Youtube comments of (@charliemoore2551).

  1. "The lack of empathy shocks me". This guy just doesn't get it. The victim had become rich through his lack of empathy. He had made his company more profitable by literally condemning people to death. And he's shocked by the fact that someone has decided that there should be consequences for his callousness? His lack of empathy shocks me!
    726
  2. It's a bit like a spoiled 10-year-old taking the controls of a large articulated lorry on a busy motorway. He doesn't know where he's going, he doesn't know what he's carrying, he doesn't understand the controls and he doesn't care about anyone else on the road. The only thing predictable about the outcome is that it's not going to be good for anyone.
    527
  3. My goodness. I can feel the bile rising in my throat every time this guy speaks. He is truly evil.
    451
  4. At the beginning of the First World War, British newspapers published stories of German and Austrian atrocities in Belgium. The one that has stuck in WWI folklore is that of Prussian soldiers laughing while tossing babies to each other on their bayonets. It was so ingrained that I remember my primary school headmaster, who had been a child at the time, recounting it to us as if it were fact. There is no evidence anywhere that such incidents ever happened but once the tale has been told it seems impossible to untell. The Israeli government knows this. These stories were concocted in the knowledge that the anger they provoked would make it well nigh impossible to challenge them once they had gained momentum. Similar techniques were used in Ukraine. It's very important that we continue to point out that no evidence exists so that these lies do not morph into historical "fact".
    308
  5. Isn't it illegal for a convicted felon to vote in Florida?
    297
  6. "Love" child? "Love" is not a word you use to refer to anything to do with Donald Trump.
    297
  7. He is so calm and dispassionate as he lies about a cold-blooded massacre. This is about as evil as it's possible to get.
    275
  8. Yes. Friedman called it "creative chaos": shock doctrine. They tried it in Chile. It was the most prosperous state in Latin America. They had decent health and education provision, workers had good wages, good working conditions and pensions and they were effectively progressing in parallel with European states. That was all torn down and privatised with the promise that the market would provide all of that and more. It didn't. They got massive levels of unemployment, pensions were stolen and Chile saw terrible poverty and deprivation. All of this was enforced by a murderous military regime, of course. I suspect that Musk and the cabal of billionaires who own Trump are hoping for a similar breakdown so that they can enforce their own version of order from above.
    236
  9. The hypocrisy actually has a smell of its own.
    223
  10. I love this lady. Such arrogance and entitlement from this faux Labour candidate: "We're allowed to go out on the streets and talk to people; you're not." Stick it to him, lady!
    169
  11. The most important feature of all capitalism is that it is not the capitalist who creates the value. It is the worker. But the bulk of those billions that have gone into creating ChatGPT haven't gone to those workers. They have gone to those who owned the capital at all stages. No wonder the costs are so high when so many idle palms have to be filled along the way.
    147
  12. Never mind Starmer welcoming Elphicke. The real story is that an extreme-right Tory is quite happy to endorse Starmer. If she thinks he's OK, that's all you need to know!
    135
  13. Decapitation has been a feature of colonial wars against liberation movements since the Netherlands fought for its independence from Spain. The British did it in India, the Dutch did it in Indonesia, the French in Algeria, the Portuguese in Mozambique and Angola, and so on. It doesn't work. It's never worked for Israel. Both Sinwar and Nasrallah were replacements for predecessors who were assassinated. Their successors will probably meet a similar fate one day. It's never made the slightest difference and it never will.
    131
  14. 7 child sex groomers were sentenced yesterday in Glasgow. None of them came from "peasant" communities anywhere. They were all white Brits. The problem is poverty and a police force that doesn't think protecting the poor and disadvantaged is part of its job. It's nothing to do with the religion, "race" or class of the perpetrators
    126
  15. Of course they are brazen. They know that they have the support of Genocide Joe and his retinue of EU and UK fellow genocidists. Hopefully, someone will take them to court for their part in these war crimes. I can't feel anything but contempt for them.
    124
  16. The mendacity is astounding - even for Israel and the US.
    109
  17. Frightening. Really frightening. If George Orwell was alive now, he would no longer support his beloved Labour Party.
    103
  18. The most moral army has no idea what morality is!
    103
  19. My son lived in Jordan for the placement part of his Arabic degree. He noted a tension between loyalty to the monarchy and opposition to Israel. It is one of the most conservative of all the Arab countries but there is a limit to how much the population will put up with Israeli outrages. The monarch has to walk a fine line between serving his US backers and not pushing his population into getting rid of him.
    97
  20. With thousands of hours of personal body camera footage, they have not been able to provide evidence of one single rape. In the case of the lady who was photographed with her clothes arranged as if she'd been gang raped, the victim's family confirmed that they'd been speaking to her 4 minutes before she was found dying (and not raped) by a family friend who was also at the festival. The gruesome gang rape and murder described by an eyewitness for the New York Times had also been described in a Ha'aretz article but the details were different; what's more, such a crime would have left copious quantities of grisly forensic evidence yet none has been presented. The beheadings, the murder and mutilation of children, torture etc are all similarly unevidenced and the testimony of freed hostages tells us that they were treated with humanity and respect. No reasonable, thinking person can conclude that the Israeli narrative of 7 October is anything but a pack of lies. It beggars belief that an actual lawyer would have the gall to stand in front of a court of law and present such a narrative of hearsay and fabrication as testimony.
    96
  21. It seems to me that most Israeli propaganda is very amateurish indeed. But it's all they need. It's there to reassure their supporters rather than actually change anyone's mind. The people they are aiming at simply believe what they want. More to the point, they have no worries about networks like the BBC or the US, EU or Australian networks scrutinising their claims with vigilance or competence. Well done for calling it out, Damian.
    96
  22. You're right about Streeting. The rise of mediocre technocrats set in with Blair and the disastrous Alan Millburn appears to be this fool's guide and mentor.
    83
  23. Trump has no idea what he's taking on and even less idea about what he's taking it on with. The US has lost nearly every conflict it has entered since 1945. It was fought to a standstill by North Korea, turfed out of Indochina, humiliated at the Bay of Pigs, and worn down by Iraq. In 1983 it invaded Grenada with a massive army, including what it laughably calls "special forces" (which would be called infantry in any other army). It outnumbered the defenders by a factor of 5:1 and the extent to which it outgunned them was many times that. But the defenders, led by about 600 Cuban construction workers (I kid you not), held these "elite" troops off for 8 straight days. The Al Qassam Brigades would wipe the floor with them! What's more, every crooked pro-US dictator in the region would be forced to side with the Palestinians for fear of being overthrown by their own populations. Trump would have achieved what no one had ever believed possible - uniting the whole Arab and Mulsim world against a common enemy - Him!
    82
  24. This is excellent. You list 3 problems farmers have but you missed out the fourth: The low real wages which the end customer, the consumer of the farm products, receives. This does not in any way detract from your other arguments but I think it should be mentioned as the overall prosperity of the population is bound to have an impact on farm gate prices. The point about the financialisation of farmland is the killer, though. The farmer is being robbed by parasitic financial capitalism just like everyone else.
    82
  25. The days when one country could march troops into another and take permanent possession of it are gone. The debacles of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the US invasion of Iraq and Russia's attempt to take control of Western Ukraine provide lessons which should be learned. You can be massively superior in military terms but if the host population is determined not to be governed by you, it won't be.
    79
  26. Reminds me of reading about Himmler's visit to a death camp prior to the introduction of gas chambers. He witnessed a mass killing by firing squad and was distressed because he was hit by flying organic matter and was concerned about the effect this sort of experience would have on the mental health of the SS troops involved in the slaughter. Ben Gvir should be aware of the company he is historically keeping in his concern for the well-being of these IDF murderers. With that, the pig got up and slowly walked away.
    78
  27. I love Oz. I have two sisters living there and many friends. But the arrival of Australian beef means that we've reached bottom. We're colluding in awful animal cruelty and environmental damage, risking public health and ruining our own farmers.
    75
  28. I'm always amused when Trump comes up with his "nobody ever heard of that before" quips on any subject. It's usually only he who never heard of whatever it was and that's because he is a total ignoramus who has never read a decent newspaper nor listened to informed commentary on TV or radio. "Supply chain" is a concept that everyone in business knows. He doesn't know it because he's not a real businessman.
    74
  29. Lammy is such an embarrassment. He has no morality or integrity.
    72
  30. I wish I could say "unbelievable". But it's become all too believable.
    71
  31. It's so depressing that the US choice is between this war-monger and his boss and Trump and Vance.
    70
  32. It's quite straightforward. People migrate from poorer countries to richer ones. Culture and language can be a barrier to that but if the difference in prosperity is large enough, that gets overridden. The UK is becoming poorer as a result of leaving the EU and Eastern European countries are becoming richer because they remain in it. So the extra opportunities are not enough to make people come here or stay here anymore. If current economic trends continue, the flow is likely to be reversed, with UK nationals moving to EU countries in order to provide a future for their children.
    69
  33. Reminds me of the early 1970s when Portuguese troops in Angola and Mozambique made postcards of themselves posing with the severed heads of "terrorists" or forcing terrified children to clear minefields for them. Within less than a year, we saw them expelled from Africa and their cruel Fascist government overthrown at home. Take note Netanhayu. This doesn't work.
    68
  34. Waters should be consulting lawyers on this. It's undeniably slander and I think he would rapidly get a retraction.
    67
  35. "Don't worry about the working class, they've got nowhere to go" Oh yes they have!
    64
  36. I think he's neither bad nor mad. He is just morally vacuous and stupid. He has no emotional intelligence and simply doesn't comprehend the difference between right and wrong. In his consciousness, there is "that which benefits me and that which doesn't". Combined with a total lack of intellectual curiosity, emotional insecurity and inability to empathise, it makes him extremely dangerous.
    62
  37. It must be terrifying to be shunned at Martha's Vineyard. Being attacked in your home by a maniac with a hammer or receiving death and rape threats are nothing compared to not being invited to the right dinner parties.
    61
  38. So Fox are saying that Trump won the debate but the stock market is down because Harris did? Are there really people who can believe both these claims at the same time?
    60
  39. Balancing the books is economic illiteracy. We need a competent economist who understands how economies work not a bloody book-keeper - and a mediocre one at that.
    60
  40. So many people were afraid Corbyn that 12 million people voted for him.
    59
  41. The fact that he can't walk down the street without an army of bodyguards tells you everything you need to know about him. Not "The People's Party" anymore, is it?
    58
  42. The network of tax havens could be closed down very easily if the governments of the major economies agreed to do so. None of them want to because all of them serve the interest of the wealthy rather than their populations.
    58
  43. I remember, many years ago, a Vietcong fighter being interviewed. He said that his unit would first listen to Radio Hanoi and then to Radio Saigon which each told the opposite of the other. Then they would listen to the BBC to find out what was really happening. We're a long way from that now, aren't we?
    56
  44. ​ @StetoGuy  The bank failures in 2008 were the result of over-leveraging prompted by greed. They happened because banks, which are an administrative function, are run as businesses. A state owned bank would be run to channel investment rather then make obscene and unearned bonuses for its executives so it would not fail in the same way and therefore would not need bailing out.
    51
  45. You left out an option, Richard: Undermining the Scottish Government and Welsh Assembly.
    51
  46. You can fake being smart to Donald Trump - but only because he's not smart either!
    49
  47. The idea of a Speaker Of The House being under the thumb of a Prime Minister is appalling in any circumstances: When that PM is an aider and abetter of appalling war crimes, doubly so.
    49
  48. It would be wonderful to see Streeting defenestrated. He is an obnoxious and very nasty mediocrity who has climbed the greasy pole by kissing the arses of those above him while kicking down at those below. He has no particular qualities; no achievements beyond self-advancement. Removing him would send a powerful message to Sir Keith: "Mess with the NHS and you will lose the working class." If you do that, it doesn't matter how much of the so-called "middle ground" you capture, Labour can't even survive as a party, let alone win.
    49
  49. They've got "the balls" to go after single mothers and pensioners but tremble in fear in front of the rich. They're beneath contempt!
    48
  50. Labour has always had interest groups within it. They range from Labour Friends of Israel, through Christian, Hindu, Muslim groups, Labour Friends of Palestine to the Institute of Workers Control and Blue Labour. All of them are legitimate lobby groups because they are composed of people who are, in the first place, supporters of the Labour Party and promote their specific aims as an adjunct to that support. But the Jewish Labour Movement, of which Akehurst is a member, is a very different creature indeed. It is financed by the Jewish National Fund (the organisation that funds the illegal settlements) and has no interest whatsoever in supporting Labour Party aims in general. It exists purely for the purpose of suborning Social Democratic parties to Israeli interests. It is just as entryist as Militant Tendency with the subtle difference that it has been successful. If you are right, Damien (and you usually are), this is a very sinister development indeed. It signals that the Labour Party is now a party which is fully under external control. When it's not serving the interests of its rich new donors or doing Genocide Joe's bidding, it's taking its orders directly from the JLM. Sad days!
    47
  51. Excellent video, Damian. You've called out hypocrisy and wilful myopia as it should be called out - with passionate anger!
    45
  52. "Why can't I speak?" He says after speaking solidly for a good 2 minutes without stopping - unsuccessfully trying to goad people into attacking him and shouting "coward" into the face of an elderly lady who didn't even come up to his chin. Irony has become normality!
    45
  53. She's right. He is being treated unfairly. Considering the serious nature of the charges and his behaviour regarding threatening witnesses, polluting the jury pool and hiding evidence, he would be in pre-trial detention if he was anyone else.
    45
  54. It may be a low percentage that actually falls into what is officially called poverty but there are many many more who will suffer real hardship. It's an absolute disgrace.
    43
  55. We still have a workhouse mentality in the UK. The poor are to be blamed, shamed and shunned. When I point out the disparity between tax lost to evasion and avoidance next to the piffling amounts lost to benefit fraud or error, middle-class people always say "Ah, but tax is taking OUR money away from us, whereas these people are just getting handouts they haven't earned." It's a rather nasty side of British culture, I'm afraid. It will take a long time to turn this attitude around, but we should try.
    42
  56. "Attacked by a journalist"? The word is "challenged", Mr Lindell.
    42
  57. This harks back to Stalin's purges: You frame one person, in this case, Loach, then you get rid of the people you don't like for associating with them. Pretty soon, you'll see people being un-personed for associating with Driscoll. It's actually frightening - though clearly not to these New-New Labour talking heads. They seem to consider it to be quite acceptable.
    40
  58. She sees his stupidity and incompetence as a threat to the Fascist programme. Simple as that!
    40
  59. "Genocidal, theocratic, unstable" is a pretty good description of MAGA.
    38
  60. The rot set in about 45 years ago with the notion that it was all about the individual making himself or herself marketable. The invisible hand of the market would do the rest. Government skill centres began closing and entrepreneurial training companies started cropping up. You'd get a few months sitting in front of a bored trainer who would get you to commit slogans and cliches to memory and give you a useless certificate at the end. The government skill centres used to churn out people with basic skills in construction, computing, catering etc. The private trainers showed you how to write a CV that no one was ever going to bother to read. We have to get away from this idea that young people should be moulded to fit the needs of the market. It should be the other way around. We need to create a society in which people CAN contribute according to their abilities and can develop those abilities knowing that they will be rewarded for doing so.
    37
  61. He's a top lawyer. He can't possibly not know what he's suggesting. But he's the MI6 placeman in Westminster and he'll be quite happy to endanger peace in Ireland if that's what he's told to do.
    37
  62. The thousands of innocents being killed in Gaza mean nothing to these people but anything which affects profits gives them apoplexy. It makes my stomach turn.
    35
  63. Organ stealing is often associated with the IDF. It is because there is great reticence to donate organs in Israel - especially amongst Orthodox Jews. As a result, organs can fetch very high prices indeed. You may recall similar accusations made in Haiti following the earthquake relief efforts. Netanyahu managed to talk down an investigation at the time by invoking the "the blood libel" trope. They shouldn't be allowed to get away with that again.
    34
  64. In the 1970s, we had the spectre of unemployment approaching 1 million which was then unthinkably high. It nearly reached 5 million in the 1980s and that was averted by reclassifying over a million people as long term sick. I was eighteen in 1974 and had never seen a young able bodied homeless person in my life. By the mid 1980s most homeless people were both. In the 1970s every town I knew was in the process of building a swimming pool, leisure centre, library or something similar. By the beginning of the 1990s, local authorities were selling off public amenities to lower costs. In the 1970s, you could always find a police officer if you needed one. Every small town had a permanently manned police station. By the early 1990s, the local police presence was usually just an unmanned station with a phone for reaching the much more "efficient" super stations. This piece appears to be suggesting that the 1970s was a narrow escape: a decline arrested and reversed by the miracle of Thatcherism. In fact, for working people, it was the opposite. It was the last gasp of a period of improving living standards brought to an end by the restoration of the pre-war status quo ante and signalling a rise in the power of the finance class which was to culminate in the financial collapse of 2008.
    34
  65. The idea that black people are easier to manipulate was a big part of the John Birch Society message. Fred Koch (father of Charles) was obsessed with the notion. James McGill Buchanan also concluded this when he was at UCLA and observed the behaviour of some black students. At that time, of course, they were all saying it in the context of extending the franchise and social inclusion to the existing black population but it's a very small jump from there to suggesting that diluting the "race" with immigration would make it easier for the "elites" (Let's face it. They mean Jews) to control. This is pure Fascism and it should be called out as such.
    34
  66. There are two "far-rights". The biggest threat to democracy is Neoliberalism. It's an ideology which believes that empathy is a dysfunctional quality which interferes with the proper exercise of self-interest which it considers to be the motor of all prosperity: In this cult, caring is literally bad but it is not intrinsically based on hatred. The dangerous thing going on at the moment is a melding of this far-right with the other one, the one based on racism, misogyny, homophobia, Antisemitism etc to create a very nasty mix indeed. We are seeing that in the rise of Trump, Modi, Orban, Putin and sadly, here in the UK with the likes of Farage and Tice.
    31
  67. The audacity of the man! And the coldness! No shame, no regret, no emotion of any sort. Ms Arendt, your case is made. Evil is banal. This man's inability to tell the difference between good and evil is as scary as it is possible to be.
    31
  68. He's technically not lying here. It wasn't Mein Kampf he had in his bedside cabinet according to Ivana. It was a collection of Hitler's speeches. Not only can you pick up his admiration of Hitler from his words, you can also see him aping both Hitler's and Mussolini's physical stances when he speaks. He clearly admires both of them - just as he seems to admire Putin, Kim Jong Un, Victor Orban and Xi Jin Ping. He loves dictators. It's what he has always wanted to be.
    30
  69. Evil personified. He's down there with the worst. No morality, no decency. The world just became a little bit better and Hell a wee bit worse.
    30
  70. I remember that, when confronted by a detractor, Corbyn would always reply to them and discuss the matter at hand in a civilised manner. This man has neither the courage nor good manners of his predecessor. He has almost as much contempt for ordinary people as most of us have for him.
    30
  71. It's basic Keynes/Galbraith economics. It does have flaws but its application in the 1950s and 1960s let to the biggest and fastest rise in living standards in human history - much of it reversed over the last 45 years by Thatcherism, of course. The beauty of it is that money paid out to the lower paid flows immediately back into the economy because they spend it immediately. Thatcherite trickle down does not do this. A lot of it will leave the country and go into tax havens. With the rest, the rich buy assets such as rental housing which forces up house prices and allows them to soak up even more of the economy. It's a no brainer really. Keeping the lid on wages has led to stagnation and decline. Pay increases for the public sector, especially the lower paid sector, are win-win for everyone except the clients of the Tufton Street trolls who pay so much attention to this site.
    30
  72. The Windsors are quite happy with this spat. It's all about deflecting attention from Andrew's association with Jeffrey Epstein.
    28
  73.  @castelodeossos3947  Yes. I think they've been doing that for a while. I remember that, just before the last onslaught on Gaza, it was let slip that Israeli generals were studying the clearing of the Warsaw Ghetto.
    28
  74. I remember working in Big 6 accountants when our excellent IT department was closed down and the whole operation taken over by Cap Gemini. They, in turn, contracted out the various bits of it to other companies and individuals. So you end up depending on people who know nothing about your business and aren't answerable to anyone in it. It's ideological engineering. The ideological fulcrum of Neoliberalism is that wealth is created by transactions and transactions are guided by the efficiency of market forces. Therefore, the more transactions you have, the more efficient and wealth generating you become! It's madness. But it's where we are.
    28
  75. Is it me, or is there a contradiction between the number of Labour representatives jumping ship and the super majority predicted for Labour by the opinion polls?
    28
  76. I'm appalled that it only halved his support amongst Muslims. What are the other half thinking? What is everyone else thinking? It's often said that those who stand by and allow evil to be done are as complicit as the perpetrators. This man is the personification of that. How can anyone support him?
    27
  77. And we have a Prime Minister who gives his unequivocal backing to this wickedness. We all need to be very, very ashamed. Blogs like this are all we have to redeem us. It's really important that the mainstream narrative - or rather, lack of one - is constantly challenged.
    27
  78. The most visionary (and dangerous) video so far. Boiled down, you are saying "What if the fiscal rules were there to benefit the population rather than the ruling class?" This is stuff worth fighting for but you'd need to appreciate that the ruling class would fight back against such a manifesto with everything they've got. That would be up to and including lethal force - though I imagine that they would try smear and discredit tactics first.
    27
  79. Well done, Damien. Because of the courage of honest bloggers like yourself, mainstream media is actually beginning to question Israel's behaviour.
    27
  80. If anyone in the shadow cabinet is worse than Starmer himself, it's Wes. He is the most venal of politicians: no moral compass, no empathy, no humanity.
    26
  81. Spot on. The healthiest UK generation ever were those who were children during the Second World War. They grew up when most of the harmful foods were either rationed or not available at all. Meat and fats were also rationed and the only way to get a full belly was to fill up with tatties, and cruciferous veggies. I read recently that longevity had peaked and is now falling again. I suspect that's because that war time generation has pretty much gone now. The reliance on wonder drugs is a symptom of society's sickness. It's certainly not a cure for it.
    25
  82. By voting out Labour, Tories and Lib Dems. Seemples!
    25
  83.  @619M3  A lot less than Trump's. But it's worth more to me because I got it from honest hard work - somerthing Trump has never done in his life.
    24
  84. I'm not a Muslim. But I feel like that too. Peace and respect to you.
    24
  85. "We've changed. You can trust us now" was obviously aimed at the likes of her. "There's the door" was meant for the rest of us. I wonder which group has the most votes....
    24
  86. Yeah! He can probably lay golden eggs too.
    24
  87. Success for the Tories would be disastrous for the UK working class. Success for Starmer's Labour would be in even more disastrous because it would make permanent Starmer's efforts to neuter the Labour movement as a defender of working-class interests.
    23
  88. Don't forget those "bandits" were guided and directed to the aid convoys by the IDF. Then, as they robbed the convoys, the IDF stood guard and prevented the civil police from interrupting them.
    23
  89. It's quite simple. Starmer is signalling to his buddies in the City that, where there are choices, he will choose to hammer the poor rather than do anything to interfere with their continuing pillaging of the economy. He wants to reassure them that this is a continuity Tory government. So keep the donations flowing, guys. Labour is your party now.
    23
  90. I'm sure that Montague believes that she is in the top tier of journos: one who has so much gravitas that she can just pick off the likes of Loach like ripe fruit. So amusing to see the tables turned on her by someone whose intellect and, more importantly, integrity leaves her in the most dismal shade.
    23
  91. This is Starmer panicking about losing votes. Labour's private polling must be showing something they're not sharing. Alternatively, Starmer's actually found a conscience. Sorry! What was I thinking? 😂😂😂😂😂
    22
  92. The so-called "definition" ties them up in knots. On the one hand, it tries to (quite wrongly) conflate criticism of Israel with Antisemitism while also saying (quite rightly) that Jews should not be collectively held responsible for the actions of Israel. But then, if you're trying to defend an ethno-state in a democracy, consistency is simply impossible.
    22
  93. If we'd had PR it's unlikely we'd ever have had Thatcher's privatisations, the Falklands War, the disastrous deregulation of financial services, the Poll Tax, the collapse of Council House building, the "reforms" to the NHS, academy schools, the closure of libraries, public toilets etc, the Iraq War and (most disastrous of all, Brexit. Quite simply, the UK would have been a better place to live.
    22
  94. From what I saw, they were fighting Israeli "soldiers".
    22
  95. Lovely Freudian slip there, Damien. "...and who will be owning [wind turbines] in our privatised energy market which you won't renationalise? That will be the devil [pause] er the devil in the detail". You were right the first time!
    22
  96. I suspect he thinks he's an agent but Mad Vlad is smart enough to appreciate that he's too stupid for that. He's an asset.
    22
  97. Wearing a Star of David to feign Holocausr solidarity then sharing a toast with an actual Holocaust denier! Takes the biscuit.
    22
  98. Billionnaire at the table gorging himself on the finest food and dropping crumbs on the floor to the unemployed below: Watch that immigrant. He's after your crumbs.
    21
  99. Israel knows that it has impunity because the US, UK and EU refuse to enforce international law. It is 100% out of control and its behaviour needs to be curtailed urgently.
    21
  100. Rewind back to the 1930s when those trying to raise the alarm about the intentions of another genocidal movement were treated with contempt and disdain by the US, the UK, France and all their allies. Genocide Joe and all his stooges (including our cowardly and contemptible Prime Minister) should note that history will be no kinder to them than it is to the appeasers of that period. Respect to the likes of Albanese for having the courage to speak truth to power.
    21
  101. It's Ukraine. Not "the Ukraine".
    21
  102. They'd be able to get rid of employment costs by expelling the unemployed. Rudy Giulliani did that with homeless people when he was Mayor of New York. He put them in a bus and dropped them off in the middle of nowhere. Nothing would stop a Charter City from doing that. The bonus would be that it would create an ultra-desperate reserve army of unemployed people to be exploited by other cities or by agribusiness.
    20
  103. Indeed. And Reform UK seem determined to follow them. Good riddance to both.
    20
  104. Sorry to hear about your loss, Rob. He must have been very proud of the work you do.
    20
  105. Agreed. The directors should be facing jail time for that.
    20
  106. He's not deluded. He's just lying. He knows full well that there's no meaningful imrovements in the relationship with the EU that don't involve rejoining the single market (which means freedom of movement) or customs union.
    20
  107. It beggars belief that a Labour leader could actually oppose workers' rights.
    19
  108. What really turns my stomach is his professing deeply held religious beliefs while he sells his soul for these thugs and dictators. Does he think he can bully the almighty with his patronising "Look! [insert pathetic excuse here]". Or perhaps "deeply held religious beliefs" are just another way of opening the right doors. Unfortunately, he's always got away with this hypocrisy - and that's the only thing Starmer is going to be interested in. They're both from the same stable.
    19
  109. Aye. And Starmer is giving people precisely NO reason to vote Labour. They've got "nowhere else to go", you see.....
    19
  110. Richard is an honest and competent accountant. He's a very dangerous man indeed. No wonder the Tufton Street trolls like to attack him.
    19
  111. I lived in Stamford Hill back in the 1980s. It was difficult to engage with the Orthodox Jews there because they tended to keep themselves to themselves. But those I did talk to were solidly anti-Zionist. They considered "Israel" to be an idea rather than a piece of real estate. They are horrified at the atrocities being carried out by Israel and you'll usually find contingents of them on pro-Palestinian marches. I suppose it's possible that they are getting targeted because they are so visible but I also think it's likely that these are false flag attacks intended to draw them away from supporting Palestinians.
    18
  112. Unfortunately, Damian, private healthcare doesn't fail. It's aim is to make money and it's very successful at doing that. Even worse, they're giving a generous portion of that money to Labour politicians like Starmer and Streeting who are also very successful at what they aim to do - look after themselves.
    18
  113. Antisemitism is the life blood of Zionism so there really isn't a contradiction here. If it wasn't for Antisemitism, there'd be no Israel.
    18
  114. Agree in principle. Problem is that the Parliamentary Party is too far gone. They're part of the problem now, not the solution.
    18
  115. It's reminiscent of Kinnock. His electoral strategy was also to target the so-called "middle ground". To achieve this he made the destruction of the Left within Labour his main mission. He made a point of being dismissive of Trade Unions, supportive of Israel and downright subservient to the US. If that doesn't sound familiar enough, just think about whom he made his main political adviser: The Dark Prince himself. Peter Mandelson. Most important thing to remember? Kinnock was a dead cert to win the election!
    18
  116. Especially when, as is very common in the NHS, the agency staff are exactly the same people that once worked for you. All you've done is insert an extra layer of costs.
    18
  117. ".. why are these people trying to destroy these great British artists ." Isn't that obvious? Both Waters and Loach are listened to.
    18
  118. Absolutely. And you put your finger on it straight away by referring to royalty and the tradition of top down authority. All organisations of size, both public and private, should be obliged to have mechanisms to facilitate employee exposure of wrongdoing and there should be full legal protection for any employee who uses it. Democracy is meaningless if it stops when we enter the workplace.
    18
  119. I would love to have been in the room when Netanyahu heard this news. A bit like realising that the point of light in the distance wasn't the end of the tunnel after all....
    17
  120. It's not remotely "amazing" that Starmer would keep this. He's got plenty planned where it will be useful to be able to stifle protest.
    17
  121. These are pogroms, not protests. But lets remember, when the British Union of Fascists did the same in the 1930s, they also got sympathetic press - especially from the Daily Mail. Andrew Pierce is just carrying on the paper's pro-Fascist tradition.
    17
  122. Indeed. More to the point, whatever they spend goes straight back into the economy.
    17
  123. This has to be forced into the faces of Biden, Blinken, Macron, Sunak, Scholtz etc and the world must be reminded of the horror in which they are enthusiastic accessories. Evil monsters, all. But for me, the most contemptible is the leader of a party I once belonged to because I believed it stood against such injustice.
    16
  124. Starmer doesn't want to debate the issue because it will highlight the fact that he is on the side of the oppressor.
    16
  125. The problem is that decisions like this are made by people who know very little about how to implement them - or whether indeed, as pointed out here, whether they actually CAN be implemented. Britain's boardrooms these days are stuffed with accountants, marketing experts, lawyers and bankers. There won't be an engineer - and especially not an environmental engineer in sight.
    16
  126.  @TonyM540  No. He's a racist. He means immigrants.
    16
  127. Yup. I shall certainly be voting against her.
    16
  128. Lee Anderson? Principles? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
    16
  129. That's some achievement! "All Americans" made you their spokesman? What was the procedure for getting them to agree to that, then?
    15
  130. "Also, one should never confuse the health of financial markets with the health of a real economy. " Wisdom indeed. It's a betting shop and, while it's useful to know what people are betting on, it's only a part of the picture.
    15
  131. Don't worry. She has the courage to go after the sick and disabled. Non-doms and bankers are a completely different matter, of course. She doesn't want to upset them!
    15
  132. He's certainly an admirer of Keynes. While not Keynesian myself, I don't see any problem with that. After nearly 5 decades of the Neoliberal clown show, it's about time we went back to credible economists.
    14
  133. Good call getting Snyder on. He's measured and scholarly but not afraid to call a spade a spade.
    14
  134. Asking from the UK: Does the US not have "Contempt of Court"? If you did this in a UK court (Scottish or England and Wales ) you'd be locked up before your feet could touch the ground.
    14
  135. Careful. You'll get sued by an emu!
    14
  136.  @nickryder9669  You must be very young then. The most successful economic policy was the Keynesian programme which was put into place in 1945 and lasted until Thatcher came along and broke it. All Blair did was continue the disastrous Thatcher "miracle" until it reached its inevitable conclusion when everything fell to pieces in 2008. Since then, all governments, including this one, have tried to revive the disastrous economics of Thatcherism. By the way, Growth doesn't mean a thing if it's accompanied by high unemployment, falling living standards and increasing inequality. Pinocet's Chile had record growth!
    14
  137.  @gwynroberson198  You really need to ask that? It's because they'll get paid more by the agency than by the NHS. To spell it out: The NHS pays more NOT to give staff a decent pay rise.
    14
  138.  @Joanna-il2ur  I've heard some pretty stupid theories about the demise of the working class in my time, but I have to say that you've slipped into pole position with that one. The fact that you don't blame Thatcher for the demise of mining speaks volumes, though. I would love to see your demographic evidence for the humble origins of Tory voters. It certainly doesn't fit the overlays I've seen of constituency maps. Though, if you mean actual politicians then you might have something. The Parliamentary Labour Party certainly has its share of middle class tossers with total contempt for the working class. I still think there are more public schools represented on the Tory side though.
    14
  139. I find this painful to listen to, Damien. I'm disgusted by the behaviour of IDF "soldiers" but ultimately, you have to pity them. Their sick ideology has sucked the humanity out of them. To deliberately seek to inflict pain and suffering on children and find glee in doing so means that they have a life of awful nightmares in front of them. They are empty shells of human beings. On the other hand, you have to salute the Palestinians for retaining their courage and humanity in the face of this onslaught of evil.
    14
  140. He's trying to spend it before Letitia James or E Jean Carroll lay claim to it.
    13
  141. Yes. The thing about stock markets is that those in the know and with the requisite controls get rich whichever way it moves.
    13
  142. "Hubris" is the right word, Kyle. The myth of the "right to exist" is what drives this whole disaster. No state exists by right. A state comes into being and endures by the consent of its population (all of it), within borders agreed with its neighbours (all of them) but it can survive for a long time without these two conditions provided it is economically viable - as was proven by Israel's erstwhile ally, Apartheid South Africa. That stumbled on for years as a despised pariah amongst African nations but also fell when the economics no longer added up. The writing is on the wall for Israel now. If the US is truly concerned about the fate of the Israeli colonists, it needs to start thinking about dismantling this failed racist and inherently genocidal entity and replacing it with a functioning democracy where the rights of all are respected and guaranteed. It needs to do that now. As events spiral out of control, that may not be a possibility for much longer.
    13
  143. Both Cameron and Osborne have effectively admitted that it was the latter. They called it shrinking the state, of course.
    13
  144. She had choices about how to plug this gap. She could have raised the taxes of the rich or she could make the poor pay. She DECIDED to make the poor pay. Shame on her and Starmer. And shame on the Labour MPs who support them. I hope you took a good look at the faces of the Tories who never expected to lose their seats. That's what you're going to look like in 5 years time.
    13
  145. Beware of anyone wanting to protect your freedom of choice. They invariably end up making sure that you "choose" something which benefits them and and not you.
    13
  146.  @zetectic7968  Well spotted. Richard Murphy is attracting a large number of these trolls. Or possibly, one or two professional trolls (Tufton Street or similar) are processing a steady number of sock puppet accounts. You can tell because they all make the same or similar arguments in the same formulaic way that you would rarely find in a random cross section of the public. Kudos to Richard, really. They clearly consider him to be a threat
    13
  147.  @matthewshutt8108  When you take into account the poor take-up rate of means-tested benefits, the administrative cost of means-testing and the costs of people suffering from poor health as a result of turning off the heating or reducing food intake, it makes perfect sense. The net amount saved by means-testing is piffling and the potential damage is enormous.
    12
  148. Starmer promised Blairism on steroids. He didn't tell us that the steroids were going to be used to bring Blairite zombies back to life!
    12
  149. Mandelson was THE originator of New Labour. He wheedled his way in under Windbag Kinnock and by the time Blair got to Number 10, he was the Richelieu character, the power behind the throne. He had probably convinced Starmer that he could blag his way through his dodgy past associations. Starmer, having no morality of his own, would be happy with that. He wouldn't be remotely concerned about Mandelson's behaviour provided it wouldn't taint the brand. It'll be interesting to see how he rides this out. Bet he drops him like a hot spud. If Mandelson is banking on personal loyalty, he's bet on the wrong horse.
    12
  150.  @andyinsuffolk  Yes. Local democracy is good. Most of continental Europe is far more devolved than the UK. But that's not what Charter Cities are about. Their principal aim is to undermine democracy at all levels.
    12
  151. I find it impossible to listen to Pierce spouting his poison. About 2 sentences and that's me. The telly goes off or I leave the room. He's a younger version of Bernard Ingham. Though I have to say that I could remain seated and sneer back at him. Are the vile getting viler or am I just getting too old to put up with them?
    12
  152. The system is absolutely ridiculous. It's the equivalent of allowing schoolchildren to hire and fire their own exam invigilators and markers. In the 1990s I worked in the tax department of a big six accountancy firm. We, along with all other departments, were essentially subordinate to the audit function - which was huge. Audit managers were situated within the clients' premises and there was a revolving career door where they would often get progression by getting employed by the client. Certainly not in their interest to point out transgressions! At the very least, auditors have to be appointed by government and not allowed to undertake any other work for that company but, in my view, the function is ideally suited to being run as a civil service function with no wriggle room for the client to pick and choose at all.
    12
  153. Better still. Let's have a democratically accountable publicly owned pension fund with its actions and behaviours subject to complete transparency and public debate.
    12
  154.  @richsidman8548  It came from JD Miller, the executive producer: "To sell the show, we created the narrative that Trump was a super-successful businessman who lived like royalty. That was the conceit of the show,” Miller wrote. “At the very least, it was a substantial exaggeration; at worst, it created a false narrative by making him seem more successful than he was.” Just cut and paste the above into your search engine to get the many sources. Leader? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. The man's a complete moron. He's the only man in history who was stupid enough to bankrupt a casino! The only people more stupid than him are the idiots who believe him.
    12
  155.  @politicas3361  So. Exactly what "hateful" things has he said about the "Jewish people"? Please provide a quotation to back up your claim. Nope. He'd win hands down.
    12
  156. Why does anyone support Labour anymore?
    11
  157. Thanks for this, Ben. Hilarious watching people who have obviously never touched a shovel in their lives having to be shown how to use them. I'm so proud that Scotland ignored him. I'm sure you didn't mean any disrespect, but it's pronounced Al-a-ba, by the way.
    11
  158. The Washington Post kept a record of every misleading claim documented during his presidency. He lied more than 30,000 times!
    11
  159. That's Antisemitism. Many proud Jews oppose what Israel is doing and we should admire and support them. No. He's there as a Zionist. That's an entirely different thing,
    11
  160. I love the guy who said he shows you can get ahead with disadvantages - He went to public school FFS!
    11
  161.  @TheHesseJames  I think you might be confusing inequality which is a political concept with asymmetry which is mathematical. I doubt if anyone would disagree with the proposal that hard work, ingenuity and commitment should be rewarded. That's a good thing. But allowing people to use their political and economic power to grab all the resources is not only morally repugnant but gums up the whole economic machine which produces the wealth.
    11
  162.  @trys3780  "We get most of our water from....guess who?.....Israel! " But isn't that because the Israelis illegally occupy the West Bank of a river which should be flowing through Jordan?
    11
  163. He is only failing in the eyes of those who were wide-eyed and optimistic about the "change" he and Reeves promised. The people who wanted him to replace Corbyn are quite happy. He is serving them as expected.
    11
  164. Wow! The tiny dick rapist fan club is really here in force, I see. Here's the news for you, cucks. Your hero is a moron who left a trail of evidence which is so irrefutable that he's going to be convicted and spend a lot of time in jail. The fact that he has (again, incredibly stupidly) insulted Romanian national pride by openly declaring that it is good policy to move to a country with lax criminal law and to keep a spare passport ready to flee (hence the extended detention) is not going to reduce his sentence. Furthermore, because that country has very powerful laws regarding the confiscation of the proceeds of crime, he is going to (eventually) emerge from prison a poor man - though just as stupid, I expect.
    11
  165. When you boil it down, she's saying "I'm white and entitled. You can't send people like me to jail". Doesn't she realise that all she's doing is increasing the schadenfreude hit for the rest of us?
    11
  166.  @Joanna-il2ur  Yes. Now that would be an example of someone resorting to personal abuse because they are unable to address the argument.
    11
  167. Leaving the shocking inhumanity of such a statement to one side, the point is its stupidity. Poverty is not only miserable for those suffering it, it is also extremely expensive for society. The peanuts that are saved by this grotesque policy are lost many times over in the extra costs caused by ill health and malnutrition which include poor educational outcomes, increased crime and the wasted social and economic potential that each failed child represents. When the Beveridge Report came out, just over 80 years ago now, this was pretty much understood by all. Your comment is a testament to the dumbing down of society which has resulted from more than half the period since then being dominated by the numbskull zero sum economics of Thatcherism.
    11
  168.  @Neilzo1  The crimes were first reported in 2001 and and the first arrests made in 2010. That's 9 years, NOT 20 years. The Glasgow abuses were ignored by police for 7 years. A slightly shorter timeline but not significantly so.
    10
  169. Terrifying! The arrogance of these people is off the scale. This fool should remember the outcome of the last time the US started a major war in the Middle East: The US just demonstrated how ineffective its superior force actually is in practice, made Iran by far the most powerful independent country in the region and created ISIS for good measure. The kind of attack he is suggesting is going to make it very difficult for the US's tame dictatorships in the region (it might well find itself having to invade quite a few of them in order to protect or even restore its puppet regimes) and will certainly not make Israel a safer place.
    10
  170. Your laws really pamper the rich. In the UK, this creep would have had his assets sequestered straight away. And refusal to obey a court order results in jail.
    10
  171. That depends upon whose taxes and which taxes you raise. Redistributive taxes will certainly result in growth. The poor spend money while the rich "save" it.
    10
  172. Sunak and Starmer seem to be in a fight to the death over which one can piss off his own party's supporters more. This is a very unfashionable view but I think Keith is winning.
    10
  173. My Dad lost an eye fighting these people. You are a contemptible traitor!
    10
  174. This is so awful I've only been able to watch it in short bursts - pacing my flat and punching walls and doors to vent my anger in between views. How can she possibly justify this? We can only conclude that it is because she has sympathy for these abhorrent views.
    10
  175. I agree with all this. Limited liability does have a use but it is too easily abused. It is too easy to use it as a vehicle for fraud and for abusing employees' rights. It should be much harder to set up an LLC and legislation is needed to make officers of the company and large shareholders responsible for crimes committed by companies as if they had committed them themselves.
    10
  176. Evil person. A shameless liar and a supporter of genocide and terrorism. She should be in front of a court to answer for aiding and abetting war crimes.
    10
  177.  @sojrnrr8368  Yes. Usually. That's so it can stay under the radar and keep happening. However, in this case, it's the latter.
    10
  178. This will never happen in the UK as it is currently constituted - nor indeed in most EU countries, which are equally obsessed with this nonsense about balancing the books. Perhaps we can make an example in an independent Scotland and demonstrate that there is a clear alternative? Just asking....
    10
  179. No. The Democrats lost because they offered the working class precisely nothing. As is usually the case, the Fascist Right has won because the only alternative was the soft Right.
    9
  180. Let's remember that this morality free douchebag was Secretary for the Treasury in a DEMOCRAT administration. Remember that when anyone claims that the Democrats are "the left". They are not. They are simply the other wing of the Big Business Party in what amounts to a one party state.
    9
  181. They're just bribing him. Simple, straightforward, unmitigated corruption.
    9
  182. It's very disturbing when people compare the numbers. You're not less of a mass murderer because the number is smaller!
    9
  183. "When Peter Hain tried to warn Blair of [the possibility of losing working class support], the reply was: "Peter Mandelson said to me 'your preoccupation with the working class is wrong. They've got nowhere else to go'."" They have now. Go Greens!
    9
  184. Well said. Universities not only contribute to local economies but also local social and political life. If you are lucky enough to live close to one you will have access to the best bands, orchestras, plays etc. And discipline and organisation are important but so is subversion. Universities should be places where EVERYTHING is questioned and challenged. Universities are incredibly valuable and they should not be subject to the marketplace.
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  185. Looking forward to the series, Richard. I particularly liked your point about myth-busting. It makes absolute sense.
    9
  186. Roger Stone is a great parody of an incompetent right wing clown. The guy who plays him should get an award
    9
  187. The money that banks rent out does not come from savers! FFS, are there people who still think this??? It is new money created with a button push.
    9
  188. @ "The Tories were pretty bad, but at least they kept the UK economy from completely collapsing" Um, were you sleeping when Liz Truss almost did exactly that? But I'm fascinated. What exactly were these "obvious" solutions?
    9
  189. The Labour Party once stood for the principles underpinning this. Alas, no longer. That ship has sailed and replacement is needed. Maybe we can aim for this when we get independence in Scotland.
    9
  190. Well, IT certainly thinks so!
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  191. There wasn't a "landslide" in votes in 2019. There was a very small increase in the Tory vote due to the UKIP/Brexit Party vote collapse. Because the Tories had expertly targeted their efforts that led to a landslide in seats in a First Past the Post election. Even though he lost, Corbyn still got more votes than Blair had won with in 2005. And we can confidently predict that Starmer won't get as many votes next time. Let's face it: He's actually told people on the Left that he doesn't want their support. All Sunak has to do is get the Tory base to dutifully turn out (as they always do) while tinkering at the edges with voter registration and boundary gerrymandering and we'll have another 5 years of this hell.
    9
  192. If telling the truth aids the Palestinian cause then it must be terrorism. The Ministry of Truth has spoken.
    9
  193. Yes. I'm no longer a Labour supporter but I'm still a trade unionist and I am painfully ashamed of this stain on the whole British Labour movement.
    9
  194.  @Power_Prawnstar  Always good to talk to a fellow emu fan!
    9
  195. ​ @trys3780  Which is illegal: "Watercourse States shall, in utilizing an international watercourse in their territories, take all appropriate measures to prevent the causing of significant harm to other watercourse States." (from the "The No Harm Rule/1" of the relevant 1997 UN convention.) Basically, the reason Jordan has to buy water from Israel is because Israel stole it from them.
    9
  196. Keep making diesel and petrol cars because China is making electric cars? It's a bit like saying that people making the abacus should resist converting to the pocket calculator because they're making it in Japan.
    9
  197. Corbyn's principle offence was engaging working class people - whether as members or as voters. The Labour right has never wanted that and that's why he had to go. Miliband is almost as bad. He enfranchised ordinary trades union members to have a say in running what is supposed to be our party and his coat is on a shoogly peg in my view. Starmer's touting for corporate sponsorship is clearly the next logical step in such a policy and it needs to be exposed for what it is. Well done for doing so, Damian.
    9
  198. This is a man who claims to be a lawyer but ignores the International Court of Justice judgement on Israel's illegal behaviour in the occupied territories.
    9
  199.  @Chezzy426  "Paid up"? That's gotta have hurt!🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
    9
  200. This is all absolute heresy - which is exactly what is needed right now. Excellent video. One of the best so far.
    9
  201. I couldn't agree more. When my mother died, many years ago, her savings amounted to a few thousand pounds. The five siblings all agreed that my sister, who had nursed her through the last year or so of her life, should have this to pay for a holiday that she and her husband fully deserved. Apart from that, there was nothing but a few keepsakes, bits of furniture, books etc which we each took something of because they helped us remember her. Apart from that, there was nothing. No property, no stocks and shares, bank accounts etc. I was always glad about that. She left us far more than "stuff". it will last a lot longer and I seriously hope that I will leave the same to my children.
    9
  202.  @jaynekittycat9252  Immigrants are an asset, not a cost, fool! They pay more tax than they get in benefits by a huge margin.
    9
  203.  @Joanna-il2ur  If I called YOU stupid, that would be abusive behaviour. It would be an ad hominem attack. Pointing out that your argument is utterly silly, (which the suggestion that the working class dissappeared when mining ended demonstrably is) is NOT an ad hominem attack and therefore not in any way abusive. Atlee, Benn and Blair? Three stalwarts of the modern Labour Party there! But their non-contemporary status aside, are you seriously suggesting that most of the people they faced across the aisle were of "humble origins"? Really?
    9
  204. Yes. The claim was that the Poles were threatening Danzig.
    8
  205.  @eddiebear34  Yes. Murray and Peterson are two examples of what reactionaries would like an intellectual to be. They can only do it in Right wing echo chambers like this where their lies and misrepresentations aren't challenged, though. Peterson tried debating Zizek and got his arse kicked and he runs scared of debating Richard Wolff. Murray is the same. Just makes up strawman opponents. Anyone can do that.
    8
  206.  @blue47er  No. Not at all. I'm appalled by Starmer. My point was that we didn't arrive here by random accident. The purging of Socialists from the Labour was the beginning of the Starmer project, not the end. Labour is no longer the UK's progressive party. It has been completely and systematically neutered. We need to build a new progressive force outside of Labour.
    8
  207. It must be so embarrassing to live in Florida!
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  208. Wow. This one has really got the Tufton Street trolls buzzing. Sunlight is the best disinfectant - and don't they know it!
    8
  209. Animals just kill to eat? So when did "Antifa" kill for ANY reason? Huh, Jordan? Can we have some names,dates, sources? This guy is considered to be a respected academic but he's just a deranged fraud. As for Andy Ngo, he's the guy who came to the UK and found "no go" zones where non-muslims feared to tread. No-one in the UK knows where they are....
    8
  210. I remember Robert Fisk saying that the SNA was neither national nor an army and, considering the number of foreign Jihadists and "advisors" it contained, couldn't even be accurately called Syrian. I suspect that the various factions will now fall out with each other and we'll soon be looking at Libyan-style mayhem that will suit at least some of the nations with their dirty hands in the mix.
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  211. Kudos to this guy. I bet someone is already on the phone with Rupert Murdoch demanding to have him removed.
    8
  212. Please don't call Duganists (including Bannon) conservatives. These people have nothing in common with Eisenhower, De Gaulle, MacMillan - not even Nixon or Thatcher etc. They are Fascists. They want to destroy democracy, social justice, universal education, health care, everything that separates us from the middle ages.
    8
  213. If Starmer becomes PM, he'll have the Speaker in his pocket. That's outrageous and completely untenable. Hoyle has to go and Starmer should also be disciplined for his behaviour.
    8
  214. Thing is. He didn't run the TV show. The producers told him what projects to run and whom to "fire". He's a bit like the 6-year-old in a football class who thinks he really is Lionel Messi because he's got it written on the back of his shirt.
    8
  215. So. Where's the forensic tent in Evans's garden?
    8
  216. All agreed. "Wealth" comes from the Old English "weal" which means well being and was generally used in reference to the community rather than individuals. Financial concepts like profit and loss,etc are accountancy terms and are only peripheral to economics in so much as they show where wealth is being siphoned off. Wealth is produced by the community and rightly belongs to it.
    8
  217. It's the US's wee colony in an otherwise unfriendly region. Surely, it would cost the US less to make it a friendly region?
    8
  218. Excellent. Tufton Street's version is that the big struggle is the one between what they call "liberty" and tyranny. In fact, their real enemy (and they know it) is democracy. Democracy and everything that enhances it (free speech and association, fair distribution of wealth, human rights, fairer elections, devolution etc) is the story which we need to tell to counter their "liberty".
    8
  219.  @adenwellsmith6908  Most of it does anyway.
    8
  220. Why do you say "rocket fired from Lebanon"? This is disputed with most locals believing that this was a failed "Iron Dome" missile. At best, the word "allegedly" is missing through carelessness. At worst, you are colluding with an Israeli cover-up or even a false flag claim.
