UK IX: This Economy Will Self-Destruct In...

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/apr/06/two-child-policy-hasnt-made-families-smaller-only-poorer-finds-report

A study has found that the Governments amendment that capped child benefits to just two children has failed to lower fertility rates, it's simply driven more families into poverty

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/apr/05/lgbt-government-adviser-quits-over-conversion-practices-uturn

The Government's LGBTQ+ conference has been cancelled after numerous organisations pulled out due to their conversion therapy approach

[Asura]

Euurgghh... I hate Dorries too but I hope we don't reach the point where her having written erotic fiction is used as a stick to beat her with. Surely we're past that. All erotic fiction sounds silly out of context. 50 Shades was objectively terrible but a massive media success.

[QualityChimp]

E. L. James is not the culture secretary or suggesting we sell off Channel 4.

I'm careful to try and avoid name calling, or joking about their names and especially their appearance, but I unreservedly judge our politicians by their actions then and now because it totally helps you understand them better and assess their ability to do their jobs.

[Asura]

I'm careful to try and avoid name calling, or joking about their names and especially their appearance, but I unreservedly judge our politicians by their actions then and now because it totally helps you understand them better and assess their ability to do their jobs.

I know those of us here are judging her more for her actions.

I just get concerned when I see the association with erotica, that it's an attempt to cast her as "a ruined woman" or some other outdated stereotype.

[QualityChimp]

That's definitely not what I'm doing.

I'm pointing out that a **** author is the Culture Secretary, so an authority to speak about all things media.

In the same way, George Eustice, Environment Secretary, has said climate change would be good for farmers and voted against limiting carbon dioxide emissions.

They are bad at their jobs.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Not sure what point [MENTION=5941]Asura[/MENTION] is trying to make, tbh.

I'm sorry but that kind of crap she wrote as a novelist is perfectly fair game when she stood up in front of parliament and demonstrated that she had no idea tha Channel 4 didn't take BBC licence payer money.

[Nu-Eclipse]

You're on! Never wanted to lose a bet more.

She's not got any political savvy or competence. If it wasn't for Boris needing all the allies he could get on board right now he would have binned her a long time ago.

Priti Patel as a PM? Get yourself some help.

[Lebowski]

She's not got any political savvy or competence. If it wasn't for Boris needing all the allies he could get on board right now he would have binned her a long time ago.

Priti Patel as a PM? Get yourself some help.

Shes massively incompetent the difference is shes not black and incompetent so she doesn't get the savaging in the press the way Abbott did. Id agree i cant see the average tory voter voting for a Patel as PM, id like to see them try though as it would make the Tory electorate implode. "do we vote for a minority or vote for the posh white boy help!!!"

[Asura]

Not sure what point @Asura is trying to make, tbh.

There will be elements that will try to make out that writing erotica makes her a sexual deviant and that's why she shouldn't be doing what she's doing.

Not because she's bad at it (which she is), which should be enough.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Shes massively incompetent the difference is shes not black and incompetent so she doesn't get the savaging in the press the way Abbott did.

Diane Abbott getting savaged for being a black woman in British politics? Unquestionably so.

Diane Abbott being incompetent? As much as that's the narrative, I really don't think so. She's been Labour MP for Hackney North & Stoke Newington since 1987 - the constituents there (I say "there" - I was born in Homerton) have kept putting her in a parliamentary seat on their behalf for all this time so she must be doing something right. But again, this obviously doesn't tally up with the narrative framed around her during her time in Corbyn's left-wing opposition.

[Nu-Eclipse]

There will be elements that will try to make out that writing erotica makes her a sexual deviant and that's why she shouldn't be doing what she's doing.

Not because she's bad at it (which she is), which should be enough.

Not saying it's right or at all justified, but you don't seriously think that a man writing that wouldn't be termed that way? Genuine question.

She's openly played culture war and anti-woke politics and made no bones about doing so, so please forgive me for not having any sympathy for her whatsoever.

[QualityChimp]

I'm sat looking across the office at a guy who once had a rant about Diane Abbott only being in her job because she was sleeping with Jeremy Corbyn.

He's a pro-Brexit, anti-vax advocate, so you can imagine I try to limit how much interaction I have with him.

Abbott is both the first black woman MP and also the longest standing.
She has a degree from Cambridge.
She won her seat the last two times by a landslide.

Yet people want to remember her as getting her maths wrong once or drinking a G&T in a can on the tube once.

[Asura]

Not saying it's right or at all justified, but you don't seriously think that a man writing that wouldn't be termed that way? Genuine question.

I think a man would have the same problem.

[Nu-Eclipse]

I'm sat looking across the office at a guy who once had a rant about Diane Abbott only being in her job because she was sleeping with Jeremy Corbyn.

He's a pro-Brexit, anti-vax advocate, so you can imagine I try to limit how much interaction I have with him.

Abbott is both the first black woman MP and also the longest standing.
She has a degree from Cambridge.
She won her seat the last two times by a landslide.

Yet people want to remember her as getting her maths wrong once or drinking a G&T in a can on the tube once.

Hammer. Nail. Head.

[QualityChimp]

A nice succinct thread from the New Statesman as to why privatising Channel 4 is bad business, bad politics and bad Conservatism:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1511323731452473348.html