quote:

1. It's not a person's fault if they are poor;
2. It's not their fault if they are disabled;
3. Neo-liberalism doesn't work;
4. The Daily Mail lies (maybe even about Pig Dave and charity);
5. Neo-liberalism has never worked;
6. The British Empire was not a force for good;
7. Neo-liberalism will never work;
8. Trans people are not "men in dresses";
9. Gendered insults are not okay;
10. If something is "so gay" it had better be something that is really happy;
11. Trains are awesome;
12. The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles;

Pesky Splinter posted:

The hypocrisy is the most galling thing...and the sheer refusal to budge from ideology, (but that's pretty much applicable to every action they do ), but especially on their backwards-arsed drug policies.

Pesky Splinter posted:

The Canary posted:

In an extraordinary investigation for Channel 4, Michael Crick has uncovered repeated electoral fraud by the Conservative party in the run-up to the 2015 general election. While the rest of the broadcast media largely ignores the story, the party’s own workers are speaking out, calling for an investigation into the Tories’ “systematic” breach of election rules.

If you don’t watch Channel 4 News, this may be the first you’ve heard of the Tories’ criminal efforts to buy elections, although The Canary covered it here. So here’s a quick outline:

It was 2014, the year before the general election. David Cameron was fighting off “the Ukip threat”. He had already pledged to hold an EU referendum to keep eurosceptic voters happy. Then one of his MPs resigned, triggering a by-election in Newark – which Ukip thought it could win. Within months, two more by-elections were triggered when the Conservative MPs for Clacton and Rochester & Strood, Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless, both defected to Ukip.

The Conservatives threw everything they had at fighting the by-elections. David Cameron visited Rochester five times, and MPs and Conservative Headquarters’ staff flooded all three constituencies to do whatever it took to win. Now it seems that included breaking the law.

Channel 4 has uncovered hard evidence that the Conservatives spent more than the legal £100,000 limit in each of the three by-elections. Not just by a few pounds, or by a few thousand pounds, but by well over £90,000 across the three elections.

Then, instead of declaring their overspend, the party submitted misleading expense returns to returning officers – a criminal offence. It kept well over 1,200 nights of local hotel accommodation off the books. Many of those nights were signed for in a personal capacity by Conservative HQ Campaign Specialist Marion Little, who was later awarded an OBE for her by-elections work.

Confronted with this evidence, Conservative members were horrified by their party HQ’s behaviour. Delyth Miles, chair of the Clacton Conservative Party Association, immediately called for an investigation. Katie Woodland, then a paid Conservative party campaign manager for Telford who was asked to help with the Clacton by-election campaign told Channel 4:

The fact that it happened in three by-elections, one after the other, it’s systematic. And they know the law. They’ve been running elections for years … To do it three in a row, and to do it pretty big in a couple of places, means there was full intention behind it.

The Conservative party broke the law. It overspent on at least three by-election campaigns and made “a false declaration as to election expenses” – in breach of the Representation of the People Act 1983. The aim of that law is to protect democracy by ensuring a level playing field between political parties. But, thanks to a 12-month time limit on prosecuting the offence, the party will probably get off scot-free.

Despite Tory corruption, Ukip won in Clacton and in Rochester & Strood. But the Conservatives won a comfortable majority in Newark. And Labour, realising it would be outspent, barely bothered to campaign in the elections.

The questions this raises for our democracy couldn’t be more serious. If our governing party is systematically engaging in electoral fraud, what kind of democracy do we live in?

Guavanaut posted:

• Junior dohtors hontinue striking, Jeremy Hunt hontinues missing the point of what they are striking over.

Tesseraction posted:

If things don't start picking up this month then 2016 can officially go gently caress itself.

Manic X posted:

Jedit posted:

I have no problem with di Caprio getting the Oscar. He's been nominated six times and deserved the award on two of them.

Taear posted:

It does feel like he's got it this time because "he just should" although the best actor crop this time isn't exactly brilliant.

I dunno if it's just a british thing but as stuff ramped up in Revenant and he kept having worse and worse things happen people in my cinema were laughing because it Went Too Far.

Gonzo McFee posted:

The Revenant was the most gorgeous film I've ever been really bored by.

TinTower posted:

I'm surprised The Danish Girl only got one gong. The Academy normally loves their tragedy porn.

Regarde Aduck posted:

Who the gently caress cares about Di Caprio when Tom Hardy is right there.

Gorn Myson posted:

Mad Max should have won all of the awards because it's the best movie ever.

Kegluneq posted:

You'd have been complaining even more if Eddie Redmayne had won Best Actor though.

Taear posted:

It does feel like he's got it this time because "he just should" although the best actor crop this time isn't exactly brilliant.

I dunno if it's just a british thing but as stuff ramped up in Revenant and he kept having worse and worse things happen people in my cinema were laughing because it Went Too Far.

IceAgeComing posted:

Anyone ever gone to see a TV recording? I'm number 1 in the standby list for Robot Wars and I don't know whether hanging around would be a good idea

Oberleutnant posted:

Rather pleased that we managed to run out the EuroPol menace in under a week. We have defended the people's republic of UKMT, and now march to socialist victory over all of D&D!

Tesseraction posted:

I see fash thread (euro edition) is still discussing whether the refugees should be turned away for ARE CULTURE or ARE MONEY, leaving many to decide whether to argue with the racists or the free market true believers, and several others just staring in dismay at yet another dumb, dumb argument.

One thing I found particularly funny after seeing noted dipshit OhYeah consistently put out lovely arguments is that journalist Abi Wilkinson (of Mirror/Grauniad/rightthink departments) did a piece on Cologne last week that even specifically mentioned Estonia's large number of victim-blamers RE: rape victims. Starting to think she's reading these threads (while shaking her head in dismay).

Vahtooch posted:

Absolutely stunning op. Now I'll just go back to sipping lattes and not wanting to work hard, and you know, crying into said latte since I just read this.

https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2016/march/1456750800/richard-cooke/boomer-supremacy

Helen Highwater posted:

What the gently caress is this?

Clean For the Queen.

'Hey proles, you don't have jobs and the people who were formerly employed keeping your streets clean have all been rendered down into trace elements but could you do their work for free Her Maj? Did I hit my head and wake up in an alternate timeline where the feudal system was somehow still a thing in TYOOL 2016?

OwlFancier posted:

help me im stuck in europol and i cant get out