    8
  221. While Blair was insufficiently critical of Thatcher before and during his premiership, he didn't reveal the true extent of his admiration for her nor reveal his aim to build on her "legacy" until long after he needed public support. Starmer is so arrogant he thinks he can get away with saying this BEFORE getting elected. I actually think he had already blown a dirty great hole in Labour's core support before this incredible own goal. But this could be the last nail needed for the coffin. May he rest in pieces.
    7
  222. It would be more sensible if the government gave mortgages themselves. Economies of scale would make it much cheaper. The current system is just a licence for top-heavy bureaucracies to print their own money.
    7
  223. Which is why Corbyn was ejected!
    7
  224.  @glynnwright1699  It was different for me. I was doing my schoolwork by candlelight because the government wanted to begin reversing the very working-class advances that allowed people like me to be doing that schoolwork in the first place.
    7
  225.  @cyberfunk3793  Totally ineffective. How long it took them to get to Baghdad is irrelevant. The point is that this was asymmetric warfare and they were soundly defeated by a vastly inferior force. US influence in the region took a beating and has been taking a beating ever since while Iran has gone from strength to strength.
    7
  226.  @briandelaney9710  um no. That wasn't the comparison. The point was about one person being framed and others then being found guilty by association with them.
    7
  227. Or perhaps they're not in the least bit interested in combating antisemitism....
    7
  228. Praetorian Guards ain't what they used to be. Silly little man!
    7
  229. Buckle up. There are going to be plenty of these. Reform Ltd has had to fill these vacancies at very short notice so get your popcorn ready!
    7
  230. They do so under licence from the BoE.
    7
  231. What a silly comparison. NI is a tax on employment. Employment is good for the economy. Rent is a drain on the economy. Landlords are currently getting away with shoddy maintenance, delayed repairs and excessive rents. The growth of the rental sector is one of the things that has sent house prices through the roof and forced people INTO the rental sector where sky-high rents mean that they don't have a chance in hell of saving to get out of it: as bad a vicious circle as you can get.
    7
  232. I love the way that you've made this into a cartoon so that simpler minds will be able to follow it. No one suggests that there weren't other slave trades. In fact, the slavery employed in the Americas wouldn't have been possible without there already being slavery infrastructure in place. But the whole point about the Trans-Atlantic slave trade is first of all its scale and secondly its relevance to our industrial development. All this stuff is interesting. But it's completely irrelevant.
    7
  233. The sinister bit is "renew our politics". I think we've already had a taste of what that means. I hope that wee project is nipped in the bud. A Happy New Year to you and yours, Damien. I look forward to you fighting this insufferable hypocrite for another 12 months and beyond.
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  234. It's a scam. She doesn't believe a word of it. But the people who do believe will be sending her lots of money - some of which she will spend on rampant rabbits etc.
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  235. Fascism
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  236. @Minimmalmythicist No. It will mean less trade barriers for Scotland. The big players in the EU have made it clear that they will fast-track a Scottish application for membership. England will gain because it will have the opportunity to re-make itself as a nation - with a democratic constitution and a more outgoing economic outlook.
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  237. Yes. He probably deserves life but last I read, it will be about 20 years. Then he has to be extradited to face charges in the UK.
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  238. Note that most of these "antis" seem to keep office hours. The fact that they make the same points using very similar wording is also a trolling red light. Their presence is a compliment to Richard Murphy. It tells us that Tufton Street (or similar) is concerned that he is making an impact.
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  239. The Nazis used people like him in the ghettos. They called them kapos.
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  240. On average, more equal countries are generally wealthier. Inequality leads to any number of social and economic dysfunctions which blight everyone's lives
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  241. "Most of the world's problems are down to large businesses wanting more." Absolutely! Big businesses have become so large and powerful that they are beyond democratic control. Far from it, it is often the other way around, with companies exerting more influence over governments than their populations do. This cannot be good. Small businesses, by contrast, are not only accountable to their customers but also, to the communities that they live in - BECAUSE they live in them.
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  242. "Venezuela is a real place where people are dying of hunger, dying due to lack of access to medication, dying because of the cruel actions of a despotic tyrant." No. These depredations are the result of sanctions placed on the country by the United States. It's effectively the same technique they used to bring Pinochet to power in Chile. The suggestion that Biden is a Socialist is hilarious. The Democrats would be considered to be on the right in any country with proportional representation.
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  243. Surely, for any test to be valid it should be administered by a neutral physician selected randomly.
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  244.  @politicas3361  nope. Ignorance and dishonesty are your reasons.
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  245. I have to listen to Ms Swift every Monday morning when I take my grandchildren to school. They're not songs that get better the more you listen IMHO. Nonetheless, I agree that she should responsibly use her influence as her conscience leads her to. You have to be amused by the outraged bluster of those who seem to have no problem with the D-list celebs like Kid Rock and Roseanne Barr who congregate to kiss the ring at Mar a Lago.
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  246.  @MrSummerblade  . Possibly, according to Hannanh Arrendt amorality is the true evil. Whichever way you look at it, it's certainly bad for the rest of us.
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  247. "They're not even trying to make sense any more because they don't have to" Spot on Cenk! I would love for George Orwell to be around now. His speciality was to expose people for misusing language but he never saw anything like this!
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  248. Yes. Most post-imperial powers (UK, France, Germany, US, Spain, Russia etc) are very good at it.
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  249. I agree BUT it could be and likely will be a lot worse. Just watch the US over the next 4 years.
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  250. The point is that there is no new investment into the economy.
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  251. Excellent summary. I knew that Einstein became an anti-Zionist in his later years. I hadn't realised that he'd been one of those who compared Herut to the Nazis.
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  252. I was thinking part shaved coconut but boiled egg is good too.
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  253. I love the way he claims that Melania talks to him when he gets home. In your dreams, Donald! Though, on second thoughts it's probably not a good idea to go there.....
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  254. Corporate greed doesn't exist? But he's one of the cheerleaders for neoliberalism, the cult that says that greed is good because it drives the animal spirits of capitalism and creates prosperity for all through the enchanted "trickle down" magic. Without it, we're all on the road to serfdom - as a very foolish "economist" once put it. So how do you square the circle, Larry? How can greed lead to the prosperous uplands of the free market utopia if it doesn't exist?
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  255. Why does this myth endure about Portillo's loss being unexpected? I recall staying up specifically to watch this spectacle which had been floated by a number of pundits beforehand.
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  256. Please be kind enough to tell us about their attempts to storm the Capitol.
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  257. Yes. But most of them are trolls who work for lobbying companies.
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  258. Great video and some very inspired comments here. The use of analogies like Mary Poppins and Alice in Wonderland are helpful. I like the Wyle E Coyote comparison: We can all defy gravity until we look down and see the canyon yawning beneath us. Hence the collapse of Northern Rock, Bear Stearns etc. It all works as long as we believe it does - until we don't and then it doesn't! Keeping it mysterious and obscure allows those that understand it to hoodwink the rest of us and work what is essentially a system of flowing debt to their advantage. Explaining it in terms we can all understand, nibbles away at their power. Excellent start to the series.
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  259. The graphic of Blinken says "I will be your favourite uncle - or something very unpleasant indeed will happen to you"
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  260. "Remarkably small quantities of physical armaments available to us in the UK". I think it's the nature of the armaments which is the problem. For example, a Trident submarine is no use whatsoever in the defence of the UK. It is a part of the US's war fighting capability. We seem to have a preponderance of capability for mounting anti-"insurgent" operations in places like Afghanistan or providing Israel with the aerial intelligence to bomb civilians in Gaza. But none of these things have anything to do with defending the islands on which we live - nor even of defending Europe as part of an alliance. What we are really paying for is to be part of a force which tries to control resources elsewhere as an illusory imperial policy which really amounts to being no more than a proxy for the US. And I can't help thinking that we're drawing the wrong lessons from what has been happening in Ukraine. Russia put all its resources into attempting to invade one of the poorest and most corrupt countries in Europe. It was mightily repulsed. It has managed to hold on to a chunk of territory on which it has some political support and which it can easily resupply because it adjacent to its border but by and large, its project to re-absorb Ukraine into a new Russian empire has failed and it's economy and politics have been severely damaged along the way. Even if had achieved military success, it might have got acquiescence in the East, but it would have needed to permanently station troops in Western Ukraine to hold off Banderite resistance. The notion that such a power could then go on to invade the rest of Europe is risible! But what it has made clear is that a strong and motivated conventional force can hold ground against an invader of vastly superior numbers and simply make invasion too costly in blood and treasure to contemplate. That is the direction in which any genuine defence policy should go.
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  261.  @Volkan-z2v  Your argument appears to assume that the people who are at the head of the "company" (as you call it) know what the people in the organisation do and how they use the technology. I've never worked in a large organisation where that was the case - and I've worked in several.
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  262. Indeed. There'll be a court case for that purpose. That's why he was going to run away.
    6
  263. Boris saying "Let's just fight" actually meant "You just fight": This is the US fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian. That seems to be coming horribly true. This morning I saw a video of a guy called Voha being bullied and taunted by his "comrades" in a Ukrainian trench. He was clearly mentally handicapped and not capable of fighting anyone but here he was, in a trench, drafted to fight in this senseless war. There was no gun available for him, apparently. He was told he should "gain" one in battle! In my view, Putin's invasion was actually the culmination of a successful US plan - a plan similar to the one which resulted in the Soviet Union invading Afghanistan decades earlier. What's more, a plan designed to bring NATO right up to Russia's border. I'm not making excuses for Putin. Military invasion is a war crime and Putin should appear at The Hague for it. Just as Dubyah and Blair should be brought to account for invading Iraq. But there should be no doubt that this affair did not start in February 2022. It didn't even start with the 2014 coup d'etat. US expansionism in Eastern Europe has been going on since 1945 when Ukrainian Fascists (the political forebears of those now in charge) were recruited to undermine the Soviet Union. So of course the US are intent on continuing the conflict. They're getting everything they want from it. As one disgusting US politician put it, "It's bleeding Russia and not costing a single US life". Ukrainian and Russian lives obviously mean nothing at all to them.
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  264. Yes. I could feel my crap detector twitching but I thought it was just me. Now you've furnished extra details I feel vindicated. Some investigation would be pertinent. Who was this guy? What happened to him afterwards? How did he get in? Was he bundled out of the building and roughed up a bit on the way out? How did those t shirts get made so quickly and where can I get one of those "roll a turd in glitter" slogans on a t shirt or mug?
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  265. I'm enjoying this series. Make sure you share them folks!
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  266. I think it's more that they don't LIKE what a pension is. The idea of each succeeding generation funding those who have retired on the understanding that the next generation will fund them is WAY too collectivist for them.
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  267. Scottish Branch manager Anas Sarwar started this last May. Edinburgh had always been Labour or SNP or a coalition of the two. Then we woke up to find that he was working with the Tories all over Scotland to keep SNP and Greens out of local government. I'm betting that Keith will work with the Tories at Westminster if the alternative is co-operating with SNP.
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  268.  @frederickfred2714  Any chance you get that translated into English? I have no idea what you're saying.
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  269. The spelling and the grammar! So funny. No wonder these people can't think properly!
    6
  270. It's not defamation if he actually brags about it, inadequate. He's on record, by his own statements as being a viscious and cowardly woman beater.
    6
  271. Yet the Jewish community in RSA was a crucial pillar of the fight against apartheid. Only a small (though highly vocal) part of the so-called diaspora supports Israel.
    6
  272.  @thatblueberryguy  "the Ukraine" is the Tsarist imperialist name for Ukraine as a region of Russia. It effectively denies it's existence as a country.
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  273. Almost all of that is addressed in the video. RM is pointing out LL it is often abused and used inappropriately. Do you dispute that?
    5
  274. I loved the moment the camera rested on Jesse Jackson's face.
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  275. A tough choice would be telling donors they have to pay more tax or telling the US that we're going to pursue a foreign policy that benefits us rather than them. There's nothing remotely tough about bullying those who are unable to defend themselves.
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  276.  @politicas3361  And thanks for confirming that you have no evidence to back up your slanderous accusations.
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  277. "If anti-zionism is protected then Zionism should be too"? Er... That's like saying that if Anti-racism is protected, then so should racism be. Utterly absurd!
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  278.  @randalldraco3822  Yes. That was the view of your predecessors in 1930s Germany. You people have contempt for humanity because you have none.
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  279.  @ruggedtechie5867  Spot on. Of course he's not an intellectual. He just went to posh schools which came him the tools and confidence to talk bollocks confidently and articulately. In short, he is what idiots would like intellectuals to be. He says what idiots want to hear but he makes it sound authorative and intelligent because he has a posh accent and good grammar. As eyewitness reports of the Hamas attack emerge, it's becoming less certain that they were responsible for the deaths of the civilians - or at least not all of them. One surviving kibbutz member said that the IDF fired tank artillery shells into houses containing both hostages and Hamas and she saw several civilians shot down by IDF crossfire. If Hamas had committed the atrocities claimed by Israel the whole scene would have been crawling with UN war crimes investigators at Israel's invitation. The fact that Israel provided no evidence for its claims tells you all you need to know.
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  280. No. He wasn't. He was lying.
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  281. He appears to be claiming that his market friendly policies will automatically result in growth. Liz Truss Lite. Good luck with that one. Supply side doesn't work, Keith. Surely, everyone knows that by now? Well, everyone except you and Liz...
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  282. Starmer's Labour is a carbuncle. Streeting is the pus. I hate making ad hominem statements about anyone but he is so venal that I make an exception.
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  283.  @anuragchakraborty8766  In 1973?
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  284. Again, absolutely on the money. Minsky (not a socialist) said that the notion that capitalism has resulted in rising living standards for all is wrong: The majority does gain from it but only when they literally force the capitalists to hand over their share through political or industrial action. The unfettered grabbing of wealth which Liz Truss and Rachel Reeves (very little difference between them) believe in, results in impoverishment for most.
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  285. Well, they're aggressively being in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's "bang to rights" as far as Israel is concerned.
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  286. Peterson is in an intellectual cul-de-sac: Women have got it wrong because they're not behaving according to the stereotype he recognises as normal. A stereotype to which people don't conform is an inaccurate stereotype. Period. It's not the other way around!
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  287. Absolutely spot on, Richard. It's leaving everything to the market that causes the problems. The market decides where the jobs will be, which dictates where people will have to live, which dictates where houses will be built. And at every stage, the people making the profits are able to externalise their costs with impunity. Better regulation and management of house building and communal property management will help a great deal, of course and in the short to medium term, your idea of taking more housing into public ownership is a sound one. But in the long term, we've got to start planning our economy so that people can live safely, comfortably and sustainably without foreseeable consequences and costs that get shunted onto others.
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  288. "No one is listening to me " Yes. When you're talking about laws that "women have to tape down their breasts", that's not really surprising. Like this Fascist senator, you're talking absolute rubbish. There's no Islamic takeover of the UK. Not even ONE Islamist in any elected position anywhere. We live together happily and peacefully - no matter how much neo-Nazis try to impose their intolerance on us. Now, haven't you got a long white robe you need to try on?
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  289. I challenge this idiot to come to the UK and find ONE piece of evidence of Muslim takeover. We do have religious courts - Jewish, Christian and Muslim. They're entirely optional (both parties have to agree to be bound by it) and apply only to CIVIL matters. As an atheist and believer in democracy, I find this to be outrageous and I would like to end it but you try taking on the Church of England!
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  290.  @perkinscrane  It may well return a coalition tending toward the Centre-Right from time to time. Most of the above measures are extreme right and were opposed by the majority of the population. Thatcherism was extremely unpopular and was only possible because of FPTP.
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  291. What this means is that the so-called "centre" is closer to the Far-Right (to Fascists), than they are to the democratic Left. As they say in Glasgow, You couldnae get a bus ticket between 'em.
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  292. I wasn't born till he was gone but Atlee was credible. I do remember MacMillan, though. He was a Tory but , if you take the time to consider his word and policies he was closer to Corbyn than to Sunak. In fact, he was probably further left than Blair and Starmer. He was certainly a more decent human being than most politicians then or now.
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  293. 8 out of 10 on the pronunciation, lovely boy! Dinefwr was one step too far. Otherwise, not bad at all.
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  294. It would be wise not to invoke the "events" of October last year, Mr Starmer, before those events have been properly investigated by a properly constituted and internationally recognised investigating body. Oh! What's that? Israel won't allow such an investigation? That tells you everything you need to know about such "events"!
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  295. Wow! There's a clearly well-organised Fascist response to this. The whole country watched them desecrating the Cenotaph and they have the brass neck to claim that they were "well behaved".
    5
  296. Um. Has anyone seen A Clockwork Orange?
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  297.  @presidentxijinpingspoxdoct9756  The "cretin" who won Hartlepool - twice? Shouldn't that title go to the guy who lost it?
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  298. It certainly gives the lie to his promises of devolution. If he's going to crush dissent from his own councillors, he's certainly not going to give whole councils the freedom to make their own decisions.
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  299. I totally relate to your sentiments BUT the damage she would do in passing would make the Weimar Republic look like halcyon days.
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  300. It's what you'd have expected from Farage or worse. Absolutely shocking!
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  301. A "lie-in". Because she was tired and wanted to sleep.
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  302. The idea of an annual "spill-over" assessment is an excellent idea but first of all we need a major debate about what tax should do - providing money for spending is only part of the story - and how it should be done. There are people who have a vested interest in the anomalies and unfairness and it will be an uphill struggle to make meaningful corrections.
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  303. So well put! Absolutely right. Putting caring at the centre of policy (the opposite of what Tories, Lib-Dems and Labour stand for) would do it. Sadly, while Neoliberalism has reached a cul-de-sac, it is now behaving like a cornered wild animal and might be more dangerous in its death throes than it was in its prime. On that cheerful note, have a kind and happy Christmas.
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  304. He doesn't understand that most American Jews are Americans who happen to be Jewish, not Jews who happen to be in America. Some are conservative, some are downright reactionary, some are progressive and some are even socialists. But the most important thing about them is that they are Americans. Demanding that they cast their votes according to the interests of another country is patronising and insulting - and, let's be clear, Antisemitic.
    5
  305.  @domtomas1178  Um no. The point was NATO THREATENING Russia by putting its weapons in close proximity. Of course, the US would not behave in the same way if Russia put its weapons in close proximity to the US -Say on a Caribbean island.....
    5
  306. The claim about Hamas selling the aid comes from the same stable as UNWRA workers being Hamas and hospitals containing HAMAS control centres. Anyone who believes such nonsense should get in touch with Donald Trump who will, at a bargain price, sell them some pretty cards which will make them rich.
    5
  307. "We're working on that" is Trumpese for "I'm not taking a position because I need the voters on both sides."
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  308. Come to Scotland, Ana. We hae a muckle o' slang for ye.
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  309. If the Libyan experience is anything to go by, it will not only mean Syrian refugees but also that, as a result of a break-down in law and order, local warlords will be able to run a very profitable conduit into Europe for refugees from elsewhere.
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  310. Problem is that you have a product which is presented in a positive light on a daily basis without allowing anyone to give a counter view it's going to be popular. That's why the monarchy is unassailable. It's also worth remembering that it gives them incredible wealth and privilege and they'll fight like hell to keep it. So as long as that's borne in mind, let's get to abolishing them!
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  311. Stoking inflation? Yes. That's what progressive taxation is all about. Progressive taxation would control inflation just as well but could also fund social spending, such as on schools, health care, libraries, swimming pools etc. It worked but had one wee drawback: The rich didn't like it. That's why, for more than 4 decades we have had a political economy which is destroying the planet, impeding technological progress and making everyone poorer except for the rich.
    5
  312. Utter nonsense! Just like previous "mis-selling" by banks and insurance companies this is pure fraud and the perpetrators should be treated as criminals. They should be forced to trace and compensate their victims. It is disgraceful that the onus is on the victim to seek compensation. And none of them should be allowed to continue working in the finance sector or anywhere else where trust is an issue.
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  313. "Supply-side reforms"? I recall Dennis Healey (considered to be on the Right of the Labour Party) referring to supply-side as "voodoo economics". And indeed, that is exactly what it is. It is unbelievable that Labour has moved so far to the Right that it can consider this drivel to be grown-up economics
    5
  314. ​ @gwynroberson198 utter nonsense. I doubt if many private sector managers could be as effective with such a starvation of resources. The expensive bit is the outsourcing.
    5
  315. Absolutely. Such transparency should also extend to lobby groups like the IEA and Taxpayers' Alliance.
    5
  316.  @Killergoat69  Um...Harold Wilson campaigned to stay in the EU. I remember getting the letter from him urging me to vote to stay in. It was the first time I voted. What on Earth is mass immigration?
    5
  317. Except it didn't work. She lost the case and Carrol won.
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  318. If the judge grants the injunction the plaintiff's counsel has requested, he can be criminally prosecuted for breaching it.
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  319. The Labour Right has always betrayed the working class - even though it depends on their votes to survive. Time for the working class to say "This far and no further". Vote Green, vote SNP, vote Plaid, vote for local independent labour candidates. Let them win the votes of the "middle ground" and realise how pointless that is if they lose the support of the working class.
    5
  320. ​ @loc4725  There's no reason why an independent Scotland would be "screwed". Quite the opposite. It definitely IS screwed if it remains in the wilfully failing UK.
    5
  321. I do this with my 2 year old grand daughter. Lots of schnukka dinkas and fnolly glockle dlongs and things. I think it's good because she learns how different sounds can be made and it's a lot of fun but I think she knows I'm talking rubbish as much as I do.
    5
  322. A majority of just over 9,000. The drop in Tory and Lib Dem votes? Just under 9,000. What a coincidence! You're quite right, Damian. This can't be extrapolated to England. Scotland is unique in that there is pro British Nationalist tactical voting. This would still have been a Labour win but with a small majority in what was always a marginal seat anyway.
    5
  323. The stock-market as it currently exists is completely unnecessary now. Its functions can be encapsulated in an app. Effectively, the City is a nothing more than a parasitic anachronism - and a damned expensive one, at that.
    5
  324. Turkey wouldn't need to invade Israel. They would only need to side with Lebanon IN Lebanon. This would mean it would be attacking Israeli forces outside its own borders from bases within a NATO country. Israel would be faced with a choice between attacking those bases and therefore attacking a NATO member ( leaving NATO countries obliged to respond) or withdrawing to within its own borders.
    5
  325.  @jim-es8qk  Utter rubbish. The housing stock is rapidly becoming dominated by private landlords with house prices moving out of the reach of ordinary people so those landlords are able to charge exorbitant rents. This leaves working class people with less disposable income. This, in turn, leads to depressed demand and lower wages.
    4
  326.  @mechanicaldavid4827  A very good question.
    4
  327. He's trying to ape McKinley, who introduced tariffs in lieu of taxation but also initiated the US's colonial empire by taking the Philippines and starting the war over Cuba. He's clearly only half understood what he's learned. The vital differences are that the US was the up-and-coming new kid on the block and was dealing with the decaying Spanish Empire, whereas it's now the decaying empire which is unable to compete with the new guys; the tariffs were specifically aimed at certain industries he was attempting to strengthen and not at everything imported from specific countries; that McKinley was a successful businessman with some understanding of economic theory and not a failed property developer who probably got his qualifications by paying someone to take his exams. The result of his ignorance and idiocy will be a severe weakening of the US and possibly its unravelling as a single entity. MADA indeed!
    4
  328. Nope Li John Warey, you need to stop accusing people of things you have no evidence to back up.
    4
  329.  @nicklang3018  very likely.
    4
  330.  @politicas3361  If the documentary offered evidence you would be able to refer to it. It doesn't so you can't. A little English lesson for you: accusation is Not evidence.
    4
  331. The audacity of the man! And the coldness! No shame, no regret, no emotion of any sort. Ms Arendt, your case is made. Evil is banal. This man's inability to tell the difference between good and evil is as scary as it is possible to be.
    4
  332. Good point about the historical significance of this region in the Second World War. It should also be remembered that Ukrainian Nationalists fought on the side of the Wehrmacht in this period. The likes of the Asov Brigade entering the fray in the Kursk region opens up very deep wounds indeed - it doesn't matter who is in charge in Moscow.
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  333. Up there with Trump University and Hustlers University. A scam by a far right demagogue with a history of cosying up to Nazis and terrorists. It'll be a flop - but not before he's skimmed millions of dollars from gullible victims.
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  334. It's really the other way around. Microeconomics SHOULD be based on macroeconomics. Not considering the externalities is dishonest. When businesses ignore the effects of their activities on the environment or communities, they are effectively passing on costs to others.
    4
  335. Agreed. But party lists are still better than FPTP. If we went that way, it would also be necessary to oblige the parties to observe internal democracy. For example, it shouldn't be possible for members of bodies like Labour's NEC to award themselves seats. It certainly shouldn't be possible for limited companies to be recognised as political parties.
    4
  336.  @ankhpom9296  Possibily. I'd agree that some of them are extremely stupid.
    4
  337.  @eddiebear34  I meant any peer to peer debates - not interviews with journalists! Do you even know the difference?
    4
  338.  @mariarivera806  Honest, decent, hard working. Or to put it another way, a lot better than a creepy little preppie who got everything on a plate and never had to account for anything. I hope you washed your hands after that.
    4
  339.  @classaction3314  If Trump appeals, she'll definately get paid. He has to post a bond and when he loses the court pays it directly to her.
    4
  340. "lawful historically accurate content". Orwell's predictions just came true!
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  341. Agreed but the point is that there are people who can see ways out of it. It's just that they're not listened to.
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  342.  @glynnwright1699  No. I'm talking about the 1944 Education Act. I might add that had it not been for the NHS, I wouldn't have been there at all. I despair that my great grandchildren may not have such "privilege".
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  343. A financially illiterate population can be fleeced at will by the finance industry. The finance industry is one of the biggest donors to MPs and political parties. MPs and political parties show no interest at all in educating people about finance. There might be a connection there. Excellent video, Richard.
    4
  344. I agree about the SNP. There are some genuinely progressive MPs and MSPs but also many who would be quite comfortable in Starmer's Labour or the Lib Dems. But we're not getting a real alternative until we have independence with PR for all elections. So we have to vote SNP for now in order to get rid of them when independence comes!
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  345. Shapiro ought to take note of another group who hid in tunnels and played merry hell with an army that was technically superior to it. In January 1943, the Jewish fighters of the anti-Zionist Bund forced the SS to halt a mass deportation and delay it by 4 months. Even when they came back in much greater numbers with armour and artillery, they held them off for 29 days of extensive fighting. Like the Zionists, the Germans allowed their racism to put them off their guard. Like the Nazis, Shapiro is just a racist blow-hard being shown how stupid he is by people who are far superior to him.
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  346. Where did you get that figure from? The OBR and IFS report that the top 10% of earners paid 60% of all income tax. But that's the only vaguely progressive tax we have. Most other taxes are regressive, with the burden falling on lower earners.
    4
  347.  @perkinscrane  The Falklands war happened because Thatcher was hopelessly unpopular and headed for certain defeat. It could easily have been resolved by negotiation but she wanted a diversion. If Thatcher's privatisations were copied so faithfully, you'll have to explain why European state owned companies like EDF have taken over so many of our public utilities. 70% of the UK's private rail providers are owned by state-owned European companies! Both Blair and Brown are neoliberals. The Labour Party is a broad church dominated by the Centre Right and is rapidly become hard right as socialists and social democrats are expelled or leave. Most of my family lived in council housing in the Wilson era, much of it built during that time so I'm a little puzzled at your claim that the Wilson administration curtailed it. Brexit was a scam to enable the aims of the extreme right so that is also a rather strange claim.
    4
  348.  @xtc2v  Of course not. That's the point!
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  349. Trump is on bail and using his liberty to tamper with evidence and wttnesses - a standard reason for refusing bail. It should be now be rescinded and he should be taken into custody pending trial.
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  350.  @Fifty79Months-m3q  Indeed. Like they came from a script.
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  351. The PSC should boycott the conference and then picket it. Zionism is a racist ideology based on the oppression of and dominating of the original inhabitants of Palestine and is diametrically opposed to the aims and values of the Labour Movement. The fact that the Leader of the Labour Party is able to openly say "I am a Zionist" brings shame on the party.
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  352.  @isnamthere4690  I think that what they're doing is playing the client because he's stupid. They know they haven't got a cat in hell's chance but he's paying the bill so do what he says and get rich.
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  353. "melted pudding"? Brilliant! Funny and accurate. That should go viral!
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  354. The day he said "I am a Zionist", Hardie rolled over in his grave. He recognised that it was a colonialist (they didn't use the term "racist" then) movement which went against every value the Labour movement stood for. He was passionately anti-Zionist. Starmer shames the whole movement.
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  355.  @happinesstan  Why not ask them? I'd have thought that they'd go for community ownership.
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  356. This is spot on, Rick. It's commercialisation: The business wants to produce everything cheaper to make and easier to control. People are awkward, greedy, cantankerous, contrary, conceited, prone to tantrums, depression, laziness, arrogance, cheeky, rude, etc etc - OR, as we old fashioned types like to call it, creative!!!!
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  357. See Norman Finkelstein on the truth about Israelis and their attitudes to the Palestinians: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyvOlllV_NI The vast majority of them are heartless and pitiless monsters. Everything that they're accusing the Palestinians of, in fact.
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  358. Well said. I'm always amused when MPs defend their second jobs and directorships on the basis that it keeps them in touch with the real world. As if mahogany-panelled boardrooms and business lunches were a feature of most people's lives. I think 90K is reasonable - provided they are no allowed to do second jobs. It puts them on a par with many professionals and compensates them for extra hours worked compared to the rest of us and for being away from home for long periods but it does at least mean that they have to be aware of bills and expenses just like everyone else.
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  359. "We have not yet seen the Syrian people have the ability to have their voices heard." Yeah! cos' holding elections is the first thing ISIS and Al Qaeda do when they seize power....
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  360. It is not a question of either or. There should be NO poverty in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Period.
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  361. I share your sense of humour and find it impossible to not laugh. The trouble is that the people these kooks are preaching too are equally or even more unhinged than they are - and they have guns. I hope Kelce and Swift have professional security!
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  362. Don't worry. Israel is investigating itself. That's always gone well before....
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  363. The Far-Right are quite happy with Barnier? No s**t, Sherlock!
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  364.  @mw01908  I think you mean they BORROW the newly created money from the BoE. Yes. That's what creating it under licence means.
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  365. Well said. She hasn't got a plan because she is a doctrinaire Neoliberal. She doesn't think that governments should have a plan for the economy. That should be down to the markets - of which she considers herself to be a servant. The fact that this has been the motivation of every Chancellor since Geoffrey Howe and that it has failed for every single one of them, is beyond her very limited comprehension.
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  366. No. She learned less than nothing. Nothing would be harmless.
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  367.  @LowPlainsDrifter60  We know what it means: It's the replacement for "political correctness gone mad" which eventually became as comedic as it could get as Spitting Image gave it at least one skit on every show. There's always been a personal insult to dish out when you've no arguments. Is anyone here old enough to have been called a "trendy lefty" or a "bleeding heart liberal? No doubt, the Right Wing echo chamber will replace the equally vacuous and meaningless "woke" in due course.
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  368. I'm wondering if it's policy about the threshold. It would be very valuable to an adversary to know exactly how far they can go without triggering the Big Red Button.
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  369. White supremacy has everything to do with this. If you don't like TYT just go and watch the proto-Fascist channels like NewsMax. Watching them being forced to contradict themselves in order to defend the Orange BabyMan and his bottom-feeding yes-men and yes-women is hilarious
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  370. Starmer's always ready to make the "tough" decisions. In practice that means kissing upwards and kicking downwards. He'll happily sell out the disabled and otherwise disadvantaged but is totally incapable of standing up to bullies like Trump.
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  371. That's just a string of words. It's impossible for anyone to know what you're saying. Ever thought of learning how to construct a sentence with punctuation, capitals etc?
    4
  372. 3 to 4 minute videos a few times per day suits my schedule. For me, the choice of topics are just right
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  373. Pure neo-liberalism. They believe in free markets for everything except Labour. In fact, the inflationary pressures are caused by the unproductive rich (whether as capitalists or as landlords) taking a bigger and bigger share of what is socially produced by workers.
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  374. I loved "your lawyer or whatever...she is". Brilliant turn of phrase
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  375. It's a no brainer. Investing in HMRC staff will bring in more revenue. So why won't government do it?
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  376. Imagine winning dinner with this howler! You'd get your dinner for free but you'd be charged $5,000 dollars for the ketchup.
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  377. Of course they've found weapons! They'll be the ones they brought with them!
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  378.  @2frogland  Then you'd have to explain why countries like France and Germany with much stronger trade unions and far more immigration didn't have that decline and explain why their economies overtook the UK's during the Thatcher years. The UK's current economic underperformance stems from the 2008 crash which was the Thatcher bubble bursting. Though, of course, Brexit has made things much, much worse.
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  379. On the Trumpian Right, ANY word means anything they want it to.
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  380. This is so powerful.
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  381. Absolutely right. That's got the situation to T.
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  382. About 15 years ago this nutcase said that Hitler was sent by God to make Jews "return" to Israel and that we should celebrate the Holocaust because it brought the rapture closer. Cenk is right. If the Devil existed, this is what he'd look like. This is an evil man and he leads a truly evil organisation.
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  383.  @lennymccartney1  Actually, a Palestinian. But "lemon" is certainly accurate.
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  384.  @robmckenzie2538  Absolutely. I think it's actually a professional who will by now have moved on to troll another site. This guy certainly won't be a fan of Diamian. There'll be an algorithm which picks up mention of certain words and that'll prompt them to go in, lay down a standard line of crap then move on.
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  385. Thanks for all the replies, everyone. I asked because I recall three people being arrested following the 22 elections. But then, they didn't have "beautiful white skin" like Trump.
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  386. It's not the name of the party that matters. It's the people behind it; the ones providing the seed money and profiting from the outcome. The Tories were originally the party of the landed whom they defended against the growing power of the industrial bourgeoisie who were championed by the Liberals. In the period between the 1880s and 1920s they gradually took over that mantel of being the champions of the capitalist class which subsumed the landed class through marriage and other means. In effect, they BECAME the UK's liberal party, leaving the party of Lloyd George to fester as the party of the rump middle class while Labour squeezed them the left. The Tories still retained an element of the patrician "one nation" Conservatism of Peel and Disraeli but that was effectively neutered by Thatcher and finally purged out of existence by Johnson. In so doing, he made the party utterly unelectable as its underlying corruption (always there but hidden) and incompetence has become too obvious to hide. So, enter the new party of the capitalists: Starmer's Labour. To make it acceptable to its new donors it had to be purged of everything progressive. After being weakened by Blair, the left of the party has now been completely destroyed by Starmer and it has become the same racket as the one that Stanley Baldwin snatched off the Liberals in the inter-war years. A different name over the door but, for all intents and purposes, the same enterprise with the same business plan: rob and exploit the poor on behalf of the rich. Richard Murphy is right in one way. The Conservative Party is probably dead now. But only in name. Starmer's Labour is every bit as corrupt and rotten and will carry on the tradition for a while before it's either overthrown by democracy or replaced with another placeholder.
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  387. The Olso Accords would have given the Palestinians something akin to Transkei or Ciskei (look it up if you're too young to remember): Pretend statehood with no control of water, borders, energy distribution, defence, airspace or anything else an independent state would take for granted. The fact that Israel is now ruled by people who think that this was too much means that it has no future. It is no longer connected to reality. It is the attitude of people like Hotovely which means that the two-state solution cannot work. It needs to be ONE state - from the river to the sea - which exists for ALL its people, whether they are Jews, Christians or Muslims and whether they are of Arab, European, African or South Asian descent. We have to stop this nonsense about Israel's right to exist. No state has the "right" to exist. It exists with the consent of its people and in the modern world, that should mean ALL its people and its borders should be set by agreement with its neighbours. That is the only way forward.
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  388. Er no. It's England's national day. Do you even understand the difference?
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  389.  @0000vicky0000  Your source for that little gem?
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  390. More like a cartoon villain. Dick Dastardly, perhaps? Having said that, Elon Musk doesn't have Muttley's panache...
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  391.  @kevinfoley8730  Anyone doing an economics degree these days is shepherded away from economics. They're still teaching Samuelson with his utterly discredited nonsense about the virtues of lightly regulated markets!
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  392. It's like one of those street corner cup-and-switch games. And it appears to be done with the same aim in mind - to cheat the punter!
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  393.  @sirgaymeerkat1994  Yes. You're quite right. Political analysts are like the military experts they always wheel out to predict what's going to happen in the latest war. They base their predictions on what happened last time and they're always wrong.
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  394. You think God blesses genocide?
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  395. Quite right to get upset about it but perhaps your country should stop doing it too. Ukraine in 2014 would be the obvious but what about Iran, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chile, Italy etc? In fact, it would be easier to list the countries in which the US hasn't interfered in elections or brought about coups de etat.
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  396. The organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists initally took the axe and Hammer as its symbol. This was partly in parody of the Hammer and Sickle but its main significance was that when pogroms were organised these were the two implements people were told to bring. Their victims would be Poles, Jews, Roma and Russian speaking Ukrainians. This started before Stalin's oppression or Pilduski's coup. The successor organisations to the OAN, like the Asov organisation, continue to revere Bandera and his genocidal comrades. Since the the US-backed coup in 2014, streets have been named after them and statues erected. One of the first acts of the post-coup government was to remove Russian as an official language - effectively making ethnic Russians second-class citizens in their own country. This is why Putin was able to annexe Crimea without any resistance and why he has been able to hang on to the Eastern Oblasts following the failed so-called "Special Military Operation". Putin's invasion was predatory and illegal. It was a war crime for which he should face trial at the Hague. But people should also remember that Ukrainian Nationalism is not the noble cause that our media tries to depict it as.
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  397. Yup. And Yogi Bear is a tax accountant and Deputy Dawg is really a sous chef....
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  398.  @xelamercedes  Unfortunately, it's all too clear why clear-thinking and, more importantly, plain speaking people like Snyder are kept at arm's length. Knowledge and understanding are powerful weapons and the powers that be don't want the likes of us getting too much of it.
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  399.  @politicas3361  I get the feeling you are reading from a script. The fascinating thing about your ad hominem questions is that they so clearly apply to yourself. You have been repeatedly asked for evidence to back up your accusations but you have failed to produce one EXAMPLE of Waters's so called antisemitism, let alone evidence to back it up. Instead you make snide suggestions as to other people's motives in challenging you. Resort to ad hominem is effectively an admission that you have no argument. I think most here would agree that your trolling of this thread has been an abject failure. You have confirmed that the CAA has provided no evidence that you are able to use as argument. As such, your contrubution has actually been useful. Thank you.
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  400. Investment summit = potential donor summit. The politicians present will also have an eye to raising their profiles for future directorships.
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  401.  user-bv5lc1nf5d  Your link is to a Daily Mail story which has nothing to do with this government whatsoever. All these cases would have been in the pipeline for months, if not years. " Full Brexit, slashing of costs and debts and the UK becoming at least semi-normal again under Reform." How exactly would full Brexit mean "slashing of costs and debts and the UK becoming at least semi-normal again"? Partial Brexit has led to at least a 5.7 drop in the growth we would have had without it. Full Brexit would mean a complete collapse in the UK economy and almost certainly the end of the UK because even the most stupid Unionists in Scotland and Northern Ireland want to keep being able to feed their kids.
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  402. It's the "for the people" bit which is funny. Same as the idiots at the capitol or the average trump rally. "the people" are the tiny minority which they represent.
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  403. "Wealth Taxation does seem like a punishment for success." No. It's merely a rebalancing of the distortion in reward created by the market place.
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  404. Ministry of Love, Mininstry of Peace, Ministry of Plenty, Ministry of Truth - all available at a CLP near you!
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  405. Question 1 is a false premise. The notion that people do not care about what has happened elsewhere is simply a false assumption. Question 2 also a false premise. Caring about others is not a zero-sum consideration. Anger about, say, Indian treatment of Kashmiris or Turkish treatment of the Kurds is neither greatened nor lessened by what happens to Palestinians. Again, this smug Nazi is making assumptions for whch he has zero evidence. Question 3. It wasn't the Palestinians who started the war in 1947, it was the UN. The Palestinians responded to a foreign entity telling them they had to share their country with foreign settlers in exactly the same way that any other people would. Do you think the people of Wyoming, for example, would happily obey a UN order to allow a Romany state to be established on half of their state? Or perhaps the UN has the authority to carve out part of France and award it to the Cornish? Is that a question you can answer, Nazi At this point my patience got lost. I realised that I am using up otherwise useful time pointing out the flaws in the arguments of a vile racist. It's like trying to isolate the bad parts of the Third Reich whrn it was ALL bad. Zionism is a racist colonial endeavour and therefore offensive to any decent human being. We don't have to answer you whataboutery. You are evil. And you will be overcome. Period.
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  406. Banks are NOT "Savings and Loans" institutions.
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  407. The important thing to note is that a large number of former Labour voters took the trouble to come out and vote for the Anti-Labour candidate. They could have shrugged off a large number of Labour voters staying at home but actually voting for a candidate who explicitly presented himself as Anti-Starmer is a different matter entirely. The Muslim vote will have been significant but the numbers mean that there is more to it than just that. This bodes very badly indeed for Starmer and co in the coming general election.
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  408.  @eddiebear34  What opposition? Name them!
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  409.  @broomfs  That's easy: His accusations that ceasefire campaigners support Hamas. See above.
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  410.  @freehorizons9491  He speaks for all Fascists. My Dad lost an eye fighting in France when people like him tried to establish an ethnically pure Europe in 1939. I doubt very much that God will "bless" him or his Nazi predecessors.
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  411. Powell was certainly racist and xenophobic but he was also erudite and scholarly. Farage is just a cheap wide-boy who preys on the stupid and gullible.
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  412.  @severoramos8386  Mine's much higher. I've got a loving wife, loving children and grandchildren and a clean conscience. He's never had nor ever could have any of those things.
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  413. Slightly wrong, Cenk. The Laffer Curve was a "theory" that that tax revenues could be increased by decreasing taxes on the rich because they would take less steps, either legal or illegal, to minimise their taxes and be more willing to take risks knowing they would get to keep more of the loot. But you are right to call it "Laffable" A far more credible theory is that so called "economists" get increased funding for their faculties, colleges etc the more they make policy proposals which benefit the ultra-rich people who make big donations to faculties, colleges etc
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  414. Reminds me of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (also passed by a Labour government) which was used to crack down on trades unionists and others on the left.
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  415. Indeed. The whole point about Fascism is that it justifies the domination of the weak by the strong as being the way nature works. You could argue that Israel is doing that or that the US is doing that. They are casting David as the giant and Goliath as the heroic underdog!
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  416. ​ @cyberfunk3793  Not irrelevant? Which country currently has the most influence in Baghdad? The US or Iran?
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  417. I love the way that he sees the need to tell people that 1798 was a long time ago. I wonder what it says about shutting down the airports.
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  418. Being called a "dud" by Britain's second most dud TV station is an accolade, Dan. You represent nobody but the tiniest and most reactionary and racist sliver (just look at some of the comments here)of even post Brexit England's public opinion. Being "woke" is not something which bothers anyone but those who are fast asleep. But, considering the tiny reach of your channel, uselessness is not an accusation you should be so quick to make.
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  419.  @andyinsuffolk  From one extreme to the other. Ask Chileans what they thought of such neoliberal nonsense.
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  420. "We're gonna bring it back to a level that it's never seen before". Reminds of my New Year resolution. I'm going to go back to all the places I've never been to....
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  421. You have to distinguish between two strands of the far right. On the one hand you have the comic-book Fascists who like Seig Heiling and bullying Muslim women in the street. They have had very little electoral impact in their own right but their posturing and bullying can intimidate people and prevent proper political discourse. Most importantly, they complement the other strand, the neoliberals. They are just as hostile to democracy but they are smart enough to use it and corrupt it rather than destroy it completely. They have been very good at it too. But, as Richard Murphy correctly points out, we've now entered a very dangerous phase where the violent and potentially violent strand is learning to make use of the system too. I don't think they'll have much electoral impact but if the so-called respectable right (Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems) keep triangulating to head them off, they will achieve a lot of their aims anyway.
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  422. Exactly when did that happen?
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  423.  @guymor910  You took their country, but they started the war?
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  424.  @guymor910  Just like the Third Reich would have done had it not been stopped?
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  425. RJM puts his finger on it once again. Corporate law in the UK is laughable and limited liability is little more than a licence to defraud the exchequer, the public, suppliers, shareholders and anyone else that gets in the way. Way past time that it was brought under control.
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  426. You think being in the top 4% of earners isn't? Really?
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  427. When the Right say that they hate "the state", they really mean that they hate democracy. There are plenty of "scholarly" articles published by organisations like the Mises Institute and the Cato Institute which argue that democracy is a barrier to "liberty". And when you come down to actual cases, neoliberal experiments like those in Chile, Iran and Argentina have depended on a brutally powerful state to ensure that those who have beneficially exercised their liberty do not have to fear the reaction to poverty and desperation of those they have exercised it against.
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  428. Labour's decision to raise employers' NI contributions is going to force a lot of small businesses to close. Who benefits from that? Big business. Who is Labour courting as donors? Yes. Big business. It doesn't take long to join the dots.
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  429. 😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡
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  430. ​ @perkinscrane  The whole point of PR is that it makes government more representative. The population of the UK did not want its assets sold off at bargain basement prices, it did not want its schools taken out of democratic control, it didn't want its schools removed from democratic accountability, it didn't want its health system degraded by being made accountable to the market, it wanted to retain social housing, it wanted to retain control of its infrastructure and utilities and didn't want to give the crooks of the financial "industry" the facility to loot the real economy which they got from de-regulation. PR would mean that governments would have included elements which would have been unwilling to allow these disastrous policies to proceed. In European countries which had PR, left and moderate elements were able to avoid or at least mitigate most of the excesses of neoliberalism that have destroyed both our economy and democracy.
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  431.  @z0n0ph0ne  Yes.
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  432. Envoke?
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  433.  @adenwellsmith6908  No. I think that enough money should be provided to staff hospitals properly instead of blaming over-worked staff.
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  434. I think that libelling or slandering someone in order to damage others' perception of them can be as hurtful and injurious as physical attack. It should be treated as a crime and prosecuted by the state. The current law means that, on the one hand, rich individuals can evade not only criticism but proper investigation for actual crimes: Think Savile, Maxwell, Archer. On the other hand, if ordinary people are lied about they are deterred from seeking redress by the deep pockets of the likes of the individuals above - as well as the rest of the press, of course. A law of criminal libel/slander would correct this imbalance.
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  435. @SeasideDetective2. It really goes back to the slave era via two routes. First of all there's the neoliberal tradition from John C Calhoun and earlier at the respectable end and then there's the KKK on the quasi-criminal fringe. The two strands try to disassociate from each other but they're interwoven and neither could exist without the other.
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  436. No. Not "The Jews". This is the Israeli government. It would like to be seen as representing "The Jews" but in fact, there are many Jews, including in Israel itself who are leading the outrage against it.
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  437.  @MK_ULTRA420  Until the contempt of all the wee guys like me hits them in the ballot box. Vote Green, SNP or Plaid Cymru!
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  438.  @MK_ULTRA420  We'll see.
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  439. "Characteristic Batman villain?" Characteristic gangster, more like.
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  440. The Labour Party has become the home of the most disgusting racism. Keir Hardie was vehemently opposed to Zionism. This grubby hack would have called him "pro-Hamas".
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  441. "Anyone who subjects us or our friends to the law will regret it. We will come and get you." This is gangsterism. Period.
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  442.  @happinesstan  Really? Perhaps you should take more water with it...
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  443. The court is clearly Hamas!
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  444. I love the way she's gagged by an "unconstitutional" gag order. If she truly believed that it was unconstitutional, she'd ignore it.
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  445. Both Tories and Labour have been subject to entryism of the sort once advocated by the Trotskyists. The Tories have neoliberals. Labour has the Jewish Labour Movement. Neither have anything to do with the traditions of their respective parties and both have negated what they once stood for.
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  446. This is a man who kept a copy of Hitler's speeches in his bedside cabinet. Why does he insist the government is "persecuting" its political opponents? Well, because that's exactly what he'd be doing if he was in power. Pure projection!
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  447. The tears! What a disgusting person. This should be replayed every time the Israelis make a claim. Their lies are a atrocity in their own right.
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  448.  @StetoGuy  I agree that it was by government. It was caused by government failing to sufficiently regulate banking. I'm not sure what government has to claim credit for. None of the bankers who nearly brought down the world economy are in jail where they belong and most of them got to keep the bonuses they had swindled out of the real economy.
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  449. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
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  450. Get it? It's a shame you're not smart enough to articulate it! What's really funny is "Alcoholic word salad " inserted into a string of words which is badly punctuated, randomly capitalised with bad verb declension and wrong use of pronouns ("us smart people get it"). Find a grown-up and ask them to explain "irony" to you!
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  451. They're not suspected to be terrorists. These are ordinary civilians who were rounded up and used for this disgusting propaganda. The intention is to humiliate. There is no justification for it and all the IDF "soldiers" who took part should be identified for future prosecution.
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  452. Lindell isn't the con artist, Ana. He was the one who was conned. The clue is in the source of the so-called hack. It was a guy called Dennis Montgomery. He's a guy who conned the Pentagon out of millions back in 2003 by claiming that he could hack Al Qaida's communication. He couldn't. Then, as now, it was all made up. The lesson is clear: Pay millions to get people to tell you want to hear and someone will tell you want to hear.
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  453. "Most Labour MPs are not millionnaires". Not yet. But lots of Blair's top guys are. That's because they served the rich in the same manner that Starmer's crew are now.
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  454. It's really amusing that the Proud Boys think they've cinched it with Ray Epps. Hey FBI, you cannae fool us. We know who your agent is!
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  455. If I went to see this guy at an Edinburgh Festival late night comedy show after a night in the pub, I think I'd laugh my head off. If somebody then told me that there was a chance that he could become a member of the US Senate, I would cry my head off. Who the F~~~ IS voting for him? That's what I'd like to know.
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  456. THe case against Thomas is much more clear cut. He failed to resile from passing judgement on a crime his wife actually took part in! Way more shameful. Trump's supporters have no sense of irony.
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  457. The trope that Scotland is a hand-out junkie is standard fayre from the right-wing media and never contradicted by the allegedly not-so-right-wing media. The remedy is simple. Let us handle our own taxation and spending. No? Why not? What are they afraid of? I think they fear Scotland might do it better and show that there are alternatives to the hash they are making of things in Westminster.
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  458. As here in the UK, both parties would lose out from any kind of proportional representation. The Republicans would be split between neoliberals, the nuttiest of libertarians, genuine conservatives and outright racist and misogynist reactionaries. The Democrats in turn would splinter into progressive-lite corporate democrats and social democrats. Groups which had been heretofore excluded from aminstream politics like Greens, Communists and (sadly) Communists would become viable. The result would be coalition governments which would have to respect majority points of view like you have in many European countries. You'd get decent healthcare, housing, food safety, working infrastructure, civil rights for all. That's why both Republicans and right wing Democrats oppose it. It would end their racket for good.
