Comments by "John Warner" (@johncrwarner) on "A Different Bias" channel.

  1. In Germany they announce “Fahrtrichtung Links“ (in the direction of travel on the left) - it is helpful but assumed in English.
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  2. Would you hire the current Home Secretary as a barrister?
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  3.  @TorianTammas  Grandstanding when done in the USA often suggests an unconstitutional act that the base will lap up and the opposition will be angry about. This is a case of asking the MEP if he has forgotten to take his medicine this morning.
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  4. Brave Sir Boris ran away. ("No!") Bravely ran away away. ("I didn't!") When danger reared it's ugly head, He bravely turned his tail and fled. ("I never!") Yes, brave Sir Boris turned about And gallantly he chickened out. ("You're lying!") Swiftly taking to his feet, He beat a very brave retreat. Bravest of the braaaave, Sir Boris! (apologies to Neil Innes et al.)
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  5. As Sunzi wrote in the Art of War (the Chinese classic) " build your opponent a golden bridge to retreat across" Can any actors in this high stakes game build that bridge.
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  6. Good job his advisers won't be watching this video as they might get some practical ideas for mitigating the damage.
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  7. Sadly as I live in Germany a) my status will be altered (and human rights will be stripped from me) b) this was technically my last election I can vote in (I lose my rights to vote in local elections here in Germany as a resident alien and I my 15 years is up for the UK elections shortly). I will need basically to get German citizenship to be a) enfranchised and b) an EU citizen with its freedom of movement.
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  8. I've just bought a microwave popcorn maker and lots of kernels.
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  9. 12th July isn't that a big day in the marching season in Northern Ireland The Battle of the Boyne when William III defeated James VII The date of the battle was in the new style dates was 12 July. It might be a plan for a quieter marching season as the unionists are the ones kicking off at present.
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  10. Except that there were not several existential crises whirling around, Belgium survived for 592 days without a government. It also, I have to say, has a federal structure and all the other constituent parts were functional at the time.
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  11. My investment in a microwave popcorn maker has made excellent returns and I love freshly popped popcorn with a little soy sauce on it and occasionally some smoked paprika Roll on the Tory Civil War!
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  12. At the local Quaker meeting we organised a meet the local MP - and this was in 1996 and our local MP was a Conservative. He must have thought he was on to a winner with a "nice Church group" but he was visibly shocked when he trotted out the cut tax routine and NO-ONE was biting even the folks who, I suspect, voted for him previously weren't biting - he went into panic mode as he had nothing less. He lost in the 1997 election and went to the House of Lords where I think he still is.
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  13. My constituency is new Bicester and Woodstock but it is on that list of 80 seats up for grabs I have therefore given my proxy vote to the best challenger in my constituency the Liberal Democrats and I have told them I want them as the official opposition.
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  14. Living in Germany however with no car I use public transport on a day to day basis but I had a British Driving Licence and I occasionally use the local car sharing programme to take my partner to awkward places. So... while I was still a EU citizen (in 2019) I went to the "Ordnungsamt" a department of the local authority to change my driving licence to a German one which was a meeting with an official hand over several passport pictures and a small fee (35€, I think) and did the swap. I haven't driven in Britain for nearly 15 years so there seemed no point not having a valid driving licence.
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  15. I fear there will be a lot of this kind of behaviour in the coming months and even years where the British government says to the EU: "You gave us what we asked for, how mean of you"
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  16. I was fortunately diagnosed with depression in the 1990s and got what was called "Cognitive Behavioural Therapy" which is a short-term focused form of "talking cure" I chose it over taking the then fashionable Prozac and I found it very helpful and it provides methods for keeping depression at bay in the future. Funding this sort of proven cheap therapy would be more use than blaming patients as malingerer and health professionals as liars.
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  17.  @hypsyzygy506  Good ole Cacun Cruz
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  18.  @DavidNull5  The Texas GOP and Fox News especially blamed renewables falsely in my opinion. You are right that there were two problems an unwinterised power system in Texas and no way to access power from elsewhere. The fact they had failed to winterise the electricity generating system was made worse by the isolation of the system so they could not draw on others to overcome the problems
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  19. Does "having full confidence in" still mean what it used to mean with previous Prime Ministers - that the minister is likely to go within the week? Or has the current Prime Minister changed the rules on that one too?
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  20. With Brexit And the Boris Johnson Withdrawal Agreement / Treaty Where the border is down the Irish Sea The long term goal of a border vote And unification of Ireland Are more certain in the medium to long term.
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  21. Here in Germany some British products seem to have disappeared from local supermarket shelves I have also for my English language books swapped to a German importer and reluctantly to Amazon DE who have added several days to their delivery times and now have several extra steps in their process (an average of five customs processes) also books enter Germany when imported from Britain into only one or two airports so the smaller more local airports don't get the business.
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  22. That is irritating as when I visit my mother in Britain I will have roaming charges on my EU based phone in Britain. I think we should all thank the government in Britain for taking away this simple and cheap rule in Britain
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  23. @Paul Geddes I have no idea I can only relate to my mother who had her first jab between Christmas and New Year She was scheduled to have her second jab today - but was told it would be delayed. She contacted her friends who had had their first jab on the same day and they had been told the same. Perhaps the Government, which "let slip" this data, might not be telling the whole truth. What do you think?
