Renton

Belieiving the NHS should be free fro everyone is consistent with people being selfish, because its in their self interest. You only have to look at the US to realise in a privatised system only the super rich benefit, far beyond the top 15 percentile. And even then a lot of that 85% will resent "foreigners" using it, or people will drug, alcohol, obesity, or tobacco issues. I think all of us are motivated for selfish reasons. I want a fairer society because I think that will be a better place for ME and my family to live in. That's worth more to me than keeping my tax money. I don't want to step over the homeless on the way to my local Coop, I don't want the hell of antisocial behaviour on the metro bought on by nihilism as a consequence of hopelessness and lack or education, I don't want myself to decide which charity to donate to. I want the government to do it, and I'm willing to pay for it. Not this government though, the fucking cunts.

Hope the surgeon's scalpel slips.

Yeah, I posted about this a few months ago. It fucking stinks but gets no coverage.

I think this is spot on. Assange was very selective with what he leaked and it has proved disastrous for the UK and especially the US. Fuck knows what his motives were but am I fuck trusting somebody like him. Always makes me think about HF mind, who was his biggest supporter.

FT article on Brexit, reposted on a free to read site. Nothing new really but highlights the insanity of this situation. https://jnews.uk/the-deafening-silence-over-brexits-economic-fallout/

Starmer was spot on yesterday when he said the tories are deliberately provoking these strikes as part of the cutlure war. And a further distraction from Johnson's personal life (where the fuck did that article on Carrie Johnson disappear to btw?). They really are fucking scum. However, I think they've probably misread the room here, as usual. And underestimated the Labour front bench. Look at this hilarious exchange between Javid and Streeting's excellent drop the mic response:

Classic SMB wibble.

They always bang on about the centre being alright but the surrounding areas being a shit hole. But I think the surrounding areas of Newcastle are better than most comparable cities. Jesmond, Gosforth, Benton for starters. Even less salubrious areas like Sandyford, Heaton, Walkerville are alright. I can't vouch for the west end but it looks okay when I drive through. Then you have rhe coast etc. Compare this to cities like Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, and Birmingham. Places where you take a wrong turn and you're scared for your life. All I know about Sunderland is the city centre IS a shit hole, having never had reason to go elsewhere there.

See this has been a problem, people assume Keir Starmer was privileged when in fact he had a working/lower middle class upbringing, his Dad being a tool maker and his mother a nurse. He went to Leeds Uni, and worked his way up to be head of the CPS. To me, this is quite an inspirational story, especially contrasted with Johnson who has achieved nothing that wasn't given to him. A lot of people are even ignorant he was named after Keir Hardy, or who he was. My Dad was called Rodney BTW, he cam from Chirton in North Shields to hard core internationalist socialists. They were massively into esperanto and such. Apparently he was named after the battleship which I never fully understood as they were pacifists!

Not sure I agree. Bad timing maybe, but Starmer was excellent in PMQ this week, calling Johnson Jabba the Hutt. As for policy, its too early to release it and I think its a better strategy to sit back and let the tories rip themselves apart. They have a baseline support which they will never lose no matter what Johnson does. They're canny near that already. Labour need to keep their powder dry until it really matters. Plus I think people really will want competent boring when it comes down to it. Happened in the US last time.

Think Geidt deserves some credit for this.

Yeah it was AV. I don't remember much about it but it would have been a big improvement compared to full FTP. Think the main argument against it was that FTP leads to stable governments . Labour need PR now, and it would also diffuse Scottish independence imo. But they're shit scared of the bigger picture.

I really, really hope this is the start of something but too jaded to believe it is. If labour really adopted this as a manifesto pledge, I'd rejoin and maybe become active again.

Quite a long read for a twitter thread but trust me, well worth it. Some of his adjectives are superb (" Priti Patel, a smirking, razor-faced ghoul with all the warmth and tenderness of a Klingon backstreet abortionist") and the overall arc is tragically hilarious.

"Illiterate, worthless creature". Say what you like about the ruskies, but they're canny astute.

You just add your avatar instead, don't you?

Not knowingly. I know a lot of gay people, particularly lesbians, so never make an assumption about a persons sexuality (just as well as that could have led to some embarassing instances), but I do judge gender purely on appearance. What proportion of the population do you think this affects? It has got me thinking to when this became a "thing". Earliest mention I can think of was actually a plotline on Hollyoaks. Presumably there were/are a lot of supressed people in my generation. Back in the late 80s in Newcastle, it was just unheard of. There was one transvestite man, really butch with lip stick on wearing a dress and handbag, that almost had celebrity status as a result. Used to drink quite a bit in Luckys iirc, also Dog an Parrot, wonder if any of the older ones here remember him. Can only imagine the grief he got.

Well that's a good point. Which does beg the question, should we alter our behaviour to be more welcoming to diverse groups? Or is this a safe haven from the "real" world? And we may be 90% white, male, middle aged (save a few kids like yourself ) and football fans, but i doubt there is a racist, homophobe, or trangenderphobe (?) amongst us. Live and let live but let me use the language I understand. Also, I might add, I’ve been thinking I actually dislike the use of "they" as a gender neutral alternative as it implies plural and actually reduces the functional precision of the English language. So there's that.

Well this is an education for me. Still not sure I get it. I mean on thos board, we have a belta minge thread, we routinely call women split arses and each other cunts, we even have Monkey's Fist, but I'm not supposed to use gender specific vocabulary which is accurate in 99% of the time I use it and I'm sure offends (even slightly) almost nobody? Thing is, this might wind up Daily Mail readers but I think it actually probably alienates a lot of other people to an extent too, myself included. I don't see the need but I know how animated people get about it, so for that reason David, I'm out, you bald cunt.

She They was were actually really attractive... except.... of course she they didn't shave her their legs and they were twice as hairy as mine. As for her their pits.....

I think I mentioned once btw that one feminist I knew at University (so like 30 years ago) chastised for me for using the word history, insisting the subject was referred to as "person story". Is this becoming mainstream now?

I'm happy to call anyone whatever they want, no problem, But as ewerk points out, I don't get its use as a blanket term when its not really applicable, it is actually changing how we use the English language. Also just struggling to understand how people find words like her, him, she, his etc. offensive, seems somewhat ridiculous to me when there are clearly real issues with discrimination out there. I mean "She got a puncture" in reference to a woman is innapropriate now, really?

Why? What's the point in this gender neutral bollocks? I just don't get how any of this is offensive or necessary. I mean ffs, most languages assign "genders" to objects.

Although tbf Johnson witheld information on him which he has since said woould have changed his opinion on that matter. This guy is supposed to be fairly decent, which is why he has no place near Johnson.

Johnson fucks everyone he's in contact with, one way or another.