BananaTrifleViolin

joined 1 year ago
[–] BananaTrifleViolin@feddit.uk 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Maybe it's just me, but I find this a bit of an obnoxious way to ask the question.

[–] BananaTrifleViolin@feddit.uk 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Interesting but unsurprising polling perhaps. Although the headline is only 18% of leavers think Brexit has been a success, it does also include 61% still think it will turn out well in the end. 72% of the leavers would still vote for Brexit even knowing how it's turned out.

Given how close the referendum was, this is yet another poll suggesting the vote would have tipped the other way if run now. Although that is just illustrative, it's quite different to voting to join the EU now which I doubt would be popular.

I think the threshold for rejoining is much higher than it was for leaving - we'd have to sign up to the Euro, we'd get no rebates despite the ongoing borked common agricultural policy, and all the negative aspects of the EU would come back to the fore. I was a remainer, but many of the negatives of the EU have often been ignored due to the polarisation of the debate, including by EU citizens who have focused on a them-vs-us mentality thanks to the antagnostic approach of the Conservative government.

But the EU does have serious problems - structural problems in the Eurozone, unfixed since the 2008 debt crisis, major issues with democratic accountability and unaddressed financial corruption, difficulties effectively dealing with members like Hungry and Poland as they slide towards more authoritarianism, and lack of consensus on dealing with the migration issues which continue to cost lives and are a stain on the entire EU's (and the UK's) reputation. Despite being a remainer, if I'm honest I'm not sure how I'd vote.

 

Feddit UK is great but at the moment there aren't any World News communities based on this server. UnitedKingdom@feddit.uk seems to be covering UK news which make sense.

There obviously doesn't need to be a specific separate community on every instance due to the nature of the fediverse, but I do wonder whether a World News community based on Feddit UK would be something a bit more unique that people might engage with?

The idea would be for people to post World News but preferrably from UK News sources (although not exclusively or too strictly) and to foster discussions that would be likely be more from UK users perspectives as it's based on Feddit UK? It's something that doesn't really work on Reddit but in the Fediverse a general community on big global servers and more regionalised communities seem to be something that co-exist? There can be News@feddit.UK and separate News@feddit.de and so on

Or would it be unnessary duplication and risk diluting communities that need to grow, build content and be broad appealat this stage? Also are some things just better done on a global scale to stop things being an echo chamber?

[–] BananaTrifleViolin@feddit.uk 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah. Ultimately this is the BoE's fault for not acting faster and harder. Interest rates would still have gone up but the pain may have been less severe.

Sunak was a fool for trying to take credit for Inflation. He based it on the optimistic predictions that inflation would rapidly come under control and improve towards the end of the year. Instead inflation is not shifting, and interest rates are likely to need to stay higher for longer and probably go up further, plus we're now realistically looking at a potential recession.

Sunak is out of his depth, and it's yet another poor leader in a run of 4 now (May, Johnson, Truss) showing how depleted the Conservative party is of talent and any sort of vision.

[–] BananaTrifleViolin@feddit.uk 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah I really like this, it's nice to be in UK specific communities when I'm set to local and see the rest of the Fediverse on subscribed and all.

Personally I have an account here at Feddit UK for UK subs, and separate accounts on other servers on Kbin.Social I'm using for non-UK/generic content.

I'm tempted to subscribe to broader Fediverse content from Feddit UK but then that data would come onto this server (backend). I'm not sure whats the best approach - use one instance to browse the whole Fediverse or multiple accounts on different instances to compartmentalise a little?

It is nice just seeing UK content when I'm on Feddit UK. I even have a custom Lemmy theme (from https://github.com/2xx04/lemmy-ui-themes/) which I changed the background background to a UK Pic so it is instantly seperate from other lemmy instances. The Lemmy UI Themes are easy to install by end users in their browser (use Stylus extension) and can also be installed and adpated by server owners to theme their server.

