Politics Thread 6

Fed up talking videogames? Why?

Who will you vote for at the next General Election?

Conservative
16
10%
Labour
64
41%
Liberal Democrat
28
18%
Green
22
14%
SNP
16
10%
Brexit Party
4
3%
UKIP
2
1%
Plaid Cymru
3
2%
DUP
1
1%
Sinn Fein
2
1%
The Independent Group for Change
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 158
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RetroCora
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PostRe: Politics Thread 6
by RetroCora » Fri May 20, 2022 12:03 pm

Moggy wrote:
Skarjo wrote:
Moggy wrote:I just watched the last episode of Derry Girls and it made me wonder if the late 90s/very early 00s was the last time we had hope for the future (even if misplaced). I don't mean personally, but as a country.

In the late 90s we had the optimism that Labour were going to use their huge majority for good. Northern Ireland looked like it was heading for a bright future (maybe it still will!) and we had a future ahead at the heart of an increasingly united Europe. The Cold War was over and it looked like Russia was going to be a friendly nation. Racism seemed to be lessening, gay people were starting to be accepted and the internet had arrived promising a future where we could connect and befriend everyone in the world.

Obviously things didn't turn out the way we all hoped, but that feeling of hope and optimism was amazing. And I don't think we've felt it since.

Some of it will be rose tinted, people tend to look back fondly of the time of their youth. But I don't think modern day young people have that sense of hope for the future. Over the next few years/decades they have what looks like a huge recession/depression. House prices/rent way beyond their reach. A Britain increasingly lurching towards totalitarianism and in constant dispute with Europe. A possible nuclear war with Russia. And to top it all off, climate change.

strawberry float the world is depressing. I'd give anything to feel that late 90/early 00s optimism again, even if it was all too brief and misplaced.


I see it in my students all the time. It's really weird.

There is a real, palpable sense of 'everything is truly strawberry floated and we just have to wait for it to collapse'.


Ultimately the late 90s/early 00s feeling of hope was misplaced.

Let's hope we are also wrong about the late 10s/early 20s feeling of despair.


I'm not sure how old everyone posting in this thread is, but anyone born after about 1986 hasn't really known "good times" as an adult. I have very vague memories of Blair getting in for the first time in 1997, but my earliest political memory is 9/11(I was 11). The 21 years since then have been a procession of awful really - the War on Terror that started after 2001 was overtaken by the GFC and austerity politics from 2008 to 2015/2016. Then we got the open rise of far-right politics in the west 2016-present, alongside the worst Pandemic event in 100 years. Millennials are really strawberry floated. :lol:

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Moggy
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PostRe: Politics Thread 6
by Moggy » Fri May 20, 2022 12:12 pm

RetroCora wrote:
Moggy wrote:
Skarjo wrote:
Moggy wrote:I just watched the last episode of Derry Girls and it made me wonder if the late 90s/very early 00s was the last time we had hope for the future (even if misplaced). I don't mean personally, but as a country.

In the late 90s we had the optimism that Labour were going to use their huge majority for good. Northern Ireland looked like it was heading for a bright future (maybe it still will!) and we had a future ahead at the heart of an increasingly united Europe. The Cold War was over and it looked like Russia was going to be a friendly nation. Racism seemed to be lessening, gay people were starting to be accepted and the internet had arrived promising a future where we could connect and befriend everyone in the world.

Obviously things didn't turn out the way we all hoped, but that feeling of hope and optimism was amazing. And I don't think we've felt it since.

Some of it will be rose tinted, people tend to look back fondly of the time of their youth. But I don't think modern day young people have that sense of hope for the future. Over the next few years/decades they have what looks like a huge recession/depression. House prices/rent way beyond their reach. A Britain increasingly lurching towards totalitarianism and in constant dispute with Europe. A possible nuclear war with Russia. And to top it all off, climate change.

strawberry float the world is depressing. I'd give anything to feel that late 90/early 00s optimism again, even if it was all too brief and misplaced.


I see it in my students all the time. It's really weird.

There is a real, palpable sense of 'everything is truly strawberry floated and we just have to wait for it to collapse'.


