Recent posts

#1

Gaming HQ / Re: Europa Universalis V confi...

Last post by Tamas - Today at 11:55:08 AM

Not bad AI borders for 1484 (I am Hungary):



In fact it is 1488 now and I have felt the need to intervene in the 1st Venetian-Ottoman war. The Ottos are allied with the Mamluks and I feel like I need to contain them before we build a larger common border. It's nice to be worried about the Ottomans finally. 

#2

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Sheilbh - Today at 11:25:48 AM

See the greens.
I'm loving Polanskis approach of ridiculing woke to focus on actual issues.

On this I'd also say I've seen more of Polanski in the last month or two than I'd seen of the previous Green leaders this parliament.

I know people here always criticise the media for so much Farage and there's some truth to that especially in the right-wing press. But I think this shows something I've said before that part of it is that historically the Greens don't like having a "leader" or "leaders" - so they tend to have a rotating slot of people doing media rather than just putting forward their leader or best media performer. But also the Green strategy in the past has always been opposed to national media because they believe in deep, local activism and building a party that'll last a century not chasing headlines - which is admirable and quite possibly right.

I think both of those have been ditched a little bit by Polanski because his whole pitch was about "eco-populism" and doing media, causing a splash, getting attention etc. And I think he's very good at it. So I think as well as criticising the media it's probably also worth wondering what could have been if, say, Caroline Lucas (elected for the first time at the same time as Farage in 1999) had the same sort of strategy as Polanski instead of the focus on really strong, committed, local activism in Brighton.

Edit: And to be clear I'm not sure there's necessarily a right way here. The Greens believe in building a deep party with activist roots everywhere that's capable of last a hundred years which gives them a huge platform now that they have, in Polanski, a leader willing and able to do national media/air war stuff too. Farage has burned through three parties and is very good at the media side of things but doesn't work well with others. He has never previously built an actual political party (activists, party structures, councillors etc) and is trying to do that now. It may well be Reform ends up being as effervescent as his other parties while the Greens with their activist base, party structures now marrying it with a pro-active approach to the media may well be better placed for the long-run.

#3

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Sheilbh - Today at 11:19:38 AM

They are irrelevant, best not to dwell on them too much unless it gives you entertainment.

Maybe. I think you're probably right and I think the Greens have won the fight to be the party to the left of Labour. But there's still two reasons I think they matter.

The first is just the level of volatility both in elections and in polls. Labour and the Greens are polling at 15-20%. Reform, Tories and Lib Dems are flatlining/plateauing at 30%, 15-20% and 10-15% respectively. I'm not sure things are settled enough that we can rule out another disruption by Your Party (or similarly, a party to the right of Reform).

The other point is who these parties appeal to. I think if Sultana's version of Your Party wins then I agree and they'd just end up being a poor copy of Polanski's Greens. I think Corbyn's side wins it will be different. A lot of the abuse he's getting seems to be coming from white activists who have been radicalised over Gaza and to be a bit dismissive have been reading their Fanon. Corbyn's not getting barracked by Muslim voters. You see this in the pre-conference regional tours where the disruption was happening in Hackney but not Bradford, say. I think this reflects decades of being involved in Palestine (and Kashmir) solidarity campaigns, decades of attending events at mosques etc. He has a base both with those communities but also some other structural bits of the hard-left within the unions etc.

Similarly Corbyn has said he regrets the loss of two of the Gaza Independent MPs who have been forced out. One of them, Adnan Hussain, has an article out today and I'm very sympathetic - his basic point being "When the left insists that working-class people must relinquish their cultural or religious attachments to be politically acceptable, it reproduces a form of liberal paternalism every bit as condescending as the attitudes it claims to oppose."

I mention all that because I think Labour's challenge is that Reform are hoovering up the old "traditional" heartlands. I think Polanski's Greens have won the battle to be the more radical party that will do well in university towns and urban seats with lots of graduates. But the areas with the biggest swings against Labour in 2024 were seats with large Muslim communities. They came within 500 votes of unseating Wes Streeting and 2,500 votes of removing Shabana Mahmood. Even in Keir Starmer's seat the Gaza Independent candidate (on the Sultana wing of Your Party now) came second with twice the vote of the Greens. It's not clear to me what happens in those seats with large Muslim communities where there's been huge political organising over Gaza - I'm very unsure they swing back to Labour, or necessarily fold easily into the Greens so I think the direction of Your Party this weekend may still matter.

