Comments by "" (@alicemerray) on "Pod Save the World" channel.

  1. It was a mis-step by Starmer. There were ways he could have side-stepped the issue, just said something like 'we will be reviewing everything', but he is, as you say, pandering to the (entirely too many) people who think this is a good policy *because they haven't thought it through at all*! It is incredibly easy to end up with more than 2 kids without in any way being "feckless" - unexpected twins or a blended family just for starters - and we should NEVER be making the children suffer. It's also not that easy to get a job if you also need childcare. He's appealing to the idiot in the pub, grousing about "scroungers" - most people on these benefits already have one person in work! I for one am fed up to the back teeth of politics that caters to these people. The ones that 364 days out of 365 have no interest in politics but apparently will vote, or so the politicians seem to think, so they tailor every statement to them. I think Starmer is in danger of turning progressives off and because his win is supposedly 'locked in' we'll stay home or protest vote Lib Dem or Green and he won't get a majority or may even lose. It's not that big a task to argue for dropping this heinous policy and the fact that he won't even try really disgusts me.
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  2. I knew the "one bad apple" thing would come up in the policing discussion. Your guest was right to say the barrel is rotten, that's the point. The whole saying, which hardly anyone ever completes when they're busy trying to deploy it as an excuse, is: One bad apple *spoils the whole barrel*. In other words, if bad behaviour is left unchecked it DOES ruin the whole organisation! The likes of Cressida Dick don't realise what they are actually saying when they half use this phrase.
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  3. It speaks volumes to me when someone who grows up in poverty like Dorries joins the Tories. Basically it says that, having been poor, she now intends to align herself with the rich and do everything she can to enrich herself so she never has to experience being poor again. It's an understandable reaction, but it doesn't say much for her character. Instead of working with the political party that would like to help the poor, she's joined the one that basically doesn't give a damn about them. She's also stupid, if she can stand there and exclude Johnson from her cabal of "posh boys". Exactly who does she think he is? I also wish people like Coco (& I have heard several commentators say this sort of thing) would stop saying things like "She's so interesting" or in one case "I lover her, she's such fun". She's nothing of the sort. Dorries is nasty, selfish & potentially dangerous.
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  4. Neal is spot on about Labour taking voters for granted. I feel VERY taken for granted at the moment, as a Remainer who is in favour of civil liberties and not allowing children to starve. I am far more tempted at the moment by the offer from the Greens. I may or may not find there's a Green candidate in my area (which is still Brexity and very Tory) but if there is that option, I'll be honest, I'm going to be tempted. If I do vote Labour, it won't be a vote for them, it'll be against the Tories and that doesn't fill me with political fervour.
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  5. One of the maddening things about the Uxbridge result & Labour's obsession with it is that Labour has apparently NEVER won that seat. Not even in the Blair landslide. So holding the Tories to under 500 votes is actually a damn good result!
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  6. More people in the UK need to recognise that one day, probably due to climate change, it could be US who are the refugees. I'm not religious at all, but that saying "There, but for the grace of god, go I" is something we need to absorb.
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  7. I thought that too. The science advisers were laughing at the stupidity of the politicians.
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  8. George is spot on about the zombie doctrine the Tories and others are treating as holy writ.
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  9. The Trussell Trust is doing good work (& also should not exist - completely agree with Coco about those pics of MPs opening new food banks). However, it is also a religious-based organisation, founded on 'Christian' principles. Now they might never let that get in the way of them helping everyone they can, but we have evidence, largely from the US, that leaving too much charity to religious groups can lead to discrimination when they are called upon to help people they don't agree with. So I prefer to give to Fare Share, an offshoot of Crisis, which so far seems to have no religious aspect.
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  10. As a bare minimum we need transparency in political donations. No one should be able to donate anonymously. I would also like to see proper rules around donors having to be living here, or at least entitled to vote here. I would probably disallow corporate donations - they already hire lobbyists when they want to push policy - and limit amounts. We definitely need to keep our elections cheap!
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  11. Sunak's trip is more about trying to wrap himself in the mantle of 'leader during wartime' to bolster his failing status here than anything else. Can't believe he was anything other than an annoyance to those in the region, though of course they'd never say that. But the UK is pretty much meaningless in this. It's the USA that matters.