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  459. This move comes hot on the heels of the abandonment of the case against Ken Livingstone and Pam Bromley by the Campaign Against Antisemitism and, I think, for the same reason. Their accusations of Antisemitism are based on the so-called "definition". It's so full of holes that it would not survive any serious legal testing. Losing such cases would sink their fleet's flagship and the "definition" would consequently be quietly abandoned by all the institutions, both governmental and academic, which have used it to silence critics of Israel. It would also severely embarass people like Starmer who have weaponised it to such great effect. That would really be a disaster for them. This is a chess move: Abandoning a few pawns to protect their VERY vulnerable queen.
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  460. Cipolla's second law: Stupidity is found in the same proportions in every walk of life. Why should acting be any different?
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  461. You're using the word "murder". For Zionists, the killing of what they regard as untermenschen is "extermination". They would expend no more emotion on the matter than they would to stepping on an insect.
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  462. Since the end of World War II, there has been a disturbing undercurrent amongst Germany's liberals which sees uncritical support for Israel as being Germany's penance for the Holocaust. They accept the crimes their country committed and they want to atone for it but it seems to me (and I have personally confronted a number of them for this) that they assuage their guilt by supporting Zionists in committing their own crimes against humanity. It's bizarre and very very sad.
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  463. I would never downplay Antisemitism. It is a vile throwback to (mostly) Christian animosity towards Jews as the murderers of Christ (it was actually the Romans) and as moneylenders and usurers (at times when they were actually forbidden to do anything else). Essentially, they have often been the fall guys for ruling classes who needed a scapegoat to escape blame for their own misdoings. We should defend Jews against antisemitic attacks both because it is morally right to do so and because it is in our own interests to look after a community which has historically contributed positively to society. But what has been happening over the last decade or so in the UK is quite simply a witch hunt. Time and time again we got commentators (including Peston) pointing out the number of people complaining about the alleged antisemitism of the left in general and Corbyn and his supporters in particular and exclaiming that there must therefore be a case to to answer. That, of course, is EXACTLY how a medieval witch hunt worked: The number of accusers was evidence in itself. Peston is no fool and must have realised that at the time. But he persisted anyway. He went along with it because it served his career well. I suspect that he is now changing his tune because he has seen the writing on the wall. The great corporate lie machine is failing to sanitise and justify the genocide occurring in the Levant and the tide of public opinion is turning. He simply wants to be on the side of prevailing opinion. Well, Hell mend him. You're quite right to call him out for his hypocrisy, Damien.
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  464. Quite right. But it's workers who produce the value which that money represents.
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  465.  @adenwellsmith6908  The opacity in the NHS comes from the Thatcher government's drive to make it work like a commercial organisation. What we need to do is get rid of the trusts and go back to good old fashioned democratic accountability.
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  466.  @markwelch3564  Spot on. You also have to take into account the money they then put back into the economy with their spending and the contribution they make by filling skill gaps. A proper and honest assessment would reveal that preventing immigration is utter madness.
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  467. The straining when he's talking about Pelosi looks like someone filling a diaper - oh! Ewwww!
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  468. So MAGA Nazis get uncomfortable when a 13 year old airs her naturally mixed up thoughts about sexuality? Not really surprising but disturbing nonetheless. Personally, I think they're more bothered by the parallels that children might note between them and their Third Reich ideological forbears. That's the confusion they're really worried about. Well done Francesca for getting angry about it in such an honest and natural way. I've got no time for journalists who try to be objective about something so appalling.
    3
  469. NATO never was, is not, nor ever will be a defensive organisation. It is simply a device for getting the so-called "allies" of the US to support its foreign policy at their own expense.
    3
  470. You can "gin" up the economy just before elections in all sorts of ways. You can make a lot of tax cuts, increase pensions, create unproductive jobs to get unemployment figures down, change the way unemployment figures are calculated and reported etc etc. Politicians don't do them because they know full well that the electorate will see through them. Same goes for interest rates.
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  471. These re-alignments happen periodically and they are related to changes in the economy. The Tories were originally the party of the landed gentry. The Whigs were the party of the emerging bourgeoisie and, as they became the Liberals, more so. If you look at legislation in the latter part of the 19th century, it was the Liberals who were most set on crushing the working class and the Tories who, in a patrician manner, were most likely to look out for their interests. We often forget that reforms like Public Libraries, swimming pools , municipal housing etc came under great Tory reformers like the the Chamberlains. The biggest turmoil came in the inter-war years when the Tories, under people like Baldwin effectively moved in on the territory of the Liberals and became the party of the bourgeoisie. As Lord Thorneycroft (remember him?) put it, the Tories were now the real Liberals and I think it's true to say that Thatcher was far more in the tradition of Gladstone than that of Disraeli. The Liberals, as we all know, were then squeezed by the emerging Labour Party on their left and very nearly ceased to exist. In my view, we've entered a similar period of upheaval now. The Tories have been captured by the swivel eyed loons of Tufton Street, the Labour Party have lurched so far to the right that many Tories feel quite at home there and we also have Farage as the Joker in the pack and a substantial number of people on the Left who are now politically homeless. I don't think Farage is serious about taking over the Tories - except maybe as a little ego trip. He's essentially an itinerant con-man on the look out for the next grift. Interesting times!
    3
  472. Proud to be subscibed. Love your accent. And yes, the bugger's a wrong un.
    3
  473.  @OB17358  He's a Trump supporter. He thinks that Communists and Fascists are the same thing and you're in serious danger of causing a brain haemorrhage with the word "oligarchic". That's 4 syllables and he probably needs a lie-down after using 3.
    3
  474.  @OB17358  I suspect that they've burned every dictionary they could find.
    3
  475.  @tlangdon12  I'm not suggesting for a minute that either Labour or the Conservatives would adopt such measures. They're the people who would oppose it!
    3
  476.  @swojnowski453  As if to prove my point....
    3
  477.  @billB101  Genuinely good people are always dangerous to those in positions of power. They can't be bought and they can't be intimidated.
    3
  478. Surely, drinking disinfectant has to be the winner?
    3
  479. I thought the appointment of (allegedly) incorruptible Richard Hermer was supposed to prevent this sort of thing from happening.
    3
  480. They're getting more and more like the private sector....
    3
  481. "It was land that was taken during the Islamic conquests and forcefully evicted or killed (Assyrians are an example) the indigenous residents of whichever land said conquests occupied" In the time of Islamic conquests, the value of land was dependent on there being people to work it. It would have been absurd to conquer a territory and then drive out or kill its population. That would be like stealing a car and then smashing up its engine. Far from killing Chistians and Jews, the Islamic conquerors absorbed them and protected them as "people of the book". Over time, many converted to Islam but many communities remained such as the Assyrian Christians in Mesopotamia, the Egyptian Copts or the Armenians - though they got massacred when Turkey became a secular country.
    3
  482.  @dwanareese1774  Oil is fungible so the amount that went to the US is irrelevant. The problem was that Saddam was about to stop selling oil in dollars. If that caught on, the US economy would dive bomb. So yes. It was for the oil.
    3
  483. Agree. Competence but also commitment. They should be legally obliged to give up all other employment and business interests and to actually work for their constituents - submitting evidence that they have done so (attendance in the house or a timesheet for constituency work) before they get paid.
    3
  484. The government should let it go bust then buy all the infrastructure and equipment from the receiver. Let the financiers sing for their money . They knew full well that they were financing fraud. That aside, the points you make here, both domestic and international, have to be addressed - and urgently.
    3
  485.  @hkfoo3333  Indeed. All indications are that Hamas out-soldiered the IDF. They were better trained and better disciplined than the supposedly professional "soldiers" of the Golani Brigade. Yet we are supposed to believe that they were an unruly mob who were unable to control their animal-like behaviour. It desn't add up.
    3
  486. I can't imagine MPs like Barbara Castle, Tony Benn, Robin Cook standing behind a leader who supports genocide. The fact that Starmer has not been forced to resign is an indication that this is not even the same party. Shame on this collection of gutless creeps.
    3
  487. The UK has always been ruled by a minority for a minority. They're called the ruling class!
    3
  488. It's the perfect vehicle for people who believe in Neoliberal dogma. They believe that wealth is created not by labour (their prime delusion is that they "debunked " the labour theory of value) but by "transactions". As private equity companies literally do nothing but transactions, then logically, they must create nothing but wealth. Unfortunately, the institution which once represented the political interests of labour has completely bought into this drivel and is hell-bent on putting it into practice. Brexit has severely damaged the UK as an entity but the ideology that inspired it, Neoliberalism, has nowhere near finished.
    3
  489.  @zetectic7968  You're absolutely right. I've worked in the IR twice. First of all in the 1970s when I left school. To be trained as an ordinary public facing Tax Officer took 12 months and you had to sit an exam at the end of it. I returned in 2003 to the same grade where training was done in weeks with no exam. It has been trimmed much further since then. The pay-off for the government is that they can announce a lower headcount. But as the average tax-take for each one of those heads is many times the salary it's paid, it makes no sense whatsoever. If little Miss Accounts-At-The-Kitchen-Table is serious about fiscal responsibility, she'll announce a massive increase in HMRC recruitment, along with a serious enhancement of their training. Dinnae hud yer breath!
    3
  490. Economic illiteracy. New investment doesn't come from savings. It comes from new money created by the Bank of England.
    3
  491. They behaved in a manner which suggests that they had been briefed beforehand that they would not be molested by police. This was a premeditated riot. In fact, it was a pogrom - but the Zionists were the perps, not the victims.
    3
  492.  @alanrumble7238  Agreed. It is also an insult to England itself. It should have its own government.
    3
  493.  @AlanRumble-sl8dn  Well, yes. But that's the point. Westminster is seen as England's parliament and therefore legislates for the whole of the UK based on the interests of England. That's why England should have its own parliament. It could be devolved within England as it decides but it should not be making decisions that bind the other nations of the so-called "union". UK wide decisions should be made by a body in which all the nations have equal representation.
    3
  494.  @angelomaldini3316  Yeah! Cos' Canadian politicians are too busy giving standing ovations to Waffen SS veterans in their Parliament to worry about stuff like that.
    3
  495.  @Popsickle34  Indeed. But many more who do. It doesn't include me this year because, at 68, I'm still working. Next year I will be just outside the pension credit limit and it will mean eating less or turning off the heating. The matter-of-fact callousness of people like you scares me more than the Tories.
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  496. Absolutely spot on! The efficiency of the old Inland Revenue should never have really been a concern. Every Inland Revenue employee from Tax Officer and Collector to District Inspector employed produced many times their salary in tax collected. Computerisation should have been used to boost their effectiveness and make their jobs less tedious. Instead, it was used to close down facilities and reduce an already very efficient and productive payroll in order to create an utterly cosmetic and fake efficiency. As Richard says, the real winners from this were the crooks and tax dodgers who have been able to exploit the weaknesses of an over-centralised, unwieldy and locally insensitive bureaucracy. The losers, of course, are the taxpayers and the HMRC employees who have been reduced to being underpaid and overworked and unable to employ their considerable skills and talents to do a more effective job.
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  497. The comparison between Herod and Netanyahu is probably a bit unfair on Herod. Netanyahu has murdered far more children.
    3
  498. This is the best and most important video so far. We're at a fork in the road. In one direction, there's reduced inequality. This would be a two-way street: All to benefit from the wealth we create with our labour but also less alienation as we would all be better able to contribute. The alternative is to keep increasing poverty at one end of the scale while allowing the likes of Musk and Bezos to trouser an increasing proportion of the "wealth" created. The ultimate conclusion of this choice would be to deplete the planet's resources until it can no longer sustain us.
    3
  499.  @nicholaspostlethwaite9554  No. It's those living from extractive capitalism who are over-remunerated. Workers, the people who actually create the wealth, are farcically underpaid.
    3
  500. He thinks he's the head of the snake. In fact, he's the other end where all the unpleasant stuff comes out.
    3
  501. The reason for that is that less and less of that cash is going to the NHS. It's being skimmed off by the private sector buddies of the Tories and New Labour. We just need to stop privatising.
    3
  502. No. I am fervently anti-zionist but Antisemitism ( like Islamophobia) is completely inexcusable.
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  503. It's quiet surreal but really helpful to listen to someone who is from a similar background to me but has made that journey to the centre of the power set-up without being sucked into it and absorbed. I'll be putting you book on my wishlist.
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  504. No. It's to show solidarity with them.
    3
  505. "The rules were that you weren't going to fact check" Translation: "Aww No fair! You said you weren't gonna stop us from lying!"
    3
  506.  @suburbanyobbo9412  "Experts" decide who is Fascist? No, pal. Ye cannae hide behind that one!
    3
  507. I suggest they say "...according to the Hamas-run health service which has never been shown to be inaccurate". That would shut them up!
    3
  508. Yes. Why can't we have pie In the sky like they used to have in the 1950s when everybody was poor and happy. I've seen a Peter and Jane book so I know it's true.
    3
  509.  @petermach8635  Funny - cos I remember it as a time of poverty, racism and rising debt. We didn't get our first family holiday until well into the 1960s. Our first refrigerator in 1967, telly in 68. What were your experiences of it, then?
    3
  510.  @petermach8635  It happened because both political parties were influenced by Keynes and Galbraith in preference to Hayek and Von Mises. Had the "wisdom" of the Mont Pelerin crew been followed, the 50s and 60s would not have very different to the 20s and 30s. It remains the case, that I wouldn't wish the period on my children or grandchildren.
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  511. What a load of old nonsense. The SNP losing its distorted (by FPTP) majority in Westminster would be a setback for them but a very minor one. It's the majority in Holyrood that matters and all polls show that they would remain the largest party there by far. Meanwhile, the proportion of people wanting Independence continues to edge slowly upwards as demography literally kills off British Nationalist support and more pro-self-determination voters come of age. A Starmer government will nurture rather than hinder the march of independence, by the way. The soft No voters are those who think that the travails we are now experiencing are down to Tory incompetence and wickedness. Starmer is continuity Tory and it will quickly become apparent that it is the so-called Union which is the problem, not the party in charge of it.
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  512. The good thing about a state conviction is that a future MAGA president would not be able to issue pardons
    3
  513. The US doesn't want Ukraine to win. It just wants Ukraine to keep fighting in order to bleed Russia. It's the same playbook as Afghanistan.
    3
  514. If ever there was an example of religion being a racket! This man was distilled evil and hypocrisy: an exact cookie cutter copy of the Pharisees and others which the Christians' messiah is claimed to have descried. He has taken the Christian message, ripped everything good from it (and, as an atheist, I concede that it contains good things) and used it to justify and advocate wickedness. I don't believe in Heaven and Hell but, if I'm wrong, there's no doubt about which he would go to.
    3
  515. It's quite simple: There is a spectrum which runs from Anarchists, Trotskyites etc on the far-left through to neoliberals and Fascists on the far right. The vast majority of us are somewhere in between those two. What's so difficult?
    3
  516. If you are spending then you are not economically inactive. Remember, a pension is earned income.
    3
  517. You've put your finger on the main reason Corbyn had to be replaced by Starmer. There's not a chance in Hell that this corrupt and degraded Labour government will interfere with this most sacred of the privileges of the ruling class.
    3
  518.  @Luckiestmanalive-bb1mi  He is actually saying what generations of smart economists (Smith, Marx, JS Mill, Keynes, Galbraith) have been saying for the last 200 years or so. Keynes (the man whose advice to governments led to the fastest and biggest ever rise in living standards) famously said that putting your savings in a jar and burying it in the garden is better for the economy than buying shares or putting it in the bank. The "smart" economists you're talking about are the ones who've graduated since economics departments have been taken over by neoliberals and know less than nothing about economics. They're the ones whose ideas have led to the fastest and deepest fall in living standards in history!
    3
  519.  @Luckiestmanalive-bb1mi  Nice try, but no coconut. Keynes's policies were successful and led to unprecedented increases in standards of living for working people. Friedman's have been utter failures and generally only possible to administer at gunpoint (Chile, Iran, Russia, Argentina), resulting in unprecedented falls in living standards for working people. So no, there aren't arguments on both sides. One was a success. The other was an outright failure with nightmarish consequences. Period.
    3
  520. Don't hold your breath...
    3
  521.  @josephyewlett2713  Um. No. That's not socialism. Every civilised country has that in one form or another. It means, for example, that someone who has a contagious disease will seek help rather than spread it to others, that people are less likely to be bankrupted by illness and forced to rely on the state as a result, that less working days are lost through treatable illness and that people don't die or become disabled because they are too poor to afford treatment, thus depriving society of their skills, experience and other contributions. It's a slam dunk. Everyone wins. How would it make people die of hunger?
    3
  522. I remember, about 30 years ago, chatting to an academic geographer who was aware of this trend. He was exasperated because his colleagues simply treated it as a neutral trend; just something that was happening in the same way that soap operas were becoming more popular or no one wore vests anymore. It's actually a disaster, folks. This is our civilisation collapsing before our eyes.
    3
  523.  @the_royal_drop_short.  Nope. The definite article is used by Russian imperialists as a way of referring to it as a region of Russia and denying its existence as a nation. The USA and the UK are actually grammatic constructions: The states which are united; the kingdom which is united. There are others: The United Arab Emirates, the Republic of South Africa. Not the same thing at all.
    3
  524. A Labour government is openly advocating a racist asylum policy! I read recently that many Ukrainian asylum seekers are complaining because they are being placed in multiracial areas. I bet Keir is sympathetic!
    3
  525. Do you know? I think we might be living in interesting times (again).
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  526.  @Foxtrottangoabc  " But council houses were sold off because the govt had no money to maintain them ." 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. They sold them off because the government forced them to. And it prevented them from spending the proceeds on new ones. The reason was ideological, not economic. The net result has been an increase in private landlords and a reduction in disposable income (which powers the economy)because people are spending all their money on rent (which bleeds the economy).
    2
  527.  @jeremykille4689  It's the opposite. It is Thatcherism that has proved to be the slippery slope.
    2
  528.  @jeremykille4689 Not true. The wealthiest European countries also have the highest taxes. The countries declining the most quickly (eg, the UK) are those with the lowest taxes.
    2
  529.  @jeremykille4689  Look at Sweden, Germany, The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway. They all have higher and, more importantly, more progressive taxes. Rich people aren't fleeing them. They've got the good sense to understand that less inequality means more wealth.
    2
  530.  @kevinsyd2012  The UK has one of the most regressive tax systems in the world. Work and pensions are taxed at a higher rate than rent and arbitrage which is economically ruinous as well as being unfair. The poorest pay a much higher proportion of their income in tax than the freeloading rich who evade tax by hiding their money offshore or who avoid it with a myriad of dodgy tricks and schemes. In any case, their wealth was created by the working class and a progressive tax system is a fair way of re-distributing it.
    2
  531. This is getting serious. There Will be wholesale abandonment of Labour by working class people and this will open up the chance of a Tory/Reform proto Fascist party getting power by default. It's time for the left to heal its differences and make a serious progressive challenge.
    2
  532. Crypto is a scam: A cruel ponzi scheme which can leave people holding nothing with no recourse to law. It is beloved by libertarians because it undermines democracy.
    2
  533. He's actually a councillor. So much for that! "There's an old saying...Those who can do, those who can't be arsed criticise. You do a lot of criticising." There's no such "old" saying. You just made it up. And there's nothing negative about being an honest commentator.
    2
  534.  @aaronogden9900  Credit to the Keynesians who eventually ( and belatedly ) saw it coming. Fair enough. Good for them. No credit to the Marxian economists who had long pointed out that it was inevitable?
    2
  535. Nicola Sturgeon reported that she made a bee-line for her at an international event attended by heads of government, economists, journalists etc - to ask her how she got on the front cover of vogue! Total airhead!
    2
  536. Note the empty chair next to Trump. At least one person isn't "with us". P'raps she's auditioning for that job too?
    2
  537. PR is even more beneficial at local level. Why do English people have a problem with it?
    2
  538. He's not a "master" of anything. He's an awful businessman who was saved from ruin by a TV company.
    2
  539. Goes to show. There are conspiracy theories and there are conspiracies. The Right makes up the former and DOES the latter.
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  540. Don't be surprised. This is the party which sold arms to Pinochet when he was having trades unionists, amongst others, thrown out of helicopters to their deaths; the party which provided Pol Pot with land mines and SAS soldiers to train his thugs how to use them; the party which gave diplomatic cover to Saddam Hussein when he dropped chlorine gas on the Kurds at Halabja. These people have no shame. None at all!
    2
  541.  @tyraelpl  Oh, I don't know. All sorts of butchers get quoted and often: From some pretty bloody Old Testament characters through Roman Emperors, Oliver Cromwell, Napoleon, Churchill, Stalin and Mao. Seems a bit unfair to single out poor old Genghiz just because he was an evil, murderous bandit with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
    2
  542.  @peterjones596  I think most quotes are made.up. You can quote me on that.
    2
  543. In the UK we have a rule that prisoners are not allowed to speak once sentence is passed. Don't you have that?
    2
  544. I've recently noticed the trolls here suggesting that you are on the far left, Richard. Two things to notice: Firstly, he vast majority of such comments are posted in office hours. Secondly, the wording is very similar - suggesting one person with sock puppet IDs pretending to be several. Tufton Street houses the nastiest examples of the Far Right. Indeed, it's very existence is part of a project to make the lack of humanity and decency inherent in classic liberalism normal. You should consider it a badge of honour to be targeted by them. They clearly think you're a danger.
    2
  545. They didn't cause inflation. "As we have already seen" my eye!
    2
  546. What Biden really fears is a Ukraine victory. The plan is exactly the same as the one that worked so well in Afghanistan: Goad the Russians into invasion then give the Ukrainians enough help to prevent them from being overwhelmed but not enough to win. That way, the Russians slowly bled and weakened. Starmer is obviously too dim to understand this and thinks he'll get brownie points in Washington by bringing about a Ukrainian triumph.
    2
  547. THis is pure spam
    2
  548. You're being too fair to Blair. He didn't purge the left because he couldn't. There were too many of them and they were too popular. What he and Brown did do was set up the party machinery so that right wing stooges were in positions of power. This meant that they were ready to exploit the antisemitism scam and start removing anyone who would resist them. Starmer is simply continuing the process that Blair started. He has shown here that the plan is to remove them completely. Hopefully, those "disciplined" here will have the courage not to accept the whip when it is given back to them and join the other independents as a bloc. The recent election shows that the electorate will support Labour MPs who stand up for Labour principles.
    2
  549. You think Farage wants to "give something back"? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 He's a grifter. His entire agenda is to enrich himself. That's it.
    2
  550. Gaza is Israel's Sudetenland. If they're not stopped here it will be the West Bank, where ethnic cleansing has already started. Google "Eretz Israel" and you'll find that the nuttier Zionists claim the western shore of the Red Sea almost as far as the Sudanese border, a big chunk of Saudi Arabia, ALL of Jordan and Lebanon, about half of Iraq and most of Syria. It may well sound far-fetched - but I think there was a fair bit of scoffing at the warnings in 1938 when Hitler declared that he had no more territorial demands...
    2
  551. If you follow history, you'll find that they're usually called "your majesty".
    2
  552. It's just incredible that mainstream media believes this nonsense. There's a simple timeline. Israel tells the hospital that it has to (impossibly) evacuate in 2 hours. 2 Hours later there's a massive explosion consistent with an air strike. Duh!! For two hours Israel mounts the defence that it had given fair warning. When it realises the extent of the international outrage it changes the story to "not us guv, some bigger boys dunnit and ran away". Soon we saw the almost immediately debunked footage of the missile trail coming from the wrong direction with a time stamp that didn't match and then we get the clumsily faked intercept. Don't think for a minute that Biden, Sunak, et al swallowed this. They know damned well what happened and they were quite happy to support the faked "evidence" by claiming their experts approved it. Hell mend them. History won't!
    2
  553. I'm in Scotland so perhaps I get a false picture but I don't see any reflection of the supposed unstoppable poll lead that Starmer is supposed to have. Everyone I speak to considers him to be little better than a Tory. I can't help being reminded of 1992 when the Major government was considered to be so hopeless that a Labour victory was inevitable. The key similarity is that Labour made massive gains in the previous council elections but without actually increasing its vote. You have to remember that Tory voters are notorious for hanging back in council elections and by elections then turning out in force on the big day. On the other hand, Labour voters tend to need to have something to vote for. That's what did for Kinnock. His whole campaign was about not spooking the horses and re-assuring the City that they'd have nothing to worry about. It turns out they didn't.
    2
  554. It's the equivalent of Adolf Hitler himself being nominated. She personifies evil at its worst.
    2
  555. I used to keep my anonymity because I was afraid of an employer or prospective employer seeing opinions they have no right to know about. Peterson has the luxury of a safe and steady income no matter what he says to whom. There's a proverb about walking a mile in someone else's shoes, Jordan. I recommend it to you.
    2
  556.  @zoltan-zq3xe  Eh? It wasn't even the lowest Labour vote since 2015 (9.3m) or 2010(8.6m)...
    2
  557.  @eddiebear34  Any of them.
    2
  558.  @infrared2084  Yes. We call them "working class Tories".
    2
  559.  @broomfs  I've said nothing remotely antisemitic, Nazi.
    2
  560. This deserves more attention
    2
  561. Ivana Trump said that he always kept a copy of Hitler's speeches ("My New Order") in his bedside cabinet. She said that it was the only book she ever saw him read. He probably watched footage of both Hitler and Mussolini too because he often adopts their stances when he is speaking. He's wannabe Fuhrer. A truly evil man.
    2
  562. There are no grounds for appeal. None of the garbage his incompetent lawyer blubbed about after the case had any substance whatsoever. It was she who missed the deadlines for introducing witnesses and evidence. And she was quite correctly prevented from arguing that Trump was not liable. That had already been legally established and cannot be undone.
    2
  563. The fascinating thing is that this totally manufactured evidence free nonsense ignites the anger of these morons yet they show no interest whatsoever in following up and unravelling the very real associations of Jeffrey Epstein - for which there is plenty of evidence. Why is that?
    2
  564. I think we need that video about Starmer and the Trilateral Commission, Damian. He is, IMHO, a bad'un. He is an evil man who has taken it upon himself to destroy not only the Labour Party but also the entire Labour movement. Distancing himself from the Commision is clearly purely tactical. He can get away with his links to Israel and to dodgy US health corporations because, frankly, most people's eyes simply glaze over with the detail but being associated with an institution which explicitly identifies democracy as the problem might be one step too far. Don't let him get away with it. Time to throw some mud, I think - and you're the best man to do it!
    2
  565. Yes. All the law you can afford to buy.
    2
  566.  @clivewilliams3661  Gordon Brown removed democratically accountable control of the Bank of England because he doesn't like democracy. Period. The crash in 2008 was entirely due to the action (or rather lack of it) on the part of central banks (including BoE) who trusted the market to correct itself.
    2
  567.  @clivewilliams3661  Brown's not the only one who hates democracy, I see.
    2
  568.  @clivewilliams3661  And it's been Sooo stable under the bankers....
    2
  569. "Under the US authority" Right is might. He's saying that anyone who has the power to do something has the right to do it. It's Fascism, pure and simple. He should note that Fascism has always been defeated. Sooner or later, those world "leaders" who fail to stand up to it (Scholz, Macron, Starmer etc, take note) will fall.
    2
  570. England loses out from the so-called union too. It deserves to be able to proudly embrace its own culture and traditions and interests without having to be constantly reminded that they often conflict with those of the rest of us. In fact, I often wonder if advocating English independence is the key to a mutually beneficial future for all the UK countries.
    2
  571. Franklin Graham is a contemptible lickspittle. He stands there and declares that it's God's will that the most powerful nation on Earth should be run by a rapist, conman and failed businessman who has never done a day's honest work nor a good deed of any sort in his life. It's no wonder that so many are turning away from Christianity.
    2
  572. Are there people out there who actually believe this pish. Of course Zionism is genocidal. Israel is a colony of foreigners which has taken over a land in which other people were already living and it has given them the choice of leaving, remaining as second-class citizens in a state which doesn't recognise their right to be there or being masacred. That's genocide. Period. But this Fascist is right about one thing. The two-state solution is delusional. Israel could have negotiated a fair deal from a position of strength until quite recently but that ship has sailed now. The outcome can only be one thing now: a democratic unitary state under which the rights of all are guaranteed by the international community.
    2
  573. The shops were empty of consumer goods. But no one was hungry or homeless.
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  574.  @andyinsuffolk  Um indeed. The Chileans elected a Communist government and the US backed a coup against it and imposed a constitution which imposed "freedom" from government. It was locked in by a voting system designed to make it impossible to reverse. It was so unpopular that even the impossible conditions it imposed were overcome and it was finally returned to democracy recently.
    2
  575. RMT and ASLEF? Why? Rail workers' pay has fallen behind just like everyone else.
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  576. Quite right, David. We're absolutely amazed by what you've got going on there. From here, it looks like you have a sizable minority (about 25-30%, perhaps?) who want actual fascism. Having said that, we did have Margaret Thatcher and Boris Johnson. So we have out moments too!
    2
  577. eh?
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  578. It's really scary. The sinister backdrop to this is one that was shared by many Nazis (including Adolf Eichman) : Israel as a dumping ground for Jews. It's a narrative which was also promoted by early Zionists (eg Chaim Weizman) who explicitly suggested that Jews in Christian countries were "uninvited guests who had out-stayed their welcome. The underlying suggestion is that Antisemitism is a perfectly reasonable reaction to this and the solution is not to fight it but instead to accept it and realise that the only logical solution is emigration to Israel. Zionists in interwar Germany were openly supportive of the Nazis. It is not a coincidence that the leading Zionists in the US are supportive of Trump. It is time to be very scared and to be very, very active in making sure that he (or anyone else they promote) does not get into power again.
    2
  579. Brilliant, Damien. Love your stuff. But it's pronounced CUNON and RUMNEE!
    2
  580. It's gross miscalculation in another way, Tim. Hand-held devices are far more common in Western countries and in Israel itself, than in the Middle East countries Israel is trying to provoke. This is like someone who lives in a greenhouse throwing stones at the windows of people who live in the semi-detached house next door. Or perhaps a better comparison would be an uphill cavalry charge over open ground against a machine gun. It is certainly morally outrageous. But it's also tactical madness.
    2
  581. She just another example of a tradition of entitlement and impunity. She is claiming the right to say whatever she pleases without being challenged and is outraged when O'Brien challenges the veracity or logic of her statements.
    2
  582. The good news is that you tips won't be taxed. The bad news is that you won't get them anyway!
    2
  583. Milburn took the NHS much further towards privatisation than even Thatcher dared. Streeting seems to be determined to outdo him. I can't help thinking of those 528 votes that could have unseated this vile rat. Maybe next time.
    2
  584. Very good. But you left out the accession of Gadaffi in Libya in 1969. Wasn't this a US-backed coup?
    2
  585. ​ @michaelsrowland  Now you really are talking about disaster! Farage isn't even pretending that it's a political party,FFS! Reform Ltd is so obviously another con, I'm amazed that anyone is stupid enough to be taken in by it. Didn't you learn anything from Brexit? Stupid question, I suppose. Clearly not!
    2
  586. This description has reduced me to tears. Were I Palestinian and able-bodied I think my reaction would be less passive. Well done, James. This is being ignored by most of the mainstream media. Yesterday, Sky News treated us to a heartwarming tribute to 4 IDF sergeants who got killed by Hezbollah action. For each, we were given a name, a town of origin and happy smiling photographs. The newsreader tailed off slowly and emotionally saying that they were all 19. The children murdered in the bombed hospital were given no such humanisation. We weren't given their names, their origin or their ages. I feel shame and anger for what is happening - and I should. Thank you for keeping us honestly informed.
    2
  587.  @sharlagardner  Indeed. But you seem to have misunderstood my comment. I suggest you read it again in the context of comparing Zionists to the Nazis (the subject of the video), not Zionists to Palestinians!
    2
  588. Conspiracy theorists are "never wrong just early". That's brilliant!
    2
  589. Labour Friends of Israel needs to be renamed as Labour Friends of Genocide. This government is a stain on the Labour Movement.
    2
  590. Spot on, Damian. It's a very complex churn here. While Labour are certainly gaining from the Tories as the unionist party of choice, they are probably losing to the Greens as they lurch rightwards. In the meantime, of course, the SNP are getting a negative effect from all the police investigations (which have so far turned up precisely nothing) and are also getting knocked by Alba. But one thing Scottish polls have in common with English polls is that they fail to pick up the apathy effect of potential Labour voters thinking: "They're not promising anything worth having so I'm not bothering". It will be interesting to see how that plays out in Rutherglen. Because, if they can't win that with a significant majority in a by-election they're not going get much, if anything, in the general election.
    2
  591. I love the way the UFOs in your photo have Civil Aviation Authority compliant navigation lights...
    2
  592. Putin is going to invade Ukraine? Yeah! That'll be like Saddam Hussein was about to bomb Cyprus, like the North Vietnamese were trying to sink the US navy in the Gulf of Tonkin, like the Spanish sunk the USS Maine etc, etc. Do you people never learn? I don't think Putin is half as smart as he thinks he is but he's not half as stupid as he'd need to be to do this.
    2
  593. I bet he's getting a fine fat fee for his services. Evil man!
    2
  594.  @petergaskin1811  If you want to deny that his record of perfidy and betrayal is evidence, it's fine by me. And your name-calling says more about you than abour me.
    2
  595.  @knobfieldfox  Yes. That's the point entirely. Currently, one of the two parties captures government which then imposes the will of whatever faction or faction has in turn captured it. Under PR, the two factions of the parties would form into parties in their own right and get representation according to the wishes of the population. This would mostly mean coalition government in which a broad spectrum of views would be represented. Thatcherism would be dead.
    2
  596.  @perkinscrane  " The UK’s demographics since the 1950s have under FPTP favoured Labour." Um no. A quick look at the electoral results since 1950 will show you the opposite. Your prognosis assumes that the same parties would fight elections under PR as under FPTP. This would not be the case. The Labour Party came into existence precisely because its constituent parts - Marxists, Fabians, Co-op Movement, trades unionists, Syndicalists etc could not achieve the critical mass to break through in FPTP. It's a party which has always been dominated by its right wing and the Left components would be able to break off and fight elections in their own right under PR. The Tory Party is not homogenous either. It has always been a mix of the Disraeli one-nation tendency and right-wing liberals. In recent years it has suffered increased entryism from extreme right liberals - mostly encapsulated in the ERG. Again, PR would afford them the facility to fight elections in their own right. I have not suggested that PR would be a panacea. The Left would certainly not dominate as I would like. But it would be represented. Likewise the Right. But most importantly, the Right-wing extremism which has wrecked the UK economy, separated it from Europe and brought it to the brink of dissolution (now inevitable) would not be able to continue to prevail.
    2
  597.  @gerhard7323  I'd put it differently. The majority didn't want a referendum so with a more democratic and representative PR system, we wouldn't have had one and the UK economy wouldn't be imploding.
    2
  598.  @gerhard7323  Yes. The UK economy has been destroyed by Brexit and Brexit happened because a very small number of voters were able to manipulate FPTP. This wouldn't have happened in EU countries because PR means government more closely represents the will of the people.
    2
  599. Well said. Antisemitism is the oxygen of Zionism. The biggest existential threat to Israel would be for Antisemitism to die. That is why the Tel Aviv Maccabis attempted to provoke a pogrom against Jews in Amsterdam a couple of weeks ago. The fact that they failed to do so must have terrified the likes of Netanyahu. Solidarity with our Anti-Zionist Jewish brothers and sisters!
    2
  600. Complete lies. As soon as the cameras were gone he'll have said "Only kidding guys - just make sure there are no witnesses". The Israelis don't want the hostages back. How can they tell tales of rape and torture when the hostages keep coming back and saying no such things happened?
    2
  601. I've spent most of my life believing that the Labour Party could provide the solutions to the problems of working people. Late in life I've coming to realise that they are actually part of those problems.
    2
  602.  @darkarts59  Could well be but I suspect the proportion of ordinary people's savings that goes to start-ups is too small to be even measured let alone be significant.
    2
  603. It's not the legacy of colonialism, you clown. Africa is still being robbed by Western capitalism. Any attempt to establish democracy or any kind of economic independence (which would threaten western interests) is quickly stamped out. Currently, France imposes a quasi-colonial regime on Northern African countries through a banking system controlled from Paris. Qaddafi was certainly a very nasty piece of work, but that's not why he was deposed. He was threatening Western hegemony in Africa and a country which once had universal health care was turned into a patchwork of Islamist and criminal fiefdoms - which, incidentally, provide bases for terrorist attacks in Europe like the Manchester bombing. Africa's dictators and warlords are either directly or indirectly supported by Western interests because they allow them to, or are too weak to prevent them from plundering Western resources.
    2
  604. Mike Graham is a sort of bargain basement Tucker. He is bad-mannered, nasty and too lazy to do research on any of the subjects on which he pontificates. It can be very amusing to watch him spiral into bluster and gibberish.
    2
  605. I wonder if he's ever read The Sermon On The Mount. He's actually contradicting Jesus here. But then, what would he know? Not a psychology major to his name!
    2
  606. "We've changed. You can trust us now". That's as long as you're not black, disabled, a trade unionist, Muslim, poor, young or a refugee - and especially not if you oppose a clear and obvious genocide taking place under our noses. In fact, it only means the rich, Zionists and companies seeking to vulturise the NHS
    2
  607.  @adenwellsmith6908  I'm emphatically NOT blaming the staff. I'm blaming underfunding - along with the marketisation introduced by Kenneth Clark, of course. The creation of the trusts and "internal competition" has led to a top heavy system stuffed with accountants and administrative managers with financial targets taking precedence over medical care.
    2
  608. The Palestinians are the descendants of those peoples, including Hebrews, who have always inhabited the Levant. Some of them retained their Jewish faith, some converted to Christianity, some to Islam. There will certainly be some mixing of people from other parts of the Ottoman Empire and outside it. That is the nature of empires but poor rural populations tended not to move very much before the end of the 19th century It is also possible that some of the post 1948 Zionist immigrants might have some genetic links to the place but DNA tests of Ashkenazi Jews in the US have largely shown them to be mostly of Eastern European or Central Asian origin. Such tests are, for obvious reasons, illegal in Israel.
    2
  609. Why remove trade union funding? What's wrong with democratic institutions?
    2
  610. Israel has always employed the most obnoxious weasels as PR fronts. Mark Regev and Eylon Levi spring to mind straight away. But Mencer has to be the worst of the worst. To suggest that Jews are getting attacked in the streets of London because UK mainstream media outlets are reporting on genocide and torture facilities is utterly disgraceful. There is no evidence of mass attacks on Jews by anyone protesting about Palestine. The boot is on the other foot. Muslims are being routinely attacked on the streets due to false information being put out by friends of Israel like Farage and Yaxley-Lennon.
    2
  611. Baddiel is an example of the hierarchy of racism which Starmer's Labour Party appears to have embraced is openly and unashamedly practiced in the wider press and media. Imagine if someone echoed his disgusting portrayal of Jason Lee and portrayed David Beckham (for example) as a hook nosed Shylock figure. There is no way that that person would ever have appeared on television again - quite rightly so, I might add. But when the victim of his racism was someone of African descent no-one turned a hair. It didn't even result in an apology until years later when his hypocrisy was made clear to all. Antisemitism should not be tolerated under any circumstances but the same should apply to all forms of racism without any exceptions. And all racists should be equally condemned and banished from our screens for life!
    2
  612.  @finalstarvii583  Three languages? Clearly, English isn't one of them.
    2
  613.  @finalstarvii583  That's hilarious. Governments tax us so that they can provide services we need - like schools, hospitals, roads, police, etc. Tate scams the idiots who follow him so that he can buy himself cars and cigars.
    2
  614.  @finalstarvii583  The world listens to him? No a tiny number of brain dead and sad inadequates like you listen to him. The world (that's the rest of us) will laugh and cheer when he is convicted through his own stupidity and arrogance.
    2
  615. Could it be because they've got a record for accuracy which goes back decades?
    2
  616.  @skyblazeeterno  Indeed
    2
  617. Farage shows his true colours: Support for a Fascist who tried to use force to cancel the results of the most recounted and audited election in US history. Expect to be repeatedly reminded of it after Trump is in Prison.
    2
  618. Or perhaps the issue can be understood in terms of right and wrong? But maybe those are concepts that are beyond some people...
    2
  619. Spot on, Richard. There was not only the advantage of being able to spot the rogues but also accountability for staff. I worked in a PAYE tax district in the 1970s. We each had an allocation of taxpayers - from a few hundred to several thousand depending on complexity. We established relationships with taxpayers and employers and, believe it or not, this makes even something as banal as taxation less unpleasant and impersonal. And everything was much more manageable: Everyone got a tax return when they started work and then at least once 6 years after that. If their affairs were complex they would get an annual return. The point being to avoid build-ups of underpayment or overpayment. The only hitch was the system of files and control cards which had to be transferred between offices when there was a change of employment. Sometimes, if someone had several jobs over a period, it could take weeks to get all the informaiton together and make repayments or allocate tax codes. But all that information is now on computer and it can be transferred in literally minutes. Computerisation could have been used to make the system more effective. Instead, it was used to make spurious staff "efficiencies" so that ministers could present a reduced payroll as evidence of their success. As you point out, this often meant that the amount of saving was actually less than the tax lost through the very real inefficiencies which resulted.
    2
  620. This approach was already predictable at the time of the raid. The UN offered to send investigators to properly collect and document evidence. The offer was turned down as if it was an insult. Why do you need evidence of the events when we have told you what happened? You are calling us liars. We are Jews. Therefore you are calling Jews liars. Therefore you are antisemites! That's been pretty much the narrative since 1948 but the world has not challenged it - until now.
    2
  621. The measures imposed by Nixon/Thatcher/Reagan etc were not what tamed the inflation of the 1970s - which was then, as now, caused by external issues. It was going to come down anyway - because it does! The other similarity to that period, of course, is that the inflation was falsely blamed on wage rises rather than the other way around. The interest rate policy was (and is) simply a scam to aid the rich.
    2
  622.  @KernowDamo  Yes. Perhaps he's still got a wee bit of fear of them. Banning them one step too far.
    2
  623. Aristotle was a slave-owning aristocrat.
    2
  624.  @R_A_3000  I left school 50 years ago, sonny. That's also the last time I had to say no to drugs cos I haven't hung with anyone who needs them since. I suggest you go back to school and study empirical method. Then, if you pay attention, you'll be able to explain WHY you think my argument doesn't make sense rather than try and make a patronising and not-very-smart wisecrack.
    2
  625. There's no need for forensic evidence when you believe that Palestinians are "human animals". This is what the flood of false stories about rapes and gruesome and sadistic baby murders was all about. Once you've got people believing lies like that, they'll believe any other stories you tell.
    2
  626. This is all stomach-churning stuff. It shows that Zionism is morphing into full-blown, shameless Fascism. It needs to be challenged and defeated. Anyone who refuses to confront it should be considered a Fascist sympathiser. I'm talking about Keir Starmer and most of the Shadow Cabinet, by the way.
    2
  627. He's a grifter. He's the world's richest man because he's stolen more than anyone else.
    2
  628. Starmer isn't going to bring the Tory nightmare to an end. He's going to do the same as Blair who has recently admitted that he set out to consolidate Thatcher's changes rather than reverse them. There'll be some tinkering at the edges but at the end of his first term we'll still be living under neoliberal economics, still be allowing banks, oil companies and anyone else willing to donate being given a pass to price gouge, pollute and despoil, attacks on our civil liberties and rights will not have been reversed. Most importantly, because he knows it will enable the Greens and possible Left splinters from his own party, we will still have First Past The Post and the Royal Prerogative and Scotland will continue to be denied its right to decide its own future. My view. Not just a Red Tory. Worse. His aim is to destroy Labour as a progressive movement and ensure that it is an enabler of the excesses of capitalism rather than a brake on them.
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  629. Considering the documented deliberate targeting of civilians (including small children), the destruction of infrastructure, the torture and rape of detainees (actually, they are hostages), the obstruction of food and medicine deliveries and many, many more war crimes being committed by this criminal enterprise masquerading as a state, it beggars belief that there is actually an organisation called Labour Friends of Israel. When the Labour Party came into existence as the fusion of a collection of progressive organisations at the beginning of the 20th century it was explicitly understood that solidarity with oppressed people throughout the globe was intrinsic to it. It has become the polar opposite of that. It now stands in solidarity with the oppressors. It has a leader who explicitly declared his unconditional loyalty to the racist colonial and genocidal ideology which is now perpetrating these crimes. Why does the Labour Party even still exist? It has become a monstrous and contemptible parody of what it was meant to be.
    2
  630. The weaponisation of stupidity. I'm not sure whether I should be laughing at them or crying for them.
    2
  631. Spot on, Damian. But if I have to talk about McTernan I have to reach for the Listerine original straight afterwards. An interesting tangent to this is that Michael Shanks, the Starmerite parachuted into Rutherglen and Hamilton has suddenly come over all maverick and swears that he'll oppose Starmer on the bedroom tax and two child policy. I'm getting that Listerine craving...
    2
  632. The "Lebensraum" intention is clear. But I think they may have problems trying to get anyone to live in it. Israel's population is already plummeting.
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  633. What "recent polling? Please elaborate. By whom was this polling carried out? What methods were used? How was the sample targetted? What questions were actually asked? None of the slogans cited at the beginning of the video are Antisemitic. They are attacks on Zionism, an ideology, not Jews per see. This is propaganda.
    2
  634. The US government's list of terrorist organisations is meaningless in international law. It is simply a list of organisations which one government disapproves of. Taking the next step and using it to prevent discussion the US government dislikes is one BIG step into darkness.
    2
  635. "Start reporting this and stop fact-checking it" has to be the funniest thing to ever come out of someone's mouth! This is the difference between fact and "truth", of course. Fact needs evidence but "truth" is based on faith and if you say it with enough conviction and enough people in the room applaud and cheer it BECOMES fact before your very eyes!
    2
  636. The guy in the clown suit is a Canadian and Brand is English. What's their stake in "the Republic"?
    2
  637. "A war for everything"? That's an incredibly sinister allusion. It sounds to me like a tentative justification for total war.
    2
  638. If this grifter/Fascist thinks that the UK is Islamist, he has a special relationship with arithmetic.
    2
  639. The difference between Ukraine and Palestine is straightforward: Ukrainians are white.
    2
  640. Zionist history IS tangled up with the Nazis. They sought a deal with the Nazis to allow the young and strong to emigrate to Israel in exchange for turning a blind eye to everyone else being murdered. They even invited Adolf Eichman to visit their colonial project. This is an evil ideology. This "children's" song is all you need to know. When they tell you what they are, believe them.
    2
  641.  @bregawn  Yes. You're right about that. But it is a means of accounting for it - taking the appropriate amount out of circulation to prevent inflation - and for re-distribution.
    2
  642.  @robertovary9736  What does that mean?
    2
  643.  @honkytears  You haven't yet seen the impact of tariffs and it will be interesting to see how you grow food without immigrants. One thing you've got right though is using the word "reign". He does think he's a monarch and it's doubtful that you'll ever have another election that is free and fair in any meaningful sense.
    2
  644. You'll find that most of the trolls tend to keep working hours and simply shill out Tufton Street propaganda. Not difficult to join up the pieces!
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  645. Indeed it is. Shapiro is relying on information from the IDF which has a record of lying which goes back decades. In fact, it goes back to 1947 when the forebear of the "the world's most moral army" massacred Palestinians - often using rape as a terror tactic. That's based on the testimonies of the Zionist terrorists themselves, by the way.
    2
  646. What about MAGAs getting indicted by the DOJ over Jan 6? There must be at least half a dozen who are in jeopardy.
    2
  647. The mainstream pundits are going on about percentages and swings. If you only look at those, the prospects for a Labour landslide look really good. We're getting told about record swings in the Blackpool by-election as well as in the council and mayoral elections. What's not being mentioned is the fact that those swings are entirely due to the fall in Tory support being even greater than the fall in Labour support. That's why Starmer is suddenly trying to look progressive and radical: denying his previous support for Israeli genocidal actions, promising to nationalise the railways etc. Labour's private polling and analysis will be giving him very serious cause for concern. These local elections are very similar to what occurred in 1991 just before Kinnock's shock defeat at the hands of John Major in 1992. As now, the very impressive swings against the Tories in council elections hid the fact that the Labour vote had not improved at all. The difference, of course, is Reform UK. In 1992, Tory abstainers dutifully returned to the fold in the general election. That may not occur on this occasion. If so, that will save Starmer's bacon. Nonetheless, he won't be getting the landslide everyone is predicting.
    2
  648.  @JeremyChristos  Agreed. And, unlike the lurid lies about October 2023, they actually HAPPENED!
    2
  649. Doesn't compare with someone who accuses him of starting World War II or talks about the American colonist insurrectionists securing the airports. Biden may be senile but his opposite number has been abysmally stupid and ignorant all his life - as well as being a rapist, of course.
    2
  650. The "enemy within" theme was central to the rise of the Nazis. With his obsession with loyalty and the weeding out of genuine patriots who put the good of the country before their obeisance to him, Hitler ultimately made himself the state. We can see echoes of this in Trump as he turns on people on his own side of who have dared to not kiss the ring and suggest that there are alternatives to him.
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  651. Starmer is an example of the "middle ground" trap. Most times when Labour chases the middle of the road floating voter they fail anyway (Gaitskell, Callaghan, Kinnock, Brown, Miliband) but success is still failure because you end up with someone like Blair or Starmer who betray everything the Labour movement is supposed to stand for - effectively Tories in disguise.
    2
  652.  @edwardmclaughlin7935  Indeed. A senior moment, perhaps. Thank you for pointing that out.
    2
  653.  @fylbike  My apologies!
    2
  654. A refreshing change from mainstream economists. Someone who actually recognises that excessive inequality is not only morally indefensible but also causes economic dysfunction. Decreasing inequality will indeed improve overall living standards. It's not rocket science: You put money in the hands of the less well off and it gets spent straight back into the economy, creating jobs and generating more wealth. Put it into the hands of the rich and it's "invested" (in other words, rented out) and actually removed from the productive economy.
    2
  655.  @grolfe3210  On the contrary. The state is very good at running things. It was the total failure of the private sector to run procurement in the Crimean War which led to the establishment of the UK's Civil Service - which supercharged the running of the British Empire and, in due course, the welfare state. It was the state which resued the railways from chaos and inefficiency - which has since been returned by privatisation, gave us clean water and effective sewage disposal (ditto), standardised electricity and gas production, gave us a universal postal service, telephone coverage, universal schooling and so on. Public Transport was much better when it was municipally run. The NHS, before it was "reformed" by Kenneth Clark and his successors was one of the world's most efficient and effective health care providers. Compare it with the top heavy US system. Private sector efficiency is largely myth based on ideology.
    2
  656.  @jackwaycombe  Yes
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  657. Israel is a European racist, colonial project. NONE of Palestine belongs to it. Islam didn't invade anything. Arabs invaded it and most of the population became Muslims.
    2
  658. The Antisemitism in these comments is cause for concern. Don't you realise that the accusation of Antisemitism is the main weapon in Netanyahu's armoury? You are batting for him if you argue this ridiculous "Jews together" narrative. Zelensky isn't even in charge in Ukraine, for goodness sake! He's a puppet of people who aren't even Jewish!
