Mostly a lurker.
I read books to pay the bills.
She/her/they
UK
@fakeman_pretendname @Corporal_Punishment the post-Farage UKIP seems to have gone the way of the BNP, while Reform is pretending to perform respectability politics (although isn’t that far off the old BNP either). I almost miss Nick Griffin. At least fewer people swallowed his bullshit.
@theuniqueone @okwithmydecay I don’t. The unspoken bit is always race. “I’m anti [brown] immigration and I’m worried about [white] population decline” are not incompatible.
@als @moderatecentrist he’s always campaigned using plausible deniability though. It’s just *those* people. You know, the people we don’t like. Not people who are already here. *Good* immigrants who we *approve* of are ok.
This kind of disproves that and removes the figleaf for (some) people.
Personally I’d go with the fact it’s just straight up horrendous bullying. That’s a harder sell for someone who says he’s just fighting to protect all us poor weak victims who already live here.
@jimmy90 @Await8987 even when he goes, he’s destroyed the US’s soft power (and created long-term hatred towards the US in places where USAID was suddenly closed), tanked the economy and damaged trade links. The US will either be an insular yet aggressive dictatorship or focused on healing its wounds for years to come. Meanwhile empowered US fascists are funding fascists abroad, who will adopt nationalist policies of their own if they get in. The world is a very changed place.
@okwithmydecay NB you can also often join libraries in neighbouring counties too. Useful if you like ebooks and audiobooks as it expands the catalogue you can access if you have more than one library card. They often also give you free access to online newspapers and magazines, and sometimes streaming platforms too.
But please also go in! Ours does free coffee, has desks and free WiFi, and you can use their scanner and pay to use their printer if you don’t have your own.
@floofloof @FishFace the Quiet Riot podcast was discussing their utter consternation (surprise is the wrong word) that in the same year Starmer couldn’t accept so much as a pair of trousers from a donor, and Reeves and Rayner were being leapt on for everything, Farage has accepted a £9m crypto donation (90% of Reform’s funding for the year) and nobody has pushed him on what influence that has bought, or what went on with Nathan Gill and the Russian bribes.
@Wen @moderatecentrist can’t say the same for NI. Wonder what would have happened with the Theresa May Brexit situation if Arlene Foster weren’t such a lunatic.
@Wen @moderatecentrist although I am grateful for Scotland/Wales still being in the UK because without them the HoC would be Tory all the time (not that that’s a good reason to stay)
@Telorand @finitebanjo also Russian interference in the Brexit referendum is pretty much assumed at this point. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian/_interference/_in/_the/_2016/_Brexit/_referendum
@G4Z yeah in principle I agree but in practice “the internet” is about 4 companies. Until there’s more competition your data is being consolidated anyway. And the only way to get competition is to enforce regulation. I don’t think this is *good* regulation but I don’t see why we should have to do what Apple want just because they’re big.
Interestingly this comes at the same time as the smartphone-free childhood thing is gaining steam so there’s probably a real-world solution anyway.
@oeuf @G4Z I realise it’s never going to happen and there would be loads of other fallout I haven’t thought about, but I think governments *should* be allowed to. They can in every other field - our booze laws aren’t the same as the US’s, why should our dick pic laws be?
It might de-monopolise the industry a bit.
@cabbage @Little_Protection434 yup, everything talks to everything else. I’m reading/posting this from mastodon.
@HermitBee because that’s why Reeves said electric vehicles should pay per mile. She announced it by saying "Because all cars contribute to the wear and tear on our roads, I will ensure that drivers are taxed according to how much they drive, not just by the type of car they use.”
I’m not saying this particularly carries through to how roads are funded; I’m saying if this claim *is* the reason to tax EVs then the tax should be structured differently.
@frankPodmore @Jrockwar cars should be taxed according to size and weight, imo, if you’re bringing road maintenance & wear and tear into it. Then beyond that fuel source can be taxed according to pollution levels, as it currently kind of is (especially if they actually *do* unfreeze fuel duty).
@TIN I agree with your last point: the per-mile setup should apply to all vehicles according to size and weight if it is truly for road wear. Pollution can then be captured separately according to fuel source. Unfortunately the government has been too toothless to increase fuel duty for years.
Regarding your other point: yes! I think councils should run permit charging like resident parking: if you have a resident permit you can charge in council car parks for £x.
@TIN none of this is to say that nobody should be allowed to park near their house; but in general it would do us all good to recognise that parking is *never* free, even if we’re not personally paying an upfront fee.
@als @mannycalavera honestly it’s mostly not overpriced. That’s a perception. It just sells more of the expensive brands, but brand for brand and value ranges compared, it’s barely different from the others. Sainsbury’s would be a better pick if they want a) overpriced and b) money funnelled directly to outside shareholders.