They also stoned pedants to death, in honour of Marduk. Once they stopped that the slow, steady decline to the sad state of affairs we see today started.
there’s an awful lot of smug ‘I’m alright jack’ in this thread
Funny cos I see people recognising how privileged they are and showing concern that not everyone is so lucky.
They also stoned pedants to death, in honour of Marduk. Once they stopped that the slow, steady decline to the sad state of affairs we see today started.
As a 5000 year old Zombie you would say that.
Yeah, there’s an awful lot of smug ‘I’m alright jack’ in this thread.
Well that is one of the biggest problems with the country that has made it like it is.
I'm, alright jack = Conservative voters
More people in country vote conservative that other parties = this is what those people want
The country is not going to get any better while conservative party continues to reign. I actually felt it did get very slightly better under Labour and that was with evil Blair's Labour but the downfall was started by Thatcher and has never gone back.
I think they could do with reading a lot of the other writings of Mr Orwell
I won’t disagree. That one (1984) just felt most pertinent to this conversation - screens feeding you news, and spying on you, isolation, manipulation against a common enemy that never actually threatens a character in the book. Not sure how R101 fits into the conversation but the rest does - possibly R101 is a comment on individual over community.
I think we are a bit more Brave New World.Or perhaps a combination of the two books.
If we're talking comparisons with dystopian fiction, look no further than Demolition Man. It's terrifyingly accurate.
You are Dr Raymond Cocteau and I claim my 3 Sea Shells
Well that is one of the biggest problems with the country that has made it like it is.
I’m, alright jack = Conservative voters
Surely the biggest problem with this country is people who 'aren't' all right Jack but still vote Tory ?
Half the country doesn't vote at all.In local elections round here,turnouts are about 10%.And who could possibly blame them.
Monkey vomit. Fighting over monkey vomit. With fleas.
Surely the biggest problem with this country is people who ‘aren’t’ all right Jack but still vote Tory ?
Maybe, they still don't care about anyone else though. The fact they don't realise they are the people the tories hate is the sad part.
I’m always minded of the idea that some post-WW2 societies might have made the assumption that democracies, relative global peace and relative prosperity were the norm when the last 75 years might instead be the aberration or ‘blip’ in a much longer history of large-scale conflict, inequality of wealth and authoritarian regimes (or at least non-democratic forms of government)…
I had an equivalent conversation a couple of years back and it definitely feels more like it's coming 'true', and seemingly (UK and US at least) voted for by those who'll lose the most.
then we get the madness of King George.
That why the film title didn't have the numeral in it, we're living the sequel.
Perhaps STW can start the revolution.Stranger things have happened.
As our village troubadour - he's WAY better than that label suggests though - says (sings?)...
Hopefully diminishingly smaller in a rear view mirror. Fetid dog shit and McLitter strewn land of bicycle hating entitlement.
Perhaps STW can start the revolution.Stranger things have happened.
At best we could provide sausage rolls and coffee we think might taste good but aren't really sure.
And lots of opinions.
Perhaps STW can start the revolution.Stranger things have happened.
First we must define what revolution means in this day and age. What constitutes a revolution. Apportion blame then then then then change the subject.
I think that the problems we face in Britain are deep rooted. Vested interests, conservatism, a closed mind to any change, a belief that Britain is superior on one hand and yet can’t do anything different on the other, a reluctance to listen to non male, stale and pale voices, a toxic mainstream media, etc, etc means we are kind of stuck making mistakes that make stuff worse and worse.
Brexit is a symptom of all this. So are our car dominated streets, our woeful record in terms of halting biodiversity loss, our expensive rail service, our housing crisis… the fact that we decide we can’t allow publicity owned companies to run services (unless they are of course owned by foreign states).
There are glimmers of hope in Wales and Scotland but we in the devolved nations are stuck dancing to the tune of the likes of Johnson, Gove and Mogg who are seemingly beyond challenge in a broken Westminster system where PR is but a dream.
We are always told that Wales is too small to make it… and I hate nationalism and flag waving but we are trying to make things work here and if I could vote for a change of direction where we go beyond trying I would.
The UK as a whole? Scotland I am sure will get independence sooner rather than later and even across england there are huge differences and pressures. Wales - I don't know which way they will jump.
I do see a grim future for England without proper constitutional reform. The tories dominance of politics for decades has caused great harm and left us looking the poor relations in Europe with much higher poverty. more inequality, poor underfunded services.
I hope for Scotland to take its rightful place in Europe. A small green social democracy on the edge of the continent
I do find it all properly depressing. I try an bear in mind that people of a certain age have probably been grumbling about how everything is going to hell these days since pretty much forever, and it's also probably fair to say that it's only really the last 10 years or so that I've paid much attention to politics. Echo chamber social media is probably a big factor too.
