sadoldgit

What does being a “35 year old socialist” have to do with anything? Trump is a 79 year old dictator but that doesn’t seem to trouble you too much. Great speech from Mamdani. It is so good to see Democrats pushing back against Trump. We need to see more of this, not just from Newson and Mamdani. Hopefully the Democrats as a party will now show more backbone.

Nigel “12 jobs” Farage, who earns over £1m a year, wants to lower the amount that “young people” receive as a minimum wage. Currently the minimum wage per hour for those between 18-20 is £10. For the under 18’s it is £7.55.

What is “vile” is posting laughing emojis on posts about the deaths of innocent people. I called the Hamas attack on 7th October “abhorrent.” Perhaps you should google what it means. I have called out the behaviour of extremists of any background abhorrent. If you want to ignore reality that is your problem. You are all over Muslims when they do something wrong but not a peep out of you when they do something positive. No mention of the train hero who is Muslim and of Algerian decent. No mention of the new mayor just elected in NYC. You call people “scumbag”, “vile” and “thick” which is the biggest example of the pot calling the kettle black ever seen on this forum. Little wonder you root for the likes of Trump and Farage. You, like them, exist in a parallel universe of “fake news” and “alternative facts.”

There have been a number of positives since Labour were elected, not enough mind you, but some all the same. Labour’s problem is that they have been drowned out by the right wing media who jump on every misstep, perceived or otherwise, and they also haven’t been very good so far at selling their good news. As with Brexit, Farage is grabbing the headlines and setting the agenda. The whole small boats/immigration debacle, whilst an issue, isn’t one of the biggest issues that this country faces. Starmer and his cabinet have been too cautious and too wary of Farage so far. The promises to build 1.5 million homes and not to raise taxes were also mistakes and never likely to be kept. Taxes will need to be raised to pay for the damage caused by Brexit. It is a shame that they have only just realised that they need to be talking about that.

A Muslim mayor in NYC, that will rattle Trump’s chain!

The attack has yet to be declared as Islamic driven has it? I condem the attack no matter what the motive, if there is one, and he is just not severely mentally ill. If you could be bothered to engage your brain occasionally you would have digested the fact that I have constantly said that I condemn extremist activities no matter who carries them out. Just to spell it out for you so we don’t have to do this again, this includes terrorist activities carried out in the name of Islam. Got it yet? As for posting the article about Samir Zitouri, clearly it had nothing to do with denigrating any other actions taken by any others which helped to save lives. You are the one who has made an issue about the individuals concerned. I mentioned Samir because he is still fighting for his life. I am sure you will join everybody in hoping that this very brave man pulls through. Nothing “pious” about praising a true hero is there, especially when he is seriously wounded? Even Sir Ed Davy called for him (and the other guy, before you accuse me of ignoring him again) to receive the George Cross. Is he a “pious scumbag” too? Why did it offend you so much that I posted the article about Samir? 🤔 Another question for you. If I had only mentioned Stephen Crean would you have kicked off about my not mentioning Samir Zitouri?

We are all aware of the horrific way that the Hamas extremists have treated their prisoners, but apparently when the Israeli’s treat Palestinian prisoners equally horrifically they are “heroes.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/03/israels-top-military-lawyer-arrested-after-she-admitted-leaking-video-of-soldiers-abuse

Once again you are displaying your ignorance so there is no point in replying to you. I will say though that you seem to be very keen for it to be blamed on an Islamic terrorist even though there has been absolutely no indication from the police so far that is the case. As for the hero who saved lives, this is the guy. https://news.sky.com/story/train-company-lner-extremely-proud-of-rail-worker-in-critical-condition-after-mass-stabbing-as-family-call-him-hero-13463705

Tell me what hard work is involved in going to bed with $10b worth of assets and waking up the next morning with $20b worth of assets? Why is it perfectly ok for a small minority of the human beings on this planet to hoard the largest amount of money while the vast majority, most of whom have to do boring mundane jobs, struggle to make ends meet? Some of these people are even struggling to put a roof over the heads of their families and food on the table. Do you think that they can be blamed for their lack of being born with a silver spoon in their mouths, for not having the aptitude to run a business or maybe not have the opportunity? Without the “plebs” of society who consume the goods that businesses provide, there would be far fewer people like you - hence the phrase “we are all in this together.” People like you and Musk will not go down in history kindly. Where are all of the Musk libraries, museums, schools, universities, hospitals etc? He, Trump, Farage etc. are all about what’s in it for them. You sound like you are one of them. Brexit has cost this country a fortune. In an ideal world those who voted for it should pay higher taxes. Because we are supposed to share the burden, we will all need to pay more tax. As usual, those of us mere mortals will face a bigger hit than the rich as we don’t have the means to take advantage of the tax loopholes/avoidance schemes. If the higher burden is placed on the rich, do you really believe that their lifestyles will actually be affected in any meaningful way other than not buying another yacht this year? Do you see the difference in that and not being able to afford £7 for a pint? By the way, apparently 10% of the richest households own 50% of the wealth in the UK. What was that about money trees? Sounds like some have money orchards.

