In the news

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/woman-judge-who-called-smirking-9589774.amp?__twitter_impression=true

NGL he does seem like a bit of a cunt.

Irrespective of party politics and left / right affiliation, my main disappointment with contemporary politicians is their lack of thought leadership.

Leadership as a politician does not just mean having a grasp of your cabinet and making decisions for the county.

It should mean helping your constituents to understand difficult truths. Through speeches, media, example and other means our politicians should be explaining hard concepts:

Why immigration makes more jobs not fewer.
Why multiculturalism is not a loss of identity.
Why all members of society deserve respect and equal treatment.
Why cucumbers are straight and why we have red passports.

But, I never hear these things addressed, explained and defused.

A lot of the comments in that ^ post are just ignorance. I don't blame the ignorance. I blame the leaders that allow the ignorance to continue.

Stand the fuck up, government, and make things better, you useless shower of bickering scarecrows. Churchill would have. Atlee would have. Benn would have. To an extent, Thatcher would have.

^ Yep, totally, complete lack of leadership. Vince Cable and Caroline Lucas seem to be the only two with some guts, but they are not in power :/

"It just seemed a little bit futile for so many lives to have been lost in wars, to have been absorbed by the same people that we were fighting against. I know that’s history, but what was the point of it all if we were just going to give into it?"

Wow, just wow :(

Absolutely this.

It's crept in slowly and insidiously, perhaps over the course of the last four governments but it's this strange PR-ish/corporate form of governing that actively avoids strong leadership.
Again, I don't mean iron-fist/shouty leadership but being open about their positions on those hard concepts you mention, to start.

It probably stems from the pursuit of perceived stability like we see with ever-increasing complexity of bureaucracy and even language within corporate structures.

I kind of see it as a form of cosmic heat-death into a maximum state of entropy of dullness.

Parklife!

It’s all the middle aged white men I feel for.

1 Attachment

huge if true.

You mean

IF TRUE

?

Your assumption that everyone has the same capacity or desire to make the same critical appraisals as you shows you do not fully understand the concept of privilege and would do well to check yours.

What do you mean by reasoned and reasonable opinions? How have you come to settle on your opinions?

Hennigan was hauled before an Old Bailey judge in October 2012 for
making Nazi salutes at the Magpie Pub in New Street, off Bishopsgate,
in the City of London.

He then claimed he had only been raising his arm to collect his change
after paying for a drink.

It's hilarious to me that Theresa May holds the same position as Churchill, Atlee, even Thatcher, etc. It seems like back in those days she would have been judged too incompetent to even be a minister. Can you imagine her being in charge during WWII, for example? We would've been conquered in a week.

curly cucumbers

just imagine being in the restaurant with that guy when he shouts, 'oi, padre, wot the fuck is this you're serving me? A curly fucking cucumber, WE WON THE FUCKING WAR...' etc etc

It's so that when the EU shout "Shove it up your arse!", we can.

bleak but exciting

Like Brexit then?

Brexit and nuclear war

and nights out in Barrow

Hey, the barman was VERY tall OK?!

I'm willing to accept that as an excuse, but if there's confusion over whether you were waiting for change or doing a nazi salute you don't help yourself by calling the judge a see you next Tuesday. It's socially unaesthetic.

There is no such thing as "common sense". What people mean way they say that is "X is obvious to be because of Y". Not just "X is obvious". You need to have contextual experience to be able to common to the former, and that contextual experience is culturally and sociologically specific. Failing to appreciate that again exposes your myopic levels of introspection regarding your own privilege.

I try to look at the evidence and apply logic

This is what you are doing when you say "common sense and reason", but this is not always going to be the mode for people who are desperate, vulnerable and hard done by. To expect that to be the case given the leadership of this country in recent times is naive.

Expecting wholesale compassion is similarly fruitless. Yes compassion is a beneficial trait for one to have, but it's a lot harder to muster when you're already on the bones of your arse and the easily accessible, often force-fed, mainstream media are giving you an easy scapegoat that is painted as being the polar opposite to you and others in your position.

So I don't think you answered this elsewhere, but are you doing dry January?

Oh, good god...

Haha I see some of you here are arguing with a reincarnation of Jeez.
Two words of advice - don't bother

This dolphin is smarter than me

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2003/jul/03/research.science

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..... now it makes sense.

You're coming across as a tad tetchy, is all.