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  12. There are two main things that I would like to see happen to GB News (other than for it to fail ignominiously as a business & just close down): firstly, sitting MPs HAVE to stop being employed there. As I understand depending on exactly how this happens it can actually be a breach of OFCOM rules, but even if it isn't, it's just giving certain MPs a bully pulpit of what amounts to a TV channel of their own. A permanent party political broadcast where they say whatever they like, with no pushback, and then even if the audience for the the channel isn't huge, proper channels & newspapers clip the most click-baity bits and disseminate them far and wide. Secondly, they need a name change forced on them. It is NOT a news channel, it's right wing propaganda, much of it flat out lies.
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  13. Dorries is an example of someone who knows from experience how hard life can be yet, having finally done OK, has decided not to join the party that tries to make things better but the one that exploits the poor. She's alright, Jack, pull up the ladder. What a revolting attitude.
    5
  14. The line about 'if we have PR, extreme RW parties will get in' is a red herring. There are extreme right wingers in Parliament now but they're calling themselves Tories. Many were UKIP before 2019. The point with PR is that there's no longer a need to have each party be a "broad church", which sounds lovely but what you actually get is what we see now with the various factions in the two main parties at each other's throats. So instead, there'd probably be a really lefty, Corbyn-style party, an equally RW Suella Braverman (or Farage) party and various others - the Greens and Lib Dems, some centrist or even single issue parties; you can imagine. Tories purged or who left due to Johnson and Brexit would probably create some sort of One Nation Conservative party. Both Labour and Conservative would probably be somewhere in the centre. Then people can vote for a platform they believe in completely (or near offer, because I imagine we would still be up against the limits of some constituencies not having every party fielding a candidate) and yes, maybe one or two extreme RW would get in but a) we'd get to see what those policies really attract in terms of votes and b) they wouldn't be able to hide behind the Conservative name any more. If you look at the Labour or Tory manifestos, (when we get them) how many people who have really no choice but to vote for one or the other under the current system are actually reading the platform offered and grimacing as they see policy after policy they *don't really want*? PR is designed to mitigate that. It lets you actually vote for people who represent your beliefs.
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  15. Found the phone but not the body (which is what I'm reading on Friday) sounds like all those thriller movies we've all watched.
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  16. As with football (soccer) and the World Cup or teams that these unpleasant people have bought, the ONLY thing they will understand is if people STOP WATCHING. I know people love sports (tbh I don't) but the money from tickets and so on is ALL these people want. If fans stop supporting them, they fall. At some point you have to decide if fellow humans mean more to you than a few hours watching sport.
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  17. Will is spot on about changing the Commons - Parliament in general - to a modern purpose-built building. The whole thing is on the verge of falling down anyway and MPs have been dithering about getting it fixed for literal decades, purchasing costly report after report. Every report says it needs a vast overhaul or even to start again from scratch and enough of the MPs don't fancy that, so they dismiss that report and commission another - at OUR expense. F-ing Rees-Mogg wants any repairs to be done with MPs staying in the building throughout which adds MILLIONS and YEARS to the estimated costs! It's an appalling shambles.
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  18. There definitely need to be prosecutions in the PO case. The PO and Fujitsu LIED at least twice (but repeatedly) when they said no one else had access to the system (utter nonsense to anyone who has the slightest familiarity with computer systems - how do you do updates if you don't have access?) and when they told the subpostmasters over and over again "you're the only one who is having problems".
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  19. Agreed. Obviously, most years 11th isn't either a Sunday or a Saturday, but I have NO memory of ever stopping for a silence either at school or work (I'm now retired). Neither has my OH. It was always all about Remembrance Sunday, the nearest Sunday to 11th. Individuals or some groups may have marked the actual Armistice, and I have zero problem with that, but it was very much a choice (so is marking RS, but YKWIM). In recent days we have seen one 'newspaper' describe this coming couple of days as 'our sacred weekend', when it's nothing of the sort. I for one believe most of those who fought and died for our freedoms would be appalled by this feverish nonsense. I also wonder if charitable organisations are the ones actually benefiting from all the poppy 'merch' that exists now?
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  20. There's an excellent audio podcast called Origin Story, which not so long ago looked at the "War on Drugs". Come to find out, the UK actually had quite a sane, compassionate policy up till (IIRC) the 60s-ish, but the USA was furious and pressurised the UK to change it and wrecked the whole thing.
