UK Politics Thread: Virtual Insanity

[Austria-Bohemia-Hungary]

In recent days, BBC.com has been logging me out of my account once per day. This has been a persistent pattern in recent days and something that's never happened to me before in many years of using BBC.com or BBC.co.uk, except after having acquired a new computer. I haven't disabled any cookies. Is anyone else getting this issue?

Why trust the BBC when the only views they present are the government’s official views? They’re the British version of KCTV but without the propaganda.

It’s why my dad watches GB News instead.

Who funds GB News mate?

(Tl:dr a hedge fund billionaire and the... slave state of UAE)

[Imperializt Russia]

Why trust the BBC when the only views they present are the government’s official views? They’re the British version of KCTV but without the propaganda.

It’s why my dad watches GB News instead.

Who funds GB News mate?

(Tl:dr a hedge fund billionaire and the... slave state of UAE)

Couldn't even afford a sound mixer in those early days tho.

[Austria-Bohemia-Hungary]

Who funds GB News mate?

(Tl:dr a hedge fund billionaire and the... slave state of UAE)

Couldn't even afford a sound mixer in those early days tho.

Maybe to raise donations nigel farage needs to be "knighted" by the putinjugend a few more times live on Russia Today.

[Herargon]

Why trust the BBC when the only views they present are the government’s official views? They’re the British version of KCTV but without the propaganda.

It’s why my dad watches GB News instead.

Who funds GB News mate?

(Tl:dr a hedge fund billionaire and the... slave state of UAE)

Yet another medium to avoid, then. I can't even call it news then, when it's generally authoritarian oligarch propaganda.

[Qasaqi]

I hope Reform win so they break the UK system so a better one can be formed.

[Evolutionary Syncretic Cybercratic State]

I hope Reform win so they break the UK system so a better one can be formed.

I once thought this, but now I think that's just too optimistic even if there was a rebound towards good reform. If there's no consensus as to what the system should be replaced with, the Reform-style populism will almost always regress into something far worse and far more difficult to escape from.

[Vassenor]

I hope Reform win so they break the UK system so a better one can be formed.

How many times does Accelerationism have to blow up in everyone’s faces before we stop considering it a serious idea?

[Hirota]

I hope Reform win so they break the UK system so a better one can be formed.

How many times does Accelerationism have to blow up in everyone’s faces before we stop considering it a serious idea?

Accelerationism blowing up in everyone’s faces is kind of the point. The big problem is guiding that disorganised force, and using it to make something objectively "better."

People will be agreeing over getting rid of x because it's bad, but can't agree on y or z to replace it.

[Outer Armatonisdaristan]

Why trust the BBC when the only views they present are the government’s official views? They’re the British version of KCTV but without the propaganda.

It’s why my dad watches GB News instead.

Who funds GB News mate?

(Tl:dr a hedge fund billionaire and the... slave state of UAE)

Um, at least GB News invites people from both sides of the political spectrum. BBC never do that.

And since when were they funded by the UAE?

[The Notorious Mad Jack]

Who funds GB News mate?

(Tl:dr a hedge fund billionaire and the... slave state of UAE)

Um, at least GB News invites people from both sides of the political spectrum. BBC never do that.

Categorically false.

[Outer Armatonisdaristan]

Um, at least GB News invites people from both sides of the political spectrum. BBC never do that.

Categorically false.

I mean, that’s what my dad says is why he doesn’t watch BBC News

[Emotional Support Crocodile]

Categorically false.

I mean, that’s what my dad says is why he doesn’t watch BBC News

It is in the BBC Charter that they have to be balanced and accurate. Not something that could be said about Neil Oliver's output on GB News.

[Vassenor]

I mean, that’s what my dad says is why he doesn’t watch BBC News

It is in the BBC Charter that they have to be balanced and accurate. Not something that could be said about Neil Oliver's output on GB News.

Is that why whenever a trans person is brought on to BBC News there must always be a gender critical person to debate them, but when a gender critical person is brought on there is never allowed to be a trans person to challenge them?

And this is BBC editorial policy.

[Herargon]

I hope Reform win so they break the UK system so a better one can be formed.

