A Political Thread pt. 2

[Bada-Bing!]

Colin Powell: Former US secretary of state dies of Covid complications

The ex-US secretary of state, the first African-American in that role, dies of Covid complications.

www.bbc.co.uk

RIP.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Sir David Amess: Man arrested over MP Chris Bryant death threat

An MP says he was threatened after asking people to be kinder following Sir David Amess's death.

www.bbc.co.uk

Mr Bryant said he got the death threat after calling for people to be kinder following Sir David Amess's death.

76 years old as well!
Politics is such a mess at the moment (not that it was ever clean and sparkly)

 

[ncurd]

Sir David Amess: Man arrested over MP Chris Bryant death threat

An MP says he was threatened after asking people to be kinder following Sir David Amess's death.

www.bbc.co.uk

76 years old as well!
Politics is such a mess at the moment (not that it was ever clean and sparkly)

I do hope with all this in regards to Amess despite his frankly poor views of LGBTQ+/abortion rights that most MP's work bloody hard for their constituents. They need to be aggressively fought against but it doesn't have to descend into intimidation, threats of and acts of violence. They also need to applaudded for the work they do and what they do well. Some MP's though are complete fuckwits giving all the others a bad name.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

That's the thing asking people to be kinder to other people - well how? Not everyone is naturally kind. If they are not already kind to themselves, they are more likely to be angry individuals with an axe to grind against society.

And more likely to say FU to the rest of the world and do nasty things like send death threats when an MP tells them to do something as simple as being kinder to others in the wake of Amess' assassination.

Lots of angry individuals out.

 

[Gavin]

Really strange to see The Daily Mail calling for nicer politics...

... This Daily Mail

 

[Which Tyler]

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Really couldn't hate HS2 more atm - traffic from the roadworks is more than doubling my commute atm, and the signs say the roadworks will be until 2024
Then throw on top of that the main entrance/exit to Lichfield is closed for the next 8 weekends, which means you've gotta use the little back lanes to get there which naturally get clogged with HGVs etc by 9am and stay that way until late evening

Just a bloody nightmare trying to get anyway atm

 

[Gavin]

 

[ncurd]

Meanwhile kinda gentle politics, oh dear the PM just stuck in some casual racism in an area where the government are actually okay.

 

[ncurd]

Just noted sandal-clad might not be Middle Eastern streotypes as I originally thought but Greenpeace style ones instead.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Yeah, sandals = hippies,
But equating them to Nazis is still.....quite off, especially for a PM to be saying

 

[ncurd]

Yeah, sandals = hippies,
But equating them to Nazis is still.....quite off, especially for a PM to be saying

Also (and please correct me if I'm wrong) combi's are actually pretty efficient energy wise, when combined with well insulated housing and thermostats. They only draw on energy when required and very little of it is 'wasted' energy. As opposed to water storage tanks (constantly heating and coooling large quantities of water) or night storage heaters (notiourous finickty to get right in that either produce too little or too much heat).

Combi Boiler Vs Conventional Boilers: Which is Better? | Warranty People

When you are about to purchase a new boiler, it is important to know about the different types of boilers and how they work. Most of the households get the choice to switch from their conventional boiler to a combi boiler. If this sounds familiar, understand your options before you do anything...

www.warrantypeople.co.uk

 

[RedruthRFC]

Also (and please correct me if I'm wrong) combi's are actually pretty efficient energy wise, when combined with well insulated housing and thermostats. They only draw on energy when required and very little of it is 'wasted' energy. As opposed to water storage tanks (constantly heating and coooling large quantities of water) or night storage heaters (notiourous finickty to get right in that either produce too little or too much heat).

I've only started learning a bit about these air source pumps now that they've been mentioned in the news and am making lots of assumptions, so stand to be corrected. As far as I can see, air source heat pumps are less energy efficient than combis (they use power to extract heat from the air and store hot water rather than producing it on demand), buy are infinately more fossil fuel efficient (depending on how the power for the pump is generated), which is why they are regarded as an eco-friendly alternative.

 

[Gavin]

I'm really confused...

June 2021:

Scott Morrison strikes free trade deal between Australia and the UK

The pair met at Downing Street on Monday evening, after Mr Morrison told an Australia-UK Chamber of Commerce audience that the process of the UK leaving the European Union could bring benefits.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Scott Morrison has sealed a free trade deal between Australia and the UK during a dinner with Boris Johnson - after initial disagreements about agricultural exports and backpacker work requirements

October 2021:

Australian trade minister leaves UK with no deal

Dan Tehan hoped to strike an agreement with his UK counterpart, but it wasn’t to be.

www-politico-eu.cdn.ampproject.org

Australian trade minister leaves UK with no deal Dan Tehan hoped to strike an agreement with his UK counterpart, but it wasn't to be.

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

I'm really confused...

June 2021:

Scott Morrison strikes free trade deal between Australia and the UK

The pair met at Downing Street on Monday evening, after Mr Morrison told an Australia-UK Chamber of Commerce audience that the process of the UK leaving the European Union could bring benefits.

www.dailymail.co.uk

October 2021:

Australian trade minister leaves UK with no deal

Dan Tehan hoped to strike an agreement with his UK counterpart, but it wasn’t to be.

www-politico-eu.cdn.ampproject.org

Knowing this government, we had a deal the reneged on it.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Trump files lawsuit to block release of Capitol attack records

Ex-president challenges Biden’s decision to waive executive privilege, while White House says Trump ‘abused the office of his presidency’

www.theguardian.com

 

[Which Tyler]

Knowing this government, we had a deal the reneged on it.

This bit from the Politico article might possibly be telling...

The Australian version of the deal stands at around 1,600 pages, while the U.K. text is 2,600. "I'm not quite sure whether it's just the type spacing or the different sides of the schedule," Tehan quipped, "but they've got a few more pages than us."

 

[ncurd]

Hopefully its 1000 pages of

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

 

[ncurd]

"democracy"

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

"democracy"

Did a bit of researching an some interesting numbers come up.

• Jonhson loves to pretend he carried out some miracle with his current majority but actually evidence shows he barely increased the vote share for the Tories (+1.2%) and in reality to larger majority came from a collapse of the Labour vote (-7.9%)
• In terms of % of vote per seat, the % between Labour and the Conservatives has not been that out of the ordinary (during the Blair years the Conservatives had a similar ratio of seats per % of vote as Labour do now). The SNP are way ahead with many more seats than their vote share would suggest they should get but that is balanced out by the Lib Dems who are getting royally screwed over in that regard. The SNP need less than 1/10th the % of the vote of the Lib Dems to get a seat.
  • To compare that to the others, the major parties need roughly 1.5 times the vote % per seat of the SNP but the Lib Dems need anywhere between 2 times to 8 times the vote % per seat of the main parties.
  • 2015 was one of the most even years in terms of the split of seats compared to the vote %.
• The most interesting bit is, since the end of the Blair years there has not been a single year in which the Tories have secured a larger share of the vote than the Lab-Lib-SNP combined, showing how the split left vote hurts them
  • In 2010 and 2017 the Lab-Lib-SNP actually secured a majority of the vote (over 50%) but still the Tories got power

Ultimately if the country had a more representative proportional system and the voting remained otherwise unchanged, we would have had continuous left wing coalitions since the Blair years. The Tories are essentially in power because the smaller right wing vote is concentrated into 1 party whilst the left wing vote is split between at least 3. It also dispels the idea that Britain is fundamentally a right wing country. From voting patterns it is fundamentally a left wing country that is frequently ruled by a smaller number of right wing voters choosing a single party.