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  21. I really agree about the big tent thing re Labour's current positioning. So many people seem to forget that in 2017 Labour nearly won, with Corbyn in charge. Theresa May had to bribe the DUP to support her to be able to form a Government. Left wing, Corbyn-style policies are popular and there's a swathe of people, especially the young, who the current lurch right-wards is frustrating enormously. Those people are, like Coco (& me) seriously considering voting Green, others may just stay at home and not vote at all. That's how Labour end up without a majority, certainly not a huge one. I actually think that might not be entirely bad; it never seems to end well when a Govt doesn't have to listen, but it's clearly not what they're trying for.
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  22. I take Andy Burnham's point, and agree, that asking him if he would return to Westminster sort of implies that it is the BEST or ONLY place to do real politics. However, many of us also wonder or hope that he might return there because we don't live in Manchester and we envy having a decent politician influencing what goes on in our lives! OTOH, I do think returning would have a chilling effect on how he conducts the day to day of his political work and there probably ought to be a real discussion about why that is.
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  23. That sign was not only racist, it was stupid. What about bananas? Or egg sandwiches? Both typical 'snack' foods that someone might consider taking into the library and both of which stink!
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  24. Indeed. The potential for future unrest if the inequality gap just keeps increasing is huge and there comes a point when even things like gated communities won't be enough to protect the wealthy from the people they've essentially dismissed. Many speculative fiction writers have suggested what might happen, but actual history also shows it can.
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  25. You missed a couple of elements of the King's Speech performance out. The way the doors of the Commons are deliberately slammed shut at the last moment in Black Rod's face and the performatively rowdy way the MPs make their way up to the Lords chamber. It's all supposed to symbolise how the Commons is really in charge and they're going to listen to the King under protest.
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  26. It would have been interesting to hear Mhairi's view on how the actual implementation of Brexit - ie a total shambles with problem after problem rearing its head - has coloured views of a possible independence. Surely even the most ardent indie must be thinking the whole exercise would have to be undertaken really quite slowly and carefully, not like Brexit which is frankly even worse than it would have been (though it was never going to be good) because it was rushed through to give Johnson a win.
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  27. Please can we all make an effort to dump the phrase "The great and the good" forever? The people it refers to are usually neither great nor good.
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  28. As a question of format, I don't think it's a good idea to have the guest, particularly if they're a politician, present for the whole show. Natural politeness means that Nish & Coco are more likely to pull their punches a bit compared to if they can discuss an issue without the guest present. The format PSA uses is better, with an interview 'slot'. I'm not impressed with Thornberry anyway at the moment, given her position on the way the Govt have tried to alter the Public Order Bill using a Statutory Instrument, which she seemed to wilfully misunderstand and wouldn't back the Fatal Motion in the Lords, dismissing it as the Lords trying to alter the Bill. NO. The Lords were trying to PROTECT something Parliament had already told the Govt NOT to do.
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  29. I saw an actual expert in this concrete issue say on twitter that a Crunchie bar was their preferred comparison. To be clear, that's not *better*! I don't believe Keegan was caught out by a hot mic. Her hands move toward the mic as if to remove it then she stops, and says her lines instead. I think she thought she'd get 30p Lee-style 'hard man' kudos. So poor judgement but not an accident. The Tories do have to own this, because when they got in initially, they gleefully abandoned Labour's school rebuilding programme. In fact, IIRC, Gove was even told by the courts he'd been unlawful in doing so, though nothing seems to have come of that.
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  30. Nish, pretty sure that party was a fairly standard affair for Hooray Henry types who spad for Tories.
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  31. I find Badenoch (or Bad Enoch) very dangerous, as she's outwardly appealing: she looks like a young, slightly hip Mum. But her beliefs and rhetoric are revolting and far too much in thrall to the worst of US politics. I very much hope the Prof loses his bet!
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  32. Honestly Coco, we may have been taking it more seriously, but we in no way sent the best song or performer to Eurovision this year.
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  33. I recognise that Mr. Powlesland IS an activist and a lawyer (barrister specifically), but I'm pretty sure that when you used the term beloved of our authoritarian govt "activist lawyer", which they use to describe any lawyer competent enough to get a ruling against the govt for their client, or that the govt doesn't like, you were being ironic and mentally at least using air quotes. Viewers/listeners from outside the UK might not get that, so it might be an idea to explain at some point.