You'd be better supporting Green, then. They actually stand for the average George, and actually want to tackle problems that the Reform is too corrupt for to address.

Reform is basically Trump, and look at how Trump's been ruining his country. He's only made himself richer and did nothing for the silent majority, instead silencing his own people.

[Platypus Bureaucracy]

I hope Reform win so they break the UK system so a better one can be formed.

How many times does Accelerationism have to blow up in everyone’s faces before we stop considering it a serious idea?

How many times are you gonna make this comment?

Also, who the fuck is "we". Whose face has got blown up? Almost no one holds accelerationist views and the endless right-wing trajectory of this country (and indeed of the US) hasn't been the result of leftists doing accelerationism. It's been the result of right-wing people who want right-wingness, and possibly centrist types who sadly shake their heads and say "alas, the people want right-wingness; we must oblige".

Also also basically the only serious left-wing shift in the last century happened after the big death struggle with Nazism.

[Herargon]

Who funds GB News mate?

(Tl:dr a hedge fund billionaire and the... slave state of UAE)

Um, at least GB News invites people from both sides of the political spectrum. BBC never do that.

And since when were they funded by the UAE?

Inviting fascists is "both sides" of the spectrum?
I heavily doubt GB News is decent. I trust the Morning Star over anything - at least that medium is actually people-owned. Can't say that about GB News, where the oligarchs control the narrative.

[Imperializt Russia]

Categorically false.

I mean, that’s what my dad says is why he doesn’t watch BBC News

Politely, your dad's a redpilled idiot if he thinks that.

One of the BBC's major problems with it's output is a pathological insistence on both-sides-ing almost every issue. It is not possible to have a debate on climate change (nice low temperature example, pardon the pun) because frankly, we're done. If you want to have a debate on it, it is bluntly because you are a cranky that refuses or is not able to accept the measurements and certainly does not read any of the published material.

Which you can choose not to - even as a scientist I do not, it's not my field and I'd rather spend my time playing War Thunder and laughing at my cats - but not bothering to does not give you the right to call it bollocks. Which is the GB News approach, because they are politically aligned with anti-climste views on the grounds of "not spending money", low regulations and opposition to taxes in general and climate taxes in specific (which would hit their corporate backers, acutely).

GB News with both-sides climate to achieve political goals (to astroturf and amplify the anti-climate side). BBC News does it because they're myopic idiots who think it makes better coverage, when all it actually achieved is what GB News set out to do - platforming cranks and moving the overton window away from facts.

---

On the topic of climate:

Thames Waters' creditors have asked Ofwat to just blanket give TW immunity from all environmental crimes - including criminal, not merely regulatory failings - in order to make it attractive to investors, so that investor money is not spent immediately on enforcement action (instead of exec bonuses where it is clearly financially useful to the business).

Couldn't tell if this was just immunity for all actions to date or a request to be immune to future failings as well, an astonishing taking of the piss.
Nationalise It, You Cowards pt. IV - If For No Other Reason Than To Punish Them For Even Asking

A new album of spoken-word screams into the void, from Samoz.

[Camtropia]

On the topic of climate:

Nationalise It, You Cowards pt. IV - If For No Other Reason Than To Punish Them For Even Asking

A new album of spoken-word screams into the void, from Samoz.

I think by this point, Starmer is refusing to nationalise Thames water just to annoy you, personally

[Imperializt Russia]

On the topic of climate:

Nationalise It, You Cowards pt. IV - If For No Other Reason Than To Punish Them For Even Asking

A new album of spoken-word screams into the void, from Samoz.

I think by this point, Starmer is refusing to nationalise Thames water just to annoy you, personally

It does feel a lot like it!

[Kerwa]

I mean, that’s what my dad says is why he doesn’t watch BBC News

It is in the BBC Charter that they have to be balanced and accurate. Not something that could be said about Neil Oliver's output on GB News.

No. They have to adhere to due impartiality, which means they are allowed to consider many factors in their pursuit of narrow minded babbittry. It’s on their own website.

And if you are my age you will remember them running an ad campaign telling everyone massive lies about a fleet of illegal “TV detector vans” which would catch you watching Colombo.

