Iz 🌟

Indeed! Major transit hub between east and west (used it myself before). If the whole ME devolves into a confused mess of war I really don't know what the transport industry will do about that. Strongmen seizing power will doom us all. Netanyahu, Trump, Khamenei, they're all awful despotic leaders whose lusts for power have killed many and will kill yet more before this is all over.

Oh that's interesting, I thought it had come to a pretty nice conclusion with the end of the 3rd season. unbelievably funny show and well worth completing so I may actually keep an eye out for that (have not been doing the same for any recent anime releases)

also we're not beating the vassal state allegations at this moment (someone on his team probably thought he had to say this to keep up his good relationship with Trump but honestly silence would have been far better)

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jun/21/kneecaps-glastonbury-performance-not-appropriate-says-keir-starmer ahead of Glastonbury next weekend both Starmer and Badenoch have made comments against Kneecap performing asked questions in an interview, but still less than a decade ago, the Labour leader's name was being chanted at Glasto... can pretty safely say that's not happening this year unless accompanied by a four-letter expletive

Yeah not great to wake up to the USA de facto if not de jure declaring war on Iran. If this is just a regional dispute between Israel and Iran, there's no reason to get involved, if there's concern about nuclear weapons and that they need to get rid of, congrats, you've just rerun the Iraq War justification. When in actual fact this is the US running in lockstep with Israel. completely nukes Trump's claims of being the peace president of course even if some of his supporters are going to doublethink their way out of that one as ever.

FYI, by 'current ceiling' I'm referring to current poll variations, what the average highs and lows are for each party with the current weekly polls, subject to change. Reform's 'potential ceiling' sure, could be higher than that based on changing factors like for example total Tory collapse and them then being the default RW party (though not sure they could hold such a big coalition without some concessions to Tory ideological territory which then might turn off their disaffected voters, the Johnsonite problem again) but then any party could have a high potential ceiling given the right environment and political winds and that's somewhat more speculative than I want to be with just numbers. Given this poll, that is technically still wrong to say their ceiling is 30 but then again Ipsos are an occasional pollster, (their first poll since the GE!) with differing methodology to the weekly ones. I'd like to note this is a changed methodology from the last Ipsos panel (and includes prompting for Reform, something they didn't do with their polling at the GE and before) and they've given a confidence rating of 4% either way: Though, disregarding that this single poll is a few points off from the other polls right now, I do tentatively like this methodology (certainly looks better than the shysters at FindOutNow), random sampling by online users is probably better than telephone polling at this stage, though online does have potential to be more self-selecting for high political interest than other methods.

Who Feels Love is the highlight from that, rather poor by their standards, era of Oasis, Go Let It Out is indeed certainly not what I think of when I think classic Oasis tracks. far too much Westlife obvs but tbf I'd take that to have more tracks at #1 getting a spotlight as a special track of the week, part of why I find 2000's list of #1s so compelling even with as many duds as it has

Good countdown, a very interesting year for #1s and one I have studied quite a lot in retrospect - also because of the sheer number some really interesting gulfs in quality, the poorer side of that well covered in the bottom end. good of course to get the bad boyband singles (and covers, sheesh!) and badly thought out sample pieces out of the way, Oxide & Neutrino and Black Legend are just really bizarre #1s if nothing else. Bob The Builder though, that's an odd one, I was pretty much exactly the generation for the show, but had no conception of what a chart was at that time so it looks really odd how that impacted the adult world even if I was very familiar with it as a child, not a great adult song though.

The Reform drop with YouGov reads like polling noise but also tracks that Reform's current ceiling is somewhere just below 30. Opinium's poll today has them on 30. The last month of polling being strong for Reform before settling back towards equilibrium after local results sorta tracks. Labour doing their best over the past few weeks to remove long-term polling weaknesses (WF change, grooming gangs report), plus largely neutrally or positively received actions (Spending Review, trade deals, Starmer in his favourable statesman environment at G7), their way of dampening the otherwise ideal Reform conditions, which aren't going away yet, the vibe and feeling is still very much 'fuck the government'.

