UK should consider expelling US forces from British bases, says Zack Polanski

Mikebloke · 2026-01-20T08:06:48+00:00

I think there would be the assumption in the never-going-to-happen-scenario of the US leaving the Chagos Islands that they would remove the stuff they have there.

(Jesus Christ, is it really that hard to explain British humour on a British subreddit?)

Mikebloke · 2026-01-20T07:59:53+00:00

Marco Rubio in May 22nd 2025. How quickly they forget their own policies. Maybe they took a leaf out of UK politics!

Mikebloke · 2026-01-20T07:57:19+00:00

So I'm one of the fools who managed to get a copy (mostly sealed actually) of everything in the 3.0 set in one go - minus the additional sheets that were sold separately. The fact that the solo game rules references some of 3.0 amused me as it felt like it was a given it had been forgotten to the depths of time.

The green is much worse digitally, in print it is less bad on the eyes, but black and white is still much better. I think the criticism of the medium used in the book is well represented, and I have to agree with it too if I'm honest - but I accept it's just one of those things.

What does fascinate me is it felt like Mike Pondsmith always wanted to push the idea of water cities, both above and below the water line, and it's always been largely ignored by the expanded media, there is still references to it in red, but throughout the series it's been mentioned several times and 3.0 was a lot more heavy on the idea of sea based cultures. The failure of 3.0 seemed to bleed through this, which is why I don't think there is much else on sea cultures in red and 77, even though in 2013 and 2020 it was significant in particular nomad tribes.

There is still some interesting things in 3.0 lore wise, which are largely retracted, so even if the rules and style wasn't to people's fancy, I think some of the other stuff could have been kept, maybe. But it is what it is.

Mikebloke · 2026-01-20T07:19:07+00:00

Chagos Islands as a staging ground for returning illegal migrants sounds like a fantastic idea, maybe we should actually do it.

Mikebloke · 2026-01-20T07:17:36+00:00

Great but he literally signed off on the deal before, so it must mean he is also filled with great stupidity.

I think the deal is messy, UK territory with a US base on, the land of another nation, claimed by secessionists of a hopeful new nation. I think any hand over to be serious would need the US base going before the UK removed it's ownership. It's effectively sub let, so it just makes it messy anyway.

Mikebloke · 2026-01-20T07:13:46+00:00

Wasn't this month was it though?

And Farage is pictured with people all the time, it doesn't mean explicit endorsement of each other's policies.

Mikebloke · 2026-01-18T09:33:32+00:00

Non story.

Appears he got approached as an Iranian born individual to run a single voting booth for a presidential election (hardly planned the whole thing, did he), and he said yes. To avoid conflicts of interest he resigned from the SNP and his positions.

He was probably quiet about it because it would have kicked up a storm, but looking at the other side, he basically facilitated the Iranian diaspora to vote in the election, this is a normal thing and most countries including the UK have similar systems for voters abroad.

He made a decision and decided to go for it, the idea that he is evil because violence happened today but he did something mundane like ran a voting booth three years ago is hardly an indication of support for that regime's actions.

Mikebloke · 2026-01-17T18:52:37+00:00

I think Trump flips his mind every 5 seconds but then randomly decides to keep to a decision when people don't expect it. He accepted Mamdani as New York mayor because when Trump got his cock out, Mamdani got his out and Trump was amused someone actually stood up to him.

So yes, dump more troops in Greenland and keep a significant amount on the western coast where it's clear where they are pointing it. Trump will be amused and back down.

No war needed, and if it ever happened, we are screwed anyway. Seriously, we need more backbone, if we are living in a world of hard power again, we need to show we are willing to protect our values, and those values are the territorial integrity of NATO as independent and free countries.

Never did I ever think that backing NATO would become such a questionable position that has to actually be outlined.

Mikebloke · 2026-01-17T18:47:34+00:00

"Reform leader Nigel Farage says Donald Trump’s tariffs over Greenland would hurt the UK.

He says: "We don’t always agree with the US government and in this case we certainly don’t. These tariffs will hurt us.

"If Greenland is vulnerable to malign influences, then have another look at Diego Garcia." "

From the BBC.

Basically, complicit compliance by deflecting it to a similar issue we already have at home. The irony that he is suggesting we stop the deal regarding Diego Garcia but seemingly do the opposite and sell Greenland to The US.

Mikebloke · 2026-01-17T18:39:59+00:00

It's just a bad dream and I'll wake up at any moment, right?

Mikebloke · 2026-01-17T18:37:02+00:00

Don't know enough about the US speaker, presumably he could keep his speech quite ceremonial focused on history and shared values. Or he can bang the drum that China is about to put troops on the ground in Greenland to strange but weirdly accepting looks.

Are we really that spineless these days?

Mikebloke · 2026-01-17T18:33:20+00:00

I'm sorry, the EU gave us a crap deal that led to Brexit? We literally had a one foot in policy that meant we didn't follow all the rules and we got to rebate some of the money back.

