Personal account of a Biologist. General nerd (computer games, physics, Raspberry Pi, tinkering, stats). Likes frogs and fish. Runner. Same handle as on the old place.
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I dunno. I think he feels he has real support for a trumpification of UK politics. His supporters on FB and lots of his reform councillors openly go on about a UK doge. A section of his base want a UK Trump because all they see is action. Not the military on the streets.
Weeeeelll... they're pretty much all charities for a start.....
The question: a) implicitly assumes that there is only one possible legitimate position on immigration; and b) this one legitimate position is that of Farage; while c) demonstrates the questioner's profound lack of impartiality
A great irony for me had been watching people who insist British/ English culture is supreme & must be defended at all costs are unable to grasp a major part of our culture. That obsessive random flag waving outside of specific occasions is quite weird and unbritish, actually.
Updated theory of British political decision making
Ah, yes absolutely.
It was stark to me; coming from my lovely holiday to potters via a route bedecked in flags. There’s an idea of England. And we are poisoning ourselves with it.
That's difficult to balance with the societal aspects which people directly felt far more & have left many lingering repercussions. Governments curtailed freedom in unprecedented ways. There were good reasons for that but the counterfactual of bodies literally piling in the streets weren't felt.
Any science feature writers? We pay £350-450, send your pitches today or tomorrow!
Yes. And that the mass roll out of personal antigen testing was pointless, even when the prevalence was through the roof. There's a difference between a mathematical argument, which can be entirely true, and the actual use scenario which ends up providing a benefit.
One thing I really hope we can leave behind in the 2010s/early 2020s is the idea that being cynical = being wise. If you want to have an impact on the world, that involves being sincere. Yes people will sneer, but sneering has no impact. Genuine sincerity breaks barriers and moves mountains.
I worry that the decades it took to build anti-racism norms are unravelling quite quickly. Clearly the protests/social media drumbeat has created a permission structure that makes people think they can behave like this. Hard to see how it can be easily re-bottled.
Moderna vaccine (www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1... ) 2/2
Yes, it was carefully hidden in the New England Journal of Medicine. Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine (www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1... ) 1/2
What would it take to convince you that they did, in fact, identify as British? Also, it's not just Tikka Masala. Look up 'Phaal' and 'Balti' - both invented in Birmingham (our one, not the one in Alabama) in the 70s & 80s respectively, by British Asian chefs
If I were trying to win elections and arguments, I simply would be doing everything I could to move UK political conversation away from a website run by an avowed enemy who believes and writes this stuff about me:
this is quite embarrassing for you isn’t it, maybe you should buy my book to find out why
It’s racist against British people of Indian and Pakistani origin ya big dummy. They’re British too
Yes. It's quite amusing to be quoted the origin stories by big brained Americans which all amount to "British-Asians adapted the food in Britain where they lived and identified as British in order to make it more British" and claim it's somehow not British.
Oops you've done a racism
I don't mind silly stereotypes about the British - it's the doubling down that's tone deaf, like trying to maintain a position that the French *just are* surrender monkeys after someone has told you that their granddad died fighting the Wehrmacht and they don't find it amusing.
I agree. People definitely seem to feel like they have more permission to be openly racist. I bet a few people have become more racist / radicalised. I just don't think it's gone from 5-30%. Surveys are still showing a lot less racism than the 1960s & even 1990s. But I'd expect a small uptick.
I turn on my TV and a TV presenter is asking a Govt minister why they are talking about rolling out free childcare when the big issue is asylum hotels. This is objectively insane.
I think Chicken Tikka Masala is British
Multigenerational Indian subcontinent & Pakistani immigrants who identify as British - but thanks for lining up with the far right in denying them their nationality
Is it your position that people who emigrate to Britain cannot be British? That’s the mainstream racist view, for sure.
you do realise immigrants become nationals of the country they move to , Otherwise most americans are still immigrants. This is why food discourse on here always has racist overtones
Wait a sec: so a) immigrants aren’t British, b) things they provide as services in their adopted country is theft, c) they've been brought here against their will so we can steal their culinary skills? I’m not sure how you think frankfurters came to the US but they weren’t invented by the Iroquois.
A lot of Americans genuinely can't conceive of non-white immigration as anything other than involuntary. Which says a lot about their history and a lot more about them.
It is amazing just how casual the racism is, coming as part of a pro immigration argument. 'Immigration is really good and important for a society. Also, only white people can be British, lol'
"I'm a cool progressive, who has a more extreme view on race than Nigel Farage."
Just one day of Americans not doing blood and soil nationalism and claiming I am not really British is all I ask for. Will never happen.
"entirely groundless" This is how public discourse is being is being debased. The GFA expressly requires access to court in Northern Ireland for ECHR. But what Straw says is not tested, just repeated, and so a "both sides" "debate" is created. The actualité drowns. Sad to watch in real time.
People's ability to salami slice stuff they don't like off Farage's vehicle is staggering. And he personally is good at skirting the edges and changing at the drop of a hat.