But that said, I think the last few years have made it painfully obvious that many aspects of how the country is run are pretty rotten. The Brexit vote, the fact that someone like Johnson could even get close to becoming PM, the Tory party Republican party-before-country stuff, the absolute lack of shame, the anti-protest bills, Owen Patterson, the fact that we still seem to think a bunch of twerps from Eton really are above us.... It goes on.
I know a lot of this isn't really new, and I might be looking through rose-tinted specs here, but it does seem to me that there is very little consideration and discussion of things in good faith these days compared to say 20 years ago. It's not just disagreeing with people, it's people arguing with you that black is white. I'm not just talking about politics there either.
PR might help but right now it's hard to see that coming any time soon. I could see a united Ireland coming in the near future, and if that happened would you bet against Scotland being next? And I wouldn't blame them.
It’s possible that my future will be in an independent Scotland that is part of the EU and run on social democratic lines. However, I think it’s more likely that we’ll have a referendum in a few years but the majority will vote to remain. Brexit has annoyed a lot of Scots and highlighted a few issues, but it’s also brought home just how hard it is to break up an established union. Scotland in the EU means a border with England and customs checks on the M74. Will a majority really vote for that?
On the broader question; I worry about the Britain my kids will inherit. But my parents worried about me and my grandparents worried about them. That’s just what parents do. In fact the UK is generally a better place than it was when I was growing up (70s and 80s) so maybe it will be better still in 30 years time. The threat of nuclear annihilation seems to have receded. Climate change is the big worry, but if the world is going to get warmer a temperate Northern European country is probably the best place to be. We may all be a bit poorer than we are now but we’ll still be a darn sight better off than most of the planet I expect.
I am out in Spain and was speaking to a Spanish friend yesterday. He used to be in politics here,PSOE party,so a bit like Labour.
We touched on Brexit,and he asked if English people thought themselves superior to everyone else. They always say England,never Reino Unido. Only the older people here have sympathies with Brexit,and thats the immigration point again. Everyone else believes it was madness.
Anyway,onto Boris.My friend said he must have Spanish blood as he behaves just like Spanish politicians. Mired in corruption and lies you just carry on as normal. Boris is seen as a comical inept cartoon character who manages to escape from every tricky situation he puts himself in.
Back to the future,or present. Most of the problems people talk about on here my Spanish neighbour talks about everyday.
We haven't quite reached the brain dulling social media tsunami just yet,and i have so far only seen one McD's wrapper at the side of the road,but its coming.
Now in my 60's,i have seen plenty of governments come and go,and probably apart from Thatchers and Blairs early years,no real change that made a difference. Whether those changes were for the better is another discussion.
The future is bright once the pandemic is over, which is not for a another two years according to my crystal ball, because in other parts of the world they are still wallowing in incompetent governance. If you think UK is bad you should try living in those countries.
The only problem with the developed countries is the self inflicted harm of politicians imposing on the people with their virtue signalling behaviour. i.e. going "green" without thinking through. Yes, we need to take care of the environment etc but there are ways to do it without using too drastic an action. e.g. banning all fossil fueled vehicles etc ...
Regardless, if you have reached the milestone of retirement or able to afford not to work then you should start enjoying life and be happy. Enjoy while you still can coz life is short or limited and with a blink of an eye all your friends or you will be gone from this world.
Perhaps STW can start the revolution.Stranger things have happened.
4chan basically started the insurrection in the US, so you may have point.
We could have Tj and Cougar as the vanguard with binners bringing up the rear.Who could beat that?
Interesting point joeegg,
My sister lived in Madrid for a decade. When Nick Clegg resigned she said all her Spanish friends couldn't understand why he resigned, as no Spanish politician would have dreamt of resigning under any circumstance, especially for something as trivial as a point of principle.
Thatchers and Blairs early years,no real change that made a difference.
The Blair government picked up the baton from the Tories and carried on with slum clearances (Regeneration), RTB sell offs and selling off sections of council estates to private developers with gusto. They blanket condemned perfectly serviceable housing up and down the country (mainly up), in areas which had been intentionally underfunded for years. They paid residents peanuts, less than what a garage costs in some cases! They also accepted fronthanders from developers.
We may all be a bit poorer than we are now but we’ll still be a darn sight better off than most of the planet I expect.
Funny isn't it how we are encouraged to compare ourselves to conditions in third world countries as though we should be bloody grateful, as though no further progression is on the cards. It's like we are being conditioned to put up with any old shite.
When Nick Clegg resigned she said all her Spanish friends couldn’t understand why he resigned, as no Spanish politician would have dreamt of resigning under any circumstance, especially for something as trivial as a point of principle.
I think we can see from his subsequent Facebook career that principle has very little to do with any of his actions.
We may all be a bit poorer than we are now but we’ll still be a darn sight better off than most of the planet I expect.
I think we will all get poorer which would be ok if managed well as many of us are extremely comfortably off, but it will be done in a shitty, chaotic, unfair way which we can see happening already where the fabric of society and our institutions is being ripped away.