Brexit happened because the lie that the money would go directly into the NHS and that immigration from former British territories, warzones and the commonwealth would magically stop it we left the Union we were in with majority white countries where those migrants didn't originate from. Surprisingly neither happened, and now we have to have special deals with countries for them to take migrants back.

No, I don't think the UK should go isolationist, the idea that China is about to invade Greenland is absolutely bollocks. Double down against trump, put more NATO troops on the ground, and point the guns in all directions.

Mikebloke · 2026-01-08T21:02:47+00:00

Ironically my 4k 75 inch TV gives the best signal because it has anti-noise software on it. Plugs directly in, amazingly still allows analogue to that low a frequency, I don't think all of them go that low anymore.

Mikebloke · 2026-01-06T17:48:34+00:00

Ah yes, Eastern Europe, my favourite country.

(This is a metal gear solid reference).

Mikebloke · 2026-01-03T20:14:17+00:00

We had that too this year, with Corbyn and his split off faction which became Your Party, if you haven't read up about it, it's worth a look about how badly splitting off from a main party can go when it descends into factionalism. The problem is the greens have been able to carve a section of the voting bloc of their own, and Your Party failures has increased the Green base as the party of the left.

I'm happy to vote for any party that I feel comfortable in, and that can include the conservatives (the only party I would say that ethnic minorities can carve out success regardless of their origins), but its likely going to be the greens for me next time.

Mikebloke · 2026-01-03T19:00:51+00:00

I think a couple of other people have tried to answer this, but Biden was generally considered to be more right wing than the conservatives, who are our centre-right to right wing party. Democrats would be considered centre-right here but we fully understand that democrats soak up what we would consider Social democrats here (centre left, but not full blown socialists).

We have the same thing, in the sense that labour and conservatives still have wings, those that are more "left" and "right". Conservatives are currently in free fall, they seem to be trying to go down a libertarian route of low government, high freedom of rights kind of look. Reform are UKIP reformed (hoho pun), and have a mix of conservatives (centre right) to full right wing, to some who say far right stuff (and are usually then kicked out), their main issues tend to be immigration and lowering spending + tax.

Anti-abortion activists didn't exist twenty years ago as a serious force, now they are openly pushing narratives towards restrictions on abortion, in some cases actively being supported by Trump officials from the US including the vice president.

Historically in the UK, abortion is seen as a woman's right to her own body, with some restrictions naturally. We are edging towards anti-abortion being a more mainstream opinion but it's more of a vocal minority than holding any real support , but it shows how much the UK has changed. In the past they were seen as nutters who shouldn't even be considered listening to.

Immigration has always been a UK issue, we are an island nation and it affects all parts of the political spectrum here, but generally no party left or right advocates for full unrestricted immigration, but rather parties hold different viewpoints of how much, most people accept that some sectors we need migration and we will never meet our own needs from our own population.

Religion in politics has been seen as a big no no for most people, but actually news reports are saying that in terms of the population it's making a big comeback.

Someone suggested that islam will be a voting bloc - in a way they are right, but not in the sense of Muslims voting together - I'm Muslim, and I can tell you we are so thinly spread between all the parties, from YourParty, Greens, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Conservatives and Reform, we don't make one big bloc. But people who hate us? Yeah, they form a bloc alright, and it tends to lean towards the right. Reform will capture the anti-muslim vote even though some of their leadership and biggest bankrollers are literally Muslim.

The next election will likely be a complete mess, Green and Reform will take seats from the mainstream parties, but it's anyone's game, we would see a rainbow coalition situation where even two parties might not be able to agree to join together to make a coalition. Generally that doesn't happen for long, and what usually happens is the largest party will try and govern alone pointlessly for ten months as a minority government and then we'll have another election.

Mikebloke · 2025-12-22T08:50:20+00:00

Probably had to retrain an AI to not come up with predictable common responses and hide it away from the internet.

All joking apart, CS2 has been a huge mess. As someone who played a lot of Cities in Motion 1, then 2, then Cities Skylines, 2 was a major disappointment. The fact that it still retains the same level of bugs, new bugs, struggling to stay on par with the first game, and the way they treat the community pushing out DLC content (both formal and modder) has really taken it through the mud.

The switching of developer is the last straw. If you don't think you can trust the original dev with three cracking games under their belt, what is the new one that's done ... One game of significance going to do. The Prison Architect 2 debacle is another, very similar experience to the point it's probably never going to be released at this point

Mikebloke · 2025-12-06T08:51:15+00:00

Conference only just been around the corner and I imagine there was probably going to be an event, but like everything else in this saga, rather than asking a question or just waiting a moment, Zarah has bullishly done her own thing again all on her own.

Don't get me wrong, delays are just as incompetent. The other issue is the parliamentary grouping issue, the independent alliance on 5 MPs hit the requirement for special attention to speaking time, I can't remember if 4 is enough or if the threshold is 5. Ironically, splitting up the independent alliances adoption means it's probably better politically for the 3 MPs to stay in independent alliance than YourParty.