Ultimately the late 90s/early 00s feeling of hope was misplaced.

Let's hope we are also wrong about the late 10s/early 20s feeling of despair.


I'm not sure how old everyone posting in this thread is, but anyone born after about 1986 hasn't really known "good times" as an adult. I have very vague memories of Blair getting in for the first time in 1997, but my earliest political memory is 9/11(I was 11). The 21 years since then have been a procession of awful really - the War on Terror that started after 2001 was overtaken by the GFC and austerity politics from 2008 to 2015/2016. Then we got the open rise of far-right politics in the west 2016-present, alongside the worst Pandemic event in 100 years. Millennials are really strawberry floated. :lol:


I was born in 1980.

It was easy as somebody in their early 20s to ignore the war on terror, even though I vehemently opposed the Iraq war, it was so far away. Terrorism was rising, but as a kid of the 80s, it didn't seem so unusual as we grew up with the risk of the IRA.

2008 was when things started to bite. I was 28 by then and starting to realise that the good times were coming to an end.

2010 was where it all really collapsed. Tories and their austerity led to half a decade of the rise of the far right. Farage was suddenly everywhere, "Tommy Robinson" and Katie Hopkins were treated seriously.

Which all led to 2016 when Britain decided to strawberry float itself over for at least a generation. There was the odd glimmer of hope, Theresa May failing in 2017 for instance, but 2019 utterly killed any remaining optimism I might feel.

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RetroCora
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PostRe: Politics Thread 6
by RetroCora » Fri May 20, 2022 12:27 pm

Moggy wrote:
RetroCora wrote:
Moggy wrote:
Skarjo wrote:
Moggy wrote:I just watched the last episode of Derry Girls and it made me wonder if the late 90s/very early 00s was the last time we had hope for the future (even if misplaced). I don't mean personally, but as a country.

In the late 90s we had the optimism that Labour were going to use their huge majority for good. Northern Ireland looked like it was heading for a bright future (maybe it still will!) and we had a future ahead at the heart of an increasingly united Europe. The Cold War was over and it looked like Russia was going to be a friendly nation. Racism seemed to be lessening, gay people were starting to be accepted and the internet had arrived promising a future where we could connect and befriend everyone in the world.

Obviously things didn't turn out the way we all hoped, but that feeling of hope and optimism was amazing. And I don't think we've felt it since.

Some of it will be rose tinted, people tend to look back fondly of the time of their youth. But I don't think modern day young people have that sense of hope for the future. Over the next few years/decades they have what looks like a huge recession/depression. House prices/rent way beyond their reach. A Britain increasingly lurching towards totalitarianism and in constant dispute with Europe. A possible nuclear war with Russia. And to top it all off, climate change.

strawberry float the world is depressing. I'd give anything to feel that late 90/early 00s optimism again, even if it was all too brief and misplaced.


I see it in my students all the time. It's really weird.

There is a real, palpable sense of 'everything is truly strawberry floated and we just have to wait for it to collapse'.


Ultimately the late 90s/early 00s feeling of hope was misplaced.

Let's hope we are also wrong about the late 10s/early 20s feeling of despair.


I'm not sure how old everyone posting in this thread is, but anyone born after about 1986 hasn't really known "good times" as an adult. I have very vague memories of Blair getting in for the first time in 1997, but my earliest political memory is 9/11(I was 11). The 21 years since then have been a procession of awful really - the War on Terror that started after 2001 was overtaken by the GFC and austerity politics from 2008 to 2015/2016. Then we got the open rise of far-right politics in the west 2016-present, alongside the worst Pandemic event in 100 years. Millennials are really strawberry floated. :lol:


I was born in 1980.

It was easy as somebody in their early 20s to ignore the war on terror, even though I vehemently opposed the Iraq war, it was so far away. Terrorism was rising, but as a kid of the 80s, it didn't seem so unusual as we grew up with the risk of the IRA.

2008 was when things started to bite. I was 28 by then and starting to realise that the good times were coming to an end.

