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Forum Games - The Beer Cellar! / Re: Word Association
« Last post by Jubal on Today at 09:47:20 PM »Syrup
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Forum Games - The Beer Cellar! / Re: Word Association
« Last post by Tusky on Today at 09:15:14 PM »Corn
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Discussion and Debate - The Philosopher's Plaza / Re: UK Politics 2024
« Last post by Jubal on Today at 12:34:08 PM »I was surprised too - I was certainly expecting later in the year. I wonder if this is a doctrine on Sunak's part of of "good politicians make surprise moves that outwit their enemies. This is a surprise move, therefore it will outwit my enemies, because I am a good politician." Or possibly he's got a job offer in California and they want him to start in August.
Honestly it feels like the most vapid campaign start I can remember from all sides. I'm by any reasonable standards an enormous politics nerd and I really don't know what the opposition is offering except "change" or what the incumbents are claiming they've achieved. I don't even know what my own party is promising that's meaningful and distinct. The whole thing feels like a weird vacuum where everyone is going "eh, it's the other lot's turn now I guess".
Is that just a me thing watching from abroad and people back in the UK are more fired up for this/have I just become disconnected from what's going on at home? Genuinely interested for thoughts from those back on the ground.
Honestly it feels like the most vapid campaign start I can remember from all sides. I'm by any reasonable standards an enormous politics nerd and I really don't know what the opposition is offering except "change" or what the incumbents are claiming they've achieved. I don't even know what my own party is promising that's meaningful and distinct. The whole thing feels like a weird vacuum where everyone is going "eh, it's the other lot's turn now I guess".
Is that just a me thing watching from abroad and people back in the UK are more fired up for this/have I just become disconnected from what's going on at home? Genuinely interested for thoughts from those back on the ground.
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Forum Games - The Beer Cellar! / Re: Word Association
« Last post by Jubal on Today at 12:12:23 PM »children
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Forum Games - The Beer Cellar! / Re: Word Association
« Last post by Glaurung on Today at 10:12:24 AM »railway
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Discussion and Debate - The Philosopher's Plaza / Re: UK Politics 2024
« Last post by Glaurung on Today at 09:12:31 AM »Yesterday afternoon, Rishi Sunak announced the date of the general election: 4 July. This appears to have taken a lot of people by surprise, including a large fraction of his own party - e.g. there are about 150 constituencies that have not selected a Conservative candidate yet.
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Discussion and Debate - The Philosopher's Plaza / Re: World Politics and Elections 2024
« Last post by Jubal on May 22, 2024, 09:47:36 PM »Some European news, as we approach the EU elections (early June):
The Dutch still don't know who's going to be Prime Minister because the obvious candidate has come down in a scandal, also the right-liberal VVD look like being kicked out of the European liberal party for working with the deeply anti-European PVV.
Also, even more darkly amusingly, the Identity and Democracy group in the European parliament, which is to say the most fascist of the formal groups, is blowing itself up on the cusp of the elections because the German fascists are increasingly too obviously Nazi for the French fascists. Being too Nazi for Marine le Pen is not something anyone should ever want to achieve, but turns out it's happened, and it does look like le Pen has actually ruled out sharing a group with the AfD after the election, which in turn will force the other ID parties like Lega, the PVV, the Austrian FPO, etc, to decide which part of the split they go down. Possibly the result is that le Pen goes to the ECR, since she's moved to a much more publicly anti-Russian stance to deflect her own past dealings with them whereas most of the rest of ID is more anti-Ukrainian.
We're also just a week away from South Africa's election: the ANC might just scrape a majority still, they've recovered a tiny bit of ground in the last few polls. The DA look a bit stuck, probably doesn't help that they've got a white leader which may blunt their reaching out to most of the rest of the country. The new MKP have clearly taken a chunk off the ANC based on Jacob Zuma's personal vote, but the radical EFF don't look like they've made much progress either: the ANC aren't being crushed, just losing bits off all sides to different political parties.
The Dutch still don't know who's going to be Prime Minister because the obvious candidate has come down in a scandal, also the right-liberal VVD look like being kicked out of the European liberal party for working with the deeply anti-European PVV.
Also, even more darkly amusingly, the Identity and Democracy group in the European parliament, which is to say the most fascist of the formal groups, is blowing itself up on the cusp of the elections because the German fascists are increasingly too obviously Nazi for the French fascists. Being too Nazi for Marine le Pen is not something anyone should ever want to achieve, but turns out it's happened, and it does look like le Pen has actually ruled out sharing a group with the AfD after the election, which in turn will force the other ID parties like Lega, the PVV, the Austrian FPO, etc, to decide which part of the split they go down. Possibly the result is that le Pen goes to the ECR, since she's moved to a much more publicly anti-Russian stance to deflect her own past dealings with them whereas most of the rest of ID is more anti-Ukrainian.
We're also just a week away from South Africa's election: the ANC might just scrape a majority still, they've recovered a tiny bit of ground in the last few polls. The DA look a bit stuck, probably doesn't help that they've got a white leader which may blunt their reaching out to most of the rest of the country. The new MKP have clearly taken a chunk off the ANC based on Jacob Zuma's personal vote, but the radical EFF don't look like they've made much progress either: the ANC aren't being crushed, just losing bits off all sides to different political parties.
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Forum Games - The Beer Cellar! / Re: Word Association
« Last post by Jubal on May 22, 2024, 10:26:04 AM »model
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Forum Games - The Beer Cellar! / Re: Word Association
« Last post by Glaurung on May 22, 2024, 09:39:39 AM »statistical
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Forum Games - The Beer Cellar! / Re: Word Association
« Last post by Jubal on May 22, 2024, 09:32:41 AM »Sample