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  659. In accordance with the values upon which it was founded, it is impossible for Labour to be anything but pro-Palestinian. The fact that it has a leader who said "I am a Zionist" means that it no longer is the Labour Party. It is time for a new party of the working class.
    2
  660. It seemed to me that the Maccabi fans' intention was to provoke a pogrom against the non-white population of Amsterdam. I think that they expected Dutch Fascists to come out on the streets in support of them because the Netherlands has recently elected the Far Right at several layers of government. That would have been a very ugly scenario indeed but it failed to materialise and they consequently found themselves vastly outnumbered. That's when they switched to plan B: claiming victimhood.
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  661. I've met Jews with similar views on anti-war demonstrations. The UK's equivalent seem to be mostly centred around Stamford Hill in East London. They're shy, kind, polite and unassuming but deeply opposed to political Zionism. They consider it to be the heresy of heresies. To them, Israel is an idea, not a place. The notion that Jews should kill in order to realise this false religious goal motivates them to oppose political Zionism in every way they can.
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  662. He didn't say that. He said that he found the bit of the UK that he was in was quaint and peaceful. But he was quite right to nail the lie of Muslim enclaves and no-go zones. They don't exist.
    2
  663. If this doesn't get appealed, it effectively sinks the so-called "definition". Institutions can adopt it to their hearts' content but it is now unenforceable and therefore completely meaningless. Good riddance!
    2
  664. Thanks for that clarification of Neu's speech, Damian. I was utterly gob smacked when I read the quote. I should have known that Starmer wouldn't have quoted him honestly.
    2
  665. Yeah. Cos no one else over 60 has any experience! Is it even possible to make these people up?
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  666. Let's remember that the Nazis' big plan was to remove inferior races from Eastern Europe so that Germans could have "lebensraum". The only difference here is scale. Never again. We cannot allow this to happen again.
    2
  667. I love Lindsey Graham's "unverified allegations being treated as if they are true". Um, isn't it Gaetz that's doing that? If they were untrue, he would be standing his ground.
    2
  668.  @KernowDamo  It comes from "The Defenestrations of Prague" which were incidents in which town councillors were thrown out of windows to their deaths. In order to be kind, I would ensure that Wes had a pile of manure or something similar to land in. Wouldn't want to make a martyr out of him!
    2
  669. This piece of excrement was one of the top operatives involved in the defenestration of Jeremy Corbyn. His interviewee technique is to mount a personal attack on anyone who challenges his lies. Israel does itself no favours by offering this kind of slime to make its case for it. But then, who else would attempt to make such a case?
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  670. Streeting is a mediocrity even when you compare him with Blair's coterie of born again neoliberal ex Marxists. John Reid, Alistair Darling and Alan Milburn look like political giants next to him - and believe me, they weren't anything of the kind. Personally, I don't think we need to worry about Wes getting the top job. By the time his turn comes around, the party which he is using as the vehicle for nothing but achieving his own ambitions will have fully imploded by then.
    2
  671. An excellent explanation marred by the careless mistake about UDI - even though it doesn't really impact on the argument.
    2
  672. 27% are millionnaires? Weren't you on Question Time a few years ago, claiming that 80% of the population earned more than £80K? By the way, My winter fuel payment doesn't go to pay for luxuries - just a few more of the essentials I should never have had to do without in the first place!
    2
  673.  @Trebor1172  Quite right. But that is the point. The groups I listed are, at least in theory, interest groups. There is an argument to be made against them but they have existed for decades. The Jewish Labour Movement on the other hand, is indeed a lobby group and membership is incompatible with elected office.
    2
  674. Yeah! Cos' who needs schools, hospitals, roads, pensions, emergency services, defence etc? Such a waste!
    2
  675. I'd go for that. It's clear to anyone that thinks that migrants a net benefit. The figure to prove it to the gammon would be welcome.
    2
  676. Abbot should resign from the Labour Party and run as an independent on her record of 35 years service to Hackney North and Stoke Newington where she got 70% of the vote in 2019. She could sit alongside fellow independent Jeremy Corbyn and be a thorn in the side of Starmer and his corrupt carpet bagging cabal.
    2
  677. Of course it is. The far left has every right to worry.
    2
  678. Fascinating that they couch this in terms of "fairness". As in the 1% half of society should have "fair" democratic equivalence with the 99% half of society. A slight misunderstanding of the rules of arithmetic, I think!
    2
  679. Straight from Labour Friends of Israel to being directly employed by this genocidal regime. How did the party which was founded by Keir Hardie, a committed Anti-Zionist, come to this?
    2
  680. Marjorie Taylor Greene said that, not AOC.
    2
  681.  @stuartd9741  But that's a political position in itself.
    2
  682.  @BOZ_11  How old are you? Pre-election giveaways have been a thing since universal suffrage! And, in most cases, electorates see through them.
    2
  683. There's a disturbing parallel here with the conflict between the two wings of the NSDAP in the 1930s: Ernst Roehm's wing of the party, the SA (Proud Boys? Oath Keepers?) was vaguely populist and claimed to be mobilising German "workers" (actually shopkeepers and farmers) against "international capital". But Hitler, like Trump, had no interest in ordinary Germans. He needed them to vote for him but jettisoned them as soon as he got into power. The SA was replaced by the much more aristocratic SS and its members were either murdered or absorbed into other groups. Like Hitler, Trump is appointing people to powerful positions on the basis of their loyalty to him rather than their competence or experience. I hope Americans are braced for what he has planned - because there are no "adults in the room" to stop him this time.
    2
  684. No-one needs to make a "reasonable case". Peterson makes the case against himself. He's a deranged god bothering drug addict and you only need to watch this video or any of his rambling and hilariously misinformed and incoherent online lectures about "cultural marxists" to confirm that.
    2
  685. "Hannibal" is a reminder of the wartime Zionists' attempts to do a deal with the Nazis to allow them to take the old and sick to the gas chambers in exchange for permitting the young and strong to emigrate to Israel. Zionism is as intrinsically callous as the other well-known racist ideology of the time. It is an utter disgrace that our governments support this evil creed while claiming to uphold the principles of democracy and human rights.
    2
  686. This was the man who distrusted Blair because he was a Leftist. His argument on the Elgin Marbles seems to be "A lot of things get stolen. So what?" Obnoxious little man.
    2
  687. You're generally right here but I think you might be remembering past Labour governments through rose-tinted spectacles, Richard. By and large, Labour has been marginally more progressive than the Tories but it has always set out to preserve rather than replace capitalism. When major economic policy decisions had to be made, it came down on the Right rather than Left - consider, for example, Healey's (he was considered to be on the Left at the time) imposition of austerity in the 1970s. In terms of foreign and colonial policy, it was often more aggressive and bellicose than the Tories and certainly more slavishly compliant with US aims and wishes. But there was some difference. This was largely because there were good people in the upper levels who genuinely wished to change society for the better and they were able to achieve some wins. That started to wear thin under Kinnock and then Blair but even then there were still one or two principled gadflies buzzing around and frustrating the attempts to Thatcherise the party. Sadly, Starmer has either corrupted or expelled the few remaining Social Democrats so there is little or no resistance to the Neoliberal direction in which the Labour Party is now moving. You are quite right to say that it is now almost indistinguishable from the Tories.
    2
  688.  @helenheenan3447  Indeed. But I think the right have made a strategic blunder - and are continuing to do so. If they had supported JC getting into No 10 and then undermined him and forced him out, they could have done considerable long-term reputational damage to the very idea of left politics. Corbyn could have been blamed for everything and the press and media would have had a field day presenting the "evidence" and ensuring that such a thing could never happen again. As things have turned out, they've shot their bolt on the Antisemitism scam and they've created the nucleus of a new party and provided it with able politicians and experienced and committed activists. They achieved a massive majority purely because of the arithmetic of FPTP and that very same arithmetic could wipe them out as thoroughly as it did the Tories and leave room for a genuinely progressive party to fill the vacuum.
    2
  689.  @CuriousCrow-mp4cx  Word salad. You're either for democracy or agin it.
    2
  690. We need an answer from Keir "I am a Zionist" Starmer on this. Or is it Wes Streeting who has authorised it?
    2
  691.  @albertinsinger7443  Indeed. That's what I said.
    2
  692. Keynes put it best: "If we can do it, we can afford it". The problem is that people intuitively cling to the "tax and spend" narrative that neoliberal hucksters sell. But here's the bottom line: The reason Starmer and Reeves won't release the potential of the economy is not because they can't. It's because they don't want to. Or rather their new corporate backers don't want them to. And if they don't do as they're told, the loadsamoney jobs they've been promised for their retirements won't happen.
    2
  693. Excellent counter-account. You've effectively made the point that the Right are not only relaxed about extreme Right-wing mobs, they positively encourage them and reward them after the fact. Subscribed!
    2
  694.  @josephhamrick2488  If he's a fan of Tate, human would be a second language.
    2
  695.  @cleanhit777  But we don't have to repay it. And we're paying the interest to ourselves.
    2
  696. Just like the Kapos in the Warsaw Ghetto, once their usefulness is over, they'll get the same treatment as those they've betrayed.
    2
  697. Commercial spam
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  698. "what has JC got to with labour ,,? Well, there's the fact that a large percentage of Labour voters agree with the policies he proposed. Do you not think that's something of a problem for Sir Kid Starver, champion of NHS privatisation and, come to think of it, most Tory policies?
    2
  699.  @JiveTurkeyify Yes. They'd be scary if they were who they wanted to be. But if they stopped being a con man's cuck, they wouldn't feel the need to act scary.
    2
  700.  @derekhitchings  The Labour vote in the local council elections actually fell. Labour gains were entirely due to the collapse of the Tory vote.
    2
  701.  @Chainchomp432  And that is relevant because....?
    2
  702. Yes. He'd get a score of 150%.
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  703. Too young to remember it and too arrogant and ignorant to research it properly. It is Thatcherite journalism, not history.
    2
  704. It's as simple as this: Starmer is a self-declared Zionist. He is an ideologue who supports the racist aims of the Israeli government to ethnically cleanse Palestine in order to create an apartheid state. He is not fit to be a public servant in a democracy at all, let alone the leader of a party which has internationalism and anti-racism in its founding values. I used to be a proud member of the Labour Party. I despair that it has shrunk to one which is able to accept such a stain on its very identity
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  705. Your justice system is incredibly lax. If anyone in the UK defied court orders like this, he or she would have been in prison a long time ago, his/her bank accounts would have been sequestered and bailiffs would have seized everything he/she owns and ensured that any future income is also subject to sequestration until the debt is paid.
    2
  706. You cannae get turd polish anywhere these days....
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  707. I'm an old geezer. 65. I love being schooled by youngsters like this. It gives me hope for my grandchildrens' futures
    2
  708.  @simonjohn9525  Agreed - but more than that. The three-party system only exists because broad coalitions are needed to get through the FPTP system. Both Labour and Conservatives would break down into their various factions. This would result in representation which would more fairly reflect the views of the population and with it would come fluid coalitions and alliances. The downside, of course, is that far-right parties like Reform and worse would also get some representation. But as such parties already exert a dangerous right-wing drag on the Tories in FPTP, that would probably be the lesser evil.
    2
  709.  @richardhead3062  Were that the case, the death toll on 7 October would have been many times what it was. In fact, most of the deaths were caused by Israeli tanks and helicopter gunships. The guerillas concentrated on taking hostages to trade against the hostages held by the Israelis and most of those returned reported that they were well treated. Why did you go to "the strip"?
    2
  710. She sent a mob of Nazis to the Cenotaph where they desecrated the memory of those who fought against people like them and these idiots think that she's a good person? I despair!
    2
  711. Wow! Why don't you do a review of the Kool-aid so we can all consider a purchase.
    2
  712.  @roghider319  Not in this context. Read what he says.
    2
  713.  @WarrenPeaceOG  Private banks are licensed to issue new money by the Bank of England. It is the BoE which creates it.
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  714. I keep thinking he's a leftie doing a really funny parody of a right wing jerk who drinks too much espresso. Please don't tell me I'm wrong....
    2
  715. A libertarian is just an authoritarian who exempts himself. It's only possible for libertarians to get the "freedom" they want by taking it away from everyone else.
    2
  716.  @Redf322  You think think that there might be bright people in Tufton Street? Why would they be there?
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  717.  @lordsoros627  You think you'd get socialism from Biden? Wow! How stupid and ignorant do you have to be to believe that? Mad Max is 100% free market BTW.
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  718.  @lordsoros627  Now the Green New Deal is socialist? What a clown!
    2
  719.  @lordsoros627  Of course it's not a "free market". That's because such a fantasy does not exist, never has existed and never could exist. As soon as you get rid of the regulation necessary for a civilisation to function and prosper, it quickly descends into a "wasteland dystopia ran by furdal (sic) era warlords". I don't need to guess what warlords think of the free market. We have the example of Pinochet era Chile and present day Iran - both run by free market fanatics. The economy is plundered by crooks and con-men, stealing workers' pensions, rigging markets in their own favour and staying in power through brutal oppression. sounds pretty much like a feudal era dystopia to me - and to most Chileans (who recently overthrew it via the ballot box) and Iranians who are still struggling to do so.
    2
  720.  @lordsoros627  Roosevelt's New Deal was to prevent revolution which, after the clownish incompetence which led to the Great Depression, was a serious prospect at the time. Ultimately, it did save capitalism in the US. It certainly wasn't socialist. Biden's limp imitation of it is also to prevent the US economy falling off a cliff which was extremely likely after Trump's clown show. The "green" part is pure branding and it is entirely inadequate with regard to dealing with climate change. The "coat of arms" of the Soviet Union? Such a thing does not exist. I assume you mean the state emblem. What exactly is supposed to be so obvious?
    2
  721.  @lordsoros627  Jeez. Did someone accidently post the printer's test programme? Talk about word salad! Reminds me of Orwell where he pointed out that when people are unable to write coherently, they're equally incapable of thinking coherently and you can get them to believe anything - even where it's inconsistent and self contradicting.
    2
  722. So denying a platform to people who have promoted terrorism (perhaps none of you were near a TV on Jan 6?) is Fascism? Ah! no wait a minute. It's April 1st. Very funny, Sky News.
    2
  723. Of course democracy is at risk from extremist groups - the main one being the Tory Party.
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  724. It is indeed repulsive. I remember when this sort of outrageous callousness was only found on the outermost fringes of the Tory Right. It's awful to hear a Labour frontbencher speaking like this. But it's also stupid. Health and social care is not a zero-sum cost to society. It's an investment. Keeping people healthy not only means that they are able to work, creating wealth, paying tax and adding value to society in other ways but that their dependents and loved ones are too. And just living in a decent society which doesn't abandon those unable to fend for themselves is a form of wealth in its own right. You're not only bad and sad, Liz. You're an idiot too.
    2
  725. The last thing the Right (amongst which I include corporate Democrats) want is an educated population. If people have the intellectual tools to work out what's going on , they're cooked!
    2
  726. What about offering to relocate all Israelis who are not willing to accept a single-state solution with democratic rights for all guaranteed to sparsely populated US states like Montana, Wyoming, North and South Dakota? That would at least be legally within Trump's gift. What about the current occupants? Well, the Zionists could just harass and oppress them until they go away....
    2
  727.  @mjg8134  Ya nailed it there. The point is to give their backers something to take back to their supporters as an alibi for defending genocide.
    2
  728. Here's the thing, Binyahim, you cannae claim that the UN has failed to condemn the atrocities of Hamas when you have refused to co-operate with independent investigators on the alleged atrocities, proclaiming that there is nothing to investigate: If Israel says there are atrocities, there are atrocities and demanding evidence is therefore an antisemitic act in its own right. In fact, all the claims, so willingly reported by western press and media have been totally discredited. There were no rapes (nor any other kind of sexual assault), no mass murder of children or mutilation of any babies and the high death count appears to be the result of Israeli forces putting the Hannibal Directive into action. Or, to put it another way, gotcha, you liar!
    2
  729. Yes. That would have been when the effects of the policies of the Atlee government were still present in our society and economy. They've all been pretty much reversed now - by both Labour and Tories.
    2
  730. Wow! Are you sure this was the Labour Party? Look and sound like Young Conservatives to me!
    2
  731. I'm on the other side of the Atlantic and I'm amazed that ANYONE could vote for this bozo. It's difficult to decide which is greater, his stupidity or his lack of humanity. I suppose each multiplies the other!
    2
  732.  @davidparker9676  Which "indigenous British culture"? There are hundreds of them.
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  733. Listen to Ernest Hemmingway. You need a functioning "crap detector". The alleged events of 7 October never made sense. From the beginning, it was clear that the injuries sustained by most of those killed were caused by weaponry the Hamas fighters didn't have. They came with small arms and RPGs but the mutilations and crushed bodies showed that they had largely been killed by tank artillery. Very early on, Israel had to revise the body count down when they had separated the Hamas fighters from Israelis. Only one way they could have got mangled together: That's if they were killed in the same way in the same place and by the same weapons used by the same people! But the most telling indicator that the atrocities were invented was the fact that Hamas successfully carried out a successful military operation which defeated one of Israel's full-time army units and they did so with a startling level of military professionalism and competence. Had they paused to commit the rapes and alleged torture and mutilation they were accused of, they would have been wiped out by the settlers' own militias, let alone helicopter gunships and tanks. None of them would have returned to Gaza. More to the point, they always lie. If a Zionist is making a claim, demand that evidence be presented to an independent investigator. If they refuse, you'll know why.
    2
  734. Floating a theory is not the same as "suggesting" it. I think a more likely scenario is that Netanyahu knew it was coming but did nothing because it would give him an excuse for the genocidal attack now underway and clearly already planned in advance. Of all people the one who made me pause for thought was Charlie Kirk (yes, I nearly threw up at the time but even a broken clock is right twice a day). He pointed out that he had actually recently visited that stretch of the fence and that you couldn't walk a hundred metres without being challenged by heavilly armed IDF. Yet on the day, they appear to have been caught napping. Waters is right to be suspicious, even if he has maybe gone slightly along the wrong track A much clearer conspiracy is that of obscuring the actual details of the attacks. We got a whole slew of reports of gang rapes, beheaded babies, torture etc. There was literally zero evidence for such events but the sheer quantity of second and third hand "eyewitness" evidence ("I spoke to someone who had been told by someone else who was told by...." etc) was enough to make news and discussion outlets (even Damage Report and Young Turks) respond to them as if they were true. But if they were, then Israel would have had the whole site swarming with UN war crimes inspectors by now. Instead they have buried the "evidence" as quickly as possible. The released (yes, not rescued) hostages have given the lie to this too. They report being treated decently by their captors and one witness has told us that IDF tanks deliberately fired ordnance into several houses where they they knew hostages were. (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HugMS0k0kB4 ) Carefully orchestrated "rumours" of beheadings and mutilation give a handy cover to explain the mangled, limbless and headless corpses which would result from close range use of artillery shells. It needs to be noted that the above interview has been censored in Israel. It's likely (not certain) that Waters is wrong about a false flag attack. But it is good that at least someone is listening to the narrative and spotting the holes in it.
    2
  735.  @Popsickle34  If you want to make sure that everyone who needs a benefit gets it, you make it universal. That's been a principle of social policy since Beveridge. And it's also well known that means testing nearly always results in people who ARE entitled not receiving it. Many hundreds of thousands of people will suffer because of this spiteful and badly thought-out measure. Some will die. And by the time the extra burden on A & E and social care is covered, there will be very little money saved. It's nothing but a political measure made with the intention of making this Tory reserve team look like it's able to to make "tough" decisions.
    2
  736. Dangerous nonsense. Pubs and cafes are community hubs. They have a social function way beyond their commercial presence.
    2
  737. From the beginning, it was clear that Israel had its lies about the attack prepared in advance. The genocidal onslaught which followed also seemed to play out according to a pre-prepared plan. But it's always been my practice never to attribute to conspiracy or malice that which can be explained by incompetence and stupidity (Two prevalent characteristics of the IDF) so I initially dismissed the suggestions that Israel knew in advance. But this is a game changer. The possibility that Netanyahu deliberately allowed the attack to proceed in order to provide a pretext for genocide has to be considered. If so, the charge for war crimes is unanswerable - including against those Western leaders who have aided and abetted this onslaught. Don't tell Owen Jones, by the way. He seems to think that the suggestion is Antisemitic. Goodness knows why.
    2
  738. The guy who said that, without his privilege, Trump would be living under a bridge and begging so that he could buy his kids a hamburger got it wrong. He would be sending out his kids to beg for the money to buy HIM a hamburger
    2
  739. Why are we "meant" to live in a market economy? I don't remember that referendum.
    2
  740.  @JoinTheTemple  The track record of fundamentalist market-based economies is far worse. Socialists have been rightly criticised for not lifting backward economies out of poverty but neoliberals have plunged advanced economies into poverty where there was little or none before. Mixed economies with proper democratic accountability and effective regulation have been, by far, the most successful.
    2
  741. I remember back in 2008, many commentators were saying that Neoliberalism had lost the argument. They seemed to be blissfully unaware that it had never won any arguments. It came to dominate because rich people like the Kochs, Mellons, etc financed university economics departments that taught it. They continued to finance it, even when its weak and incoherent dogma was utterly and completely destroyed by reality and it has limped on regardless. I wonder if 2024 will have turned out to have been the year in which it had its final throes in the UK as both Tories and Labour stubbornly hung on to its ridiculous dictates with the inevitable results becoming obvious to even the most stubbornly economicly illiterate amongst us.
    2
  742. How on Earth do you come to that silly conclusion? We've had Thatcherite government non-stop since 1979 and farmers are the most coddled part of the economy.
    2
  743. AI is potentially a good thing but.... The ruling classes realised quite some time ago that educating the masses for the workplace has the unfortunate side effect of educating them ABOUT the workplace. The more they understood what was going on, the more they realised that they could make a more positive contribution to the enterprise than just their raw muscle or brain power and, more importantly, they realised that they were entitled to a more equitable share of the fruits of their labour. That's why university grants were abolished and that's why, when the fall in the birth rate offered the opportunity for smaller classes in secondary education, government opted for shrinking the sector instead. Alongside this, advances in technology also offered the opportunity for a massively dumbed down entertainment sector for a dumbed down population: Junk food and Strictly being the modern equivalent of bread and circuses. Moving to the subject at hand, an educated population would not only realise the potential of AI to improve the lives of all and enhance democracy but also be aware of how dangerous it becomes if it is entirely controlled by an elite while the rest of loll on our sofas stupefied by "reality" TV and soaps and stuffing ourselves with awful snacks.
    2
  744. ​ @ronnoman61  Yup. But to these two it was a terrible time. Note the expression "held hostage by the trade unions". What they mean by that is that the likes of you and me were getting a fair shake and it had to stop!
    2
  745. You mean the workers and consumers? Yes, it would. Taxing the rich would be a completely different matter.
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  746. Rubbish. Any secrecy is to protect the parasites in the City of London.
    2
  747. Well they're certainly been done over. But by the spivs in the City. Nothing whatsoever to do with redistribution - which has gone into reverse over the last 50 years anyway!
    2
  748. What a clown show! They're just decapitating their own party! This is satire without satirists. Not even Rory Bremner or Spitting Image could have come up with this!
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  749. Zionists have always co-operated with Nazis.
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  750. "It comes from a school called the the Franklin School which comes out of Berlin." What a howler!!! Is Mark Levin really a satirical performance artist? Marxism must be the only subject on which someone can be be considered an expert while knowing next to nothing about it. See also the similarly hilarious and uniformed rantings of Jordan Peterson, William Lind and plenty of others. It would be funny if it wasn't so damned dangerous.
    2
  751. ​ @petermach8635  Something which wouldn't have happened without Keynes and Galbraith Influencing both political parties
    2
  752. " will in due time regret her decision to represent Trump." Yes. When she is expecting him to pay her bills.
    2
  753.  @AgnusDeiSoldier  I'll think you'll find Brexit has ended that little delusion. Now we have to obey rules made in Brussels that we have no part in making.
    2
  754. Incredible that Israel is banishing UN officials because they did not take sides with it.
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  755. This makes him a war criminal too. He can stand alongside Starmer, Sunak and Macron in the Hague.
    2
  756. The Israeli invasion suggests panic. For years, they have aided the terrorists against Assad as a disruptive measure. Now there's a possibility that the terrorists will turn on them and they'll need to fight on three fronts when they were already struggling against two adversaries.
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  757. It's quite simple. The people dying in Ukraine are white and Christian. It's racism, pure and simple.
    2
  758. Interesting that being less right-wing counts as being more moderate now in Starmer's Labour Party.
    2
  759. Ah! So we've got Keir's word for it? Cannae dae better than that. The Palestinians will be falling on their knees in thanks!
    2
  760. He wasn't going to pay the bill anyway!
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  761. Be assured that you would learn nothing useful on a modern economics course in most UK or US universities. Most of them are just regurgitations of neoliberal dogma.
    2
  762.  @arazchelsea7  Spot on. My comment saying pretty much the same thing was deleted for some reason or other.
    2
  763. It's quite simple. The better off vote because politicians tend to reward them for doing so. Poorer people don't vote because, even when the candidate of their choice (usually ostensibly "left") is elected, they get betrayed. This sets off a vicious circle where politicians tend to ignore the "underclass" because they don't vote, causing them to withdraw even further from the electoral process. The danger to democracy is clear to anyone who is paying attention.
    2
  764.  @stevemitchell1454  Agreed, but there's also an element of the Tory Party which could also be considered well to the right of mainstream opinion. The comical goose stepping Nazis, with their hilarious right arm salute are only part of the picture. People like Liz Truss and Jacob Rees-Mogg are also Far Right.
    2
  765. Wow! This is straightforward Nazi ideology undisguised and undiluted.
    2
  766. 100 year old Anne is more cogent than the Orange Idiot. May she still be around to vote for Harris's second term!
    2
  767. He is courageous, honest and decent. This is why Jeremy Corbyn would never be allowed to become Prime Minister. The question he asks has an answer. It is because we are led by cowardly, corrupt and venal politicians who are incapable of doing anything humane if it is damaging to their greedy and soulless careers.
    2
  768. Well done, MT! You're obviously getting under his skin. Keep it up!
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  769. You are surprised that an idiot acts like an idiot? Really?
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  770. I think that Al-Jolani/Al Sharaa's shelf life is very limited. He was put in place to serve Israel's and the US's purpose and that purpose being achieved, they now have no use for him. We've seen this happen so many times before. I remember when the UK media extolled the good offices of a Libyan Colonel called Muammar Qadaffi, then there was one Idi Amin who was going to bring Uganda back to its senses, there was Saddam Hussein who saved Iraq from Communism, strongman Manuel Noriega was going to look after US interests in Panama and, of course, and we all remember the people that Ronald Reagan called "freedom fighters" in Afghanistan - including one Osama Bin Laden. In the end, none of that mattered. Once they had served their purpose, they were got rid of. This time around, I think that there may have been a massive miscalculation, though. The crowds that welcomed the so-called "rebels" into Damascus just over a week ago are a wee bit more sophisticated than they're given credit for. They've had secular government, with full freedom of religion (or from religion) for more than half a century now. While no one in their right mind would defend the Assads with their oppression and corruption, I doubt if these hand choppers and beheaders will be welcome for very long either - especially as a pretty big proportion of them aren't even Arabs, let alone Syrian. There is a lot to play out here and I'd hesitate to make any firm predictions but the game is far from over.
    2
  771.  @Tensquaremetreworkshop  Um no. The inches are the measurements, not the wood.
    2
  772. Excellent work. Watch your backs, guys. You'll certainly be on Ware's hit list after this.
    2
  773. Way to go with the analysis Cenk! "Nuts" is absolutely right.
    2
  774.  @peterbennet7145  In Chile, Pinochet's "reforms" resulted in massive unemployment, lower wages and everyone losing their pensions - the wealthy prospered though. In Iran, such nonsense has resulted in massive levels of poverty. Argentina is undergoing market fundamentalist reforms right night now. Have you checked how that's going? Marxist governments are rightly criticised for not dealing with poverty quickly enough. Free Market dogma, on the other hand, has always created poverty where there was none before. I'm not a Keynsian by any means but only a total ignoramus would call Keynes "delusional". The reforms put into place by Keynes and Galbraith resulted in the biggest and fastest rise in living standards for ordinary people in history. The dogma of Von Mises, Hayek and Friedman has result in the biggest and fastest fall in living standards.
    2
  775.  @physiocrat7143  Thou shalt kill is about people, not foetuses. Killing people doesn't bother the Christian Right one tiny bit - especially if the victim is not white and fine if they are thousands of miles away. By the way, most churches in the US only took up the cudgels against abortion relatively recently. In 1968, a conference of all the major protestant churches made a statement: “Whether the performance of an induced abortion is sinful we are not agreed but about the necessity of it and permissibility for it under certain circumstances we are in accord.” The Southern Baptists, one of the biggest Chistian organisations in the US actually came out in favour of full legalisation of it in 1974. So your claim that Bishop Budde is opposed to some long-standing Christian tradition is simply untrue. An interesting aside is that the first abortion laws in the US were enacted in slave states to protect "property" from being damaged by mothers unwilling to bring a child into the world to become a slave.
    2
  776. There have been times when the US has acted as an intermediary, albeit one strongly biased towards Israel. This is no longer the case. It is now a straightforward advocate for Israel and quite willing to collude with Israel's war crimes. Its demands are laughable. Israel is having its backside handed to it by Hezbollah right now. It has failed to intimidate Iran and, as if inspired by the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, Hamas are continuing to wrongfoot massively better-armed troops in Gaza. Even timid little Jordan is talking back at Netanyahu and the vile Mohamed Bin Salman is beginning to worry about his population chopping HIM up and putting his body in a suitcase. Israel is in no position to make demands of any sort. Its army is equipped and trained to hunt down and murder women and children, not fight committed, well armed and well trained soldiers who are ready and willing to die, if necessary. That doesn't fit the Tik Tok army's profile at all. now the vaunted Iron Dome and similar high-tech "defence" systems are creaking and proving to be less than invincible, at best, a total waste of an awfie lot of money at worst. Demands? Hah!
    2
  777.  @RobinHarris-nf4yv  There have always been working-class Tories but if you're saying working-class people generally are Tories then you'd have to come up with an explanation for the huge majorities Labour get in the mining communities of South Wales, the North East, Liverpool, East End of London etc. The in-roads Tories have made into the so-called Red Wall in recent years has been caused by workers (and especially younger workers) abstaining, not from them becoming Tory.
    2
  778.  @lemsip207  " ...the younger you are the less likely you are to vote". That is a statistic posing as a fact; a variable wrongly considered to be a constant. But there is no reason that it can't be changed. People who vote for an unjust system which favours them are more likely to vote again if they get an unjust system that favours them. People who vote to get social justice and don't get it are more likely to give up voting. That's why young people and poorer pensioners are less likely to vote.
    2
  779.  @lemsip207  Couldn't agree more
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  780. Utter nonsense. The Iranian attack was carefully calibrated to do minimal damage while making enough noise to satisfy its hawks at home that a response was made. Had they deployed their full potential they'd have done massive damage but the Israelis would have been forced to respond. As it is, the Iranians have sent a powerful message but no more. The West has foolishly allowed Israel to have nuclear weapons and it currently has a Prime Minister who would likely use them to save himself from political defeat and possible jail. We should be grateful for the fact that there are cooler and wiser heads in Teheran than in Jerusalem.
    2
  781. Well said. I have to say that, for the first time in my life, I don't care whether Labour or Tories win. They really have become identical now and it's time to reject both.
    2
  782.  @KernowDamo  I've not read that anywhere else - How strange!🤨
    2
  783. It's depressing that so many Germans seek to make amends for their country's crimes in the 1940s by enabling Israel's commission of the same crimes against Palestinians.
    2
  784. Spot on, Richard. 40 years ago we controlled inflation with progressive taxation which benefited everyone. Now we control it with interest which benefits only the rich. In effect, we are paying tax to them so that they get richer instead of democratically accountable government which would use it for our benefit. Time for a serious u-turn, I think!
    2
  785. High time someone said this. The way to get health costs under control is to make people healthier and safer. Curtailing sugar consumption is a big part of that but also alcohol and tobacco. Educatio is the key to that. In addition, a number of measures could be taken to make older and disabled people safer in and around their homes. Finally, let's get kids into healthy habits like walking, cycling and playing sports and taking those habits into adulthood with more swimming pools and sports facilities. All will save money in the long run. One last thing to save the NHS - let's all pray for Streeting to lose his seat to an independent or Green candidate.
    2
  786. Apparently, the IDF has placed its artillery next to UNIFIL. They're effectively using them as human shields!
    2
  787.  @georgebodley8068  I think you'll find it's either the same person or a colleague in the same trolling organisation.
    2
  788.  @denisripley8699  You have evidence that Syrians are more likely to claim benefits than those born in the UK? I live in a high unemployment area and I don't know or know of a single immigrant or successful refugee who lives on benefits.
    1
  789. What nonsense! The part once played by the democratically accountable state has been replaced by increments since the late 1970s. The railways, water, telecoms, buses, gas, electricity etc are all run by unaccountable corporations now. What's more, within state institutions (like the NHS) , we have out-sourcing which increases the costs and waters down the service.
    1
  790. Yes. But banks shouldn't be run as businesses anyway. They are administrative facilities which we all need and should not be subject to market forces or the profit motive.
    1
  791. Well said for calling out the hypocrisy inherent in MSM language. This is a hostage exchange. If you listen to the BBC you'd think there are hostages on one side and legitimate prisoners on the other.
    1
  792. Quite right. We also need to limit Corporations' ability to fight quasi-political single-issue campaigns. It is outrageous that they can get tax relief for these.
    1
  793. Bankers' fingerprints all over the place. We should have listened when Rachel Reeves told us that was going to happen!
    1
  794. She's talking about shooting immigrants then claims SHE is the victim of extermination. Do these people actually have connections between the different parts of their brain?
    1
  795. Total nonsense. When Hitler took power, far from socialising the means of production, he privatised the parts of the economy which had been nationalised by Weimar. Then went on to define socialism as the opposite of what it is. And yes, in wartime, the state directed German capitalism to support the war effort. But Winston Churchill did that too. Was he a Socialist? If Hitler was a Socialist he would have taken over ALL German business and used its profits for the common weal. He didn't. He directed industry to support the war and allowed capitalists to keep their profits. None of them opposed him. Funny that, eh? Yes. He said he was a Socialist many times. It doesn't make it so. It's a bit like me saying I'm Malaysian and then defining Malaysian as someone who was born in Wales. The bottom line is that ALL Fascists, from Mussolini to Donald Trump are actually grifters. They'll say and do whatever it takes to get power. It's what they DO then that defines them, not what they SAID before.
    1
  796.  @colebehnke7767  Tell me you don't understand Fascism without telling me you don't understand Fascism. I watched enough of the video to appreciate the fact that the creator is economically illiterate, historically ignorant and ideologically twisted. The bit about the corporations and the banks being public institutions is just pure gibberish. The Right have problems with Fascism. Capitalism is supposed to bring personal liberty, freedom and peace but here you have a version of it directing the minutiae of people's lives, locking them up and murdering them and treating war as virtuous with the idea that each generation should have at least one war to make it manly and heroic. The problem with his hypothesis about Nazism is that the capitalists and bankers completely bought into it: Not only did it neuter trades unionism and prevent the workers from electing a socialist government, but it also made them more cash than they'd ever make in the liberal environment that capitalists claim to favour. That's why it has repeatedly flared up at intervals since then. There are obvious examples like the parade of US-backed military juntas in South and Central America, the Far East, and Africa from the 1950s through to the 1980s, but you're actually seeing it rise again through the MAGA movement in the US - the last of these being 100% funded, supported and, to a large extent, directed by capitalists. Basically, Fascism is what classic liberalism does when it's threatened by genuinely progressive movements. The problem is that the German, Japanese and Italian versions in the post First World War period really got bad press. That's why nonsense like this video has to be concocted to disassociate present-day Fascism from them. Even so, we are seeing some rehabilitation of them with people like Steve Bannon and even Trump himself speaking about Hitler and Mussolini positively.
    1
  797.  @colebehnke7767  And every silly claim this jumped-up bozo makes is addressed elsewhere by competent historians.
    1
  798. ​ @colebehnke7767  Probably not. The people who've gone down this rabbit hole are impervious to facts and evidence. I don't intend to waste any more time on this nonsense but just one last parting thought: No one at the time suggested he, or for that matter, Mussolini or Franco were Socialists. Not even the Mont Pelerin gang suggested such a convenient heresy in the decades which immediately followed. In the same way, of course, no one is suggesting Trump, Putin, Le Pen, Orban etc are Socialists now. I wonder how long it will take for enough time to pass before someone who does a lot of YouTube to suggest that they too were really Socialists. I don't see why not. All you you need to do is re-define all the concepts involved to make them mean whatever you want them to mean. Cos that's what this guy has done.
    1
  799.  @colebehnke7767  Um no. No one took the Socialist part of the name seriously until several decades had passed. No doubt, in 50 years, there will be some similar Bozo claiming that Trump was a Socialist. As for history, I eat, drink and bathe in it. No with any historical knowledge or understanding would give this idiotic nonsense any credence whatsoever.
    1
  800. He should be careful. It might blow up in his face.
    1
  801.  @NH_HN  🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
    1
  802. Matt Gaetz: "We were unable to address our concerns about election integrity". Um yes you did. It was addressed in 60 court cases where such claims were dismissed because there is no evidence of any such thing occurring. Your "concerns" are utterly bogus. Perhaps you didn't notice because you were too busy with underage girls at the time?
    1
  803. Yes. The SNP is a very broad church. Even more so than the Labour Party was before it started expelling Socialists. Not an accusation that can be levelled at the party that Farage represents. It ranges from the extreme right to the even more extreme right. It's really amusing to see Farage trying to sound smug about the SNP not quite having 50% of the seats at Holyrood. What percentage of the seats in Westminster does Reform have? Well, half the percentage, as it happens. The second half of the two integers!
    1
  804. You can almost hear Habba going "oh, f***, oh f***" over and over in her head. And there's the bit where she looks at the guy on her right as if to say "what we gonna do?". Then, finally, she decides the best thing to do is to step forward and say something; garbage as it turns out. It doesn't matter as long it stops him from talking. This is really funny.
    1
  805. Yes. So far as there is any coherent belief amongst these grifters, it is that government as we know it should be destroyed and power should be in the hands of the super-rich. For them, the state should only be there to maintain law and order and allow the rich to keep their loot. It's the classic liberty versus democracy struggle. I doubt if you'll ever find that in one of their manifestos, though.
    1
  806. I can't help thinking that rags like the Daily Mail and certainly establishment media concerns like the BBC keep negative dossiers on all politicians ready for the day when it becomes necessary to destroy or undermine them for whatever reason. All this stuff will have been sitting somewhere gathering dust for some time. I wonder why it's being leaked now. It's certainly not because she's turned out to be a left winger and a threat to the status quo. Could it be because Starmer or those who work his strings are beginning to realise that her incompetence and economic illiteracy are becoming a liability? That way, she can be pressured into resigning in such a way that looks bad for her rather than those who put her there.
    1
  807. Wisdom indeed. The best case for PR I've heard.
    1
  808. Most of what you're saying here is pertinent and accurate. However, the Ruble dropping against the Dollar does NOT mean the Russian economy is tanking. Most Russian trade is carried on with BRICS countries using BRICS exchange rates. The Dollar is only marginally relevant to Russia...at most!
    1
  809.  @adenwellsmith6908 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 is that how Tufton Street is spinning FPTP now?
    1
  810. Spot on. New systems and technology could have been used to allow what were then the Inland Revenue, HM Customs, the Dept of Health and Social Security and Dept of Employment to work more effectively - In other words, they could have facilitated able and motivated people to improve the job they were already doing well. They could have improved outcomes. Instead, the systems were deployed in such a way as to achieve the same outcomes but with less people. What's more they also removed much of the skill and motivation. When I joined the Inland Revenue in 1975, it took 12 months to train a Tax Officer. At the end of the training he or she could be deployed without supervision in several different kinds of tax and understood the interaction between all of them. What's more, as you say, they knew their local area, they knew who needed help and they knew the dodgy traders, employers and accountants. It wasn't the best job in the world but I and most of my colleagues took some pride in doing it well. The Tax Officer's modern-day equivalent is trained in a matter of days, works from a script and has little or no idea what the on-screen selections they make mean. More to your point, they don't have a hope in Hades of spotting the organised fraudsters that have evolved to boiler-room scale as a result.
    1
  811. One of the fake Antisemitism whines is that Israel is treated differently from every other nation. It is. It gets preferential treatment to everyone else.
    1
  812. There has always been pedantry about the use of the word "Fascism". You can call someone a "Maoist" because they had once belonged to an organisation which received funding from China. You can call someone a "Trotskyite" because they read the Socialist Worker. You can be called a "Stalinist" because you occasionally get articles published in the Morning Star. But, for some reason or other, the word Fascist can only be used if the individual exactly meets very tight criteria laid down by certain academics. Why is that? Donald Trump advocates policies which would not have been out of place in Mussolini's Italy or Hitler's Germany. He speaks with admiration of world leaders who operate dictatorships and Ivana Trump informed us that a collection of Hitler's speeches was the only book she ever saw him reading. He speaks alarmingly about using violence against opponents and shutting down news outlets that criticise him. Most importantly, he views democracy and the rule of law as weaknesses which need to be eliminated. Oh, and it's worth pointing out that most Fascists in history were as corrupt as he is. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks....
    1
  813. Intelligence is multi-faceted and highly nuanced. I can think of many examples of extremely brainy people son having little grasp of the real world. For example, Clive Sinclair had to be extremely clever to understand all the concepts embedded in his ill-fated Sinclair C5 vehicle. But he must have also been a complete idiot to think that such a thing could be driven safely amongst buses and lorries. Allan Greenspan famously did quadratic equations in the bath. Yet he was was too stupid to see the holes in the neoliberal clap-trap which led to the 2008 crash. By contrast, there are plenty of people with relatively little cerebral endowment who live their lives wisely and successfully.
    1
  814. Trump wasn't denying an allegation. He was denying an established legal fact. The fact that she doesn't know the difference suggests that the US really has to do something about its system for licencing lawyers.
    1
  815. The real test is endurance. It's 54 years since the Beatles broke up and not only are their songs still played on the radio and their CDs and vinyl still sold, Lennon and McCartney's writing style is still studied by budding songwriters and the changes they made to contemporary music still endure. In 50 years time, the response to someone mentioning Taylor Swift (or Miley Cyrus, or Beyonce or Rihana etc etc) will be "Who?". Meanwhile, the Beatles (and Simon and Garfunkel, Queen, The Who, The Stones, Hendrix, Clapton, JJ Cale etc ) will still be played and still be influencing real musicians and writers long after they are all dead.
    1
  816. Starmer, along with many in his cabinet, is a Neoliberal bordering on Libertarian. These people have twisted the Labour Party around to serve the interests of big corporations and banks - all of which lobby against regulation which protects us but dents their profits. That also explains their turnaround on Brexit, by the way.
    1
  817. Turkey has been one of Israel's main allies in the region. What's more, it's a member of NATO. If it begins giving support to Hamas and/or Hizbollah, will Israel carry out one of its "surgical" strikes? If so, what will NATO do about it? Israel has no formal alliances with the US, the UK, France, Germany, Italy etc. Turkey does. Could be interesting!
    1
  818. Couldn't agree more with your take on retirement. It is indeed liberating and you are wise not to fall into the trap of seeing it as the conclusion to life. It is an enhanced continuation with benefits. I'll look forward to your new YouTube channel but please don't stop doing this one. I wish you the best for 2025.
    1
  819. Of course Ukraine has a secret weapon. It's called NATO
    1
  820. Where and when did he say that?
    1
  821.  @elasimon9683  To begin with, he's never said any such thing. But secondly, as a Zionist, he's more useful to them in Washington.
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  822. The "worthless" clause idea would be the end of civilisation if it was generalised. All business, all administration, all governance, the rule of law itself all depend on being able to rely on the verity of financial declaration. Saying "This is my status" but it's up to you to check up on it is pure moonshine.
    1
  823. I agree that it was an evil move but it was hardly a departure. I'm 68 and I have seen such things happen throughout my life. Have you not read Spycatcher? Were you not around during the miners' strike? Do you not recall the "suicide" of Willie McCrae? David Kelly? There've been plenty of dirty government dealings that I can remember.
    1
  824. Whoever said it, it's sage advice.
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  825.  @tyraelpl  It's not hard to find anyone better than the people I suggested. Churchill was responsible for millions dying in the Bengal famine. Stalin and Mao murdered millions. In any case, it's pretty unlikely that Genghiz said it but it still makes good sense. You could apply it to the US invasion of Iraq, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Syria's invasion of Lebanon, and many more.
    1
  826. ​ @Historia.Magistra.Vitae.  No. Lack of humanity and decency is inherent in it. It's the epitome of corruption and social injustice. That's why the rich like it.
    1
  827. Peter Mandelson got it wrong. Starmer didn't climb a cliff. The cliff shrunk. Starmer actually got less votes than Corbyn. Starmer was only successful because he was opposing Sunak. Anyone else would have walked all over him.
    1
  828.  @johnprekurat6960  There were no liberals 2000 years ago but I think I know what you mean. I'm not a Christian but I find it very difficult to understand how someone could read the sermon on the mount and then vote for someone like Trump.
    1
  829. Of course the US could win. It doesn't want to. Was no one listening to Mitt Romney when he said the quiet part out loud? The US will keep giving Ukraine enough help to keep the fight going because it's good value for money. As long as it keeps bleeding the Russian economy and degrading Russian warfighting capability which could be deployed elsewhere, Biden will fight Putin to the last Ukrainian.
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  830. I remember when the awful Christine Hamilton (wife of corrupt ex Tory MP, Neil) quoted her equally awful one time boss, the unlamented Gerald Nabarro in saying that BBC stands for "Buggers Broadcasting Communism". This at a time when all BBC staff were vetted by MI5 - even secretaries and receptionists at Bush House! The wee bubble of delusion the Right wrap themselves in is really fascinating!
    1
  831. Excellent analogy. But Trump would be well advised to take note of what happened to the first Caesar....
    1
  832. Time for Jordan and Egypt to join BRICS, I think. They certainly won't prosper as vassals of the US.
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  833. Most of it is hoarded and anyway, the production of luxury goods is a tiny part of the economy.
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  834.  @alecdurbaville6355  Yes. Also known as "John".
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  835. Commercial spam
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  836.  @mw01908  🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 We have had nothing like a Socialist in government since the 1970s. Even then, they were besieged by "moderate" die hards. We have had raving neoliberals in charge since 1979. THAT's why we're in trouble.
    1
  837.  @Arkantos117  Nazism is a variant of Fascism. They're different because they developed in different countries. But the identifying principle, Might-Makes-Right, was central to both of them as it was in Salazar's Portugal, Franco's Spain, Pinochet's Chile or (possibly), Trump's US if he gets re-elected.
    1
  838.  @Arkantos117  Not remotely uneducated. That's the substance of all Fascism: The belief that democracy is wrong because it allows the inferior majority to direct the superior elite when, according to their lights, it should be the other way around. That's what Franco's takeover of Spain was about, that's what the March on Rome was about, that's what the Night of the Long Knives was about, it's what Pinochet believed, it's what Trump and his supporters believe. Race and misogyny may well be part of the mix but they are not the root cause. Fascism is basically the institutionalisation of bullying.
    1
  839. Here's a thought: Is it possible that he's sexually assaulted so many women that he GENUINELY couldn't recall all of them?
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  840.  @politicas3361  there is no such evidence. If there was, you would be able to tell us what it is. You cannot. You are are a lying troll and, by equatingbeing Jewish with being Zionist YOU are the antisemite
    1
  841.  @politicas3361  I wouldn't waste my time for the same reason that I wouldn't waste my time reading Mein Kampf. I saw the panorama programme that John Ware fronted on the Labour Party so I know that this documentary will also be a pack of disgusting lies. If, as you claim, the libel against Waters contained evidence then you would be able to relay it to us. By failing to do so you are effectively admitting that there is none Again. Thank you for confirming that you only have ad hominem arguments.
    1
  842. Very interesting. It always struck me as suspicious that Israel's reaction seemed to be ready to go as soon as the dust cleared on the 7 October attack and that the false claims about mangled babies and systematic rapes seemed to be pre-prepared . Inexplicably, people who raised their heads above the parapet and pointed this out were labelled "Antisemitic" - though I can't see anything remotely antisemitic about the observation.
    1
  843. "Almost certainly the most sustained attack on an urban area in Europe since the Second World War". Ah! You missed the point there, Damien. If the victims were "in Europe" then they were white. It doesn't count as genocide if they're Arabs, you see, because then it will have been their own fault. Their culpability is, of course, exacerbated by the fact that there is no record of any of these people ever making donations to the Labour Party.
    1
  844. There has been a coup. It occurred when the Supreme Court gave him immunity for everything he does in the act of government. That single decision made the US Constitution 100% dependent on the goodwill and competence of the President - and guess what, SCOTUS! Your reference to Knut is a good one. Unfortunately, this time all the sensible advisers were replaced with either yes men or complete loons and it's both the King AND his advisers who think the monarchs are omnipotent.
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  845. Spreading false information is the keystone of Israeli defence strategy. Without it, it would not be politically possible for governments of countries like the US, UK and France to supply the bombs and high tech necessary for the systematic genocide now taking place. Not only has our press and media been infiltrated to this end as you point out, but they have also placed their people in political parties like Labour and the Tories. The Jewish Labour Movement, for example, is a lobbying group indirectly funded by the Israeli government. But it's starting to fail now. There are still some who believe the lies it has told about the so-called atrocities committed by Hamas on 7 October but the stories are becoming increasingly threadbare. UK and US politicians who invested their political capital in them are becoming increasingly exposed. The people like those you have mentioned here are incredibly professional about the way they go about their foul business but the stench rising from Israel's atrocities and increasingly desperate excuses is overcoming their ability to deodorise it.
    1
  846. He'll be even more unloved as his policies start to unfold, the NHS gets sold off to private providers and inequality increases. The people who think they voted for change are quickly going to find out that it's business as usual. I expect the bankers and billionaire donors will remain quite fond of him , though.
    1
  847. ​ @bwilliams572  Brilliant logic: If it hurts when you hit yourself gently on the head with a small ball pein, it'll be fine when you get someone to hit you much harder with a sledge hammer. And you people wonder why you get called "gammon"!
    1
  848. I love this person. No wonder the rich and their poodles hate her.
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  849. Extreme right twaddle. I'm a bus driver, by the way. The author is middle class.
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  850. Abdullah is beginning to see that being an ally of the US is NOT a good idea. It doesn't have allies. It has vassals. Trump doesn't care that Abdullah's dictatorship could be in its last days. He can do as he's told or the blood money stops.
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  851. " The israelis have money, they have a lobby and some intelligence.! You've completely misunderstood what's going on. It's not got that much to do with what Israelis want. Israel gets away with murder (literally) because it is the West's outpost in the Middle East.
