UK Politics Thread III: Thready McThreadface (+ Jo Cox)

[Hydesland]

More bizarre news from the increasingly fringe NUS: http://heatst.com/uk/nus-at-war-over-po ... l-dolezal/

"NUS At War Over ‘Politically Black’: ‘Antisemitic’ President a ‘Rachel Dolezal’

"The National Union of Students Black Conference in Bradford erupted into a civil war after the conference proposed to amend the term “Black” – for the sake of inclusivity – and include “Politically Black” people into the movement."

Question: if one is politically black, are they allowed to use the N word?

[Olerand]

More bizarre news from the increasingly fringe NUS: http://heatst.com/uk/nus-at-war-over-po ... l-dolezal/

"NUS At War Over ‘Politically Black’: ‘Antisemitic’ President a ‘Rachel Dolezal’

"The National Union of Students Black Conference in Bradford erupted into a civil war after the conference proposed to amend the term “Black” – for the sake of inclusivity – and include “Politically Black” people into the movement."

Question: if one is politically black, are they allowed to use the N word?

Oh wow. I thought the UK was lagging behind the US in meaningless identity politicking. I see that, at least student politics in the UK, are certainly giving America a run for its money.

[Napkiraly]

More bizarre news from the increasingly fringe NUS: http://heatst.com/uk/nus-at-war-over-po ... l-dolezal/

"NUS At War Over ‘Politically Black’: ‘Antisemitic’ President a ‘Rachel Dolezal’

"The National Union of Students Black Conference in Bradford erupted into a civil war after the conference proposed to amend the term “Black” – for the sake of inclusivity – and include “Politically Black” people into the movement."

Question: if one is politically black, are they allowed to use the N word?

So how do you establish if one is 'Politically Black' whatever the fuck that means.

[Napkiraly]

Prisons are obsolete and ban them...wut.

[Olerand]

More bizarre news from the increasingly fringe NUS: http://heatst.com/uk/nus-at-war-over-po ... l-dolezal/

"NUS At War Over ‘Politically Black’: ‘Antisemitic’ President a ‘Rachel Dolezal’

"The National Union of Students Black Conference in Bradford erupted into a civil war after the conference proposed to amend the term “Black” – for the sake of inclusivity – and include “Politically Black” people into the movement."

Question: if one is politically black, are they allowed to use the N word?

So how do you establish if one is 'Politically Black' whatever the fuck that means.

Do you, non-white person (that's obligatory) identify with an identity that is "oppressed" or "discriminated against"? Then congrats! You too qualify to be a "politically black" person.

[Geilinor]

More bizarre news from the increasingly fringe NUS: http://heatst.com/uk/nus-at-war-over-po ... l-dolezal/

"NUS At War Over ‘Politically Black’: ‘Antisemitic’ President a ‘Rachel Dolezal’

"The National Union of Students Black Conference in Bradford erupted into a civil war after the conference proposed to amend the term “Black” – for the sake of inclusivity – and include “Politically Black” people into the movement."

Question: if one is politically black, are they allowed to use the N word?

Oh wow. I thought the UK was lagging behind the US in meaningless identity politicking. I see that, at least student politics in the UK, are certainly giving America a run for its money.

Student politics is insane in most places, I think.

[Napkiraly]

So how do you establish if one is 'Politically Black' whatever the fuck that means.

Do you, non-white person (that's obligatory) identify with an identity that is "oppressed" or "discriminated against"? Then congrats! You too qualify to be a "politically black" person.

But what if you're half non-white?

This is fucking stupid. I give up on student politics. I'd be perfectly fine with Cameron sending the popo in with the truncheons on the next NUS meeting.

[Napkiraly]

Oh wow. I thought the UK was lagging behind the US in meaningless identity politicking. I see that, at least student politics in the UK, are certainly giving America a run for its money.

Student politics is insane in most places, I think.

I learned that UCLU recently tried to make things less democratic. It failed, but they were trying.

[The Nihilistic view]

More bizarre news from the increasingly fringe NUS: http://heatst.com/uk/nus-at-war-over-po ... l-dolezal/

"NUS At War Over ‘Politically Black’: ‘Antisemitic’ President a ‘Rachel Dolezal’

"The National Union of Students Black Conference in Bradford erupted into a civil war after the conference proposed to amend the term “Black” – for the sake of inclusivity – and include “Politically Black” people into the movement."

Question: if one is politically black, are they allowed to use the N word?

What nigger? How do you mean use?

[Questers]

Then what happened before 1979?

Mmm. I meant to say post 1991 leftists.

Or really, post 1994.

Privatisation began with British Aerospace, Cable & Wireless, and the British Transport Docks Board in 1981; following that, British Telecoms in 1984, British Airport Authority & British Gas in 1986, Rolls Royce & British Airways in 1987. British Steel followed in 1988. Don't forget the British car manufacturers and the shipyards and the aviation firms.