They're harnessing the general nebulous sense of disillusionment, though & microtagetting ppl. So i dont think the underlying racism has changed that much. Seen lots of pensioners on FB sick of flag shagging but still with Farage. The active yobs are v. visible but diff groups get diff messages.
If i don't take notes, my mind drifts, and I fall asleep.
Today (Sat 30th) from 6pm on LBC - Rylan’s ill-informed rant has shown we need to spit some facts on immigration. @zoejardiniere.bsky.social joins me in the studio. - Do we need people like Ed Davey to remind us Trump’s actions aren’t acceptable? - Are you angry? Is social media to blame?
They're chasing a median voter. Farage et al are microtargetting.
UK politics is a bin fire and the EU is justified in waiting for stability. Rejoin is far away and requires consensus. But there's lots around the edges which would be mutually beneficial - as evidenced by some of that already actually happening!
I'm not convinced. The UK was in the EU for fast moving crises eg Eurozone bail outs & was capable of contributing & letting other states provide rapid aid unhindered. Surely the best of both worlds. Germany was an anchor in that situation - understandably looking after domestic interests.
Where does the spoiler from within stop & the difficult but ultimatey constructive discussion start? The UK was often awkward, demanded & had special treatment. But the EU was often stronger for it, & all nations must & do advocate for themselves. You can believe in the project & criticise it.
As you say, rejoin is out for the foreseeable. The point is just that the EU can, in fact, be more agile & UK relns are, in fact, connected to worldwide context not independent. It's silly to isolate so ruthlessly & pretend there wouldn't / isn't any upsides for the EU in a world that has changed.
👇
I used to find Niall's analysis useful to appreciate EU thinking. But he's becoming increasingly engagement baity. This is really disappointing to see. You & Naome consistently emphasise it's not in the UK's gift to rejoin, the EU will decide if it happens & that UK policy is unnecessarily obtuse.
What to do when a twenty-minute conversation fails to provide a proper peg for reply-guy's one-trick grievance? I know! Fillet half a sentence that kinda fits, bullies the woman on the panel - nice bonus - and amplifies a pretty dishonest *version* of what was said. Here is what was actually said.
I love how I can get my first years to chant this!
Lovely pic. I'm wondering if the dry earth is whipping up dust to form nucleation points for water droplets.
Funnily enough our primary recently started OPAL. Having seen the transition I'm fully on board with it and agree it needs to spread to secondary!
Farage & trump are microtargetters. They don't care about pissing some people off because they know the various sections only hear the bit about them. Pensioners get moar pensions, youngsters get memes, fascists get fascism. Starmer is still about the median voter. Trump showed that they're dead.
100% agree.
Good term for it. It's all a frothing mass of opinion. They're intent on spotting the patterns & trying to exploit them. They're good at microtargeting. Pensioners are getting one message, youngsters are getting memes, fascists are getting deportations. Trump showed that the median voter is dead.
Good thread. I think a lot of people on here miss how even Farage is playing catch-up to radicalisation swirls in Twitter and similar.
These were the words I was looking for. "That is not policy. That is barbarism" www.politics.co.uk/mp-comment/2...
do feel like there's a general snap back a little to people wanting to actually touch and see stuff before they buy. We're never going back to the old high street but people are starting to notice there isn't anyone anywhere anymore. Ate in a fast food chain the other day. No staff. Only screens.
It doesn't look smart it looks weird and anachronistic.
Honestly I feel like it's time for school uniform to be modernised. I get the anti bullying argument. I get the preparation for giving a shit about uniformed work. But barely any of the management professionals I know wear full blazer, shirt & tie any more. Tends to be polo shirts or open shirts.
In a year of Labour putting major restrictions on legal immigration to appease immigration focussed voters they have gone from 35% to 19% in polls, immigration is now a higher profile issue, and both right opposition parties have moved to calling, either as leaders or as MPs, for mass deportations.
💥 Nick Thomas-Symonds: "Nigel Farage will take a sledge hammer to any progress we make. And that is purposeful. Because, apart from his pension package, he cannot bring himself to have any relationship with the EU. Nigel Farage wants Britain to fail. His model of politics depends on it." 💥
In all of this talk of deportation I always want to ask: Then what? You’ve scooped up nurses, doctors, teaching assistants, security guards, field labourers. Husbands. Wives. You’ve packed them off to camp. Now what? Who next?
COME TO THINK OF IT There’s 💯 not enough Green Man, maypoling, morris dancers or whatever as part of this English Nationalism kick. Like, what are they even trying to hark back/hold on to?
I think applying this direct liability to all sorts of apps would greatly improve the world in general. If people get maimed & killed "IRL" by e.g theme park rides through indolence, or the operators shrug & say 'welp that can happen i guess' there are consequences.
Eesh. Notts Reform leadership blacklisting both the local paper and the local democracy scheme that covers the council for the BBC. Don’t like this at all www.nottinghampost.com/news/news-op...
This is it now, though, isn't it? Get power, ram through performative stuff. Bark about it. Move on to the next thing as the chaos makes people's lives measurably worse. Rinse & repeat. E.g; The asylum hotels were entirely deliberate. It's energised the base so well it's become someone else's!