    1
  852.  @PhilipDeLamarter  Yes. He was so self-unaware that he was oblivious to the fact that Europeans were, at that exact same time, showing themselves to be that exact same thing by also fighting amongst themselves. He wouldn't have called it the First World War, of course because they hadn't yet shown just how much they were "a little people, a silly people, greedy, barbarous and cruel", by doing the same thing again twenty years later.
    1
  853. Any chance you could use some punctuation. I'm sure you have something interesting to say but, with no demarcation between one sentence and another, it's impossible to work out what it is.
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  854. You are just inhuman. You live in THEIR country. If they're to be moved, move them to their own homes. Let the people who stole their homes move to Jordan or Egypt.
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  855.  @MrMarinus18  Hmm. You seem to have misunderstood what I said. I completely agree with you about deregulation.
    1
  856. Wow! No sexually transmitted diseases before feminism?
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  857.  @samppasamFIN  And that equates to "ALL due to FEMINISM"? Sorry, Nazi, but the pre-feminist world was rife with sexually transmitted disease.
    1
  858. Sigh! Russia's invasion of Ukraine was brought to a halt by Ukraine even before it received help from the West. Even if it had succeeded it would have been impossible to hold it. If it couldn't defeat a handful of Jihadists in Afghanistan, what chance would it have had against a heavily armed and organised resistance movement which could be supplied directly from Western countries? The argument applied equally to the US/UK invasion of Iraq. It's all very well staging a successful invasion. Occupying and holding an unwilling country is another matter entirely. Putin is a crook: A very nasty piece of work indeed. He runs Russia like a mafia fiefdom. But how stupid would he have to be to think that he could use his already overstretched army to over-run an entire wealthy continent, several of whose countries have equivalent armed forces to his own after he failed to overcome one of the poorest, most corrupt and poorly armed countries in Europe - which has fought him to a standstill?
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  859.  @yaneznayoui1597  Most didn't vote for the Fascist. Most either voted for the corporate democrat bankers' stooge or didn't vote at all. Some of those who didn't vote would have been unable to bring themselves to vote for someone who has said that she will continue to support a genocide. Personally, I would have held my nose and voted for her as the (slightly) lesser of the two evils. But I'm sure as hell not going to condemn anyone for voting (or not voting) according to their conscience
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  860. The Zionists have sold their so-called definition by implying that businesses and institutions could be legally exposing themselves by NOT using it. It is now sunk!
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  861.  @RebeccaTurner-ny1xx  Well, yes. I remember "In Place of Strife". I was too young to take part in the demonstrations against it but I remember that they were massive. But that was small potatoes compared to what we're fighting now. That was about containing trade unions (wrongly, in my view) but Starmer is siding with those who want to crush them.
    1
  862.  @tjwcoast  "What the US will not do is continue business as usual." The US seems to think it can call all the shots. That's no longer the case. It's in serious decline and can no longer bully others in the way it's been accustomed to. Trump's started a trade war that he's going to lose badly. Canada will learn the lesson that it cannot rely on its southern neighbour and will strengthen its trade links with others.
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  863. The flood of much larger numbers of people onto the streets to PEACEFULLY protest about the Fascist rioters proves that this culture war nonsense is the preserve of a tiny minority. ALL countries are experiencing changes in their way of life because travel is becoming cheaper and easier and most people are fine. The kind of mono-culture you might have found in a remote English village 50 years ago is no longer there. It's neither a good thing nor a bad thing. It just is. And the cause of the riots? Fascists and their supporters in the right wing press and media. Simple as that.
    1
  864. Yes. If we're not careful, we end up descending into tribalism (there's another one!) . We definitely see that in Scotland where SNP and Labour politicians, both broadly in agreement about most practical things, fight over political turf. The "ism" isn't important. The point is to get things done and to do it in a way, which is fair and sustainable.
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  865. And deservedly so. For Trump to be scammed by a cheap and nasty fraud is poetic justice. But others should be protected from her incompetence and dishonesty.
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  866. The propping up of the Jordanian and Egyptian dictatorships by the US is, of course, part of the US's subsidy to Israel. Jordan in particular is very vulnerable. It's almost as diverse as Syria with correspondingly varied loyalties towards its Hashemite monarchy. About half the population is either Palestinian or of Palestinian descent and there are also Kurds, Turks, Circcasions and refugees from both Syria and Iraq with little reason to stick their necks out for Abdullah. If he were to fall, Israel could well find itself with a 5th front for an army which is increasingly spread thinly and which is getting less and less reliable.
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  867.  @simonjohn9525  All valid points. STV would be my preferred option but anything but FPTP or ATV
    1
  868.  @fanfeck2844  I agree. They are completely clueless. Most mainstream financial journalists still subscribe to the neoliberal nonsense which, incredibly, is still taught in universities.
    1
  869.  @marksesum  A bit of a waste of sock-puppet user. Surely you could have said something more profound or convincing than that
    1
  870. Americans confuse being conservative with being reactionary. The difference is simple: Conservatives will die in a ditch to defend the advances previous generations made but will also fight to prevent or at least delay further progress. In other words, they believe in progress but they want it to be slow. Reactionaries want to REVERSE the progress made by previous generations. They want the world to go backwards. Period. That's what Trump's MAGA movement really want: Make America Racist Again.
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  871. There actually two measures of extremism/moderation. The one which seems to be adopted (without question) by most mainstream journalists makes anyone an extremist who broadly agrees with what the UK Labour Party once stood for (public control of strategic industry and utilities, a strong NHS uncompromised by private companies, democratically accountable schooling, public provision of housing and a strong welfare state). Problem is that most people are supportive of most of those things. So perhaps we should consider to be extremists of the Right all those who oppose them? That would be all Tories, most Social Democrats and (amazingly) the leadership of today's Labour Party.
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  872. Two types of Jews who take part in the marches? Right sort of Jew or wrong sort of Jew? Isn't that Antisemitic?
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  873. Yes. It's frightening. This government has a cultish devotion to the principles of neoliberalism. The NHS doesn't comply with them. It is probably one of the most efficient institutions of its size in the world but because it isn't based on the invisible hand of self-interest it must, to them, be deficient.
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  874. There's no contradiction and, in fact, there's a long tradition of it. Jabotinsky, Weissman etc actively promoted a symbiosis: Nazis wanted to rid of Europe of Jews, Proto-Israel was desperate to take them in order to boost its Jewish population. I think that in recent years, slime like Steve Bannon, Douglas Murray, Stephen Yaxley Lennon(AKA Tommy Robinson) etc have developed an undisguised admiration for Israel's success in striving for a mono-cultural society. When you come down to it, they're natural allies.
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  875. You can bet that for Reeves and Starmer, like Blair and Mandelson before them, getting political power is just a rung on the ladder to the real payload: The lucrative speech circuits; the directorships; the consultancies. Getting into number 10 and 11 Downing street just gives them good salaries for a while. While most of us could not even begin to dream of getting such a pay-packet ( with the handsome, inflation-proofed pension that follows it), for them it is chicken feed. Blair, Mandelson, Brown and co have trousered literally millions since they got ousted. That's what Starmer, Reeves, Streeting, Lammy et al are really looking forward to.
    1
  876. Enjoy your weekly rants. Please don't stop.
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  877.  @davidcollin3808  Yeah! Cos' we have "choice", don't we? Or are you just a stupid, ingnorant, uncaring, middle class prick!
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  878.  @paulashley1232  Australian animal welfare and environmental standards are woeful next to European standards. That's how they're able to produce so much more cheaply.
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  879. This is an echo of what Hitler said about the Jews in the 1930s as the US, Canada, Australia and European countries refused to take Jewish refugees. "Look! no-one else wants them either! "Zionism is a racist, genocidal cult which relies on the same sort of lies that finally led to the Holocaust. Wake up, people. You are sleep-walking into Fascism!
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  880. Quite right. The US is now in alliance with Europe's main enemy. So it has become an enemy. But it is an enemy which has a collection of air bases on our soil through which it can easily invade, privileged access to our intelligence systems and control over many of our armament systems. So that's what "special relationship" means!
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  881.  @beachcomber1able  Yeah. That's the most likely. They're still a bit neoliberal but not as bad as the rest. Greens are better but only in council elections which have STV and as second vote at Holyrood which is D'hondt. You need a slide rule to work out how to vote here!
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  882. I agree almost everything you are saying but I'm afraid I can't make the link with book-keeping. Surely, the book-keeper tends to be blinded to the non-financial consequences of expenditure by the need to make the corresponding counter entry in financial terms and this is the difference between book-keeping.accountancy and economics. The accountant knows how to track already existing wealth (actually meaning money) while the economist is concerned with the creation of it and it may not necessarily be money at all.
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  883. The Zionists love people like you. That's assuming that you're not actually a Zionist troll.
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  884.  @ManwithNoName-t1o Islamic fundamentalism is not very nice. But compared to Zionism, a genocidal colonial ideology, it's positively benign.
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  885. Wait a minute! Zionism is fuelled by Antisemitism. They have no problem whatsoever with it. That's why they're so happy with the likes of Bannon, Viktor Orban, Donald Trump, Giorgia Meloni, Marine Le Pen etc . They're all both Antisemites and allies of Israel. There's no contradiction. No surprise that she should support him.
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  886. 76% of the UK population support a ceasefire. Are you sure you understand the concept of "vast majority". But then you think this twit is intellectual so probably not..
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  887.  @InfiniteDesign91  Um, no. The "vast majority" doesn't. The Right wins because of the distortions of First Past The Post and because of mass abstention and systematic gerrymandering, discouragement and disenfranchisement. Boris Johnson's "landslide" in 2019 came from less than 30% of the registered electorate and 26% of those eligible . It has certainly never been elected by a "vast majority"! That is why the Tories are terrified of proportional representation and automatic registration. Democracy would wipe them out.
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  888.  @eddiebear34  The "leftist" channel 4 interview? Cathy Newman is a "leftist"? Wow! you must be to the right of Attila the Hun if you think that. Do you understand the difference between a peer to peer debate and an interview with a wet liberal journalist? Stupid question. Of course these two charlatans will prosper when their adoring fans are so utterly clueless!
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  889.  @eddiebear34  Of course it won't make any difference to you. You don't even know what a peer to peer debate is! Here's an example for you https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsHJ3LvUWTs . Zizek absolutely destroys a lack lustre prima donna who thinks he can use the kind of garbage he routinely uses on his usual badly educated audiences. Since then, Peterson has stuck to know-nothing journalists who will be too ill informed to challenge his dishonest claims. In the mean time, Richard Wolff has told him to name the time and place. Peterson's too feart to debate a real intellectual. By all means keep sending me nonsense about TV chats shows. It just emphasises the fact that you have nothing of any substance.
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  890.  @broomfs  I see. So you have a citation to show what this "attack" involved and when and where it was? In my experience, Zionists routinely use highly creative interpretations of the word "attack". Hint: a verbal challenge is not an attack. From the River To The Sea is NOT a Hamas chant and is NOT antisemitic. It originated with the PLO in the 1960s and was (and is ) a call for a democratic ONE state solution in which Jews, Christians and Muslims all have equal status. Again, using that same highly creative use of language, this is Antisemitic to Zionists.
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  891. If true, the ensuing replacement process will be a mirror image of the Tories' farcical leadership contest. Like Johnson, Starmer has got rid of talent and ability in favour of loyalty to him and the party line. It will be a lineup of mediocrities and yes-men. The competition will be an anti-circus with the public, especially the young, being even more turned off by the whole idea of politics. The real loser is the democratic process. The winner is likely to be the far-right, with GBNews and Talk TV ready to talk up the likes of Farage as the easy answer to all our woes.
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  892.  Seventies Born  Ngo is a serial liar. He came to the UK and claimed he found Muslim no-go areas in London and Birmingham. There are none.
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  893.  @mrpumperknuckles1631  You've yet to produce anything to excuse, blowhard. You claimed that last time you checked they" killed people." But you didn't actually "check" anything, did you? Too stupid to understand what checking actually means. By contrast, Trump supporting Nazis murdered 26 people last year. That's an objectively verifiable fact - or "fake news" if you're a brain dead Trump supporter - which is , of course, the only kind there is.
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  894. Boom and bust is a feature of "free" market capitalism generally but this is accentuated in the finance capitalism we currently have because many of the financial "products" which drive up the stock market are Ponzi style scams which will inevitably fold as soon as it becomes clear that they have no substance: They rise in price because people are buying them and people are buying them because they are rising in price. Sooner or later, someone looks down and sees that there is nothing underneath them and then gravity takes over.
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  895. American voters have a difficult choice. On the one hand, you have a president who is facilitating and aiding a genocide in Palestine. But the alternative is a would-be dictator who may well attempt to end your democracy or corrupt it beyond recognition. It's a hard choice but you have to vote for Biden or you may well never get to vote again!
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  896. Issuing currency is one of the most important preserves of the state. Provided the state is democratically accountable and those charged with managing currency are competent, this is a recipe for stability and popular accountability. Libertarians hate this because they hate democracy. They consider it to be a tyranny imposed on the individual. That is why they like Bitcoin: It undermines government and gives control to those who hold most of the currency. If that's not a good reason to oppose it, I don't know what is.
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  897.  @symptomoftheuniverse4149  Agreed. Mind you, have you tried to read it? It's the most turgid and incoherent crap anyone has ever published (outside of religious works, that is). I don't think anyone could read and comprehend it.
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  898.  @kimberlylittle4868  Trying to make peace by aping dictators? Interesting technique!
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  899. You're calling uninformed and incoherent rants "studies"?
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  900.  @mckenziea5080  It was a rhetorical question. You were referring to "studies". Peterson's lectures about what he calls the left are incoherent and uninformed rants.
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  901.  @mckenziea5080  Just keep believing, pal. The facts are readily available but I'm sure belief is far more comforting.
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  902.  @IDF662  What a disgusting comment. Your lack of humanity is your greatest weakness. This is why your defeat is inevitable.
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  903. Starmer's not just wrong in the sense of being mistaken. He is lying. He genuinely believes in privatisation. He is a Neoliberal who believes in greed and self-interest as a force for good. The claims about costs are an excuse to leave these utilities in private hands - or potential donors, as I'm sure he sees them.
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  904. This is heart-rending. No one should be in any doubt about how evil these reactionaries are.
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  905. Totally agree with Kyle about the morality of the atomic bomb. And indeed, the firebombing of Dresden and Tokyo was equally indefensible. But beyond that, making the comparison between the Palestinians and two powers which literally wanted to conquer and enslave the World is utterly sick. It just doesn't run.
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  906. He is going to end up being a poor man without the means to make a living - the exact same person he has been spent his whole life robbing, bullying and oppressing. Could justice possibly be more delicious?
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  907. Her books are given away FFS. Hardly anyone buys them. And that's not surprising. Her writing style is turgid and boring and her "philosophy" is incoherent and illogical. Without market bucking promotion by free market Fascists she would have disappeared into obscurity long ago: an irony which escapes people like Brook.
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  908.  @Stonecoldfrank  Do you mean "Atlas Shrugged"? Yes. Many years ago out of curiosity. Unfortunately, I will never get that wasted time back. The idea that there are people so twisted that they can relate to such garbage saddens me greatly but there is a logic to it. Greedy, selfish, and arrogant people like, for example, Allan Greenspan or Charles Koch quite naturally feel alienated from a society which quite rightly despises them and holds them in contempt. She takes their lack of human warmth and makes it heroic; sexy even. In the narrative she creates, their very inadequcies become the characteristics which put them above other human beings. It's entirely understandable that they relate to it.
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  909.  @619M3  What a stupid question! He's never done a day's work in his life. He's a con-man who preys on the gullible and stupid. To be fair, he is very skilled at finding them.
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  910.  @619M3  That's easy. I've got a lifetime of hard work behind me, I've brought up 3 honest and hard-working children who've given me 3 wonderful grandchildren. I have a beautiful and loving wife to whom I would NEVER be unfaithful. I have a home and enough income for food clothing, shelter and a few modest luxuries. More importantly, while I may not have much money, not ONE penny of it was obtained by cheating and robbing people or walking away from debts. So I'm proud to say that my net worth is more than Donald Trump's could ever be.
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  911.  @youhannabarrechit5649  Aye. Stay away from sharp objects and don't forget your medication.
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  912. I haven't seen a single mainstream news programme even mention the "collateral" casualties of this terrorist attack. Imagine if Hezbollah targeted IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv with a massive bomb or missile in order to take out a specific war criminal. Does anyone think that Western news media would ignore the fact that hundreds of civilians would be vaporised along with them? If Hezbollah said that placing the HQ in a residential and commercial district was using civilians as human shields, would BBC or Sky let that go unchallenged as they allow Israeli human shield claims to be? I think not!
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  913. Always that word "cabal". You know who you mean. We know who you mean. Do you really think that you are successfully concealing your real views by avoiding the "J" word, Jordan and RFK?
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  914. Your strap line is understatement in the class of "testing this chainsaw on both my legs would be a mistake". How could anyone think this imbecile could be in charge of anything?
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  915. This is antisemitism. Pure and simple. Reported.
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  916. The war crimes are being committed by people holding a certain political view. Not by members of that religion in general. To blame all Jews for what is happening here is pure Antisemitism and this should be removed.
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  917. It's gratifying to see the entitled sudden suddenly realising that they're not. It's sad that they have to get away with so much damage before they are eventually stopped, though.
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  918. The incredible selfless heroism of Palestinian medical staff is one the most incredible phenomena characterising this genocide. Not a word about it on the BBC, CNN, Sky News, MSNBC. But when a trio of Israeli soldiers were killed some weeks ago, in the process of this ethnic cleansing, we were treated to a full five minute piece on Sky News in which childhoods and career ambitions were detailed and weeping parents, siblings etc were interviewed. Now we're seeing the word "evacuation" used in place of the word "eviction" in what is (again) a war crime being reported as if it's a rescue operation!
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  919. Of course Kemi Badenoch is the members' favourite: Just like Johnson and Truss were. I'd almost risk saying that she's my favourite too. On the one hand she will make any sane person give his or her vote to anyone who could credibly keep her out of power. Unfortunately, Keir Starmer is working really hard NOT to be a credible alternative. So, with a massively reduced turnout, this clueless imbecile could be a Prime Minister who tries to put the Tufton Street agenda into practice for a second time.
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  920. Nations do exist by right. They exist with the consent of their people (all of them) and the agreement of their neighbours. The only way Israelis will ever get security is by negotiating a JUST settlement with the Palestinians and making peace with their neighbours. Israel is currently on an accelerating path to its own destruction.
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  921. Calling Joy Reid a "hard-core leftie" is like calling Sky News a serious news outlet. Neither proposition is remotely true.
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  922. From a practical point of view, RM is quite right. Let's make sure we're getting everything we can from the sources we've got first. That means taxing dividends, capital gains and property rents properly but also looking for international cooperation to close down tax havens and money laundering.
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  923. I can't help noticing that the three cartoon villain figures depicted in the backdrop have facial features which almost but not quite suggest a certain ethnic/confessional group. How to say it without saying it? Eh? The man is a complete imbecile. At one time, I would not have taken him in the least bit seriously. But that's what I once thought about Trump.....
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  924. What you've described is a "result" for the US and Israel, Damien. Weak neighbours are good neighbours as far as Netanyahu is concerned. But that hasn't always worked out for them. For example, they encouraged Hezbollah in Lebanon as a foil to the PLO who were then based there. Yes. That Hezbollah. the one that has been ripping them a new rear orifice for the last few months. I suspect that their new ISIS/Al Qaeda friends may well take exception to their forays into Southern Syria. They've displaced Assad and now they're going to want to take over his weaponry. They're not going to take kindly to Israel trying to blow it to Kingdom Come....
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  925. This is a Tory law FF....! It was originally formulated by the Sunak government and is already in force in many other countries, none of them Communist. Starmer's a fan of Margaret Thatcher and a self-declared Zionist. You're just making fools of yourselves calling him left wing.
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  926. The gag order has no effect whatsoever on anything he might have to say in a testimony. That's unless he was planning to make a political speech, of course.
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  927. "depoliticising it and involving professionals". That's a delusion. Most modern "economists" are more committed to Neoliberalism than they are to economics. They embrace the TINA doctrine of Thatcher and the utterly discredited academics that advised her and all Chancellors have gone along with it - including Labour ones.
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  928. @ Yeah! He's got a great record on promises. Remember "We're going to build a wall and Mexico's going to pay"? How'd that one go? He doesn't give a flying F@@@ what he promises. He's promised a lot of nonsense he doesn't understand. For example, Canada and Mexico don't pay tariffs, ordinary Americans do. The tariff goes on the price YOU pay for the goods. The supplying country doesn't pay anything. So he's keeping a promise to make ordinary Americans poorer - and you're impressed!🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
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  929. The various Jewish communities (there is no single Jewish Community) are generally characterised by an appreciation for education and knowledge. It's therefore not surprising that they should do well, not only in capitalist discourse but also in the legal world, medicine, the arts and sciences and generally everywhere where people prosper But what the Antisemites tend to miss is the fact that they are also disproportionately represented amongst anti-establishment groups for the very same reason - as journalists, politicians, activists etc. In every sphere of human progress, they're there. To put it another way, I don't think its hyperbolic to say that the world is lucky to have them.
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  930.  @joaniesimpson2016  At that point, I'm pretty sure the government of Scotland will be quite happy to allow it.
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  931.  @joaniesimpson2016  Indeed!
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  932. He's a professor of accounting with an excellent track record of advising government. He's advocating the very opposite of "arithmetic tricks" - or Neoliberalism, as we have come to know it.
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  933.  @aporiac1960  Way to misquote! I said " an excellent track record of advising government. " In other words giving advice on successful policies. I appreciate that this must be strange concept for Neoliberals - who have never given successful policy advice.
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  934. ​ @aporiac1960  If only it could be warded off just by voicing its name! Unfortunately, it has been the guiding ideology of all governments of the UK for the last 4 decades and is the cause of the woeful economic and political trajectory of the UK over that period. I often point that out. I'd be fascinated to find out how you know that. The term was actually coined by the far-right Mont Pelerin Society back in the 1950s but its adherents have tended to disown it as it has become increasingly associated with economic decline and oppressive regimes like Khameini's Iran or Pinochet's Chile. As for what you believe, that's entirely up to you. Believe what you want.
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  935.  @Arbitrary-z6j  Just like the amount of time you've been on YouTube makes a great deal of sense. That's VERY unprofessional sockpuppet trolling! Most of the Tufton Street mob are much better at hiding it.
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  936. It is the inevitable consequence of the three mainstream parties becoming progressively more corrupt and useless. Remember Blair's contemptuous "Uh! Where are they going to go?" when he was asked if he was worried about working-class people being disenchanted with Labour? Shortly after that, we saw Nick Griffin getting elected to the European Parliament. And now, as Rachel Reeves sounds more and more like Liz Truss every time she speaks, the new far-right (and that's exactly what they are) are actually overtaking Labour in Westminster polls. The Labour Right will be 100% to blame if we end up with a far-right Tory/Reform coalition. But then, I suspect that they would actually prefer that to a genuinely Social Democratic Labour government led by someone like Jeremy Corbyn.
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  937. It started with all the Koch-funded institutions identifying the religious right as a potential ally. They got them all fired up and got them to start voting Republican. It turned out a bit like the way the German liberals promoted Hitler to out-manoeuvre the left. The tool became the maker. Republicans are now faced with the choice of going further down the rabbit hole (towards Christian Fascism) or blowing the gaffe on the whole scam. Thankfully, an increasing number are leaning toward the latter. Hopefully, the remainder will get crushed.
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  938. Nato is already at war with Russia. They're just using Ukrainians to do the fighting. They have been since the 2014 coup and arguably for about 70 years before that when the Ukrainian Nationalists who had been collaborating with the Nazis were redeployed to carry out terrorist activity in Ukraine during the Cold War.
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  939. I've always been suspicious of the reported rise in Antisemitic incidents. Hatred, suspicion and contempt for Jews was certainly a feature of everyday life when I was a teenager in the 1960s. I'm completely unaware of it now - even though I'm acquainted with quite a few Jewish people. It certainly exists and we see it in the chants and propaganda of the Far Right. But it is much less prevalent than it once was. This is the real reason for the creation of the so-called IHRA "definition". Antisemitism is the lifeblood of Zionism. In fact, Zionist leaders of the 1930s not only accepted it as unavoidable, they openly justified it, calling Jews in Europe "uninvited guests who had outstayed their welcome". So, it should be no surprise that, in order to mask they real decline in Antisemitism, they should now falsify Antisemitic attacks and re-define it to include things that are not Antisemitic at all. Because a decline in Antisemitism would be a REAL existential danger to Israel.
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  940. "We're obsessed with inflation because it destroys incomes and savings. " Indeed. It discourages using money as a store of value and thereby NOT using it to facilitate the purchase and therefore production of goods. A little inflation is therefore a good thing.
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  941.  @foxmoongaze  Nonsense. They generally exceed the rate of inflation. They are a consequence of vendors attempting to gouge more money out of the consumer.
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  942.  @foxmoongaze  "Your comment just proves how little you understand about inflation". And the tone of your comment just shows that you are a patronising troll. IEA, perhaps? The richest 1% didn't get rich by hard work and ingenuity. Those who didn't inherit it got rich by robbing the rest of us - either by underpaying wages or overcharging prices.
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  943. Unfortunately, it always has been in reality.
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  944.  @That_1940s_Delinquent Liberalism is the political ideology which goes with capitalism. So "left liberal" is a contradiction in terms. Putting "far" in front of it is just surreal.
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  945.  @That_1940s_Delinquent  what utter drivel. Libertarians are just authoritarians who want all the oppression done to other people. Both are on the far right.
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  946. To some extent, yes. Remember that the original Scottish nationalists came mostly from the Tory Party - which had far more Nazi sympathisers. In fact, it still does.
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  947. I have to admire him for keeping a straight face as he lies through his teeth. Israel has admitted that the Hannibal Directive was used to murder potential "hostages" - accounts for most of the deaths, The special prosecutor appointed by Israel has found NO evidence of any rapes at all and the Rabbi who claimed that there were murdered babies has admitted that he lied. What are you left with? A successful military option to take what were mostly military captives to trade for prisoners illegally held by the Israels. It was a perfectly legal operation under the right to resist which all occupied peoples have.
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  948. "One of the dumbest human beings ever". The projection of all projections!
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  949. There's something surreal about the son of a rabbi being arrested for being an Antisemite. More importantly, the Jewish Chronicle scored a bit of an own-goal here. "Zionism During the Holocaust" came to my attention as a direct result of this story and I've consequently ordered it. I wonder how many extra copies have been sold because the JC got Tony arrested...
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  950. Definition of massacre: "A pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews." Note the words "aim" and "or". It's still a pogrom, even it hasn't yet achieved its aim. The fact that no one has yet been seriously injured or killed by this vermin is down to the actions of the police - who have very nearly been overwhelmed on a number of occasions. Andrew Pierce's paper supported Hitler and Mosley in the the 1930s when it was Jews who were the targets of the Blackshirts. Now it's doing the same thing again as Muslims are threatened. He is a disgusting human being with no shame.
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  951. Israel has, yet again, created its own Nemesis. They encouraged this movement in order to weaken Assad, but not destroy him. Now it has created a third front when it was already struggling on two.
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  952. Indeed. But the most important reason for it being a company is to make sure that Farage stays in control. They'll have show conferences with brainless reactionaries applauding like trained sea lions for the TV cameras but this is institutional Fascism and probably a pilot for the real thing.
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  953. It's terrifying to realise that a nation which has nuclear weapons and worse is so dominated by ignorance and superstition.
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  954. Yes. It's like the boy who pointed out that the emperor was naked gets arrested for exposing himself.
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  955.  @cyberfunk3793  The biggest factor in their victory was bribing Iraqi generals to either stand down their troops or deliberately put them in harm's way. Of course they intended to take it over long term. The intention was to install a puppet government which would be loyal to Washington. They were unable to impose the government they wanted and were eventually forced out with their tails between their legs, unable to deal with the insurgency that opposed them. And they did so leaving Iraq as an Iranian ally. The exact opposite of what was intended. Totally ineffective. Iran is several times the size of Iraq, much more advanced and nowhere near as corrupt. What's more, since the invasion of Iraq, they have been deploying infrastructure way underground. So they won't be so easily degraded from the air. The US massively underestimated the "cakewalk" in Iraq. Iran is a completely different kettle of fish.
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  956.  @tonyrobin3124  Ah! so you've seen the entry requirements on US forces applications forms.
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  957. Well, after inventing the word "caravan", we can now give him credit for inventing "garbage can". Phew! This is tiring!
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  958. Funniest bit is where the narrator relates that this is the "brightest and the best" of British Conservatism and then Jacob Rees Mogg appears on the screen! A spray of coffee narrowly missed my computer and it took me ages to clean the wall behind it. The two things that people need to take away from the Nat-C (See what I did there?) conference is that this is neither a conservative nor a national organisation. These are reactionaries who want to destroy rather than conserve British institutions and they are funded by foreign cash. There is, in fact, not a single conservative nor a lonely and forlorn patriot in sight. As for the "brightest and the best", the sad state of the British Conservative and Unionist Party does actually make this statement much less absurd than it should be.
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  959. This is good reporting. There were always two poles in the discussions about 9/11. First of all, there was the official position of an attack by Al Qaeda or a similar group which came completely out of the blue. This was always full of holes with many aspects and details which did not add up. The freeing of these Israeli spies and the collecting and sending home of Saudi nationals just after the events is certainly suspicious. And at the opposite end of the scale, there was the "inside job" narrative with wild theories like pre-placed explosives and cruise missiles put into the mix. The truth lies somewhere in between: The most likely scenario in my view is that there were those high up in the administration who knew it was going to happen and possibly even smoothed a path to it by making sure that the terrorists didn't get interrupted in their preparations. There was certainly a mini-conspiracy afterwards to avoid suspicion being directed towards the Bush Family's Saudi pals. I doubt that we'll ever know the full truth but one thing is sure: Time wasted on outlandish conspiracy theories means attention is focused away from more banal but equally evil explanations: A conspiracy theory about conspiracy theories, perhaps?
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  960. This is so humbling. The real message we should take from The Holocaust is that decency, like that shown by this wonderful gentleman, rose above it and survived to confront evil. Zionism is a force which seeks to continue that evil.
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  961. This sort of agreement is the sort of thing Orwell talked about in 1984. It's asserting an inalienable right to say that black is white, that peace is war, that love is hate. The UK has become the kind of state that Orwell was talking about.
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  962. Absolute crap. I doubt if any of these people are fighters. Israel routinely rounds up people of military age and calls them Hamas. Colonial oppressors have attempted to use decapitation since the Netherlands fought for its independence from Spain. The British, the French, the Dutch, the Portuguese, the US all did it. It never worked and it never will. In fact, both Sinwa and Nasrallah replaced assassinated predecessors. No doubt, their successors will meet the same fate. But it won't make a blind bit of difference. Palestine has entered the last stage of this colonial war - the insane stage. The people in charge in Israel now are either completely mad or completely corrupt. It's economy is shot to pieces and everyone with any sense is getting out because they can see that the country will never be at peace. Soon all that will be left will be corrupt politicians and lazy settlers. Some "promised land".
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  963. The landslide in seats at the last election obscured the fact that Labour actually had less votes than they did when the Tories scored a landslide against them. That should have given Starmer pause for thought. It didn't. He's pressing on with policies for which he has little or no mandate. If we end up with Farage, Badenoch or a combination of both in 5 years time, it will be entirely due to him and his "we've changed, you can trust us now" posse of yes men and women.
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  964. When Vic Reeves said "88.2% of statistics are made up on the spot", he must have known more than he was letting on.
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  965. Why does this investigation not investigate this militia's affiliations? The Azov Brigade is a relatively small part of the Azov organisation which promotes white supremacy and right-wing authoritarianism. It holds Summer camps to indoctrinate children and even has international reach ( Google: austrian-academic-institute-revokes-fellowship-given-to-far-right-figurehead ). Since the coup in 2014, its members have been involved in intimidating the political left and Russian-speaking activists, using beatings, arson and even torture and murder. I recall an earlier whitewashing by the BBC's Ros Atkins where he declared that "only" between 10 and 20% of them were card-carrying Nazis. Only!
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  966. Yes. That's the anti-democracy case. Good luck with that one, Nazi.
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  967. There's nothing "authoritarian" about democracy. "Freedom" is the buzzword libertarians like to use to attempt to legitimise the dominance of the rich.
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  968. Yes. They found weapons. Just like they found a computer in a hospital - but they forgot to hide the Hebrew keyboard and an IDF issue sticker on the charger! Oh yes, also weapons in an MRI scanner (have you people any idea how dangerous that would be?) and a panicking nurse who no one knew.
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  969.  @keepussafeUSA  Pure propaganda. Their ancestors were Eastern Europeans. They had no connection to Palestine. The crap about Palestinians coming from elsewhere has been peddled since 1948. Like all Zionist claims, past and present, it is made up. But it doesn't matter. Israel has arrived at the point that all colonies arrive at just before they disappear into history's dustbin. The British in India, the French in Algeria, the Dutch in Indonesia, and of course, Israel's South African friends all adopted the three part strategy of assassinating leaders, attempting to terrorise populations into abandoning resistance movements and bullying their neighbours. It's a strategy that always was and always will be followed by defeat.
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  970. Garbage. Rowling made a fool of herself. She tried to be a martyr and just revealed the fact that the hate speech law doesn't prevent her from saying whatever she wants as long as she doesn't call for violence against people. Indeed, your rant shows that you won't be arrested or investigated for saying what you want. Always amusing when reactionaries use their right to free speech to claim that they don't have any.
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  971.  @stevenpirie7048  Hilarious! Thank you🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
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  972. Fear perhaps. But I also think that they are star-struck. Because they have swallowed the Neoliberal myth cultl, they believe that the wealthy created their wealth rather than extract it. Incredible though it might be to any rational person, they believe that the more these parasites extract from the economy, the better off we'll all be.
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  973.  @andyinsuffolk  Have you asked the ones who are hungry and homeless?
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  974. Looking from the other side of the Atlantic, we just scratch our heads at the way you guys run elections. The fact that corrupt state and local governments can and routinely do deliberately skew constituency boundaries, arbitrarily purge electoral lists, reject ballots etc, etc,etc puts you in the same category as Belarus or Iran as far as electoral fidelity is concerned. And that's before you consider the anti-democratic distortions inherent in the constitution itself. I'm afraid the claim that you lead the free world is risible.
    1
  975. "I don't think he had a heart to begin with". So true. See the Australian 60 Minutes piece on his disabled great nephew. 100% heartless.
    1
  976. It's just harking back to the gibberish talked by F A Harper - an "economist" much loved by Charles Koch. His line was that things like social security, municipal housing, socialised healthcare, state provided education etc all distorted wages which, if determined by market forces, would settle at the level which would be best for both business and all the individuals concerned, with each then able to make their own choices about how they spent those wages. Utter bollocks, of course. The magic detail about this branch of "economics" is that it never needs to provide empirical evidence to back it up. Because the policy proposals it results in benefit the ultra rich, there is never any shortage of donations to fund the "educational" institutions which teach it. Were it not for that magic detail, Harper, along with Hayek, Friedman, Von Mises, Laffer etc would never have even made a living, let alone influenced government policy for five decades and creepy little know-nothing rich kids like Shapiro would have to work in a proper job like the rest of us.
    1
  977. Well. All the people who ARE presently in Trump's good books should take a good long look at MTG's humiliation. That's what's coming down the line to you sooner or later, guys. He's got less sense of loyalty than a hungry tarantula. As for Marge? It couldn't have happened to a nicer person - only to venal trash like her.
    1
  978. ​ @LindaYariger  Unfortunately, they seem to be completely oblivious to it.
    1
  979. Labour "won" the last election with a reduced vote because it didn't fall as much in popularity as the Tories. Are we going to see the Tories get back into power in the same way? In other words, Badenoch (or whoever replaces her) takes the Tories to record levels of unpopularity over the next 5 years but Starmer bombs the Labour Party's popularity even more. Could this be good for democracy by allowing the Greens, or other progressive party to come through on the left with a mandate for PR?
    1
  980. Scary to watch the way he's hyperventilating as he hears stuff that conflicts with his world view. And is he spitting into that bottle? Eeeuw!!! Frightening to think that this muppet almost certainly owns at least one gun. It's quite amusing in asick kind of way, Ben. But why are you giving this sad inadequate so much attention?
    1
  981. There was never any intention to win the war. The US/UK/EU policy was always to keep the war going to undermine Putin while passing plenty of baksheesh to friendly crooks on the Ukraine side in order to keep them onside.
    1
  982.  @KernowDamo  Don't worry. I'm sure I would balls up Cornish pronunciation. Siwmau!
    1
  983. Innocent people DEMAND their day in court. It's the guilty who don't want to be tried.
    1
  984. Very much the same as Trump: Too thick to be able to comprehend how thick.
    1
  985.  @glynnwright1699  The "lavish" (🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣) spending is the result of the poverty, not the other way around. It was the policies of the Unionist parties which brought that about.
    1
  986.  @bernieburrows3731  It's true to say that the SNP have accepted too many of the Unionist parties' Neoliberal policies. But they're nowhere near as far to the right as Starmer's Labour. "Tartan Tory" may have had some resonance once but the SNP has been to the left of Labour for at least 50 years.
    1
  987. @glynnwright1699  sigh! The economy is reserved to Westminster. You can't blame the Scottish Government or the council for that!
    1
  988.  @glynnwright1699  Of course it would be higher than Guildford! I'm not talking about central government spending. I'm talking about economic policy. That's what's ruined Dundee - along with similar cities all around the UK. The problem is being part of an incompetently run country.
    1
  989. @glynnwright1699  That's not control of economic policy.
    1
  990. "Patriots"? My Dad lost an eye in the Dunkirk rearguard fighting "patriots" like this! Shame on these bigots!
    1
  991.  @Number9s  It's less than Corbyn got,FFS! And 34% is NOT a mandate!
    1
  992. Toryism, a welfare state for the rich.
    1
  993.  @djsandford  I'm a pensioner. I pay tax to live in a civilised society. I have no problem paying for the next generation to be educated because anyone but a complete idiot (there are plenty of those here) can see that the alternative is a damned sight more expensive. What I do object to is subsidising those who want to elevate their mediocre offspring above the rest of us. That's how we got Rishi Sunak and Tony Blair!
    1
  994. ​ @davidgardiner4720  Indeed. The phrase was one of Thatcher's favourites and had originally come from a Mont Pelerin session where a whole litany of similar cliches were developed. "Let the Tall Trees grow" was another one along with "Keep politics out of [insert industry threatened with regulation or nationalisation]". Very little of the phraseology of the right is as organic as they'd like you to think.
    1
  995.  @salaciousone  Douglas Adams is a posh boy who had to be a journalist because he's too thick to be a banker. I have no idea what you mean by "number twos" but if I've offended Murray's Nazi fan club, I'm indeed proud. I'm a working class boy who has worked for everything he has. Next Sunday I'll be proud to be remembering my Dad who lost an eye fighting against people like Murray who wanted to keep Europe ethnically pure. Now fuck off back to your sieg heiling, Nazi.
    1
  996.  @salaciousone  You're the one talking to yourself, Nazi. The vast majority of the British people are disgusted with you.
    1
  997. @@rachelforshee6014 That's amazing invention, Nazi. I have no idea what a "social media feed" is. Your need to demonise those who expose your wickedness is so transparent that I'd laugh if it wasn't so offensive.
    1
  998. @@rachelforshee6014 If someone takes someone else's land by force then proceeds to systematically murder them while justifying their crimes by referring to a mythical heritage, then they are doing EXACTLY what the Nazis did. The Nazis made claim to Eastern Europe on the grounds that it once been Germanic and had been over-run by outsiders. They said it was their historical home and birthright. Yes. Those who know no history ARE condemned to repeat it.
    1
  999. It's a bit of a gamble. If it doesn't work, it will find itself facing world leaders it has criminalised. Where would it go from there?
    1
  1000. Sounds to me like a definition of "liberty" the Nazis would be quite happy with: "Freedom from having to see or hear anything which makes you feel uncomfortable by challenging your blind prejudices and preconceptions". Burn them commie books, dammit!
    1
  1001. The Labour Party has become little more than an Israel advocacy organisation - when it's not shilling for the private health industry or putting bankers' "fingerprints" all over its economic policy. How can anyone on the left vote for these people?
    1
  1002. As I watched this, it was announced that a hospital in Gaza has just been bombed killing hundreds. All those like Starmer who have cheered this carnage on share responsibility for this. They shame the whole Labour movement both inside and outside the party. They need to be disavowed and removed.
    1
  1003.  @nefissaaref8987  Blatant antisemitism
    1
  1004. Hartley Brewer, the woman who thought that the pimp, Andrew Tate was something to admire because he had a fleet of fancy cars. Owen Jones is a pretty limp liberal but she's a vile Fascist!
    1
  1005. Because while Trump's supporters are obviously think as mince they are also extremely nasty. And many of them have guns.
    1
  1006. He's bought and paid for. Did anyone notice that Labour got less votes this time than in 2019, BTW? It won despite him, not because of him.
    1
  1007. He sounds a bit like the mad old uncle who got invented to the wedding by mistake.He is just ranting incoherently and everyone is pretending to listen politely but they're really just waiting for him to fall asleep so that they can quietly leave!
    1
  1008. Neither Canada nor Mexico offered any concessions whatsoever. The promises to strengthen the border had already been made BEFORE Trump levied his idiotic tariffs. He caved in because the two countries had declared that they would levy counter-tariffs on US goods and these would have hurt "Red" states the most. Trump was forced to back down by his own supporters and donors. He hadn't realised that other countries have agency too. He thought that he could punch down without being punched back. Big mistake. All he's achieved is demonstrating that he's an imbecile who doesn't understand foreign relations.
    1
  1009. Everyone who is being purged this way should fight back. What Starmer is trying to do is destroy the Labour Party as a progressive force and remove the left option from British politics altogether. There are two possible ways forward at this short notice. Either stand as an independent or support another left party such as the Greens. Whatever the outcome, progressive forces need to come together after 5 July and look at all the options for being ready to fight the next election as a unified force.
    1
  1010. It was always the case that the UK supported and supplied Al Qaeda. Racists and Islamophobes like to refer to "Londonistan" to allude to the allegedly growing Muslim population. In fact, that was the name Osama Bin Laden gratefully gave it when Margaret Thatcher provided his organisation with office space, computers, and everything else they needed to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Be sure that MI6 are deeply involved in supplying these terrorists with everything they can help them with - including, of course, positive and sympathetic coverage by the BBC.
    1
  1011. He'll have had new instructions from Biden. He's also probably finally realised that Netanyahu is a dead man walking so no further point in expending political capital on him. He's the same as Blair: For him, sincerity is no more than a technique for manipulating people. Hopefully, British Muslims and all those who have progressive instincts will see through him and not give any more support to Labour until he and all those who support him are gone.
    1
  1012. Of course, they're building a dossier on you, Damien. You should be proud of that. You're a breath of fresh air in a polluted world.
    1
  1013. The Sun's endorsement of Labour is a blow to the Tories? No. It's another nail in the coffin of Labour as a progressive party. If Rupert Murdoch wants Labour, the UK working class sure as Hell don't! This is Blair Mk II - but on steroids.
    1
  1014. Voting records for parties are not a good indicator - especially in a FPTP system where people often vote tactically or (sadly) consider their vote to be a waste of time in safe seats. It's far more instructive to look at attitudes to specific issues such as public ownership of strategic industries and utilities such as rail and water or to public services like the NHS. When you do that, you find that the proportion with "left" leaning views is far higher than 57%.
    1
  1015. Israel has nothing to be triumphant about. Killing leaders is neither here nor there with these sorts of movements. There are plenty of potential leaders waiting to step up to the plate. What is far more significant is the fact that Israel failed in its invasion of Lebanon and that they still haven't defeated Hamas in Gaza. And now they appear to be giving themselves a third front to fight on in Syria. Or are they panicking, perhaps? Maybe they're thinking that the momentum of the Jihadists may carry them on down towards the Golan Heights?
    1
  1016.  @williammcintyre-v6d  That still doesn't equate to the OBR and IFS figures, which you can easily google. It also doesn't take account of the fact that they are able to get part of their income as gains and hide money in trusts and overseas.
    1
  1017. Trump is so stupid that he is unable to answer a simple question. He's not even deflecting. He's just babbling on about completely different subjects. And then he has a Dad-dancing session to avoid answering audience questions. An increasingly "ad-hoc candidate"? What the Hell does that mean? How can this election possibly be close? He's not only a convicted crook and an adjudicated rapist, he's also an imbecile who cannot address the simplest of issues.
    1
  1018. Dan Bongino is the king of Hyperbollox. Judges adjudicate the law made by Congress. The judge isn't making anything up. It's the law!
    1
  1019.  @Tr1ckady  Evidence? That's easy. Everything he says and everything he does. He has progressively reneged on 7 of the 10 pledges he made to become leader. He has made it clear that his economic policy is going to be a watered down version of the Tories' policy, that he is going to continue the NHS "reforms" (privatisations) started by Blair and developed by the Tories. His tax policies will continue to favour the rich. His foreign policy will subordinate the UK to the aims of the US and Israel. He will deny Scotland its democratic right to decide its own future. And, to crown it all, this past weekend, at the conference of the Orwellianly named "Progressive Britain", he actually admitted to being a Tory! How much more evidence do you want?
    1
  1020. Yeah but these people are wealthy. Why would they care about that?
    1
  1021. ​ @12presspart  Um no. Socialism is when those who create the wealth (the workers) benefit directly from it. It's based on the Labour Theory of Value which was first explored by the Ancient Greeks but not properly refined and codified until the classical economists (Smith, Ricardo, Marx) came on the scene in the 18th and 19th century. Communism (according to Marx) is the theoretical projection of socialism which would be created by future generations as the need for government fades away. That's the theory, anyway.
    1
  1022. It's quite astounding that Labour apologists are still referring to Hamas as a genocidal cult while Zionists are not only literally carrying out a genocide but also being investigated by the ICJ for doing so. Nonetheless, Lammy and co will continue to deny that a genocide is taking place. Perhaps their strategy is to stall until its successful implementation has a become a "fact on the ground"?
    1
  1023. It's Fox. Morality and decency won't buy Rupert Murdoch a new yacht. The sad thing is that there's going to be a substantial minority of your fellow Americans cheering to the rafters for this Trump cuck.
    1
  1024. Eva Reichmann is the author Prof Finkelstein is thinking about. The book is out of print, unfortunately, but he's encapsulated the argument very elegantly: Fascism is what liberals (European, not American meaning) turn to when bourgeois democracy looks like it might become a real democracy.
    1
  1025. The way polls work is an iterative process of adjustments to correct the things they got wrong last time - with little attention given to WHY they got it wrong. So underlying changes (like the Dobbs case, Trump's indictments and convictions, revelations about the diaper etc) don't get factored in at all. Let's face it. They're always going to be wrong.
    1
  1026. It's unusual for someone with an accountancy background to understand the meaning of wealth in the economics sense rather than in financial terms. This is the difference between neoliberalism and real economics too.
    1
  1027.  @adenwellsmith6908  I didn't know I got a pension for being a socialist. Where do I apply?
    1
  1028.  @adenwellsmith6908  You're talking about the myth of the state pension debt? Why didn't you say so? The state pension was introduced by David Lloyd George following the model developed by the government of Otto Von Bismark in Prussia. Anyone describing either of these two jokers as socialists either knows nothing about them or nothing about socialism. The system was introduced to alleviate age-related poverty, which economists of the time (qualified people, unlike the idiots who have the gall to call themselves economists now) had begun to realise was a drag on the economy. It was to be partly funded by general taxation and partly by a "stamp" to be paid out of wages. It has worked perfectly well since but offends the sensibilities of the glorified book-keepers (aka as neoliberals) who claim to be economists these days. The last time I saw this so-called "debt" mentioned it was 1.2 trillion pounds but that's academic because it's pure baloney anyway. Richard Murphy isn't a "government account", by the way.
    1
  1029.  @adenwellsmith6908  There is no "debt". The state pension system is working as it was intended to.
    1
  1030.  @gerhard7323  That's right. They're democracies. No one is asking for a referendum so no one is forcing one upon them.
    1
  1031.  @adenwellsmith6908  you've described something completely irrelevant. What's more, the subject you've dragged into the discussion is not even pertinent to it. Just to remind you, the matter at hand is proportional representation. If you have any more to say about that, I'll engage firther.
    1
  1032.  @adenwellsmith6908  Apart form the fact that you're talking complete bollocks, the matter has nothing to do with the discussion at hand which is proportional representation.
    1
  1033. I never lose my wonder at the number of born again right wingers who were once on the outer fringes of the left. There must be a gene which draws people to extremes.
    1
  1034.  @keithparker1346  couldn't agree more!
    1
  1035.  @salopian4037  Tufton Street.
    1
  1036.  @salopian4037  I think the "we" would be Tufton Street. And it's certainly never been "chosen".
    1
  1037. We're not going to get this from Starmer. In fact, no Labour Leader would be able to deliver this even if they wanted to. The vast majority of decent Labour MPs have either left the party or been expelled on spurious "antisemitism" charges. it's left a cabal of seat-warming detritus whose only concern is their future seat in the House of Lords or consultancies and directorships from companies that they ingratiate while in office. The UK needs a radical progressive party with imaginative leaders who will set out to provide the solutions Richard is advocating here. But I don't think that's going to happen until we get a shock like a Reform victory or, more optimistically, Scottish independence or Irish unification.
    1
  1038. We're watching with baited breath from this side of the Atlantic. Please, USA, the Democrats are far from perfect but they are the lesser evil by many many degrees. If Trump gets back in, you're looking at drifting into full-blooded Fascism almost right away. Project 2025 will not only sweep away all your freedoms and liberties, but it will also strangle the very mechanisms which make your economy work. It will take purchasing power away from the poorest, it will prevent the very immigration that keeps your businesses working, it will remove the safeguards which keep your air and drinking water clean. And when Trump talks about taking revenge on those who have got in his way, he means it. Expect people he doesn't like to get arrested on trumped up (pun intended) charges. Expect press and media who have carried stories he doesn't like to get licenses challenged. And expect all the federal law agencies to be stuffed full of his supporters. If you want see what that's like, just take a look at Putin's Russia or Erdogan's Turkey. Get out there. Hold your nose. Vote Democrat.
    1
  1039.  @ScruffyTubbles  McDonald would be working under the same handicap as Corbyn: A parliamentary party full of self-seeking time servers. The last thing they want is Labour policies which sour their chances of jumping to lucrative directorships and consultancies when the electorate boot them out. The Labour Party has become rotten to the core and the only remedy is a new progressive party.
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  1040. When all is said and done, all these people are nothing more than professional celebs. What separates them from Hollywood stars, news presenters or Strictly judges is the fact that they have the most formidable and ruthless public relations operation ever set up anywhere. They get constant (and nearly always sympathetic) press and media coverage and a tacit agreement that they will not be publicly criticised for anything unless it has already blown up like a carbuncle which needs to be lanced - like Andrew's friendship with a child sex groomer or Charles's infidelity to Diana. With that sort of PR, you could make anthrax popular. The fact that the magic is fading despite this treatment is really just testament to the congenital stupidity, insensitivity and arrogance of these inbred clowns.