That isn’t what the police are saying so far, but don’t let that stop you jumping to conclusions. You are another hypochondriac (it’s good to know that I only have to worry about Black people carrying knives), you can’t wait to have a dig at minority groups.

I had a few Caravan albums back in the 70’s but never got to see them live. It came as a pleasant surprise then when a mate got us tickets to see the Caravan acoustic trio in Canterbury last Sunday night. The number of octogenarians in the audience was staggering and we wondered if some of them would make it to the end of the gig. The music was excellent and they went down a storm. They didn’t play enough oldies for me but some of the new stuff written during lockdown is worth a listen - from the album It’s None Of Your Business. Pye Hastings’ vocals have suffered from the ravages of time and the quaint English whimsy isn’t there anymore, but there are some strong tracks, well performed.

Another “benefit” Nigel? https://www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/news/brexit-uk-eu-world-travel-tourism-council-b2855226.html#

Everyone that Reform have put in front of a camera so far I have found obnoxious. It isn’t only their views, they are genuinely all very unpleasant human beings (which probably explains why they have the views that they do). Before Blair became the PM I found him to be an oily git. I found Ken Livingston to be an obnoxious character. In fact there are plenty of people left of centre who I find obnoxious. Yes, I found Goodwin’s views to be particularly unpleasant last night but the way he presented himself and his views made him particularly obnoxious in my view. I was unaware of this person’s existence before last night’s QT so I googled him. I was led to a Facebook page where a poster had suggested that he would make a good PM. The number of posts supporting that view was frightening. Apparently he “tells it as it is”, is “well presented”, “says what we are all thinking but are too scared to say” , “he tells the truth.” You get the picture. One person in the audience last night pointed out that he answered every question with a response about immigration. He was spot on, he did. He was arrogant. He lied. He constantly talked over the other panelist’s and shook his head when they disagreed with him. This idea that all of our problems stem from the people arriving here on rubber dinghies (only 4% of the total amount of immigrants) is all they have but they hammer home the point constantly and, as Farage did with Brexit, he has made it the major item on the political agenda as far as a large percentage of the public are concerned. He has no idea how to deal with immigration just as he had no idea how to run the country after Brexit. Farage, Tice, Anderson, Pochin, Jenkyns, Yusuf, Lowe (when he was in Reform and still as an independent), Goodwin, the woman who runs KCC all present as unpleasant individuals who trade in nothing but hate and division.

I have just sat through a particularly unpleasant episode of Question Time thanks to someone called Matt Goodwin who, apparently, works for GB News but is clearly a mouthpiece for Farage. He managed to turn every question asked into an issue about immigration. That included the issue about Prince Andrew losing his Prince moniker! Why is it that everyone I see who represents or speaks for Reform are obnoxious individuals? This guy looks like he would not be out of place in the Nuremberg Trials. So many questions about this but the main ones are how do Reform get so much time on QT when the LibDems have more MPs and why didn’t Fiona Bruce shut him down when he constantly went off topic? He wax asked about Andrew losing his royal title and he went off on one again about immigrants FFS! She was harder on Tandy when at least she was trying to answer the questions put to the panel. Why on earth are we giving air time to these odious individuals?

I quoted Trotsky, I don’t think that he could be referred to a being on the right! I would apply the same criticism to Labour if they were behaving in the same manner as Reform or Badenoch’s Tories. Here is another couple of quotes for you to think about. ”The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.” Elon Musk ”The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism.” Hannah Arendt. There are a few people on here who would agree with Musk, especially those who put laughing emojis on posts about dead women and children. Unless you agree with Musk I would argue that, whatever you think of Labour, they are still a far better option than either Reform or the current Tory Party. I notice that you don’t mention the LibDems as an option. Why is that? Not Musky enough for you maybe? What really saddens me is the number of people saying that they are fed up with the main parties and want to give Farage a chance, as if he hadn’t done enough damage to this country already with his Brexit campaign! They see what is happening in the US and fancy some of that over here, God help us. If you still aren’t convinced that the worst of all options is a vote for Reform, take a look at the mess they are making of running the Kent County Council. If you think that Labour are “pony” you really have no idea how bad things could get under other parties.