And yes, it's easy to say -- well, do we really need these things in state ownership? Do we—by which I mean you and I, boris johnson and lamadia, nick clegg and nick griffin and everyone else inbetween who has a British passport—do we really need to own these things?

Perhaps not. Maybe selling them was good, you think, since it raised so much for the Treasury (remembering they were all sold under-price.)

From 1988 British Water was privatised. A bit much, you might say; there's a good reason that we'd want to control our own water.

Nothing more for a while; remember the selling of these firms was gradual, not all at once. It took something like 4 years to sell Cable & Wireless.

In 1994, British Rail was privatised. Ey up! A bit far, maybe. There is another thing we have a good reason to want to keep in our pocket.

Followed by British Coal. So there was gas, coal, and over the course of the late 70s and 80s, petroleum, all our critical energy resources, out of the hands of the British people and sold on the open market for anyone who wanted at all to buy them. The lights, the gas, the water.

But I am of course ignoring those beautiful Magnox reactors: those too were sold, in 1996, with the privatisation of British Energy. Thus another magnificent British technological contribution to world history was passed out of the hands of the British people.

And there we are. But it doesn't stop there. These are just large and famous sell-offs. The Tories also sold the central electricity generating board and with it the national grid. Chessington computer centre, which was the computer admin base for the government, was sold. The National Engineering Laboratory. The Building Research Establishment: huge swathes of government R&D.

It's difficult to recall, sometimes, that we owned these things. They were owned by the Crown and operated in trust by and for the benefit of the British people. They were sold to recover from a crisis caused by Arab oil and the collapse of Bretton Woods, and to accommodate and ameliorate the growing demand for more and more and more private wealth, coming from the financial sector after its 1986 deregulation.

The left has had no answer, because the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. We were right, and you were wrong: command economics doesn't work!!! said all the Alan B'stards of the world. (Except that Britain never had a command economy, or a planned economy. This is a ridiculous use of these words to describe state ownership.) In 1994 it abandoned its pledge to return to the British people their lost heritage. Nothing has been the same ever since. And all the problems that neoliberalism brings are still here and still growing and the Labour Party still hasn't quite grasped them. Income inequality is up. Ecological problems are up. Crime is up. Political apathy is up.

But GDP—no, that is a more complicated story. Everything is tolerable because we're apparently better off. This is a bold-faced lie. Gross domestic product grew at a faster rate during the social contract years than it has done since 1979. There have been fewer recessions (partly because Bretton Woods was good at preventing them), and not a consequence of world gdp growth—on average Britain has been below world gdp growth for the whole period 45-today. There is some evidence to say everyone benefited from a huge Bretton-Woods backed boom which then duly collapsed in the 1970s, but speak positively of neoliberal capitalism this does not: boom and bust returned after bretton woods with the British economy spending five full years of the period 79-2012 in recession; 15% of the time, in other words.

The Labour Party needs an alternative. Nationalising everything will no longer work, because of the global environment; but neoliberalism has failed us. It has made us as a people, and as an average man on the clapham bus, less wealthy, less equal, less safe, and less interested in democracy.

[New Benian Republic]

More bizarre news from the increasingly fringe NUS: http://heatst.com/uk/nus-at-war-over-po ... l-dolezal/

"NUS At War Over ‘Politically Black’: ‘Antisemitic’ President a ‘Rachel Dolezal’

"The National Union of Students Black Conference in Bradford erupted into a civil war after the conference proposed to amend the term “Black” – for the sake of inclusivity – and include “Politically Black” people into the movement."

Question: if one is politically black, are they allowed to use the N word?

I feel as if the essence of Tumblr has somehow become airborne. This is why we must make Tumblr illegal to access or talk about.

[Philjia]

More bizarre news from the increasingly fringe NUS: http://heatst.com/uk/nus-at-war-over-po ... l-dolezal/

"NUS At War Over ‘Politically Black’: ‘Antisemitic’ President a ‘Rachel Dolezal’

"The National Union of Students Black Conference in Bradford erupted into a civil war after the conference proposed to amend the term “Black” – for the sake of inclusivity – and include “Politically Black” people into the movement."

Question: if one is politically black, are they allowed to use the N word?

They're all mad. No wonder loads of unions are jumping ship.

[Questers]

More bizarre news from the increasingly fringe NUS: http://heatst.com/uk/nus-at-war-over-po ... l-dolezal/

"NUS At War Over ‘Politically Black’: ‘Antisemitic’ President a ‘Rachel Dolezal’

"The National Union of Students Black Conference in Bradford erupted into a civil war after the conference proposed to amend the term “Black” – for the sake of inclusivity – and include “Politically Black” people into the movement."

Question: if one is politically black, are they allowed to use the N word?