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  34. I'm watching this after the event and apparently Sunak wimped out and didn't even try to throw the first pitch. Which is totally what I (a UK resident) expected. He IS a wimp.
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  35. Lawrence Block's Hit Man books have as a main character a hit man who collects stamps. It'd actually be a great role for Jason Statham!
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  36. One of the things the newspapers were doing throughout the Post Office Scandal was printing headlines about 'fraudsters stealing from pensioners' and the like, pandering to a certain part of their readership that loves to hear of wrongdoers getting banged up. Hardly any of them seem to have been paying any attention to any defences the postmasters put up - I realise many were intimidated into pleading guilty to try to avoid custodial sentences - and they mostly showed a real failure of proper journalistic curiosity.
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  37. As I understand it, the Dutch govt collapse was brought about by a rare instance of a party with Christian in its name actually refusing to go along with something demonstrably un-Christian, ie the preventing of children from reuniting with their parents. It's far more usual to find the "Christian" parties having some of the nastier policies, IMO.
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  38. An awful lot of people are basically pinning their hopes on the idea that Labour are LYING to get in. Exactly how do they think that will go down with the RW, the Press and with people who don't usually vote Labour? It pretty much guarantees one term, when Labour are banking on getting at least two as they keep punting all the good policies into this second term (when they haven't even got one yet). It's crazy.
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  39. I loved it but I was about 8 and really wasn't getting the subtext. It was just people being clever to help someone in trouble. More recent viewing was more problematic, as I spotted all the many and various issues. It did engender a lasting love of 'caper' movies and TV though.
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  40. As someone older than Coco and Nish, I don't think anyone wrote on shirts at the end of school either. Certainly not mine or any of my friends. We did collect autographs, or some of us did. Year books however are NOT a thing here, or they weren't. We have imported the idea of the "Prom" - unheard of when I was at school, much to my relief as it's exactly the sort of event I loathe - and we've all seen year books turn up on US TV and movies, so it wouldn't surprise me if the idea has crossed the pond. I haven't heard of it though, whereas I have heard about Proms.
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  41. Coco, was it turnip -small, purple/white - or turnip ie swede - largish, orange on the inside?
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  42. The people's primary idea sounds great however I suspect the political parties would stamp on it if it was attempted in too many places. As George Monbiot pointed out, the Lib Dems tried to stop it in Devon, but they happened to have a candidate who was OK with it. That won't be true in many places.
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  43. Watching this at a time when we *know*, unlike I think Nish, Coco & Dr Khan at the time, that Wine-time Fridays, and parties of all sorts NEVER STOPPED in Number 10 throughout lockdown. Social distancing was not practiced and masks were not worn. Instead, people were told to watch out for the cameras when entering/leaving the building. That tells you EVERYTHING about Johnson and the rest of this shabby cabal that pretended to be Govt.
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  44. Braverman isn't a leader, she's a populist authoritarian who wants more and more power. She's disgusting and dangerous.
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  45. You let Johnson off the hook slightly by saying the suspension would have led to a by election. The whole point is that it MIGHT have done, but he had several opportunities to try to stave that off and he fled (resigned) rather than try any of them, like the coward he is. First, the House of Commons had to vote (still does, on Monday) on whether to accept the Committee's recommendation and Johnson would have been allowed to put his case to try to persuade them not to. Even then, a by election would only take place if his constituency raised a petition to hold one, again allowing him space to try to persuade people and FINALLY he could of course try to win the seat back. He has done none of that. He can dish it out, but he can't take it, so he's run off to write for the Daily Heil instead. No one should ever listen to this lying liar ever again. He should not get a resignation "honours" list (or it should be revoked), he shouldn't get the former PM stipend and he should be told not to turn up at future events that former PMs usually attend (eg the Cenotaph) like a bad smell. Enough.
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  46. Jenrick is married to someone whose family are Holocaust Survivors. Wonder what they think of him?
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  47. Very rich people like Sunak, Trump, Musk, think they will somehow be protected from the results of climate change so they aren't fussed about it, certainly not enough to change their lives in ways they don't like. They just think a few plebs like us will die. I don't think any major steps will be made on the climate until a catastrophe does affect the ruling classes. As for JSO protesting at sports events &c - do the sport people actually think their idiotic events are going to carry on when the planet burns? Obviously protesting at these events is absolutely a thing a group like JSO will do, it's how they get seen.