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  24.  @soniaspf9705  I am married to a German citizen so my pathway to staying in Germany should be okay - though I did visit the office about it and they are waiting for the **##!?! British government to have a plan - which if Boris Johnson is elected they still won't.
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  25.  @smalrast  Presumably you'll read it and critique it for its deviation from the truth?
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  26. This is eerily reminiscent of 1995 - 1997 but with clowns this time
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  27.  weaverspell  She does go out every day - for a walk - masked of course but is reading a lot of books too - sadly her great love which is going to the theatre is off the agenda so we are keeping her going with classic black and white films on DVD.
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  28. Have you been reading Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow"?
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  29. The fines in the US when you look at the profits they make in the illegal operation are often more like a 10 to 20 percent "tax" on their practices - not sure what the answer is but it isn't letting them off with a slapped hand and a bad report from a Common's committee. The regulatory system needs an overhaul to give it some teeth and take it out of political control and the culture of "anything goes" needs to be challenged and become unthinkable in the future.
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  30. I believe the editor of The Spectator thinks he is a "europhile" because he is married to a Swede I also think the Telegraph and The Spectator are both owned by the same people
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  31. I think the work will be done by others in Department for International Trade and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office coordinated by the Cabinet Office - but the problems are the leadership from the politicians.
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  32.  @geraldwagner8739  I am a British citizen living in Germany and a vegan so fishing is very irrelevant to me But the loss of rights that I have suffered via leaving the EU is supposed to be worth "fishing" (I put it in quotes as I think it is a red herring)
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  33.  @sigiriya5149  That was one of the saddest pieces of television watching some voters in Hartlepool say they were voting Conservative because there were more food banks under the Tories than under Labour.
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  34. The fourteenth amendment which has this clause in it does an awful lot of heavy lifting much more than just citizenship rights Section one of the amendment reads: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. That is what he is actually flagging - he wants to remove the whole thing so he can then deprive folks of their rights. It is grandstanding and will tie up lawyers for months and he will say at the end that the "deep state" stopped him doing x,y and z. whatever x, y and z are at the time
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  35. I wonder if the people on the Costa Brexit who lose their free healthcare in Spanish hospitals will be the first victims. Living in Germany as a pensioner I pay health insurance (effectively a tax like National Insurance) so should not be affected though my freedom of movement night be curtained until I get a residency card.
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  36. I am not sure this sort of situation can last and the short-term profit taking of Brexit / Covid etc. Is the disease that needs to be tackled I am sorry your son is having to work longer and longer hours
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  37.  @soniaspf9705  German allows dual citizenship for EU citizens so claim it now before Brexit.
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  38.  @hasse102  The English edition has a publication date of 30 September and is published by Polity - the academic publisher.
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  39. As food taster for the UK?
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  40. His research is based on a very small sample size - one himself. He is less poor than he was in 2010 so "poverty has been reduced"
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  41. Sadly my 90 year old mother's grandfather was Irish (born in Ireland) so sadly I am not eligible for an Irish passport (I did investigate it too) A colleague from Northern Ireland made the choice when she was 16 and went on her first school trip to get an Irish Passport (as it was cheaper to get) and she has no problems now as she has an EU passport.
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  42. I worry that this might be a "one swallow" situation It is only with a cumulative set of articles and editorials and as you said cartoons that you can see a sea change in the Daily Mail or any of the other pro-Brexit media
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  43. I used to buy a brand of British shower gel, cruelty free, organic and vegan, sadly it has disappeared from the store where I used to buy it, a major chain in Northern Germany, I imagine that some of the ingredients as they are not grown in Britain make exporting difficult. I have sadly swapped to a European shower gel (not my preferred solution but needs must) I try not to buy books via Amazon but sadly again they being a large multinational do the customs checks internally a book from Britain has six extra steps and several days delay. Interestingly things used to go to a smaller German airport near to me now all incoming from Britain Amazon stuff seems to go to Leipzig - a bigger centre that probably has customs facilities.
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  44. What are British fuel (principally gas) reserves like? Germany built two gas terminals on the North Sea coast and have roughly 100% of their reserves.
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  45. Will the new bespoke blinds help with the "smurf effect"? LOL I think your videos you shook in the evening tend to have a blue hue what my partner and I call the "smurf effect".
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  46. I live in Germany and Germans were shocked that their friends (the UK) chose Brexit - and look with a mixture of horror and bemusement at the games that the British government are playing at - first with Theresa May and now doubling down with Boris Johnson (the charismatic version). I have been apologising and pointing out that the British government is not co-terminal with the British people or the British electorate and also explaining the UK constitution as it is understood. I teach English at an adult evening college and the students now know more than they possible need to about the English CIvil War and 17th century British politics because that is where the issues lie.
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  47. Nice to see the reference to Bastiat's broken window paradox where short term increase in activity comes at the expense of long term wealth.
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  48. There is a thing called, I believe, the "Scientific News Cycle" - which applies even here. Basically the further from the research you stray - the more interpretation is added and the tweaking of headlines etc.
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  49.  @FranzBieberkopf  I may have misremembered it but the idea that you have to fit into one of two tribes even when you don't is a perennial problem. Both for the person being asked AND the inquirer as they are trapped in binary thinking.
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  50.  @HenriZwols  It would be more like burning down the stadium but saying "at least we saved the mascot" even though you cancelled the mascot's contract because of the fire.
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