To be fair, the semi-pointless affair that existed before this as a way for Arabian emirs to feel important with just one club from each federation still had Auckland City/an OFC rep, just they got knocked out in the seeded first round before facing top clubs. Stupid that this is the first game I'm hearing about from this though, makes it all seem like a joke. What is this offering that the Champions League does not, aside from a way to pointlessly fill up players' schedules in a break year?

These are essentially the same thing, what matters among the religious right in America is lockstep part of Trumpism now. If the shooter was pro-life, and my reading of it is that was the key driver of him committing this attack, then that's a key issue where he was in fundamental disagreement with the people he murdered.

Indeed. I'm happy with the government's process here, rather than kneejerking into inquiries (which all too often can be exercises in kicking the can down the road) based on public and media demand, waiting for the audit recommendations. I hope it helps bring the process closer to justice.

Could be, you never know with the people that have joined the MAGA movement. The manhunt is still on so I'm trying not to speculate too much until we know more about the shooter (they may not even be MAGA) but this poor woman, her husband and the other representative who has so far survived the assault were definitely targeted for their position, which is awful.

Alongside the horror of political assassination, the Minnesota HoR was on a political knife's edge, with the two parties having reached a power-sharing agreement after getting 67 seats each last November. The murdered rep was the Speaker of that State House so this throws Minnesotan politics into chaos and has some very unfortunate implications should the power balance in the state house be adjusted in any way as a result of this.

This is not nearly as inverted to my taste as the Lithuania one, the bottom ranked song here is a huge tune, but the winner is also a very good choice among their pop entries. AND despite it being simpering pop done by a woman, you share my dislike of the terminally dull Bridges, while the critically pretty hopeless 'Let's Get Loud' is nonetheless something I have a soft spot for and it's top 10 here, albeit still with a 5/10 score.

Horrible tragedy - and horrible that it happened to crash in a populated area too. Somewhat incredible that there is a survivor, just cannot imagine what that would be like, lucky for him but being the only survivor of a disaster that killed 200 other people including your own brother, poor man.

Decent Labour-ite spending review for the summer. Useful information we didn't know before include a firm commitment to end asylum hotels by the end of the parliament, and extending the current bus cap to 2027 (shouldn't have been raised but fine). Investment in housing, NHS and nuclear is all pretty good too. Obviously departments like Home Office, Education and Foreign Office not getting as much as they need isn't great but overall it seems like a decent investment-led financial event.

Honestly law and justice is one issue where the attitudes of certain sections of the public tend to radicalise me most in the other direction. Norway-style prisons for all and hop to it, Starmer ministry.

As I'm sure more people will be along to tell you soon if they haven't by the time I've finished typing this, executing people is generally more expensive than letting them live and this is a constant issue in the states of America where it is legal. Not that it should be about cost. Nor about for 'x' crime as once it's there, then the debate becomes even more fractured over which crimes deserve it. If it's elitist to have a strong opinion that the state doesn't execute, fuck me I'm elitist. You know you are allowed to disagree with the Great British Public, right? That is a thing that is possible. It's not even a majority of the public that I'm against on this issue anyway. A tolerant, liberal, modern society should have a rehabilitative justice system and if it has one that works then we are all better off for it. The small minority that can't be rehabilitated can be removed from society in a humane fashion, as judges decree, while sympathies are with victims, justice shouldn't be applied according to their wishes only. Honestly, many sentences are too long already. For criminals with hope of reintegrating into society, even the act of sending them to prison tends to drive them towards crime in the future and so much more needs to be done to support them on release so that they do not reoffend. One of the worst outcomes of a Reform government might just be that it would give into the impulses of their voters and introduce draconian punishments for crimes that do not deserve it, creating a criminal underclass with no hope of becoming part of normal society again.

Very sad events in Austria today. Man of 21, attacking his former school, which he didn't graduate from; we don't know all the details but horrific actions to take out whatever was troubling him out on kids.

I was characterising it as 'long-dead', not 'fringe' in terms of public opinion, though thankfully it's still fringe among serious political thinkers. Precisely because of where it is with public opinion it's a debate that should never be reopened in the political sphere, as it's possibly the number one issue on how wrong it would be to enact relative to the amount of public support it sadly enjoys and therefore the best example to my mind of why political policy should not always follow public opinion. The state should not have the power to execute people, no matter what they have done and to an extent societies that still have it I consider to still have some element of barbarism. Yet when asked the natural default is to the most punishing option for people in our somewhat crime-fascinated society. Which is to say I see why it's relatively popular, but those studies are done on a hypothetical with no chance of it being introduced. Much like Brexit, it's something that would make our society worse if introduced as a serious issue.

