Post #444,318
7/4/24 11:51:07 PM
7/5/24 12:01:01 AM
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What a wonderful evening
Sunak has officially conceded.
Shapps, Mercer, Mordaunt, Rees-Mogg, and more, all gone.
My constituency has gone red, and not before time.
This is a huge opportunity for the UK to move forward from the politics of “conservative” bullshit onto a less exciting but more competent basis.
I look forward to five years of the most boring politics you can imagine.
ETA: the longer version is that this is the worst election result in UK political history for any party, ever. Sunak’s decision to hold what was effectively a snap election but with a six-week campaign will go down in history as one of the greatest political miscalculations of all time.
He stood on his own cock on a weekly if not daily basis, but if there was one thing that sank the party’s chances, it was when he left the D-Day commemorations early to attend a television interview. We take D-Day very seriously, and there was never any coming back from that.
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Edited by pwhysall
July 5, 2024, 12:01:01 AM EDT
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Post #444,320
7/5/24 12:22:38 AM
7/5/24 12:22:39 AM
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Whither the Tories?
That’s an interesting question.
There’s essentially no senior talent left. What wasn’t purged by Johnson prior to the 2019 election lost their seats. If Sunak doesn’t resign, the 1922 committee will get him. And then what? The Tories are ordering from a menu essentially consisting of:
James Cleverly: nominative undeterminism in action. Kemi Badenoch: the right winger’s right-winger. Problem for the Tory membership* (not the parliamentary party) though - she’s a common, black, woman. Suella Braverman: thick as mince, and the nickname “Cruella” is well-earned. Vicious and reactionary. Again, being a brown woman is problematic for the Priti Patel: Like Braverman, a brown woman with a mean streak a mile wide
But in some ways selecting the leader from a list of the above and people like the above is the least of their worries. Losing 200 MPs means a huge loss of ground game, and it’s ground game that wins elections, even in the social media age. Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats are nipping at their heels from the right and the left wings respectively. They’re not the automatic party of the right anymore, and that’s a huge problem for them.
*The party members have a big hand in selecting the leader, and they skew much older, much more racist, and much more misogynist than the parliamentary party (i.e. the MPs in the Commons)
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Post #444,323
7/5/24 9:33:56 AM
7/5/24 9:33:56 AM
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I gather Mordaunt is out of the running because she was un-elected from the Commons?
Disregarding the speculations about bestowing a peerage on her to get her in that way -- if that disqualifies the Sword Chick, then surely it disqualifies Cruella as well?
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Christian R. Conrad The Man Who Apparently Still Knows Fucking EverythingMail: Same username as at the top left of this post, at iki.fi
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Post #444,326
7/5/24 2:33:21 PM
7/5/24 2:33:21 PM
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Yes
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Post #444,351
7/8/24 1:31:34 AM
7/8/24 1:31:34 AM
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Oh? Too bad. Must have misundertstood, I got the impression she was out too.
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Post #444,324
7/5/24 11:32:17 AM
7/5/24 11:32:17 AM
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“not the automatic party of the right”
Is there, do you think, a possibility that the Tories might find themselves at some point sucked into an engorged Reform UK under the execrable Farange, as the old GOP here has been devoured by Trump?
curd-ially,
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Post #444,327
7/5/24 2:34:22 PM
7/5/24 2:34:22 PM
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It will be messy
Hard to call at this stage. Farage has said he wants to destroy the Tories, the Tories have said they want nothing to do with Farage.
But they’re all lying liars who lie, so.
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Post #444,322
7/5/24 9:30:14 AM
7/5/24 9:30:14 AM
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Naah, he never did.
He stood on his own cock on a weekly if not daily basis You saying it's that long?!?
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Christian R. Conrad The Man Who Apparently Still Knows Fucking EverythingMail: Same username as at the top left of this post, at iki.fi
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Post #444,329
7/5/24 8:50:58 PM
7/5/24 8:50:58 PM
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Prime Minister Keir Starmer made an impressive victory speech.
