Comments by "Ash Roskell" (@ashroskell) on "A Different Bias" channel.

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  3. My dad had a condition similar to the protagonist’s in the movie Memento. He’d had a series of mini-strokes rendering him unable to make new memories. Imagine your dad asking you, “Will you drive me to the hospital to visit your mum?” Only to have to see his face crumple with shock and pain, once again, when I had to explain that she was dead and buried already, just a few weeks ago. Why am I sharing this? Because it was this man who fell, trapped his arm, got taken to hospital and there caught Covid, from which he died within a couple of weeks of admission. The trauma, for me, was compounded by the fact that my dad knew he was seriously ill, but needed to have the fact that none of his four children (nor his wife) were there for him accounted for over and over again. Covid was still a new crisis and nowhere near as well understood as it is now, and the rushed off their feet medical staff would not have had the time to patiently re-explain my dad’s isolation to him, or the different reasons for his wife’s absence from that of his children’s. Yes we could WhatsApp with him, but that was a haphazard, unreliable process, often mediated by an exhausted medic who’s English was little better than basic. He died hard. He died alone. He died not understanding why he was alone. And then I saw a video of a female press secretary in which she stood at a podium and literally laughed out loud about the drunken antics of the politicians from which she’d just extricated herself, finding their rule breaking somewhat hilarious. At that moment, when I thought about their motives for doing that, and mine for being tempted to break the rules when I even had to get special permission to travel from Scotland to the north of England to attend his funeral, I felt (for the first time in my life) the rage of a revolutionary. I felt like the Tories were laughing at me and every family that suffered through those times. And I resolved never to forgive them. Even if I could, one day, find forgiveness for their blind, venal, arrogant self service and lies, in my heart, I knew it would be damaging for the country to allow this, “Let them eat cake,” moment to pass unanswered. Whatever Boris’s, “punishment,” for his cruel dereliction of duty, failure to model basic leadership in a time of crisis, or downright lies, I can never get my last moments with my dad back. So whatever they do to Boris, it won’t be enough.
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  11. Exactly. Truth is, the Tories fear and loathe her. The very rich, and perhaps some snobs of the type who had to hold their nose when they voted for the likes of Lee Anderson, fear they will end up paying their fair share in taxes because of people like her. She has all of the benefits that people who like, “personality,” politics go for, with none of the drawbacks. She delivers genuine zingers at PMQ’s, she’s personally charming, eloquent, attractive and seems to genuinely care about the most disenfranchised, vulnerable Britains. I’m sure the Tories would LOVE us to think of Rayner as, “Marmite,” because their entire political model has been built on a foundation of DIVISION, wherever they can find it or (more often) create it! Even inside their own party. Their criminal conspiracy against her failed, when James Daily asked a Tory pal in the police to look into her background, without ever making ANY formal complaint until much later. When he realised he and his senior police officer bum chum might face charges themselves, they had to go back over the paperwork and agree on the same lies to make their investigation not appear as Stasi-like and blatantly criminal as it was! That’s just DESPERATION and they’re still desperate to get at Rayner by hook or by crook, because she’s one of Labour’s most popular and effective MP’s. She does her JOB! And the Tories can’t understand that about her! They probably think she’s a witch or something, because working hard for your constituency would NEVER occur to them.
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  26. Considering that our armed services are tiny now, compared to when the Tories came in, we simply cannot spare them anyway! But, I suggested in previous comments that Ben Wallace should dramatically, “Cross The House,” over to the Labour benches, as he really has nothing to lose and so much to gain. If we set aside his one gaff (having a go at Zelensky about a week ago, for, “ingratitude,” of all things! For which he could still apologise) he’s actually pretty talented as a diplomat and statesman, and has clearly spearheaded the charge against Russia, being instrumental in breaking the deadlock over tanks to Ukraine. He’s liked on both sides of the House, and has good relationships in NATO, the UN and in the EU. And he’s not seen as being any Tory camp. He’s shown loyalty to Johnson when he was PM, but no more so than Sunack now. And all the thanks he got for his efficiency and hard work has been to be left to twist in the wind as the boundary changes for his seat will leave him without the votes, in all likelihood, to remain an MP. If he’s had talks with Starmer, perhaps offering to bring some other Tories with him over the weeks (Sit TF down, Johnson, no one wants you!) for that drip, drip effect that gets the whole nation and the press on both sides crying, “Can we have an election now!?” Starmer will have offered him big rewards. And let’s face it? He’s a vanishingly rare item in politics: a competent Tory, free of scandal and not hated by at least 50% of the population. He would be a genuine boon to Labour, perhaps continuing in his current post, under a brand new constituency? . . . Just a thought . . .
