Brett-Butler

In other interesting polling news, a majority of people polled seem to favour PR - @1276533902098735104

The announcement would also suggest that the Big Brother Theme by Element 4 will also be going on the streaming services for the first time.

Keir Starmer has sacked Rebecca Long-Bailey for sharing an article promoting anti-Semitic views. As far as going to show that this isn't the Labour Party of the last election cycle, he's done so in one clean swoop.

On a somewhat side note, it's interesting to note the differences between any call for a Referendum between Northern Ireland (for Irish reunification) and Scottish independence. For NI, there is specific legislation regarding any independence polls, which are to be held when the Secretary of State believes there is a majority in favour of it (noting that if such a referendum was to fail, it could not be held for another seven years), whilst I am not aware of any specific legislation regarding this for Scotland. I'd note however if it followed the NI model, then it wouldn't be able to be held until 19th September 2021 at the very earliest. I do think that there will be an indyref before the end of the decade, and I think that if it isn't given to Scotland by decree of consent within the next few years then I can see major civil unrest within Scotland until Westminister acquiesces to one.

Never underestimate the general public's general ignorance of politics. Unlike those of us who are up to date on the minutia of political goings-on, the vast majority only pick up on a tiny amount of the political discourse. I would say that the reason his trustworthiness rating has absolutely collapsed in recent weeks has been due to the Dominic Cummings saga, which is the one political scandal that really did cut through to the majority of the general public, even if it has falling down the news agenda due to one thing and another.

A lot of the countries that are currently being hit are in the southern hemisphere ie it is their winter rather than our summer, so that could have an effect on cases. It will be worth keeping an eye on countries in the Southern Hemisphere that had handled their response to the outbreak reasonably well (New Zealand, Australia) to see if the changing of the seasons has any impact.

Yes, a Lady Gaga collaboration is definitely the key to reviving a career that appears to be over. Like the time that she released that duet with R Kelly and his career took off again and...wait a minute...

I’m not sure of the exact details yet, but I imagine that they will be by appointment to keep less people in the shop, and keeping a mask on , except briefly to get at the sideburns.

Hairdressers are due to open in Northern Ireland from 6th July, so I can finally get my accidental mullet seen to. Places of worship are likely to open from 29th June as well, and social distancing has been reduced to 1 metre in a classroom setting.

I don't disagree, but whenever things return to near normality, and we're no longer in the middle of all this, the Tories are definitely going to Lord this over Labour at any point they can.

If my understanding is correct (I'm sure someone can Fact check this), then this is the first time ever that a UK government has provided free school meals to children during school holidays, particularly during the summer holidays. If that's the case, you better believe the Tories are going to put this spin on this in the days ahead, "We've done something that Labour never did" etc. Interesting to note - of the 20 seats with the greatest % of pupils requiring free school meals, only 3 of them are held by the Conservatives (of which 2 were only won in 2019), which might explain a) why it hadn't come up on their radar until now, and b) why they made the u-turn they did, in the hope of holding on to some of those seats.

She did - @1270053666423279622

Some of the graphs on that seem a bit suspect - how come Paraguay have been classified as "Winning" even though their cases seem to have surged in the past week (as as a lot of South America, unfortunately). Also not sure why Kosovo are "Nearly There" when their cases now seem to be at their highest. Will take Ireland's victory for sure.

More opinion polling, this time for the Welsh Parliament elections which are due next year. The most eye-opening thing about this poll is how surprisingly well the Brexit Party are doing in these polls compared to their national polling - given the way that Welsh PR works, they are likely to gain seats on those sort of %s. It might be a quirk of the parties mentioned in this polling question, as the Green Party don't seem to be there. No sign of the new party is Welsh politics, the Welsh National Party, which broke away from Plaid Cymru at the start of the year and currently have one AM and several local councilors. They were due to launch officially by now, but couldn't because of "the event". @1271153920941928451

