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1 hour ago, Renton said:

Post at the top of the page. There's plenty of red faced English patriots who would welcome them with open arms. 


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Time to follow Andrew to NZ if it ever happens 

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5 minutes ago, spongebob toonpants said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqld2n5k733o

 

This is the opposite of reassuring

 

What the fuck are they playing at

 

 

 

 

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See, I've said repeatedly that the customs union is a red herring. The only concievable advantage of Brexit was to be able to have a sovereign trading policy outwith the EU, as Norway and Switzerland have. So to me it makes no sense to rejoin this (although don't get me wrong, I don't think being outside the CU is an advantage in any practical terms). What is absolutely crucial is to be in the regulatory single market. That's what causes us friction, and that is what needs to be prioritised. But that comes with FoM, so is still a non starter for this ridiculously risk averse government. They may change their minds depending on what shit Trump and Musk throw at us though and our economy continues to go down the pan.

My post was more relevant, it shows the people of the UK are not over enamoured with the US model. It's good news for the longer term. 

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Reeves planning to cut sickness benefits in weeks, having identified that they're being used by "people who are too lazy to work" and it's not her/the state's problem.

 

This is presumably a sickness benefit situation that survived 14 years of the Tories because cutting it would be too extreme even for them. Maybe I'm being uncharitable with that though?

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On 29/10/2024 at 15:30, Rayvin said:

 

As I've alluded to before, it's definitely in Gen Z - social media is saturated with it. I hope you're right but I remain worried about it. My younger sister was showing me a video on tiktok the other day about a female influencer who was pushing the idea of being a 'tradwife' (traditional wife), and she's got millions of followers... she's not even directly speaking to the politics of it, and yet she is a soldier in the culture war ultimately.

 

And this goes from bad to worse...

 

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/media/article/gen-z-doubts-about-democracy-laid-bare-in-worrying-survey-vsxx509n3

 

52% prefer authoritarianism, a third want rule by the army, and 47% believe we need some sort of revolution.

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14 minutes ago, Rayvin said:

 

And this goes from bad to worse...

 

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/media/article/gen-z-doubts-about-democracy-laid-bare-in-worrying-survey-vsxx509n3

 

52% prefer authoritarianism, a third want rule by the army, and 47% believe we need some sort of revolution.

Hardly surprising as they are the generation who know nothing but what Insta/TikTok or facebook tell them.

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It's so bizarre. Not too long ago there were hopes that the internet would open up a new world of information and enlightenment. Instead, the literal opposite has happened as we go all full steam ahead on the social media AI train. Choo choo! 

I'm guilty of giving the human race far too much credit. 

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Yes social media is a huge part of it but it's also how fucking worthless our societal offering to Gen Z is. They have no wealth, no prospects, and a country that feels like it's decaying around them - thanks to things like Brexit, but still.

 

That's exactly the breeding ground the Nazi party relied on to win power in the 1930s. Widespread disillusionment, despair and hopelessness. For my view there's nothing we can do now, the actual answers involve actions which would be too radical. They're going to change the scene to suit themselves and in the image of their heroes. The pendulum has fully swung back their way. We just have to hope we live long enough to see it start returning to our side. The online right has defeated the left in all arenas.

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6 minutes ago, Rayvin said:

Yes social media is a huge part of it but it's also how fucking worthless our societal offering to Gen Z is. They have no wealth, no prospects, and a country that feels like it's decaying around them - thanks to things like Brexit, but still.

 

That's exactly the breeding ground the Nazi party relied on to win power in the 1930s. Widespread disillusionment, despair and hopelessness. For my view there's nothing we can do now, the actual answers involve actions which would be too radical. They're going to change the scene to suit themselves and in the image of their heroes. The pendulum has fully swung back their way. We just have to hope we live long enough to see it start returning to our side. The online right has defeated the left in all arenas.

 

I mainly agree. Why is there nothing for young people? Part of it is of course the huge wealth inequalities that keep getting bigger, but part of it is also due to demographics and the welfare state previously being too generous imo.

 

I'm not going into figures but I've been doing my Mum's accounts recently and I am staggered what her pension is. She only ever worked as a part time insurance clerk (no qualifactions beyond GCSE grade C equivalent), but with her state pension and a fair portion of my Dad's pension as a survivor she earns more than a lot of full time professional workers get. Obviously with no mortgage etc. 

Thing is these gold plated pensions have to continue being paid by the young who will never get anything remotely as generous themselves. And of course people are living longer (only recently going in reverse) which is a huge drain on the NHS and social care.  A lot of younger people I know have decided not to have kids, reasonably, as they can't afford the hit without really impacting their quality of life. They get dogs instead. This feeds the population being top heavy with less young to keep the economy going. Which means we need immigration, which breed far right politics amongst an easily manipulated population. 

In South Korea the birth rate is 0.8 now. Youy need 2.1 just to remain stable. The country is predicted to half in population by 2200, which may sound great for climate change but its cataclysmic from a societal pov. 

Rambling here a bit. Basically to function our society needs to constantly grow economically but at some point that just can't happen any more. We're unambiguously at that point now imo. Decline from here in seems inevitable*, things like Brexit and Trump just accelerate it. 

I don't know how - even in a World without bad actors - you fix this. I'm not sure anyone does. But with people like Farage, with social media and increasingly AI, the task does seem hopeless and thankless. 

 

* Tbf CT said as much a decade or more ago. I fucking hate hime being right but.....

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I’d take it with a pinch of salt. The Times is nothing like the publication it once was and is more in line with Mail and Telegraph now 

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17 minutes ago, Alex said:

I’d take it with a pinch of salt. The Times is nothing like the publication it once was and is more in line with Mail and Telegraph now 

 

True. But even if it's only half accurate it's  canny concerning. 

 

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31 minutes ago, Alex said:

I’d take it with a pinch of salt. The Times is nothing like the publication it once was and is more in line with Mail and Telegraph now 

 

It's following on from a Guardian one last week which was less bleak but still bad: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jan/12/one-in-five-britons-aged-18-45-prefer-unelected-leaders-to-democracy-poll-finds

 

But yes, one or two data points isn't the end of the world anyway. It does 'feel' right though.

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Im not in the headspace to add anything useful to the discussion, but our lass is a university lecturer and has been for years.

 

The kids are getting exponentially more stupid, anecdotally.

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