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Let's face it, whoever comes out of a leadership contest will be hailed as a hero in the press and receive the kind of praise that would make Kanye blush.
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Sep 1, 2017 18:40
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Any discussion of Davidson's leadership potential usually starts with her being parachuted into a safe Tory seat, but unless there is an additional rule for being PM (which I am unaware of) it's always worth remembering that you don't have to be an MP or a Peer to be a Minister. Now, obviously it would go down terribly if the Tories tried this, you can imagine Labour hammering them about having an unelected leader until the cows come home. But it is still techincally possible to do it.
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Sep 1, 2017 18:42
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Hammond as major 2.0 I think Williamson has a decent shot in the not too distant future if he wants it - seems quite popular with the parliamentary party (cabinet and backbenches) and he's a rapid riser. Being a non-oxbrige Yorkshireman and former businessman might play well with party internal electoral calculus. Though the whole whip to leader thing is a hard path especially if you have to crack a lot of heads in a minority government
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Sep 1, 2017 18:46
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Nobody is anybody 2.0. Blair's political style is dead and its acolytes have nothing to replace it with because they are poo poo people who jumped on a gravy train and convinced themselves it would run forever due to being high on their own farts for nearly two loving decades 
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Sep 1, 2017 19:00
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The current head of state is Elizabeth 2.0
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Sep 1, 2017 19:03
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See now you just make me think that if the libertarian techbros ever assumed power then the resultant feudal descent would have the most agonizing ruler titles.
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Sep 1, 2017 19:05
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forkboy84 posted:Yeah, UKMT is unironically way better for non-fiction recommendations. And seeing as bad fantasy/scifi & non-fiction are all I can be arsed reading now, I just end up re-reading Philip K Dick & Terry Pratchett & feel absolutely OK for it. That's some good sci-fi, and coal-black and depressing like a UKMT book recommendation should be
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Sep 1, 2017 19:07
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Zephro posted:Have you read Blindsight, by Peter Watts? (Blindsight spoiler) The vampire felt so unnecessary to the story.
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Sep 1, 2017 19:11
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The Powder Mage trilogy by Brian McClellan starts with a regicide/revolution and then becomes a war story with a B plot about a private investigator. It's pretty brilliant.
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Sep 1, 2017 19:17
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Zephro posted:Have you read Blindsight, by Peter Watts?
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Sep 1, 2017 19:19
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Guavanaut posted:The current head of state is Elizabeth 2.0 Yeah, and she's a wazzock, and all!! 
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Sep 1, 2017 19:20
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Last book derail with a tenuous political link ive just started Captain Corellis Mandolin (haven't seen film) and there is an absolutely blinding first person fascist rant from Mussolini somewhere in the first 50 pages. It does end up with him shooting a cat in the head so avoid if that upsets you but very much enjoying the book so far despite there not being any aliens or dragons and that
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Sep 1, 2017 19:22
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Zephro posted:Have you read Blindsight, by Peter Watts? Is that the one where humanity is attacked by hyper-intelligent naturally occurring space robots because trying to comprehend our concept of love gives them brain spasms? And we're eventually replaced on Earth by genetically resurrected autistic vampires?
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Sep 1, 2017 19:22
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Renaissance Robot posted:Is that the one where humanity is attacked by hyper-intelligent naturally occurring space robots because trying to comprehend our concept of love gives them brain spasms? And we're eventually replaced on Earth by genetically resurrected autistic vampires? Right, okay, so I'm thinking this is a non-fiction book, yeah?
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Sep 1, 2017 19:24
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Scifi: Wolfhound Century, perhaps? As fiction goes, Red Plenty should really be at the top of the UKMT reading list.
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Sep 1, 2017 19:35
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If you like space lesbians, I found A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet enjoyable.  forkboy84 posted:Anyway, Ruth Davidson is currently getting a bit of bad press up here because the new Tory MP for Moray (& part-time football referee) has made some really iffy comments about Travellers & Davidson dismissed it as a local issue rather than a treating it as a Tory MP being casually racist towards one of the most persecuted minorities in the country. To be honest, its nothing new for the Tories; remember when the man who had his first leadership bill killed off by Widdie's not-so-stealth anti-semitism and anti-ziganism run a horrendously anti-Traveller election campaign?