A lot of the books I've read in the past few years have been those of a historical/political bent. I've mentioned a few of them before in the other thread (including that Isabel Hardman book - did you read it on my recommendation?). A few other books I've read recently on these topics are: Small Men on the Wrong Side of History by Ed West - if I were to recommend one conservative writer that people of a liberal persuasion should read (which in Buzzjack terms, is basically everyone on this site bar me), then it would be Ed West. It's an interesting book where he looks at the history and development of conservative thought, why he believes he is one, and where he thinks its future lies (spoiler - he doesn't think it has much of a future, baring a massive plague). It's a fairly funny and humane book, and quite touching when he discusses his family and nearly losing his daughter. The Road To Wigan Pier by George Orwell - I'd always meant to get around to reading George Orwell's non-fiction, and when I heard James Bloodworth's wonderful "Hired" being compared favourably to this book, I picked it up. The first half of the book is an eye opening look at the life of the working classes in northern England in the 1930s, depicting the squalor of working class life in a world pre-welfare state & NHS, as well as the absolutely appalling working conditions that miners faced at the time (I got claustrophobia just reading the description of the workers' travels to the coalface. The 2nd half of the book is a series of musings on why Orwell, despite being a socialist, thinks that those working class people he thinks would benefit from it continually reject socialism. These chapters absolutely riled socialists at the time, and you can see why, and I do feel that if any would-be socialists wanted to convert people to their cause, they would be advised to read the book first to understand just why they will struggle to get them on side. Dominion by Tom Holland - a book that traces the history of Christianity from its roots right through to the present day, showing just how important Christianity was to the development of the Western world, and how every advancement has its antecedent in Christian roots. There's quite a lot of stories presented in the book that are quite prescient to today's world - one chapter mentions that a plague in 1348 was followed by the removal of statues from a long-begone time that offended their sensibilities. Plus ça change... I'd also say that the most important political book I've read in the past 10 years is The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt, which is a primer in why "liberals" and "conservatives" disagree and how they can communicate and/or persuade the other better - basically because each set has a different set of moral foundations, any attempts at persuasion will need to be presented in a way that matches their moral framework ie arguments to a liberal should be framed in a way that highlights fairness and caring, whilst arguments meant to persuade a conservative should be framed in language emphasising order and loyalty. It's a book that should be handed out on the first day to anyone who is trying to become a persuader.

There are 53 in hospital with 9 in ICU, according to Belfast Live.

Small shops are due to open up from Friday in Northern Ireland, and it looks like we'll be able to start having mass again from the end of the month (which might not be a big deal for most of you, but for me, is a blessed relief). We've now gone 3 days without a death from Coronavirus - the big one being today, as Sunday/Monday usually have lower numbers due to the weekend, so as long as the R rate doesn't creep up again without warning, it looks like our island is over the worst of it.

I'm guessing we've forgotten the Joe Pasquale daytime revival from 2006-2007 then? Probably for the best. I think it could work if it was brought back as a Prime Time show - it's been going non-stop in the USA for the last half a century.

If Bernie ran as a 3rd party candidate I do think he would clinch a few states, albeit not enough to win. His runs for the Democratic nomination has always been more pragmatic than anything else - he only joins the party when he runs, then flips back to an Independent afterwards. A 3rd party candidate from the other direction could also stand a chance if they've got name recognition. Justin Amash, a former Republican congressman who left the party in protest over Trump briefly flirted with the Libertarian nomination before declining to stand. A strong 3rd party result could demonstrate that there is an appetite for politics beyond the 2 party system in the States, which is something that I regard as unhealthy, although I can't see it happening this time around. There are quite a few other smaller 3rd parties standing besides the Libertarians & Greens. Probably the party I most associate with is the American Solidarity Party, its distributism is probably the closest to matching my own political thoughts than any other party in the US.

Joe Biden is now officially the Democratic candidate for President. If ever there was a year that a 3rd Party candidate could have a good shot at winning a few states, this year is it.

Latest Scottish Independence Referendum opinion poll (normal caveats, just 1 opinion poll, needs to be seen in the context of other polls to make sure it's not a rogue one etc -) @1269184848926781440 The cursed ratio strikes again.

I was keeping the subheading in line with other subheadings, which reference a movie based upon that number. This one was based upon Friday The 13th Part IV - The Final Chapter. Of course, as we all know about 10 movies later, it wasn’t.

A recontinuation of the Coronavirus/COVID-19 thread, for discussion of the pandemic from the news/political perspective. An interesting story regarding the use of one of the alleged treatments for COVID-19 has emerged in the past few days. A few weeks ago, the World Health Organization halted the trial of hydroxychloroquine after a study came out published in reputable journals claimed that it led to a higher death rate. However, an investigation carried out has led to the paper being retracted, after questions had been raised about the methodology used, and the company behind the study was found to be somewhat suspect (read the entire article. It's really eye-opening). The WHO have restarted the trial of the drug as a result. Obviously I should state that so far there is no sustained medical evidence for hydroxychloroquine as a bona-fide treatment for COVID-19/Coronavirus (looking at you, Flumpy Carrot), but if it turns out that it is an effective treatment, and there ended up being a delay in people getting the proper treatment as result leading to further casualties, then a lot of people will have a lot of questions to answer.

Closing this thread due to its length. Will reopen the next part momentarily.

An interesting different kind of opinion poll to the ones that usually get posted here. Every week, Populous asks what the biggest story the general public noticed in that week. Last week, 52% were aware of the Dominic Cummings story, demonstrating just how massively it cut through. The below shows %s for similar political controversies over the past few years to put that into context - I'm quite surprised that the Pig thing was so low, but I'm guessing it didn't get reported as much at the time owing to potential libel issues. @1267450828429934594