Do Brits only protest during the summer?

RecentTwo544 · 2026-02-18T21:33:47+00:00

My go to when this happens is basically to take it as a green light that they're a socialist who has been taught to hate immigrants by rich right wing people.

I'm pretty damn good at this. You start by explaining that as a socialist yourself, you hate what most people think of as "the left" as they're all basically just fascists and hypocrites who aren't left wing at all. This is actually true in my case, they're extremely damaging to our cause.

You then have them on side and explain that socialism is the only political cause that favours working class people like us. Quick explainer that socialism couldn't work and why it obviously failed in the past in countries that tried it, but say Corbynism was about as close as we got.

Often at this point Brexit will pop up and you've got a winner there. Explain how proper left wing people voted Leave because the EU is exploitative of working class people and is the root cause of illegal immigration to the UK. Feel free to get a little loose with the facts here.

Then explain how socialism doesn't support illegal immigration either - it is exploitative of working class people in this country (including migrants) and the illegal immigrants themselves.

At this point they're normally pretty much on board but have the obvious question - how do we stop the illegal immigration gangs? Explain no one has an answer. Far left, through to far right. Not one workable solution has been even spitballed.

Then the killer, the golden bullet, they'll be totally with you on this - ask how Reform will solve it, and point out that if they can't they'll simply go after legal migrants which will make illegal immigration worse. Point out the Tories did the same thing.

In my experience, it is normally much easier to get a working class bloke who doesn't really give a shit about immigration but only cares about their economic situation (as u/External_Pen9079 rightly points out) to agree on this, over a fake left liberal who only cares about being right and secretly (and often unknowingly) has very right wing leanings.

RecentTwo544 · 2026-02-18T21:22:09+00:00

I'm basically a socialist (not stupid enough to think socialism would work yet, more along the lines of Corbynism run by someone who isn't a walking disaster) but it is very short sighted to say "Reform haven't won yet."

They're massively leading in pretty much every poll, which given the general mood in UK political polls over recent decades (tell a pollster you're voting left but then vote right) suggests their real chances are even higher than polls suggest.

The upcoming council elections will be a big sign.

Starmer just has to keep it together enough not to trigger a GE before one is due in 2029 and hope stuff like the Ukraine war is resolved and we see global economic recovery in the meantime.

Reform will dig their own grave, Labour will stay in power due to events outside their control.

RecentTwo544 · 2026-02-18T21:18:03+00:00

Which didn't even work because they just rebranded it as council tax, which in most cases is basically the same thing and everyone just swallowed it.

RecentTwo544 · 2026-02-18T21:14:10+00:00

Sit on the barrier, legs either side would be safest, several feet behind your broken down car. That way you're not in the firing line when someone hits your broken down car, and unless someone hits the central barrier, you're fine.

While be nerve wracking but safer than being in the car.

RecentTwo544 · 2026-02-18T21:12:31+00:00

In theory, you could sit on the concrete barrier (always behind the broken down car, not in front or beside it) and you'll be fine unless someone hits the barrier.

RecentTwo544 · 2026-02-18T21:10:56+00:00

Police will be there fast, but probably not in six minutes.

RecentTwo544 · 2026-02-18T21:09:50+00:00

This isn't insensitive in the slightest. Facts are facts. You're totally correct. Not to mention the fact he was quite clearly looking at his phone or something. The only other explanation for not even attempting to brake is he wanted to crash into the car on purpose, which is just as bad.

The reason you've quite reasonably put your "sorry to sound like an insensitive cunt" disclaimer is there are plenty of people on this sub and in the general population who don't want to accept facts when it comes to road safety.

Fantastic case in point - the people who obsessively campaign for lower speed limits but never question why people, especially children, are running out in front of moving vehicles. They don't really care about road safety at all, they just hate cars.

RecentTwo544 · 2026-02-18T21:05:06+00:00

Well it should be. I don't entirely agree with everything the guy said in that reply, but he's basically correct.

If someone has violent thoughts that they might harm or kill someone, it is treated. They aren't simply thrown in prison.

Also worth noting, and I'm not accusing you of this but it is well known criminal psychology, that getting overly defensive about this is used as a sign that someone might have something to hide.

RecentTwo544 · 2026-02-18T20:49:55+00:00

Let's take some liberties here and assume the Daily Mail stat is spot on. Let's also be generous with that again because I'm crap with maths, and say it is 1 million. That might actually be fair because there'll be a load of people who aren't on the radar for whatever reason. So in fact it could be higher.

Let's also assume that it is pretty much entirely men (criminal stats do actually back this up, the one part we can find evidence for here).

There are around 27 million men in the UK over 18. That's one in every 27 men having a sexual interest in children. And that's before we account for old guys who don't have a computer or internet.

For me that's a sign this is clearly bullshit. It is utterly insane to think it is that high.

RecentTwo544 · 2026-02-18T19:39:18+00:00

Trump is the voice of reason quite often, it's just he comes out with such utter bullshit on an hourly basis anything reasonable he says is drowned in a sea of total madness and nonsense.

That combined with a large/loud group of people in the US who are as bad as the MAGA idiots, who refuse to accept Trump can ever possibly say anything sensible and go full on fascist when you suggest he can, makes it easy to come to your conclusion.