Similar strategy to Pochin introducing the burqa topic and Yusuf distancing himself from it, except Farage is doing the doublethink all by himself. It's to get these long-dead or fringe right-wing ideas their time in the debate mainstream in an 'acceptable fashion' to maintain their public support for now. They can do this because newspapers are letting them set the agenda and they have the confidence to try to set public opinion in a certain direction, something completely lacking on the UK centre and left. If we get to a point where public opinion on the death penalty swings to a majority in favour, they'd happily push it through if they got the opportunity. Of course we must hope that does not happen, but that is certainly an outcome possible should their horrific rhetoric take hold more than it has already.

not updated this for 2 and a half years so yeah, sure: 01 - 0 02 - 2 - Beyond The Black, Marnik 03 - 2 - Dream Beats, sewerslvt 04 - 0 05 - 1 - Archis 06 - 2 - Amaranthe, Akini Jing 07 - 0 08 - 4 - Charisma.com, Rachel Taylor, clipping., Deathbrain 09 - 3 - Zhu, Against The Current, Temperance 10 - 5 - Nightwish, SEP, Ecstasy, The Cab, Faun & Santiano 11 - 2 - Christopher Tin, Inova 12 - 3 - I See Stars, Nanobii, Audio Paradyne & Stahl 13 - 3 - Ruby Frost, Epica, Annella 14 - 3 - Alyssa Reid, Cady Groves, IRyS 15 - 1 - Arion/Elize Ryd 16 - 1 - The Cat Empire 17 - 0 18 - 3 - Years Away, Blackbriar, Godspeed You! Black Emperor 19 - 5 - Cardiknox, Tei Shi, Ghost Data, Alestorm, BABYMETAL 20 - 1 - Patty Gurdy 21 - 2 - Ado (Odo), Goat Girl 22 - 4 - Emmon, Mori Calliope, Vylet Pony, IGORRR 23 - 3 - Poppy & The Jezebels, SIAMES, Kiki Rockwell 24 - 2 - Trippple Nippples, t+pazolite 25 - 2 - Katie Sky, Tonight Alive 26 - 2 - Nao Hiiragi, Visions Of Atlantis 27 - 2 - Shell Perris, Goodbye Tomorrow 28 - 3 - Chisu, Jeff Williams, PinocchioP 29 - 3 - Xenia, team rockit, Hot Milk 30 - 3 - HISASHIz, 8kids, Descartes A Kant 31 - 2 - Moe Shop, Ado (TWC) 32 - 3 - UVERWorld, Deloraine, Pixel Grip 33 - 3 - Kalafina, Katie Dey, Mili 34 - 3 - Stellar, chelmico, Ad Infinitum 35 - 1 - MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS 36 - 1 - Mikazuki BIGWAVE 37 - 0 38 - 4 - Hiroyuki Sawano, Iguchi Yuka, DEMONDICE, Aiobahn +81 39 - 0 40 - 1 - Gwenno 41 - 1 - Eiko Shimamiya 42 - 1 - Haru Nemuri filled in a few over the last 25 contests, including the technical hardest, 42nd (as if Haru Nemuri deserved that though), let's get back to filling out the top 10 though ~

Winter fuel payment back and now for all pensioners with an income of under £35,000 Bad in all directions tbh a) still means-tested so still wasting money on means testing b) absolutely no signs that pensioners will forgive them so goes against their initial strategy of being unpopular first and reaping the benefits later c) the threshold is set so high that pensioners who out-earn workers are getting money to pay their bills without having to pay NI, work all day, or (likely) pay off a mortgage or have childcare costs so confirms unequal gerontocracy d) it still doesn't have to be used on energy bills which is the craziest thing At least this can be an end to the irrelevant political capital wasting sideshow, right? right?

This is the most scary shit. Like the 2020 protests except the median voter feels primed to cheer on the soldiers. They shot an Australian journalist (with a non-lethal bullet) for one thing.