Donald J Trump

The problem with Sunak is poor judgement, execution of strategy and an inability to think on his feet. The clip is fairly unremarkable and it doesn't come across badly at all in my view. The issue he's got is that on BBC News there's a picture of him looking slightly dopey and the headline -

"I went without Sky TV as a child" says Sunak. 

People are going to laugh at that, and if that's the big takeaway from an important sit down interview with a major broadcaster it's a problem. It reinforced the idea that he's a clown and that everything he touches turns to shit. They've stitched him up with that headline, and the interviewer was clearly trying to lead him on a merry dance with the question. The most effective political operators have all this in mind when answering questions. They have an instinctive understanding of what the headlines are likely to be and manipulate the situation to get the outcome they want. They'll shape the narrative and the talking points, and it's about trade offs. They might look slightly aloof to people who've watched the whole interview, but they'll avoid stepping in a big shit for coverage of the interview. You could see Sunaks cogs where spinning round and he knew the guy was looking for trouble. He was persistent though, and Sunak couldn't wether the storm. He curled up in a ball and surrendered, and gave Paul Brand exactly what he was looking for. When you've had the campaign that Sunaks had, and when you're in such a dire position in the polls, you can't afford to be making these mistakes. You can only imagine what mess the party would be in if he also had to contend with a hostile print media. 

It is up to individuals to decide, but there's no doubt that the context provided here has helped everyone make an informed decision. You're perfectly entitled to disregard it, but I'm not sure it was necessary to question it or be dismissive of it, particularly in relation to other people. I understand where you're coming from, but I can see why your response might elicit a slightly more robust tone. People are genuinely trying to be helpful here and are looking out for everyones interests, which isn't something that should be taken for granted on the internet in 2024. 

As a new poster, and as someone thats possibly been lulled into a false sense of security on this forum thus far I appreciate the heads up from others who've been around long enough to see threads like this going south. This may have been something I'd have been inclined to contribute to but I know sound advice when I see it. I'm decidedly anonymous now, but Ive been anonymous on forums previously and many of those members have gone on to become some of my closest friends, so you never know. I find the goings on referred to here genuinely surprising given how reasonable I've found most members, but I don't doubt it. 

To no user name, I don't think anyone's trying to stop you from talking about an important subject. I read it as a friendly nudge to make sure we exercise caution. I've found that helpful and I hope you take it in the spirit it was intended, even if you decide there's no personal risk. 

24 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

I’m sure the same press who used a protractor to ascertain if a former party leader was bowing sufficiently at the cenotaph will be applying the same rigorous standards to this. 

To be fair this individual had form for trampling over the graves of our war dead. Let's never forget that time he wore a scruffy coat at the cenotaph. 

Marvelous. 

The Killer (2023) Netflix

Really enjoyed this. It's directed by David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club, Gone Girl) and stars Michael Fassbender as a methodical, idiosyncratic but relatable assassin. It features one of the best fight scenes I've seen in recent years and is a solid 9/10. 

Plot spoiler -

Some top drawer shithousery on display here -

Kane looks like he's there to bring him his mail and say things like "it's quite alright Sir" after Trump throws hot coffee in his face for minor breaches of protocol. 

6 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

Well, if the voters are as real and plentiful as the ones on this official photo, it could. 

 

What an all star cast in that photo. I've spotted Mark Zuckerburg, Gyles Brandreth and Jeremy Wade from River Monsters. There's one at the very back as well, but I'm not going there. 

Thanks for that, I think KOF and Anniversary collection will be the way to go. The only fighting game I've tried on the console was a brief shot of someone else's copy of MK1 and it was unplayable. The graphics were widely ridiculed at the time, but the responsiveness of the controls were the main issue. You could make a cup of tea in the gap between putting in the command and it actually happening. That port is the worst game I've ever played and with Switch not having something like Gamepass it's good to get recommendations from people who've played the games. 

5 minutes ago, Chest Rockwell said:

Had a play with modern controls on sf6 this week. It was fun, but feels a bit cheap. I think it's probably a nice way to get to know my way around some new characters and what they can do, particularly the ones I'm not going to go too deep with. 

The biggest issue I had with the modern controls was the change of other buttons. I kept pressing RT/R2 for heavy kick. It was handy for mastering the timing of some of the more complex combos though. In the end I didn't want to go to deep with the modern controls as I didn't want that to replace what I've spent years learning as I can't keep two things in my head at the same time. 