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  76. I didn’t quite follow what, “Horizon,” actually is? Something to do with cooperating on technology, or science? I wish you had explained it, for dunces like me? But everything else in this video was vividly clear. I very much like your style. You get a lot of information out in a clear, comprehensive, unvarnished way, trusting your audience to infer what they will from the facts, without putting any, “spin,” on it. That’s something we used to be able to rely on the BBC’s political analysts for, but it saddens me to say we simply can’t any longer. Not that the BBC is, “terrible,” but ever since it became a political football (since the early 1990’s. At least, that’s when I noticed the change in tone and constant implicit threats made in Westminster regarding the renewal of their Charter, or their license fee?) I’ve seen a bizarre twisting of, “agendas,” within the organisation, where they seem to want to please everyone and end up pleasing no one. It doesn’t seem to occur to Auntie that she should simply remain unbiased altogether. Anyway. I love the name of your channel, btw. A Different Bias is sort of a stroke of genius, if you ask me . . . which you didn’t, but there you go. I’m getting sort of addicted to this channel. I always come away feeling like I’ve had a good gossip about Westminster with a smart guy who can fill the gaps in my knowledge without making me feel thick about it. A bit like a big brother you look up to. Thanks. 👍
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  88. I would be utterly unsurprised if these WhatsApp exchanges amounted to little more than a gag reel of sick jokes at the bereaved’s expense and evidence that ministers knew they were actively doing real-world harm, and handing off their responsibilities to civil servants, because they had no clue as to how anything works. My suspicion is based upon the very firm foundation of my own experience of finally coming home after the funeral for my dad, who died of Covid, for which I had needed special permission to travel to England from Scotland to attend, and which had been complicated by my dad’s mental health which made his death particularly hard and cruel, only to switch on the TV to see a Tory press spokesperson LITERALLY LAUGHING OUT LOUD to members of the press, in front of camera, and for some reason believing this would not somehow become a headline story! LAUGHING, by the way, at the drunken antics of Cabinet members and Number 10 staff at Boris Johnson’s birthday party! Nay, PARTIES, plural! I was so emotionally damaged by that experience that I could have physically harmed Johnson had he been within blind rage shot! I carry that vertigo inducing sense of horror and despair at the realisation that the very people in which you have placed your trust at a time of crisis, are literally drunk at the wheel and think the whole thing is FUNNY! I kept seeing those (ironically enough) WhatsApp images of my dad, unable to make new memories, asking where his children were, having it explained to him, yet again, and then forgetting and only knowing he was dying alone, abandoned by his loved ones for no reason he could understand. That image is SEARED into the scar tissue of my brain. There is no, “healing,” that. But, every time I hear of yet more attempts to either play games with the truth, or to bury ANY of it, for a PUBLIC enquiry that THEY set up, I once again want to strangle a Boris Johnson type. They should just arrest the lot of them and get warrants to turn over every nook and cranny of their private spaces. Lord knows what they’d find!
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  140. The irony is that their coverups draw more attention and cause them to be even less popular than the actual things they’re covering up! I mean, who TF will be even remotely, “surprised,” that all of these WhatsApp messages contain nothing more than a gag reel of sick jokes at the bereaved’s expense, confessions of knowingly doing harm, insider dealing for their friends and family’s brand new, “companies,” meant to provide the protection equipment for hospitals, and MP’s handing off all of their own responsibilities to civil servants!? My dad, having had a series of mini strokes, was like that protagonist in the Christopher Nolan film Memento, where he couldn’t make new memories and he kept asking for his wife, my mum, whom we’d buried the year before. He had it explained to him over and over again that his four children were not allowed to be with him, and why, but forget again within minutes. So, in his world, he died of Covid, alone, and heart broken, unable to comprehend why he was alone. After going through a series of loopholes, so I could get permission to attend his funeral, travelling from Scotland to England, I returned home, weary and emotionally exhausted, so I only have myself to blame for putting on a current affairs program. But the first image I saw when I got back, now SEARED into the scar tissue of my neuro-divergent brain, was some Tory press wonk, standing before the agog press and a live camera, ACTUALLY LAUGHING OUT LOUD at the drunken antics of Cabinet members and Number 10 staff at a series of parties for Boris Johnson’s birthday! I can never relate that vertigo inducing sensation you get when you have been forced against your better judgement to place your trust in the government at a time of genuine, worldwide crisis, only to see that they drunk at the wheel! And LAUGHING IN YOUR FACE! I know there are many out there who went through something similar, some of them with worse mental health issues than me to begin with. And I will NEVER forgive or forget that utterly self-entitled, reckless, arrogant, cruel indifference to the fates of so many trusting fools like me. So now, when I hear that they want to cover up what we all KNOW we will find - cruelty, selfishness, indifference, arrogance, theft under the guise of business as usual and flat out incompetence - I once again feel that revolutionary RAGE boiling in my blood. It will be good for the country when the Tories are sent into the wilderness and not allowed to re-enter the corridors of power until they’ve culled their far right deliberate antagonists of the people and self enriching Masonic lodge Liberal Economics clubs they call, “think tanks,” altogether. But in the mean time, we have one HELL of a mess to clean up and a MOUNTAIN of hard cash to reappropriate for the people who earned it.
