Re: The Bigger, Badder, Even More Serious Thread

[Pettytyrant101]

as are Turkish barbers - Figg

{{ We've 2 of them! Doubt they are a racket however, its hard to get away with running an illegal business in a small town High Street where everyone (including authorities) knows all your business}}.

[Pettytyrant101]

Shopping online, supermarkets, out of town malls have all eaten in to the High Street- Lance

{{ Being a bit out of the way here to go to a mall involves a ferry and either car or train travel, so thats not been so big a factor. Supermarkets are however we have two in this town, a co-op and a Morrisons, and they take the bulk of the weekly shop now, theres only one butchers left, the supermarkets put pay to rest, and they killed entirely the fishmongers, the fruit and veg shop and the florists. And that was before the full effects and widespread use of online shopping happened, that finished a lot of the rest off, the Mackays clothes store shut hen the chain went bust, as did the Gents clothes shop. And then most of the banks went too leaving just one.
What replaced them (where anything has but empty properties) are hairdressers, nail saloons, charity shops, second-hand and thrift shops, and some tourist knick-knack shops. About the only shops of note left are a couple catering to the rural needs - outdoor clothing, camping equipment, fishing gear and rods and of course guns (yes, we do have gun shops its where farmers and groundsmen and licenced gun club members get theirs from) and a garden/hardware store). There used to be few cafes too, but now there's only one of them left, Blacks, though I do recommend them if you visit, especially their cakes and rolls, all baked fresh that day at their own bakery.

We do still have 5 pubs in the High Street area so thats something, 6 if you dont mind a small uphill walk, 7 if you dont mind a longer uphill walk. But we used to have about 10 and 2 nightclubs, and they were all busy, now the ones we have left are mainly empty most nights, often close early weekdays due to lack of custom, and most have branched out and are half pub restaurants now.

Its a vicious circle online shopping for local shops, once people start to get some stuff online it damages local business till they go out of business, then when you need something quick, say that day, there is nowhere left to get it and you have no choice but to order online.
And in a rural area like mine, though a peninsula, as the road tends to be closed half the year due to landslides and they have to get here on the ferry courier companies hedge their bets and count us an island. So no next day delivery here. If you need it now tough, you've several days wait at best. And it having killed the high street off, you have no other choices.}}

[halfwise]

It's better to have a uphill walk to a pub than an uphill walk from a pub.

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ The one that always baffled me, in that no one ever drowned, was one of the nightclubs, the Pier Disco, it was literally at the end of the old Victorian pier.



The disco was in the fancy building on the left. }}

[halfwise]

I was going to be baffled if the one on the right was a disco: more suited for line dancing.  But yeah, for a night club in Scotland I'd think chain link fences between the door and the water would be called for.

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ This lass popped up on my youtube feed, not bad, she certainly isnt shy of calling out the mess the Tories have made of the country}}

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ Best laugh of the day the SNP calling out Labour at PMQ's by pointing out Starmer has u-turned Labour policy to support Tory welfare cuts and the bedroom tax, describing them and the Tories in Parliament as "Two cheeks of the same arse" much to the annoyance of the Speaker who called it for unparliamentary language, so the SNP corrected it to 'bottom'! }}

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ Yup Truss must need to buy one hell of a lot of Brasso for that brass neck of hers! }}

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ So I listened to Sunak's keynote conference speech, full of populist rhetoric and no actual substance let alone detail. Did a valiant job of attempting to make the utter disaster of HS2, the high speed vastly expensive rail network to nowhere, being scrapped less than half done into a virtue, threw some red meat to the gallery declaring 'a man is a man, a woman a woman and that's just common sense', threw some anti-immigrant rhetoric out there and bashed Keir Starmer. That was about it if you aren't living in England who got education stuff and infrastructure promises thrown to them.
Scotland only got a mention at one point, first one was typically a blatant lie, that support for independence and nationalism was down, it's not it's exactly the same, and the attached second mention was to make a joke about Nicola Sturgeon going to prison (which he worded I thought suspiciously as her 'going down' which can have a double meaning when applied to a woman the right wing have for years insinuated as if a hidden evil, despite her marriage and a miscarriage, that she is a secret lesbian. Not to mention Sunak is head of a party whose former Prime minister among other senior cabinet ministers were not only questioned by police, but charged and then found guilty. So his cheek is quite something). Wales didn't get a mention at all, nor did Northern Ireland.
A quick check shows so little in the speech was relevant to anywhere outside England in the UK that the BBC Scotland and NI politics pages haven't even reported on it. And this is from the leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party at their keynote speech to appeal to the whole UK for their votes! Pandering, as Tories do, to only one nation in the Union, the only one they need the votes of to stay in power. }}