To state the obvious, as Labour is currently in power it cannot be a credible alternative to itself. Also stating the obvious, they have only been in government for just over a year and have another four years to go. As much as they haven’t set the world alight so far, to right them off so early is patently ridiculous, especially given the state that the Tories left the country in after 14 years of misrule. Starmer himself has said it will take two terms - ten years - to repair the damage done. As for Reform, let me give you a couple of quotes from the past from people who know something about totalitarianism /populism. This from Hannah Arendt from her 1951 book The Origins of Totalitarianism, “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction no longer exists.” And this from a certain Leon Trotsky, “When the political curve goes down, stupidity dominates social thinking. Once the forces of reaction predominate, so reason gives way to insults and prejudice.” We are seeing this happen in real time in the US under Trump and it is happening here, according to the polls, with more and more people giving their support to Reform (you can add the current Tory Party to that as Badenoch and the likes of Jenrick and Lam fall under the same category). At the moment only Labour, the LibDems and the Greens along with some independents are not on this particularly slippery slope.

This is what you are voting for if you vote Reform. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/reform-wheels-out-danny-kruger-the-brains-of-nigel-farage-s-operation/ar-AA1PmFz7?cvid=6901bf9870144b899d1787f31fee4aa0&ocid=hpmsn

Indeed. It is quite obvious that it has been difficult to deal with people coming across on dinghies and they are hardly being welcomed, they are being dealt with which is something completely different. The idea that Reform could deal with the situation any better is frankly absurd. Farage, in being successful in his campaign to get us out of the EU has made a rod for his own back in that we can’t just send them back to France now.

I’m not defending anyone you cretin. For someone who claims to be so intelligent you really are a clueless idiot. Little wonder you are also a Trump apologist.

Yet still women in this country are more likely to be raped or assaulted by white men. Perhaps those desperate to find fault with people with different religions or colour skins should accept that the problem is men, not specific racial or religious types of men. 40% of the knuckle draggers rioting outside the asylum hotels had “previous” for domestic violence. Farage and his apologists will still have us believe the problem lies in one particular type of man. Or is it the case that these crimes are somehow much worse if they are committed by men with brown skin, immigrants or Muslims?

They will do well elsewhere though judging by the amount of Union and St George’s flags that have appeared on street furniture and motorway bridges recently. Both Tory candidates in adjacent constituencies were kicked out at the last election for Labour but they would go to Reform now. Fortunately there is still plenty of time left for people to realise what a mistake that would be and for Labour to reclaim some ground. The next Budget will be another vote loser but it looks like they are finally prepared to grasp the Brexit nettle and are talking about the financial hit to our economy the leaving of the EU has cost us. This is a cost that we all have to pay sadly, not just those who voted for it. At some point it must dawn of those that we were comprehensively lied to by Farage and Johnson. If they don’t want to vote Labour there are still half decent other parties to vote for or independents. Do we (by we I mean normal, decent people not the nuckledraggers who actually think that these people care about them) really want a poor man’s Trump here doing to us what he is doing to the US?

There is another option of just aiming to win as many matches as possible which will probably result in a mid table position. None of the teams that were relegated last season are setting the division on fire so we don’t have some kind of divine right to go straight back up. SR have spent a lot of money so why blame them. Not all of Spors recruitment have been crap but yes, that could have been better. We don’t have a poor squad. Still needs to find a way to get a tune out of them as he won’t be sacked this side of Christmas. We can call for sackings all day long but is that really the answer? SR own the club and aren’t just going to sell up because a bunch of key board warriors want them too. The fans I know who don’t use social media are unhappy but aren’t calling for mass sackings. At some point we need to understand that getting rid isn’t the answer and just have to live with what we have.

Trump has made it abundantly clear that he wants to find a way to serve a third term. One way to defer the next election is for the US to be involved in a war… https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gp2lxz75eo.amp Meanwhile one of his buddies, Steve Witkoff, has just given an interview in which he said that they had been working on plans to rebuild Gaza for two years. Two years! How did they know the extent of the destruction in Gaza when the IDF had barely started their offensive?

One political commentator mentioned that it was a high turnout and suggested that it was down to voters trying to keep Reform out.

According to Duckhunter’s definition earlier in this thread, all of these people are anti-Semites. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/22/jewish-notables-open-letter-un-sanction-israel Meanwhile… https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/23/marco-rubio-warning-israel-west-bank-donald-trump