I didn't. The wife went with the kids. I stayed here If you mean the summer before last (i.e. 2018) then I flew by TAP there and back. It was my first flight since 2009. My 9th flight of my 44 year life I wouldn't have gone but my oldest son refused to go for a month and as a 13 year old I had to go with him for a week.
I'm pretty sure you posted a picture of yourself in a park in some country across the English Channel?
That would have been this one, taken in the gardens at Belem, Lisbon in 2009. Aged 34, definitely not 43, The son in that picture is now 13 and my hairline has moved up the sides of my forehead (albeit not like Shearer) a fair bit since then:
We had the opportunity to choose Andy Burnham, a decent centre left candidate who would at least have put up a decent fight. But no, we had to gamble everything on the full loaf. And we are going to end up with no bread. I have a certain amount of sympathy with the argument that Labour has been stitched up but not by people like the BBC. I wouldn't be at all surprised when the truth comes out that Putin's money has been behind the whole shebang, Brexit, Trump, Boris the lot.
I'm not back. Just wanted to see how blind the "other" side is. We have 2 fools vying for No10, a 3rd place that could not care less about any vote that doesn't go their way and to blame is a "foolish" electorate apparently. Given a choice between these 3, it can't be pinned on a foolish public. You can only vote for who is put up in front of you. Lots of talk about a Rabbi coming out against "anti-semitism." No mention of the Muslim council of Britain coming out against the conservatives 2 days ago. This forum is as representative of bias as it claims every media source they disagree with is. These problems are all out there, all publicised equally but each side thinks that the other side is being given a free run. There is so much small minded thinking on the progressive left without ever understanding that each thing is not separate from each other. In a perfect world then yes each of these issues could be sorted however we all know this is not a perfect world. Money controls power and those in power on both sides of the argument. The left pulls in as much money as the right. All sides are funded by vested interests which are not in reality the interests of you and I, no matter how indirectly some (from both sides) might be in our interests. No doubt though that the rich are the only ones who can sort out something like the climate/green problem and it will take every consumer to play ball. At the moment we have consumers that will not play ball demanding that something is done while the consumer continues mostly to be the cause of the problem. It's pretty simple really. travel less, use less energy, buy things that are produced locally, eat less meats, eat less processed foods, buy locally manufactured everything (and only if you really need it,) buy eco friendly produced things. Will that happen? Nope because people are lazy and thus this argument will perpetuate with us (most of) expecting Nanny to take care of everything followed by (most of) us then complaining about Nanny making sensible decisions on these matters. Tobacco is a key example. IT makes too much money so it remains easily available. It could have been banned decades ago but it hasn't. 30 years from now we will still see gridlock with people convincing themselves that they have taken the eco-friendly option ignoring that the eco-friendly version was not having a car and not just changing the type of car they have. The policies all talk about reducing carbon footprint by xxxx. That is impossible because while each person can reduce their carbon footprint it ignores that there will be more and more people all the time and thus we are just treading water. I don't think we can expect any more than that unless every person in this world changes their own personal habits entirely. And if every person was capable of doing that, changing their whole mindsets, at that point the idea of socialism or communism (what these terms actually mean) could actually work, however humans are not capable of that. They will always crash what these things are supposed to mean and we end up with what we know from history that socialism and communism ends up as. Better still would be to wipe out all 'isms, but that would mean letting some AI computer wipe every human brain, eliminating the need for any leadership because we would all be happy clones.
Combining this thread with the controversial book thread, I've been watching QT. We need to talk about Lionel Shriver .....
I can understand a lot of your points, but I can't agree with this part: "These problems are all out there, all publicised equally but each side thinks that the other side is being given a free run." This simply isn't true. Channel 4, The Guardian and The Mirror have been about the only outlets which have publicised the Labour side. The BBC and all the rest of the papers have been staggeringly one-sided to the point where I sometimes feel I am lost in some George Orwell novel...
Thick Tories in geography conundrum. This literature has been going out in my Wells (Somerset) constituency:
Hi Imps, I'm intrigued by this "Lots of talk about a Rabbi coming out against "anti-semitism." No mention of the Muslim council of Britain coming out against the conservatives 2 days ago. This forum is as representative of bias as it claims every media source they disagree with is." In what parallel universe did this forum ever claim to be unbiased media? It's contributed to by people who post their opinions and who, on the whole tend to be a bit more left leaning than average I'd say...the Rabbi got plenty of comment because what he said was pertinent to the feeling that the media are biased against Corbyn's Labour Party. The Muslim Council of Britain comments were unsurprising as people expect the Tories to be like that so it attracted little comment on here. So yes you are correct, there is definite bias on here, however Not606 is not mass media designed to influence large swathes of the population according to the wishes of its owners but is merely a random collection of individuals who chat about stuff online. On that basis, you are comparing apples with oranges and your comparison is therefore meaningless. I did read the rest of your post, but it just made me sad that there are working class Tories who believe that a Boris led government either isn't going to comprehensively **** this country for generations to come or believe that even if he does, that will still be better than a Socialist government that may invest in the people of this country. I'm a leftie though so I'm biased of course.
It seems to me you have a very pessimistic outlook on life Imps. Do you think all human beings are blinkered, greedy and selfish? Don't you think we can be better than that? What about empathy, generosity, compassion? Don't people exhibit those characteristics too? If all we do on the environment is tread water, btw, we're ****ed. But I believe we can still pull back from the brink. So can Saints, btw.
This makes we want to dig through the Internet for a study I once read which explored the psychology of Conservative vs Left leaning voting. Conservatives are overwhelmingly governed by fear and the left governed by hope. This was true to such an extent that simply playing a montage of distressing image before asking people to select their political choice could sway people to vote more to the right than they would normally.
I have come to the opinion that the BBC has decided that Johnson is going to be the next PM and their sycophantic behaviour is based on fear that if they don't show him in a good light then he will take a terrible revenge on them. Look at the threats he has made regarding the supreme court and now threats to Channel 4 and a review of their licence. Not just a ****ing lying toe rag but the playground's biggest ****ing bully too.
A lot of energy was expended producing those needless tattoos mate. I don't drive (not allowed to because of my medical condition) and I don't fly because no one will insure me but I still lead a rich life. I watch the saints, watch endless day time telly and waste my time on football message boards.
Anyone who doesn't think the Tories will dismantle the NHS should ask who dismantled our social housing framework and created the homelessness we see today. All saints fans who think a private medical system is OK should remember what happened to our hero Ron Davis. He ended up as white trash living in a run down caravan park and totally disabled because he couldn't pay for the operation that would restore his mobility.
