It's a mixture of both, but we're moving into deep theology and philosophy. To put it more simply, modern Western culture and values are part of a largely "Christian society". It's the challenge to that reality that is troubling for so many people (and being leapt upon by nefarious actors, even when there is some truth to it).
So will it be DOGE UK but run and staffed by vetted and suitably experienced people unlike the Muskrats in Trumpton? Let's hope so, no doubt the toryformers will be denigrating the efforts of Keir Starmer & Co. An interesting number from the article:- "The Civil Service has grown by 130,000 since the [Brexit] referendum, and yet frontline services have not improved. It's overstretched, unfocussed and unable to deliver the security people need today." Another ****ing triumph! © ©in.
I don't think that holds up. Loathe as I am to say it, what makes Europe the centre of the world is its embrace of Capitalism. It is the free movement between cultures, and the borrowing of ideas as that happened, that made Europe the heart of the world. Exploration and trade widened the European mind. Christian values are simply human values. The impact of Christianity is both benign and nefarious: it is at once a revolutionary religion and an imperialistic one. The words of Christ demand that we are kind and considerate - rejecting the rich to embrace the poor -, but the requirement to know God justifies global cultural conquest. The plunder of the world's wealth alongside the plunder of knowledge and ideas makes Europe the melting pot of culture and science it is today. That is not to apply modern values to the past. I do not agree that British Empire was wholly a vehicle for ill. However, to ignore ills while embracing positives is as dishonest as to proclaim British history evil. And yes, people are welcome to call themselves a Christian society if they like, but that ignores the Greek and Roman roots of our civilisation, plus the middle eastern and Asian roots of our mathematics and science.
Yep, I think you nailed it there. It's an interesting discussion, the impact of Ancient Greek philosophy (I mean, hey, look at Aesop and compare some of his fables to Jesus's chat) on Christianity etc. Reading between the lines of Os's point, which I don't think can be dismissed out of hand, it's more along the lines of "we are nominally a Christian society. Islam is more repressive than Christianity. We don't really want to import Islam and bend over backwards for its regressive ideas", which I think at some level is true.
I don't disagree with that at all. I think you probably remember I was one of the ones very critical of Islam a year or so when we all had a good debate on it. My worry is that the racially charged way the argument is presented alienates moderates who are also worried about Islam in its more extreme forms. Moderate Islam is no different to moderate Christianity. We need to be clearer that this is an issue with fundamentalism.
Exactly that. There's been a big increase in intolerance over the last few years. We need an injection of the 'do as you would be done by' philosophy.
Concerns are being raised about the Hillsborough Law, that is being prepared for debate/passing in the near future. The concerns are about “duty of candour” not being enforced and being voluntary. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/hillsborough-fury-over-watering-down-34849898
I believe in The Jesus and Mary Chain, I don't know if it is irrelevant in this day and age but I'm a devout follower.
Privately, I believe that the NHS needs a thorough overhaul and these measures will hopefully reduce waste and make it more efficient. So, well done Starmer for at least tackling the problem head on, I truly hope the government can get this marvellous organisation back to something to be proud of again. Publicly however, because there are very few on here who concede anything to anyone they usually disagree with I am duty bound to say "What a load of bollocks, privatised industries never work and with this bunch of incompetents in charge, they never will." Something like that.
I don't even drink American beer or champagne when I'm in America, let alone sitting at home in London drinking that ****
He doesn't know what he's talking about. I mean, it means losing Jack Daniels and some Californian wines, but I think it's heavily weighted in our favour, quality wise.
We aren't in the EU? Does this include us? This man is all bluster. He doesn't care about the people impacted. Only winning!
The marketing ploys of a shyster estate agent don't transition well to international trade negotiations.