Just as an example the May local elections look like an absolute nightmare for Labour. All London boroughs are up, large chunks of the North-West and North-East as well as, say, all of Birmingham. I think if Your Party is able to pick up the mantle as the Gaza Independents party, then they might be the surprise at the local elections.

I am glad their main focus revolves around what truly affects British people.

In their view, Israel is committing genocide and Britain is complicit. I think if that's your view it's entirely morally defensible to say there is no more important issue than ending British complicity in and support for a crime against humanity.

Probably. Corbyn was around back when zionism wasn't a toxic ideology, back when there were big left wing links with the kibutz movement and all that.
Sultana is young enough she's only ever known zionism in it's modern sense as the expansionist Israel far right.

But funny to attack Corbyn for not being anti Israel enough when being too pro Palestine and not hard enough on anti semites was a big thing that brought him down.

I think it's also just that the far left tends to move one step left and invent the new shibboleth that shows you're in the crowd/have done the reading which can leave otherwise unimpeachable leftists behind because they've not got the memo. I think this is a repeated pattern and a bit of a dysfunction that the left has (in a way I think you even see it with mainstream bits Labour on things like "day one rights" and "renters' rights"). But also think there's generations of the mainstream far left in this country, historically always in the Labour Party (the Bevanites to the Bennites to the Corbynites) and now that's moving out of Labour it's maybe just fracturing.

I'm basically entirely in agreement with Corbyn when he was asked about the two Gaza Independent MPs who've left your party that he believes that you win by "persuasion not purity tests" but there is a chunk of the far left that absolutely loves a purity test. I don't fully buy it but I think there is something to the line that the right looks for converts while the left looks for heretics and we've now reached the point where even Jeremy Corbyn is insufficiently "politically correct" (in the old school far left way).

#4

Gaming HQ / Re: The Miscellaneous PC & vid...

Last post by Solmyr - Today at 11:18:32 AM

Quite a lot actually, there are flavorful mission trees for even fairly minor countries.

#5

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Josquius - Today at 10:59:08 AM

I am glad their main focus revolves around what truly affects British people.

See the greens.
I'm loving Polanskis approach of ridiculing woke to focus on actual issues.

#6

Gaming HQ / Re: The Miscellaneous PC & vid...

Last post by Crazy_Ivan80 - Today at 10:33:14 AM

The main issue people had with Imperator, I think, was that it sort of lacked a goal for the player outside of playing the Roman Republic. It seemed a bit bland at first, but I admit I really enjoyed a few runs on later patches and with some DLC. There were not that many DLCs.

It was the second time Paradox tried its hand at Roman history. It is better than the first.

invictus add a number of goals to several countries iirc

#7

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Richard Hakluyt - Today at 09:57:50 AM

They are irrelevant, best not to dwell on them too much unless it gives you entertainment.

#8

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Tamas - Today at 09:37:41 AM

I am glad their main focus revolves around what truly affects British people.

#9

Off the Record / Re: TV/Movies Megathread

Last post by celedhring - Today at 09:15:04 AM

AHA!!! I caught Kubrick in a continuity fuckup.  Around 58 min of FMJ, they're riding a Sea King or some large copter,  but the shadow they cast is a small copter, like a Kiowa Scout.

 

I'm bored enough to check - and the shadow seems correct. I'm no chopper expert but it matches the one they are supposedly riding. Definitely not a Kiowa, note the wheels, not skis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S06nIz4scvI

Shadow at 1:41.

#10

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Josquius - Today at 08:50:31 AM

Probably. Corbyn was around back when zionism wasn't a toxic ideology, back when there were big left wing links with the kibutz movement and all that.
Sultana is young enough she's only ever known zionism in it's modern sense as the expansionist Israel far right.

But funny to attack Corbyn for not being anti Israel enough when being too pro Palestine and not hard enough on anti semites was a big thing that brought him down.