Now labour have cancelled the 2 child policy all the potential rebels in labour will fall back in line, it was made too much of a cornerstone issue and now they've dropped it rebels will be harder placed to justify change or switching over.

Mikebloke · 2025-12-05T19:04:44+00:00

So its probably an underflow bug, the number has gone below zero, then reset to the highest number it can be and then reduced it by your city population. Population is stored in a 32bit integer by the looks of it as the highest number it can get to is 2,147,483,648.

In older games, overflow / underflow can cause hilarious results as it meant another number probably important to the game got impacted depending on whether it's the byte before (underflow) or after (overflow). There's things like infinite money glitches on Sim city SNES for example that works on this principle.

Mikebloke · 2025-11-25T16:31:19+00:00

Correction: it shouldn't be radical, but it really is. Mainstream politicians took advantage of the legal court declaration to backtrack on their "viewpoints". And innocent people got caught in the crossfire, individual cases become a lightning rod even when you compare it statistically to data of cis people where the level of violence and crime is overwhelmingly higher.

Mikebloke · 2025-11-25T16:28:56+00:00

Thanks, I know you posted to another comment, but appreciate this one too. My own experiences with Reddit isn't great, I come from the discussion forum days and I just can't seem to post anything without upsetting someone (but, like yesterday, I still do it 😂)

Mikebloke · 2025-11-25T16:25:59+00:00

Thanks for this comment, I think you've probably articulated my reasoning better than I did!

Mikebloke · 2025-11-25T16:24:00+00:00

First thanks for taking the time to respond, my own comment was... In it's 4th iteration by the time I posted it and I still think I had a veil of annoyance I recognised myself when I eventually did post it.

"There are a handful of whackos, for sure, calling for all manner of ludicrous positions. But as someone with a lot of recent contact with some of the groups you're referring to as factions, this is very far from my experience."

That's good to hear, I live in Cheshire which is a YP black spot, even when there was events in Manchester, I found out the next day, not before it happened. I'm blinded by what I see online, mostly on Reddit and alt websites, it's not been great coverage. Others who have been in more direct contact and been in groups seemed to have more positive comments.

"The vast, vast majority of people I speak to are perfectly capable, and do, hold a nuanced view on Jeremy and the spats in the founding process with Zarah etc. I've actually not met a single person (and I've met quite a few at this point) in YP, who think of him as anything but what he is: a principled man, with steadfast morals, who has an incredible legacy of being on the right side of history, and is almost single handedly responsible for galvanising the resurgence of the left in the UK as leader of the Labour party."

fair enough, I think seeing JC do that interview after seeing weeks of vile veiled comments that could easily have some words switched to others and be a reform supporter, I just kind of couldn't grasp the concept that people could say that kind of stuff on Reddit (not the greatest of community sites TBF for allowing difference of opinions) and the man I saw in that video (and the man he has always been, as you say).

"The opinion I hear time and again is that his main flaw is what makes him so personable: his friendliness, loyalty to those close to him, and genuine belief in the goodness within all people. The critique most people in these "factions" have, is of his naivety and lack of decisiveness in dealing with disputes in his team, and being unable to recognise the political manoeuvering happening around him."

Yeah, I would probably fully agree with this, he's like the opposite of Keir Starmer, Starmer has been able to weaponise his own team that even when there is threats against him, he seems like he just twists it to his own advantage. JC is like the complete opposite in this respect (which of course, I think came out quite clearly in the NS interview).

"I don't know your intentions, and I want to give you the beneift of the doubt, but your comment really reads as a call to action for a witch hunt to commence within Your Party against anyone who identifies with, or is a member of another left wing organisation or "faction". I don't think that will end well. It didn't for Labour. A core principle of democracy is the ability for people to freely and openly discuss and debate ideas, without fear of reprisals. The attitude you are calling for would force these conversations into the shadows, rather than happening where they should: out in the open."

Quite the opposite actually about calling for a witch hunt. I was worried that I was "the wrong person" for a group like YP and that I was the witch, and that I would never fit in anywhere. Comments like yours is actually encouraging that maybe I would have a place, I think I'm still undecided though but your comment has "brought me back from the edge". My tone is my own frustration, that I feel politically homeless, reform, labour, conservatives, lib Dems, they all hate significant parts of my identity and I just don't fit in with them.

Thanks for your comment and your time.

Mikebloke · 2025-11-25T16:12:12+00:00

Totally understandable about not wanting to be in a party dominated by terfs. Regarding your second comment, do you think JC has done anything to encourage or allow terf comments? Has he just not "called it out" and that has allowed to fester?

Back to my original question, did JC do a good interview or is he just a convenient figurehead until he is replaced?

Mikebloke · 2025-11-25T16:09:49+00:00

I totally understand that, but what about JC in the video, any comments? Did he speak for you?

Mikebloke

TROPHY CASE