In the news

China has announced 3 days of military exercises (pointing directly at Taiwan) and friends have posted pictures of tanks driving about in Fujian province (the province facing TW). I'm feeling nervous as fuck about the whole thing, on the one hand, it would be INSANE to invade TW... on the other hand, the govt of China is fucking insane...
I'm going to investigate where the nearest bomb shelter is and what covid tests you need to get in :(

They won't do it until their aircraft carriers are somewhere close to America's in capability. And at
the moment they are primitive things, strictly for learning on, without good aircraft or enough pilots. They're only just starting to use catapults. It'll take a decade or two for them to get good.

I know, objectively, that it's all sabre rattling and they won't really do anything - just bitch and moan and stir up nationalistic shit on social media. But still, the country is run by people with zero grounding in reality, so I don't trust sensible decisions to be made.

Taiwan not part of NATO, what stopping them pulling a Putin?

@hats - time to come back to blighty?

I mean, it's proper shit here, but not as shit as there...?

You don't have to be part of NATO to have an agreement that the old US of A have your back.

Soon, soon.... like really soon!!

Of course, just business interest.

Horrible choice. Good thing we don't have any say in it. For me, I think Truss will be worse but is more likely to fuck things up and get to an earlier GE and opportunity to get them out. But also more likely to keep some of the current fuckwits in cabinet, to really screw up the NIP and to make everything worse for the country in the short term.
Shit either way. Still going to be an evil, self-serving and useless government for a while.

I think Truss is the better option- far higher chance of her calling a GE to create a personal mandate (a la Theresa May) and then losing her majority (also a La Theresa May).

Plus Rishi would send us all to Prevent.

far higher chance of her calling a GE to create a personal mandate

You think? They're bombing in the polls at the minute, they're not going to be immune to the data that says they'll lose. I don't think they'd bat an eyelid about their mandate while they've still got a huge majority (they'll probably just conflate their majority with a mandate).

From (hazy) memory, May was high above Corbyn in the polls when she called the election (so calling it was the right decision), then he pulled it in because she was so awful. Polls from that time, election was in June 2017:

Good thing we don't have any say in it.

A friend of mine is a paid up member who's relishing the vote (think he just wants to feel involved), when I was telling him he should be ashamed of himself and they're both terrible options, he just kept saying "if you want change, you have to vote for it".

The tremendous irony of it went unnoticed.

The thing I take solace in is any deviation from the Boris manifesto is not automatically passed by the lord's. So there's every chance of a GE so truss can have her easy passage on legislation.

Slight boost in polls for new leader, a populist manifesto and if Tory planners claim it's worth the risk. The longer they wait the worse chance of a GE win.

You think?

She's a nutter.

any deviation from the Boris manifesto is not automatically passed by the Lords

Sure, but Gov't can pack the Lords with new appointees, and successive Tory administrations have done so since 2010. I wouldn't regard it as a particularly strong check or balance against a general drift right of the 2019 Johnson manifesto.

For some balance, I thought this was bloody stupid. Neville Corbyn effectively advocating for appeasement.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/aug/02/jeremy-corbyn-urges-west-to-stop-arming-ukraine

Plus Rishi would send us all to Prevent.

I was just reading the criteria for that:

Extremism is currently defined in the 2011 Prevent strategy as “vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs.”

I wonder when the Daily Mail gets referred.

The TV channel he was interviewed on is problematic too.

I am a republican, I don't know how 'vocal' is defined but I would certainly not hold back from expressing the belief the monarchy (which is part of our legal and 'democratic' system) is a terrible thing, as would the majority of US, Irish, French etc citizens, presumably: when are they going to come for me? I doubt ever, it shows how targeted this is.

have you seen 'the coming war with china'? omg

Rushi want to rid a lots of section in the Equality Act of 2010, so he can get in the fucking sea with Tussi up his ass.

Yep, Sunak saying the the Equality Act is “a trojan horse" of "woke nonsense" - I guess cunts gotta cunt, it’s what they do

Has either of them called it "Cultural Marxism" yet?

Nope, it's a bit too real for me right now.