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  144.  @Rich-ng3yy  : You can relax. It didn’t annoy me. I was curious is all. I haven’t, “debated,” with you at all. Indeed, I was merely pointing out that there is nothing to debate. I cannot speak for, or about, your feelings. They are yours and you are entitled to them. But you didn’t qualify your remarks either, with an, “in my opinion.” You stated your views as though they were established facts. I am not aware of her saying anything, “unfortunate,” or any of the other adjectives you attached to her public role, so I simply wanted to know what these incidents were. You must understand, when you make comments about politicians that have value judgements attached to them, on a political channel, in response to a political comment, during an election period, it is natural that people will ask you to qualify your assessments. They may even wish to, “debate,” you, though I was seeking no such thing. I may have. But my questions were merely about getting more information, perhaps looking up the incidents in question, about which you may well have been right. All of this to say, you have your, “feeling,” about her, and that’s fine. More power to you. She has said some things you found, “unfortunate,” but you cannot recall any of them, so that’s just a feeling too. That’s also fine, but it is equally meaningless in terms of offering anything to the discussion. Yet I would admonish you to expect, “debate,” on a channel which is pretty much for that purpose, and not act all surprised when people challenge assumptions, check your statements or, as was the case for me, merely seek clarification. Hope this somewhat lengthy comment clears things up a bit? No harm, no foul. The rest is up to you.
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  160. I would support national service if it was for two years and each conscript was allowed to choose between one of three options: 1) The armed services, obviously. And you can learn a skill or two that can go on your CV, as well as shore up our shrinking armed services’ numbers, which is an issue that needs attention as well as money. 2) Health and Social Services. Again, these services are desperate for staff and meaningful skills could be taught to young people for their CV’s, whilst they prop up the services by doing all the grunt work, while the NHS can redirect some of their real money to be spent on doctors, nurses and other skilled professionals, along with the equipment and premises they need. Just DON’T allow any, “friends and family,” contracts with people who are married to MP’s providing equipment that is unfit for purpose! 3) Community Projects. I started out in Community Resource work, in a previous life, and there is mountains of stuff to do and an awful lot that could be done if we got enough bodies to do the liaison work and build relationships in these communities. Everything from play-schemes during the school holiday periods, to needle exchanges, and countless other outreach projects which strengthen communities, build relationships between people in those communities and foster positive relations between local government and those communities. If all of them lasted for two years, they would be long enough for the participants to gain meaningful skills and qualifications. AND they would be long enough for participants to make a meaningful difference. And with their new qualifications and the knowledge of their contribution to society, each draftee will emerge with a sense of ownership over their contribution and a sense of responsibility toward their country and communities, making them better informed and responsible, contributing members of society. Of course, informed, educated and responsible members of society is the last thing that Tories want, so they wouldn’t dream of running it like that. Especially if National Service could result in the extended longevity of Health, Social and Community services, which they want to privatise by running them into the ground. But, if Labour were to pick up their ball and run with it? Doing it properly, in the manner I suggested? . . .
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  165. Isn’t it obvious to everyone, what actually happened? . . . “Brexit changed left wing voting habits,” for the simple reason that the general public were more worried about the possibility of a government overturning a democratic referendum and the UK no longer being a democracy, than they were about which party was in power. The Tories were promising to honour the Brexit vote, and that won them the election. The fact that we did not get the Brexit that was advertised came as a surprise to precisely no one, except for those right wing voters who were naive enough to actually believe in people like Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson. I, and many people I know, voted Tory at the last general election, not for any ideological reasons. I simply believed that overturning a national referendum was such an egregious mistake that we would no longer even be a democracy anymore and we could easily wind up with governments that refuse to accept election defeats, as we later saw the Republicans attempt in America. What we actually DO about this seems pretty obvious to me too. We simply have to seek terms with Europe that closely align us on trade, human rights, strategic military goals and justice, without surrendering our sovereignty and without sacrificing our right to make policies on a case by case basis, when it comes to new crises affecting the world. And that’s something that the Tories have been fighting against since Margaret Thatcher. So, we have no alternative but to change government, if for no other reason than getting friendly faces into power that the Europeans will find acceptable, in order that we can iron out new deals without the baggage of the Euro-Skeptic politicians round our necks.
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  181.  @martianunlimited : Underrated comment, there, my friend. That’s all there is to it. Be born with money and make a, “career,” out of paying to have your name slapped onto every pack and warehouse of the most successful projects, and let each company’s own publicity department get going on the myth making, with bonuses for those who raise your profile in a positive way and by a measurable metric. Sit back and look for more stuff to buy. The only way that plan ever goes wrong is when you fall for your own myth and start buying controlling shares in your investments, so you can, “make decisions.” Then, if your ego is really fragile, you’ll be spending the rest of your days looking for none-specific groups who cannot sue you for scapegoating them for your every mistake, like, “the woke,” or, “the left,” or, “bleeding heart liberals.” You think you’re getting away with it, but now people have started actually scrutinising your, “decisions.” And the smarter ones out there having started doing their homework and delineating the line between the point where there was a thriving, growing, future focussed business, and when YOU started making decisions, and realising that this is where things started to go wrong, each and every time. With the exception of SpaceX of course . . . Because NASA and the American government have never allowed you to fuck around with the science or the budgets and retained the last word on every decision of importance. But, you still get to pick the colour of the cockpit, so . . . Well done you . . . 🤭✌️
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  185. By the way, I must challenge that assumption that it was, “complacency,” that caused people to vote for other parties, rather than the Labour Party, since they knew they would win anyway. You can only tag those who don’t bother to vote with, “complacency.” I wanted Labour to win, but I didn’t vote for them, since they stood no chance in my constituency. Most of all I cast a TACTICAL vote, because it was between the Tories or the SNP in my constituency. I voted SNP to stop the Tories. And it worked. I think the use of that term in this context will be taken very negatively by people like me, who voted according to the advice of the tactical voting campaign, since it overlooks the very fierce opposition so many voters had for the Tories. Lots of different political persuasions followed the tactical campaign on the web and took advice on how to vote in order to STOP THE TORIES. That was NOT complacency, but political activism writ large across the land! And, as so many pundits seem so worryingly quick to forget, the tactical vote goes a long way to explaining why Labour won so many seats, yet did so rather narrowly in so many constituencies. The tactical voting campaign was far, far bigger than most news outlets either comprehend or are willing to give credit for. Largely, I believe, because they don’t want to encourage a trend by acknowledging its power to create meaningful changes in the political landscape. It is being treated like British politics’ dirty little secret. I wish someone would commission an independent study into how many people were aware of the campaign, versus how many voters cast their vote not, “for,” any particular party, but just to STOP the Tories? I think the answers would be game changing.