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Sep 1, 2017 19:37
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quote:Give your imagination permission to engage with some unlikely facts: in the 1950s, the USSR was one of the growth stars of the planetary economy, second only to Japan in the speed with which it was hauling itself up from the wreckage of the war years. And this is on the basis not of the official Soviet figures of the time, or even of the CIA's anxious recalculations of them, but of the figures arrived at after the Soviet Union's fall by sceptical historians with access to the archives. The Soviet economy grew through the second half of the 50s at 5%, 6%, 7% a year. As Paul Krugman has mischievously pointed out, the USSR's growth record in the 50s elicited exactly the same awed commentary as Chinese and Indian growth does today. Admittedly, "growth" did not mean exactly the same thing in the Soviet context that it did in, say, the American one (average for the period 3.3% a year) or in the British one (average: 1.9%; have a stale crumpet). Soviet growth was counted differently, was biased massively towards heavy industry and did not necessarily imply a matching growth in living standards. You have to know, you have to know. This was a real period in real history. There was a brief but glorious moment when all establishment wisdom said: yes, the Soviets will bury us. But just staring at the GDP tables isn't enough - to empathize, one needs people and narratives.
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Sep 1, 2017 19:42
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Ronya what are you talking about?
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Sep 1, 2017 19:54
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Miftan posted:Ronya what are you talking about? The existence of people as individuals proves that Tony Blair Thought is the immortal science.
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Sep 1, 2017 19:59
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Zephro posted:Have you read Blindsight, by Peter Watts? It's actually very badly written, it's almost like a Ulillillia book in how dense of a slog it is. Go read "The Stars My Destination" instead, or the Cities in Flight quadrilogy.
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Sep 1, 2017 19:59
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Counterpoint: I thought it was a really good, tense and thought-provoking book.
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Sep 1, 2017 20:01
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Pochoclo posted:It's actually very badly written, it's almost like a Ulillillia book in how dense of a slog it is.
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Sep 1, 2017 20:03
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Mozi posted:Counterpoint: I thought it was a really good, tense and thought-provoking book. It is, but that doesn't mean it can't also have pretty poor prose.
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Sep 1, 2017 20:04
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ronya posted:(Blindsight spoiler) quote:It's actually very badly written
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Sep 1, 2017 20:05
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Renaissance Robot posted:Is that the one where humanity is attacked by hyper-intelligent naturally occurring space robots because trying to comprehend our concept of love gives them brain spasms? And we're eventually replaced on Earth by genetically resurrected autistic vampires? edit: also if you don't find the appendix where he constructs the fictional history for vampires amusing then you are literally dead to me because it's a great example of how to do that sort of thing, plus also quite funny and the villain of the piece is a giant and comically unethical big pharma company The sequel wasn't very good though Zephro fucked around with this message at 20:18 on Sep 1, 2017 |
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Sep 1, 2017 20:13
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William Hague 2 Electric Boogaloo. The country could use the entertainment.
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Sep 1, 2017 20:14
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(more Blindsight spoilers)Zephro posted:Eh, I dunno. He's sort of a human analogue of the starfish-aliens and the whole idea that consciousness not only isn't necessary for intelligence but it is an active impediment to it and that self-awareness is just a weird evolutionary mistake that won't survive contact with something not hampered by it. Watts doesn't seem able to decide whether or not his vampire is conscious or p-zombie-flavoured - either way it doesn't mesh well with the rest of the narrative. The more conscious, ever more irrelevant to the alien. The less conscious, the less novel and shocking the alien is. The hubris aesthetic of transhumanism being failed by its humanity is rather undermined by the superintelligent mentat not being transhuman, in contrast to the rest of the crew - for hard sci-fi there is remarkable disinterest in the HOLY poo poo WE ENGINEERED AN ENTIRELY NEW SAPIENT SPECIES - NOW, SAY, WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A BAT? side of things; it's as if the narrative itself doesn't quite care about hardness in this one respect and instead cares about mythology apologetics. Sore thumbs and the editors that need to prick them.
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Sep 1, 2017 20:23
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I mean, obviously if it turned out we could resurrect an extinct, highly intelligent but psychopathic species of hominid whose chief source of food was Homo Sapiens, then of course big corporations would want to do that because psychopathy and intelligence are an excellent combination of traits to have in management, so of course we'd do it and put them in charge of everything, because it means more money for shareholders, even if what they really want to do is literally eat us.
