UK Politics - Taking the Land Rover to Heaven

[Derfel Cadarn]

Salmond and Alba party depress the fuck out of me. One reason I’ve been leaning towards independence is to get away from England and its Brexiteer/UKIP bullshit, only to see Salmond/Alba essentially bringing the same thing to Scottish politics.

He clearly knows he can’t get back into the SNP or compete with them, so he’s trying to get enough seats to force an alliance and get back into government through the back door. 

[mormont]

On the plus side, Alba seem to be around 2-3% in the polls and show no real signs they're about to become relevant.

The thing about Salmond and Alba is that he doesn't really seem to have faith that the 'little Scotlander' pitch is going to work, and he knows it's not a good fit for him anyway. So he's leading a party that's significantly to the right of his politics, but trying to pitch it as basically the SNP mark II - liberal, environmental nationalism. But his candidates and campaigners are largely TERF warriors, defectors at a dead end in their career and people who've mistaken watching Braveheart once a week for a lifestyle. As this incident shows, they want red meat. It's an unhappy marriage that is destined to fail, I think.

[Derfel Cadarn]

43 minutes ago, mormont said:

On the plus side, Alba seem to be around 2-3% in the polls and show no real signs they're about to become relevant.

The thing about Salmond and Alba is that he doesn't really seem to have faith that the 'little Scotlander' pitch is going to work, and he knows it's not a good fit for him anyway. So he's leading a party that's significantly to the right of his politics, but trying to pitch it as basically the SNP mark II - liberal, environmental nationalism. But his candidates and campaigners are largely TERF warriors, defectors at a dead end in their career and people who've mistaken watching Braveheart once a week for a lifestyle. As this incident shows, they want red meat. It's an unhappy marriage that is destined to fail, I think.

Pretty much, and hoping you’re right it will fail. He was apparently claiming a ‘supermajority’ of indie parties means there’s no need to hold a referendum at all. Blatant attempt to try and get votes.

[Pebble thats Stubby]

13 hours ago, Heartofice said:

Well of course nobody is going to watch all that coverage? Does anyone ever watch repeated coverage of the same event? I don’t really know what that proves?

I think there is a serious disconnect here. Just because people on this board don’t care about the royals and are dismayed that there is this level of fuss being made about it, doesn’t mean that is reflected by the country at large. Honestly that is i think a repeated theme of most of the discussions around here.

No one is saying there should not be any coverage of his death or even a lot of coverage of his death.  No one has even suggested that all of BBC1 should not have been entirely devoted.  No one is saying there shouldn't be lots of programs devoted to Philip over the coming weeks either.

It does get a bit much when both BBC1 and BBC2 where showing the exact same program at the exact same time, at the very least the BBC could have staggered it and made BBC2 run and hour behind.  although not much point when each of the special tribute programs seemed to be repeated every few hours.

Maybe BBC2 could have shown some other carefully chosen programs (to make sure there is nothing sensitive in them) with maybe an hourly 5 min piece on Prince Phillip and saying more tributes and dedicated programming is available to view on BB1.  If thy didn't want to run with a lot of their normal shows then perhaps find some in someway linked to Prince Philips causes and interests. - He was big on environmentalism and the natural world so maybe A David Attenborough Documentary for example.

I am well aware lots of people have access to streaming services and there are lots of channels even with just Freeview.  however a lot of our older viewers don't have access to streaming services and may not even have internet access.  A lot of Elderly use the TV as company (which is especially important in these Covid times) and won't stray past the 4 main channels.  Yes I'm sure most of these would be happy to watch a few hours of the same coverage but at some point they are gonna want/need something else.

 

[Rippounet]

10 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

Lol, isn’t that a kind of the chicken or the egg matter?

No, because Philip was objectively not important for the British state.
One might spare a thought for the passing of a respectable old man (assuming one considered Philip respectable) or feel compassion for the Queen, who will no doubt face unimaginable grief.
But unless one is particularly knowledgeable about Philip's good deeds (royals do tend to be involved in charity) or knew him personally, he was just a very old man who happened to be married to someone truly important.

The Queen is objectively hugely important, not just for Britain, but for many Commonwealth countries. The link below should give an idea as to just how important she is. Her heirs are as well, for obvious reasons.
Other royals? No. The fact that so many people find the life of rich people with fancy inherited titles fascinating does not make them important. It makes them famous, which is quite different.
Since fame does not come ex nihilo, it is in fact a creation of the media (and of the royal family itself, of course).
Though I'll concede that when it comes to the Queen's husband, there may be some Britons who are still actual monarchists (I've never met any, but I have heard of them) and who would inquire about Philip even without the media.
I would assume that Adele's or David Beckam's fanclubs are much bigger though.
Shit, I hope Richard Ayoade's fanclub is bigger, the man rocks.

9 hours ago, Soylent Brown said:

And what's going to happen when the Queen finally pops off? Are we all going to die horrible slow deaths because supermarkets and the water and electric companies have shut down for a month out of respect?

Maybe this was a rhetorical question, but what happens when the Queen dies is well known. It's called operation "London Bridge" and it's very easy to find information about it, for instance, this article from The Guardian.

[HexMachina]

Old man dies does not require so much coverage. Sad for the family, sure, but doesn't require things to grind to a halt. Someone brought up the London Bridge attacks and that seems like a much more important story requiring widespread coverage to me. The BBC news presenters and whatever having to wear Black seem OTT too. They didn't know the man. I don't know why they need to dress in mourning for a person they don't know. I'd be interested to learn if this was optional and the consequences for refusing.