26 minutes ago, Jazzy G said:

Picked up a Hori fight stick mini for my Switch. Was about £45 on Amazon. When they say mini they're not joking. It's decent enough. Fun for playing retro arcade games on me switch. 

Is that the 30th anniversary collection? How does it run on the switch, and does it work well with the handheld? Looking at a fighting game for on the go and MK1 is a complete and utter write off. 

8 hours ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

Iain Dale giving up his bid to be MP of Tunbridge Wells because of an old video where he said how much he couldn't stand Tunbridge Wells is very funny.

He's completely humiliated himself. Before he set off to fulfil his lifelong dream of being an MP he fought back tears as he bid farewell to his listeners on LBC. 48 hours later he was back on the same station explaining why his campaign is dead in the water. His former colleague Nick Ferrari suggested  he was frit during their interview, which is the Tory equivalent of going up to somebody in an American prison and calling them a bitch. I don't think the Tunbridge Wells thing was terminal, but he might suspect that having spent the past few years talking shite 4 nights a week that it was just the first of many comments that'll come back to haunt him if he stays in the race. This is almost as bad as the time he was rolling about the floor with an old chap in the background of an interview. 

1 hour ago, Chest Rockwell said:

They've done their electoral calculus and have clearly decided they don't need or want our votes.  

You've hit the nail right on the head here. Not only have they made a conscious decision to alienate a large section of the electorate, but they've calculated that by doing so they'll ingratiate themselves with voters who are already pretty well represented, and have been for decades. I don't have much time for the "jam tomorrow" argument either. I actually wonder to what extent this ruthless, cynical manoeuvring will manifest itself when this lot have their hands not just on Labours levers of power, but on Britain's. I'm not suggesting they'll usher in some form of sinister authoritarianism, but they've demonstrated how they deal with perceived threats. Tony Blair didn't seek to completely dismantle the left of his party, but this was a time when it was hard to imagine a figure like Jeremy Corbyn avoiding the wooden spoon in a leadership contest. The current Labour party are doing everything in their power to make sure someone like Corbyn never happens again, and they won't stop until they've cemented their grip on the party. Corbyn wasn't a perfect leader by any means, but he's in the position he's in now partly because he resisted the option of adopting similarly ruthless tactics to strengthen his own position. There'll be some who are now wishing they'd played the faction game as mercilessness as Starmer when they had the chance, but even with foresight of what was to come I doubt they'd have stooped to this kind of bullshit. It's not a binary choice of victory with this kind of approach or defeat with anything else either. Any competent, united opposition with fiscal credibility and a clear policy on net migration would wipe the floor with this Conservative party. This bogus, performative shift to where they claim the country sits is a complete con. 

1 hour ago, BigJag said:

Why has Diane Abbott been treated this way?

To put it bluntly, they see her as a liability in their efforts to disassociate themselves from the activist left, and they believe she's unpopular with other voter groups they're looking to appeal to. I think it's terrible, and they've went for the absolute worst option. The fundamental decision to cast her out is bad, but he hasn't had the courage of his convictions to be clear and stand by it. It looks disingenuous and cowardly, even to people you wouldn't describe as progressive, and I think it'll harm him. 

32 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

From a complete layman's perspective, this would appear to make sense as well, looking at how modern wars seem to be fought; there seems to be a lot more emphasis on lots of tech manned by well-trained operatives, supporting small units carrying out focussed operations, instead of mass movements of troops like in WWII. Not to mention that there's a lot less tolerance for high casualties these days; the public and the media tend to start turning against war sentiment when the body bags reach the hundreds. No way anyone would accept the millions or hundreds of thousands of the World Wars, Korean War or Vietnam War. So there'd be no need for a large conscript army anyway.

Lean and well trained has definitely been the conventional thinking for many years and it's the model our military is currently based on. The way events have unfolded on the eastern front has caused ripples of doubt though, not necessarily that mass is more important but that our military is too small either way. I'd be inclined to agree but the preference would always be for a volunteer army. 