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Sep 1, 2017 20:24
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Zephro posted:I mean, obviously if it turned out we could resurrect an extinct, highly intelligent but psychopathic species of hominid whose chief source of food was Homo Sapiens, then of course big corporations would want to do that because psychopathy and intelligence are an excellent combination of traits to have in management, so of course we'd do it and put them in charge of everything, because it means more money for shareholders, even if what they really want to do is literally eat us. it's a fun and interesting concept that could underpin an entire sci-fi novel by itself in fact, it should have
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Sep 1, 2017 20:31
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Seaside Loafer posted:Last book derail with a tenuous political link ive just started Captain Corellis Mandolin (haven't seen film) and there is an absolutely blinding first person fascist rant from Mussolini somewhere in the first 50 pages. It does end up with him shooting a cat in the head so avoid if that upsets you but very much enjoying the book so far despite there not being any aliens or dragons and that Louis De Bernieres is fantastic, everyone read all of his books but especially the South American ones.
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Sep 1, 2017 20:41
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Guavanaut posted:The current head of state is Elizabeth 2.0 Why I get so mad about something that matters so little is inexplicable. Few things matter less to me than the title of a monarch but there you go.
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Sep 1, 2017 20:41
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forkboy84 posted:I get so irrationally mad that she's called Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith (why yes, I copy & pasted her title). She's not the 2nd Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. She's the 1st. Elizabeth the First was Queen of England, Ireland and pretended to be Queen of France, as is the English monarchical tradition. Grumble grumble. It's because you're a goon
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Sep 1, 2017 20:43
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Miftan posted:It's because you're a goon Yeah, this is true. At least normally my worst goony tendencies are restricted to music.
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Sep 1, 2017 20:44
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forkboy84 posted:I get so irrationally mad that she's called Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith (why yes, I copy & pasted her title). She's not the 2nd Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. She's the 1st. Elizabeth the First was Queen of England, Ireland and pretended to be Queen of France, as is the English monarchical tradition. Grumble grumble.
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Sep 1, 2017 20:49
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When I first started figuring out stuff about the UK before moving here, I read "HMRC" everywhere as the tax agency and was wondering what the gently caress it even meant. When I found out HM stood for "Her Majesty's" I laughed, it's just so medieval.
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Sep 1, 2017 20:50
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forkboy84 posted:Why I get so mad about something that matters so little is inexplicable. Few things matter less to me than the title of a monarch but there you go. This is why Charles is going to call himself George VII instead of Charles III, to stop people from arguing about the numbering. And because he doesn't want to be executed or exiled like his da was hoping when he named him. Although technically two of those Georges were not by the Grace of God King of the United Kingdom, and most of them weren't of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. communism bitch posted:The convention with the nobs is that they use the highest regnal number that has ever existed in any of the constituent kingdoms. So if Charlie decided to take Alexander as a regnal name he'd be Alexander IV or whatever the increment is after the last King Alexander of Scotland, despite there never being an Alexander in England or the UK. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.
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Sep 1, 2017 20:52
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Pochoclo posted:When I first started figuring out stuff about the UK before moving here, I read "HMRC" everywhere as the tax agency and was wondering what the gently caress it even meant. When I found out HM stood for "Her Majesty's" I laughed, it's just so medieval. It's also, sort of constitutionally, strictly correct. The government derives its authority to govern from the sovereign. In practice it pays the army, but legally it is because the queen legitimizes it.
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Sep 1, 2017 20:53
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Guavanaut posted:People in Scotland did actually chisel the II off of postboxes in the 50s. Yeah it might even be a 20th century convention, I don't know exactly when it came in, but I don't think it's actually needed implementing so far. The Charles going for George thing is funny because he doesn't want to be historically associated with the previous Charleseseses but he apparently plans on being super interventionist with "his" governments and has ideas about running the country himself. It's going to be a shock to the public and political system after decades of Liz's masterly inactivity. I wonder if it might be what finishes the Windsors for good. The first interesting thing to look out for with Charles will be to see if he's appointed Head of the Commonwealth - although George VI and Liz have been appointed as a matter of course it's not a hereditary title. Apparently there are certain members of the Commonwealth who are looking to make a point with Charles by not appointing him, or by making it as difficult as possible for him to get appointed. communism bitch fucked around with this message at 21:03 on Sep 1, 2017 |
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Sep 1, 2017 21:00
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It is interesting that the entire survival of the monarchy in the modern day is predicated on Liz who, frankly, is a master politician.
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Sep 1, 2017 21:04
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communism bitch posted:Yeah it might even be a 20th century convention, I don't know exactly when it came in, but I don't think it's actually needed implementing so far. Coincidentally I'm currently watching To Play The King (sequel to the good House of Cards) which is this but in the 90s. Has a Princess Di expy too!
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Sep 1, 2017 21:33
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