Wtf, I guess I hate the gays now?

Hell Yeah!

Advertiser’s got you on the run.

Not sure what this has to do with Starmer given the dispute is with Birmingham Council, but regardless, turnout in both the labour leadership election and the GE was considerably higher than 10%.

Quick reminder that Graham was elected by 3% of Unite membership - 37% of a 10% turnout.

I bet Starmer is loving this one, a good demonstration of the differences between now and then.

How Blair isn’t in the Hague is beyond me.

Feel da rhythm!

It’s mad to think that catholics still don’t understand even the most basic examples of non-consent.

The core purpose of KYC - to make it harder to launder money, and for the ultra rich to hide away their ill gotten gains - is not evil, far from it.

The fact the very same people which benefit from a perception that KYC is evil and/or ineffective, are the same people making the decisions to penny pinch on security which directly lead to data breaches, is obviously a complete coincidence!

Spears in shambles.

So glad they’re doing more of this.

Thumbnail is pure bait though 😂

One less big willy on my TV ☹️

This…this isn’t real, right?

Oh no…

Anyway.

That’s a shame to hear, I’ve not had any issues, but admittedly only ever use the hot cycle once a month or so for a deep clean.

Have Meile, love it.

Yeah, Adam Smith hated rentier forms of economy, that’s how insane the current form is capitalism is.

You’re getting into silly reductionism now.

To an extent, but, it’s only silly because of where you draw the line compared to where someone else might.

Going back to the ref results, the borders in general had some of the highest No votes. Border psychology is a fascinating thing, and what you usually see in countries with adversarial relationships is an increasing level of self-identification and expressed difference, rather than less. People in Hawick not wanting to lynch every bastard from Otterburn is - internationally speaking - a rarity.

I guess my point overall is that Westminster absolutely need reform, FPTP needs to be fucked off, as do the Lords, and we need to move to a much more federalist system with substantial devolution. A Union of Equals would also mean that English regions get the same levels of devolution, and if we did that on population there would be 10 of those, plus Wales and NI.

But I think we also need to seriously pay attention to the lessons we’ve learnt from Brexit. Barriers to trade are a fucking nightmare. As are trade negotiations. The majority of Scotland’s total trade is to rUK, much like how the UK’s trade was to EU. In a dynamic where you’re the smaller market exporting to a larger market, you’re in a weaker negotiating position. Political, maybe spiteful, reasons give the other block reasons to drag their feet. Disentangling laws over 50 years take forever, 400 even more so.

I sincerely don’t believe that independence meaningfully improves Scotland’s position or abilities in the world. Let’s assume an independent Scotland is allowed to immediately rejoin the EU, by pretty much any measure it would be in the middle of the pack, around the same position as Slovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, that sorta thing.

Have a look at EU policy, what is decided, even with a more (but still pretty bad) proportional system, where money is spent, who has the most influence, etc, and I don’t see how that would be a meaningful improvement.

But that’s just where I draw my particular line - give me a federal UK within a federal EU, and I’d be content.

Christ alive.

I completely agree my home town is fucked, it’s part of the reason I left. My point re Barnett is that Holyrood gets additional money from Westminster for all the cash it spaffs in London, while the bit a few miles south of the border I now live in doesn’t and has all the same problems.

I’m a massive supporter of devolution and local decision making, and a lot more powers - especially tax raising - do need to be devolved.

Yes a lot has changed since 2014, but where you are drawing the lines on the map to decide whether something is ours or theirs is something to consider.

It’s clear that you think an independent Scotland would benefit from oil wealth - I’d agree, if for no other reason than I can’t see Holyrood selling off the drilling rights to their executive mates in BP and Shell - but if the central belt votes for independence, and everywhere else doesn’t, but due to population distribution the overall vote is Yes…well, then what?

Is that self determination?

Or is the same madness we saw with brexit, of majority rule forcing everyone else to follow them?

Am not a yank.

For my sins I now live a bit south of the border, in a part that doesn’t benefit from Barnett consequentials, and Aberdeen before that.

Thanks for proving the emotive part of my point though.

Now if you wanna pull the border a couple hundred miles further south and re-establish Northumbria, I’m game.