2010 was where it all really collapsed. Tories and their austerity led to half a decade of the rise of the far right. Farage was suddenly everywhere, "Tommy Robinson" and Katie Hopkins were treated seriously.

Which all led to 2016 when Britain decided to strawberry float itself over for at least a generation. There was the odd glimmer of hope, Theresa May failing in 2017 for instance, but 2019 utterly killed any remaining optimism I might feel.


Old bastard ;)

We're almost ten years apart, so our timelines kind of match up in a sense - 2007 onwards was really the start of my adult life(I turned 18 that September), and it's been fairly relentless gooseberry fool ever since. Every new news story that comes out edges me closer to packing the cat into a suitcase and strawberry floating off somewhere else at this point.

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Afrocat
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PostRe: Politics Thread 6
by Afrocat » Fri May 20, 2022 12:29 pm

This thread is extra cheerful today! At least we'll all be dead in a few decades :lol:

Slightly more American oriented, but it sums up the feeling:

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Photek
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Location: Dublin

PostRe: Politics Thread 6
by Photek » Fri May 20, 2022 12:33 pm

1976 here! :dread:

I loved the 90's like truly that was and is my favorite decade of all time, turned 20 in '96 and everything was pretty cool, even the Euro 96 tournament was aces. Grew up a lot at that time also. The boom Ireland was seeing was insane, it was known as the 'Celtic Tiger' as our economy just balooned with the influx of US companies and tech firms who got massive tax cuts, the fact the US economy was also booming along with the EU it was a transformative time for Ireland, from 1994-2007 everyone had money to spare. Corruption was rife within our government but no one cared as we spent like mad eejits!

Then came the crash, I just about hung onto my job while every single other person in the office was let go, I was alone on an entire floor. Our corrupt politicians started to be brought to account and Fine Gael and Fine Fail had to re-invent themselves as the old guard was looked at with disdain as they had failed us all, we had enquiry after enquiry unveiling their deeds, I've said it before, in the 90's I used to admire the British politicians for handing in resignation over the smallest of issues, they were so different to our shower of pricks and the seemed to have dignity.

The world has a whole is a darker place, but as an Irishman I've seen my country grow, boom and bust was part of it but with the complete separation of church and state and strong leaders we've become a progressive haven, a country that I'm finally FINALLY proud of. Our youth have opportunity again, no more girls having to travel to Britain for abortions, no more shame for being gay, no more absolute banana splits killing innocent people in my name and no more bowing down to the church. We actively ask the EU for more refugee's and the over all feeling is that we want a multicultural Ireland, a progressive Ireland and in time, yes, a united one.

So at least in this sense, right here, right now, I'm very optimistic.

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Moggy
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PostRe: Politics Thread 6
by Moggy » Fri May 20, 2022 12:40 pm

RetroCora wrote:We're almost ten years apart, so our timelines kind of match up in a sense - 2007 onwards was really the start of my adult life(I turned 18 that September), and it's been fairly relentless gooseberry fool ever since. Every new news story that comes out edges me closer to packing the cat into a suitcase and strawberry floating off somewhere else at this point.


It's sad that you didn't get the feeling of optimism when you were 18-25. It was strawberry floating awesome. :lol:

Photek wrote:
So at least in this sense, right here, right now, I'm very optimistic.


Yeah I'm pretty much just talking about the UK (and probably the USA!). Although you're just as strawberry floated with climate change long term. ;)

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RetroCora
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PostRe: Politics Thread 6
by RetroCora » Fri May 20, 2022 12:51 pm

Yeah Ireland's come on in leaps and bounds tbf. But speaking as a Scottish UK citizen, I have absolutely no hope for positive change in the next ten years.

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Moggy
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PostRe: Politics Thread 6
by Moggy » Fri May 20, 2022 12:53 pm

RetroCora wrote:Yeah Ireland's come on in leaps and bounds tbf. But speaking as a Scottish UK citizen, I have absolutely no hope for positive change in the next ten years.


You don't see independence happening?

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Rex Kramer
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PostRe: Politics Thread 6
by Rex Kramer » Fri May 20, 2022 12:53 pm

RetroCora wrote:Yeah Ireland's come on in leaps and bounds tbf. But speaking as a Scottish UK citizen, I have absolutely no hope for positive change in the next ten years.