    1
  1041. No. Not "Jews". Zionists. The difference is the key to peace.
    1
  1042. @@nahlife And this is relevant because...?
    1
  1043.  @ONE_For_100  Yeah! An "alpha man" is an inadequate who compensates with fake masculinity.
    1
  1044. I'm white. My Dad lost an eye in 1940 fighting against people like this. I can't be bothered calling them "gammon". They're Nazis.
    1
  1045.  @o2johnnybravo  And what has that got to do with the subject of this video?
    1
  1046.  @StudentDad-mc3pu  Just said what? Where? Did you get confused swapping IDs?
    1
  1047. "We're appalled at the savage attack that tdook place on October 7 and we're appalled at the situation in Gaza". Note the jump from active to passive voice: from something someone did to something which is merely happening. What a vile, mealy-mouthed snake!
    1
  1048. Perhaps the Palestinians would accept the plan if they could be transferred to their original homes in Israel while the Israelis who had stolen their homes were "temporarily" transferred to the US.
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  1049. You're paying rent on the money you borrowed. It's economic rent which means that there's no goods to show for it. Pure inflation.
    1
  1050. Disillusion with Labour is inevitable and not a bad thing, in my view. What's worrying me is that their perfidy is going to corrupt the very idea of democracy. This happened in the Blair years, of course, but the danger is that a generation is growing up which has never seen anything from government but corruption and callous indifference to social justice. Politics then becomes an arena where the VERY worst of political adventurers flourish. I think Farage has sensed that too. That's why he's abandoned the Orange One and is setting himself up ready to take advantage of the coming chaos.
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  1051. I had never considered this. Thank you for bringing it up.
    1
  1052. It hasn't even reached the 19th century and it's not just the HoC. The whole notion of monarch, lords and commons is an outrageous affront to the very idea of democracy. It is the people who should be sovereign, not these relics of tyranny and oppression.
    1
  1053. Smotrich and Ben Gvir are every bit as evil as any other blood and soil nationalists. We're not allowed to name them because YouTube seems to use the so-called IHRA "definition" in its moderation. But we all know with whom they should be compared.
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  1054. This is part of what she meant by the "fingerprints" of the bankers all over her plans. It's Blairism on steroids. But you've got the wrong "F" word, Richard. It's not "folly", it's fraud.
    1
  1055. Trump/Musk is going to be the main story for 2025. There's a chilling parallel between the Musk/MAGA "civil war" and the conflict between the two wings of the Nazi Party. Hitler needed the middle class and war veterans to give himself muscle on the streets through the SA and, of course, a mass voter base. Once he had gained power, he had no further use for them and most of his populist promises evaporated and the aristocratic and better educated SS took over from the crude thuggery of the SA. Although there are very different policy matters involved, we can see the same class dichotomy going on with Trump and Musk's power grab. The MAGA nitwits who gave him his victory are already seeing the expectation dashed. Expect groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to become quasi-official paramilitary militias in the short term. They'll be used to quell protests by both the Left and by disappointed Maga cucks. But they'll be replaced in due course by a more disciplined force on message with Musk. It will certainly be "brutal and unacceptable" by any civilised criteria. The only silver lining I can see is that it will weaken US world dominance.
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  1056. Unbelievable - they get rid of people like Mehdi Hassan and hire this idiot!
    1
  1057. All they do is take investment from one place and put it in another.
    1
  1058.  @3d1e00  It not only makes sense, it can be ascertained empirically. Wherever "free" ports spring up, nearby communities decline.
    1
  1059.  @3d1e00  We aren't OK with leadership behaving incompetently. The problem is that there are powerful interests who want them to be incompetent because that gives them the the freedom to exploit and despoil. That's why both Tories and Labour have the most incompetent and economically illiterate leaderships ever and there is no real choice. All three main pan-UK parties are utterly sold on economic policies which have been impoverishing the country since Thatcher came to power in 1979. Thankfully, there are some emerging alternatives and some commentators who have the knowledge and ability to talk them up - Like Richard Murphy.
    1
  1060. No. He was a brilliant actor. Good with scripts. It's reality he can't handle.
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  1061. "The Koran has more Antisemitism than Mein Kampf". Have you read the Bible? That's where Antisemitism comes from, for crying out loud! And if you look at the history of Christianity it shows. It was Christians who murdered 6 million Jews under the Nazis, Christians who drove Jews from Russia with massive pogroms, Christians who burned them alive during the Inquisition, Christians who massacred Jews in Jerusalem during the Crusades. And it was Muslim countries who gave Jews sanctuary when they were persecuted.
    1
  1062. Comer's hilarious! He repeats accusations and hearsay ad nauseam but has never come up with ONE single piece of evidence of any kind whatsoever.
    1
  1063. As usual, you're absolutely spot on with the analysis but I wish I had your optimism. I think that Starmer is likely to keep backing Reeves until he's forced to go himself and who would replace them? Almost everyone with competence and integrity has already been pushed out of the Parliamentary Labour Party and the majority of Labour MPs wouldn't support a genuinely progressive leadership anyway. That was the case when Corbyn was in charge but it is even more so now.
    1
  1064. Hitler didn't "argue" with socialists all the time. He locked them up and killed them. And he never did anything remotely socialist.
    1
  1065. And you think that Israel is not on a path leading to darkness? You are truly sick!
    1
  1066.  @user-xu5vl5th9n  And people who think like you have probably never been abused then silenced by Savile. I said nothing about morality and the example of "affairs" is too ridiculous to answer.
    1
  1067.  @user-xu5vl5th9n  No. It wasn't libel laws per se which protected him. It was the fact that he had deep enough pockets to finance a case and the prospective defendants would have been financially unable to fight. If libel was a criminal offence, Savile would have had to go to the police to report the libel and it would have been up to the Crown Prosecution Service to examine the evidence on both sides. Instead of fighting a multi-millionaire celeb at their own expense, the defendants would have been defending themselves against a state charge with Legal Aid. An entirely different contest. That, of course, assumes that the CPS decided that Savile had a case in the first place. I suspect that the prospect of a proper investigation by the authorities would have kept him well away from HM constabulary. And that is the point!
    1
  1068. Who are the 45%? I can't believe that many people would vote for this crook!
    1
  1069.  @Alexander21025  Libya's chimeric "stability" collapsed this year. Google it and see what the Atlantic Council says. It's a basket case. Syria will be the same. That will suit the US and Israel.
    1
  1070.  @dawsonje  What's it got to do with the Syrian population? These are foreign backed insurgents backed by Turkey, the US and Israel. The last of these is going to do everything it can to prevent any sort of stability emerging.
    1
  1071.  @Skunkhunter  Projection!
    1
  1072. The ruling class
    1
  1073.  @finalstarvii583  So you're a cuckold for this moron and you can't even understand what he says?That makes sense. To admire a brain dead moron like Tate, you'd need to be even more stupid than he is. We can safely confirm that you've passed that test!
    1
  1074.  @finalstarvii583  so cute. The grifter feeds you garbage and you consume it like a trained chimp. Where do you think schools and hospitals come from then, you clown? Did we get brain washed into imagining them. Sooo funny!
    1
  1075.  @finalstarvii583  Yes. For somome like you it probably does say it all. That's because for such sad inadequates as yourself, it's all there is.
    1
  1076. Shameless crook meets swivel-eyed loons. Wonderful chemistry!
    1
  1077. "That's why Labour won such a big majority" What utter nonsense. Labour's majority (and the Lib Dem recovery) is entirely due to the Tory collapse in votes. Both the Labour and Lib Dem vote actually fell. It will only take a relatively small Conservative recovery to wipe out both - especially if Labour loses even more support on the left through actions like cutting the winter fuel allowance and supporting the genocidal Israeli government.
    1
  1078. Yes. He's a Fascist. That means he's a grifter. So ofcourse he's lying! The Blackshirts tried to get a name for themselves by acting as muscle to protect agricultural workers being abused by their employers. It didn't work so they went to work for the same employers. They say and do whatever it takes to gain power.
    1
  1079. Is he simply too stupid to realise that the facts of the case have been adjudicated and can't be undone? You're an adjudicated rapist. That's not gonna change, Donald. Every time you repeat it, the bill will go up!
    1
  1080. ​ @Roberta-gl2by  The fact that she is Jewish does mean nothing The fact that she is a Zionist does not.
    1
  1081.  @theoilandgasresourceportal2132  What would a bus driver be doing at a middle-class dinner party?
    1
  1082. Your best and most important video to date. You have described the educational paradox of neoliberalism: It claims to promote merit but also to prevent those perceived to be the meritocracy from being challenged. Timely too. The dark forces behind Donald Trump have an identical agenda and we can expect plenty of (figurative and literal) book burnings, defenestrations of prominent academic progressives and closure of progressive institutions there over the next 4 years. And that's what we'll get here in the unlikely event of Badenoch ever achieving power. That's assuming that Starmer hasn't already beaten her to it, of course.
    1
  1083. There should be an ICJ arrest warrant out for Blinken. He has knowingly and deliberately colluded with what he knows to be a genocide.
    1
  1084. Terror directed against civilians is acceptable whether it comes from Hamas, the Azov Battation in Ukraine, the IRA, DAESH, the Israeli/Russian/US/British/French government or anyone else Hamas should be condemned for killing or kidnapping civilians and any response which does the same should equally be condemned. Palestinian children are no less innocent than Israeli children - and vice versa.
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  1085. Wanting to outsmart Trump is like trying to out run a fence post. The only real danger with Trump is underestimating his stupidity. This is the only man in history to bankrupt a casino!
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  1086. When she says "I can fake being smart" she's got the same mindset as the bar room crooner who thinks he can sing as well as Sinatra. She really has no idea that "smart" is NOT something you can fake!
    1
  1087. The US Democrats just achieved the impossible feat of getting Donald Trump re-elected. They did it by promoting the interests of big business and bankers over those of the working class and alienating progressives a large ethnic/religious bloc by supporting a genocide in Palestine. The result was large groups staying at home and some natural supporters actually voting for Trump. The Labour Party seems desperate to emulate them by doing exactly the same things. and I think the bookmakers will soon be giving good odds on a Tory/Reform coalition. The sad thing is that a big chunk of the current Parliamentary Labour Party would prefer that to a genuinely progressive Labour government.
    1
  1088. Heartless, evil man. People could literally have died as a result of this idiocy. Not that he would have cared.
    1
  1089. The Pareto rule is a classic example of statistics being presented as facts. The first rule of statistics? Statistics are not facts. As Sam says, it is a rule of thumb. it is not something any serious scientist would use to observe the world.
    1
  1090. Trump's antics are going to seriously damage the US economy, let alone those of trading rivals/partners. There could be no possible reason for trying to tilt towards the US and away from Europe, anyway. But with the oncoming debacle of the Trump regime, it would simply be insane.
    1
  1091. Excellent. Keynes said that it would be better for the economy if people put their money in jars and buried it in the garden. Note all the Tufton Street trolls here who are so brilliant that they have uncovered flaws that generations of smart economists have not. You know, the way that flat earthers and intelligent lifers have.
    1
  1092. Of course Mohamed Bin Salman doesn't give a damn for Palestinians. What he does care about is staying in power and siding with the US and Israel is looking increasingly dangerous for Middle Eastern dictators who don't want to wake up one morning to find they are no longer one.
    1
  1093. 😡😡😡😡😡😡😡
    1
  1094. utter nonsense. The Israeli government has made it clear that they want to eradicate the Palestinians.
    1
  1095. My favourite is the association of Marxism, an ideology which could quite fairly be criticised for overdoing rationality, with the occult. That's funny even without being aware that the Democratic Party, even including its most progressive elements, is about as anti-Marxist as you can get. Left, they ain't!
    1
  1096. Flushing money down the toilet can be good business - for a while. Look at Enron, Bear Stearns, Robert Maxwell and hundreds, if not thousands of tech startups which went to the wall without ever having had an actual product. And in every case, through all the tears, someone was driving off out the back of the building with a pick-up truck full of money. Our corporate system is just a gigantic Ponzi scheme in which people put money into things for no other reason than the fact that they see other people do the same. If this claim by the Chinese is true, then we could be looking at the mother of all Ponzi collapses. And will Wall Street and its equivalents around the world learn from that? Will they f***!
    1
  1097. 😡😡😡😡😡
    1
  1098.  @markmorfesse8080  Possibly. But that's not as stupid as overlaying HIS sensibilities on the present.
    1
  1099. For Trump, if a country sells more to the US than it buys, that's an unfair practice. He's at a level of stupid that actually produces heat. Surely, someone can connect him to the grid...
    1
  1100. All strength to these brave people. Even if they only make significant dents in the majorities of the Tory Tribute Act Party, they will have made a worthwhile point. Even if they split the vote to let in the Tory or Lib Dem, they will have done no harm. There is precious little difference between Starmer's party and the Tories, anyway. Of course, the ultimate prize would be unseating one or two of these frauds. I was one of those sad election night nerds who was "up for Portillo". It was a wonderful moment. But seeing Streeting's spiteful, pudgy little face ready to burst into tears would top that by a factor of ten!
    1
  1101.  @jenofire8724  He wants Freedom with a capital "F" apparently. That's entirely differnt from the small "f" freedom which means being free to marry anyone you want, freedom to wear what you want without being accused of inviting rape, freedom to be black without being shot down by trigger happy policemen and freedom from hunger, unemployment and avoidable illness. Those are progressive weirdo freedoms.
    1
  1102. Lammy is an utterly morality-free zone. The fact that he is complicit in the murder of tens of thousands of people, including children, doesn't seem to bother him in the least. He calmly and coldly stands before us all and reels off percentages as if they exonerate him and his boss by proportionality. They don't. You are a war criminal, Lammy. It's a faint hope but it is possible that one day you and your boss may be stood in the dock trying to justify your wickedness before a jury of your peers. Oh. That is something to hope for!
    1
  1103. My understanding is that he had to leave Ireland because he was being hounded by demonstrators.
    1
  1104. This is uncanny. On July 4 my neigbour's cat was sick. Don't tell me that's a coincidence!
    1
  1105.  Jon Cook  Just fasten your seat belt and wait for 2024. If Hartlepool is anything to go by, Starmer is going to make that look like a golden age.
    1
  1106. For at least 70 years the so-called Centre Right has attempted to ward off electoral pressure from the Fascists/ultra-nationalists with appeasement. Instead of challenging and pushing back against their hateful agenda they have compromised with it. Consequently, they have normalised racism, homophobia and misogyny. They have turned the likes of Le Pen, Wilders and Meloni into mainstream politicians.
    1
  1107. It's incredible that even the BBC treat Israeli claims as honest. Their statements are invariably shameless lies and their accusations projections of their own crimes.
    1
  1108. "Communists have always referred to anyone who isn't a communists as fascists." Really? Can you provide some examples? I can't think of any. Not a single one.
    1
  1109. Galloway's utterly undemocratic attitude to Scottish self-determination puts him outside the pale for me. But anyone who thinks they can wrong-foot him with such tactics simply hasn't done their homework. He beat the Daily Telegraph when they attempted to libel him with false documents "found" in Iraq and the monstering he gave to US Senate's select committee following the incident made incredibly entertaining viewing. These two second-rate stooges didn't stand a chance.
    1
  1110.  @briancattle8437  What a silly question! Of course it is! We have better public services by far. All we need to do now is detach from the sinking ship next to us before it pulls us down with it.
    1
  1111.  @briancattle8437  Good grief, yes. Galloway is a grand-stander. He'll make his point then move on to something else. But there are plenty of good people in the Greens and even in what's left of the Labour Party. Galloway's a top class sprinter and I'm glad he's there. But it's the people (like Damien) who commit themselves to the long run who really change the world for the better.
    1
  1112. Ron should have pretended to be on the phone....
    1
  1113. I don't think it's just Muslims, Damien. Black people are starting to note that the likes of Phillips are only interested in racism when the victims are white. Trades unionists are becoming aware of the fact that Labour's lukewarm support for workers' rights is morphing into complete indifference if not outright hostility. The stench of Labour's support for genocide in the Middle East is making it impossible for progressives to "hold their nose" and vote for the least worst option - because it's not the least worst anymore. At the very least, placeholders like Phillips will get their majorities cut this time. Hopefully, we'll see some of them ousted - as they deserve.
    1
  1114. This is quite right and becoming urgent. The Labour/Tory/Liberal consensus has tried to appease racism and xenophobia as long as I can remember. They introduced racist immigration policies and talked about "real and justified fears" and the immigrant getting the "whip hand". But far from stealing the thunder of the Fascists, it just makes their views more respectable and here we are with 5 far-right MPs in the UK and Fascists like the AfD in Germany and National Rally in France becoming contenders for power.
    1
  1115.  @daveisbrill  Immigration isn't a problem. Racism is the problem. I agree about building more affordable housing though.
    1
  1116.  @daveisbrill  Even in London, non-whites are less than 50%. The overall figure elsewhere is about 14%. Why that should matter to anyone baffles me.
    1
  1117.  @Historia.Magistra.Vitae.  I suppose you can nit-pick and say it's specific to a certain era. There are quite a few historians who hide behind that one. I wonder why? Alternatively, you can live in the real world and recognise the fact that there's very little difference between the ideology of AfD and National Rally and that of Mussolini and Hitler.
    1
  1118.  @Historia.Magistra.Vitae.  Oh dear! You're one of those! In both replies here you are confusing what Hitler and Mussolini claimed to advocate with what they actually did. Anyone who takes Fascists of any era at their word completely misses the point about what Fascists actually are: Grifting opportunists who take power under whatever pretext happens to be available at the time. Mussolini's blackshirt thugs initially protected peasants from abusive landlords. Then they flip flopped and helped the landlords against the peasants. And Hitler didn't nationalise anything! Far from it. He re-privatised many of the enterprises that had been nationalised under Weimar. The word "Socialist" was slipped into the party name in order to undermine the left and for no other reason. You've swallowed the "Hitler was a Socialist" guff aimed at people who don't think things through.
    1
  1119. "She was proved right on Saturday" No, she wasn't. The hateful mob of Nazis she summoned to Westminster attacked and desecrated the Cenotaph. Meanwhile, two miles away, the peaceful and legitimate march she wanted to ban, passed off with no disorder, no violence and above all, no hate or anti-semitism.
    1
  1120. ​ @adenwellsmith6908  I fully understand the concept. It was the myth that was busted when Bear Stearns went down and all the other banks had to be rescued by government.
    1
  1121. He's selling you that, you dupe. Looks matter as much to women as they do to men.
    1
  1122. The notion that there is large-scale fraud in benefits claims is total nonsense dreamed up by spiteful right-wing "newspapers". I don't doubt that there are one or two people working the system. In my 68 years, out of the hundreds of benefits claimants I have known, I must have come across maybe two or three people doing this to varying extents. Catch them and deal harshly with them by all means. But to act as if solving this extremely peripheral and relatively trivial problem will have any impact on the economy is downright dishonest. And to traumatise and demonise genuine claimants in pursuit of it is cruel in the extreme.
    1
  1123. Most of them didn't. Unfortunately, not enough of them voted against so a plurality carried the day.
    1
  1124.  @imagecollections6665  Utter nonsense! Foreign nationals do not get unemployment benefit and they have to pay more tax in order to use the NHS.
    1
  1125.  @outsidethebox2037  Ah! So there's no evidence that the people who voted for an economic disaster know less about economics than those who voted against an economic disaster? Do you ever listen to yourself?
    1
  1126. Yes. There were three positions: Yes, No, Not voting. The percentage who voted yes was 34% of the electorate.
    1
  1127.  @JayGriffinblaze  Who's Daniel Jackson? If he's not Tory-lite he won't last long in Starmer's Labour. And what's a Goa'uld. My goodness. This is like trying to read my grandchildren's text messages!
    1
  1128.  @dbz9393  Unfortunately, it's a lot more than that. Subsidising US warfighting is very expensive indeed
    1
  1129. Panama is the new Sudetenland. The world needs to wake up. This man admires both Hitler and Mussolini and he is setting out to emulate them.
    1
  1130. He's an imbecile. If he implements tariffs, other countries will retaliate with tariffs on US-built products. The US will lose jobs, not gain them.
    1
  1131. Yes. Cos' Martians will invade the US if you don't show them how strong you are.
    1
  1132. "When interest rates are on the floor there is no encouragement to save " Indeed. That is the point. If interest is low, it encourages people to invest in profitable and useful business or spend it into the economy rather than just putting it in the bank.
    1
  1133.  @jonathanpaske2739  Good for you.
    1
  1134.  @Vroomfondle1066  He's absolutely right. But I'm talking about the principle that you keep a level of inflation which encourages people to use money to invest profitably or spend it rather than simply rent it out - which is what investing for interest amounts to.
    1
  1135. Just tell the British what they want to hear. Way to get yourself invited onto all the right (or rather, Right) talk shows.
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  1136. I don't think they've turned things on their head so much as pulled the curtain back on themselves. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the Russian invasion (and predatory invasion is always wrong), the US has never been up to anything but mischief in Ukraine (and most other places, as it happens). That mischief dates back at least to 2014 and arguably to 1945. It didn't (and still doesn't) do this for any noble sympathy for the plight of Ukrainians. It is purely and simply a cynical exercise to undermine first the USSR and now Russia: Fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian. The fact that we Europeans have colluded in this exercise is deeply shameful and now that the hypocrisy of it has been exposed by the audacity of Trump's self-serving greed is deeply embarrassing to European leaders. That's why they're all now running around like headless chickens trying to save the "special relationship" while still keeping the war going.
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  1137. Maxwell is a monster. To "wish her well" is to endorse her activities. Sick, sick man!
    1
  1138. Sadly, Richard, Labour's story was always something of a sham. It was always nominally about fighting for workers' rights, abolishing poverty, promoting democracy and opposing colonial oppression. In power, it did do some of those things early in its history: The NHS is obviously its crowing glory but also progressive taxation, improvements in housing, education etc. Even then, many of those things were diluted by people within its ranks who didn't really believe in them. Increasingly, those right wingers have come to rule supreme and have purged from Labour's ranks many of those who did believe in that story. If it has a story at all now, it is to be a vehicle for influence peddling and career progression and everything it once (at least nominally) stood for is what it now stands against
    1
  1139. My God! What utter bollocks! The Russians didn't "love" Communism. The Bolsheviks just simply took over in the chaos of the collapsing monarchy and the absence of anyone else who could do so. And it wasn't a complete disaster. They did some dreadful things and some good things. For example, they used the famine following the Civil War in ways which can't be justified by anyone. But then, the British did the same in India - and just as deliberately. Personally, I'd argue that Stalin was as evil as Hitler but then, Churchill was no angel either. On the other hand, in winning the Civil War, they held power back from genocidal Antisemites who had every intention of murdering every Jew in the empire - and there wouldn't have been any war to bring it to a halt. More importantly, it was principally the Reds who beat Hitler. Had the proto-Fascist "Whites" been in power, they would have been his allies and the West would have got the full might of German warpower ranged against it. The problem with history is that it is not a story of good guys and bad guys.
    1
  1140. I hate the expression "How much are you worth?" Everyone is worth the same, whether you're Elon Musk or the guy that asks for change outside ScotMid. Can we say "How much have you got?", please?
    1
  1141. Is this clown not aware that the Holocaust was perpetrated by people who claimed to be protecting Western Values? The Inquisition was based on Western values, as was the chattel slavery which tore millions of people from Africa and literally worked them to death, as was King Leopold's horrendous slave kingdom in the Belgian Congo, as was the genocide of Native Americans and others. World Wars 1 and 2 were fought by people with Western values. Not only a disgusting person but also a stupid and incredibly ignorant one.
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  1142. "Installed"?
    1
  1143. Trump is NOT a conservative of any kind. He is a reactionary. A conservative is someone who wants to slow down progress. Reactionaries want to reverse it. Each successive generation of conservatives is ready to die in a ditch to protect the freedoms the previous generation of conservatives was ready to die in a ditch to prevent. They want to slow down the future. Reactionaries want to return to the past.
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  1144. My Dad lost an eye at Dunkirk. Watching this vile grifting Nazi being treated as a hero makes me physically sick.
    1
  1145. These people don't even trust or tolerate each other and the foreign fighters are the most swivel-eyed of swivel-eyed fanatics. It's only a matter of time before they start fighting each other and everyone else.
    1
  1146. How ironic! It looks like the US plan to destroy Russia by drawing it into a war to defend its border in Europe is going to force it into an alliance which is going to close down its proxy colony in the Middle East. What goes around, comes around as my old Mam used to say.
    1
  1147. I'm 68 years old. In my life I have become aware of the dreadful things done to Jews (and others) by the Nazis. I've also learned about the terrible crimes committed against Jews by the Crusaders, the Inquisition, the English monarchy in the 12th century and in Europe during their wars to claim the French throne. The various pogroms by Russian Tsars are well documented as are the massacres by the "Whites" during the Russian Civil War. There is undoubtedly a long history of persecution of Jews which none of us should forget - especially those who profess the Christian faith. And we should all do everything we possibly can to prevent such persecution from occurring again. But we make a massive mistake in thinking that supporting the palpably evil Zionist state is any part of achieving that aim. It was created by dispossessing and displacing the people who lived there. It was born in the horrific orgy of bloodletting and rape which Palestinians know as the Nakba. It has continued to perpetrate horrific atrocities against the native population and is now stepping up those atrocities with a "final solution" in mind. The perpetrators play mind games with us, evoking the memory of all those tortured and killed historically by Christians so that, in our collective guilt, we look the other way while they visit similar atrocities on others. We have to resist this. The crimes against humanity they are committing have nothing whatsoever to do with the similar crimes historically committed against European Jews. Far from it. Zionists are continuing the very same process: That of the powerful oppressing and displacing the weak. They are dishonouring the victims of the Holocaust and Christian persecution. Thank goodness the UN is beginning to call time on this evil racist colonial project - through the ICJ, the ICC and this calling out of the IDF. But we need to press this home. It's not enough to simply make the Israeli state obey some international laws here and there. It is time for Zionism to end and for a full multicultural democracy to be created in its place.
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  1148. Of course the UK's economy was growing the fastest. That's because it had sunk further than the others. The dead cat had further to bounce.
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  1149.  @remoanersrknts6736  Er, how about by the level of poverty that was inflicted? Not really something which matters to most economists because the poor are nothing more than an abstract statistic to them.
    1
  1150.  @remoanersrknts6736  Austerity (per Osborne and Cameron) was years before Brexit! But anyone who thinks that Brexit hasn't increased poverty needs someone to button them up the back. It's made everyone poorer but especially those at the bottom of the scale. But you've made my point for me. For some people, poverty is just a "measure". They haven't a clue what it actually means.
    1
  1151.  @remoanersrknts6736  I know my wages haven't kept pace with inflation. When I go to the supermarket, I'm paying at least 30% more than I was before Brexit. That's when what I want is on the shelves, that is. And fresh food is always of a lower quality and less fresh. I used to be able to shop once a week but now, any vegetables I buy are unusable after a few days. (source: real life ). Meanwhile, food rots in the fields because there is no one to harvest it or sits in lorry queues at ports caused by the extra red tape Brexit has brought about. And higher wages don't mean a thing for those people who worked in jobs which were dependent on exporting to Europe or have been moved to The Republic of Ireland or the continent in order to keep trading. Cos, unemployment rates certainly haven't gone up 16%. Don't worry. I've no illusions about being able to convince you. That's only possible with rational people who actually live in the real world. But it doesn't matter. The proportion of the UK which still supports this disaster is down at 33% and falling as reality catches up. Opposition to it is now at 57% and rising. ( source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/987347/brexit-opinion-poll/ )That's quite a margin. You can whitter on all you like but you're a small and shrinking minority and no one cares.
    1
  1152.  @remoanersrknts6736  Yes. It's due to a drop in house prices which is due to a drop in demand because everyone is poorer.
    1
  1153. Trump has probably never made personal notes in his life. He's too illiterate!
    1
  1154. Does he inhale from a helium balloon before going on air? Or maybe he's got a concealed intravenous espresso drip?
    1
  1155. Always impressed by strawman producing culture warriors using their right of free speech to protest about wokeness (used to be political correctness) suppressing the right of free speech. It's the ultimate grift.
    1
  1156. Please learn to differentiate between evidence and noise. If evidence existed it should have been presented to the appropriate international authorities to be professionally analysed. None has been. Why not? The answer's obvious but take as long as you need...
    1
  1157. Powell was awful. But he was intelligent and interesting. I couldn't possibly admire him because his prejudices took him along an evil path but I respected his intellect and was fascinated by his pragmatism - twisted though it was . By contrast, Anderson is just an arse: Stupid, ignorant and nasty.
    1
  1158.  @60andover-timetotrain-join89  Nope. It proves we need to get rid of all forms of racism - including Zionism.
    1
  1159.  @zibbielanham  Thanks for the clarification. Commiserations and warm hugs to all of you who have to put up with him.
    1
  1160. "Manage other people's money or speculate with it". The problem with that is that it's the same people doing both. I knew someone who worked for a well known and highly respected but now-defunct firm of brokers. There were all sorts of highly illegal but difficult-to-detect scams worked. One was where different clients' money was used for a basket of speculations. At the outcome, the favoured clients would have the most successful speculations to their accounts and the others, usually smaller clients, would have the less successful ones. To say that the City is "John from Nigeria" multiplied by 678,000 would be an exaggeration - but only a small one. The irony is that, if these people had the same financialist and asset-stripping principles applied to their work that they force on others, they would all but disappear. Nearly everything they do can be done by technology. The system of monthly accounts they use in the Stock Exchange, for example, was only necessary when all transactions had to be written up by hand in ledgers. It facilitates the practice of shorting - selling shares you do not own in the expectation that you will be able to buy them at a lower figure at the end of the account. Modern technology would allow the whole thing to be done in real-time now but that would rob some very powerful people of a nice little earner.
    1
  1161. He's feeding it to people who'll believe it in the knowledge that he's not going to be called out for it.
    1
  1162. It's the tradition of German troops tossing Belgian babies on their bayonets in the first world war. Today, a woman who had been reported as raped and murdered along with her two daughters turned up alive and well with one of them having left the other being cared for in a hamas hospital. Andrew neal has form as propagandist himself. Remember Gibraltar?
    1
  1163. "It may be worth anything". So funny! He just thinks he can say what he likes and whatever he's just said is a fact.
    1
  1164. Yup! It's undermining democracy that is the main aim. It also provides opportunities to hide and launder money but they are just bounuses.
    1
  1165.  @WolfNippleChips71  Joni Mitchell, The Band, Neil Young too - but that's from an auld geezer.
    1
  1166.  @imnotdoneyet7915  The English have the same attitude about Scotland: "Why wouldn't anyone want to be us?" The ultimate arrogance!
    1
  1167. ​ @Blinky-li4nz  Oh! So that's alright! Destroying hospitals and ambushing aid convoys is justified by that then? Apologists for these monsters are just as monstrous as the murderers themselves.
    1
  1168. They put their children in fee paying schools to get a jump on other, cleverer children. That why we have clueless morons like Rishi Sunak, David Cameron or Tony Blair getting to positions of power. If there is one single factor which explains the UK's decline, it is the public school system.
    1
  1169. Absolutely fundamental. Over the last half-century we have sunk into treating that Chicago School "truth" as a moral guide: Its logic says that because everything works best if we all follow our self-interest, then selfishness must be a virtue in itself. Consequently, we get Neoliberal ideologues like Margaret Thatcher, Charles Koch or Ayn Rand pronouncing that greed is good and demonising the very idea of empathy - especially where it finds expression in left-wing politics or mutualism and collectivism of any kind. The irony is that, not only is this catechism of greed obnoxious and unpleasant in itself, it doesn't work. Its application has brought nothing but poverty and misery to the vast majority of the world's population. Time for a new approach based on empathy and kindness.
    1
  1170.  @blackbulldog4897  You're right. I should have said it doesn't work as claimed.
    1
  1171. Watch out on election night. The in-person votes will get counted first and it will look like the Orange One is winning. Then the postal votes will get counted in and all of a sudden, there'll be a massive spike for Harris. And before you know it, there'll be reports of trucks full of fake ballots, broken voting machines and dodgy counters. The progressive press and media should pre-empt this by educating people on the way vote counts work. Start now!
    1
  1172. These people are racist war criminals. Pure and simple. They should be brought before the international court at the Hague. Alongside them should be the leaders of Western governments which have colluded with the Israeli government which enables the settler movement: Biden, Macron, Sunak, Van Leyen, Scholz etc etc.
    1
  1173. The Labour Party has become the premier neoliberal party. It is time for the working class to cut it adrift. It is no longer our party,
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  1174. BDS was flagging for a long time. The myth of the only safe place for Jews had a powerful hold on people. But the Gaza genocide has turned the tide on that. The true nature of this racist colonialism has been exposed. The sight of small children being targetted by snipers, hospitals and schools being deliberately destroyed and aid convoys being looted by settlers under the eyes of the IDF has melted all but the hardest hearts. It's now becoming clear to even the most cynical politicians that support for this wickedness is not a good look. Even Keir Starmer feels the need to pretend that he cares! Boycott Israeli produce and any company or institution which supports the Zionist project, folks. Victory really is in sight!
    1
  1175. As a leftist independence (and sometimes SNP) supporter I reject the notion that it sees itself as uniquely virtuous or even that leftist. It generally falls slightly to the left of the three Westminster parties but that doesn't really say much. Its economics are slightly less neoliberal than Labour's but, again, that's not much to shout about. Primarily, it is a broad church, an ideological mixture similar to where the Labour Party stood about 50 years ago with Marxists and progressive Social Democrats on one side and a few people (like Fergus Ewing) who wouldn't have been out of place in the pre-Thatcher Tory Party on the other. There's no great disaster taking place right now. All that's happening is a wee settling down after an extraordinary period of advancing. It might have stepped back a little (the election will tell us by how much, if at all) but it's way further forward than it was 10 years ago and that's not going to change.
    1
  1176. @ Starmer certainly doesn't have a clue about what he's doing. That's pretty much because he's being worked by a hand up his back. But no. As far as bulls in china shops go, he's not in the same league as Trump
    1
  1177. You're holding up unelected prime minister, Liz Truss as a beacon of democracy? The one who is now courting Fascists in the US? The one who was too extreme right even for the bankers? Is this a satirical video?
    1
  1178.  @mrpumperknuckles1631  "Last time I checked antifa have killed people" Please enlighten us as to what you checked. "also no go zones are more of a Germany thing… there are a few in the UK but not many." There are NO no go zones in either Germany or the UK, Nazi. Nor anywhere else in Europe. These are the fabrications of lying scum like Ngo. Fabrications which arer aimed at people who are too stupid and gullible to follow up and check the veracity of their claims. To be fair, they appear to have reached their target market - as you so kindly confirm for us.
    1
  1179.  @whatsthemonsterbelow  What on earth has this to do with DAESH? Hamas are Muslim Brotherhood-based. Certainly reactionary and oppressive but they would all be considered apostates by DAESH. More to the point, these were civilians and not members of either.
    1
  1180. Because it embarrasses neoliberals. They can't accept that the people who obey their rules are Nazis because it delegitimises their rules. As, indeed, it should.
    1
  1181. "Bibi on notice", my pimply bottom! This is the equivalent of the spoiled Pomeranian being told "Mummy will be very cross" if it keeps crapping on the carpet. Netanyahu will carry on murdering civilians and Genocide Joe will keep on helping him to do it.
    1
  1182. Yes. The means test was always mean-minded and spiteful rather than fair. Unfortunately, the UK mind-set is closer to the former than the latter.
    1
  1183. What a nerve! They send their most disreputable ultras to the Netherlands to stage a pogrom against Dutch citizens and they want their victims to be arrested!
    1
  1184. This is potentially a very stupid move by Israel and the US. Who do they think has the most vulnerability to interference with personal electronic devices?
    1
  1185. A "de minimus" lie? 🤨. Next to the porkies he's been telling on Trump's behalf his whole life it must have seemed relatively trivial. A bit like Vlad the Impaler owning up to using someone else's parking space.
    1
  1186. Yes. But Hailsham thought that was a good thing. A very nasty piece of work. I remember him bemoaning the passing of the time when a man could see his children hungry and barefoot and still be proud to be British.
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  1187. The "atrocities can't even be proved. In fact, they have been completely debunked. Yoav Gallant just admitted that the Hannibal Directive was used - which explains most of the deaths. The Rabbi who claimed that he saw mutilated babies admits that he lied and the special prosecutor appointed by Israel has admitted that there is no credible evidence for ONE single sexual assault, let alone the series of mass rapes claimed. It was all lies. The attack was to capture POWs to trade for the hostages Israel holds. It was a military operation which is perfectly legal under the legal right to resist that all occupied people have.
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  1188. Israel has been caught lying over and over again in this saga. No systematic rape policy, no beheaded babies, no Hamas presence in hospitals - and no evidence that UNRWA staff took part in what was, as far as the evidence increasingly shows, a purely military and therefore legal attack on 7 October. It is simply not credible that Western governments believe this nonsense. They are willingly and actively taking part in what they know full well is a deliberate systematic genocide. History will not judge them kindly. Nor should it.
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  1189. Germany's limitless support for Israel as penance for the Holocaust doesn't make sense. Enabling the Zionists (not Jews at large, by the way), to do their own genocide cannot in any way give them absolution from what they did in the 1940s. Far from it. By being complicit in yet another genocide, they are ADDING to their shame, not decreasing it.
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  1190. The Right of the Conservative Party is a mirror image (and a more successful one) of the Militant Tendency. The links to US neoliberals, Italian Fascists and Eastern European authoritiarianism are not coincidental. These people are as disgusted by MacMillan/Eisenhower style Conservatism as the Trots were of Clement Atlee. The more important difference is, of course, that they are backed by a massive pool of funding. They have never won any arguments, whether political or economic, but they still succeed in their aims because of that backing. They are very dangerous indeed.
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  1191. When they look for enemies among their Palestinian population or neighbouring states, they are looking the wrong way. The contradictions of this racist and genocidal colonial project are gelling into a cancer which is ripping it apart from the inside. Israel is an edifice built on foundations of hatred, fear and loathing and bound to pull the roof down on its own head. It is hopelessly corrupt in every sense and cannot endure much longer in its current form.
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  1192. Wondering what Jack Smith's voice was "prior to a change" is not even a dog whistle. It screams "Look, he's Jewish". I'm not sure which is the most sickening, him saying it or the applause he got when he said it. Look out, USA. You're hanging over the edge here. These people are very evil indeed. Don't let them back in.
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  1193. It's important to note the difference between conservatives and reactionaries: Conservatives believe in slow and careful progress while reactionaries want to actually reverse it. This current Tory Party is almost completely reactionary and it seems to me that there is very little difference between it and Reform. It is certainly no longer conservative in the conventional sense.
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  1194. And your evidence for this?
    1
  1195. Ironically, Labour does agree to this. It has been official Labour policy for over a hundred years. But the Labour Right knows that the bulk of its vote comes from people on the Left and if progressive parties were to become viable as a result of PR, their party allegiance would change. That is why they have prevented this mandated policy from becoming government policy even though they have had several opportunities to put it into practice. The Tory Party position is a mirror image of this, of course. The old Liberal Party was also once in the same position but had a Damascene conversion for some reason or other...
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  1196. He takes legal advice from a guy called Tom Fitton who doesn't even have a law degree let alone recognised legal qualifications. He's the purveyor of the so called "socks case" and insists it is a Presidential Records Act precedent when it didn't even make it into the courtroom and, in any case, it was about Clinton's personal notes, not about government documents.
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  1197. Listen to Lammy bemoaning the fact that we don't cosset our politicians like the US does! Your comparison is valid, Damien. The fact that Starmer appears to be as corrupt as Johnson fits snugly with the fact that he's already proved to be as shameless a liar as the scruffy Old Etonian himself.
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  1198. "the supply is entirely market driven. 22 suppliers bid to provide power." Yes. And they're all absolutely crap.
    1
  1199.  @Tensquaremetreworkshop  They "compete" by offering better prices to people who are better placed in the market. They balance that by price gouging the most vulnerable people. Even then, many of them fail, leaving customers high and dry. Just Google "energy companies gone bust UK"
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  1200. Nasty hypocrites like Dyson get full media coverage for their ridiculous tantrums. The people that Richard highlighted at the end of this video- pensioners who will die of hypothermia, low income families starved by the 2 child cap etc - get ignored.
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  1201. Good sentiments but I think the concepts of left and right are still useful for establishing a broad understanding of where parties stand. But right now, where we are in our political progress, the important division is between more and less democracy. It is having the tools to make our own decisions about which way we should go. So the litmus tests are about positions on proportional representation and on the devolving of political power to local communities. Personally, because I am in Scotland, I see the path to that leading through Independence but I'd like to see it down south too.
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  1202. It was the favoured policy of Ben Bernanke, who is a Neoliberal clown. Richard is not arguing for the use of QE. There are much better and more equitable ways of creating money. But he is right to say that it saved the day in 2008. As for the number of people who knew about it, how many people in the general population do you suppose are even aware of the existence of the Chicago and Austrian cults, sorry, "Schools", let alone the incoherent nonsense they spew?
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  1203.  @joepaluka9031  "The correct way to control govt power is to force govts to use taxation for everything they spend. " Balancing the books, you mean? Yes. Cos' that's always worked, hasn't it?
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  1204.  @joepaluka9031  you inhabit a parallel universe. We haven't seen anything remotely Keynesian since the 1970s! Thatcherism has held sway even under Labour governments - including this one. It was the balanced budget dogma which led to the Great Depression and it looks like it's about todo the same now.
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  1205.  @joepaluka9031  Neither Rothbard nor Von Mises have ever destroyed anything - except economies, of course. The Mont Pelerin insurgency is dead, pal. It will still limp on in the minds of right-wing academics because universities will keep getting funded by the rich people that benefit from it. But it has lost every argument it ever made.
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  1206. A plane crash, a car crash, a crazed loon with a sword at some colonial shindig. Take your pick from a whole smorgas board of mishaps or miscreance. If Charles had died for any reason before the birth of William and Harry, we would now have a head of state who had a close friendship with a child sex trafficker and no end of dodgy business dealings with some of the worst confidence tricksters on the globe. If that's not a good argument for a republic....
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  1207. Thank goodness someone is getting this into perspective as far as Germany is concerned - and spotting the danger that we in the UK are in. For me, the worry is not the number of people likely to vote Reform. I think they have probably reached their peak, in fact. The danger is in the number of people who are so appalled by the corrupt cynicism and rank incompetence of the major parties that they throw up their hands and stay at home while Reform supporters are enthused and energised by the opinion polls and turn out in record numbers. At that point, we are in serious danger of having a Fascist leaning party in charge
    1
  1208. Why shouldn't he be impressed by Starmer? After all, he likes Trump, Mussolini, Viktor Orban, Yaxley-Lennon, Gianfranco Fini and a whole shedload of similar crooks and would-be dictators. And he tried to form an alliance made up of a rejuvenated European Far Right in recent years. He even bought a converted monastery in Italy to hold meetings and training sessions. No doubt, Starmer's support for genocide in Palestine would stand him in good stead as a prospective member....
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  1209.  @stevenpaulgoulding  Indeed. Instead of a meaningful ceasefire which also called Israel's war crimes and which would have prevented not only the current, but also future British governments from colluding in the Zionist genocide. In other words, it was a manoeuvre to aid his war criminal friends. He is a disgusting racist and a stain on a party which once opposed colonialism. It's also worth pausing to think about the way he obtained it. A Speaker in the pocket of a Prime Minister is a terrifying prospect.
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  1210. Excellent article but a wee fact correction. Ivana Trump said that he kept a Hitler's speeches, not Mein Kampf. She said that it was the ONLY book she ever saw him read. If you watch the way he conducts himself at rallies, it's also clear that he must have spent time studying both Hitler and Mussolini's body language from film footage too. Make no mistake about this man's plans. He wants to be dictator.
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  1211. Of dear!
    1
  1212. They've always loaned money that doesn't exist - until they loan it, that is. The crash of 2008 occurred because banks had made loans to people who couldn't pay it back.
    1
  1213. oops! That should have read "(sadly) Fascists".
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  1214. They weren't slaves. They were bondsmen. Anyone who owned their bond was responsible for their welfare and limited in what could be done to them. At the end of their bond they were free. A black slave, by contrast, was property. He or she could be raped, beaten, tortured and even murdered with no legal protection whatsoever.
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  1215.  @CFX992  So that damns all Jews as supporters of Israel? I'm proud to be an anti-zionist but I won't tolerate hearing the likes of Albert Einstein, Noam Chomsky, Bernie Sanders or Norman Finkelstein being lumped in with scum like Blinken or Netanyahu because they happen to belong to the same religious tradition. And I'm proud to be called "you people" by an Antisemite.
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  1216. Like others here, I've no time for Biden or for most Democrats for that matter. My distaste for them was reinforced tonight as I watched them give a standing ovation to a corrupt and genocidal war criminal in Congress. They are utterly contemptible. But there is a difference. If Trump wins, even the very flawed democracy in place in the US would disappear. The most powerful nation on Earth, complete with nuclear weapons and loyal stooges in every country (including so-called democracies in Europe), would become a Fascist dictatorship. That's not hyperbole, Trump has as good as said that this is his intention. If that happens, nowhere and no one is safe. So while I have consider Genocide Joe to be a deeply evil man and I consider Harris to have been complicit in his wickedness, I hope against hope that she is successful in November. The alternative is terrifying.
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  1217. Without Antisemitism there would have been no Israel. A decline in Antisemitism would be the biggest existential threat Israel could get. So it's not remotely surprising that they are happy to cosy up with Antisemites like Victor Orban, Donald Trump etc.
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  1218. Scapegoating and deporting an identified "other" has been a feature of tyrannical governments for hundreds of years. Think of Louis XIV and the Hugeonots or Tsarist Russia's expulsion of Jews. It might be worth remembering that the recipients of the majority of these two groups, Great Britain and Prussia prospered greatly from the skills and work ethic they brought with them. Maybe Mexico and Canada will benefit from this stupidity on Trump's part.
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  1219. There is always a tension between efficiency and effectiveness. A business only has to make a profit. To achieve that, it targets a certain sector of the market and tailors its operation to serve it well enough so that its customers don't go elsewhere. The underlying assumption is that those who do not fit into this sector will be looked after by another business which serves them best. In practice, this almost works. That is to say, it is not so dysfunctional that everything falls apart completely. But such a system is nowhere near good enough to provide essential services. A hospital cannot care for 60% of the "market" on the assumption that other hospitals will care for the other 40%. And what about sanitation? Provision of roads and bridges? Law and order? Sit and think about it for 10 minutes and you'll have a very long list indeed. The services that the public sector provides have to successfully reach everyone. There is no alternative public provider to fill "gaps" in the market. As a result, there are bound to be instances of inefficiency. For example, it's obviously cheaper to provide services to people in a city than it is to those who live in scattered villages or farms. But if society needs the input of the people concerned in order to function, then it's a cost that needs to be socially met.
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  1220. Athelstan was the first one to rule the whole territory - but that was mostly through surrogates and alliances. You'd have to say it was William who really ran the whole bit through the feudal system.
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  1221. Yeah! Cos, after privatising everything in sight, the UK is doing SO much better than France, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway etc where they didn't. No? The Channel Tunnel came in at twice its original cost, by the way. In Edinburgh, the private sector built a tram system which cost twice the original estimate for half the project and it was delivered two years late. You're the one living in a fantasy world, chum. PFI is just a way of cooking the books to look as if we're not spending money when we are.
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  1222.  @leviashanken7281  Of course it's not "alright". "Alright" for me would be all ignorance and superstition dying out. But that's how most religions spread. Some were adopted when the Crusaders were there. The sword and the indoctrination of children are the two main drivers of the spread of all religions. Occasionally, adults adopt religion by choice. But that's rare. There are places in the Old Testament where people were converted to Judaism under the sword too.
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  1223.  @leviashanken7281  I don't know the exact verse as I wouldn't have this superstitious garbage under my roof but look up Edomites or Idumeans. Outside the Bible, of course, you have the Khazars who forced the people they conquered to become Jews - and they probably became the Ashkenazis. This is disputed but there is no other explanation for the large Jewish population in what was to become known as The Pale.
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  1224. Amesbury is a thug who assaulted someone in a drunken rage. He has no place in Parliament. To think that Starmer wants to keep this creep in place after he prevented decent people like Corbyn from standing and withdrew the whip from principled MPs like John McDonald and Rebecca Long Bailey. Labour stalwarts should be dreading the next election - as should we all. It will be a bloodbath for the Labour Party, a renewal for the Tory Right and a bonanza for the proto-Fascists of Reform UK. When that happens, we should not hesitate to put blame where it belongs - on the Labour Right.
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  1225. Her position can be summed up in one famous acronym: TINA. It's Thatcher all over again.
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  1226.  @ernestolynch1926  I've got no idea. Why are you asking me?
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  1227. Labour used to be the party of the oppressed and marginalised. Now it's the party FOR oppressing and marginalising. No doubt, the definition of Antisemitism will shortly be amended to include being a member of the travelling community.
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  1228. The law of comparative advantage is about countries using their best skill sets and natural resources to prosper: "We have the best pastures for rearing beef and you have the best soil for growing vegetables - let's make a stew"! It's certainly not about race-to-the-bottom wage competition and de-regulation.
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  1229. I love Sam's suggestion that OnlyFans workers would have insight into men's sexual nature. I think that was game, set and match, Charlie Kirk!
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  1230. Israel has lied about everything so far. This is an Israeli false flag to drag the Druze into the conflict on their side.
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  1231. Since when has asking for evidence been "shameful"? Israel has made a series of accusations about the 7 October attacks but refuses to allow independent investigators to assess the evidence or interview eyewitnesses. Why would that be? Do you think? No. That's not a typo. It really is two separate questions!
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  1232. The main lie is that Iran intended dreadful harm but was foiled by the IDF, RAF etc. In fact, Iran calibrated its attack to a level it knew Iron Dome etc could deal with and it made its intentions known well in advance to ensure that Minimal damage was done. Only the missiles that did get through were intended to. Successfully targeting the F16 base was the principle part of the message. Iran was making a very powerful statement here. The West needs to restrain or, better still, remove Netanyahu now. If allowed to, he will continue to escalate this very dangerous conflict in order to save himself from political oblivion and possibly jail.
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  1233.  @adenwellsmith6908  Yes. This is why we have something called a state.
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  1234.  @adenwellsmith6908  "The state can have two currencies. " Why would it?
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  1235.  @adenwellsmith6908  That declares that it can do that. It doesn't explain why it would.
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  1236.  @mikekerasi  Yes. But fortunately, while Starmer and his cronies are just as evil as Big Brother, they are nowhere near as competent. They can be beaten.
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  1237. My guess is that Starmer will follow the Blairite tradition of caving in to whatever the US demands and will mangle the English language to label anyone who opposes that as Antisemitic or Pro-Putin. But it would make no sense whatsoever. Europe is on our doorstep and our trade with it massively exceeds that with the US. Moreover, by the time Trump's maniacal economic policies have taken effect, the US will be a lot poorer and trade with it will be of decreasing value.