Ditto, New Labour echoed and gleefully reminded people of the 'something of the night about him' description of Michael Howard and handed out versions of his CV! They didn't just go 'eh, when the Forced Choice (TM) happens it will be fine'. Need to actually have a plan for the Forced Choice (TM).
One of two very good threads by Adam on this. A startling number of people - responding, in part, by the tone set by their government - just have this very complacent 'oh, no, this plan will never work'. I mean, 1) it could but also 2) they will definitely try.
You don't need to launch a full bore defence of liberal internationalism to be able to question the ethics of sending refugees to their certain deaths.
The thing about the Human Rights Act is that it is actually a very mild piece of legislation. It is often easily sidestepped by courts in practice, and few cases turn on it. It is there for the very occasional hard case. But it is now a Turnip-Ghost, with little connection to legal reality.
“Uniparty”, from someone talking about British politics, always means “I won’t take any responsibility for the government I supported for 14 years”.
Since the "out with foreigners, up with the flag, who cares about foreign wars, let‘s focus on OUR NATION“-school of thought is gaining so much traction in the UK media these days, may I refer you to this map from the 25 Strategic Defence Review. You think you can pull the drawbridge up? Good luck.
To return to my obsession, the joyful hubris that is HBO’s Harry Potter: I think one thing the “it will be good!” posters are missing is just how much streaming has hollowed out the talent pipeline for everything. The top team on this are neophytes because we’ve eroded the career ladder!
Same issue in gaming: we need smaller games that come out quicker that teach people how to do stuff well. Everything is too big! Too time-consuming on both sides (makers and audience)!
See also: the death of the mid-budget movie. How many Hollywood films now get made by directors who jump straight from low budget indie films to blockbusters - and to predictably haphazard results.
See also: Doctor Who.
One of the largest websites on earth, the biggest hub for political and journalistic communication, its owner has transformed into the largest global outlet for violent white supremacy and antisemitism to exist in human history.. and all those politicians and journalists just don’t talk about it.
Pakistani Brits significantly outperform the average in school performance and are much more likely to go to university. So yes just racism from someone else whose mind has been destroyed by twitter.
Jenrick has overshot Reform and ended up at the National Front. Under a leader less pathetic than Badenoch this would be a sacking offence
It's not patriotism. It's not even politics. It's a business model.
I was first gen & was exactly the same, up until my PhD. I basically completed uni withut any aim. There's still a good chunk of students just going because they liked the A level but I worry that these views are discouraging those students & minimising the experience itself which is still valuable.
Stuff like this has increasingly radicalised me against any British industrial strategy that doesn't have tourism as one of its key priorities. There's so much money being left on the table
youtu.be/G56XZxJIlgI?...
The sequel to Adolescence should feature a horrible little Nazi who radicalised himself with grim “history” podcasts
that summit could've been an email
Or even what the immigration requirements are in the UK at the moment?
I mean does he even know who our last prime minister was? Or the Chancellor in 2019/20?
Green is general for us. Blue recycling. I feel like if brown isn't your compostable/ garden then you're definitely a bit weird. But I can see the argument for green if it's just garden. However, I would definitely agree that yours is most logical if you just had to work from first principles.
The extent one might think it valuable to hear from an adversary, platforming Putin's proxies is still worthless because they are joyfully, unapologetically, almost gleefully dishonest. Last thing UK broacasting needs is more talking heads with zero fidelity to the truth and no hint of shame.
"Open Source runs much of the world's critical infrastructure. It powers government services, supports national security, and enables everything from public health systems to elections. This means governments must help fund Open Source." werd.io/funding-open...
Generation side, yes. But once it's produced and being interpreted, all bets are off.
Yes, he has a very lucid and direct writing style that doesn't come across as coddling. Ideal for children / early readers. Mix in the mischief / awfulness and you're on to classic status.
I have been waiting so I can share this with the non-weekend-socials people. It is revealing, terrifying, instructive, important, original - rare enough qualities amidst the clickbait that passes for journalism at the moment. Rarer still, it is splendidly written.
For every 3-4 or so active ones, we have a vegging one. The camping / active ones are almost always a lot cheaper, which is also a factor. The last vegging one was a French caravan site, which helped with the pocket but may not count as veggie enough for some or active enough for others!
Is the controversial take actually that both can be good? A holiday where you're busy organising or doing stuff that *you* want to do in *your own* time on *your* terms can be fantastic & nourishing. As can vegging out entirely, not having to lift a finger or be anywhere at all for two weeks.
Do what you like. Other people doing different things is not a criticism of you.
I feel my relationship with my kids is just about normalising only now. Oldest was 5 when it started. Then 2 years of no ability for firm plans, promises made & broken because of infection. Has been 5 years of fractiousness, mistrust insecurity & defiance. But it's getting back to how it was now.
But but but: what if the sugar yes/no field gets mixed up with the organ donor yes/no field? Hmm?
What seems to have been happening here is that in order to get the fair to middling improvements in output, it has become necessary to throw much more compute at every query, at a rate which has increased faster than the learning curve for the tokens themselves. That ... ain't good.