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  206. Ben Wallace needs to get into talks with Keir Starmer! In exchange for the supreme sacrifice of crossing the House, he could be offered a good job by the Labour Cabinet? Perhaps encouraging some others to come with him over subsequent weeks for maximum, drip, drip, “When’s the election, already?” effect? Sit down, Boris! No one wants you! The doors are slamming shut in all directions anyway for Wallace, as his seat was redefined by the new boundary reorganisation and he is believed to be one of the big beasts of Torydom at risk of losing his seat now anyway. He’s no longer guaranteed the Conservative voters of Preston and he’s at the mercy of Lancaster’s more cosmopolitan ministrations with a large student population to boot. Could he do a Chris Patton? He was a Tory who’s reputation for hard work and talent saw him being offered the governorship of HonKong by Tony Blair’s Labour government, overseeing the island’s transition back to China. Then he got a post chairing the BBC (which he wasn’t very good at in public meetings, that’s for sure) again, under Labour. Mr Wallace ought to apologise for his remarks last week, to wipe that blot off his copybook, and make some overtures to Keir Starmer, perhaps even to stay on in his defence post? He is already a known quantity in Europe with good relationships in the EU and NATO, which is no mean feat for a Tory. As is the fact that he appears to be untainted by any of their scandals. The pressure to become part of Johnson’s sewer, Truss’s mad house, and now Sunack’s pit of despair, incompetence, graft and insanity, all rolled into one must have been immense, so we might just have a Tory that’s worth something to the public interest here?
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  225. This seems like new phenomenon that has stunned the population into a kind of confused inactivity. A new breed of Brown skinned Brown Shirts whom it’s hard to call out for their obvious racist dog whistling due to the colour of their skin, yet it’s obvious they are pulling up the rope ladder that their parents used to get them into their privileged position. We thought Pretty Patel was bad? Braverman is hacking at the rope ladder with a meat cleaver! She might as well be a sleeper agent for the Chinese or Russians at this point! I genuinely wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what they found! Both left wing AND right wing analysis of geo politics is pointing one thing! WE NEED A POPULATION BOOST! We ESPECIALLY NEED the type of young people with the drive and determination to risk everything to get here, and the sort of integrity to prefer that dangerous option to giving in to the dictatorships they are fleeing! China and Russia are both on the brink of economic implosions, for a range of reasons, but right at the heart of both is the fact that their populations are shrinking, and they’re being left with an increasing number of elderly retired people whom the state cannot generate enough income to look after, as the number of working youth, generating income they spend to stimulate the markets and that all important TAXES which pay to prop up the state, are vanishing! Our population has stagnated and desperately NEEDS an injection. The nations willing to do what it takes to create a baby boom, or welcome migrants willing to do all those ONE MILLION (count them! ONE MILLION PLUS!) JOBS going begging in the UK, that we don’t want to do, especially for the terrible wages, are the nations that will come out on top in the next 10 years and will have financial assurances lasting 30 years beyond that. But, no . . . This corrupt administration will cling to power for as long as possible, NOT in the hopes that they can turn things around, despite telling the press that, but simply to raid the sweeties from the sweetie shop before it shuts its doors on them for a generation of wilderness years! By their OWN SUMS government losses, due to, “Waste, Incompetence and FRAUD,” has gone up in the last five years almost 1,000%!!! How MUCH has it cost them to keep those figures out of the headlines, do you think? Over £26 BILLION POUNDS! I’m genuinely wondering if we should treat the Tories as a national security threat? They just seem to want to break the country so as to ensure Labour could never hope to fix it again?