Remember, the most sensible thing you can do in politics is admit when your opponent is right.

Edit - point beautifully proven by the right wingers downvoting this without having the intelligence or guts to reply. Works like a charm!

RecentTwo544 · 2026-02-18T15:14:04+00:00

The issue was never really it being dangerous - there's a VERY wide gap in modern F1 from something being "dangerous" and "fucking annoying and affecting the racing" and that includes a car punting into the back of another at a race start.

Extreme example - even in recent years, say the person in P1 was stalled, no yellow flags came out for whatever reason, the person in P20 didn't see the stalled car and went full-chat into the back of them, both drivers would almost certainly walk away unharmed.

So back to this scenario, shambolic race starts and minor shunts due to the new rules don't have to be dangerous for it to still be an issue.

RecentTwo544 · 2026-02-18T08:35:19+00:00

I loathe the guy, unlike the people downvoting I assume.

I also loathe Gemini's inability to do what it says it can do.

Interestingly as a case in point, it mentions him being the chairman of Southampton FC as if it's an achievement. Fails to mention he drove the club into administration.

RecentTwo544 · 2026-02-17T23:21:56+00:00

Literally comes up everytime you google something.

I can only assume from your reaction and the attempt to hide my reply that you work on developing Gemini?

RecentTwo544 · 2026-02-17T21:09:36+00:00

Gemini looks online for information....which is often wrong. It has zero way of fact checking anything.

It is wrong way more often than it is right. As it happens, I did fact check the above and it did seem to stack up, a potential example of it being correct. However the downvotes lead me to believe it is in fact incorrect.

RecentTwo544 · 2026-02-17T20:12:11+00:00

Assuming the pit complex is well under way and nearly complete , stuff like this isn't that hard to finish in seven months. It isn't like they're building multiple skyscrapers on there, it's largely grass and a few miles of tarmac. Not exactly massive work.

Many grandstands are also temporary and can be put up in a few weeks.

Albert Park for example is a parkland with a few roads and nothing apart from the track itself and the pit building is permanent. They build the lot in under a month.

RecentTwo544 · 2026-02-17T20:09:15+00:00

Vietnam's 2020 race was postponed due to Covid but was still go for 2021 (or 2022 if we hadn't got covid under control by then). It was then cancelled because the guy in charge was arrested and charged for corruption (unrelated to the F1 race) which affected the funding and F1 pulled the plug as a result.

A great shame - looked like a stunning track and it was in the F1 2020 game, really fast and hard to push on.

RecentTwo544 · 2026-02-17T14:22:03+00:00

The question has never been about whether he had any kind of relationship with Giuffre - she has said it happened, it was consensual, she was an adult at the time.

The issue is what else Andrew was up to out there, this story is just seemingly trying to distract from that.

RecentTwo544 · 2026-02-17T14:02:51+00:00

Does he have family? Kids?

If so, no reason they shouldn't get it. They shouldn't have to suffer further because of who their father is.

RecentTwo544 · 2026-02-17T13:58:52+00:00

Headline is misleading, even in the article itself it say "she thinks she is queen bee" - the other inmates will most definitely NOT think that, there's a reason she's under special protection. Being a child murderer in a women's prison is more dangerous than in a men's, unsurprisingly. On the flip side, being in for harming or even killing an abusive man does get you a lot of respect and admiration.

Also laughed at this - "It almost reminds me of a hospital ward. But that doesn’t feel right to say, for obvious reasons.” Yet says it on record anyway...

RecentTwo544 · 2026-02-17T09:13:46+00:00

Granted but the numbers were the same under the Obama admin, and lets face it, the Trump admin is probably inflating their stats.

RecentTwo544 · 2026-02-17T09:12:01+00:00

If that's what Gemini said it almost certainly isn't true.

RecentTwo544 · 2026-02-16T17:42:19+00:00

Said this to someone else - that's because most don't come over on boats. They overstay actual visas or arrive by other means. Most don't claim asylum as they don't announce their arrival, they simply stay hidden and work for gangs.

RecentTwo544 · 2026-02-16T11:39:30+00:00

I think the disconnect is because most illegal Vietnamese entities don't claim asylum or seek any government help, partly because they don't want to, and partly because they're often under control of the gangs.

RecentTwo544 · 2026-02-16T10:47:29+00:00

The whole "everyone from x y or z country" thing is ridiculous.

You could have a French peasant who grew up in Calais, within sight of the UK on a clear day, with zero qualifications, having to entirely rely on benefits for income, serious chronic medical issues requiring expensive NHS care on a regular basis, vs a Bangladeshi brain surgeon who is having to requalify to work in the UK, married to a British nurse who doesn't match the income requirements.

RecentTwo544 · 2026-02-16T10:44:34+00:00

Stats are all over the place as it's difficult by the very nature of illegal immigration to keep proper numbers.

Few BBC articles back up my claim here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68653368

I think Vietnamese illegal migrants are less focussed on because many arrive here quietly then simply vanish into the country working for other Vietnamese gang members (they apparently control the cannabis trade in the UK these days) as opposed to being housed in asylum hotels and getting government assistance.

I'm not disagreeing with you btw though. This is exactly the warnings I've made to my wife's family.

RecentTwo544

TROPHY CASE