Is that because of Westminster or Holyrood?

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Moggy
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PostRe: Politics Thread 6
by Moggy » Fri May 20, 2022 1:00 pm

twitter.com/eleri_morgan/status/1206286035610742784



That's the ideal solution. :datass:

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Vermilion
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PostRe: Politics Thread 6
by Vermilion » Fri May 20, 2022 2:31 pm

Moggy wrote:It was easy as somebody in their early 20s to ignore the war on terror, even though I vehemently opposed the Iraq war, it was so far away. Terrorism was rising, but as a kid of the 80s, it didn't seem so unusual as we grew up with the risk of the IRA.


Exactly, when i was growing up, the word terrorist conjured up images of guys in green army camo and balaclavas.

When i was 6, my school was even evacuated because of a bomb scare.

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Xeno
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PostRe: Politics Thread 6
by Xeno » Fri May 20, 2022 2:38 pm

Used to have squadies hiding in bushes every time there was a bomb threat. Sniffer dogs all over the place, bags searched and had to carry some proof of residence so I could get on to the estate. Got to love living on a forces estate during the 70's and 80's.

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Moggy
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PostRe: Politics Thread 6
by Moggy » Fri May 20, 2022 4:50 pm

twitter.com/mhairiblack/status/1526999103615401984



:wub:

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captain red dog
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Location: Bristol, UK

PostRe: Politics Thread 6
by captain red dog » Fri May 20, 2022 6:01 pm

Moggy wrote:

twitter.com/eleri_morgan/status/1206286035610742784



That's the ideal solution. :datass:

I was kind of against that until I saw Bristol and Cornwall were included!

If there was a referendum anywhere in the UK to break away from Westminster government, I think it would be an absolute landslide.

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RetroCora
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PostRe: Politics Thread 6
by RetroCora » Fri May 20, 2022 6:39 pm

Moggy wrote:

twitter.com/mhairiblack/status/1526999103615401984



:wub:


That's all very well and good but she once said on Twitter that she really strawberry floating hates Celtic so I'm not on board with any of that.

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Carlos
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PostRe: Politics Thread 6
by Carlos » Fri May 20, 2022 7:24 pm

I've long thought Mercia should break away from Westminster too. I even came up with my own political party: Yorkshire Independence Party for Everything and Everyone or YIPEE

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Vermilion
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PostRe: Politics Thread 6
by Vermilion » Fri May 20, 2022 7:30 pm

Carlos wrote:I even came up with my own political party: Yorkshire Independence Party for Everything and Everyone or YIPEE


I assume the wearing of flat caps is compulsory for all members?

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Moggy
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PostRe: Politics Thread 6
by Moggy » Fri May 20, 2022 7:59 pm

RetroCora wrote:
Moggy wrote:

twitter.com/mhairiblack/status/1526999103615401984



:wub:


That's all very well and good but she once said on Twitter that she really strawberry floating hates Celtic so I'm not on board with any of that.


Image

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Sprouty
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PostRe: Politics Thread 6
by Sprouty » Sat May 21, 2022 11:49 am

Moggy wrote:

twitter.com/mhairiblack/status/1526999103615401984



:wub:


What a great speaker this MP is. When you recognise an MP from a few speaches shared online, you have to think she's a potential future party leader. Whether you agree with everything she says or not (and mostly I do), she makes compelling arguments for what she believes in. It's a shame that the majority of MPs do not. I'm assuming based on where she is sat she's SNP.

I'd love to have the option to vote for somebody with that level of conviction. My local MP is Chloe Smith and I don't think she has ever voted against her party. I couldn't tell you anything that she stands for, other than keeping her own job.

The silly neighbourhood vegetable.
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Garth
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PostRe: Politics Thread 6
by Garth » Sat May 21, 2022 12:33 pm

twitter.com/SamCoatesSky/status/1527728025139306496


twitter.com/SamCoatesSky/status/1527945535092674560


twitter.com/SamCoatesSky/status/1527965832642437120



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