The most important aspect of all this is that if you are an old person who is living in relative poverty after having diligently toiled away all the good years of your life and you can’t actually afford a license fee to watch ITV, they will prosecute you and give you a criminal record: because Alan Yentob needed that pension.

Edit: the one thing that ought to be privatized and turned over to a different revenue model should be the BBC. But apparently while letting foreigners put poo in the drinking water for profit is a “British value”, putting poo on the airwaves is solely the domain of British government controlled organization.

[San Lumen]

Reform UK councils in ‘shambles’ as newly elected councillors fail to show up

If they won’t show up they should resign en masse.

[Fartsniffage]

I think by this point, Starmer is refusing to nationalise Thames water just to annoy you, personally

It does feel a lot like it!

Nah. Starmer just likes shit in our water. Exhibit A -

United Utilities has won a long-running court battle to run a new sewage pipe into the Manchester Ship Canal.

A panel of High Court judges have ruled the canal's owner, the Manchester Ship Canal Company, does not have any grounds to oppose construction of the 1.16km long pipe from Eccles sewage works in Salford. It follows a near 10-year-long legal fight between the two firms.

Water company United Utilities was first granted a compulsory purchase order (CPO) for the pipe in 2016. It came after the Environment Agency said the work was needed to reduce flooding for residents near the sewage works and improve water quality in the canal.

.....

A Peel Group spokesperson said: "Our challenge before the Court of Appeal was not against the principle of the CPO itself, but against the terms on which it has been granted.

"To be clear, we are not seeking to stop United Utilities making discharges into the Manchester Ship Canal that are in accordance with Environmental Permits and the legislation regulating the water industry.

"However, the terms of this particular CPO give United Utilities the extraordinary power to discharge unlimited quantities of effluent, including untreated sewage, into the Manchester Ship Canal with immunity from any legal claim by the Canal Company.

"More worryingly, this is the first CPO like this to be granted and so it sets a precedent which applies not just to United Utilities and the Manchester Ship Canal, but which could be used by other water companies across the country.

"We are disappointed that the new Government defended in court the previous Government’s decision to grant the CPO. It is hard to reconcile this with the Secretary of State’s very public statements resolving to tackle the ongoing pollution of our watercourses by water companies and to make them accountable.

"It is particularly surprising given the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court last year in the case of Manchester Ship Canal Company Limited v United Utilities Water Limited (No. 2) which made it clear that discharging untreated sewage into a watercourse without the consent of the owner of the watercourse will be unlawful if it harms water quality, and that if such discharges occur then those affected are entitled to sue the water company for damages and to seek injunctions to stop further discharges.

"That decision gave the new Government the perfect opportunity to ask the Court of Appeal to quash the CPO so that it could be made subject to the same requirements stipulated by the Supreme Court. For reasons which we cannot understand, the Government instead decided to side with the water company, allowing it to have a CPO which bypasses the Supreme Court’s ruling.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk ... e-31707049

Don't click on the link. The MEN is a Reach group paper/

[Herargon]

Reform UK councils in ‘shambles’ as newly elected councillors fail to show up

If they won’t show up they should resign en masse.

They won't because Reform UK members most likely want to collect money and slosh it toward their "private" funds, friends, and AirBNBs.

[The Matthew Islands]

On the topic of climate:

Thames Waters' creditors have asked Ofwat to just blanket give TW immunity from all environmental crimes - including criminal, not merely regulatory failings - in order to make it attractive to investors, so that investor money is not spent immediately on enforcement action (instead of exec bonuses where it is clearly financially useful to the business).

Couldn't tell if this was just immunity for all actions to date or a request to be immune to future failings as well, an astonishing taking of the piss.
Nationalise It, You Cowards pt. IV - If For No Other Reason Than To Punish Them For Even Asking

A new album of spoken-word screams into the void, from Samoz.

Oh God, Keith Starmer is going to give in... I can just feel it.

[Slembana]

Reform UK councils in ‘shambles’ as newly elected councillors fail to show up

Not surprising at all. That party doesn’t know how to run a bath (I’ve said something similar before).