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  48.  @stephenwood2172  Indeed. In 2017 and 2019, Labour got almost the same number of votes, they just fell differently in seats. So in '17, they held May to such a small majority she had to basically buy the DUP to stay in power but in '19, Johnson got a big majority. But it's a myth that overall people didn't want the left wing policies.
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  49. Jenrick didn't 'admit' that dealing with the backlog would make coming here more attractive, he claimed it. In other words this is the latest nonsense they're trotting out to try to excuse their HUGE FAILURES AS A SO-CALLED GOVT! People don't think about how long their claims will take to process when they decide to try to come here. They have all sorts of other reasons, usually to do with speaking English or knowing someone who is already here. But they aren't going to know there's an admin problem!
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  50. Not for the first time, I'm left thinking that the main threat to the UK is the Daily Mail and its ilk. Nothing sensible is ever going to get done while they're whipping up the hang 'em and flog 'em brigade. We need something like citizens' juries for a subject like prisons & sentencing policy, in which large groups of ordinary people are properly informed about the issue and then vote on action. There were some in Northern Ireland about abortion, IIRC. It takes the rabid press out of the equation (to some extent) and also helps to bolster your average cowardly MP who is only going to do what the press tell them to do.
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  51. Nice try by Andy, but it's far more likely to be the owners of luxury flats who can also afford to go to court to try to get a music venue closed. Having moved in when the venue already existed though, really ought to be a slam dunk for the case failing.
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  52. We need to import the approach to libel/slander that the US uses, as it seems to allow more for ordinary people to accuse public figures without having to fear legal action. I have heard legal podcasts discuss how this works but IANAL so can't remember the details. But our system clearly favours the wrong-doer as it isn't just the people directly affected by an abuser who are in fear it is the larger organisations too. That's why places like C4 and the BBC don't like to take action, as they fear the courts. They've got, as they see it, a lot of rumours, a few actual complaints - usually without witnesses - and a "star" with a fearsome legal team. So they take the easy way out. They stop putting staff in harm's way, they stop hiring the "star" but they basically just wash their hands and nothing is done about the actual problem.
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  53. I wonder if there's any possibility of change due to the designated next monarch not wanting to do it? As was pointed out, it doesn't seem like much fun a lot of the time. William seems to be on board, or at least resigned, but what about George? Sure he'll be brought up to think he has no real choice, but that might still not be enough to lock him in. We also need to stop speaking of the reduced-style monarchies of places like Denmark in disparaging terms like "bicycling monarchs" - wtf is wrong with them travelling like regular people?! - before real change can occur. Clive Lewis makes an excellent point about the symbolism of the monarchy. It sends a message of fundamental inequality to the whole country and, of course having a monarch also allows for there to be further ranks of hierarchy - dukes, barons, marquesses &c - all of whom expect to be treated a certain way due purely to accidents of birth (& if you go back far enough, probably to robbery with violence as that's how many of their ancestors got those positions way back when). It's clearly not true that any American child can become President, but the fact that it's sent as a message to the population must be a good thing.
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  54. I think it looks much worse on Charles, or any man, because he looks like a character from a light opera about a tinpot Ruritanian country, or worse, like a dictator in the style of Idi Amin or Quaddafi - one of those who has awarded himself a ton of medals. The Queen, on the other hand, was basically wearing an evening dress of the type (if not the style) a lot of women still wear quite often. Not at lunchtime perhaps, but occasionally during daylight hours if the occasion calls for it. He looks like a loony, she just looked over-dressed.
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  55. You'll get a lot of people saying nationalised industries were crap, badly run &c and to some extent it is true. The thing is, it used to be that the people at the top of these organisations were just appointed by central govt, on a sort of Buggins' Turn basis. Instead, any industries we re-nationalise need to continue to be run almost as though they were private - competitive (but not excessive) salaries for executives, who are appointed after a rigorous interview process and who are told to make the company work properly. Who don't have to report to some committee every five minutes for permission to bring in a new product, or service. They should even try to be 'profitable' in many ways, it's just that those profits would all be ploughed back into the business, not paid out to shareholders.
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  56. An ex-pat is someone who has been sent abroad for work or possibly study, possibly for quite a long time like diplomatic staff, but they are always on a time limited stay. If you've moved to live in another country permanently, you have migrated and that's that. You're an immigrant to that country. You've emigrated from the one you were (probably) born in.
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