I feel as if the essence of Tumblr has somehow become airborne. This is why we must make Tumblr illegal to access or talk about.

always a weird day when we're agreeing

[Imperializt Russia]

So how do you establish if one is 'Politically Black' whatever the fuck that means.

Do you, non-white person (that's obligatory) identify with an identity that is "oppressed" or "discriminated against"? Then congrats! You too qualify to be a "politically black" person.

I identify as goth, do I qualify as politically black?

[Philjia]

Cambridge has voted to remain in the NUS, with 51.5% of students voting to remain. However, only 28.28% of all students actually voted. According to the BBC the head of the remain campaign said "the high levels of engagement in the referendum meant the vote was "definitive"." This is what I would describe as total bollocks.

[Imperializt Russia]

Cambridge has voted to remain in the NUS, with 51.5% of students voting to remain. However, only 28.28% of all students actually voted. According to the BBC the head of the remain campaign said "the high levels of engagement in the referendum meant the vote was "definitive"." This is what I would describe as total bollocks.

Of course, they're going by the standards of the 2015 General Election.

[Eastfield Lodge]

Cambridge has voted to remain in the NUS, with 51.5% of students voting to remain. However, only 28.28% of all students actually voted. According to the BBC the head of the remain campaign said "the high levels of engagement in the referendum meant the vote was "definitive"." This is what I would describe as total bollocks.

You think that's bad, Hull's referendum only needed a 5% full-time student turnout to be binding.

Having conducted a referendum, HUU said it will officially disaffiliate from the NUS after 811 students chose to leave the national student campaigner, while just 476 chose affiliation. Overall, 1,306 students took part in the voting process, around 9.5 per cent of the full-time student population.

http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/hull-university-union-becomes-latest-to-disaffiliate-from-national-union-of-students-a7046696.html

[Philjia]

Cambridge has voted to remain in the NUS, with 51.5% of students voting to remain. However, only 28.28% of all students actually voted. According to the BBC the head of the remain campaign said "the high levels of engagement in the referendum meant the vote was "definitive"." This is what I would describe as total bollocks.

You think that's bad, Hull's referendum only needed a 5% full-time student turnout to be binding.

Having conducted a referendum, HUU said it will officially disaffiliate from the NUS after 811 students chose to leave the national student campaigner, while just 476 chose affiliation. Overall, 1,306 students took part in the voting process, around 9.5 per cent of the full-time student population.

http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/hull-university-union-becomes-latest-to-disaffiliate-from-national-union-of-students-a7046696.html

The NUS situation is odd and rather concerning, but this is just plain silly.

[The Matthew Islands]

The people in the NUS today are likely to be your Mp's and civil servants tomorrow.

Politics is fucked. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't actually some kind of weird working class revolution in the next 100 years where middle class people like MP's or nuclear physicists or whatever were thrown out.


*edit*
I don't even know who I'd want to be PM or what party I'd like in charge. I'm just so tired of it all.

[Imperializt Russia]

You think that's bad, Hull's referendum only needed a 5% full-time student turnout to be binding.

http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/hull-university-union-becomes-latest-to-disaffiliate-from-national-union-of-students-a7046696.html

The NUS situation is odd and rather concerning, but this is just plain silly.

Students don't care about their unions since no-one's union platform is "I will make drinks cheaper and get better acts", if you needed a meaningful student body representation then nothing would ever get done.

[Imperializt Russia]

The people in the NUS today are likely to be your Mp's and civil servants tomorrow.

Politics is fucked. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't actually some kind of weird working class revolution in the next 100 years where middle class people like MP's or nuclear physicists or whatever were thrown out.

They can try and see how they do without our UNLIMITED POWER

[The Matthew Islands]

The people in the NUS today are likely to be your Mp's and civil servants tomorrow.

Politics is fucked. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't actually some kind of weird working class revolution in the next 100 years where middle class people like MP's or nuclear physicists or whatever were thrown out.

They can try and see how they do without our UNLIMITED POWER

I think that when the proletariat armies storm the power plants to drive them out, they should blow up the nuclear reactors and then reign supreme over a new mutated race of super humans or something.

[Imperializt Russia]

UNLEASH THE POWER OF THE ATOM

[Questers]

Students shouldn't have unions.

Being a student is not a job, for a start.

I think the Government should severely cut the number of places available for non-STEM/computing/vocational/administration degrees. Having a lot of engineers, doctors and computer scientists is good. Having a surplus of psychologists, sociologists and tourism experts is not.

[Valaran]

More bizarre news from the increasingly fringe NUS: http://heatst.com/uk/nus-at-war-over-po ... l-dolezal/

"NUS At War Over ‘Politically Black’: ‘Antisemitic’ President a ‘Rachel Dolezal’

"The National Union of Students Black Conference in Bradford erupted into a civil war after the conference proposed to amend the term “Black” – for the sake of inclusivity – and include “Politically Black” people into the movement."

Question: if one is politically black, are they allowed to use the N word?

Christ.