Off Topic News & Current affairs

It is a matter for regret that the race equality demonstrations, which had become peaceful after an initial wave of violence and looting in the US, are beginning to employ violent tactics again, in a pre-planned manner.

The local authorities and the people of Bristol should have seriously addressed the question of whether or not the statue of 17th Century slave trader Edward Colston should have been removed from a public place by now.

However, the sight of that statue being torn down by demonstrators and dragged through the streets of Bristol before being thrown into the harbour will not be welcomed by everybody who agrees that racism is wrong.
If Demonstrators in London had not been prevented by the Police, the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square would have been torn down and thrown into the Thames.

It is an uncomfortable fact that some of the actions of Churchill during his early life were what would now be called war crimes.
A valid argument can be made that those actions warrant statues of him being removed. That probably applies to about 70% of all the other statues in London.
The people of London should not be afraid to have that debate.

But the people of London should be afraid of a mob which is happy to tear down those statues a few at a time every weekend.
Once all the offensive statues have been destroyed, what would the demonstrators like to tear down next?
What, or who, will they turn their anger towards.

If the tactic of the demonstrators is going to be using their force of numbers to target parts of societies that they don't like for demolition, they will lose the sympathy of peace-loving people of every colour. They will become what some people already accuse them of being.

 

Nigel Farage has left radio station LBC.

This has been generally welcomed by those who have commented on it, including a fellow LBC presenter.
Farage is controversial for sure, and his recent comment comparing BLM demonstrators to the Taliban because of the destruction of the Colston statue in Bristol was disproportionate and deliberately very provocative.

After three years of Farage five days a week, it will be interesting to see whether listener figures rise or fall during his former slot.
To some degree I guess that may depend on who LBC puts on in his place.

 

I hope LBC's ratings plummet.

 

I must admit I like him, though he does go too far sometimes and I can fully understand why a lot of people don't like him.
I don't agree with everything he says, but where he was coming from made a lot of sense to me, particularly after (you-know-what) in 2016.

It is always a pity when one side of any very important argument is muted by self-proclaimed 'popular' outrage expressed by the other side.
You cannot have a full and frank discussion on emotive issues without risking offence being taken.
Both sides should understand that and not rush to be offended, but rather listen before countering.

 

THE SUN newspaper has been criticised by charities supporting women who are victims of domestic violence,
for recently publishing the front page headline

"I slapped JK and I'm not sorry"
(according to her ex-husband)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53023543

A spokeswoman (not a spokesperson) for The Sun said: "It was certainly not our intention to 'enable' or 'glorify' domestic abuse, our intention was to expose a perpetrator's total lack of remorse. Our sympathies are always with the victims."

The spokeswoman added that the tabloid had a long history of standing up for abused women*, and "over the we have empowered countless victims to come forward and seek help".


* Mostly on page 3 if I recall.

 

.

 

Sorry about the blank post (I posted something there and then realised it was in the wrong thread)

Was the 'like' a hint that I ought to be quiet occasionally?

 

Silence is golden

 

Greta 'Che Guevara' Thunberg has popped up again!
Didn't you miss her?
Me neither.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-53100800

According to her, Climate Change is as important as Coronavirus and the world must react with "necessary force".
There's a surprise.
If you don't agree with Greta and her army of Extinction Rebellion fanatics, they're prepared to use force as well as break the law.
Climate Fascists are on the march again. That's all we need.

 

Sir Keir Starmer - stand by your strong action, you have done exactly the right thing

Antisemitism is a vile poison which has almost destroyed the once proud Labour movement.
Even now the Momentum extremists are rallying their forces for another civil war within the Party.
They must not succeed.

Corbyn and his cronies stand for hate and division, and the British people emphatically rejected their twisted values last year.
A moderate, tolerent Labour Party can win the next General Election, if it stands strong against race hate and makes itself a place where everyone feels they can come to for help, should Boris welch on his 2019 promises.

EDIT:

I now hear that other hard-left Labour MP's are playing the victim card, seeking assurances from Keir Starmer that they will not also be summarily sacked for supporting any material critical of Israel.

They ought to check the content of tweets and facebook posts very carefully before they like or support them. Criticism of Israeli policies is legitimate.
Spreading unsubstantiated rumours blaming Jews for what happened to George Floyd is antisemitism.

It might not be the worst thing ever said against the Jewish community, but it is a prime example of low-level racism which has a cumulative effect, while individual examples (like this one) can be explained away as mistakes or misunderstandings by leaders like Corbyn, who secretly agree with it.

