll learn our lesson.

For those with kids, a useful guide to what those emojis your kids are using really mean.

Feel like that is uncharacteristically optimistic. One this fiasco is over and the surviving 3% of humanity arise from the ashes of global nuclear war, they will have other things on their mind. I actually read something even more depressing about humanity's fate. We have one shot at this. If we go back to the stone age, we're fucked, because unlike last time, we won't have any fossil fuels left to power the second industrial revolution we'll need. I mean we may have some blueprints to help us but we won't have the resources, at least not for another 60 million years, by which time the Sun will be getting rather hot. Explains the Fermi paradox.

I mean, the US just gets more batshit by the day. Not only were 6th January insurrectionists wrongly imprisoned and released, they were heroes who will now be compensated. As for the brave security defending the Capitol that day? They had better watch their backs.

They're not fucking, that's the issue.

OAB is a weird mix of the physiological and the psychological, because its caused by afferent neurones in the bladder (a bit technical, I know). Basically its a sensory problem though. One of the things you get is "key in door syndrome". That's when you feel okay walking back from the pub, but the nearer you get home you have a huge urge to unload. By the time your key is in the door, you've pissed yourself. Experienced this a few times. Not pissed myself, but once had the ridiculous spectacle of pissing in the plant pot next to the door for the sake of 30 seconds, hoping the neighbours didn't see. @RobinRobin, you may have tried, but there are lifestyle changes you can make and bladder training exercises etc also. Work for OAB, probably not so good for BPH mind.

Life is the waiting room for the Yes Gemmill thread. However, when Gemmill is the subject of it, the Universe will explode in an cataclysm of meta-irony.

As said, the issue won't be the cost of the test, but the cost of the implications of a positive test which in your age group will very probably be a FP and the costs/stress this will cause. But if you push for it by stressing your symptoms your GP should agree. I am meaning to ask for one myself tbh.

Thing is, PSA has a high false positive rate, its not that straight forward. Look, we all know you're really after a finger up the bum so just make some stuff up about blood in your poo and the GP will advise.

First, have you been properly diagnosed by the doctor? If you've had the more serious causes ruled out, you've probably got benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) and/or overactive bladder syndrome (OAB), or possibly a hybrid of these. As Gemmill says, you can take an alpha blocker for the former. For OAB, I've worked on beta-3 agonist for this issue recently called vibegron. This or a similar drug called mirabegron are both effective for the condition. I tend to wake up once, around 5am, but I'm in the habit of drinking a pint of water before sleep because otherwise I feel dehydrated. But my bladder capacity is not what it once was. More a problem during the day tbh when I'm facing situations I can't get to the toilet. Then I just piss into a bottle and spray piss everywhere. Oh wait, no, that's MF, not me.

I've never even heard of Gamergate. And I play video games (not online though, as getting headshot from some nerd in South Korea for the 15th time is no fun).

I don't think people are paying attention right now. Come the election, you'd have to hope there will be more focus on their (non-existent) policies and almost certainly their many and frequent gaffs which won't stop. Also I'd question if they will ever have the party apparatus. They may get money, but you still need a political foundation and a basic level of competence, which I doubt they will have. As said, Farage is in a very uncomfortable political space being a Trump advocate, a Putin advocate, and a known and recorded advocate of privatising the NHS. And throw in Brexit to repel younger people.

Reform will save us from Reform. There were 5 MPs and even they couldn't hold it together, now there's 4. Throw in the horrendous things Farage has said re: Trump and Putin, I just cannot see him getting the required votes to form a government. If he does, then fucking hell, time to leave this country.

What's your notice? I've got a week left of mine, I'm now in that sweet spot where I've wrapped up all my projects and can put my feet up, will go for an 8 mile seaside walk today, and then maybe actually get round to fixing my LinkedIn to make me more desirable for future employment. No leaving do planned, which is normal at our place given the huge turnaround/attrition rate, though will meet up with some at a later date by hitching on to a company event they'll be paying for. My first day in the new job have a 9.15 morning start on the Monday, just figuring out whether to stay in Manchester on Sunday in a cheap hotel or get up at the crack of dawn and feel tired all day, probably will do the former.

Just seen the chat on the news. They're literally conducting war through the medium of emojis.

Got this in my YT feed so will stick it here. It's funny if you haven't seen it.

Racist.

That is a horrific prospect for a Yorkshire man tbf.