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ One thing from this speech, I think I know why there is no show like Yes Minster, or the Thick of It these days, how do you satirise Sunak abandoning environmental pledges and announcing the scrapping of HS2, together the two biggest long term Tory policies from 13 years of power, whilst standing in front of a sign that reads "Taking long-term decisions for Britain's future."
How do you satirise these people? }}

[halfwise]

When Trump was originally running for office in 2016 the runners of South Park gave up on satirizing Trump. They couldn't keep up and couldn't make it any more ridiculous than he already was. They shrugged their shoulders and said "let him do his stuff and we'll do ours".

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ Israel have just announced a siege of Gaza- "No electricity, no food, no fuel."
There are about 2 million civilians in Gaza. And according to BBC reports Israel is amassing troops and weaponry for a full on invasion.
Do remember it's Israel who are already in breach of International Law for exactly this sort of thing, military invasion and occupation. Same as what Putin is charged with in Ukraine.

The West has to decide once and for all- does it stand by International Law and Treaties, or does it no longer think using military force to invade and occupy an others land is wrong? If so then we have no argument with Russia. And if we still believe it's wrong, then whatever eventual negotiations come out of this horrendous situation, Israel cannot be allowed to continue a military occupation and must give up its illegal Settlements. Palestine must have its own state.

Also reported by the BBC- the Israeli dead are being taken away for identification and burial by the authorities, but they are leaving the Palestinian bodies to rot- 'We saw dead bodies of Hamas fighters still lying on the ground - left to rot - unlike their Israeli victims who’ve long ago been taken away for identification and burial. We watched as one Israeli driver stopped his truck so he could pick up a rock to throw at the corpse of one dead Hamas fighter.' }}

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ If I had to take a go at guessing what Hamas's plan is, I dont think its to wipe out Israel, thats a rallying cry not a realistic aim. Rather this is one last massive effort to scream "You can't ignore us!" in particular in relation to the normalisation negotiations going on between Muslim countries like Saudi and Israel overseeen by America, in which Palestine's future has been removed from negotiations by the US and Israel. This I believe is being done in the hope of forcing the future of a Palestinian state onto that agenda. }}

[halfwise]

The problem is that Hamas overstepped. Palestine had plenty of reason to get world sympathy as an occupied people, but a sudden killing spree of this sort cancelled out the good will. Unfortunately the rest of Palestine is being lumped together with Hamas, which I don't think is a good representation of all Palestinians.

The "unprovoked" attack (the result of long simmering tension and resentment) is very similar to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In that sense I think the West is not being hypocritical in supporting Israel in this. Remember that for a long time the only thing standing between Israel and UN sanctions was the sole US veto in the Security Council. But the large indiscriminate attack destroyed this support in one day. A massive blunder on the part of Hamas.

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ Its a forced hand move. After all this time of the international community ignoring and allowing Israel to occupy and illegally settle their land, all the mistreatment control of work, supplies, electricity, and then Israel elect the most extreme far right government to date, with members who have deep hatred of the Palestinians and a religious zeal that Israel should be restored to its Biblical boundaries. And then the straw that broke the camels back, the negotiations excluding discussions of them at all. If Saudi turns to support of Israel, of this extremist Israeli government, then it's over for Palestine anyway, Israel will, piece by piece, as they have been illegally doing for decades, steal all their land. Israel is, and has been for a long time in the wrong legally and morally.
If Hamas defending the Palestinian right to defend itself against an illegal occupier is terrorism, then so too is Ukraine's defence of its land against an illegal occupier, they are just terrorists too. We either support International Law in that an occupied people have the right to use any means, including armed uprising, to throw off an oppressor, or we don't. We can't on one hand pile billions into Ukraine against Russia and then pour billions into Israel to do exactly what Russia is doing. }}

[halfwise]

Ukraine has (for the most part) kept its attacks within its own recognized territory. For Palestine the issue of territory is murkier. If they had attacked the settlements it would be more along the lines of what Ukraine is doing; but they attacked Tel Aviv. Worse, they took civilian hostages.

I've always sympathized with the Palestinians, but what Hamas just did is equivalent to the beggar throwing shit at you. The sympathy evaporates. The oppressed have to use a more carefully calibrated resistance to have any hope of success.

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Since too many posts were made, this topic has been divided automatically. You can find the rest of this topic here :
https://www.forumshire.com/t1513-the-bigger-badder-even-more-serious-thread