This is how 'educated' racists like to work.
Drip-drip the insults and insinuations, gradually create a bigoted atmosphere - but protest innocence if challenged, and of course express insincere shock and disapproval when Jews are openly and violently attacked somewhere.

Once again, well done Sir Keir Starmer.
Don't ever tolerate these whispering, sly antisemites.
You promised actions rather than more words, and you are delivering on that promise.

 

Two black women are stabbed to death in a West London park.
Some Police officers take selfies with their corpses, and send the images to other people.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-53198702

These individuals, in a trusted position, could scarcely have thought of anything more callous, sickening and inflammatory if they had actually tried.

What were they thinking?
All the progress made in Police/community relations over years and years by people working incredibly hard, risks being swept away by such heartless, cruel and deviant behaviour. It beggars belief that Police Officers could behave in such a manner.

This goes way beyond institutional racism. It's a disease. Those officers are sick in the head.
They need help to understand what they did, and they should never be trusted with police duties again.

 

Really don't understand this at all. At what point did they think this would be acceptable? Simply imagine losing a family member and then discovering a police officer had posted pictures of the body on social media for freaks to stare at. Beggars belief.

 

Some Good News!

I am really pleased to read about major sponsors pulling ads for their products from social media platforms because of the 'hate messages' these platforms broadcast, and are far too slow to remove (if they bother to remove them at all).

Starbucks is the latest example ... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53214291

It's about time these global platforms took responsibility for some of the vile, divisive and destructive content they spread around the planet, while denying any responsibility for it, or the consequences of it.

Keep up the good work you corporate giant sponsors
I don't normally have a good word for you lot, and I'm no fan of censorship.
But the sheer amount of hate material on social media has to be cut, and those responsible held to account.

 

"Now is the time to be ambitious" says Boris,

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53234058

I agree.
We should be embarking on a 10 year programme of building for the future;

• 5 New Towns
• Motorway links and rail inks to those new towns
• 2 million new homes spread among those new towns
• 10 new hospitals, 30 new schools and new leisure facilities & industrial parks in those new towns
• 50 new prisons, and the eventual demolition of all existing ones.
• More tidal power projects, and 2 new nuclear power stations
• Redevelopment of all abandoned or run down urban areas.
• A British Space Program for launching payloads into orbit (unmanned). Call it the British Rocket Group.

Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of new jobs would be created.
There need be virtually no unemployment among able-bodied people.

 

I think the Government is right to offer a path to British Citizenship for many people in Hong Kong;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53246899

I believe the USA is doing something similar.
We don't often seem to agree with our US cousins these days, but I think both nations are defending democracy. None of us like to see democratic rights taken away from people who enjoyed them for generations.

 

I'm all for free speech (no fan of political correctness) but really...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-53308061

Ex-Professor David Starkey, with all due respect - when you're in a hole... stop digging!

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53337170

I wonder if our old friend Vol works in the treasury.

 

So our liberal minded Universities, which are so keen to climb on any bandwagon from Woke to BLM and stick the boot into historical British Imperialism, are quite happy to accept modern Chines Imperialism.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-53341217

What a surprise.
Universities used to be bastions of free speech.
Now if your politics doesn't fit they'll "cancel" you, or some such nonsense.
What a bunch of la-di-da pillocks

 

This article is just the tip of a massive iceberg when it comes to abusive training in top level sport;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/gymnastics/53357280

To win the biggest prizes, athletes and sportspeople of many kinds are now compelled to train their bodies almost to destruction.
The need to be the very best is a pathological obsession. A breeding ground for extreme and harmful practice.

Sport is supposed to be a wonderful and healthy pastime - an alternative to idleness and bad habits.
But the pressure of the global entertainment industry is almost turning top level sportspeople into human sacrifices. Ruining lives in the name of fleeting sensations of superficial wonder among their paying viewers.

 

If China launches an all-out Cyber-attack on the UK because we are going to cut Huawei out of our 5G network, it will only go to prove that removing the Chinese firm's technology was the right thing to do.

Better to suffer some Cyber-crime now - even if its effects may be severe - rather than let the Chinese Government infiltrate our UK technology & communications so thoroughly that they could gain all the intelligence they ever wanted, and 'switch off' the whole Country whenever they please.

If China attacks the UK, it is an admission that Huawei is a puppet of their State.

Depressingly, I've read that it may take 5 years to remove just the current Huawei tech from our networks.