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  1238. Again, a tiny minority takes advantage of the US's profoundly undemocratic constitution to impose its will on others. When are you people going to start campaigning for a real democracy with proportional representation so that these Nazis are kept out of power for good?
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  1239. It's appalling that this guy apologised for a perfectly reasonable opinion based on evidence. No surprise that Rentoul appears on a near Fascist outlet like this to endorse this disgraceful suborning of the Labour Party to Israeli interests.
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  1240. A corrupt country which celebrates corruption as virtue. It is unsustainable and will end sooner rather than later
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  1241. Is he asking for their voting machines back?
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  1242. Trump doesn't know history? He doesn't know anything! From praising "very fine people on both sides" at Charlottesville, claiming that tarriffs will create jobs, making a casino go bust or telling people to drink bleach to protect against Covid. The man's an imbecile, pure and simple. Because of his privileged upbringing, he's never had to make an effort to understand anything. Like so many rich people, he's never had the opportunity to realise how stupid he really is because he's never had to face the consequences of it. Sadly, the other side of the coin is that so many people believe that his wealth is evidence of superior intelligence.
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  1243. You find this funny? Yeah. Destroying democracy, the economy and women's rights is such a laugh! And just think of the hilarious mass shootings you'll get with increased gun ownership! These progressives have got NO sense of humour.
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  1244.  @meme6335  Relax. He's just too thick to understand what's being discussed so he's pretending he finds it funny. In fact, he's scared to death of the very concept of analysis. Rather like Trump himself, in fact
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  1245. Cenk does a parody meltdown. Peterson literally cries like a spoiled child who doesn't get the right toy for Christmas.
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  1246. Why has this video only talked about Tories in danger? There are several Labour stalwarts in danger. Jess Phillips? Wes Streeting? What about Labour's private health industry placeholder in Islington North?
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  1247. "Woke mind virus" gives the lie to his "populism" claim. He's actually saying that popular views (but only the so-called "left" ones) are the result of brainwashing! You can't think for yourselves, folks. That's why we want to classify your views as "woke" and banish them from civil life.
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  1248. Ukraine is the same playbook as Afghanistan: Push USSR/Russia until its only option is to fight back, then provide its enemy with just enough support to keep the war going but not to win. The idea is to create a slow-bleeding wound which would debilitate but not completely destroy. The ultimate aim is to make Putin weak enough to be overthrown by his own allies in Moscow. It worked in bringing down the SU. That was a bit of a problem at first because it resulted in a drunken clown taking over but ultimately he was replaced by the sort of guy the West wanted: er...Putin. He was corrupt, nasty and utterly ruthless. That's how the US likes its pet dictators. They liked him at first. There are plenty of pictures of him glad-handing and back-slapping the US's western surrogates like Sarkozy, Berlusconi and Blair. But then he started going his own way. It ended up with the formation of the BRICS alliance which is a long term threat to US interests. That's why they're destroying him now. But who do they think is going to replace him? If the Russians decide they don't want him because he isn't "strong" enough, surely the most likely successor is going to be "stronger". That is to say, they'll bring more repression and be more willing to risk everything to defeat this surrogate NATO incursion. It could be time to whitewash the windows (see When the Wind Blows) folks.
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  1249.  @KernowDamo  Absolutely! But this is New New_Labour's best hope! I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry.
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  1250.  @o_._o123  I'm afraid the Nanking stories are true. The Rape of Nanking was an orgy of atrocity
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  1251.  @noeleneroodt783  Where has that been reported? Most of the "facts" reported by the press and media have been nothing but hearsay - some with a veneer of veracity but mostly exaggeration or outright lies. My guess is that this fits into the latter category. One thing that has been made clear over the last few weeks is that absolutely nothing which comes from the Israeli side can be trusted.
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  1252.  @batphink2655  No. It's all documented. Anyone who doubts it should go to the Auchschwitz/Birkenau and see both camps for themselves.
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  1253. It's a double-edged sword. On the one hand, his success would be a disaster for almost everyone but the very rich and very crooked. On the other hand, his (almost inevitable) failure to achieve his aims will also have catastrophic effects on most of us. The only silver lining I can see is that the US will be severely weakened and no longer be able to impose its will on the rest of the world, as it does now.
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  1254. If a Tory wants to see a real no-go area, he should try leafletting for his party's candidate in a South Wales mining valley. I remember watching the Tory candidate pushing leaflets through letter boxes in my street in Nantymoel in the 1987 election. He could have been training for the Olympics and was outa that street before one door could be opened. That's the nearest to a no-go area he'll find in the UK.
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  1255. The very fact that you've found so many pertinent questions indicates that Starmer (nor any of the others obsessed with growth) has no idea what he is trying to achieve. The problem is that, since Thatcher, we have adopted a ruinous narrative which says that public sector services are a luxury paid for by private sector profits. Consequently, government has laboured away at reducing the "burden" of the public sector in the false expectation that this will allow the private sector to thrive. This will, in turn, provide the funds for improving public services. It's the same logic which justifies going to war for the purpose of establishing peace - and it will have the same level of success!
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  1256. Every now and again, you get these people who start off on the left but then migrate to being the Left's would-be nemesis: Ramsay MacDonald, George Brown, Reg Prentice and Lord Chalfont are just a few but you could probably fill this page with a list of them with very little effort. Paul Mason seems to be a supercharged version of that, though. He started off being a reasoned and measured progressive commentator but has progressed to being a crazed red-baiter to rival the John Birch Society. It'd be great if Starmer sets him against Corbyn: Like Barcelona playing Hamilton Academicals.
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  1257. If having a politically active relative disqualifies a judge, where does that put Clarence Thomas?
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  1258. It would be funny were it not for the smug look on his face as he watched the parliament of a country which lost so many young men fighting against the evil for which he stood stand up and applaud him. But though we should fight the urge to laugh we should not neglect to point out that this is an indication of the woeful naiivite of those who give no thought whatsoever to the history of the struggle in Ukraine. We should remind them that the flag of the "resistance" they were so mawkishly lauding consisted of a hammer and an axe. Why? Because those were the implements used in the brutal pogroms this "resistance" mounted against Poles, Russians, Jews and Romanies - people who were dragged out into the streets of cities like Kiev, Lwow Kharkov and beaten and hacked to death in well planned and executed dawn raids. They should also be reminded that this brave "resistance" took a willing and eager part in the job of rounding up of Jews for Hitler's final solution and made repeated (but rebuffed) offers to fight with the Third Reich on the Eastern Front. Most importantly, we should remember that many on the Ukrainian side today, revere that "resistance" and we should be wary of what will happen when, as now seems inevitable, they "liberate" Crimea and the Donbass.
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  1259. I can't help thinking that we're drifting into something resembling George Orwell's three power blocks. Russia is really a junior partner of China, of course. Your referral to Vlad and Donald as psychopaths also made me think of the kind of leader that seems to be prominent throughout the world right now. We don't have any MacMillans, De Gaulles, Kennedys, etc anymore. I'm not expressing admiration for any of the but at least they had personalities of their own with imagination and ideas. ALL today's leaders (think Blair, Johnson, Macron, Schulz, Biden) seem to say and so the same things and are all sociopathic with little or no care for ordinary people. Putin and Trump are different, of course. The former is extraordinarily evil and the latter extraordinarily stupid. That's why the others are unable to deal with them.
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  1260. So funny that Karl Rove points out that the other networks will choose disadvantageous clips over advantageous ones. Fox were covering it live, Karl. It was all advantageous. There was literally nothing else!
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  1261. These are almost unknown waters. There is the experience of Pinochet's Chile, which still hasn't recovered nearly 20 years after his death. And we can all see the horror unfolding in Argentina. But this is going to be on a scale, to use Trump's favourite phrase, "never seen before". In a couple of years time, when someone creates one of those word clouds about the US, the standout words will be poverty, oppression, despair, guns, crime. Musk's economic idiocy is going to throw millions into unemployment, possibly tens of millions. A justice department staffed by his cronies is going to facilitate unprecedented white collar crime and general corruption and his goons are going to be breaking down the doors of anyone who stands up against it. And what if, as Richard suggests, he IS unable to get rid of the millions he considers to be undesirable? What then? A final solution?
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  1262.  @user-pp9yk3tu4z "why don’t young working people get a winter fuel allowance? " That's a fair question. Everyone should be able to afford to turn the heating on. However, the issue is a little more urgent for those who can no longer earn. Why do you assume that people who get WFA have a house? I do have one but it is still under mortgage.
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  1263.  @GingerPeacenik  Even if 27% was true, it remains that the majority live in poverty or close to it.
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  1264.  @user-pp9yk3tu4z  Yes. I have my old age pension, a works pension of about 6k and a little under 2k from a private pension I took out when I was self-employed many years ago. All of these sources of income have been paid for by me. In order to pay my mortgage, I have to continue working 3 -4 days a week as a bus driver. At 68, I won't be able to continue that for much longer and I will seriously struggle without it. But I'm relatively better off than most pensioners and it's not about the circumstances of one individual. Many pensioners exist on the old age pension alone or very little more. Many with small pensions will be just over the limit for pension credit and will have the choice of being cold or hungry this Winter. Many of those entitled to it will not claim it for the various reasons that always go with means testing. Quite simply, people will die. And not one penny will be saved in the end. The cost of an ambulance is £250 a call, on average and there will be a lot more of those needed. In addition there will be otherwise unnecessary hospital stays and extra pressure on social services. It's stupid as well as mean. But this interchange has been valuable to me. It reminds me that there are cold, callous and frankly, foolish people around who are motivated by spite and envy and that such people have taken over what used to be the party of the working class. Pensioners tend to vote and Labour will not be able to rely on this particular constituency next time.
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  1265.  @casdanasp  Yes. I wouldn't dispute that. The debate about whether it's created, lent or they "allow you to have it" is more about the form of words than the substance of the action.
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  1266. A Socialist who supports a genocide admires Margaret Thatcher, and has a close friend of dodgy Russian oligarchs and a child sex trafficker as one of his main advisers? I don't think so!
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  1267. Hmm! Yes. It's certainly the case that Trump fancies himself as a new Hitler. And there is certainly a tight-knit band of extremely evil people ready to back him up - though I would dispute that they are generally competent. Being good a raising a rabble does not necessarily translate into being good at governing or administrating. The myths about the trains running on time in Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy were pure propaganda. It was, in fact, administrative chaos. I suspect that, while the new Trump government will be extremely nasty, it will very quickly fail in nearly all of its objectives. The result could be the collapse of American power and that won't necessarily be a bad thing. Ask any Palestinian, Iraqi or Afghan. It will be a very dangerous time but the world's democracies are capable of withstanding it if they have the political will to do so.
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  1268. It replaced other taxes. It's nothing to do with funding the EU. It was doubled under Thatcher to pay for tax cuts to the rich and to fund the unemployment her policies caused.
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  1269. This is the man we saw walking out of a building and waving to an empty street. And on one occasion he stood waving at the outside wall of a sports stadium.
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  1270.  @trident6547  The US certainly doesn't accept such an understanding. Ask any Cuban.
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  1271. Suburban women should like an adjudicated rapist?
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  1272. "Truss was assassinated by a WEF coup and replaced by Sunak in 49 days so didn’t have any time to do anything." Oh, I don't know. She managed quite a bit of damage in those 49 days. But Richard is right. Starmer is just as clueless.
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  1273. Yet strangely, Israel does not appear to be making any moves towards prosecuting Hamas for the war crimes it claims it committed on 7 October. No invitations to UN war crime investigators at all. I wonder why......
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  1274. The boom in the Biden years must have been due to the actions taken during Trump's term. Doesn't it then follow that the boom in the early years of Trump's term must have been due to the actions taken during Obama's?
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  1275. Trump's government picks betray another similarity with Hitler. He also selected his government based on loyalty rather than competence or flair. This is no accident. The last thing a dictator wants is a successful underling solving problems and becoming more popular than himself. That's why Hegseth is a perfect fit for this job.
    1
  1276. If Trump wants to challenge the law, he should study and work (snigger, as if!) to become a judge.
    1
  1277. Piers's statement that he didn't think the IDF had been killing people with white flags is incredible. This is a genocidal pogrom, you idiot! These "soldiers" are there to kill as many Palestinians as they can and shooting people with white flags (provided there are no witnesses) is routine. The only reason this is being discussed is because they accidentally killed hostages when they thought they were killing Palestinian civilians.
    1
  1278. I got as far as far as Eisner promising in 1919 not to do what Lenin had done in 1920! Hitler wasn't remotely Socialist. This is such a laboured trope that has been destroyed over and again so many times it's becoming tedious. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9ez6w5BUMM or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2biEiuTzsgw
    1
  1279.  @adenwellsmith6908  Indeed. Central planning and democratic accountability is what is needed. The independent Trust system has produced nothing but corruption and rampant replication of effort. "Why did it fail to train enough staff? " Did it? Where does the private health industry get its staff from, then. Why should the NHS subsidise the private sector in this way?
    1
  1280.  @adenwellsmith6908  Ah! So you ARE a professional troll with the resources to spend on so-called "research". This is exactly why we need transparency.
    1
  1281.  @adenwellsmith6908  I think your word processing software has gone haywire, pal! That's pure gibberish. But I can answer your claim in the last paragraph and the first. The NHS has been one of the most successful and most efficient health-care organisations in the world. Its decline started when the Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brown continuum started applying neoliberal dogma to it. Did central planning and training work? Yes. Ask all the living people who would have died under the previous regime. That includes me. I would have died aged 8 (sixty years ago) because my parents wouldn't have had the money to pay for the care and treatment I needed.
    1
  1282. It's the John Birch Society revisited. Two complete ignoramuses preaching to idiots. It would be funny if it wasn't so dangerous.
    1
  1283. ​ @jamesdey9887  I know what his point is. It's nonsense. Most landlords won't sell up. They make a fortune and that will be dented by more effective regulation and rent capping but they would still make lots of money. If they did sell up, there would be more houses available to buy.
    1
  1284. The choice is to pay health personnel enough to recruit and retain them or pay private health providers enough to do exactly that PLUS make a profit. This is corruption of the worst sort, the insult to our intelligence compounded by claiming that it will SAVE taxpayers' money. Oh! When I think that another 529 votes would have spared us this self-serving carpet-bagging creep!
    1
  1285. ​ @col.hertford9855  We Social Democrats have always been Socialists. Social Democracy is the democratic route to Socialism. Don't confuse the Blairites/Starmerites and other flavours of Tory-lite like the now-defunct SDP with Social Democrats. They're nothing of the kind - whatever rebranding they choose to adopt.
    1
  1286. Israel is raining white phosporous and high explosives onto hundreds of people - mostly civilians. It has murdered over 40,000 people in Gaza. It's legislature openly debates whether or not it's OK to rape prisoners. And this is your big news? What kind of people are you?
    1
  1287. It's sad that the so-called "Centrists" are able to contemplate co-habitation with anti-democratic Fascists but not with the pro-democratic Left.
    1
  1288. Germans need to reflect on the guilt their nation has for the Holocaust. They also need to reflect on the fact that they are now aiding and abetting a similar wickedness. This exacerbates any guilt. It certainly doesn't mitigate it.
    1
  1289. Interesting. But surely, if the Home Office is not naming anyone then they are not prejudicing any individual case. They are making a general case that crimes have been committed and people have been arrested for those crimes. The only way that individuals' cases could be prejudiced is if the defendants actually argue that no crime took place or that they were not there. In the first argument, do you think it likely that taking part in a riot in which property is damaged, people are assaulted and threatened with death by burning could be argued not to be a crime? If the second is the case (say mistaken identity) then clearly, they would not be the "criminals" to whom the Home Office is referring.
    1
  1290. It's like putting Colonel Sanders in charge of chicken welfare!
    1
  1291.  @JonHindley  Which is?
    1
  1292.  @Dekoherence-ii8pw  They've all got bloody thinking difficulties FFS!
    1
  1293.  @johnconnor1847  "Then oddly there are all these people who said that they saw what looked like lasers or blue beams of light causing the fires, and pictures and videos.[...]A laser beam or or light source coming down to Earth I guess.Could that cause a fire? Hmmm, I don't know. I hope not. That wouldn't look so good for PG & E, Rothschild inc.Solaren or Jerry Brown...." From tweet by MTG on 17 November 2018.
    1
  1294.  @johnconnor1847  "Then oddly there are all these people who said that they saw what looked like lasers or blue beams of light causing the fires, and pictures and videos.[...]A laser beam or or light source coming down to Earth I guess.Could that cause a fire. Hmmm, I don't know. I hope not. That wouldn't look so good for PG & E, Rothschild inc.Solren or Jerry Brown...." From tweet by MTG on 17 November 2018
    1
  1295. It's a shame stupidity cannot be converted into energy. You could just plug this guy into the grid and shut down all the fossil fuel power stations in one go.
    1
  1296.  @BOZ_11  Indeed. It would be, wouldn't it?
    1
  1297.  @BOZ_11  All of which are election bribes just like dropping interest rates. I'm not going to be lectured on "focus" by a neoliberal!
    1
  1298. Oh! The irony! "From the River to the Sea" was originally a Zionist slogan and has now become so enmeshed in the Anti-Zionist cause that they're calling it "Antisemitic". I wonder how long it will be before "Never forgive and never forget" becomes Antisemitic?
    1
  1299. Whuttt!
    1
  1300. No-one has EVER turned left after taking office. Starmer is even more right wing than Blair and he recently admitted that his mission was to build on Thatcherism than reverse it. Starmer and Reeves, having purged everyone from the PLP who would oppose them, will be full steam neoliberalism: The final destruction of the project which began with Keir Hardie.
    1
  1301. Don't ignore Hersh. He has a very good crap-detector. He's the one who called out the US bombing Cambodia in the 1970s, challenged Bush's lies about WMD in Iraq and was one of the first to point out the use of false flag chemical attacks by the US-supported Jihadists in Syria. He's not always right but he does have a good track record.
    1
  1302. The world should know by now. If it's an official statement made by Israel, it's a lie.
    1
  1303. Starmer and Sunak know that their "ally" is deliberately targeting anyone who is doing anything to help Palestinians survive. It can be the UN. It can be international charities. It can be journalists exposing their crimes. They don't care. Hopefully, at some time in the future, we will have a government composed of people of integrity who will make them properly accountable for the crimes they have knowingly and deliberately facilitated. Yes. I know it is a faint hope. But I have to hold on to it in order to contain my own anger.
    1
  1304. And what's your source for this garbage? Yes! The Daily Mail! Nuff said! Nothing to see here folks. They just make it up as they go along.
    1
  1305. Wow! Apparently, we've got it all wrong because we're different to the people who believed in ghosts and witches. They'd have looked at what we think in disbelief? Yes. I hope so.
    1
  1306.  @Willowdale494  Don't be silly. NATO is the US. The rest of us are just there to subsidise it.
    1
  1307. Yeah! Let's make UK a haven for drug smugglers, money launderers and all the other crooks represented by Tufton Street.
    1
  1308.  @scrambler69-xk3kv  I'm surprised there aren't cartoon characters in there. Luckily, someone must have taken him to one side and explained that Hannibal Lecter isn't real....
    1
  1309.  @OB17358  "In a way, running government like a tv show can be a good thing. The more voters learn and are informed, the better citizens they (we) are. " TV shows like The Apprentice do not educate and inform. They titillate and entertain. The Apprentice in particular was a programme which set out to give its audience a false impression of how business was done. Trump is all chaff. He has no personal gifts. None at all. He is an idiot who inherited. Nothing he has was worked for or obtained fairly. If he ever did anything worthwhile in his life, it was by accident.
    1
  1310.  @HectorMMoreno-hn2rt  Aye. Or maybe Trump could do it himself. Have you seen how ripped he is on those trading cards? And he can probably fly, make himself invisible and melt steel with his heat-vision.
    1
  1311. @fiddlersthree8463 Apparently, 14 of his businesses were liquidated while the show was running.
    1
  1312.  @ErnstKuhn  Amen to that!
    1
  1313. This is an excellent account of the 1950s and onward counter revolution of the rich against the New Deal and the new found confidence of labour to demand its share of the wealth it was creating. But it is inaccurate in suggesting that it started in the post war period. The very constitution of your country is based on the wealthy's fear and distaste for democracy. The founding fathers feared that if universal suffrage was applied, the poor would simply elect representatives who would legally dispossess the rich of their hard earned wealth and distribute it amongst the great unwashed and society would collapse in an orgy of drunkeness and feckless idleness. That's why you have the "checks and balances" which prevent the population from getting universal health care, food safety and the levels of social security we enjoy in Europe. But you are right in pointing out that the rich have increased their level of mobilisation against democracy over the last 50 years or so. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to suggest that the US is sliding towards Fascism. Well done to Thom Hartmann and others for calling it out.
    1
  1314. RFK's strength is that he's not Vance. His weakness is the fact that he's RFK. Choosing a sleazy mediocrity with a penchant for putting his foot in his own mouth in order to get a big donation from his patron (Peter Thiel) was not a good look. But replacing that mediocrity with an in-your-face nut-job who drives around with dead bears in the trunk of his car is even worse.
    1
  1315. Good. Makes sense so far and I'm looking forward to the next one. Are you intending to go into how wealth is created (not how it's accumulated)?
    1
  1316. It's quite simple. Israel is the west's outpost in the Middle East. It makes the world a much, much worse place.
    1
  1317. Why is Reeves doing this? It's not a mystery, Richard. It's so that in 5 years time when she is again courting middle-class votes, she can say that she's made the country richer, even though her policies will have done nothing to lift people out of poverty. In fact, as she appears to be following a full neoliberal (Thatcherite) course, she is likely to have made many people even poorer. But they won't matter because they were unlikely to vote in the first place.
    1
  1318. Tacopina's just going through the motions so that he'll have something to bill Trump for at the end. The really funny part is that he thinks Trump will pay up!
    1
  1319. If Egypt is turning against Israel it is doing so with US permission. The subsidies being paid by the US to Egypt since 1978 are really bribes to keep this dictatorship on side with Israel - effectively, a hidden part of the overall subsidy being paid to support Israel. That's why the US was so determined to restore the dictatorship after the Arab Spring. If the US is allowing it to take up a hostile position to Israel then that is a massive change in US policy. Maybe Jordan will be next?
    1
  1320. As a rule of thumb, you can safely assume that anyone being supported by the United States is going to be murderous and corrupt and will rarely have any legitimacy whatsoever. Just examine every conflict in which they have intervened since 1945 and you will find very few exceptions to this.
    1
  1321.  @davidthompson797  Google "Britain's secret role in the brutal US war in Vietnam" and see the "Declassified" entry. There were also other wee post-colonial exercises carried out for the US such as the South-Yemen and Cyprus emergencies and SAS support given to US friendly dictators like the Sultan of Oman.
    1
  1322. Straight out of the Fascist playbook. Ticks every box.
    1
  1323. When did it become HIS country?
    1
  1324.  @jonothonlaycock5456  I wouldn't disagree with any of that. Pretty much what I would say myself. What is your point?
    1
  1325. The funniest part of this is the garbage about Second World War fascists initiating the EU. It didn't appear until 1993! Trump is no more a "free marketeer" than any of the other neoliberals. What they really believe in is markets rigged in their favour. "Free markets" is a scam they sell to the gullible and stupid. You have to give them credit for their targeting skills.
    1
  1326.  @spinninsessions9626  I think he's more fond of "red pills".
    1
  1327. The Economist is not and was not Keynesian. It is and always has been a Right wing publication.
    1
  1328.  @colebehnke7767  Er no. It has a meaning which is pretty much universally acknowledged.
    1
  1329.  @colebehnke7767  The term originated in the pre-revolutionary French assembly. Reactionary representatives sat on the right and progressives on the left. That meaning has carried forward in relative terms ever since. It does get a bit confusing at some points in history. For example, Gladstone's Liberals (who represented capitalists) and Disraeli's Conservatives (landed gentry) were variously more or less progressive than each on different issues. And in the US today, both main parties are on the right or far right. But by and large, in most countries, it's widely and more or less universally accepted that Left means socialist and/or progressive and Right means conservative and/or reactionary.
    1
  1330.  @colebehnke7767  The Romans and the various Ancient Chinese empires were pre-age of reason so the question is irrelevant. The Catholic change is largely a regressive institution which has opposed most democratic progress but there are exceptions within it. Liberation theology still holds out in Latin America. The current Pope has some association with it - so who knows where it will go next?
    1
  1331. @ Whether what's true or not? Who claimed that three banks were reprivatised? Which banks?
    1
  1332. I saw the headline and thought that they'd rumbled the Royal Family at last.
    1
  1333. The English Defence League was modeled on Meir Kahane's Jewish Defense League, which even the US lists as a terrorist organisation! Yaxley-Lennon is a Nazi - as well as being a grifting crook.
    1
  1334.  @MrSmegfish  Correction noted but it will be MI6 soon because it will be a different country...
    1
  1335.  @Art-is-craft  No government has built an economy on lower taxation.
    1
  1336. The drift to Neoliberalism/Fascism feeds more off apathy and disenchantment than commitment to right-wing ideas. It will be people not voting as a result of the Starmer government's incompetence and betrayal which lands us with the coming Tory/Reform coalition.
    1
  1337. So Prigozhin is safe now because Lukashenko is looking after him? My advice to him? Don't go into any high story buildings. Don't cross the road without witnesses. Don't eat anything that hasn't come out of a sealed can. Don't sleep with anyone you don't know. On the hand, do what you want. You're a monster who did Putin's dirty work for him and you deserve whatever happens to you.
    1
  1338.  @Vroomfondle1066  Indeed it is. That's why we want democracy.
    1
  1339.  @cleanhit777  The BoE was nationalised in 1946. It belongs to the UK government. It was made notionally independent by Gordon Brown in 1997. The arrangement was formalised by the Bank of England Act 1998.
    1
  1340. "The trouble with PR is that it leads to very small political parties having political influence far beyond the votes they receive." I believe our current government had around 30% of those who voted and the support of 17% of those eligible to vote. Cameron forced the EU referendum on us with only 34% of those who voted. Most of the disasters of the last 50 years (eg Thatcher's privatisations, gradual erosion of the NHS and democratically accountable schooling, the invasion of Iraq War, Brexit) only occurred because a minority was able to capture power through FPTP. To say such a system is "robust" is true. So is dicatorship.
    1
  1341.  @rzavortx  Someone brags about beating women, films himself doing it and says that women deserve to be raped. And you "cringe" at the "allegations". Anyone who defends this inadequate pygmy is off the scale as far as "braind dead" is concerned.
    1
  1342. Duh! It's also one of the poorest. Simple as that. Nothing to do with Not being "British".
    1
  1343. This evil soldier is clearly American. He has swallowed the completely disproven lies about 7 October, but more importantly he is repeating the racist lies about Palestinians who, he claims, are opting for something "bad" (self-determination) in place of something "good" (Israeli colonialism). This wickedness will continue until the Zionist state is completely dismantled.
    1
  1344. Wasn't that 28% of income tax, not taxes in general?
    1
  1345.  @adenwellsmith6908  And what is the proportion of their income to the other 90%
    1
  1346. What is the proportion of their income to the other 90%?
    1
  1347.  @adenwellsmith6908  What do you mean "goes to others"?. Out tax doesn't "go" to anyone except the government.
    1
  1348.  @adenwellsmith6908  "But you get back a percentage of what you pay in the form of state services. ". No. You don't. That's not how it works at all.
    1
  1349.  @Volkan-z2v  I don't understand your question.
    1
  1350.  @eddieharris6004  Yes. Winston Churchill brought the Gold Standard back in 1924. That went well...
    1
  1351.  @polmcsuibhne7657  You don't think that losing the support of Labour voters is a problem for a Labour leader? There you go then...
    1
  1352.  @polmcsuibhne7657  We all do. What's your point?
    1
  1353. ​ @polmcsuibhne7657  That's not a point.
    1
  1354.  @polmcsuibhne7657  Yes. I see what your point is now. It wasn't worth the effort it took to get you to explain it.
    1
  1355.  @polmcsuibhne7657  You do "truth"? That would be the problem. I prefer facts and analysis, properly explained and debated.
    1
  1356. But if Trump gets disqualified.....
    1
  1357. It's a crazy situation. A substantial part, possibly a majority of the population of a country is actively supporting the committing of war-crimes. Israel is literally becoming a war-criminal nation. No country exhibiting the policies it is currently pursuing should be considered part of the civilised world. In fact, it is a very real and present danger to it.
    1
  1358.  @maskedavenger2578  Yes. It's all relative, I suppose. If you're a Nazi who watches GBNews or TalkTV, even the extreme right of the Tory Party must appear to be left-wing. But the vast majority of the population would call her extreme right.
    1
  1359. The Romans murdered Christ, not "the Jews". (whoever they are)
    1
  1360. No. The word is "humanity". To be fair, I can see how that would mean "troll" to someone sympathetic to Miller.
    1
  1361. Do I have this right?? Not if you think the Tory policies are unpopular because they are "very left-wing". This is the most right-wing government since the 18th century. What's more the Labour Party is led by someone who is to the right of most of Margaret Thatcher's cabinet.
    1
  1362. Along with proportional representation and automatic registration at birth or on gaining resident status, it would be one of the most transformational changes that could be made towards democracy. I also think that donations should be confined to individuals and democratically accountable institutions.
    1
  1363.  @schrodingerscat1863  Not really. They are generally hard-working and conscientious public servants with a strong sense of duty. The incompetent and shifty ones are usually those brought in by politicians.
    1
  1364. The IEA is fanatically opposed to democracy. The idea is to transfer power to the rich so that they can then transfer all the wealth to themselves. It's time this political lobby and commercial advocacy group had its charitable status removed.
    1
  1365. Indeed. Very much in control and performing a totally pointless manoeuvre. Sounds completely apposite to me.
    1
  1366. The October 7 "atrocity" stories were mostly lies. The Rabbi who claimed he saw mutilated babies admitted he lied. The injuries of the vast majority of the dead were caused by tank shells and heavy machine gun fire. Hamas didn't have either of these weapons. In other words, they were killed under the Hannibal Directive by tanks and helicopter gunships. They were murdered by Israel! And, the Special Prosecutor appointed by Israel has not been able to find evidence of ONE single sexual assault, let alone the stories of multiple gang rapes that proliferated after the raid. In fact, she asked for the law to be changed so that rape could be assumed to have occurred! How's that for confidence in the evidence? The evidence for all these things is in the public sphere so the idiocy of people who continue to tell these lies never ceases to stun me.
    1
  1367.  @Chriscraft50  Which "International Human Rights reports "? I only believe what the evidence shows. Israel refused to allow expert international investigators to examine the evidence so your claim is rather strange.
    1
  1368. Not allowed to go about his everyday life while he is being tried for a criminal offence? Who'd have thought such a thing could happen in the United States of America? Perhaps all those other people who go through the same process...
    1
  1369. ​ @agaaga8762  Not true. Immigrants are net contributors. They contribute to the economy by working or running businesses and they also pay tax. The UK's hostile attitude to immigration will be its ruin.
    1
  1370.  @gosia199  Left-wing government??? You have to be joking!!! You could only describe Starmer as left-wing if you're an out and out Nazi.
    1
  1371.  @endfox324  It's the fastest because it started from further back.
    1
  1372.  @endfox324  Yes. They were allowed into the Euro because Goldman Sachs cooked the books for them so that it was easier to sell stuff to their ruling class. That's what broke them.
    1
  1373. Er. Trump's claiming that tens of thousands of people are bussed in and paid to go to Harris's rallies. What is being reported her is a couple od dozen. If you don't understand the difference between those figures and their ramifications, I hope your grown-up is keeping you away from sharp objects.
    1
  1374. Israel is finished. The world now knows that it is a racist and genocidal colony and any politician in any civilised country who supports it is going to get voted out. Soon it will only have the US with its economy destroyed by Trump.
    1
  1375. Well done! You've just explained why boom-and-bust happens
    1
  1376. "I found Donald Trump very gracious". Did they edit out the bit where he said "I'm not bothered about him being a fraudster, adjudged rapist and admirer of Adolf Hitler"?
    1
  1377. "... the idea that someone can care and be on the right is either beyond you or to be ignored" Yes. You have inadvertently put your finger on it there. We have had Neoliberal governments (I include Blair and Brown)since 1979 and it is clear to most that such a notion is beyond anyone who has paid attention over that period. Charles Koch is not alone amongst Neoliberal sages in saying that because self-interest is the only possible driver of economic progress then empathy (caring) is weakness and leads to economic atrophy.
    1
  1378. What utter nonsense! There are also Episcopal courts for Christians and Beth Din courts for Jews. All three operate under the same rules: that they are limited to certain kinds of civil cases; that both parties have to elect to use them; that both parties have to agree to be bound by their decisions; that no remedy the court prescribes can breach British laws. It is of course outrageous that superstitions have such legal status but if you're going to reject one then you have to reject all.
    1
  1379. ​ @steve10  You're right down the Islamophobe rabbit hole, aren't you? It was the Christian countries that burnt people to death for being heretics. Have you never heard of the Inquisition? The Russian and Polish Pogroms? That's why there were such large Jewish communities in places like Salonika and Tehran. They fled to Muslim countries to escape persecution by Christians. I suggest you consult a properly researched history rather than relying on the sort of nonsense you get on You Tube.
    1
  1380. What do you do when every credible institution accuses you of war crimes? Set up your own gaslighting institutions with credible-sounding names but stuffed with your own supporters. Why was this fraud even given air-time?
    1
  1381.  @alihenderson5910  No. Not at all. Peterson is a pseudo intellectual. He pontificates about stuff he knows very little about and uses long, rambling and ultimately meaningless word salad sentences blended with impenetrable jargon to make himself look clever and obscure the fact that he doesn't know what he is talking about. It's a clever trick. The audience he addresses is too stupid to see the flaws in his convoluted arguments and too lazy to check what he presents as fact. His "take down" of Cathy Newman was pure ad hominem. Loach, by contrast, uses simple and direct language, carefully researches his subject and attacked Montague's claims and arguments, not her as a person. Do you see the difference? Probably not.
    1
  1382. Yeah! cos that's how many people vote UKIP/Brexit Party/Reform/[insert next Farage scam here], Yeah? Maybe not. It's not even 19% chum. This is the lowest part of the the lowest common denominator. If it was 90% we'd all be dead cos there wouldn't be enough sensible people left who knew how to feed us!
    1
  1383. I love the way that he's said it so many times that it's become word: Trumpater. Go Trumpaters
    1
  1384.  @GarySausen  He was advocating selling it in a basket of currencies and a number of oil-producing countries were considering the idea. That's why he had to be stopped.
    1
  1385. You think "most people" are on board with the erasure of diversity? This is a commercial ad, bro. Such things are based on market research. If it doesn't sell cars, they'll try something different. If it does sell cars, you'll see more of it. Whether it's "woke" or not doesn't enter into their calculations. I thought that you right-wingers were into markets.
    1
  1386. Well, yes. Since 1979, the UK has had unbroken Neoliberal government. It's culminated in Brexit and it's in trouble now. It doesn't matter about the rich people leaving. They're mostly here to take advantage of our corrupt financial institutions and unfair tax system. The important loss is young skilled people who create REAL wealth.
    1
  1387. Yeah! Let's all be grifting ex stockbrokers!
    1
  1388. Yes. Cos, they killed Sinwar and that ended the war in Gaza. Then they killed Nasrulah and that neutralised Hezbollah and allowed Israel to completely over-run Southern Lebanon. No. Wait a minute. I might have got something wrong there.....
    1
  1389. You've hit the bullseye on his intentions. However, this is not the 1890s when the US was the NEW kid on the block, ready to muscle in on and swamp the markets of the old regimes who were about to reach the apex of their development. The soaring newcomer now is China, backed up by its BRICS allies and partners. They'll be rubbing their hands with glee as Trump makes the US economically uncompetitive and militarily weak. He may even find some states demanding to secede - and they'll be the richest ones.
    1
  1390. Dark days ahead. Trump's clownish behaviour will have dire consequences, not only for the US but for everyone else too. The light at the end of the tunnel is that perhaps it will come out of it a little weaker and less able to dictate policy to other nations. That's assuming that the super-annuated orange preppy doesn't go completely out of control and push the big red button in a tantrum, of course!
    1
  1391. Sadness and hope. I was fed the Labour Movement from birth. My parents could never have imagined not voting Labour. Miss them , though I do, I am glad that they did not live to see what their beloved party became. It's been taken over by people who advocate for the very things it was set up to fight. The establishment think that they've defeated us by taking over what was our party. But you can't kill an idea by replacing it with a human cipher like Starmer. All is not lost. We have the Greens, we have Plaid Cymru, we have (with some reservations) the SNP. And if they infiltrate those, we'll create others. The fight goes on until we win.
    1
  1392. The Labour Right would never do that. Under FPTP, people are fearful of voting for left-leaning parties because of the danger of splitting the vote and letting in the Tories. PR would result in the emergence of alternative left groups, such as the Greens and The Workers Party and would squeeze out the so-called "moderates" whom, you might remember, have already been tested and found lacking with the SDP and Change UK debacles. The Labour Right would rather be in opposition to a Tory government than in a genuine coalition government with the Left.
    1
  1393. I think that a combination of STV and mult-member constituencies works fairly well. Party-list systems tend to give too much power to party leaderships. In Scotland, we use the D'hondt system, a compromise in which MSPs are directly elected and then a top system (from a list) is used to ensure that each party gets represented according to its share of the vote in that region. This was originally concocted because it was assumed that Labour would otherwise have a permanent majority under FPTP and the idea was that it would force the use of coalition. For local elections, we have STV but without the multi-member aspect. No system is perfect but, apart from ATV, all are better than FPTP.
    1
  1394. ​ @simonjohn9525  I've just re-checked. You're right. AV is the one that favours third parties but in practice can actually result in a less proportional outcome than FPTP. That's why the Lib Dems liked it. I'd still favour it over most other systems because it gives minority views a voice they would not otherwise get. My second choice would be D'hondt.
    1
  1395.  @simonjohn9525  Indeed. We would all have to accept the fact that views we disapprove of would be represented. The point is to prevent an extremist plurality from capturing the whole government and imposing its will on the majority - as Thatcher, Blair and Johnson did.
    1
  1396.  @richardhead3062  "Very few deaths were caused by friendly fire". Only if you believe the IDF's version. The Electronic Intifada created a timeline which shows that the Israeli version is laced with lies. At one point, they had to revise down the civilian death count because there were several hundred guerillas mixed in with the bodies. That could only be because they were killed at the same time and in the same way. We know from one eyewitness account that tanks were firing into buildings knowing that both civilians and guerillas were inside. The helicopter gunships (yes. They were there) were ordered to fire on all vehicles heading towards the border fence - knowing that many of the people in those cars would be hostages. And let's not forget the nonsense about mangled babies and systematic rapes - all debunked. There may well have been atrocities committed in the 7 October action but the claims made in the aftermath were mostly concocted with the clear intention of encouraging Israeli "soldiers" to commit atrocities in the ensuing invasion of Gaza. "The Islamic Fascist Fundamentalist H4M45 " A contradiction in terms. Fascism and Islamic Fundamentalism are two mutually exclusive ideologies. Neither of them are very nice but chaining them together in that way renders the sentence into nothing but mindless name-calling. "The issue is that their genocidal ideology does not want peace and they don't care how many of their "Own" people are killed. " Incredible projection. Zionism is a racist colonial ideology and is genocidal by definition. That's why the country that follows that ideology is currently being investigated for plausible genocide and has already been judged to be an apartheid state. And a country which is refusing to negotiate the return of hostages and which put the Hannibal Directive into operation just over 12 months ago is in no position to accuse others of not caring about the lives of their people.
    1
  1397. Israel shot itself in the foot when it got Mehdi sacked from MSNBC. Becoming freelance has made him a much more dangerous opponent.
    1
  1398. Straitjacket please....
    1
  1399. The sounds of dog and family in the background make me smile while I'm condensing what you say. It humanises the videos.
    1
  1400. Cryptocurrencies aren't guaranteed to retain their value. In fact, they are all dodgy pyramid systems which can collapse at a moment's notice. That's why anyone with any sense sticks to currencies that are backed up by democratically accountable governments.
    1
  1401. The laptop wasn't blurred out in the original video in which it could clearly be seen that the keyboard was in Hebrew and the charger had an IDF issue sticker on it. So amateurish in their confidence that their "evidence" wouldn't be scrutinised.
    1
  1402. At some point, one of Trump's supporters is going to do what he is clearly asking them to. Someone is going to end up seriously injured or worse. At that point, those who have failed to put him where he cannot do such harm should be made to answer for such ommission.
    1
  1403. Our welfare state destroyed to protect the most corrupt and oppressive government in Europe.
    1
  1404. By "permanent" he means when all Palestinians are either dead or in Jordan or Egypt. Evil man!
    1
  1405.  @physiocrat7143  I think you'll find that most of us ridicule foolish pseudoeconomics.
    1
  1406. Sums it up perfectly.
    1
  1407.  @physiocrat7143  It has several variants. The most obvious one is the "school" established in 1947 in Mont Pelerin in Switzerland. It luminaries have included Von Mises, Von Hayek, Friedman, James M Buchanan and most laughably, Charles Koch. The flaw in their arguments is that they have been tried, often at gunpoint, and failed miserably. The only reason this pathetic group endures is because it prescribes remedies which rich people like so it is well funded.
    1
  1408.  @physiocrat7143  The UK has been continuously run by Neoliberals since at least 1979. That is why we lurch from crisis to crisis.
    1
  1409. Yes. But better to get rid of the Security Council and the vetos of the big powers.
    1
  1410. He may well not want Fascism per se. But those he is about to enable do want it. Project 2025 IS Fascism and it's going to happen.
    1
  1411.  @JohnSkeel  😭😭😭😭😭
    1
  1412. "So many things I said were debunked" Therefore they were biased against him! Alternatively, he said "so many things" that were untrue that they had to be debunked. At the other end of the scale he accuses her of lying because she connects him with Project 2025. He's literally asking for her opinion to be fact checked!
    1
  1413. And is that its democratic will? Do you see what I pointed out there?
    1
  1414.  @michaelmayo3127  I don't disagree but I was arguing the in the context of the articlle
    1
  1415.  @swojnowski453  Brexit IS Neoliberalism! The likes of Rees-Mogg and Boris Johnson convinced a bunch of turkeys that Christmas was the answer to all their problems.
    1
  1416.  @billB101  He bowed to the right-wing media over the supposed NEED to do it. To be fair. It's probably not fear. It's more a matter of him agreeing with their heartless and economically illiterate viewpoint.
    1
  1417.  @billB101  Er yes. It's objective fact. He has continuously followed the path dictated by the right-wing media. Assuming that this so-called "black hole" had to be filled (it didn't) , he could have done it with taxes directed at the rich.
    1
  1418.  @incurableromantic4006  You do know that was originally a Zionist slogan? It literally meant that ALL Christians and Muslims would be removed from Palestine. When it was adopted by the PLO back in the 1970s, it was to call for a single multi-ethnic democracy. As for "internal threats", THAT's the claim of the people my Dad went to France to fight in 1939. The "other" they were attacking was different but the aim was the same.
    1
  1419. Israelis, especially the skilled and educated ones, are leaving the country at an accelerating rate and the Israeli economy is in shreds as a result. In the US and Europe, young Jews are increasingly turning away from Zionism. Young Israelis in the meantime, are refusing to turn up for military duty even as Israel has opened up a fourth front (after Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis) in Syria. I admit that this could be wishful thinking, but it seems to me that the Zionist project is stretched out about as thinly as it's possible to stretch. And yes, Damien, this video has cheered me up no end. I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas and I'll look forward to having my thinking prodded once again in the new year. Nadolig Llawen!
    1
  1420. The founders had to escape a tyrranical government that they thought would abolish slavery and prevent them from seizing Native American land. By the way, calling him a "lunatic" is unfair. Some of my best friends are lunatics and I feel I must protest on their behalf.
    1
  1421.  @yourcarpro7072  That's easy. They could have told their customers that they were selling a product and that they were getting commission for doing so. I'm astonished that you need to ask. Are you so far down the rabbit hole of devious and misleading behaviour that honesty and candour are alien concepts for you?
    1
  1422.  @yourcarpro7072  Oh! It was totally ethical and legal? Then there'll be no payouts.
    1
  1423.  @yourcarpro7072  Yes. I'm sure many of the fraudsters will get away with it - just as the Pension and insurance mis-selling crooks got away with it. Not a single one of them went to jail.
    1
  1424. Um no. Christ wasn't indicted by a grand jury, given a chance to answer the case against him in a properly constituted court and then convicted by a jury of his peers. He was simply condemned to death by the head of a colonial administration. To call him a "convicted felon" is outright blasphemy!
    1
  1425. So you think that you should be let off VAT for a commercial transaction so that you can benefit your child above others? I'm a pensioner and you're asking me to do here is subsidise your child's education. When all is said and done, you're nothing but a scrounger.
    1
  1426.  @siangriffiths3691  Education is not a personal economic good that you buy for yourself! It's a social good which benefits everyone in society. You're not paying for my kids. Nor am I. We all pay for the next generation to be educated. Why? Because it will cost a damned sight more if they (all of them) are not educated. See how well capitalism does with an uneducated population. What you're paying extra for is for your kids to be elevated above others - whether they merit it or not. That's why this country has been led by total numpties like Tony Blair, David Cameron, and Rishi Sunak. Everyone forgets that private schooling has two massive downsides: First of all, people who have genuine talent and ability are failed for lack of resources; Secondly, people without talent or ability are elevated beyond their abilities to the detriment of all of us. Yes. If they pay VAT, they'll be able to reclaim VAT on inputs. That applies to all businesses. Do you seriously think that's controversial? Were you privately educated too?
    1
  1427. Agreed. When I worked for a firm of tax accountants, I once accompanied an accountant to a Commissioner's meeting. She (herself an ex Inspector of Taxes) ran rings around them and proudly boasted later that they had missed several flaws in her arguments. Her salary was 3 times that of both the Inspectors of Taxes put together and, while she had a full week to prepare for that 30 minute hearing, the Inspectors would have had the same amount of time to prepare for all the hearings they had that week. Needless to say, the amount saved by the client (and therefore lost to the rest of us) was eye watering.
    1
  1428. Everybody's doing it? First of all, no. Not to the extent Trump was. He wasn't adding 10% and negotiating down. He was adding 30% to 40% and more, often valuing dead and empty space as if it were earning. Secondly, should others be prosecuted? Hell, yes! If people are breaking the law to this extent, they should be made accountable for doing so.
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  1429. Shows that being a Tory doesn't mean you have to be an amoral and vacuuous twerp - though I find that a very difficult thing to say. Oborne puts many so called leftists to shame with this incisive and clearly deeply felt piece. Well done DDN for bringing it to us.
    1
  1430. "The Most Deplorable Member of Congress"? You're being unfair to Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, Rick Scott, Paul Gosar, Scott Perry and plenty more. MTG is certainly a contender for the title but there's quite a wide field....
    1
  1431.  @vickysharpe11  If you mean The 1834 Poor Law, yes, it has. It was replaced by the National Assistance Act in 1948.
    1
  1432. Italy has a quasi-Fascist government and one with awful baggage from the middle of the twentieth century. Yet, even they are morally superior to the genocidal colonial regime in Israel!
    1
  1433.  @glennholzinger4217  Exeter?
    1
  1434.  @frenzalrhomb6919  😆😆😆😆😆
    1
  1435.  @lordsoros627  Good grief! What a load of nonsense! Roosevelt was elected in 1933. Between then and 1939 he made very slow progress. But it was progress. That's why he got re-elected. It was the outbreak of the Second World War which really put it into effect. The need to build armaments created demand in its own right but the knock on effect was trade union empowerment and increased wages. The result was the biggest rise in living standards in history which extended well into the 1970s. It was a demand led capitalist boom. Nothing to do with socialism. No. Britain France and Spain did not have equivalents of the New Deal. The Right was in power in all those countries (especially Fascist Spain) until the outbreak of war. Following the war, Britain had a Labour Government, the French had a Gaullist (right wing) government but they both followed similar policies. Do you know why? Because they worked! Again, it was a demand led CAPITALIST boom. Fascist Spain followed a different path and remained one of the poorest countries in Europe until Franco died and it was able to become a democracy and join the EU. There are no "10 planks of the Communist Manifesto" though you will find them mentioned all over the internet. It's put there by people who know that their cuckolds are too stupid and brainwashed to go look for themselves. The HRE was a medieval institution which effectively disappeared as nation states came into being. Its last traces were effectively wiped out when the Austria-Hungary collapsed at the end of the Second World War - Though Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany also claimed to be its successor. Much good it did him! No-one even noticed when he died. The Nazis claimed their state was its third incarnation (ie The Third Reich) but again, a few years and they were gone. It no longer has any meaning whatsoever, no matter what your conspiracy theorising masters tell you.
    1
  1436.  @lordsoros627  More printer malfunction. You need therapy, pal. At the very least, you need to write English coherently. But first you need to think coherently. No wonder your country elected Trump. You're incapable of telling the differnce between reality and fantasy.
    1
  1437. It's selective justice. Did Indonesian assets get seized when it invaded East Timor? Have US assets been seized to pay for the damage it wrought in Indochina through the 1960s and 1970s? What about the damage done by the US's dirty wars in Latin America where local dictators were supported and protected while they siphoned their own countries' wealth into Swiss bank accounts? The big one mentioned by several people here is Iraq. That was an entirely unprovoked and predatory attack which killed hundreds of thousands of people and, together with the equally illegal sanctions regime which preceded it, destroyed an entire economy. The list of equivalents could fill an entire screen. I'm all for restorative justice but only if it's universally applied.
    1
  1438. Most of these people are related to each other - as well as being married to each other in many cases! The chances of a rational, educated candidate being selected in South Carolina are as next to zero as it's possible to be.
    1
  1439. Of course you don't see any videos of combat. These are not soldiers. They're just thugs in uniform. The IDF is not an army. It's an institutionalised pogrom. Western politicians should be ashamed of supporting this outrage.
    1
  1440. Trump should worry a lot about not having the guns taken away. As with Jeffrey Epstein, there must be a great many people who are worried about what he might say in a plea deal of maybe in open court. A suicide or gun cleaning accident might VERY convenient for some...
    1
  1441.  @МаркоМилић  er no. So far as it happened at all (Antifa respond to Fascist and pro-Trump violence), It's rioting, not terrorism. It certainly doesn't conform to any definition of terrorism I've ever seen. The Capitol Hill attack was an attempt to use threats and violence to terrorise legislators into abandoning their duties: slam dunk terrorism.
    1
  1442.  @МаркоМилић  No-one has yet produced ONE single piece of evidence that they did: Just unsubstantiated accusations against the voting machine companies (soon to be settled in court) and unconfirmed sightings of mysterious trucks - which no-one thought to photograph or take the license numbers. Even Trump's lawyer, Sidney Powell, has admitted that no reasonable person would believe the garbage she claimed. Of course, she wasn't talking to "reasonable" people. She was talking to Trump's supporters. Now she has to face a defamation claim for over a billion dollars she's not saying it anymore. It was Trump who tried to steal the election - with terrorism.
