EU referendum, brexit and the aftermath

That's the lowest of all possible bars.

This is a good article

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2019/06/closing-conservative-mind

Yes, interesting, thanks for posting

Good read.

“by the law of their existence, the stupidest party”

Thanks for the link. Depressing and enlightening in equal measure.

I really don’t think we can

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Britains-Gulag-Brutal-Empire-Kenya/dp/1844135489

I think you do (well not really, no congratulations to be had by anyone there), but it's an extremely, extremely low bar. Many people don't appreciate how truly shocking the Belgian devastation of Congo was. Most who know something about it know that many people died and there was a lot of forced labour. But that does not come close to describing the horrors. Millions died, the hacking off of hands and feet were routine, and that includes children specifically as a means of punishing the parents. I'm quite interested in history and you come across a lot of extremely nasty human behaviour, but this is one of those that really made me sick reading about it. I first heard about it when I came across a text by Mark Twain and that left quite a deep impression on me (probably because I was quite young too).

The determined viciousness and complete and utter disregard for any possible inherent worth of the victims' lives even as a concept is rather reminiscent of the Holocaust, even though of course the actual circumstances were very different and you can't directly compare it.

Many people don't appreciate how truly shocking the Belgian devastation of Congo was

It surprises me - the path to understanding is relatively straight forward and accessible: Watch Apocalypse Now -> Read Heart of Darkness -> Wikipedia rabbit warren

But then looking up disturbing shit isn't everyones' cup of tea

the hacking off of hands and feet were routine

I can't find a source right now, but to my knowledge this was also routine in the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola. Used as a punishment to instil discipline on rubber plantations. If you brought back rubber liquid that was messy/impure you'd be likely to have a finger or hand chopped off to teach you a lesson.

Also, you're Swiss. I recall being part of a pub conversation in London where the people from non-colonializing nations knew of the horrors of colonialization in quite a lot of detail, having been taught this in school, whilst the people from larger European nations such as Britain and Spain only vaguely knew of there being "both good and bad", but had little specific detail.

It was more than that in Congo I think. When they gave bullets to their police they had to prove that each one was accounted for and not used for hunting - hence returning hands as proof. This escalated horrifically, there's rabbit hole wiki entries for it, but it's incredibly bleak reading.

Come on, the Swiss were hardly innocent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3hMA76mBGE

I am not saying any Europeans were innocent. Countries that didn't have their own colonies still supported the system by trade etc. But it's my personal impression that school curriculums and public debate in larger European nations have been much more reluctant to mention specific examples of colonial abuses.

Has this been resolved yet?

Not sure where best to post this. Sausage Factory Epic Fail by associating with Boris 2yrs after claiming Brexit would be a Catastrophe for them...

https://twitter.com/search?q=Heckfood&s=09

I don't eat sausages but Brexit stopped me buying a Dyson this weekend.

Oops, Heck. Ha!

I flatly refuse to dry my hands if the hand drier in question is an Airblade

My personal experience with Dyson is that they are overpriced rubbish. The engineering principle might have some merit, but when it is made of almost 100% plastic you've effectively got a brittle piece of junk that the company refuses to repair.

After making short work of a DC02 by using it for occasional evenings/weekends DIY cleanups, I bought a Henry. Reckon I’d buy a ballbarrow if one came up at a carboot, but anything with a plug? Naaaah.

Sadly, Henry is also a Brexit vacuum cleaner. The difference is that the leave voting owner prefers to keep his views a little more on the down low.

#teamshrak

We touched on colonialism in history lessons, but as Germany never had many colonies, it probably wasn't considered such an important topic. Obviously, despite few colonies the Germans still managed to massacre thousands of people, e.g. in Namibia, where the descendants of victims of colonialism are still seeking compensation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herero_and_Namaqua_genocide

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-namibia-genocide-germany/lawsuit-against-germany-over-namibian-genocide-is-dismissed-in-new-york-idUSKCN1QN2SQ

I can't remember when I first heard about this, but I don't think it was in school. I could be wrong, but I'm fairly sure. I also think that the first articles I read about it didn't even get close to the scale of the horrors.

So, Labour is now a Remain party again. And it's getting shot of Kate Hoey. Good things, if a little late.

UGH. Back to the Wilko dustpan and brush responsibly-sourced bundle of twigs, it is.