In the news

Yeah it's no fun that way if you just want to have a good time but need to work around the assholes.

The Northern Irish team managed to clean up well, the manager had to spend two years talking to all supporter clubs in person. He got rid of the sectarian/racist chants though and football is really taking off.

Not sure how infiltrated they were by scumbags though. And agree if you come for a fight you don't support football.

eBay manages cyberstalked and harrased a couple who run an ecommerce newsletter.

The whole story is batshit... when I read the headlines I thought the couple were nutjobs who were paranoid. Then I read the story and realised who the nutjobs were.

I wonder how many more people are reading the ecommercebytes.com newsletter today.

According to their advertising pack about 60,000 newsletter readers.

The whole story is batshit.

Aye. I initially considered posting it in Epic WTF but this is real news, not something for the Sunday Sport,

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/15/dismay-over-adviser-chosen-set-up-uk-race-inequality-commission-munira-mirza

Looking at who they pick here, I guess we can't expect too much?

.

I cannot understand how anyone with children would not want to block such content

Just imagine if people with kids knew about sex

dismal

A fine example of global-Britain - we can export stuff to places really far away:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/16/new-zealand-records-first-new-covid-19-cases-after-women-arrive-from-uk-carrying-virus

The whole discussion about free broadband was just the modern equivalent of...

It really wasn't.

On the whole the objection was that the state didn't need to provide all the broadband. Most people seemed to be more or less in favour of government support for it in areas that didn't have it or couldn't afford it. Then the question was how you best did that.

Regardless of any potential merits it was a stupid policy to put in a manifesto.

Free basic broadband for all may be easier/cheaper to admin than means tested provision.

In that sense, maybe it wasn't so stupid.

Free basic: Free for all. Want to have superspeed? OK now you need to pay. And yes that will mean the costs have to be pushed to people that need the superspeed for work, like me. I am happy to pay extra though like the metropolitian lefty elite than I am.

Personally I don't think the policy was without merit, I just think that it was pretty clear at the time that it would be received as:

and was laughable naive as to how people would react to the optics of a left wing party proposing state controlled Internet.

Bloody hell, we're never going to be allowed in other countries again.

Phillips, a former chair of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, would be a controversial choice, having previously referred to UK Muslims as being “a nation within a nation”.

I'm always staggered by how similar the "Muslim debate" is to previous discussions about Jews and Roman Catholics. Right down to using identical phrases.

I bet the dude has probably even used the "if we don't learn from history etc" in a soundbite.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/jun/16/horse-racing-tory-donations-and-a-swift-return-from-lockdown-matt-hancock

A private eye-esque review of Matt's horsey connections

Ha! Yeah, tell me about it. A week in Skegness will become an enticing proposition. Such fun!

It doesn't sound very original no, almost as if the same stories are transposed onto a different group... amazing people don't see that, or, don't WANT to see that.

RE the broadband, sure, marketing it was an issue. The same people objecting would also object to roads we all pay for via taxation, and "free" cycle lanes cos "I don't cycle..." perhaps there is a standard story you need to tell them? ;)

While 'great' Britain certainly isn't leading the world atm, this is clearly our (NZ) fault with lack of testing and procedure, rather than yours.

Ha! Yeah, tell me about it. A week in Skegness will become an enticing proposition. Such fun!

or Weston-Super-Mare
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOajo9qYoM8

Congratulations on Manchester United Footie Association Team on becoming the official opposition to the UK Government!

to the optics of a left wing party proposing state controlled Internet

interested in how this is different from the optics of a right wing government proposing state controlled internet?

Boris Johnson, he's one of our own
Boris Johnson, he's one of our own

Etc etc

The Tories have been useless/dangerous when it comes to the internet. I.e., Cameron's plan to ban encryption and May's plan to give private companies power over porn access. But optics only apply to the left it seems. Everyone I spoke with seemed to agree that the idea of making the internet an essential service free to all was a good thing, but many would follow this up by saying "but other people won't see it that way, so it's a dumb policy." I can't help but feel we'd be better off it people spent more time discussing the details of policies instead of the perceived optics of them. It feels a bit cart-before-the-horse a lot of the time.