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  279. Let’s face it? What the government should be putting in every single speech that references the economy should contain three major talking points, for the rest of this Parliament. 1) The last budget of the Truss government EXCLUDED the OBR, the Bank Of England AND the Treasury! 2) The last budget of the Sunack government EXCLUDED the £20 + BILLION POUNDS MISSING and HIDDEN from the public, whilst the Tory government’s OWN FIGURES confirmed a RECORD BREAKING £26 BILLION POUNDS LOST to, “Waste, Incompetence and Fraud!”!!! 3) The last Tory government, despite being questioned about this in every forum imaginable, from the press, to the Commons and Lords, to the COURTS and sworn statements in government committees, have yet to offer ONE SINGLE, “benefit,” that Britain reaps, or is yet to receive, from Brexit! Not ONE Tory minister, or any minister from other parties that are pro-Brexit like Reform UK, has EVER stated a SINGLE, “benefit,” from Brexit. Not ONE! Labour should be seizing every single opportunity to pummel these points home until the entire country is at least AWARE of these FACTS, whether they excuse or deny them or not! They should be making the TRUTH as inescapable as the consequences we are ALL OF US suffering as a DIRECT consequence of Tory entitlement, self interest and atavistic greed! Every single Labour (and Lib Dem) MP and candidate should be making these three points the centrepiece of ANY discussion on public finances and speaking in terms of their proposals, policies and actions being direct response to the financial CRISIS the Tories wantonly lead us into. Sure, we want to hear solutions, answers and policies that move us forward. But every single one of those policies NEEDS to be set in context so persistently, so often and so articulately that even the Tory client press cannot avoid printing their words in black and white, hearing it on the radio, seeing it laid bare in any and all news coverage. It needs to be organised with military precision and the commitment of an election campaign. Then, when the public has NOTHING ELSE to talk about; when whatever new situation arises and is duly set into the proper context, it will become an abject impossibility for any of this current iteration of the Tories to get elected ANYWHERE. Anyone who was in government during the economic meltdown under the Tories will be marked by the pirate’s Black Spot and will need to seek employment outside of politics or lose their deposits at the polls. And any talk of a potential, “Johnson comeback,” Will be met by derision, even in the Tory press. Only then will the country (possibly) get an opposition worthy of office, capable of doing what a healthy democracy needs, which is holding government accountable, for REAL issues and holding their feet to the fire in parliament. But, as you have observed on multiple occasions, the one thing the Labour Party is bad at, and really needs to get better at, as a matter of urgency, is communicating with the public. So, I doubt this would ever happen. But, a man can dream, can’t he? . . .
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  286. The bigger project for me, that I hope more Brits will spread the word on, is to get the Tories down to Third Party status. The Tory project has not just failed us this time, but resulted in unforgivable damage, some of which can never be repaired. But it’s worse, even, than that. They have no plan for Britain, which makes them as likely to grasp at straws dangling from the Nazis as it does old fashioned conservatives. And the evidence for this is their increasing tendency to lean into deliberate divisiveness and the far right rhetoric imported from America’s Republican Party. “Woke,” as a pejorative; “Open Borders,” as an allegation; and active hostility toward large sections of the electorate, from the dispatch box, with the conscious aim of deepening fear, anger, outrage and widening those ideological gulfs of division through a type of soft core media terrorism, are all imports from the Capitol of school shootings, mass murders and insurrections we know as the once, “United,” States of America. I want to see a concerted campaign that nips THAT hard in the bud and answers it in such a resounding fashion that the conservatives are forced to spend a wilderness period culling their most egregious race baiters, like Braverman, Patel, Rees Mogg and Mister, “Stop The Boats,” himself, Sunack, whilst also having to kill off their most egregious carpet baggers, like the Quasi Chancellor Kwarteng, and his side kick, Liz Truss, Boris Johnson and, once again, Rees Mogg. Between the Liberal-Economics of attempting to privatise everything from transport and clean water to policing and the health service and the sheer, blatant carpet bagging of, “personality politics,” as characterised by Johnson, Rees Mogg and that despicable waste of organs, Matt Hancock, we’ve devastated Britain in a giant game of British Politics’s Got No Talent, like we were playing a popularity contest with the nation’s future! And in the same manner that so many winners of Britain’s Got Talent manage to win because the public wants to make a point, rather than believing in the ability of the contestant, so the winner ends up vanishing into obscurity again, we’ve done the same with our votes! Except, the pond is too shallow for our failures to sink without trace, and we’re all forced to deal with the corpses of their populism, rotting and floating among us, daily. We cannot escape our failure of judgement and just, “stop going on about it,” as so many wish we would about Brexit, or Prime Ministerial corruption, or the simple failure of INSANE economic policies, because we’re all having to deal with them, every day! The only way we get to, “move on,”m from this mess is if we honestly accept our mistakes and face them, fix them (as best they can be fixed) so that then, and ONLY THEN, do we get to move on and stop talking about them. And that means that the British public needs to seize this once in a lifetime opportunity to galvanise a national Tactical Voting Campaign so that the Tories are not just beaten, not just Landslided out of power, but utterly CRUSHED! Even those who care about Conservatism could get onboard with that, as it presents conservatives with an opportunity for a complete restructuring of the Tory project from the ground up, and to revive their core values that were once so popular. That simply cannot happen while the people in charge are either blatantly corrupt or abjectly incompetent, or both. Tactical Voting! Look it up, spread the word. Do your bit for Britain.