I wouldn't give the Conservatives any credit for planning ahead, but this announcement did bring to mind points that have been made over the past couple of years. One was that the public had to be ready to accept a mindset shift as we move from a post to pre war era. If you're looking at ways you get get from A to Z without being overly alarmist at the begining, this type of initiative being part of every day life might be an effective way of at least starting that conversation. I know talking about this as being the first step of a "soft" process to prepare the public for potential conflict does sound slightly conspiratorial, but it is in line with what individuals like our defence secretary and senior figures in NATO have themselves said in recent months. Another point was that the army itself may need to prepare for some form of rapid expansion in the event it was necessary. I think this would be in the form of tens of thousands of volunteers, but they would need to be ready to move quickly. One suggestion was training Ukrainian troops on UK soil, but something like this might be an alternative to putting the groundwork in place if it was ever needed in a real scenario. 

MBS looks like a completely different bloke without the Ghutra. Ordinary he might pass for a young, dashing dreamboat but without it, he's just a balding podgy uncle. 

MmmmmBS - 

IBS -

I'm heading out first thing tomorrow to buy myself some new exotic threads. 

Nicola Roberts is in danger of being relegated from the Less Conventional category these days. 

Comrade Sunak has already made his position on leadswingers clear. If people who are clinically dead can be declared fit for work, you lot are going to the front lines with everyone else. No exceptions. 

19 minutes ago, JNLister said:

First cynics have already pointed out that "serve a year in the British Army or it's unpaid labouring for you" is, let's say, particularly problematic in large parts of Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland is the garden full of rakes that Sideshow Sunak and his hapless party keep stumbling into. I don't expect they've thought much further ahead than tomorrow's papers, and they'll be desperate to take centre stage for the first Sunday morning interview circuit of the campaign, which they've probably secured in all fairness. I shudder to think what kind of desperate shite they're going to throw at the wall over the next few weeks. 

Been really enjoying NHL24 lately. Ive been playing it on and off for a few years now, and it's a sport that's particularly well suited to being made into a videogame. I've tried Madden and NBA etc but they just don't have the same enjoyment factor as gliding across ice, belting a puck around or crushing into opponents. At first it seems like there are more controls than a space ship but everythings quite intuitive and it's just a case of them detailing pretty much every manoeuvre you could do if you wanted to rather than having to get a degree to be competitive. Only slight downside is that it releases every year with minimal changes, but they've pretty much perfected the formula and most of the time they add a fun twist that doesn't fundamentally alter the core gameplay. Any other NHL players here, or any recommendations for other sports Sims that are worth the time and effort? 

No Escape (2015) Netflix

Owen Wilson stars as a salary man dad in a "trip abroad gone to shit" action thriller. Owen, his perpetually disappointed wife and two dopey kids have visited South East Asia on some business related jolly but as soon as the plane hit the tarmac the entire country became engulfed in a violent coup. It's an enjoyable enough film, but he should have left the children at home. Imagine a shopping trip from hell with the kids but instead of embarrassing you in the middle of a busy supermarket their central casting antics nearly get the whole family killed at every turn. Marauding, bloodthirsty mobs ruthlessly hunted any westerner they could find and brutally executed them in the dirt, but it was a full house of complete and utter bullshit from Owens pride and joy. It started with one of them doing their disappearing act just as the shit hit the fan (they'd decided to go for a dip in the hotel swimming pool on their own). There was a stuffed toy called something like Bongo, and of course bongo was carelessly dropped while they were being chased. This seemed to be more of a concern than being persued by a killer with a machete. One of them needed to "go potty" while they were hiding under a table from a room full of murderers but the mother wasn't having it, she basically told the kid they'll just need to shit their pants. It just went on and on, and when Owen had to get his hands dirty and bludgeon a bad guy to death with a lampshade to save everyones arses they all looked at him like he was a piece of shit. Apart from that it was alright. Pierce Brosnan popped up with his finest outing since Dantes Peak, even if it seemed like the character was written in about 10 minutes. Not worth seeking out, but if you're at a loose end it's not a disaster. 4/10

Nas - No Introduction 

Best song since Illmatic

I'm starting to think Sunak might be deliberately trying to crash the plane into the mountain at this point. Here he is with a crane coming out of his head on a visit to the TITANIC MUSEUM.

Why did nobody tell me about Airbus Beluga? 

4 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

Being a good constituency representative goes a long way when it comes to voting. I know people who voted Tory because the MP is fighting their causes. As @Dead Mike said, local issues matter the most to the majority of people. 

That's true. I've had dealings with all the councillors in our area for one reason or another, and the Tory one is by far the most competent and most helpful. I like most of the others, but they're pretty hopeless and live in a bit of a fantasy world. The Conservative guy is actually quite good at what he does, and people have noticed. I still wouldn't vote for him though.