[DMC]

11 hours ago, mormont said:

It's hard to compare the two IMO. Diana's death had several aspects that would have justified rolling coverage - it was untimely and sudden, it was not initially clear exactly what had happened and who was responsible - and it took place nearly 25 years ago, when the media landscape was very different.

Yeah comparing Philip's death to Diana's IRT media coverage is absurd, even ignoring the quarter century difference.  He was 99 years old reported to be on his death bed for months.  When Diana died I still remember where I was - as a 12 year old American.  When Philip died I was more affected when I scrolled down and found out DMX died too.

I was living in DC when Reagan died and my gods was that fucking annoying.  But I don't recall anything near what y'all are describing in terms of media coverage.  OTOH, there is something to be said with the media going way more OTT with celebrity deaths these days than they used to.  Bush I's death 14 years later was considerably more expansive than Reagan's, and the latter was far more influential than the former (as long as we're not comparing their sons).

[mormont]

9 hours ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

Pretty much, and hoping you’re right it will fail. He was apparently claiming a ‘supermajority’ of indie parties means there’s no need to hold a referendum at all. Blatant attempt to try and get votes.

Hadn't seen that, but if true it makes sense, despite being a complete reversal of his prior position. Alba are after the fundamentalist wing of the SNP, after all, the people who don't want to bother with inconvenient things like political reality.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Nigel Farage’s tiktok service where he orates messages to people getting trolled

”happy birthday, Hugh Janus...”

 

[Spockydog]

On 4/14/2021 at 2:30 PM, Derfel Cadarn said:

Nigel Farage’s tiktok service where he orates messages to people getting trolled

”happy birthday, Hugh Janus...”

Lol. What a dunderhead.

 

[Spockydog]

"Little Ted West" 

[Which Tyler]

Now there's some nuance here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56768601

Quote

Matt Hancock owns shares in NHS-approved firm
Health Secretary Matt Hancock owns shares in a company which was approved as a potential supplier for NHS trusts in England, it has emerged.

In March, he declared he had acquired more than 15% of Topwood Ltd, which was granted the approved status in 2019.
...

article continues

You don't have to award the contract yourself for it to be corruption however. He's a 15% share holder, his sister holds more, and is a director.

 

By the standards of this government's corruption, it's peanuts, and unnecessary; but that doesn't make it okay.

[mormont]

I'm reading my postal ballot and I have to say, what a treat.

For the list vote, no fewer than 16 parties/independent candidates are listed including the Abolish the Scottish Parliament Party (who claim it would save £100,000,000 yearly, which seems... like a round figure, I guess?), Scottish Renew (who don't explain what they're in favour of renewing, other than Scotland, I suppose?) UKIP (who apparently still exist), Reform UK, All For Unity (also listed as All 4 Unity - No to Separatism, which for consistency should surely be No 2 Separatism), the Freedom Alliance - Integrity, Society, Economy (if you can't guess, they helpfully explain they're the anti-lockdown party), and many more, including the Family Party and the Libertarian Party. Literally every fringe party on this thing (nine in all) is some flavour of right-wing idiot and literally none will get more than a few hundred votes. This hasn't stopped some of them from optimistically listing seven candidates, though the prize for optimism goes to the Tories who have listed eleven candidates on their list despite the fact that there are only seven list seats. I guess four of your candidates might drop dead or get disqualified or get elected to a constituency, but it seems unlikely. The Greens have ten and they don't even have anyone up for the constituency seats, which is probably worse.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Reform UK is George Galloway’s party isnt it? The man who vowed never to work with the Tories, only to ... work with the Tories.

Whenever I’ve had the misfortune to see his posts on Twitter, people always troll him by posting gifs of him pretending to be a cat on reality TV.

Surprised to hear UKIP are still a thing, assumed the faithful had jumped ship to Farage’s latest vanity party. Lost track of them after a previous leader disappeared into a midlife crisis with his racist younger girlfriend, having left his wife and kids.

[mormont]

No, Reform UK is Farage's new party. Respect is Galloway's vehicle, or was: All For Unity is the new one. They have a UKIP founding member and someone who praised Tommy Robinson on the ballot, though, so I have no hesitation in putting them in the 'right wing nutters' camp. If Galloway was once on the left, he isn't now.

[Derfel Cadarn]

42 minutes ago, mormont said:

No, Reform UK is Farage's new party. Respect is Galloway's vehicle, or was: All For Unity is the new one. They have a UKIP founding member and someone who praised Tommy Robinson on the ballot, though, so I have no hesitation in putting them in the 'right wing nutters' camp. If Galloway was once on the left, he isn't now.

 I’ve lost track of all the vanity parties. Most seem to start with R, like Lawrence Fox’s Reclaim party.

[mormont]

I'm looking forward to manifestos from the Refrain, Redeliver, and Refurbish parties.

[Soylent Brown]

What happens if no one renews Scotland and it expires? Hopefully one of the Prince-style text and number parties can save the day!

[BigFatCoward]

41 minutes ago, mormont said:

I'm looking forward to manifestos from the Refrain, Redeliver, and Refurbish parties.

Sounds like a bunch of even shitter matrix sequels. 

[Spockydog]

22 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

Sounds like a bunch of even shitter matrix sequels. 

Braveheart Regurgitated