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  333. Nationalise water and transport. Save the tax payers from having to pay for Tory greed and force fines on the previous owners, taken out of the bonds issued for the purchases. Then use that fund for a public housing startup service for young families. No rents, but zero interest loans, payable after the mortgages. And designate the houses by percentage minimums for every constituency, with councils empowered to decide where they go in their own zones, by a deadline. If they fail to meet the deadline, the money goes back into the central pot to be reallocated to constituencies which have been fulfilling their obligations. Meanwhile, start immediate negotiations with the EU with the long term goal of re-entering the single market. Some good will can be generated by reaffirming our commitment to international law and enshrining the EU human rights legislation into our own books. Use windfall taxes to lower energy prices and shore up our military, and take some windfalls from unusual places, like the arms industry, who will have a vested interest in remaining in business with a nation that’s growing its armed services and is producing replacement weapons and equipment for all the stuff we’re sending to Ukraine, which shall be increasing for the next couple of years anyway. While all this is happening, grab up the headlines by reopening all the books into Windrush, Grenfell Tower and the post office scandals and prosecuting people. Where prosecutions are no longer possible, or loopholes allow the culpable to walk free, take away their gongs and introduce legislation to prevent further such abuses and to close any escape hatches for those who might think they can get away with stuff. While those books are open, you are all but certain to catch people with their hands in the tills, or burying bad news, in the act. Make examples of them. Play to your strengths, sound financial management and work on your weaknesses, like social media and popular public figures in the media. And, while we’re at it, crush the client media with a raft of legislation that levels the playing field. You can’t tell people what to say, but you can make statements as to political affiliations mandatory on all outlets and publications, thus being able to hold those with none to account, and enforcing equal numbers of outlets permitted (never exceeded) nationally and regionally.
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  334. A genuine secret to successful podcasting that not many people know: NEVER allow the term, “um,” “ah,” or, “errrr,” to make it to the final cut. And NEVER say, “um,” or, “er,” live. There are techniques you can adopt for seeing to this and I promise you it will make the difference between how many audience members tune in and how many you retain for an entire podcast. It’s a genuine psychological reaction that is only just showing up in studies, but something we can all intuitively grasp. Umming and erring is what makes people tune out, change the channel, or decide it’s frustrating to listen to. It’s the one thing that Radio 4 live broadcasting is prescient about and does well. And I don’t doubt it is included in their training packages. That is, “training,” for those presenters who aren’t already too famous and prickly to admit they could benefit from training. Trust me on this. It will change your fortunes. The brain just reacts super-negatively to hesitations and digressions. Especially impatient or autistic brains, like mine. But autism is far more wide spread in the world than most people realise. And the key to audience retention lies here, in this one small change to presentation style (especially in live broadcasts) that will probably prove to be the biggest net positive for the least effort. Never allow yourself to digress (always stick to the point) and never, “um,” and, “err.” I know I come off as a bit dotty, but I honestly would bet serious money that you’ll notice a huge benefit in very little time, once you master the technique. And, obviously, I’m speaking as a (none member. I don’t, “join,” groups) huge fan, wishing you nothing but success and growth in the future.
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  341.  @seang2700  : Quite possibly. But that has NOTHING to do with Tactical Voting. Simply voting is already a selection from the lesser of two evils, which you describe as, “negative voting,” for some, as yet, unexplained and impenetrable reason. What you described there is the normal state of affairs. Tactical Voting is a, “Positive,” act. It is a coordinated action, employed by an informed electorate who are taking back the reigns of power, as is their democratic right, and using the system to alter the political landscape. If we are never to be offered a satisfactory party, with an honest commitment to reforms, or even to see through their own stated policy goals, we can still eradicate the most egregious party, thereby putting those who remain standing on notice that they had better see to it that they deliver their promises or die trying, as the electorate hold the keys to their office and now have the power of the internet to coordinate OUTSIDE of their controlled stomping ground. That is about as close to revolutionary as we can get in a technological age. And about as close as we should want to come. Any action that empowers the demos and strips the entitled classes of their fiefdoms is a, “positive,” act. But it is also one from which only good may come, even if it only half works. For me, the best possible outcome would be the formation of a Labour/Lib Dem Coaltion, and voting reform. So, here’s my question for you: You bandy this word, “negative,” about, as though you were accusing Luddites of smashing their machinery in a pointless act of vandalism, and that is partly because you’re clearly disturbed at the upsetting of the status quo, despite the fact that this incarnation of Tory has done nothing but for the last 8 years. So, tell us what is actually, “negative,” about Tactical Voting? If you actually know, that is? And, if you’re not just grabbing at a definition like a bogey man to frighten the children? In what way is Tactical Voting actually, “negative”?