    1
  1443.  @МаркоМилић  "a plants of evidencrs"? That's gibberish. What are you trying to say? "Mrs Sidney" said just that! She claimed that she could say what she wanted as "opinion" to be tested in court. And why is she saying that? Because she doesn't want it to be tested in court! And why doesn't she want it to be tested in court? Because she knows damned well that it's a pack of lies that only Trump supporters would believe. If it gets to court, like Giuliani and Mike Lindell , she's toast.
    1
  1444.  @МаркоМилић  Yes If you define "fake news" as evidence based facts which Trump supporters don't like. The rest of the World (and the US justice system) tests "fake" by reference to evidence as Trump, Giuliani, Powell, Lindell et al are about to find out. All we have to do is wait for the court cases to play out. Then we'll know what is "fake news" and what is not.
    1
  1445.  @МаркоМилић Belief is something I don't do. I belong to the evidence based community. I leave the believing to gullible idiots. Luckily for con men like Trump, there are plenty of them.
    1
  1446. There's nothing new about Zionists and Anti-semites working together. Google Electronic Intifada's excellent video on the subject. It's a long 'un but well worth burning the candle. It shows that people like Chaim Weissman and Ze'ev Jabotinsky openly courted the support of Antisemites. And it's perfectly logical: Without Antisemitism, there would be no need for a Jewish state so they were quite happy to go along with the narrative of being "unwelcome guests who had outstayed their welcome". That's been a constant. Zionists were quite happy to have the support of the hate preacher Billy Graham who preached that Jews had been condemned to wander because of their (falsely framed) part in the murder of Christ, or Polish politician, Michal Kaminski who said that Poland should not apologise for allowing the Holocaust until Jews apologise for Communism. The Chief Rabbi of Warsaw described him as a good friend of Israel. So Yaxley-Lennon is just keeping a long tradition of co-habitation between Zionists and Antisemites going.
    1
  1447.  @mozjez2218  Um no. Israel is not unfriendly to the US. It is the countries upon which it is attempting to impose its will that are unfriendly to it. What makes you think I am unaware of Israel's history?
    1
  1448. For at least seventy years, Israel has been committing the most heinous atrocities and war crimes and telling lies about doing so. It has attempted to sink a US Navy ship, routinely massacred civilians, used rape as a weapon (as it is now accusing Hamas), indiscriminately bombed civilians, routinely deprived civilians of food, water and medical supplies and many more such crimes. More to the point it has been repeatedly caught fabricating evidence in order to frame those who resist its oppression for committing atrocities that never happened. NONE of its claims should ever be accepted at face value. If its claims of rape, beheadings and other such crimes on 7 October had any credibility whatsoever, they would have been referred to UN war crimes investigators, not turned into a heavily edited 47-minute video or leaked to the press in increments. The fact that these "atrocities have not been so referred tells us one thing: They are a pack of lies concocted to justify the genocide they are now engaged in.
    1
  1449. The Labour vote went up in Scotland because Tories and Lib Dems voted tactically to give the SNP a kicking. If not for that, the Labour vote would have been even lower. They got a landslide because of the absurd arithmetic of FPTP. With their popularity dive bombing as it is, the Tories will only need a very modest recovery in order to completely swamp them at the next election.
    1
  1450. The population of Gaza is Israel's hostage. This is the most awful of war crimes. We need to ensure that those weasels (like Starmer and Emily Thornberry) who shill for this know that they WILL be held responsible for their complicity in this dreadful crime.
    1
  1451.  @stevenwilliamson6236  Indeed. I want Scotland to be independent and I hope to see a United Ireland. But, in the meantime, if they want a "union", they should have some honesty and integrity about the way they make it work. I suppose that the silver lining is that, in the long run, the callous and indifferent behaviour of the likes of Starmer, Sunak, Johnson or whatever other cardboard cut-out the establishment use to rule us, will bring independence closer
    1
  1452. Starmer is the Right's candidate in the same way that Blair was in his day. The establishment have twigged the fact that their favoured party has now become so clownish and incompetent and that they think that it is bound to be replaced by the opposition at the next election. So they have taken over the opposition! The optimist in me tells me that they may well have miscalculated. There's no doubt that he's getting an easy ride from the press and media and is consequently getting a lift in the polls but I can't help feeling that he's alienated more people on the left than he will have gained from the so-called "centre". Let's see what happens in the local elections. It won't ( and shouldn't) be good for the Tories but is it going to as good for Labour as the polls would have us believe?
    1
  1453.  @danykonyohov3418  You are living proof of the evil nature of Zionism. I've just been reading about how the Zionist leadership in Hungary co-operated with the Nazis' deportation of half a million Jews to Auschwitz in return for one train of Zionists to escape. People like you aren't fit to lick the boots of real heroes like Bushnell.
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  1454. That's very similar to what people were saying about Labour in 1919 and Labour's vote actually decreased in 2024, as did the Liberal Democrats'. The way they are currently going about government, they will certainly be even less popular in 5 years time and get an even lower vote, losing even more seats to independents and Greens. Most of the Labour and Lib Dem gains from the Conservatives were by very small margins and, because of the silly arithmetic of FPTP, it will only take a relatively small Tory recovery to reverse the current situation.
    1
  1455. John Maynard Keynes: "Anything we can actually do, we can afford." I'm not a Keynesian by any means but he did at least understand the relationship between money and economics. The economic ministers of Atlee's (and Truman's, De Gaulle's, Adenauer's, etc, etc ) government followed his advice and gave us the most prosperous 3 decades in human history. The cheese-paring zero-sum nonsense that has prevailed since Thatcher (including under Blair and Brown) is pure economic illiteracy; nothing more than glorified book-keeping. Far from being an extravagance, the £28 billion was short by a factor of about 10. A green investment programme could create hundreds of thousands of skilled and well paying jobs - with a knock-on benefit of a skilled workforce available for other businesses and thus both a decrease in unemployment and an increase of spending into the economy. JMK would approve. Improved housing stock and decreased pollution and poverty would also have a knock on effect on health and education. It would be a wise investment, not an extravagant indulgence. The only people losing out would be those who make a killing from poverty, ignorance and poor health - or donors, as Keir Starmer would call them.
    1
  1456. What Musk doesn't understand is humanity. He was raised to be "The Elon", the technocratic leader in Werner Von Braun's Fascist utopia novel. For him, the rest of us are just there to be exploited or disposed of. So democracy is anathema: It's a dystopia where inferior people have dominion over him and that can't be right. That's why he's quite happy to destroy government.
    1
  1457. Belarus is a dictatorship. It's not been "Communist" for many years.
    1
  1458. What a clown! Black is NOT black; white is NOT white; anything I say is true because I say it; anything that contradicts me is propaganda and fake. Fantastically entertaining though. And the report is certainly going to raise the eyebrows of the judges.
    1
  1459. I love the way the front bit of this propaganda has a "censored" banner across it. And yet, here you are watching it! Not very effective censorship! How stupid do you have to be to swallow this BS?
    1
  1460. Spot on, Damian. And if they get away with it here, the next phase will be to push West Bank Palestinians into Jordan. What disgusts me most is that the leader of the UK Labour Party is an apologist for and supporter of this settler colonianalist movement.
    1
  1461. It's called capitalism: a scam for making the children of rich people even richer.
    1
  1462.  @natashalawes6038  Um...I think it's more likely that he'd be funding them. The link between Nazis and Zionists is long and well-established. Check out Tony Greenstein's book.
    1
  1463. Now who is it who keeps saying "Nobody's ever seen anything like it before"? Uuuh? Oh!
    1
  1464. Indeed. It encourages people to spend, which encourages people to produce goods and services, which creates wealth.
    1
  1465. Cos' tax evasion costs us more than twice as much £5.5billion to £2billion. Barely legal avoidance cost about £30 billion. Guess who has to make up for that.... BTW, where on Earth do you get 11 billion from?
    1
  1466. Imagine the Ukrainian Navy having a Balkan Fleet! Where would they park it?
    1
  1467. Libertarian comedian? Isn't that a bit like a vegetarian slaughterhouse owner?
    1
  1468. Of course they'll find evidence. They've probably been preparing it for months.
    1
  1469. The debate shouldn't have gone ahead without representation from other parties. The fact is that Starmer is frightened of being challenged from the left. If he had to answer the arguments of Greens, Plaid Cymru and the SNP, it would show that there is little difference between him and Sunak. At the other end of the scale, Sunak would benefit from the opportunity to distance himself from Reform UK. He does himself no favours by competing with them for nastiness.
    1
  1470. ​ @davecross4493  Thanks for that. I love satire. The one that made me laugh most was the "Labour's Broader vision" paragraph. When I joined the Labour Party 50 years we didn't even have to oppose anyone as right-wing as Starmer. They existed but they were on the most right-wing fringes of the Tory Party. What you call "far-left ideologies" formed the core of the Labour Party's policies at the time. It is quite disgusting that the media protects him from being exposed what he is.
    1
  1471.  @lewis123417  Nope. Starmer has chickened out of them. He's not able to be challenged from the left. It will emphasise the fact that Starmer's Labour Party is, for all intents and purposes, indistinguishable from the Tories
    1
  1472.  @davecross4493  That's very good. Do you patronise people for a living? If not, you should consider taking it up professionally. Labour has to ditch the working class to be electable? What about condoning genocide? Is that a "progressive value". We're told this charlatan is likely to be Prime Minister soon. It won't be with my vote. Most of my work colleagues also won't be voting Labour, nor my working-class extended family, nor my working-class neighbours. I have to wonder where the pollsters are getting their percentages from. Do they know where to find the working class? Or do they just consider those votes to be banked for Labour? If they do, they're in for a nasty surprise.
    1
  1473.  @SupremeBakedBean  Less federal government oversight? What medication are you on? Project 2025 means filling government posts with people who will enforce total federal government oversight. Books they don't like will be burned, teachers they don't like will be sacked, they'll enable those who want to enforce religious conformity, they'll crush trade unions, they'll look for ways of making sure that corporate media dances to their tune and they'll suppress alternative media.
    1
  1474. Good for them. I have to say that for me, the Republicans who disagree with him but support him because they think he'll win are the worst. The people who agree with his aims do at least have some sincerity - even if they have no intelligence! But perhaps this sort of ad might shift the "pragmatic" ones when they realise he's actually a vote loser.
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  1475. Just goes to show that Sunak is taking the route of throwing red meat to the racists, mysogynists and poor haters. In the last week we've seen the poor and mentally ill targetted as scroungers and parasites. Now we're getting the "vote for us if you want to stick it to refugees" ticket. The sad thing is that it could work....
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  1476.  @karlarcher8773  Even under FPTP, Labour got a majority of seats last election. But with proportional representation, no party would dominate.
    1
  1477.  @karlarcher8773  Their recent success in Scotland was due to Tories and Lib Dems voting tactically in an otherwise low turnout, and, of course, it was under FPTP. But the main point is that an English Parliament would have some form of PR. Neither of the two main parties would dominate. That's the reason they don't want it.
    1
  1478. ​@Minimmalmythicist Why would we lose it? Did the UK stop trading with the EU when it so stupidly left that? Do you think rUK is going to throw a strop and close the border or something? As if it can afford to stop trading with anyone! Trade will continue. Though, of course, when we join the EU, it will be on the favourable terms the EU has already negotiated with Westminster.
    1
  1479. ​@Minimmalmythicist Why would there be "far less access"? Are you seriously suggesting that either government would want to erect trade barriers? Why would they do that? The EU has reason to restrict members' benefits to members. Otherwise, there would be no point in being a member. The rUK would get no advantage from restricting trade access for Scottish businesses. This is one of the Project Fear myths which make no sense on examination. It has as much validity as the suggestion that we would no longer get Coronation Street or Greggs' sausage rolls! Yes. Both of these were suggested in 2014! I look forward to seeing the nonsense they'll invent for Indie 2.
    1
  1480. If you Google "Argentina's economy", you get countless accounts of how it has been hard but it has now turned the corner. We live in a world where most of the economics "journalists", themselves having taken courses in alleged economics run by neoliberals, have NO idea what economics actually is. The fact that Milei has impoverished millions is not a relevant metric for them. He has created a fiscal surplus and curbed inflation so he has succeeded! And now this incredible crypto scam. The man has shown himself to be a heartless conman, quite happy to cheat people out of their lifesaving to make a few of the well connected and already rich even richer. The reaction of the economics journalists? They just shrug their shoulders: It's not a good look but hey, it's just business. Capitalism works best when everyone looks after their own self-interest so we should all get over it. These people are utter clowns.
    1
  1481.  @Zaphod-ef9yz  What a vile, nasty and profoundly ignorant comment. For people on the basic pension plus a modest works pension, this will mean a choice between switching on the heating or eating.
    1
  1482.  @andrewhyde2560  The old nonsense about wages causing spiralling inflation? They don't.
    1
  1483.  @andrewhyde2560  No. It's not "fact". People get paid more, they spend more, the economy grows to absorb the inflation. That's not an off-the-wall theory. It's been understood by all credible economists for at least 80 years. If you take the trouble to punctuate your sentences properly so that you sentences are coherent, you might actually learn to structure your thinking so that your opinions are coherent. For example, you're arguing that what happens in Australia, a country with one of the highest standards of living in the world, is a disaster. Does that really make sense to you? Just asking.
    1
  1484.  @andrewhyde2560  Australian commercial practices have no relevance whatsoever to the subject at hand but your question is the wrong way around. You should be asking "Would you rather have the standard of living that Australia has or the one that we have?" Australia's businesses make that charge because people will pay it. Why are they willing to pay it? Because they get higher wages! The reason your mate has to make ridiculous hours to earn not very much is because he lives in a low wage economy where all the money goes to the rich where ordinary people can't afford proper prices.
    1
  1485.  @andrewhyde2560  There's a good reason why no one's answering your question. It's completely irrelevant to the subject at hand. You seem to be citing an Australian commercial practice and, for no apparent reason, linking it to a minimum wage figure which no one has proposed. To make it even more absurd, you start talking about the UK Labour Party. What have they got to do with anything being discussed here?
    1
  1486.  @andrewhyde2560  Why do semi-literate (note grammar and punctuation) reactionaries all seem to think that Richard Murphy is a Labour Supporter? Anyone with the political understanding of a twelve year old can tell that he's not.
    1
  1487.  @andrewhyde2560  Are you not aware that you need grammar and punctuation to make words mean something? Accusing someone of not making sense then stringing a series of words together into a meaningless word salad is is about as funny as you can get. Your dribbling nonsense might well be relevant to the Labour Party if anyone could translate it into English. But as it's unlikely that anyone on this web-site supports Labour, we have to wonder why you would want to share it with us.
    1
  1488.  @andrewhyde2560  "if someone should get paid more to work out of hours, why on earth would I come out of hours to your house for FREE??????" No. You're talking about two completely different things. If you worked for someone else, they would be paying you. That's the law, it always has been and no one of any political party is proposing to change it. If you're working for yourself, it has nothing whatsoever to do with minimum wages. It's down to commercial practice. For example, if I want building work done, the builder wants the work so he'll come and give me an estimate - or he'll pay someone to do it and work the cost of that into his prices. If I call out a plumber, on the other hand, I'll usually have to pay a call-out fee. It's certainly nothing to do with minimum wage legislation. I didn't say anything about your spelling, by the way. It's grammar that makes your comments unreadable. When we talk to each other, we use pauses and changes in tone to convey meaning. When we write, we have to use punctuation and capital letters to tell people when we're ending or starting a new sentence or phrase.
    1
  1489.  @andrewhyde2560  "Who are you or anybody to start reeling off ideas about increasing pay when I bet you employ not one single person." I'm a citizen in a democracy, pal. I have the same right as you to "reel off ideas" as you. Employing people does not give you special rights - no matter how much better than other people you think you are. "Quick question why would it be acceptable for a employer to have to pay someone, but not for you to have to pay someone who is self employed???" Because I am not employing him. I am contracting him. And you answered your own question when you pointed out that he will factor that time into his overall estimate. He is, of course, free to charge for giving estimates. That's his business decision. "British industry has been crushed and forced to move aboard due to a complete failure under the past labour government." I think you'll find that British manufacturing collapsed under Thatcher because her policies favoured finance capitalism. In any case, the following Labour government was no less Tory than she was and pursued the same policies. Blair has fully admitted that. A last thought for you. If minimum wages and unions are so damaging, why have countries like Sweden, The Netherlands and Germany, which have much stronger unions and higher minimum wages done so well, while the UK has declined? They also have much higher immigration, by the way.
    1
  1490.  @andrewhyde2560  Tax rates in Germany are similar to those in the UK. They are higher in the Netherlands and Sweden. All three countries have higher unemployment benefits but less unemployment. The UK is one of the least generous in Europe. Unfortunately, your outdated and disproven views have been the ones that have guided the narrative here for the last fifty years or so of uninterrupted Thatcherism. That's why we're declining.
    1
  1491.  @andrewhyde2560  "how they can better themselves instead of relying on the government to wipe there back side they voted for brexit after all." Yeah! And how's Brexit going then? Prospering in the brave new world, are you? You live in a fantasy world where Thatcherism worked and the rich make the economy work. It doesn't and they don't. We've just had 45 years of Thatcherism and, under Keir Starmer we're going to get another five. The British economy will sink even further into a low-tax low-spend ditch and you'll watch other countries speed past you - like Poland just did. But you'll will keep keep drinking the trickle-down Kool-aid and blaming everyone else for your failure as a country. Luckily, I live in Scotland and we'll be kissing you all goodbye in the very near future.
    1
  1492. Indeed. That rankles with me too. "Couldn't care less" means that you care as little as it is possible to care. "Could care less" means that you care enough to be able to decrease that concern. As for supporting Israel, assuming that all Jews are Zionists is itself Antisemitism. Political preference amongst Jews is as diverse as it is amongst any other group. There are Jewish Fascists, Conservatives, Liberals, Neo-liberals, Communists etc etc etc.
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  1493. No wonder no-one takes this channel seriously. Impeach Biden and Harris? For what exactly? No-one has produced a scintilla of evidence against either for anything. Trump has already been legally identified as a sex offender (technically not a rapist but only in New York), a court has found that he committed fraud in the valuations of his properties, there's overwheming evidence against him (including from his own mouth) in the documents case and he clearly attempted to steal the election in Florida with his "perfect phone call" (whatever that means). Beyond that, of course, he may well be prevented from holding office of any sort by the 14th amendment challenges which are pending in several states. Still, plenty of amusement as we watch him writhe about and incriminate himself even more as he makes ridiculous claims of "worthless" clauses and his bizzare and simply erroneous claims about the "Presidential Records Act".
    1
  1494. It's a bit like Dubya and Cheney - but on steroids. Musk is in charge. Period
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  1495. Ships circling Beijing? Wow! How much has it been raining?
    1
  1496. There you go. We've just seen the rise of Fascism in the European elections and now we're looking to see them surge in the UK elections with some Tories openly courting Farage as an ally. Dark times!
    1
  1497. All these people are extremely rich and powerful. We should take Ransome's recanting with a pinch of salt. Their ability to lean on her - even to the point of threatening death or harm to loved ones - is limitless. We should remember what happened to Epstein himself.
    1
  1498. Fake cops, fake autoworkers, fake firefighters, fake congregations and now fake McDonalds! Has he ever done anything that he hasn't faked?
    1
  1499.  @echohotel7975  He's never been successful at anything. He's just a lowlife grifter who feeds off the gullible and stupid.
    1
  1500.  @JoinTheTemple  "But it’s a sliding scale - the freer the economy, the demonstrably better it does." Absolute nonsense. The mixed economies of the Western powers, following the Second World War gave the highest rise in living standards in history. The return of free market dogma under Thatcher and Nixon arrested that progress and we are currently undergoing the biggest FALL in living standards in history. The main driver of the US economy from 1776 onwards was slavery followed by land theft and genocide. That's how the capital which brought about the expansion of the US economy was made. But you're right about one thing. An economy in which you can buy and sell people as if they were beasts of the field is about as free market as you can get. Neoliberals love Hong Kong. It's the centre of money laundering and corruption and has been since the British stole it from China in order to pursue the opium trade in the fine traditions of laissez faire capitalism: It's an entirely artificial economy which serves a niche purpose for the real economies around it. Using it as an exemplar of the virtues of the free market is simply ridiculous - as well as sordid
    1
  1501. The man is without shame. NOt a trace of decency in him. He is a stain on the Labour movement.
    1
  1502. It's not just the empty seats at the back. The seats at the side and at the front are spread out with big gaps between people. I'd be surprised if the place was much more than half full.
    1
  1503. "All you Fascists bound to lose" Woody Guthrie. You cannae argue wi' him.
    1
  1504. Countries don't exist by "right". They exist as historical fact, with the agreement of their neighbors and the consent of their people - all their people. Israel fails on all three.
    1
  1505.  @lat1419  That's one of the paradoxes of Neoliberalism. These people actually believe, as a matter of faith, that selfishness is good for society. So by screwing us, she's being a good citizen. I'm not kidding here. This is Liz Truss but in a different party. All of these people are nutters. Period.
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  1506. I hope he disinfected his tongue after it had been where it obviously has. What a comptible individual!
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  1507.  Marie Lucas  You reference the part where he says that Trump is entitled to special treatment? Why? This arse licker is just touting for business.
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  1508.  @richardwiediger7298  A "particular religion" is not doing that. Zionism is a political movement. You cannot condemn all Jews for their actions any more than you can blame all Hindus for the crimes of the BJP, all Christians for the crimes of Christian Nationalists or all Muslims for the activities of DAESH.
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  1509. "were they had lived in often deep oppression for a thousand years, " And why had they fled to such countries? And why did they stay there for a "thousand" years if they were living in "deep oppression"? Because remaining in Christian countries would have got them burned at the stake, perhaps? Because they lived relatively privileged lives as the educated class in such countries? And it's worth bearing in mind that "deep oppression" usually meant not being burned at the stake as it did under the Inquisition in Christian countries. It's so easy for extreme right ideologues like Kisin to fool people when they're unable to think through what they're actually saying themselves!
    1
  1510.  @videojgl  Dhimmi was a tax paid to avoid military service. Jews were free not to pay it and be conscripted. Many did that. And yes, they were often refugees from Christian countries where they were mortally persecuted. Thesalonika had a massive Jewish population composed almost entirely of Jews who had escaped the inquisition in the Hapsburg empire. The Ottomans made them welcome because they had useful skills and were generally good for the economy. Equally many of the Jews of North Africa came from persecutions in Spain and France. There were native Jews who were the descendants of those who had been converted over the years too. Jews and Christians in Muslim countries tended to be the better educated and occupied respected professions. This continued right into the twentieth century. And even beyond the so-called "Arab Nakba" there were significant Jewish populations in Iran and most North African countries. And yes, when there were hard times, both Christians and Jews were scapegoated to take the heat of the rulers. But these were nothing compared to the pogroms of the Christians. Your prejudice clouds you to the obvious historical fact that it was in Christian countries that Jews were primarily persecuted. England expelled its Jews after murderous pogroms in the 12th century. France had a wave of pogroms in the 14th century when Jews were blamed for the Black Death. Perhaps you've never heard of The Inquisition in Spain, the Low Countries and Central Europe? The Russians held periodic pogroms, culminating in the 19th and early 20th century when much of its Jewish population was expelled into Eastern Europe. And of course, the ultimate Christian pogrom was the Holocaust when between 5 and 8 million Jews were massacred in Christian countries - often with the open co-operation of priests and local Christian populations. Look up Babi Yar, for example. I'm an atheist. But it's clear to me that all religions (including Judaism) have pretty nasty skeletons in their closets. But Muslims are no more guilty of oppressing others than anyone else is. Certainly not more so than Christians.
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  1511. Why do your back drops feature cooling towers? Aren't they for fossil fuels?
    1
  1512. Being in denial of the knock-on consequences of your actions? That's been the fundamental flaw in every government since 1979. We call it Neoliberalism.
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  1513. I hope she's the first of many. I am sure that there are at least a couple of dozen Labour MPs who are decent enough to be appalled by this continuity Tory government. Hopefully, they will follow Duffield's example and grow a backbone.
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  1514. 5 years for blocking traffic, 13 months for assaulting a police officer. Many of these people went to refugee hostels intending to burn them down with people inside them. That's attempted murder. How many people have been charged with that? You're right. There is two tier justice. These Nazis are being let off lightly.
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  1515.  @BONK_2000  Yup. That's the neoliberal script. It's absolute nonsense. There were certainly a few stalwarts who held out against the sharks who wanted to financialise the economy ("reasonable change" as you put it). But it was not to be. The establishment set out to reverse 30 years of progress and they succeeded. Thatcher didn't save the UK economy. With the Big Bang, she destroyed it. She handed over the reins of the economy to the casino which we all know and love as The City. In 2008, we saw the consequence of that and we're still living with it.
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  1516. It will take a shock like the break-up of the Union to get any real changes.
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  1517.  @martinaston1715  Bully for you!
    1
  1518. And they promised them just ONE meal? How parsimonious can you get? In fact, I wonder if they even got that!
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  1519. I think you've put your finger on it here. These Fascists are fully aware of the fact that they can crush any US senator who goes against them; that Germany has declared that anyone seeking citizenship must embrace Zionism; that the UK government has members who demand that anyone demonstrating against Israel's genocidal blitzkrieg should be treated as Hamas supporters ( a crime in the UK); that the UK Labour Party has expelled members for speaking up for Palestinians. Effectively, this woman is saying: "I can say that black is white and vice versa and your governments and legal and academic institutions will back me up and say that the person who contradicts me is the liar". And she's right!
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  1520.  @suburbanyobbo9412  To begin with, I suggest that they are far from the most credible and trustworthy experts on fascism because they subscribe to liberalism. Fascism is a subset of liberalism. More importantly, I suggest that we make up our own minds about what fascism is by analysing what we see with our own eyes rather than defer to so-called experts.
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  1521.  @suburbanyobbo9412  Which ones are socialist?
    1
  1522.  @suburbanyobbo9412  I've read Mudde and he certainly isn't a Socialist. Renton's position is more nuanced than you suggest. He labels people like Le Pen and Trump as "New Authoritarians". The distinction between that and Fascism is cigarette paper thin. And anyway, in making that distinction he is an outlier on the left.
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  1523.  @suburbanyobbo9412  He writes quite often in openDemocracy and in the Guardian. He is not a Socialist. He's more aligned with left wing Democrats in the US or with the UK Labour Party as purged of Socialists by Starmer.
    1
  1524.  @suburbanyobbo9412  As I said, he writes often in the Guardian and in openDemocracy where he espouses views which are similar to those of Bernie Sanders or the UK Labour Party. What on Earth makes you think he's a Socialist?
    1
  1525.  @suburbanyobbo9412  If they're not socialists they're liberals
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  1526. 2025 was a stressful year? Goodness. I thought it was 2024. Damned watch stopped again!
    1
  1527. She's just paraphrasing Starmer and clarifying his true meaning. What he meant to say in that cringing quote was: Labour has changed, Tories can trust them now.
    1
  1528. This is the same stuff that the Spanish Falangists were saying in the 1930s. MAGA = Fascism. It's distilled evil. Simple as that.
    1
  1529. What you don't want to hear is "fake news", right? Evidence doesn't mean a thing to you.
    1
  1530. Love the way you say Pie Thon, man. Sometimes we Brits forget why we love you guys then you come out with that and equilibrium is restored.
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  1531. 😝😝😝😝😝 @zobbukit 
    1
  1532. "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." I don't agree with Edmund Burke on many things but he was spot on with this one.
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  1533. Zionism is based on a tissue of lies: Lies about the origins of European Jews; lies about the history of "Arab" Palestinians; lies about the awful war crimes that were committed during the Naqba and in the decades before it by the cowardly thugs of Lehi, Haganah and Irgun and so on. The biggest lie is the claim that they are fulfilling some sort of religious destiny. The Haredis are one of the most outspoken of those calling out false references to scripture used to justify the atrocities of the Zionist colonial project. They are truly desperate if they think that they can get these extremely pious and sincere young men to fight for their cause. It's a bit like forcing vegans to work in a slaughterhouse. I suspect that most Israeli generals would rather have no soldiers at all.
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  1534.  @eerr1438  Indeed. And England is not Britain - though many people seem unable to tell the difference.
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  1535. Just last week it came out that Israel had used AI in its Hasbara programme. It accessed the internet, learned everything it needed to learn and concluded that Zionism is a racist and genocidal colonial project and started posting comments saying so on Youtube.
    1
  1536. It's good news. But don't get complacent. I've seen a sure thing slip away so often. Everyone who can vote needs to get out there and do it.
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  1537. Yet another fake Labour politician rattling the sabre to impress the Daily Mail readership. They've all done it. Atlee with Malaya, Wilson with Aden and Cyprus, Foot with the Falklands, Tony Blair with too many examples to mention( with Gordon Brown writing the cheques). And now this blundering fool decides to jump on the gung-ho bandwagon. It'll all end in tears, you mark my words.
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  1538.  @coveredinbees3909  He's clearly one of those people who think that anyone to the left of Liz Truss (not even sure of that with Starmer) is a Communist and therefore all on the same side.
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  1539.  @ScarySox  Not really used to this debating game, are you?
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  1540.  @gwynroberson198  It has more money than it ever has because it's being funnelled to private providers. So, starved of resources? Yes. Massively. I've come across that statistical ONS trick before. Of course there's a high rate of pay "across the income range"! That applies to the whole public sector because of the high level of qualified staff that are employed by public bodies: In this case, nurses, doctors, radiographers, pharmacists and a whole host of other highly qualified professionals. The mathematical trick was exacerbated under Thatcher and Blair when hospitals were forced to out-source many of the lower paying jobs - incidentally, resulting in dirty hospitals and unpalatable food. My relationship with the NHS has been close for my whole life. I was hospitalised for months as a child. My father suffered all his life as a result of wounds sustained in the war. My mother had cancer. My own children benefited from excellent care as they grew up, care which is now there for my grandchildren and I am seeing both my in-laws get excellent professional care as they suffer the problems that come with old age. The problem with your attempts to denigrate this incredible institution and the utterly superhuman efforts of those who work in it is that we all see with our own eyes and our own experience that you are telling lies which are as transparent as they are venal. You must think we are all idiots. We are not.
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  1541. You're trying to be ironic but actually stating an objective truth. Of course they don't want to "learn". The ruling classes are doing fine out of impoverishing the rest of us.
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  1542. Don't give racism is a rationale. It's true that Judaism and Islam are not races. But neither are white or black. If the racist considers you to be a race, it's racism.
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  1543. What a hyoocrtite: "Combatting Nazism first involved beating Nazism". That wasn't the position of pre-war Zionists who went to the US to beg American Jews not to enact a boycott of goods from Nazi Germany, who invited Eichman to Israel to enlist Nazi support for a Jewish state, who described Jews in Europe as "uninvited guests who had outstayed their welcome". It's no surprise that Zionists should now make common cause with European "populists" (actually, Neo-Nazis) who want to create white ethno-states. That's exactly what they want to do in the Levant.
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  1544. ​ @kellyeye7224  Said luxuries arrived in the 1960s. Yes. Times were getting better. They went from poverty in the 1950s to marginally better in the 1960s.
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  1545.  @AgnusDeiSoldier What do you mean "haven't lost yet"? Britain's economy has already been overtaken by Poland FFS! And as it sinks in its own Brexit madness, Scotland, Northern Ireland and even Wales will break away. As for "bent", how much more bent can you get than an ex-stockbroker who claims to be a man of the people? But, to be fair, dying on your feet is certainly an ambition you're likely to achieve if you put con-men like Farage in charge.
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  1546.  @Uncanny_Mountain  "Wholly Romanian"? Vlad the Impaler, perhaps?
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  1547.  @Uncanny_Mountain  You left out aliens and JFK Junior
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  1548.  @Zodroo_Tint  "Something else" is absolutely what it should be called!
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  1549. "Look. This isn't going to win you an election". Yet the polls show that he is in with a chance of doing just that! If he does so, your Republic is finished. And let's be honest. It would deserve to be finished. He is stupid, evil and, if re-elected, extremely dangerous. A "democracy" that puts an amoral imbecile who behaves like this into power needs to seriously take a look at itself.
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  1550. This will be the same Ten Commandments that slave owners obeyed? The ones without "Thou shalt not kidnap, enslave, breed and buy and sell your fellow humans as if they were farm animals."
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  1551. NATO is a scam by which the US gets its military policy subsided by European countries. It was never about defence of Europe.
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  1552. What utter nonsense! Ukraine has made a small beachhead but it is losing troops at an unsustainable rate in keeping it. Initially, it was getting enough troops across at night to replace those killed or injured but now the Russians are employing drones with night vision and a high proportion are being killed before they even get across the river. In any case, Ukraine is literally running out of conscripts to take advantage of any successes. The average age of conscripts is now 43 and rising as the Ukrainian army is losing vast numbers to casualties and desertion. The military command is now demanding that the conscription age be extended to a band between 17 and 75. Yes, 75! There simply aren't enough young men left to fill the gaps. In addition, exemptions for illnesses like diabetes, mental ill health etc are to be removed and women are to be conscripted too. The US is literally fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian.
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  1553.  @stephfoxwell4620  Indeed. It also skews educational chances leading to wasted talent and talentless fools getting access to opportunities they're not fit for, blocks access to healthcare. leading to excessive sick days and generally blighted lives and encourages crime and corruption. That's just for starters.
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  1554. "Every time there was testimony which explained how ridiculous this is". How stupid is this woman? Trump was there to answer the questions put to him, not the ones he would have preferred. Of course the judge was going to stop him from speechifying!
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  1555. In the same way that generals always prepare a strategy to fight the last war, pollsters always adjust their calculations to fit the last election. They weight their findings according to trends they saw last time without considering why those trends happened. Conversely, they tend to miss emerging trends such as the stimulation of the Womens' vote as a result of Dobbs, the alarm caused by Project 2025 or Trump's felony conviction and the outcome of his civil rape case. It's dangerous to predict but it's possible that Harris will achieve a big enough landslide to head off claims of voting irregularities in the swing states,
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  1556.  @xtc2v  Nope. Muddled thinking is failing to to realise that austerity IS redistributing wealth - to the rich.
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  1557. Not only could NATO do it, most Western European countries could defeat Russia on their own!
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  1558. He's right. This is the beginning of the end of Zionism.
    1
  1559. There's nothing more ridiculous than accepting a Fascist's definition of Fascism. Both Italian Fascism and its German sibling were grifts - just as MAGA is. Both claimed to be anti-capitalist but, in fact, capitalists prospered greatly under both regimes and workers were suppressed on their behalf. This will, of course, be the case if Trump (or an equally corrupt successor) is returned to power.
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  1560.  @rjw4762  Indeed. Bring it on! Let's see how many of these actually exist.
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  1561. The financial markets are controlled by people who can move their money around with a couple of clicks of the mouse. They can safely invest in things which have short-term value because they can easily get out in time when a collapse looks likely. As things stand, these are the people who have power over our pension funds and they run them for themselves, not for us. That's why there used to be fairly effective regulation which limited what sort of funds we could invest our pensions in and this kept them safe from unscrupulous or incompetent fund managers. ( A good example of the "Nanny State", if ever there was one) Thatcher's de-regulation and other piecemeal tinkering since then removed such safeguards. People were encouraged to take their money out of safe final salary pensions and into dodgy get-rich-quick schemes which promised better outcomes. In fact, they have generally resulted in pitifully small outcomes and a lot of people are suffering hardship now as a result. We need to go back to proper regulation with the state pension being a bigger part of our retirement income.
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  1562. Ironically, the D'hondt system was chosen to prevent the Labour Party from being permanently in power. As for independence, we just need to convince more people. The core unionist vote is literally dying off and demographics will produce a majority in due course.
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  1563. The Labour Right live in an echo chamber where the only people they hear are their donors and press and media stooges. The idea that the great unwashed should have a voice of their own is filed under "controversial" or worse, "Corbynite". Nah! Just listen to the bosses cos' they're the ones the "centre ground" trust. In the next election, they will be pitted against a Tory Party that is the most ideologically repugnant and the most politically incompetent ever. But are working-class people going to turn out on a wet Autumn (October) Thursday to vote in a party which has based its policies on what the bosses want? Because it doesn't matter how much of the mythical "centre ground" they gain, if they don't get the working class, they don't win!
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  1564. If Jesus Christ was in the Labour Party he'd probably be expelled as an Antisemite for challenging the Pharisees.
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  1565. My Dad lost an eye fighting Nazis. Yesterday I saw the US Congress giving a standing ovation to one. When the war ended and he saw what had been done he echoed "never again" and here we see genocide again. Shame on the US and shame on this genocidal racist colonial project.
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  1566. I've seen several videos about the behaviour of Israel's allies, Saudi Arabia, in Yemen. Why would there be a video about Sudan? Is the US government supplying them with arms?
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  1567. Biden will fight Putin to the very last Ukrainian. The last thing the US wants in Ukraine is peace. Can we all just pray (I'm an atheist but I'm willing to try) that the Ukrainian people will realise that they're being taken for a ride and rise up against these crooks?
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  1568. They seem to be elevating this grifter into a messiah! I'm not religious at all but isn't this blasphemy?
    1
  1569. FFrothi Coffi am byth! But with an extra shot for my taste.
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  1570. Can't you tell? It's clear that she has personally canvassed the opinions of every living and voting American and knows for a fact that the majority of them support Trump. Only a complete idiot would make such a claim otherwise. Oh! Wait a second....I've just seen the flaw in my argument......
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  1571. The irony is that the Labour Party has become an institutionally racist party under Starmer. Racism which affects Muslims is fine by him - a fact made clear by his ignoring the findings of the Forde Report at the time of the EHRC report - that's the one which exonerated the Labour Party under Corbyn from the charge of institutional Antisemitism made by the Jewish Labour Movement, in case you missed it. Hotovely's racism is clear and unmitigated. She openly calls for genocide and openly states that Palestinians have no right to statehood. There is no way that association with her can be reconciled with Labour Party values. If he refuses to cut ties and call for her expulsion from the UK then he should be made to resign as leader and himself be expelled from the party.
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  1572. I remember reading that Zionist agents were suspected of perpetrating false flag bomb attacks against synagogues and other Jewish institutions in Buenos Aires and in North African cities in the early years of the Zionist state.
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  1573. Why are you sitting on that wee dog, Brian? No cushions?
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  1574. For at least 50 years, Israel has been in a position where it could have negotiated a peace settlement with both the Palestinians and its neighbours from a position of strength. It's always been clear that the Palestinians have been willing to negotiate and all Israel had to do was accept the same sort of co-existence that all sovereign nations have between each other. But that wasn't good enough. It's become clear that they not only want Gaza and the West Bank, they want to keep a sizable chunk of Syria, of Lebanon and possibly Jordan and even Iraq. Plenty of the maps of "Eretz Israel" circulated amongst Zionist fanatics (some of which are in Netanyahus's coalition) are available on the internet. But now it has crossed a line. It's behaviour even before the current onslaught on Gaza has led to it being investigated for plausible genocide by the international courts. It is losing support in both Europe and the US where loyalty to it was once unassailable. The weak and corrupt dictatorships that it so easily vanquished in 1966 are now strong regional players which have both military might, economic strength and diplomatic clout to be reckoned with. Its allies in the region like Sisi and the vile Mohamed Bin Salman are begging the US to reign it in as their own populations' anger about their complicity in Israel's crimes approaches boiling point. Israel's ship has sailed. The one-state solution - a democracy with the safety and integrity of all guaranteed by all states with a stake in the region - is now inevitable.
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  1575. "Even the middle classes are bailing". I've not seen much evidence of that. Many of those that packed off to Provence or the Costas are having second thoughts as a result of discovering that their post-Brexit status is not the same as when they were EU citizens.
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  1576.  @adenwellsmith6908  Where elsewhere? And exactly how many are doing so?
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  1577.  @Metro6am  Of course they do. It's a dictatorship. The possibility of waking up to a Fascist coup d'etat or Islamic revolution is considerably higher than it is in East Cheam or Weybridge. That's when you realise that paying tax is a small price to pay for what it brings you.
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  1578. There are MORE corrupt systems?
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  1579.  @imbonkers3629  Your very poor grasp of English grammar reflects your poor grasp of reality. You're a living embodiment of the real reason the Right want to spend less on education.
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  1580. Which podcast is that then, Nazi? You need to provide some evidence for your deranged claims.
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  1581. I love the way he takes Andy Ngo as an authority. Ngo must be THE most discredited "journalist" outside North Korea. The only person who testifies that he has put "his life on the line" is him. But, even if we take Ngo's invention of Antifa "cells" at face value, is Peterson incapable of considering this concept of "trivial minority of people who are off the rails" who "cause a tremendous amount of damage"? It's a point at which an honest intellectual would start thinking. For example, what does "member" mean? Is there a membership list? Are there conditions of membership? A constitution? A disciplinary procedure? A recruiting process? How did such an organisation come into being without leaving a trail of dissidents, informers, disillusioned ex members all willing to spill the beans to news organisations ready and willing to pony up mountains of cash as an incentive. You start asking such questions and the whole concept starts to look a bit silly. Actually, very silly indeed. But Peterson wouldn't ask those questions because he's not an honest intellectual. He's a fraud. He gets away with it because he's what the right would like an intellectual to be.
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  1582.  @vgstb  It's working-class vernacular for "the public"!
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  1583.  @rfxtuber  This proud pleb has no problem with that.
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  1584. Er no. Jews are as likely to be victims. The Right support Israel because they want all Jews to go there.
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  1585. Probably too late for this election. But it would be the beginning of the fight back after a Starmer victory
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  1586.  @waynelast1685  No she didn't win in 2023. Carroll did. And now she's lost again, costing him $83m. But she may well succeed in becoming his partner. After all, Melania is bound to divorce him soon so he'll need someone to change his diapers for him.
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  1587. Mostly. No way was Mugabe a Socialist, though. The land reform was a bribe to militias who might otherwise turn against him.
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  1588. Deeply unpopular? Really? This channel has 1.12 subscribers in total. Lineker gets more than twice that for ONE single programme! Anyway, if Lineker is stirring up the UK's Nazis, he's worth every penny of the licence fee.
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  1589. You could walk into any bar, barbershop, restaurant kitchen, gym, baseball game or anywhere else where people gather and randomly pick any man or woman present and appoint them as head of the FBI. The odds are that whoever you picked would be more qualified to do the job than this man.
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  1590. Wow! As many as six? Sunak must be terrified.
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  1591.  @Tensquaremetreworkshop  He or she is measuring space, things to fill it with, fastenings, tools and probably other things I am unaware of, not being a carpenter. There are as many of them as he needs to complete his task. The fact that each unit is fixed in value is irrelevant as the quantity of them isn't.
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  1592.  @Tensquaremetreworkshop  Not remotely puzzled. There always enough inches to measure the available materials and they can be designated in any measure he likes by agreement with other actors involved. It is the finite nature of the resources that matter, not the unit they are measured in.
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  1593.  @Tensquaremetreworkshop  Indeed. And there are as many instances (or copies) of that inch as you need! I'm starting to lose the will to live.
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  1594.  @Tensquaremetreworkshop  Money is for moving value, not storing it. That's like keeping you coffee in a spoon.
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  1595.  @adenwellsmith6908  Bitcoin isn't fiat money. It's not money at all. It's just a scam. The scammers get dupes to fill it with value and then get out before it crashes
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  1596.  @Tensquaremetreworkshop  Nope. It's not one of the "required" properties. The only required property is that people trust it enough to make transactions without fear of getting something valueless in return. It is there to enable transactions.
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  1597.  @Tensquaremetreworkshop  Anyone who has wasted any time on modern economics courses understands absolutely nothing about the basics.
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  1598. This could well be a matter of being careful about what you wish for. He's telling them to find evidence that the FBI orchestrated the attack on the capital; to properly identify Ray Epps and his associations; to identify payments made to witnesses in the "Russia, Russia, Russia hoax" and to dig deeper into all the silly conspiracy theories they can think of. What does he think they'll find? Methinks the results of such investigations may not look good for him!
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  1599. Of course some Antisemites will take advantage of the situation. They always have. That doesn't change the fact that Jews, Christians, Muslims and people not affiliated with any religion are protesting together against an unspeakable evil - genocide.
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  1600.  @Luckiestmanalive-bb1mi  There's no debate, pal. Neoliberalism is a dogma, not a theory.
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  1601.  @JMORG-q9y  So we've nothing to learn from this DeepSeek episode then?
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  1602. I'd say reluctant learners, rather than slow. Neoliberalism is an ideology, a cult even. It's not proper theory.
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  1603. Exactly what did Bishop Budde say which was "against Christian teaching"? Her sermon sounded pretty much in line with the Sermon On The Mount to me. There is no "DEI" in the UK. There is certainly a problem with our education system, which has been progressively degenerating since Thatcher.
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  1604.  @physiocrat7143  I don't recall Jesus saying anything about abortion rights. But then, he would certainly have been rejected as "woke" by the extreme right. Nope. Westminster council made an announcement about partners' compliance with certain conditions around equality diversity and inclusion. It is not the same thing at all as US positive discrimination policies.
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  1605.  @physiocrat7143  Fringe heretical groups? The Southern Baptist Convention has over 12 million members! And Christianity Today is the flagship magazine of US Evangelicals, founded by Billy Graham in 1956. He was also against abortion bans. Was he a fringe heretical? US presidential candidates who grovelled before him to get endorsements certainly didn't think so. There is no reason on Earth by women can't be priests. Certainly, nothing that Christ said.
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  1606.  @PolygonSwan  As opposed to Deranged Trump Syndrome? We love the right-wing trolls here. You provide entertainment and validation.
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  1607. I'm a very wobbly Christian but this guy makes me think of the words of the late Giles Fraser who was Dean of St Pauls for a while: He said there are two kinds of Christian: Christmas-and-Easter Christians and Sermon-on-the-Mount-Christians. In other words, those who care about what Jesus was and those who care about what he said. Everyone should have a good hard think about which one they are.
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  1608. He doesn't remember saying he has the best memory in the world? How funny is that?
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  1609. I love the way this guy explains stuff.
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  1610. "The Greens have their own problems with Antisemitism" translates as "The Israel lobby routinely makes unfounded and unevidenced accusations of Antisemitism against the Greens and we, the press and media make no attempt to challenge them for it."
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  1611.  @lemsip207  "The core Labour and Lib Dem votes are each lower than the Conservative vote". I'm not sure where you got that one from. If you mean Tories are more likely to vote than prospective Labour voters, yes, that's true. That's because the Tories always promise a more unjust society which favours the better off, and keeps that promise so the better off keep voting for them. Labour voters tend to be disenchanted because Labour promises social justice but has always delivered the opposite - especially under Blair and Brown. I don't call that apathy. That's blaming the voters for not accepting the poor alternative that Labour offers.
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  1612. She should have had coaching from a "Heartfelt remorse" counsellor. Even Alex Jones could act better than that.
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  1613. Starmer has abandoned the Labour base and now relies on the votes of reactionaries and racists. He's betting on those to the left simply fading out of the democratic process as they did under Blair. That's why he's abandoning everything the Labour Party ever stood for - which includes the internationalism implicit in the EU proposal to allow free movement of youth.
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  1614. Good to challenge the lazy thinkers - and tax is the ultimate subject for lazy thinking. I think we have to remember that tax has a number of reasons for existing. Raising revenue is only one of them. But the range of options you have suggested is very sensible and, more importantly, very easy. Starting with the low-hanging fruit can never be a bad idea.
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  1615. Reading the comments here, it is clear that this evil man's plan has backfired. All he has achieved is the exposure of the lies and machinations of his very sinister and nasty organisation.
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  1616. Yes. "The ability to explore, explain and understand". That is exactly what children should be getting from education. I think I would add "enjoy" to that list but otherwise it's what it should be. But I can't help thinking that our venal politicians would fear nothing more than adults who could "explore explain and understand".
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  1617.  @abody499  Yes. I'm old enough to remember when early primary classes were to told to sit quietly with hands on heads, stand facing the corner when caught being "naughty" (a whole area of discussion in itself), and learn to speak only when given permission to. We'd always accepted this as a way of keeping classes orderly so that the teaching could be done. In fact, learning to submit meekly to authority and not question or interrupt WAS part of the teaching.
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  1618. How do we get to a situation where we have to pull out our own teeth? Vote for any party which includes Lee Anderson! Give him 30p and tell him to go and buy himself dinner!
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  1619. "For 11 months, a fighting spirit filled their souls". You have to gasp at the level of delusion. When "fighting" means guarding settlers while they destroy aid convoys, torturing prisoners or sniping at small children, it doesn't have any problem finding their souls. Now, they are facing well trained, properly equipped and highly motivated soldiers, the soul seems to have clammed up a bit!
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  1620.  @alejandroadame141  Everybody wants to be a cat cos' a cat's the only cat who knows where it's at!
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  1621. ​ @87stevan  Sounds great to me. They can f**k up their own country and leave Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales alone.
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  1622. Hmm. So China wants him to be president, eh? I wonder why that would be? 🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫
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  1623. When the UK was threatened by Trump's hero, Adolf Hitler, Canada didn't hesitate. The UK should be with Canada now that it is threatened by Trump.
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  1624. Hannibal Lecter loves you, Donald? Play your cards right and you might get a dinner invite...
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  1625. The man's a Bond Villain!
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  1626. Trump's father's business model was to buy up cheap property occupied by African Americans, use the vilest of tactics to force them out, then "gentrify" and charge higher rents or sell on at higher prices. This plan for Gaza is just an upscaled version of the same thing. I'd like to say that he's evil but he's one stage beyond that. He's amoral. He doesn't even have enough humanity in him to even have bad morals.
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  1627. Aaaarrrggghhh!
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  1628. You're ashamed? How do you think Brits feel after watching Starmer kissing this monster's posterior? But you're right about his behaviour with Zelensky today. It was totally inappropriate.
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  1629. "Quite straightforward, quite simple and all fundamentally wrong ideas". A succinct and correct description of Neoliberalism. It's most basic requirement is pure nonsense. Nature abhors a vacuum but it just laughs at the idea of a free market. It simply can't exist.
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  1630.  @JH-lf4ql  Wow! You really have to ask??? The statement "breeding families that can't afford their breeding" indicates that the commentor is talking about people as if they are animals rather than fellow humans and doesn't care about their fate or welfare. This is clearly someone totally devoid of humanity. But, as I said, it is the stupidity and ignorance of basic economics that is inherent in such a view that is important here, not the commentor's lack of basic decency.
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  1631.  @JH-lf4ql  Yes. I assumed that. But, I repeat, the fact that you are devoid of empathy and human decency is not my point. It is your inability to understand basic economics that I am alluding to. Ultimately, throwing people on the scrap heap of poverty is MORE expensive and the taxes which you have to pay will be higher and the society you live in will be more unpleasant for everyone, including yourself. This is one of the reasons why countries with more progressive social policies are so much more prosperous than those based on the parsimonious zero sum false economics which the UK is currently locked into. By the way, no-one is fooled by your referring to your original comment in the third person. We know that you are the same person.
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