Rayvin

Germaine Greer I really hope she isn't on Twitter, for her sake: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/30/germaine-greer-calls-for-punishment-for-to-be-reduced The Guardian will be beside itself with this. " She questioned a statistic which said that 70% of rape victims had suffered post-traumatic stress disorder compared with 20% of conflict veterans. “What the hell are you saying? Something that leaves no sign, no injury, no nothing is more damaging to a woman than seeing your best friend blown up by an IED is to a veteran?”!

Really good deal. £36m to go...

Nice one. Probably the most important one to get done at this point. Any word on the fee?

Trump era politics will be something future generations look back on in the way we look back at dark age medicine.

Makes total sense for them to go that way. Nintendo will never compete for power with PS and X Box, so they may as well clean up with the most overpowered handheld they can.

In which case, as ever, the blame lies on the home front. Presumably we will see an anti-EU backlash in Romania in a generation's time. The EU really needs much better PR.

It does, tbf to the EU, reference the fact that the Romanian government has wasted many of the financial subsidies provided to them by the EU in order to expedite their development. I guess Ireland was far more responsible and put such subsidies to considerably better use? Other than that, how did Ireland manage what it achieved?

Disclaimer - I didn't just wake up today and decide to have a dig at the EU. I remain as committed to it as ever. Just read this article in the Guardian however - it's about Romanians being the second largest non-British nationality in the country. I don't care about that whatsoever, but the article also focuses on the damage this is doing to Romania itself. 3.6m Romanians (probably most of their intelligent young people) are living and working outside of their country, with only 20m remaining. That's actually a big proportion IMO. Is there an argument that while the EU has improved the lot of the individual Romanians by giving them access to better paid work and ensuring their children will grow up citizens of more prosperous countries, it has also thrown their homelands under the bus? This is actually an argument that the right seems to come up with against immigration a lot, and it's interesting to see the Guardian giving it credence. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/30/romanians-uk-tragedy-homeland-corruption-poverty

Fair enough then.

Perhaps another case of the country's rich scapegoating the EU then. Either way, it's not the people the populists are speaking to who are responsible for the shafting of their country. I do think the EU needs to form a response to these challenges because it just looks entirely unchallenged outside of perhaps academia and high brow press - but that's really just preaching to the choir.

Aye, of course they did. Has to be said, they're building him up into something far more powerful than he is capable of being alone.

I think there might be a serious contention that austerity is, but immigration is likely more their own problem from sea based arrivals. Either way, its not like the facts matter to these people - which is why, as i say, the EU has to resist the narrative or just concede the point. Narratives > Truth.

It's starting to look a little grim for the EU in Italy it has to be said... The populists command over 50% of the vote but are split between two parties. Another election in Autumn. How much longer can the EU ignore concerns about austerity and immigration, i wonder. It either has to take them apart head on, or acquiesce.

Has CT actually said he doesn't believe in climate change? In the sense that he said it and meant it, not questioned the evidence for the sake of winding people up. Denying climate change is wolfy level stuff these days, surely.

Not even 12 hours: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2018/may/29/female-critics-male-celebrities-mariella-frostrup Includes "he loves the attention really" and "you owe it to the sisterhood to objectify men" The Guardian is hopeless

Maybe I keep replying because I have a sub-100 IQ? And tbh I would agree with you in general except that I'm not disparaging any poster on here, I was just making a snarky comment about a footballer - essentially the same comment KCG made. I really shouldn't make disparaging comments though, whenever I do I seem to get pulled up on it I guess because it's out of character.

So you have no issue with my view then. Suits me!

Slight difference in that ewerk and Quiff were clearly joking, and you seem to fundamentally have an issue with my view. Which, as you know with me, is always a cause for discussion I like arguing.

Probably true. Sorry.

You think that because I thought it was a stupid way to commemorate his dad's death, that I agree with the Sun getting worked up about it? I expressed an opinion on his statement more than anything I didn't even suggest it made him a bad person, just a stupid one - I was even magnanimous enough to indicate that his stupidity was likely beyond his control

I think it more likely he'll leave in a body bag tbh. Unless he succeeds in being put into solitary again.

We should maybe have a thread on the media or something tbh, but I'm just going to drop in here that Elon Musk has declared war on the MSM He's going to set up a website that allows people to rate the credibility of news articles and the journalists writing them. http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/27/media/elon-musk-press-journalists-attacks-pravda/index.html

Indeed. I've maintained it was pragmatism for a long time, I guess in part because I remained optimistic about the situation, but following the discussion we had on here the other week I have more or less relinquished that position. I wouldn't be surprised if it is ideology. And if it is, it's a depressing statement.

Labour may be overestimating the influence of leave voters in its constituencies: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/may/29/labour-mps-fear-brexit-voters-unfounded-study EDIT - which incidentally does support the notion that Labour should go all in on the single market.

I give the Guardian 2 days before there's an opinion piece explaining to her about how she has internalised misogyny and that it's different when women objectify men because of the power dynamics in play.