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  343.  @seang2700  : The, “personal rancour,” you identify came from you. You called tactical voters, (and, by extension, me) “stupid.” That was your angry response to the, “grain of truth,” you don’t like to chew on in your otherwise steady diet of Tory mush that you are so obviously used to swallowing. I note you will not, because you cannot, answer the simplest question: What is negative about tactical voting? That was just your way of dressing up something you fear, in hopes of persuading the credulous. It is also why you fail. See, it hasn’t occurred to you yet, but what, “negative,” outcomes should we fear? That the economy might tank? Already happened. That inflation might skyrocket in a manner that is demonstrably not related to world affairs and purely a problem of our own creation? Already happened. That the NHS might get privatised until we end up with a health system not fit for purpose which puts people in debt for the rest of their lives if they have an accident or unforeseen illness? Well, that’s happening but still worth fighting for to undo the most egregious changes and to prevent the rest from happening. What are we meant to, “fear,” Mr Bogey man? That essential services like the provision of TAP WATER isn’t, “Pretend-Privatised,” when it’s actually handed over to a SINGLE company in each region with NO COMPETITION ALLOWED, making it NOT a business but a FIEFDOM! And that’s WHY they’re getting away with polluting EVERYTHING, because they’re not even in a Liberal-Economist’s wet dream but more like a 17th century royal family! What POSSIBLE, “harm,” could an alternative to Tory hegemony DO to Britain that the Tories have not ALREADY DONE? That’s a SERIOUS QUESTION, BTW. I know you will attempt to answer neither, already. Because you HAVE NO ANSWER. You are either in the pay of the Tories yourself, or you’re one of those unthinking drones who simply gets all upset at the idea of, “change,” because you were brought up to think of all alternatives as, “Looney Lefties,” and never had the wit or imagination to read a book! My, “passion,” is derived from the fact that, like all Tories, you think you have the, “entitlement,” to call those who think differently to you, “stupid,” whilst manifesting your own un-self-aware stupidity, and expecting people to take it without answering back. It derives from the obvious fact that you cannot see the, “germ of truth,” in front of you but you are ignorant enough to dismiss dissent as if you actually had something (ANYTHING) to actually, “say.” It comes from the HORRIBLE death of my father and returning from his funeral (for which I had to get special permission to go to) exhausted and frayed, only to see a Tory staffer, talking to the press, in front of cameras, telling them about the drunken antics of Number 10 staff and CABINET MEMBERS and LITERALLY LAUGHING OUT LOUD! In my face!!! My depth of feeling is similar to countless millions who shared my experience and who KNEW they would NEVER vote Tory again, so long as ANY of these goons remain in the party. And if you claim to have no, “feelings,” about that, it will simply confirm the vapidity of the Tory mindset. But you needn’t bother making such a false claim, as it is clear that you do have feelings. You feel FEAR, because you see the very real possibility of annihilation for your imagined (and utterly unreal) status quo, which you express through anger, and a typically devious Tory attempt to transfer that fear onto others. Well, you have failed. Indeed, all you have achieved is to remind me as to why it is SO important that the Tories are not just defeated at the next election, but necessarily CRUSHED for the good of the country. Have a fearful, anger inducing, Tory day, son . . . SMH
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  358. Honestly, this is becoming the, “Nigel Farage is Bad,” channel. He is bad, but come ohhhn? You said it yourself, “You can argue that it works for populism in general.” Here’s a genuine idea for combatting the spread of Faragistic populism: STOP putting his face on EVERY OTHER THUMBNAIL! Can’t you see it? You can empirically PROVE that Farage is greedy, stupid, manipulative, racist, criminal and just plain WRONG about everything! Yet that won’t make the slightest difference to his followers except to reassure them that he is the top bogey man figure for everyone left of Thatcher. You are actually HELPING him! YOU are establishing Farage THE man to watch, regardless. And you are allowing him to, “dictate the narrative.” The very thing you just warned against! Isn’t it worth sacrificing a few thousand clicks? All you are doing is making him the de facto leader of the right wing and the right wing themselves are taking their cues from people like YOU; and those whom the centre and the left keep putting up as their bogey man. Yes, he needs to be discussed and regularly, and seriously . . . when HE DOES SOMETHING! But it was NOT necessary for you to use him in this thumbnail AT ALL for this video, since this is a general topic about tackling populism, not just him! I am speaking in good faith, as a fan of yours, who has followed your channel for years. I understand that his face is probably getting you higher viewing figures. But you have a RESPONSIBILITY here. Please think about what I’m arguing here?
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  361. Sunack’s election, “pledges,” are actually deeply alarming. Most people don’t know how, “inflation,” works and, “halving,” that doesn’t necessarily mean that food or petrol prices will come down at all. Note; Tories avoid putting it in terms of, “cost of living,” because they don’t intend to bring prices down. “Growing the economy,” only means Stock Market and big business stuff, which has NO MEANING to the person on the street, who needs to understand that economic growth does NOT benefit people unless they’re already wealthy! It’s just a sound bite. And sinister at that. As is, “Reducing NHS waiting lists.” NOT, “Improving the NHS,” or making pay and conditions better and therefore more attractive for people seeking to work in the caring professions. Why do they target waiting lists? Because they want to PRIVATISE more and more of the NHS and shortening waiting times is the bribe they intend to use to get privatisation in through the back door: which they have increasingly done throughout their time in office and which they only did more vehemently when Covid struck! And, don’t even get me STARTED on, “Stop The Boats!” Literally NO ONE wants that, asked for that, or sees it as ANY kind of a, “priority!” No one except Swastika-tattooed Nazis and brown-skinned brown-shirts like the PM, Cruella Braverman and her predecessor, which constitute an apparent new breed of Nazi that’s emerged to confuse the hell out of Brits these days, including the Nazis themselves! In fact, we NEED immigration desperately! And these people are more than willing to do the more than ONE MILLION JOBS in Britain that are going begging because the locals don’t like stacking shelves, picking fruit and hod carrying for some Polish guy with a better grasp of economics than any Tory and moderately better communication skills! But THAT would be too much like common sense for the Tories! Instead we get TOLD that we are racists who want to turn THE most vulnerable humans on the face of planet Earth into political footballs for the lowest common denominator! Seriously, people! F*ck these racist, feckless, entitled, lying, thieving, Tory scum!