Alex
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
-- Isaac Asimov
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Post #444,331
7/6/24 1:03:01 AM
7/6/24 1:03:01 AM
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Yes, it was a good speech
Gracious to the outgoing PM, inclusive of all voters, and noting a key change of direction - the government is there to serve the people, not vice versa.
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Post #444,336
7/6/24 12:42:29 PM
7/6/24 12:42:29 PM
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He's already doing some good things. I'll need to adjust my cynicism about him.
https://mastodon.social/@w7voa@journa.host/112740238254434781 - Kills plan to send asylum seakers to Rwanda. (Some critics are saying he killed it because "it doesn't go far enough"...) https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp08y5p52e2o:Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer says he has appointed a CEO known for employing ex-offenders as the new prisons minister because he "walks the walk".
James Timpson, of the Timpson Group, which provides key cutting and shoe repair services, has made a name for himself hiring hundreds of former prisoners. He previously said only a third of people in prison should be there.
During his first news conference as prime minister on Saturday, Sir Keir said Mr Timpson had invested "a huge amount over many years" into rehabilitating offenders and he was "very pleased" to have given him the post. Fingers crossed for the good people of the UK. Cheers, Scott.
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Post #444,332
7/6/24 1:15:22 AM
7/6/24 1:16:29 AM
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The results, geovisualised:
My god, this is beautiful. Note the Tory holdouts are basically large rural constituencies - people have old money, or they have no money. UK constituencies all have roughly the same population, give or take. ![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/02/2024_United_Kingdom_general_election_-_Result.svg/2462px-2024_United_Kingdom_general_election_-_Result.svg.png)
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Edited by pwhysall
July 6, 2024, 01:16:29 AM EDT
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Post #444,335
7/6/24 12:04:24 PM
7/6/24 9:39:07 PM
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About population density
For the last 6 weeks I've been living with my mother in the Philly suburbs. (Taking care of her after my brother had a stroke.) I grew up here, and for the last 30 years I've been living in the suburbs of Cleveland.
On paper, very similar places: Suburbs outside an older urban center. Sure, Philly is larger, but suburbs are suburbs, right?
Not even close.
In Cleveland, as you drive on either highways or major secondary roads you can tell when you're leaving a town/suburb, and then entering the next. Here, the idea of being "between" areas is meaningless. Everything is fully developed. No space left to put anything new without tearing down something old.
In Cleveland you search for a grocery store, or a hardware store, or anything really, you've got the one closest, then within several miles another couple. Here there are several of everything within 5 miles.
In Cleveland there are morning and evening rush hours, and in between there's traffic on the highways but secondary streets are frequently pretty empty. Here, I haven't seen a time that I went even a minute without other cars passing, except down here at the end of the dead-end we live on.
Now here's the part that people from rural areas won't understand, or believe. People are more considerate here. Maybe not more "polite" when talking to them. But take driving for instance.
In my neighborhood in Cleveland you're only allowed to park on one side of the street. This leaves enough room for two narrow lanes for two-way traffic. Here, the streets are even narrower, twisting instead of straight, and you can park on both sides. If you're facing an oncoming car, whichever of you has a gap on your side pulls over and lets the other person go. People take turns. It wouldn't work if you didn't.
Sure, people still merge onto the freeway like assholes, but everyone eventually gets on. But in the places where it really matters, where you have to either share or things completely break down, people share. And the hand wave when you pass the other person who let you in is universal.
My wife has cousins from rural western Pennsylvania who came to visit us in Cleveland and hated how busy and congested everything was. If they came out to Philly they'd run screaming by the second day.
These are the people who refuse to compromise in politics. They refuse to see the value of shared resources. They refuse to help other people unless they get something out of it. We try to tell them that where we live if it's good for one of us it's good for most of us. They don't want that.
They wouldn't want to live here and don't understand why we do. They think there's something wrong with us. If we were thinking straight, we'd want to move to the country like them. So why would they ever want to listen to us?
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Edited by drook
July 6, 2024, 09:39:07 PM EDT
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Post #444,337
7/6/24 2:32:48 PM
7/6/24 2:46:27 PM
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Population density equals service possibility
Live close to a bunch of medical schools and you have some serious expertise and choices.
