Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Sheilbh]

A headline:

Cherished Camden Car Park under threat from 1850 New Homes

"Cherished car park"

Also you're in Camden - an innner city borough. The entire point is there's lots of homes

As Tom Forth pointed out it reminds a lot of the campaign in Leeds to save a "landmark roundabout"

[garbon]

A headline:

Cherished Camden Car Park under threat from 1850 New Homes

"Cherished car park"

Also you're in Camden - an innner city borough. The entire point is there's lots of homes

As Tom Forth pointed out it reminds a lot of the campaign in Leeds to save a "landmark roundabout"

I'm not sure why you'd get bent out of shape about the rhetorical flair of the local conservatives.

As a visitor to that area (one time brief resident), personally sounds great if they can replace that carcass of an O2 centre with a decent housing development.

[Tamas]

A headline:

Cherished Camden Car Park under threat from 1850 New Homes

"Cherished car park"

Also you're in Camden - an innner city borough. The entire point is there's lots of homes

As Tom Forth pointed out it reminds a lot of the campaign in Leeds to save a "landmark roundabout"

[Syt]

A headline:

Cherished Camden Car Park under threat from 1850 New Homes

"Cherished car park"

Also you're in Camden - an innner city borough. The entire point is there's lots of homes

As Tom Forth pointed out it reminds a lot of the campaign in Leeds to save a "landmark roundabout"

It's cherished by everyone who may have to drive around 5 minutes longer to find a parking space if those homes are built.

[Sheilbh]

I'm not sure why you'd get bent out of shape about the rhetorical flair of the local conservatives.

Because it's not just local conservatives - it's everywhere.

It's all the parties just in different places with slightly different rhetorical emphasis. For the Tories it's the "cherished car park", for Labour it's "social cleansing", for the Lib Dems it's "riding roughshod over local opinion", for the Greens it's "historic woodland". But what they all have in common is trying to stop any development of new housing anywhere ever.

And some people say they don't like the new developments without any infrasturcture - which is a fair criticism, if they didn't so often also oppose building new infrastructure too.

You always see the conspiracy theory about Tories and their property developer mates - frankly I half-wish it was true because at least they'd build something then

[Sheilbh]

Interesting piece in the Herald on Scottish education which has fallen behind England in the last 20 years.  Lots of interesting points on education and reform etc but also a concern that the nationalists were subtly politicising the curriculum - as ever, especially in history.

One example that a senior education specialist is pushing to change was that they now teach about the slave trade with the examples of the cities of "Bristol and Liverpool", not as it used to be "Bristol, Liverpool and Glasgow". There's also stuff that apparently historians have been campaigining to get removed about English troops being used to repress disorder (on the order of Winston Churchill) which is just not accurate at all - it was Scottish troops at the request of the Scottish councils.

Part of this is simple nationalism of Scotland as first victim of the British Empire (which Ireland has a claim to) as opposed to a very active participant and beneficiary. Going through school you could leave with the impression that the slave trade was an Anglo-American enterprise which would be pretty profoundly misleading (as a walk round Glasgow or Edinburgh looking at the statues would show). Glasgow was built by the tobacco lords so it's crazy not to mention that.

A second complaint is that it's parochialising education. The example that was given was WW1 which is now primarily taught about how Scotland experienced WW1 rather than the causes and more generally the conditions for nomal soldiers. To an extent this makes sense, I think it does make sense to mainly learn about, say, the Western Front and Gallipoli because that's the war this country experienced. But this sounds a bit more extreme it's apparently been moved from "European history" to "Scottish history" and you only get marks if you're able to talk about Hamish McTavish the Scots tank driver who wore a kilt. The concern is it's not being taught correctly in terms of the causes that led to the war but also the consequences: Russian revolution, rise of Fascism, America retreating again, because that side of things isn't really in the curriculum it's about Scottish soldiers and the Scottish home front.

All little changes over the last 14 years in office, but it feels like they're pretty telling.

[Josquius]

It really is amazing how the SNP have managed to create this big tent of ignorant knuckle dragging had they been born in England they'd be UKiPpers for sure proper nationalist scum and really quite decent social Democrats who may or may not (some aren't pro independance) see independence as a decent means to an end.
Alas trying telling this to Scots. They just don't want to know. With this rewriting of history it'll be a hard task to mend it without being accused of doing the same but for the other side.

[Valmy]

Nationalists rewriting history to stir up hatred and celebrate victimhood is kind of what they do.

[The Larch]

What the hell is Nigel Farage doing in Serbia supporting Djokovic's case? 

[Zanza]

What the hell is Nigel Farage doing in Serbia supporting Djokovic's case? 

Advocating for open borders and less control. 

[The Larch]

What the hell is Nigel Farage doing in Serbia supporting Djokovic's case? 

Advocating for open borders and less control. 

And I though that he loved the Australian inmigration system... 

[Sheilbh]

I always think a large chunk of anything Farage is doing now is with an eye to gigs in the US whether it's appearing on Fox News or doing speeches on the right-wing grifter circus and he needs to keep his relevance topped up.

In the UK I think he wound up his involvement in the Reform Party (replacement for the Brexit Party) because of the vaccine roll-out. A particular issue for Farage is that the people who are most supportive of vaccines, vaccine mandates/passports and restrictions in the UK are older voters - his natural base. So any anti-vaxx or anti-restriction politics in the UK would basically be more Corbynite, the least vaccinated places in England are London and Manchester which were two of the most Remain and left voting areas because here the opposition to restrictions is more common among the young and the vaccine take-up has been lower in younger age groups and minorities - none of which are big Farage-voting groups.

So my suspicion is this is all with an eye to keeping on getting paid gigs in the US - where being vocally anti-vaccine mandates and harping on about Australian "tyranny" is a little cottage industry Farage wants a piece of.

Edit: Separately polls start looking hopeful for the next election and then today I read that Corbyn is considering starting a new party and Gina Miller (of all the Brexit legislation) is launching a new party this week. FFS

I imagine both would fail because people aren't stupid and generally get the result they want from elections. But I feel the last thing we need is two more parties fishing in the same waters as Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens

[Tamas]

Sheilbh, mate, you need to stop editing two entirely separate topics into the same post.  It's interesting news but I almost missed it.

[Josquius]

Corbyn increasingly seems to have been a tory plant the whole time.

[The Brain]

He's certainly some form of vegetable.