Speech in the French Senate by French Senator Claude Malhuret on Ukraine and European security 4th March "Mr President, Mr Prime Minister, Ladies and Gentlemen Ministers, My dear colleagues, Europe is at a critical turning point in its history. The American shield is slipping away, Ukraine risks being abandoned, Russia strengthened. Washington became Nero's court, an incendiary emperor, submissive courtiers and a ketamine-fuelled buffoon charged with purging the civil service. It is a tragedy for the free world, but it is first and foremost a tragedy for the United States. Trump's message is that there is no point in being his ally since he will not defend you, he will impose more customs duties on you than on his enemies and will threaten to seize your territories while supporting the dictatorships that invade you. The king of the deal is showing what the art of the deal is. He thinks he is going to intimidate China by lying down in front of Putin, but Xi Jinping, faced with such a disaster, is undoubtedly accelerating preparations for the invasion of Taiwan. Never in history has a president of the United States capitulated to the enemy. No one has ever supported an aggressor against an ally. Never has anyone trampled on the American Constitution, issued so many illegal decrees, dismissed the judges who could prevent them, suddenly dismissed the military staff, weakened all counter-powers and taken control of social networks. This is not an illiberal drift, it is the beginning of the confiscation of democracy. Let us remember that it only took one month, three weeks and two days to bring down the Weimar Republic and its Constitution. I have confidence in the strength of American democracy and the country is already protesting. But in one month, Trump has done more harm to America than in four years of his last presidency. We were at war against a dictator, now we are fighting against a dictator supported by a traitor. Eight days ago, just as Trump was putting his hand behind Macron's back at the White House, the United States was voting at the UN with Russia and North Korea against the Europeans demanding the departure of Russian troops. Two days later, in the Oval Office, the military service hideout gave moral and strategy lessons to war hero Zelensky before dismissing him like a groom, ordering him to submit or resign. Last night, he took another step into infamy by stopping the promised delivery of weapons. What to do in the face of this betrayal? The answer is simple: cope. And first of all, don't make a mistake. The defeat of Ukraine would be the defeat of Europe. The Baltic States, Georgia, Moldova are already on the list. Putin's goal is the return to Yalta where half of the continent was ceded to Stalin. The countries of the South are waiting for the outcome of the conflict to decide whether they should continue to respect Europe or whether they are now free to trample on it. What Putin wants is the end of the order put in place by the United States and its allies 80 years ago, with as its first principle the prohibition of acquiring territories by force. This idea is at the very source of the UN, where today Americans vote in favour of the aggressor and against the attacked, because the Trumpian vision coincides with that of Putin: a return to the spheres of influence, the great powers dictating the fate of small countries. Greenland, Panama and Canada are mine, Ukraine, the Baltic States and Eastern Europe are yours, Taiwan and the China Sea are his. This is called, in the evenings of the Gulf oligarchs of Mar-a-Lago, “diplomatic realism”. So we are alone. But the narrative that Putin cannot be resisted is false. Contrary to Kremlin propaganda, Russia is in bad shape. In three years, the so-called second army in the world has only managed to grab crumbs from a country three times less populated. Interest rates at 25%, the collapse of currency and gold reserves, and demographic collapse show that it is on the brink of the abyss. America's nudge to Putin is the greatest strategic mistake ever made in war. The shock is violent, but it has a virtue. Europeans are coming out of denial. They understood in one day in Munich that the survival of Ukraine and the future of Europe are in their hands and that they have three imperatives. Accelerate military aid to Ukraine to compensate for American neglect, so that it can hold on, and of course to impose its presence and that of Europe in any negotiation. It will be expensive. We must put an end to the taboo of using frozen Russian assets. It will be necessary to circumvent Moscow's accomplices within Europe itself by a coalition of only willing countries, with of course the United Kingdom. Second, demand that any agreement be accompanied by the return of kidnapped children, prisoners and absolute security guarantees. After Budapest, Georgia and Minsk, we know what agreements with Putin are worth. These guarantees require sufficient military force to prevent a new invasion. Finally, and this is the most urgent, because it is what will take the longest, we must build the European defence that has been neglected, for the benefit of the American umbrella since 1945 and scuttled since the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is a Herculean task, but it is on its success or failure that the leaders of today's democratic Europe will be judged in the history books. Friedrich Merz has just declared that Europe needs its own military alliance. It recognizes that France has been right for decades in pleading for strategic autonomy. It remains to be built. It will be necessary to invest massively, strengthen the European Defence Fund outside the Maastricht debt criteria, harmonize weapons and munitions systems, accelerate the entry into the Union of Ukraine, which is today the leading European army, rethink the place and conditions of nuclear deterrence based on French and British capabilities, relaunch the anti-missile shield and satellite programs. The plan announced yesterday by Ursula von der Leyen is a very good starting point. And it will take a lot more. Europe will only become a military power again by becoming an industrial power again. In a word, the Draghi report will have to be applied. For good. But the real rearmament of Europe is its moral rearmament. We must convince public opinion in the face of weariness and fear of war, and especially in the face of Putin's cronies, the extreme right and the extreme left. They pleaded again yesterday in the National Assembly, Mr Prime Minister, before you, against European unity, against European defence. They say they want peace. What neither they nor Trump are saying is that their peace is capitulation, the peace of defeat, the replacement of de Gaulle Zelensky by a Ukrainian Pétain following Putin. Peace for the collaborators who have refused any aid to the Ukrainians for three years. Is this the end of the Atlantic Alliance? The risk is great. But in recent days, Zelensky's public humiliation and all the crazy decisions taken over the past month have finally made the Americans react. The polls are falling. Republican elected officials are greeted by hostile crowds in their constituencies. Even Fox News is getting critical. The Trumpists are no longer in majesty. They control the executive, Parliament, the Supreme Court and social media. But in American history, those who favour freedom have always won. They start to raise their heads. The fate of Ukraine is being played out in the trenches, but it also depends on those in the United States who want to defend democracy, and here on our ability to unite Europeans, to find the means of their common defence, and to remake Europe into the power that it once was in history and that it hesitates to become again. Our parents defeated fascism and communism at the cost of all sacrifices. The task of our generation is to defeat the totalitarianisms of the 21st century. Long live free Ukraine, long live democratic Europe."
