Off Topic News & Current affairs

And is it worse now than in decades gone by ? There have always been children murdered by adults sadly.

And if it is worse now, then why ? What’s happening to our ‘society’ when everything just seems to get worse not better ?

 

When the interviewer asked the expert how we compared to other countries, he described our record as "quite reasonable". I could hardly believe my ears.

 

I see Team Boris won't release his unredacted emails & whatsapp messages.
If I was the chair of the Covid Inquiry I would resign.

There's no point in having an Inquiry if the Government won't co-operate with it.
Most other European Countries have completed their Inquiries.
Ours has barely begun, and it's already been derailed.

Over 200,000 people dead here.
But no respect for any search for the truth of what happened.

 

This is Boris we're talking about.

 

The Cabinet Office is refusing to give material to the inquiry, and Rishi Sunak has just supported that position.
He has said he is satisfied with the Cabinet Office position.
When pressed, he refused to deny that this Government believes Ministers should decide what material the Covid inquiry examines. Not the Inquiry judge.
So much for transparency, accountability, integrity....

 

AI could lead to extinction, experts warn

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65746524

Sorry, I'm not going to pay any attention until this bunch of professors start throwing orange powder around and sitting in the road.

 

Evidence is mounting that Rishi Sunak is a robot. Have you seen him "answering" questions recently? Scary or what.

 

In The Times today apparently 350 World experts on AI are claiming it could spell the end of the Human Race
We can tell they don't get out much.

For the last 200 years or so, when a new machine came along that robbed poor folk of their jobs it was hailed as progress

No a new machine comes along that will rob work-from-home white collar hacks and dusty old college professors and fat cat politicians and wig-wearing judges and money-grubbing businessmen (basically the Establishment Elite) of their jobs, and suddenly it's the End of the Human Race
End of the Gravy Train is what they really mean.

As @The Penguin has pointed out, we already have a Prime Minister who burbles like a one-track AI.
No loss to anyone if he lost his job to a machine.
Bring on the future I say. Not so funny now is it, when a machine can do a better job than a banker, politician or financier.

 

I suggest you rewatch The Terminator films Lardi.

It will happen.

 

I take no pleasure in seeing this but sorry, this bloke is too old to be President of the USA. And to think he wants to run again.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65783589

 

Woodrow Wilson was bedridden after a paralytic stroke for the last year of his presidency, and The USA was run by his wife, with no real problem. Biden's wife seems quite sharp, which is reassuring.That clip has shades of Neil Kinnock on the beach with Glynis.

 

I'm baffled as to why Starmer is trying to now becoming more and more of a Brexiteer. Even Nigel Farage says it has failed, and public opinion is gradually moving that way, so why, when he led Labour's Remain campaign is he so keen to defend B****t? I can understand why he doesn't want to fight the next election on such a divisive issue, but he is going a bit too far.

 

I', guessing he doesn't want to open that door even a fraction because of the avalanche that will come from the right wing press. However, despite the multple failings with Brexit and little or no positive achievements on offer, I'm not sure the UK is ready to go back, and trying to do so will maybe open some more wounds. Plus the EU will probably not be too receptive to the UK wanting to rejoin, and I imagine the ERG/Tufton street lobbiers plus rags like the Express, Telegraph and Mail will raise suspicions that a return to the EU by the UK may be as temporary as the duration of a Labour government. With all that, I doubt we'd get a great deal (and we'll never get one as good as the one the Brexiters chose to burn) and we may find for example that reentry means accepting the Euro, which won't be popular.
I'm not that enthused by Starmer, but trying to make policies on public opion is a very dangerous way to go. getting back to a decent tarif free trading situation would lift some of the problems, and looking at freedom of movement would bring back some of the temporary workers the UK needs, and possibly give Rees Mogg and his ERG mates a collective stroke. Win win.

 

The astute analyst Peter Kellner believes Starmer's pro-Brexit stance will cost Labour dearly at the election. Labour is reliant on the votes of younger voters, who see opportunities in Europe, and will turn to the LibDems and Greens.

 

Keir Starmer needs the red wall seats back and the North East. Those were largely 'leave' areas.
The collapse of the SNP also eases the pressure on him to sound more pro-EU north of the Border.
I think Labour could regain maybe a dozen Scottish seats without any further effort.

But I think he's sounding more hawkish on Brexit than he really believes.
If Labour ends up with only a small majority after the 2024 GE or even has to rely on the Lib Dems to prop him up, then a return to the single market and probably free movement will be back on the agenda for sure.

With those things will come a whole raft of EU conditions the UK will have to obey. And probably most of the payments we used to have to make.
A de facto re-entry into the Union, just as a second-class member without any voting rights.
If anybody thought the divisions over this were getting bitter and personal between 2016 and 2019, they haven't seen anything yet.
Boris will be back as leader of the Opposition, reinvigorated.
I should think Farage will also pop up again.

 

The perceived wisdom was that it needs B****teers to make it work. Now that they have failed to do that Sir Keir has to convince us that the Remoaners can make it work. Seems quite a tall order. The initial flush of victory is wearing off, and sooner or later a leading B****teer will break ranks and say that maybe it wasn't such a good idea, and that could be a game-changer.

 

I have always found Caroline Lucas very articulate and reasoned in her contributions in Parliament, and she will be a loss. But is there any point in making reasoned arguments in The House? This week Yvette Cooper Asked the speaker a question which was basically about the lovely Suella giving figures on immigration which were way out of line with the government's own stats. The deputy Speaker brushed it aside, saying the minister was entitled to interpret the figures any way she liked; in other words "alternative facts" are now equally valid to factual ones. The PM and other ministers rarely answer a question unless it is a friendly one from their own side, so what is the point in having a debating chamber? Would it not be quicker to have a shouting match (fuelled by large quantities of subsidised booze) , and whichever side registers higher on the richter scale wins the vote.

 

Must admit I'm giving up worrying about politics.

Rishi Sunak, Boris Johnson, Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin...
Let them do as they will. I'll have to leave it to younger, more vigorous folk to keep flagging up their machinations.
I have so little energy left after just getting through each working day, I can't afford to worry about them anymore.

That goes for Charlie Boy and all the new CAFC owners too.
Let them do good or bad - I'm past caring.

He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still:
and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
Revelation 22:11
Also paraphrased in 'The Man comes around' by Johnny Cash

 

We elect the Governments that fail us all the time.

I think you've said it yourself in the past @Ubedizzy2
We get the leaders we deserve. If we won't break the Labour/Tory mould we have to lay in the bed we've made.

 

Yes you’re right. It’s just so bloody annoying that people can’t see what’s happening in front of their eyes.

I know there’s really no point in posting this on here, because our small band can’t change anything, but it reduces my stress level by a tiny little fraction, to have somewhere to vent, so thank you for indulging me.