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  376. You’re probably right, but it needn’t be that bleak? I mean, isn’t it obvious to everyone, what actually happened? . . . “Brexit changed left wing voting habits,” as this streamer put it, for the simple reason that the general public were more alarmed by the possibility of a government overturning a democratic referendum and the UK no longer being a democracy, than they were about which party was in power. The Tories were promising to honour the Brexit vote, and that’s what won them the election. The fact that we did not get the Brexit that was advertised came as a surprise to precisely no one, except for those far right wing voters who were naive enough to actually believe in people like Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson. I, and many people I know, voted Tory at the last general election, not for any their ideological reasons. I simply believed that overturning a national referendum was such an egregious mistake that we would no longer even be a democracy anymore and we could easily wind up with governments that refuse to accept other votes, like election results, as we later saw the Republicans attempt in America. What we actually DO about this now seems equally obvious to me too. We simply have to seek terms with Europe that closely align us on trade, human rights, strategic military goals and justice, without surrendering our sovereignty and without sacrificing our right to make policies on a case by case basis, when it comes to new crises affecting the world. We still have considerable economic clout, which buys us a seat at such a negotiating table, if for no other reason than everyone still likes having MONEY. Yet, alignment with Europe is something that the Tories have been openly fighting against since the days of Margaret Thatcher. So, we have no alternative but to change our government, if for no other reason than getting friendly faces into power that the Europeans will find acceptable, in order that we can iron out new deals without the baggage of the Euro-Skeptic politicians round our necks. European politicians cannot abide Boris Johnson, or his acolytes. We need people who Europe can do business with and whom they don’t hate on a visceral level.
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  397. Whilst it is gratifying to see these repellant Tories wallowing in self pity at their self inflicted wounds, backed by nothing more than their own unjustified sense of self regard, it is also chilling. It’s not the unedifying spectacle of former leaders airing their permanent sense of grievance, whether they’re in power or out of it, or their willingness to be seen as saboteurs with no regard for the future of their own party, as that’s been a feature, not a bug, for the way they do business anyway. It’s the idea of either one of the alternatives seizing the reigns of power, even for a short-lived pre-election period! Johnson does not need explaining, as we’ve all seen the empirical evidence that he cannot run his own financial affairs without corruption, let alone a country. But the very idea that we would put a proto-Nazi like Cruella Braverman in the job of Home Secretary has been hard enough for Britain to stomach and I believe that many Brits would identify her as their least likeable or competent MP! The secret services have identified her as a security risk, siting SIX separate occasions when she broke the law and Home Office regulations, which got her fired! But the idea of a PM who actively, vocally despises a significant chunk of the electorate, calling them names and deliberately seeking to DIVIDE the nation, makes her unfit to sweep our roads, let alone hold ANY public office! I simply cannot believe she is, “popular,” amongst any group that doesn’t also sport Swastikas? And those same people would probably gleefully burn her at the stake once they’ve gotten their full use out of her!
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  409. The only thing that is actually “new” in Tory politics of late is this active, open hostility senior ministers express toward giant cross sections of society. That scares people. When did it become okay to actively attack voters from the dispatch box, with open anger and a list of epithets? That, combined with all of the now exposed graft and policy failures, is genuinely frightening the voters! And they wonder why they’re losing voters? That stuff may work well in America, from where the Tories have been importing all of their most recent ideas. But deliberate attempts to divide the population, with attacks on its most concerned citizens, are actively forcing voters to seek a sane alternative. Imagine if you went to your GP and said, “I’ve sought a second opinion and two other doctors have confirmed that you took out my appendix when there was no need and I just had a stomach bug,” and that doctor responds by saying, “That’s just rubbish coming from your “woke” agenda and your anti-medical attitude, so get the f*ck out of my practice and take your communist, freedom hating, Guardian reading bollox with you before I have those removed too!” . . . 😧. . . 🤷‍♂️ . . . 😵‍💫 . . . 🤦‍♂️ It’s a result of lazy, default thinking, that young educated people are being, “indoctrinated into wokeness,” because of a Tory refusal to accept logical arguments and desire to stick to talking points. When your default setting is to defend the indefensible, you find yourself not just at odds with the most outspoken educated people, but actively hostile towards a significant section of the population at any given time. And people don’t want insanely hostile leaders who are incapable of agreeing to disagree, let alone actively and outspokenly seeking to do HARM to sections of society!
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