The Politics Thread | Page 249 | Vital Football

The Politics Thread

More government disarray... can they not just press ctrl+Z? :lol:

The home secretary, Priti Patel, is facing questions after 150,000 arrest records were accidentally wiped from police databases last week.

Fingerprint, DNA and arrest history records were deleted which could allow offenders to go free because evidence from crime scenes will not be flagged on the Police National Computer (PNC)...

...the Times said “crucial intelligence about suspects” had vanished because of the blunder, and that Britain’s visa system had been thrown into disarray, with the processing of applications suspended for two days.

https://www.theguardian.com/politic...re-as-150000-police-records-accidentally-lost

It’ll probably transpire that some Tory donor was arrested in that week.

I’m not posting that for Likes, it’s a highly plausible theory.
 
I don’t think the Germans are happy with us post Brexit... feels very political.


BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - The German airline Lufthansa has asked the Argentine government for permission to overfly its country en route to the Falklands, Argentina said on Thursday, adding that the request implies recognition of Falklands “as part of Argentine territory,” the Foreign Ministry said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-argentina-falklands-idUSKBN29R0D0
 
I don’t think the Germans are happy with us post Brexit... feels very political.


BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - The German airline Lufthansa has asked the Argentine government for permission to overfly its country en route to the Falklands, Argentina said on Thursday, adding that the request implies recognition of Falklands “as part of Argentine territory,” the Foreign Ministry said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-argentina-falklands-idUSKBN29R0D0
I think it's more the Argies sabre rattling than the Germans/Lufthansa doing anything provocative.
 
I do find it amusing the way we have so much hostility with the argies over the Falklands, an island of 3k people. Yet Northern Ireland which has a population of 1.8m we seem quite happy to let drift back to being a United Ireland.

Much like how fishing was prioritised over services in the negotiations over the EU?
 
I do find it amusing the way we have so much hostility with the argies over the Falklands, an island of 3k people. Yet Northern Ireland which has a population of 1.8m we seem quite happy to let drift back to being a United Ireland.

My understanding is that close to 100% of the population of the Falklands see themselves as British. That is not the case with Northern Ireland. Also, apart from a tiny sliver of the British defence budget being allocated to the Falklands, the islands are self-sufficient and require no other financial assistance. Northern Ireland costs more to the UK exchequer than the previous payment to the EU.
 
My understanding is that close to 100% of the population of the Falklands see themselves as British. That is not the case with Northern Ireland. Also, apart from a tiny sliver of the British defence budget being allocated to the Falklands, the islands are self-sufficient and require no other financial assistance. Northern Ireland costs more to the UK exchequer than the previous payment to the EU.

Would you be a yay or a nay on a united Ireland, John?
 
My understanding is that close to 100% of the population of the Falklands see themselves as British. That is not the case with Northern Ireland. Also, apart from a tiny sliver of the British defence budget being allocated to the Falklands, the islands are self-sufficient and require no other financial assistance. Northern Ireland costs more to the UK exchequer than the previous payment to the EU.

I can’t argue with any of those facts, I would have just thought the at the ego of having a couple more million people and a bigger land area would tick the ego boxes of the leaders when they’re stood at their G8 summits or what have you, comparing dick sizes.
 
Would you be a yay or a nay on a united Ireland, John?

Chatting to my dad about this once, he didn’t think it was as black and white as catholics favouring unification and Protestants favouring the U.K.

If Brexit proves to see NI left in the limbo I can see unification being a majority especially as the Catholic school children outnumber the Protestants.

BBJ will be the expert on it.

I have no affiliation with NI, I’ll hope they do well in football and that’s about it, but when they’re gone, they’re gone, and the U.K. is that little bit smaller. Depends on whether you care or not about size.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BBJ
Would you be a yay or a nay on a united Ireland, John?

Yes - but not yet.
Partition (100 years old in 2021) was not a good idea. It led to two very dysfunctional states on the island of Ireland, both of them sectarian, narrow-minded and often very cruel to those who didn't conform to the norm.
The Republic has thankfully moved on quite a lot. I think being in the EU helped. There was an increase in financial wealth but, more than that, there was considerable social progress. IThere is a highly educated workforce. It isn't the finished article by any means and not all change (in my opinion) has been good but I certainly feel that it's in a better place than it was even 30 years ago.
Northern Ireland, in spite of the Good Friday agreement, is still a divided society as evinced by the tribal loyalties to the more extreme political parties, the DUP and Sinn Fein, both of which are also pretty incompetent. Neither does it pay its way in the world, being reliant on lots of cash from Westminster. It used to be much wealthier than the Republic. This is no longer the case.
Before we can think of a united Ireland my view is that there needs to be a united Northern Ireland focused on making life better for everyone. As much sectarianism as possible needs to be squeezed out of everyday life.
 
I've just been listening to Douglas Murray being interviewed on the Jordan Peterson Podcast. I'm not Murray's biggest fan. I'd normally avoid anyone on the front line of "The Culture War". Still, it's a fascinating podcast.

The most interesting thing they talked about is the collapse of the traditional left and right narratives. Both were based around the idea of scarcity and now society's resources should be distributed. We have reached an age where there isn't a scarcity of resources. To keep people engaged with the political process both the left and right, especially in America need something to inspire people to go out and vote and The Culture War has been really successful in doing that.