I've been raised to believe I need hospitals and expertise around the corner from me. I don't think so.
I've had one need for a hospital here and it was not an unpleasant experience. I was attended to immediately and well. I've been to emergency many time in Philly area hospitals and I've had to camp out.
As you pointed out, you have five of everything everywhere, that's because of population density. You also have delivery.
I have no delivery out here other than Amazon, UPS, etc. There is no Chinese. There is no pizza. There is no delivery of any kind.
There is also an incredible limited number of service professionals. There's three plumbers within driving distance and they all have a 6-month wait. Same thing with electricians and contractors of any sort. When they finally show up they do half the job and then they leave for a month. And you're lucky to have them. I cultivated a relationship with a couple of younger independents that I was very lucky to find. But my prime contractor ghosted me.
You know those home repair insurance coverage services? In previous houses we were covered and used them and there was great financial payback. We were safe and secure and things got fixed. Not here. They are happy to sell you the contract. But when it comes time to fix anything they actually can't find someone. So then they say we will allocate a very minimal amount for you to go find someone and deal it with it yourself. The low amount is never the amounted ultimately ends up being and you are expected to pay the difference.
M tried to sign up to be an Uber driver when we first got here. They responded that there were too many drivers in our area. Except I can't get an Uber here. No Uber eats, no Lyft, etc. In their case too many is more than zero, so I guess their system can't admit to a non-coverage area.
I watch M's phone when she sleeps for any guest issues. I just saw an advertisement for Uber eats pop-up. Those bastards
On the other hand, while the rest of the country is roasting, it's 80° here. And that's a high. The downstairs of the house is cool from the night before and the upstairs is easily cooled with fans. There is a constant light cooling breeze from the ocean side. Nights are low enough for open window sleeping temperatures.
The compromise is worth it.
I remember being scared on your Cleveland highways. When I visited you. The cars were going much faster than I was comfortable. But not nearly as fast as Michigan. That was terrifying. I grew up in the Philly area and I know the hand wave. For the most part we are happy drivers unless there's construction on the Schuylkill or on 95.
And we know how to politely save spaces after we've shoveled the snow out on those tight streets. At least some of us.
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Edited by crazy
July 6, 2024, 02:46:27 PM EDT
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Post #444,339
7/6/24 9:36:35 PM
7/6/24 9:36:35 PM
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Yeah, parking is a bloodsport downtown
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Post #444,340
7/7/24 12:08:11 AM
7/7/24 12:08:11 AM
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Downtown? Hah!
I'm talking Kensington. Where I lived in my brother's basement for a year. Where M is from.
Where the crack of the crack bottle underfoot is omnipresent. Or whatever else they store in it nowadays.
You know any bloodier places? In the US?
And I don't mean that p**** fish town. I'm talking the inner k&a blocks.
And keep in mind I lived in Trenton. And Trenton is not nearly as dangerous as Kensington.
In those days when one house on the block fell to a crack house, the rest folded very quickly as the people abandoned. The ones moving in would kill you for a parking spot.
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Post #444,342
7/7/24 11:39:44 AM
7/7/24 11:39:44 AM
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You people used "turning lanes" for parking
Craziest shit I've ever seen. Cars just parked in the middle of the street.
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Post #444,344
7/7/24 11:56:17 AM
7/7/24 11:56:17 AM
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Oi. This is the UK Genny Lec thread, not the "my neighbourhood was worse than yours" thread.
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Post #444,346
7/7/24 12:18:15 PM
7/7/24 12:18:15 PM
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So you're asking Scott to re-implment "reply as new topic"?
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Post #444,348
7/7/24 12:57:19 PM
7/7/24 12:57:19 PM
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As any softie kno, re-implementation is the best implementation
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Post #444,355
7/8/24 10:25:32 AM
7/8/24 10:25:32 AM
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Reimplementation is too dangerous
This codebase is so old at this point that the temptation to do a rewrite would be all-consuming.
Regards, -scott Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
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