The Political Thread

[Modern Panther]

Its obviously a very complex situation.  I mean, what if the King of England comes back and tries to get them to pay taxes?  Besides, some gun enthusiasts really want access to a device designed to kill large numbers of people in a short timescale, and who are we to take away their freedoms?  Extend those freedoms, I say.  If legislation intended to provide access to front loading muskets also applies to assault rifles, why shouldn't it apply to weaponized anthrax or surface to air missiles?

[Professor Bear]

Dan Hodges - yes, that Dan Hodges - got his once-a-century true statement out of the way when he commented that the chance for gun regulation ended with Sandy Hook, because once Americans decided that they could live with their children being murdered, the debate was over.

[TordelBack]

A fair claim, but Sandy Hook was the merest drop in an ongoing ocean of sickness: on average 4 children are killed by guns every single day, a further 20 injured. One child shot every hour of every day.

[IndigoPrime]

But one-off events can be fairly easily dismissed individually. I remember Dunblane here. The response was fairly swift – the Cullen Reports, restrictions against the arguments of gun lobbyists, and a general acceptance from the public that this could never happen again. As others have noted, Sandy Hook could have been a tipping point in the USA – a teachable moment that was forever lost. Rather than using it as a means to at least begin basic gun control provisions, it was used as the start of an argument to arm teachers, other school workers, and, well, everyone. I'm half surprised the NRA isn't arguing we should be arming children in schools.

And we hear much the same now after LA. People are genuinely arguing that more people died because not enough people were armed. Because if anything would have helped in LA, it would have been hundreds of people firing blind, despite the shooter being over 30 storeys up, and heavily armed. (And we're hearing the same old shit from major news sources: 'lone wolf'; 'he just snapped'; 'mentally ill'. FFS. Deal with your shit, America.)

[TordelBack]

Dunblane is indeed the parallel I keep thinking of. Almost overnight the unimaginable happened and all (most) of the guns in Britain went away. My point isn't that Sandy Hook wasnt a critical moment that was utterly missed, it was that these 'spectacular' tragedies are just the visible tip of an appalling iceberg - it's not about one-off never-agains, it's every hour of every day.

I look at the current post-LA arguments, and from the gun nut side it's mainly about technical definitions of assault rifle versus modded semi-automatics, and jesus h christmas... GET RID OF YOUR F*CKING GUNS YOU IDIOTS.

[JayzusB.Christ]

You don't understand.  Once the Muslims and Mexicans can't get in, this will never happen again.

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

The Tory Party appear to be lemmings looking for a cliff to throw themselves over. Trouble is they might take the rest of us with them since a Hard Brexit seems increasingly inevitable. Perhaps they'll split, and we'll have two new centrist Parties one right wing and the other doolally right wing led by Boris Johnson.

[TordelBack]

Surely to god people have to get wise to Johnson.  He's been a running joke for so long that it seems inconceivable, particularly after his disgraceful performance either side of the Brexit vote, that he hasn't been put out to pasture yet.  Personally I believe that there's a keen and calculating intelligence under that ridiculous mop, but it is simultaneously utterly self-serving and occasionally self-defeating when it reveals its pure contempt for all entities other than itself.  The Libya remarks were such a clear and definitive insight into his understanding of the world, I can't understand how any politician could remain in his job after that, Public School Trump or not.   

[CalHab]

In the lengthy history of Boris gaffes, I don't think the Libya example stands out. It is, regrettably, pretty much par for the course with him.

You would have thought that a Foreign Secretary should tailor his addresses and rhetoric for other countries. Boris disagrees. Everything is aimed at the Daily Mail and Telegraph-reading party faithful.

[Tjm86]

The big worry now is, with Cameron having launched the nation into the abyss, the Tories seem determined to completely and utterly balls up what was a curates egg to start with.  Even taking current reporting with a healthy dose of scepticism, it doesn't appear that the European negotiating partners are massively impressed with how things have gone so far.  May has already weakened her position with the result of the snap election, Florence doesn't seem to have gone very far towards raising confidence levels, Johnson seems to be doing everything possible to cause a riot and this week at the Tory Party Conference we have seen the mother of all balls-ups. I can understand why the Labour party have decided to stay quiet again; attacking the Tories at the moment is a bit like clubbing baby seals, if you will excuse the analogy.  If this was a deftly written black political comedy it would be garnering rave reviews.  Unfortunately this is real life.   

[Professor Bear]

The media protects Johnson and his ilk and they'll continue to do so.  Just look at the cover of today's Daily Mail announcing how May's speech was a resounding triumph because of everything that went wrong -  Pravda couldn't have done better.

I can understand why the Labour party have decided to stay quiet again

You don't piss on your enemies if they're on fire.
But if you're a Blairite, when you see your party - the Conservatives - in trouble, you do your duty and announce that you're worried about the antisemitism and misogyny in the Labour party.  Look to see that in the news later.

[Modern Panther]

utterly self-serving and occasionally self-defeating when it reveals its pure contempt for all entities other than itself. 

Yes, but you're regarding those as negatives.  In this post brexit vision of the future, society is only dragged forward as a side effect of the selfish actions of special individuals.  Compassion and concern for any less fortunate (or rather, less determined and hardworking) members of society is Marxism. 

[The Legendary Shark]

Texas City People Seeking Harvey Relief Must Promise Not To Boycott Israel. (Houston Press.)

What a world we live in.

[Professor Bear]

Criticising Israel?  I never thought I'd see the day Antisemitism was allowed on the forum.

[Tjm86]

Mind you, the writer reckons she only gets by with one small cup of coffee a day and they also reckon the world's not going to end so perhaps that's just another example of 'fake news'.