Expect companies to push hard against anything that costs them money. In this case, there is a smal overhead for reminding subscribers, but the "subscribe and forget about it" is an important source of revenue. Particularly the users who get a "free" subscription, barely used it but it converts to a paid subscription. I'm sure they can live without the revenue stream, but of course they want to keep it if they can as it's zero effort money.

The whole reason this is being proposed is because this is a widespread issue affecting consumers.

We really need electoral reform - enough of parties getting big majorities in the commons and stuffing the lords with supporters.

Even starting with proportional representation in local elections would be a game changer. Although the tories got rid of it in London to increase their chances of winning the mayoralty.

The best outcome in the next election is a hung parliament with Labour depending on the Lib Dems for a majority, and the Lib Dems forcing through electoral reform. No referendums, no more dicussion. They should do what all the other parties do and say "parliament is supreme and our manifesto was clear".

Yeah I agree - subsidising solar and also subsidising heat pump conversions and insulation for for older properties are essential parts of the mix. These would be impactful on energy generation / energy saving, and in removing our reliance on gas for heating.

[–] BananaTrifleViolin@feddit.uk 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not sure how I feel about this. Credit to him for changing his mind but that he thought it was appropriate in the first place says a lot. To be clear, tory MPs are abstaining not to "move on from the drama" as he puts it, but because they are worried about how Tory members in their local associations will react if they vote in favour. This is tempered by concerns that in the upcoming election next year opposition candidates might use their unwillingness to vote against them.

The tory mess just keeps going and going.

[–] BananaTrifleViolin@feddit.uk 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah this sounds reasonable and I hope it's how things playout.

My concern is that he remains popular with the Tory membership who do not reflect the general views of the population, and the tories ejected a lot of the moderate centerist MPs over Brexit. The rump party may be decidedly right wing, obsessed with brexit and a good breeding ground for a Boris comeback. He certainly won't be leader before the next election but I can see him being painted as a messiah in a narrower deminished party desperate for success. They struggled to replace him already with a disasterous right wing Truss despite the MPs not favouring her.

He reminds me of Silvio Berlusconi in some ways - that guy was dogged with scandals throughout his career and his governments collapsed, but he bounced back multiple times. Italian politics is very different of course and Berlusconi was a media mogul so he could control the narrative in a way Boris cannot. But also Donald Trump, that guy has done things that would have seemed shocking only 10 years ago, and yet he remains the leading candidate for the Republican nomination for the next presidential election.

I don't think Boris will achieve the same success as people like Berlusconi or Trump, but I wouldn't put it past a rump defeated Conservative party to be so desperate they're drawn to him again and we see him back in frontline politics unfortunately.

[–] BananaTrifleViolin@feddit.uk 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This is now two Tory run authorities in similar boats with very similar reasons - extreme bad management, breaching of fiscal rules, and lack of accountability for their actions.

Woking Council is in even more dire straits, with £1.2bn deficit (guardian article - Jun 23).

And on top of that two Tory county councils have warned they are on the financial brink - Kent and Hampshire (guardian article - Feb 23).

It may not just be Tory councils of course, but so far it looks like a pattern - at the minimum poor governance and a lack of oversight of councils by central government for loans given to councils.

It'll be interesting if the Tories can hold any of them. May give a hint at how much their core vote holds up in the next election. Could be the difference between a Labour government and a Hung parliament. A tory revival looks extremely unlikely.

[–] BananaTrifleViolin@feddit.uk 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The question is what does Boris do next? In some ways resigning made sense as a gamble - he could get out of his marginal seat and potentially step into a safe seat vacated by an ally. But if the Tory leadership block him for being a candidate then what does he do? Stand as an independent? Stand for Mayor of London again as is rumoured (which would be a disaster for him as he's not popular in London anymore).

I can't see him just giving up and returning to journalism. Maybe the next leader of the tories will be an ally who will work to bring him back to "save the party" (as the party will probably be a rump party after the next election and has been shaped in his image)

 

Plenty of food in the freezer, but I decided to bin the frozen sausages from 2021 and potatoes from 2020. I just can't risk them on safety ground - they might have Covid.

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