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The Political Thread

Started by The Legendary Shark, 09 April, 2010, 03:59:03 PM

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Professor Bear

Oh good we've stopped talking about fun distracting things and can get back to talking about Brexit.

In election news, Labour is going to put Yer Dad on Twitter, which as long term plans go is up there with that guy in Jurassic World who told scientists to make a dinosaur that can turn invisible and use machine guns.

Pyroxian

Quote from: Professor Bear on 15 November, 2019, 01:22:48 PM
In election news, Labour is going to put Yer Dad on Twitter, which as long term plans go is up there with that guy in Jurassic World who told scientists to make a dinosaur that can turn invisible and use machine guns.

I'm holding out - I reckon we can get Labour to throw in a free PS4 and a puppy if we keep threatening to vote Conservative.

Professor Bear

What I find most funny is the dated thinking betrayed by commentators who see the words "free broadband" and assume Labour is talking about some kind of exclusive luxury product equivalent to a games console being given away free, rather than access to the baseline iteration of something that we're already paying for through our taxes and subsidies to telecom companies like BT, and which is already omnipresent to the point it has become an essential component of everyday life, be it for streaming our television channels or accessing our local council services* - even benefits seekers and FOB migrants/refugees with literally no money or access to infrastructure are expected to have internet access in order to fill out forms or perform job searches.
Many consider internet access a human right, and while that was more debatable 10-15 years ago when it was essentially just an entertainment platform populated by wannabe tech firms, a lot of essential services have now moved entirely online - in many cases because of austerity cuts - and if access to medicine is a human right and the only way to access your GP is to fill out an online ticket and wait for an appointment, maybe people need more access options than waiting for the library to open and hoping they have a functioning PC this week.

I certainly don't think Labour's intent was to get a lot of out-of-touch media commenters to out themselves so much as they wanted to stop online access being a barrier to lower earners, but nonetheless the former has been the result.


* Coincidentally, I filled out an online repair ticket a few weeks ago for our local Housing Executive branch to come fix my leaky roof.  There was no alternative means of contacting the specific service I needed.

Funt Solo

I remember when the news folk kept pronouncing "lulzsec" as if it was a German car maker, rather than something that was set up for the lulz.

On the other hand, a student was having me do a questionnaire about vaping yesterday and I didn't understand most of the terms. I kept thinking of The V.C.s.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

Frank

Quote from: Professor Bear on 15 November, 2019, 02:41:31 PM
... even benefits seekers and FOB migrants/refugees with literally no money or access to infrastructure are expected to have internet access in order to fill out forms or perform job searches ...

... and kids are given homework assignments that can only be completed online. There's no argument about this anymore - once the current Labour leadership are gone, every party will adopt the policy.

They won't call it renationalisation of BT* or free broadband, which, to be fair, it's not.

Free broadband's a good shorthand for the news, but what's actually being proposed is funding broadband access through general taxation, in the same way as motorways and rail infrastructure. Or the NHS.


* Openreach, actually, the bit of BT that looks after the boring infrastructure. From a PR point of view, they should have avoided any hint of nationalisation, since it plays into preconceptions of Jezza as a seventies throwback, the three-day week, power blackouts, and Vesta curry

TordelBack

Quote from: Funt Solo on 15 November, 2019, 03:28:08 PM
On the other hand, a student was having me do a questionnaire about vaping yesterday and I didn't understand most of the terms. I kept thinking of The V.C.s.

Suck it in, Funt.

Steve Green

The weirdest thing about the announcement was the snow.

It wasn't outside, it didn't look like something in the hall.

So that leaves something being overlaid on top of the feed going to both Sky and BBC.

https://twitter.com/peter25674/status/1195306237530984449


Professor Bear

You seem to have linked to someone I've blocked.  There are very few reasons I block people on Twitter, but I suspect all the flags in his handle are a clue as to why I might have put him in the bin.

Steve Green

I'm sure if you search for Corbyn Snow you will find someone you haven't blocked.


Frank


Can't imagine why Pro Bear and Peter wouldn't get on.






Frank

Quote from: Steve Green on 15 November, 2019, 05:01:55 PM
The weirdest thing about the announcement was the snow ... something being overlaid on top of the feed going to both Sky and BBC.

Phil Schofield left the quantel box plugged in and set to SNOW when he quit the broom cupboard:

https://youtu.be/X3wmpGOwzHE?t=169



Steve Green

Was looking for the video, and that was the first one I saw in a search.

More about the video than the person who posted it.

I'm more interested in how a christmassy overlay got on the video - whether that's Labour putting it in, or someone further downstream.

Since people are losing their shit over hats and Remembrance Sunday footage swapsies, I thought it was a little unusual to see on a manifesto pledge.

The Legendary Shark


Quote from: Dandontdare
link=topic=28209.msg
1017438#msg1017438
date=1573823227

Nah s'okay - shouldn't have
gone off on you - made the
mistake of taking a break
from a stressful day by
catching up on the news and
the sheer volume of lies and
bullshit being thrown
around under the guise of
"I'm only saying..." left my
blood boiling.

No probs, it's all cool.

I feel, though, that "free broadband" today opens the door for "internet driving licenses" tomorrow. That's a great way to control access - getting points on your license for visiting the wrong site or posting the wrong thing until you get banned from surfing.

I am cynical, aren't I? No wonder I piss folk off so much! :D

[move]~~~^~~~~~~~[/move]




Professor Bear

Quote from: Steve Green on 15 November, 2019, 05:20:16 PM
I'm sure if you search for Corbyn Snow you will find someone you haven't blocked.

Or lots of photshopped pictures of Jez tooting a line of blow off a hooker's arse.  I have enough of those on my HD already.
You can look at blocked accounts on Twitter, I was more implying the kind of people with strongly-worded opinions about this sort of thing tend to come from a very specific niche of the UK political spectrum, and their distraction with "giving away free stuff like it's Christmas" narrative is possibly a clue where that snow came from.