The Off Topic Topic

[Syt]

Life is a highway
I wanna ride it all night long

[PDH]

Life's a long song
But the tune ends too soon for us all

[Syt]

[Eddie Teach]

Why does nobody like Romania?

[Josquius]

I don't like that question. Way too many considerations about it. Who is attacking and why?

[Sheilbh]

I don't like that question. Way too many considerations about it. Who is attacking and why?

I mean they're all in NATO so that shouldn't really be relevant - except for Greece and Turkey who might be attacking each other. I wonder what the results would be if the question said these are all NATO states.

Again struck by how much Hungary don't like anyone and Finland hate all Southern Europeans, by which they mean Europeans South of the Baltic.

Edit: I assume this was part of the same project, but interesting attitudes on what Europe should be doing/not doing:
https://yougov.co.uk/topics/international/articles-reports/2020/08/03/what-should-eu-be

[celedhring]

I don't like that question. Way too many considerations about it. Who is attacking and why?

I mean they're all in NATO so that shouldn't really be relevant - except for Greece and Turkey who might be attacking each other. I wonder what the results would be if the question said these are all NATO states.

Again struck by how much Hungary don't like anyone and Finland hate all Southern Europeans, by which they mean Europeans South of the Baltic.

Finland isn't in NATO.

[Sheilbh]

I don't like that question. Way too many considerations about it. Who is attacking and why?

I mean they're all in NATO so that shouldn't really be relevant - except for Greece and Turkey who might be attacking each other. I wonder what the results would be if the question said these are all NATO states.

Again struck by how much Hungary don't like anyone and Finland hate all Southern Europeans, by which they mean Europeans South of the Baltic.

Finland isn't in NATO.

Fair - neither's Sweden which will affect their response. But for the rest of us all of the countries being "attacked" are.

[celedhring]

In the case of Spain not mentioning NATO is probably a plus 

[Tamas]

Hungary, bitter, selfish and resigned as always. 

[Duque de Bragança]

Brexiteer MP suggests taking back Calais from France to stop migrants
Brexiteer Sir Edward Leigh, the long-serving Conservative MP for Gainsborough, suggested on Twitter that England and France should return to the border arrangements they maintained in the late sixteenth century.

Henry Goodwin by Henry Goodwin August 13, 2020in Politics

Brexiteer MP suggests taking back Calais from France to stop migrants
Former minister Sir Edward Leigh speaking in the House of Commons during the second reading of the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill, where he said that Henry VIII "is a bastard, but he's my kind of bastard".

Britain "should never have lost Calais in 1558" – and ought to take it back from France to stop migrants crossing the Channel, according to a Tory MP.

Brexiteer Sir Edward Leigh, the long-serving Conservative MP for Gainsborough, suggested on Twitter that England and France should return to the border arrangements they maintained in the late sixteenth century.

Calais had been ruled by England since 1347, coming into is possession in the Hundred Years' War, until it was sieged and captured by the French in 1558.


Sir Edward said: "Problem with cross-Channel migrants? We should never have lost Calais in 1558. Why not take it back?"

"On second thoughts, cheaper to pay the French a few million to stop [the migrants] on the beaches," he added.

War with France?
Labour's deputy leader, Angela Rayner, was quick to respond, writing: "I often say some Tory MPs live in the past but 1558?"

Andrew Gwynne MP added:"Why stop at Calais? After all Her Majesty is still Duke of Normandy. These Tories really should aim higher!"

It's nice to see Brexiteers have not lost their humour.

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/brexiteer-mp-suggests-taking-back-calais-from-france-to-stop-migrants/13/08/?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=tlb&fbclid=IwAR1gg2aZk6R_wiE_KnIlm3tS5Iu6ufoRCmLbXJ-hyQX8kXrhMV3iKnIj3WU

https://twitter.com/EdwardLeighMP/status/1292781286231289857/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1292781286231289857%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thelondoneconomic.com%2Fpolitics%2Fbrexiteer-mp-suggests-taking-back-calais-from-france-to-stop-migrants%2F13%2F08%2F

Nice Twitter exchange (low expectations help) with highlights such as

https://twitter.com/EdwardLeighMP/status/1292781286231289857/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1293643753819975680%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thelondoneconomic.com%2Fpolitics%2Fbrexiteer-mp-suggests-taking-back-calais-from-france-to-stop-migrants%2F13%2F08%2F

[spoiler]Duc de Guise inside.[/spoiler]

[Josquius]

It would stop migrants having to cross the channel to claim asylum in the UK. Sounds good.
...or we could just alter the law and get international agreement to let them do it at overseas British border posts.

This weeks manufactured migrant crisis is ridiculous either way.

[Tamas]

This weeks manufactured migrant crisis is ridiculous either way.

Yeah it was kind of disturbing. No mention of the Channel migrants for a year, then as if by a flick of a wand, all major TV stations are on boats dramatically envisioning an invasion while showing a lonely rubber boat with half a dozen poor bastards on empty waters.

[Sheilbh]

This weeks manufactured migrant crisis is ridiculous either way.

Yeah it was kind of disturbing. No mention of the Channel migrants for a year, then as if by a flick of a wand, all major TV stations are on boats dramatically envisioning an invasion while showing a lonely rubber boat with half a dozen poor bastards on empty waters.

I slightly blame left Twitter for this. Nigel Farage has been doing videos about these "invasions" for monthes. And they've had no traction - they weren't being shared. Their numbers were generally quite bad until people started sharing them to dunk on Farage (and maybe I did myself a little bit ). Then maybe a week ago about 95% of my Twitter feed was people (including journalists and lots of people journalists follow) being outraged at Farage and I remember at the time thinking, well this is probably a story now - this is going mainstream and isn't just a Twitter in-joke anymore. And within the last week it started being reported.

I feel like if we hadn't all done that, he would have carried on posting videos of his trips to the seaside with minimal traction. It's one of those things I think we've seen so often over recent years where actually hate-sharing actually just elevates what that person was saying and makes it more likely to go mainstream. I feel like we all should have learned and just stop hate-sharing content we don't like, even to dunk on it - you know, it's entirely why there's an entire industry of provocative hot-takes/bullshit that will get shared not just by people who read it or like it or agree with it, but is designed to be shared by people who hate it, who totally disagree with it, who think it's bullshit. We, I feel, have still not learned to just not engage.

[Tamas]

Yeah I mean that seems obvious to me.



Usually the semi-pro outragers on both end of the spectrum make a living off each other this way in a nice symbiotic existence of propping each other up by trumpeting the other's stories.